Swords Against Wizardry by Fritz Leiber ...

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sprang swiftly to either side, the Mouser wielding Scalpel and Fafhrd drawing his
knife.
But there was no need for further fighting. The Mouser's first arrow took the
leading bear in the neck, his second straight in its red mouth-roof and brain,
while Fafhrd's ax sank to its helve between two ribs on the trailing bear's left side.
The great animals pitched forward in their blood and death throes and rolled
twice over and went tumbling ponderously off the rim.
"Doubtless both shes," the Mouser remarked as he watched them fall. "Oh
those bestial men of Illik-Ving! Still, to charm or train such beasts to carry packs
and climb and even give up their poor lives..."
"Kranarch and Gnarfi are no sportsmen, that's for certain now," Fafhrd
pronounced. "Don't praise their tricks." As he stuffed a rag into his tunic over his
wound, he grimaced and swore so angrily that the Mouser didn't speak his quip:
_Well, bears are only shortened bearers. I'm always right._
Then the two comrades trudged slowly under the high tentlike arch of snow
to survey the domain, highest on all Nehwon, of which they had made themselves
masters -- refusing from light-headed weariness to think, in that moment of
triumph, of the invisible beings who were Stardock's lords. They went warily, yet
not too much so, because Gnarfi and Kranarch had run scared and were wounded
not trivially -- and the latter had lost his bow.
Stardock's top behind the great toppling snow wave of the Hat was almost as
extensive north to south as that of Obelisk Polaris, yet the east rim looked little
more than a long bowshot away. Snow with a thick crust beneath a softer layer
covered it all except for the north end and stretches of the east rim, where bare
dark rock showed.
The surface, both snow and rock, was flatter even than that of the Obelisk and
sloped somewhat from north to south. There were no structures or beings visible,
nor signs of hollows where either might hide. Truth to tell, neither the Mouser
nor Fafhrd could recall ever having seen a lonelier or barer place.
The only oddity they noticed at first were three holes in the snow a little to the
south, each about as big as a hogshead but having the form of an equilateral
triangle and apparently going down through the snow to the rock. The three were
arranged as the apex of another equilateral triangle.
The Mouser squinted around closely, then shrugged. "But a pouch of stars
could be a rather small thing, I suppose," he said. "While a heart of light -- no
guessing its size."
The whole summit was in bluish shadow except for the northernmost end and
for a great pathway of golden light from the setting sun leading from the Needle's
Eye all the way across the wind-leveled snow to the east rim.
Down the center of this sunroad went Kranarch's and Gnarfi's running
footsteps, the snow flecked here and there with blood. Otherwise the snow ahead
was printless. Fafhrd and the Mouser followed those tracks, walking east up their
long shadows.
"No sign of 'em ahead," the Mouser said. "Looks like there is some route
down the east wall, and they've taken it -- at least far enough to set another
ambush."
As they neared the east rim, Fafhrd said, "I see other prints making north -- a
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