by Derek Palmer
We had stopped. I pushed my sensing skills to my limits. I would have been even better if I had dismounted from Luna and moved a bit further away from the others, but somehow I was sure that it wouldn't change anything. The more I tried to sense, the stronger the feeling of uneasiness became. I also felt that we needed to hurry - and there was the sickening feeling that we were already late. I shook my head.
""No! Now I'm sure that something is wrong. Very much wrong!""
Things were wrong indeed, very wrong. Things were probably at least eighty Trolls wrong. None of us three wanted to think what had happened to the Elves who had been guarding the pass. Or more likely, we all thought about it for a moment and then stopped. Things were really, really wrong.
We could only estimate the size of the group that had stopped for the night since there were guards on each side of the camp. We were on the western side, high up on the hills, hidden from view. Our Luna and the smaller horses were tied to the trees down on the trail.
""We need to warn the others, as soon as possible.""
Leilatha spoke in a low voice even though we were far enough from the group and I used my skills to make sure that nobody was close to us.
""One of us can do that. The moon is almost full and as soon as the rider is further behind the cliffs she can start riding, alternating the horses. Which one of you is the better rider?""
The women looked at me like I had lost my mind.
""Just what do you think you'd be doing? There are at least eighty of them, maybe one hundred.""
The way I smiled wasn't a happy one.
""Not much, just slow them down. Do some reconnaissance. Slow them down a bit more, maybe take their horses away from them.""
We argued for a moment, but eventually Shalana took the horses after leaving almost everything behind her. Since there shouldn't be anything threatening on the way back to the village, she left both of her crossbows and all the arrows.
""Leilatha, Stian - don't do anything stupid. Just keep an eye on them.""
I smiled at Shalana.
""My dear Shalana, I have a long-term plan and it doesn't include dying, at least not yet. After all, neither of you has succumbed to my charms, yet.""
The first look on her face was shock but it was followed by smile - when Leilatha slapped my head from behind.
""Asshole.""
""Hey, I promised to be like that.""
That brought me a poke to the chest from Shalana - with a smile. Without any warning I pulled her close and hugged her.
""Shalana, ride safe. Remember, your task is the most important. You must get there safely. Otherwise, they will get no warning.""
Then I kissed her cheek and pushed her away before she could react in any way. I didn't want her to sense how I really thought about my odds against dozens of Trolls.
Once Shalana was safely on her way towards the village, Leilatha and I started talking about tactics. Like, I really understood something about tactics. But I had gone against an overwhelming opponent and the Ugly People before, which made me a sort of an expert in this. I had survived all those incidents, after all.
""I think that there are two things above others we need to do - first, we must slow them down so that the village has time to prepare themselves. While doing that, we need to diminish the number of the Ugly People able to fight. Unfortunately, before we can really do that, we need more arrows. Leilatha, do you know what kind of bows they are using?""
She grimaced.
""I'm not absolutely sure. However, I think that they might also be using crossbows, somewhat larger than these.""
While saying that she touched the crossbow she was carrying. I had already cursed myself for leaving my other crossbow home, since now would have been a perfect moment to have two bows ready. However, if the Trolls had crossbows, too, we might be able to create some extra confusion to the attack.
""Okay, before we can do anything, we might try to get more arrows - and maybe some crossbows to shoot them with.""
By the time we reached the pass, midnight had already passed. Even in the moonlight it would have been total madness to try to reach the former guard post without going down to the trail. We had decided to trust my instincts that told me that there were no creatures between the encampment and the pass. Luckily, we had been right.
There were two guards outside the hut, close to each other and talking. Even though it was night, there was some light in the hut, indicating that there was some activity going on. I had only briefly tried to sense the number of people inside but once I got some feeling, I pulled back immediately just to prevent myself from attacking immediately. Leilatha noticed how I stiffened for a moment before forcing myself to calm down and turned to look at me. I turned towards her and spoke with low voice:
""Two outside, maybe three more inside. At least some of them should still be alive. Can you kill the one on the left with one arrow, as silently as possible?""
Even if it was dark I was able to see the change in the way she looked. I guess that she knew just as well as I did what was happening inside the hut. She just nodded to me.
""Good. On my mark; I count down from three.""
We had mastered our timed shooting while hunting and there was only a single sound as we released our arrows. I had selected one of my wooden ones even though I knew that I'd probably lose it. However, the way my target was sitting meant that I couldn't really target his chest. So, that was it.
We were lucky and both our targets slumped down, almost without any sound. The wind and the noise coming from the hut covered the rest. Without even looking at the dead guards, we soon were at the door of the hut.
The fact that the hut consisted of a single room benefited us now, since as soon as the door opened we would be able to see everybody there. Leilatha had her crossbow ready and she also had her knife easily available. I had put my crossbow and backpack down and I was now carrying only my short sword. I had three fingers up, and then two when I pointed to the left, and one when I pointed to the right. Once Leilatha had nodded, I opened the door.
Those three Trolls had no chance. Leilatha's arrow went through the head of the one on the right and I beheaded the two others, one from behind and one from the front. The last one of them saw my approaching sword but there was nothing he could do to prevent it since he was supporting himself with his arms while pumping the Elven woman under him. My only worry was that the falling head might hurt the woman some more.
All the four women were alive, one of them just barely, since she was still bleeding from the wound she had received from an arrow. I guessed that she had been the one patrolling outside when the attack came. What made me really sick was that being wounded hadn't prevented her for being molested - but the real anger came from the fact that one of the women was Melima. One of the guards from the last trip. Melima, who liked girls, but who still wanted to have a baby. My baby. Now she was lying there, raped Earth knows how many times. I made a promise to kill as many of those Trolls as only I could. As painfully as possible.
As much as we hated it, Leilatha and I knew that we had to leave. Luckily Leilatha was able to do some magical healing while I did my best to clean and tie the wound of the most seriously wounded woman. When we left, two of the women - Melina and someone I didn't know - were able to move around a bit. When I got outside to collect the arrows and all the crossbows the Trolls had had with them, I also tried to sense if there were more trolls coming through the pass. At least I wasn't able to sense anything coming from the other valley. Or I did sense some game but not that disturbing 'nothing'.
I was carrying three crossbows from the Trolls with me and Leilatha had two when we headed down the trail again. We probably were tired but both of us pushed the feeling away. The number of arrows we had with us was substantial but not enough to kill all of them. I knew that the thought was a stupid one since there was no way that we two could kill all those eighty-something Trolls. Still, my initial worry was that we didn't
have enough arrows. Leilatha turned to look at me when I let out a short, bitter laugh.
""What are you laughing about?""
There was some anger in her voice and I couldn't really blame her.
""I just realized that we don't yet have enough arrows to kill them all. Maybe we'll get more if we steal their horses.""
""You think about killing them all?""
""Sure, don't you? After all, I made that promise when I saw them for the last time.""
It was just before dawn when we got close to the encampment. Soon, it was quite obvious that the group that had made the camp there didn't expect any trouble to come to them, at least not from the rear. I had thought about this mission on our way towards it and I was quite certain that these Ugly People had done some serious reconnaissance. I had checked it with Leilatha and the sad truth was that the Elves had not really taken a serious care of their security but trusted to the old promises and agreements.
When we were getting close to the camp I asked Leilatha to come closer, since I wanted to try something.
""Please stay close - I'll try to cloak or mask our approach.""
Somehow this cloaking was much less power-consuming than the moving I had demonstrated to Leilatha and Shalana. If we made it through this, I'd need to discuss this with someone who knew more about magic.
There were five Trolls - Ugly People - guarding eight ponies. For some reason, they wanted the ponies to be a bit away from the rest of the camp. I also thought that it was a great idea since now it seemed almost possible to take those ponies away from them.
For a moment it looked like that we might be able to do what we had planned to do in secrecy. Unfortunately the fourth of the Ugly People refused to die silently - or he reacted to us moving among them. Whatever the reason, he made some noise which woke the fifth guard - who had been sleeping - and he managed to raise his voice before Leilatha hit him with the arrow. As soon as that happened, I improvised and made an attempt to change our cloak so that we two would look like two of their own. I spoke to Leilatha with low voice.
""Move as normally as you can.""
I could almost sense that she wanted to run. Damn, I wanted to run - but I decided to trust my cloak a bit longer. I waved my hand to the people who were looking at me from the distance. Some of them turned away, probably believing that nothing was amiss. Unfortunately one of them, somebody who looked like a leader of some sort, decided to check the situation and stood up and started putting his boots on his feet. As quickly as possible, Leilatha and I picked all the arrows we could find from the guards we had just killed. We started moving towards the ponies just when the leader behind us shouted at us.
""Hey, what do you think you are doing?""
Instead of answering I turned towards him and released the arrow from the crossbow I had been carrying. I had considered hitting him with magic, too, but that would probably wake the whole camp and I didn't want that. Besides that, I wanted to keep on cloaking and I was quite certain that I wouldn't be able to do several magical things at the same time. No, it would have to be enough for now if they'd see one of their own to kill one of their leaders.
From the noises I heard I heard behind us it was clear that something was happening there. Some chaotic voices could be heard when I guided Leilatha to the ponies.
""Help me release them, quickly!""
Luckily we were able to release their reins before anybody was close to us. Besides that, we were partly hidden by the trees when I made my next move. Since there was no way we could silently get those ponies away from that small army of Trolls, I decided to try the next best thing I could figure out. Which would be scaring them away.
Horses and ponies are prey by nature and they are afraid of the predators. So, I tried changing our cloak from two Trolls to two bears - or something like a bear. As terrifying as possible.
I have no idea what the ponies saw or sensed but I almost felt sorry for them when they started running away. The way they left, there was a huge possibility that they might end up hurt or even dead. We just had no time to worry about that as we started escaping through the forest as fast as we could. As soon as it was clear that nobody was coming after us, we moved across the trail to the other side of the encampment. At a safe distance, we stopped for some needed rest.
""Okay, that's a start.""
Leilatha looked at me.
""Stian, what did you do down there? First it was like they didn't see us and then, suddenly, those ponies ran like they had seen a beast.""
I shrugged and sighed.
""I tried to make them see one - or two bears. Like, I wanted those Ugly People see two of their own. Most likely it didn't really work that well for your part.""
""What do you mean? What did you do?""
Obviously she didn't find that quite as funny as I did as she gripped my hand quite tightly. It also didn't make that look on her face any softer.
""It was something similar to what I showed to you and Shalana, but instead of moving away I tried to show them something else. Like a mask - or a cloak. I guess it worked somewhat. That kind of cloak is much easier to maintain than the hiding and moving stuff.""
She released my hand and took a step backwards.
""So, you didn't fully trust us, did you?""
I just had to roll my eyes.
""Trust you? Like you Alfar have trusted me in all occasions? Mother Earth, I have trusted my life to your hands a few times. Had you failed, we both would be dead already.""
Suddenly Leilatha broke out a smile while standing there and then she took a step forward and kissed my cheek.
""Okay, what's our plan now? Assuming that you have one.""
Somehow these women seemed to get their kicks for keeping me off balance, even in situations like this. I'd probably never be able to figure them out. I let out a long sigh.
""Our long-term plan is to cut down their numbers while staying alive. A short-term plan might be that you could take some rest while I'll keep an eye on them. Right now they are probably figuring out what happened and how it will affect their plans.""
We did really slow them down since the Sun was almost as high in the sky as it was going to be when the convoy started moving again. Towards the village. As far as I could sense it, they had managed to catch four of the escaped ponies. However, I was quite sure that those ponies couldn't be loaded with anything heavy any time soon. So, more to carry for the remaining Trolls - which would probably make them even slower. Even if I hadn't said anything to Leilatha I had planned to send her back to the hut on the border either to protect the women there or to move them safe. However, this group seemed confident that they could accomplish their task even with the last setback. That worried me, even if I didn't want to say it to Leilatha.
Leilatha had slept while I had forced myself to stay awake. As soon as the small army started moving downwards towards the village, we started moving that way. The problem was that they could use the trail while we had to move through the forest and could only occasionally use some animal trails. Not just that, we knew that we needed to be in such good shape that we'd be able escape a possible hunting group.
It was early afternoon when we found a place that I was happy with. The terrain behind us was plain enough that it made escape possible. I sort of hoped that they would send a small party after us, since it might slow the group down a bit more and it would give us a possibility to diminish their numbers a bit more.
Once we were able to see the advancing convoy, it became clear that they were trying to make up the time they lost, for whatever reason. For our sake, that might be a good thing if they would also be tired.
Shit, I had dropped to sleep for a few moments while waiting for the convoy to reach us. When I now sensed for the approaching group it was clear that they didn't do much reconnaissance but trusted to their speed. Well, that suited us okay.
I had three of the stolen crossbows loaded and ready while Leilatha had two as we waited behind a fallen
log. We had decided that, during our first strike, we would just use our loaded crossbows and run for safety. We already had agreed to target the assumed leaders of the group and we had different shooting sectors. The only question would be the accuracy of the crossbows since we didn't really want to use our limited amount of arrows for testing. However, I had a suggestion.
""Aim at their bellies. If we hit, it's probably lethal, but they will not die immediately. If they stop and decide to take care of their wounded, it will slow them down even more.""
The grin on Leilatha's face didn't promise anything good for the potential targets. Now that the action was about to start, I was also able to forget my fatigue.
Our plan worked out almost flawlessly. The first four arrows hit their targets just as we had planned and their screams told us that they really were hurt. When I prepared myself for my third shot I quickly changed my target since one of the Trolls had reacted very quickly and he was almost ready release an arrow in our direction. I was a tad bit faster and his arrow hit the ground in front of him. It was just too bad that he probably died immediately.
