by TurtleMe
“Want a turn, eh?” I whispered, smiling wryly. “Fine, I’ll head back to the tree and keep watch. Can you keep the barrier up from here?”
Cole stopped, giving me an embarrassed sort of shrug. “No, but I—well, I wanted to come make sure you were okay…”
I wiggled the naked toes of my left foot in his direction. “Are you sure you weren’t sneaking over here to steal a peak at my exposed bits, Cole?”
I felt his pulse rise and sensed rather than saw the flush that spread across his face. Much too loud, he said, “No, Circe—I’m sorry, I never meant to—”
I shushed him, glancing around us with wide eyes, feeling suddenly foolish for coming to the stream by myself. We were completely exposed there, and who knew how well those pointy elven ears could hear. Like a child afraid of the dark, my pulse raced and I yearned suddenly for the warmth and comfort of home and family. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have teased you,” I said, keeping my voice low, “and we shouldn’t be here. Let’s get back to the others before they realize we’ve left them asleep and unguarded. Fane will skin me alive if he finds out I tempted you away from your post.”
Cole just nodded and turned back toward the camp, clearly too embarrassed to speak. I quickly pulled my sweat-stiff socks back over my clean feet and slipped into my boots. Cole moved slowly, letting me catch up. I watched his feet as we walked. If only my crest let me sense what is happening in his head, I thought. I had no interest in the older soldier romantically, but neither did I bare him any ill will. We needed him, and we all needed to focus on the mission.
Distracted, I didn’t immediately notice as another figure, approaching from behind, entered into the range of my senses. My breath caught in my throat and I grabbed Cole by the shoulder. He turned, mouth open to speak, but the look on my face stopped him dead. Fear roiled through me like a wildfire in my veins and I froze like some stupid prey animal that’s caught the smell of a predator. Move, dolt! I snarled in my mind, but the most I could manage was a glance behind us into the fog.
I felt the dampening pressure of a shield being conjured around me, followed by the snapping of wood as an arrow shattered six inches in front of my face. By the time I had flinched back from the shower of splinters, two more arrows had impacted the barrier.
The fear burned away the paralysis and I burst into motion. “Run!”
Side by side, Cole and I darted through the trees. Every few seconds I would hear the sound of an arrow impacting the shield, but Cole held it firm. There were three elves, and they were gaining on us quickly.
I led them back to our camp tree. It was risky, but Cole and I couldn’t outpace them, not in this forest. Our only hope was that Fane and Maeve had heard the yell and would be prepared when we reached them.
Cole began to slow as we approached the tree, perhaps intending to attempt a frantic climb up to our companions, but I pulled him along. We ran past, directly under the branches where, thirty feet above, Fane and Maeve slept. I could sense their movement; they were awake, at least.
Seconds later, Fane leapt from the branches, crashing down atop the lead elf, his long spear piercing the elf from her shoulder all the way to her hip. The second elf had been following too close to stop and had run full speed into Fane’s back, sending them both tumbling, but the third jumped aside, turning his nocked arrow toward Fane as the Striker rolled to his feet, a dagger gleaming in his hand.
Cole and I threw ourselves to the ground behind a large tree, and I watched breathlessly with my expanded senses as Fane launched himself at the elf. Our Striker was fast, but so was the elf. The arrow struck Fane near the shoulder, glancing off his breastplate and lodging in the meat of his neck. The elf had given up his chance to dodge in order to take the shot, though, and slumped to the ground with Fane’s dagger between his ribs.
The last Dicathian soldier bolted, certainly trying to escape and find reinforcements, but a jet of green light lanced through the mist and caught him in the back. He dropped dead not ten feet from where Cole and I lay panting in the dirt.
“Fane’s hurt,” I whispered to Cole, standing up and offering him my hand. “Come on.”
Maeve was still making her way down the tree as we approached. Fane glared at me as he snapped the tail off the arrow protruding from his neck and pulled the shaft free, staining his hands crimson. Blood poured down his neck.
“What the fuck happened?” He snarled, one hand pressed over his wound.
“I—”
“Explanations later,” Maeve said, having just dropped out of the tree. She threw me a leather bundle. “Patch that up as best you can. Cole, get a barrier up, as wide as you can. I’ll see what we can do about these bodies.”
“There’s a ditch over there,” I said, pointing. “Deep enough for—for three bodies.”
Cole sat at the base of the tree and conjured his two-layered shield while Maeve dragged the corpses away one by one. Clumsily, I bandaged Fane’s wounds. This was made more difficult by his constant need to turn and glare at me, but I was able to stop the bleeding. Maeve had just returned from depositing the third corpse into the ditch when I sensed them.
“Oh no,” I groaned.
“What now?” Fane asked, following my line of sight out into the darkness.
“Two more figures. Approaching cautiously.”
“The barrier won’t be enough to hide us if they’ve already detected the traces of magic,” Cole mumbled, his brow knit in concentration.
“Go,” Fane ordered, looking at Maeve. The Caster held his eye for a moment, then nodded.
“Wait, what?” Perhaps it was the stress and the exhaustion, but I was having trouble following along. “What are you going to do?”
“He’s going to lead them off,” Maeve said somberly. “Give us a chance to escape. Fane’s the only one fast enough to keep ahead of them.”
I wanted to say something, to apologize, but he was already jogging off through the trees. Wordlessly, Maeve started in the opposite direction. Cole and I shared a brief look full of guilt and remorse, then followed.
“Maeve! I need a break,” I gasped in between ragged breaths.
Maeve, who had been pulling me by the arm, stopped suddenly, and I stumbled sideways to avoid colliding with her when she let me go. Cole, who had been running desperately to keep up with us, went to one knee, panting. Maeve pointed up at a large tree. “Let’s take cover here.”
Fatigue weighing down my body, I needed Maeve to hoist me up the tree, and Cole barely managed to push himself up onto the lowest branch. The strenuous task of climbing up high enough in the tree to stay hidden took us several arduous minutes.
When she was satisfied, Maeve leaned back against the trunk of the tree, her legs dangling in the air. We remained silent. After a short break to catch our breath and eat a few strips of dried meat, Cole set a barrier around us while Maeve cycled mana.
As for me, I knew what I had to do, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Instead I turned to where Cole and Maeve sat and asked hesitantly, “Do you think Fane made it?”
Maeve opened one eye—just one eye—but the anger burning in that eye like a hot coal made me wince. Cole shuffled over and sat between Maeve and me so we weren’t in direct eye contact.
“Circe, can you use True Sense yet?” Cole’s voice was soft and gentle, but he wouldn’t meet my gaze. Damn it. Everything we’d worked for—the entire war effort in Elenoir—was at risk because I wanted to dip my toes in the water. If Cole hadn’t followed, if he’d stayed and kept up the barrier like he was supposed to, I wouldn’t have been distracted. I’d have seen the elves sooner. I could have sneaked back to camp; once I was inside of the barrier, they would have lost me. We would have—but no, I was the one to leave first. I couldn’t blame him to save myself. That wasn’t the Alacryan way. Focus, Circe.
I closed my eyes and ignited my emblem. For a moment, as I felt my consciousness leaving my body, I was tempted to use my limited time in this form to search for Fane. If I
could just see that he was still alive—
Snap out of it, Circe. Focus on the mission!
I navigated through the debilitating fog using True Sense and locked in on multiple elements this time. In the distance, I could see a cloud of the rich ambient mana particles.
We’re almost there!
Though I’d had True Sense active for only moments, I couldn’t hold it. I released the spell and let out a deep breath. Slowly opening my eyes, I found both Cole and Maeve staring at me intently.
Despite the guilt and fatigue pressing down on me, I gave my companions a small grin. “We’re almost there—just a couple more days.”
We took turns to sleep an hour each, then crept out of our tree had hurried along. I found myself hoping that another Sentry would succeed in charting a path. I wasn’t a war hero. I wasn’t battle-hardened like the others, who had trained for years to fight as a team, to support and protect one another and kill their enemies. I had barely graduated before I was recruited for this mission. A few weeks ago, before stepping through the highly unstable portal that brought me to Dicathen, I was packing up my belongings, ready to go home to my blood.
Lost in my thoughts, I stumbled on a tree root and pitched forward. Thankfully, Maeve was able to grab my arm and stop me from falling flat on my face.
Unable to speak, I nodded my thanks, but Maeve’s demeanor was cold. She’d mothered me since the moment I joined the team, but now she was treating me like a failed pupil. I was sure that she’d turn to me at any moment, shake her head, and tell me how disappointed she was and how she expected me to make better decisions in the future. Despite the mollycoddling, I now found myself eager to please her, and the sting of her disappointment was difficult to shrug off.
She’s not your blood, Circe, I told myself. Who gives a damn if she’s disappointed, as long as the mission is successful. You have to survive. You have to survive for your brother.
I repeated those words in my mind like a mantra. The great Vritra would save my brother and bless him with magic if I succeeded. I’d kill ten thousand elves if I had to just to give my brother that chance. I’d fight the elven she-demon by myself to prove to the Vritra that the Milview blood was worth it.
I was roused from my reverie by the sensation of two figures entering into the range of my perception. I held out an arm with two fingers extended to stop Maeve and Cole as well.
They understood the signal and we immediately started up the closest tree. Unable to strengthen my body like Cole and Maeve, I struggled to reach even the lowest branch. In my rush, my foot slipped on a moss-covered root and I pitched headfirst into the trunk. The resulting dull thud sounded like an explosion within the quiet forest. My heart stopped and the bottom dropped out of my stomach; I hardly even noticed the throbbing pain in my forehead as I waited, breath held, for any response. It took a moment before I noticed the dull pressure in my ears and the slight blurring of the details around us; Cole had already conjured a barrier.
Great Vritra, that was close! I thought, making a mental note to thank Cole.
“Here!” Maeve said, reaching down for me.
I quickly grabbed the Caster’s outstretched hand and, with her help, pulled myself up onto the branch. My heart, which had a moment before seemed stopped forever, now felt as if it were about to break out of my ribcage, and I was having difficulty controlling my breathing, but I didn’t have the time or luxury to gather myself.
Maeve had already climbed up a few feet higher. I followed, using the same handholds and footholds she used to climb up the tree while Cole took the rear.
The three of us had to be extremely careful as we traversed the giant tree. Although we were protected by the barrier, falling leaves or sticks would still give away our position.
My arms ached and my legs trembled, half from fatigue and half out of fear. I desperately wished my mark allowed some form of body enhancement, but I knew hoping for that now was pointless.
Finally, we stopped climbing. The branches this high up were too thin to support our combined weight, so we each sat on our own tree limb and hugged the trunk in order to lessen the burden on our seats.
Cole prepared to strengthen his barrier but stopped on my signal.
“I’ll tell you when they’re close enough,” I whispered. We needed his barrier at its full power if they got near, and I knew he was too tired to hold it for long.
As the two presences approached us I narrowed the focus of my crest until I was able to faintly hear the two elves talking.
“We should head back, Albold. We’ve already strayed far enough from our survey route,” one voice said.
“Just a second,” the second voice, apparently “Albold,” replied dismissively.
“We’re miles away from the last sighting,” the first voice insisted. “No way that Alacryan could have made it all the way out here. You probably just heard a hare or something.”
What does he mean by the last sighting? I wondered.
“It wasn’t really a sound,” the elf named Albold said as he continued approaching the tree in which we were hiding. “It was more like an inkling.”
“I swear, if you weren’t a Chaffer, I would’ve just left,” the first grumbled. “Three soldiers dead in a ditch, and you want to wander around just the two of us. Maybe we should signal for General Aya…”
“No need to bother the General,” Albold said dryly. “It’s just one damned Alacryan. How the hell did they manage to make it this far north?”
Fane is alive! I thought, pleased despite myself. He was a pain in the ass, but I sure felt better when he was around.
Prying myself away from the perceptions of my crest, I turned to Cole and nodded. He nodded back and tightened his veiling barrier to encompass just the three of us. Decreasing the area of effect strengthened his magic and allowed him to add two more layers of barriers.
I ignited my crest once more and focused all my magic on the two elves. They were less than twenty feet away now.
Cole and Maeve were as still as the tree we were perched on.
Holding up both my hands, I mouthed “ten feet” to my teammates.
The snap of a twig nearby made me stiffen. Cole and Maeve were both focused intently on the ground below us.
Then we saw them—two elves. One had long hair tied tightly behind his neck while the other had cropped hair and ears slightly longer than his comrade. Unlike the long-haired elf, who was looking around aimlessly, the short-haired one kept his head down as he walked.
The latter slowed his pace, his focus still on the ground.
Please, just keep walking. Please.
Suddenly the elf’s head jerked left. He looked at the base of the tree, at the moss on the root—the moss I had slipped on.
The fear that I had been pushing down bubbled up into my chest, threatening to swallow me.
Please.
The short-haired elf stopped walking and his head turned up until I could make out his face, until I could see the color of his eyes—two gray orbs that seemed to be looking directly at me.
209
Deployed
ARTHUR LEYWIN
“I’m going with you!” Ellie yelled from behind me.
I stopped in my tracks and the guard beside me halted as well. Turning, I met my sister’s determined gaze. I wanted to tell her that it was too dangerous, that she was too young, that she could be hurt, that she could die… but I bit my tongue.
“You promised, remember?” Ellie’s tone was resolute, eager, and a little afraid.
‘Afraid you’ll leave her behind, not of the mana beasts,’ Sylvie prodded.
“A massive horde of corrupted beasts,” I muttered softly.
“You’ll be with me,” Ellie said, as if that was any guarantee. “And I’ll have the protection of the Wall.”
‘I understand your dilemma, but this is a good opportunity,’ Sylvie added. ‘I’ll be with her as well, and casting arrows from the top of the Wall is little more than target
practice for her.’
But what if the beasts break through? I thought, looking down at Ellie’s upturned face.
‘I know you won’t let that happen,’ she answered with a soothing wave of confidence.
The guard beside me shifted impatiently, his armor clattering. “General Arthur…”
“We’re going,” I stated, heading quickly for the exit, the nervous guard on my heels.
Looking back over my shoulder, I called, “What are you waiting for, El? Let’s go.”
Ellie visibly brightened as a contagious smile blossomed on her face, and she followed after me at a full run. “Come on, Boo!”
Immediately outside the training grounds waited an unfamiliar mage with a large, sparrow-like bird perched on his shoulder. After making eye contact, he respectfully inclined his head. “Greetings, General Arthur. I am Officer Julor Strejin. A member of my squad surveying the Beast Glades was the one to spot the horde. I will be briefing you of the situation at the Wall.”
“Officer Julor,” I acknowledged with a nod.
Without wasting any time, the officer began informing me of everything I was expected to know. Two other mages—both highly-accomplished adventurers before joining the army—would be accompanying us to the Wall as additional support. Our best estimate of the size of the horde was somewhere close to twenty thousand beasts. Although a majority seemed to be from D-class to B-class, several A-class and even some S-class mana beasts had been spotted.
“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get too close because of the Alacryan mages, but we’re certain there are at least a dozen S-class mana beasts,” Julor stated solemnly.
I looked back at Ellie. “A dozen S-class mana beasts… and the fact that they’re corrupted means they’ll be even stronger and fiercer than normal.”
Ellie’s face paled but her expression remained firm. “I’ll be okay.”
My determined, talented, yet sheltered sister had never seen a mana beast except for the tamed bonds in Xyrus. I doubted she could even fathom how overwhelming an S-class beast was, yet I was leading her straight toward not one, but a dozen such creatures… along with many thousands of lesser beasts.
