War Of The Wildlands(77)

“Nor to me, it would seem.” The prince stared at the ground, lost in thought.

“Shall I prepare the troops, my lord?” Mi’tal asked.

With a sigh, the prince replied, “Yes. If my father is riding into battle, we must go as well. Once those mages are unleashed, Lisalla may be in grave danger. Without us, there will be no chance of stopping my father. He won’t care if the princess is among the casualties as long as she’s accompanied in death by many elves.”



* * * * *



Three days of riding brought the king’s army within range of the elven encampment. Their arrival, however, had not gone unnoticed. Scouts had seen them approaching, and the elven army was given a day to prepare for the coming battle. Reylin’s troops were low on arrows and had busied themselves crafting more. Unfortunately, they did not have enough time to craft new metal tips and were having to make do with sharpening the wooden shafts. Essa’s troops still had a small amount of runed tips, and they planned to use them wisely. They would only be shot into the largest groups of enemy soldiers, in hopes of taking down as many men as possible with a single arrow.

The sun was already high in the sky when the scouts sent word that the enemy had arrived. The archers began ascending the trees, taking cover in the thick evergreen boughs.

“All sword maidens split into small groups,” Essa told the women. “Find a place low in the branches where you can take cover, but be ready to strike at a moment’s notice. We want to avoid the possibility of a mounted charge, but once the forest has forced them to disperse, we must be ready to fight.”

The women began choosing their groups and setting off into the woods. The elves would not meet the Na’zorans at the edge of the woods. Instead, they would force the humans to come deep into the forest if they wanted to fight. The archers would be ready to fire as soon as they came within range.

King Domren commanded the troops to wait as the mages rode to the front of the line. The battle mages had been confident they could fire far enough from the tree line to avoid the elves’ arrows. They stopped well away from the forest’s edge to prepare their attack. Ten of the mages formed a circle around the rest and spread their arms wide. Focusing their eyes skyward, the mages began to chant. White magic encompassed the entire party, forming a protective barrier. The battle mages were now free to begin their work.

With great effort, the mages conjured their blasts in groups of four. They touched their palms together, forming a link that concentrated their efforts into a single spell. Half of them chose to create massive fireballs, while others focused on energy blasts. Once their spells were prepared, the shielding mages dropped their protective layer to allow the battle mages to fire. As they sent blast after blast into the forest, the earth began to shake. Limbs were flying through the air as trees were struck, and dirt and debris spewed in every direction.

The elves, who were expecting magefire, clung tightly to the trees. The force of the blasts were much stronger than they had been before, and the archers were unable to return fire. All of their energy was focused on grasping the limbs to stop themselves from falling. Smoke began to rise as parts of the forest caught fire. Energy blasts continued to pound the forest, tearing pits into the earth and toppling trees.

Smoke and dust filled the air as Reylin descended from the trees. Most of the other archers had already climbed down, unable to maintain their grip through the constant waves of magefire. “We should just fire in their direction,” Reylin suggested. “Maybe we’ll hit some of them.”

“No,” Nat replied. “We’re going to need our arrows if they enter the forest. We can’t waste them firing blindly into the smoke.”

“He’s right,” Sal said. “The mages didn’t come within range. I would have seen it from my position.”

“What do we do then, run?” Reylin asked angrily.

“We should press deeper into the forest,” Nat suggested. “They can’t continue this onslaught. Their mages will tire soon enough, and then we can fight the rest of them on our own turf.”

“Agreed,” Sal replied.

Reylin remained silent but nodded his approval. His personal choice would be to unleash as many arrows as possible on the mages, but many elves may be lost in the process.

“Let’s spread out and inform the sword maidens,” Nat said, turning to leave.

Essa was already heading their direction to discuss the situation. “We need to fall back,” she said as she reached Nat.

“That’s what we decided as well,” he said.

With a nod, she went to inform the women. Once the group was together, they marched deeper into the forest, hoping the army would pursue. If their mages ran out of power, the elves would have a fighting chance.