Something moved in the sky behind the giff. To Teldin's astonishment, the object appeared to be a large green butterfly, swooping down toward the tall grass of the field. He recognized it as a small spelljamming ship of some kind. Something about it looked familiar.

"Run, sir!" Gomja roared out, pointing to the green butterfly behind him as it approached and slowed down to hover in the air, a man's height above the ground. "Run for that ship!"

Teldin stared in amazement, then looked behind him and saw the humanoid giant was moving again-toward him. It was raising its tree-trunk spear. The giant's two huge, dark eyes squinted beneath beetled brows, sizing Teldin up and appearing to mark him as a worthy target.

Teldin backpedaled, forgetting about Gomja and the green ship. Maybe if I move fast to one side just as he's thrusting down, he thought, I can get out of the way. He looks too slow to do any harm. I can't outrun him, but I can sure dance around him.

Fate apparently decided to test that theory. The giant thrust with the log, seemingly in slow motion. Teldin bolted, not waiting to see if the giant's aim was true. There was a rush of wind, then an earth-shaking crash as the spear slammed into the ground to Teldin's left. The tree trunk sank more than twenty feet into the earth, flinging a fountain of soil and stone into the air. Teldin threw his hands in front of his face and dropped the crossbow, almost stumbling over it as he ran.

A long shadow passed over him. He heard the sudden whistling of wind from a large, fast-moving object, and he dived to the ground to roll and escape it. Could the giant have thrown something else-at him, too? He didn't want to wait and find out.

"Sir!" Gomja bawled again. "This way!"

Teldin scrambled to his feet and looked back. The giff ran toward him, his huge girth swaying. Gomja waved a pistol in one hand, heedless of the colossus's presence. "Go to the ship!" he bellowed urgently. "They want to help you! Go to the ship!" The green butterfly came on behind him, trailing by a dozen yards.

The colossus roared, its booming voice almost deafening Teldin as it washed out all other sounds. A long shadow passed over the ground near him again-this time heading for the giant. Teldin began running from the giant again, but had enough time to look back once over his shoulder.

The Perilous Halibut had arrived. In his momentary glimpse of it, Teldin saw that the ship was flying straight for the titan's head.

Something caught Teldin's foot and he stumbled and fell forward into the grass, knocking the wind out of him. He got to his feet, his lungs full of knives, and at that moment he heard the colossus scream. The sound was an awful, roaring cry that went on and on. When he heard it, Teldin felt a sudden pity for the creature. It sounded almost like a huge human child who had been badly hurt.

Teldin looked back as he continued to run. The giant had clapped both hands over the right side of its face and stood in place. Huge, jagged teeth showed in its loose-lipped mouth. Circling around from behind the behemoth came the Perilous Halibut. It looked different now. After a moment, Teldin realized that the ship was missing its long, drooping tail fin. "Sir! Sir! Stop!" Still clutching his pistol, Gomja was lumbering along behind Teldin. The giff was obviously winded and near collapse. The green butterfly, revealing a wingspan of fifty feet, continued to drift on behind him.

Teldin saw that the giant wasn't about to attack while it was holding its injured face. He slowed just enough to shout back. "Who's in that thing? What's going on?"

"Let… them… explain!" Gomja shouted, gasping for breath. "Let… them…"

Without warning, the green butterfly sped up, rocketing toward the running giff. With a simple twist as it flew, a movement Teldin knew could not have been accidental, the ship turned so that the lower edge of one wing swept the giffs feet out from beneath him. Gomja fell, arms flailing. The ship shot over him and came directly at Teldin.

Instinctively, Teldin threw himself to the ground. The green butterfly flew over him a moment later, the lower edges of its wings scything through the tall grass. When Teldin got to his knees, he saw that the ship had come to an abrupt halt only twenty feet in front of him. Uncertain of which way to run, Teldin got up in a crouch.

A door in the green ship opened as it hovered, revealing a small, cramped cargo bay. Two silver-armored figures stood within it, each clutching a short stick of wood in one hand that was kept pointed at Teldin.

"You can get aboard of your own will, or with our assistance," said one of the silver-armored beings with an Elvish accent. "The former would be less troublesome."

"Who are you?" Teldin shouted, still backing up. "What in the name of the gods are you doing?"

"The colossus is moving!" yelled someone farther back in the ship, in Elvish. "Take him now!"

The two silver warriors raised their wands and chanted a phrase in unison.

Teldin felt a mad rush of panic, raising his hands to shield his face.

Suddenly, time slowed down.

The cloak! he thought, then leaped to his right as fast as possible. As he moved, he had a momentary glimpse of two long gray beams of light flicker out from the wands through the spot where he'd once stood.

How in the Abyss did the elves find me? he wondered. The answer was obvious: Gomja. But how did they set that up? flow? He ran through the tall grass, which was now stiffer and more resistant to his passing. He saw the colossus to one side, in the act of taking a huge step toward him; it moved with infinite slowness now. Teldin saw Aelfred running slowly toward him in the distance, a crossbow in one hand and his red face registering his effort.

Teldin tried to think as he ran. Too much was happening all at once. He had to keep away from the giant and avoid the elves' butterfly ship at the same time. He needed a weapon, but he had nothing that would make any difference.

Gomja! Gomja had been holding a pistol, and it had not gone off when the ship had knocked him down.

Teldin ran in a wide circle, marveling that his exhaustion had been dispelled by the cloak's time-slowing effects. He raced back to where he thought the giff had fallen, the grass whipping his clothing as he went. It almost felt like running through water, though he felt he was making good headway. The green ship, he saw, had lifted away from the ground and was trying to move toward him, but he was now moving so fast that it could only track where he had last been. Teldin saw a flash of red in the grass ahead of him and tried to come to a stop, skidding clumsily through the weeds and nearly losing his balance. He had passed the prone giff.

Teldin ran back, finding Gomja sprawled in the dirt and grass in a heap, his pristine red uniform now stained with soil and sweat. Damn you, Teldin thought, you were my best friend once, you lying son of a bitch. Seeing Gomja down still brought a stab of pain to Teldin's heart, but he thrust all emotion aside. The pistol was not in sight.

A low sound of thunder vibrated in the earth. The colossus had taken another step. One more step, and it would be right where Teldin stood.

Teldin glanced up and saw that the green butterfly was now getting a fix on his location. It was beginning to rotate its stern toward him again. He could see that the rear door on the ship was still open, and the two silver-armored elves were still there. He looked down, sweeping the grass away with his hands as fast as he could. Then he thought to trace Gomja's footprints back to see if the pistol might be there, closer to where the green butterfly had struck the giff.

Almost immediately, he found the pistol, lying in a clump of grass.

Teldin reached down and snatched the pistol up in a blur. He raised it in the direction of the rotating green butterfly.