THE DEEP SKIRMISHES 6 page

?It is a long swim,? Aleina reminded him. ?One I just made, and I was not moving fast.?

?Torvache, then,? Aleina said, motioning to a large man nearby, and he too began stripping his gear.

?Perhaps you should not go, Knight-Captain,? the priest offered. ?It could be a trap.?

?If it is, you?ll be glad to have me beside you,? the woman answered. Now wearing only a slight undergarment, she belted on her sword once more.

A short while later, the group entered the river, tied together with a long tether. The priest held a small dagger he had enchanted with magical light. With the current behind them, they were back in the small cavern in a short time, and Regis led the way onto the bank, rushing up the tunnel. The others, with swords and mace in hand, were close behind.

As they neared the tomb Regis had constructed to protect Wulfgar, the halfling?s hopes sank. It had been opened, stones tossed aside ?

?Wulfgar,? he breathed, then started to call, but Aleina clapped him on the shoulder and motioned him to silence.

?He was here!? Regis insisted.

?He still is,? came a voice from up ahead, and Wulfgar came into the tunnel, mighty Aegis-fang in hand. He came into the light, and Regis grimaced at the sight. The tall man was filthy and covered in dried blood, his wolfskin cloak matted and torn. New blood showed on his forehead where he had cracked it on the stone lintel.

?Unsettling it is to awaken in a grave,? he said to his friend. He wasn?t looking at Regis, though, but at the others, particularly at the woman.

?I didn?t want them to find you,? Regis replied. ?Them?? Wulfgar asked, staring still at the woman.

?The drow and the orcs,? Regis said, and he turned to Aleina. ?Not them.?

He tried to meet Wulfgar?s gaze once more and explained, ?Refugees from Sundabar ?? His

voice trailed off as he realized Wulfgar wasn?t really paying attention, and was looking past him to Aleina. The halfling considered her as well, and understood his friend?s interest. The shapely woman?s minimal clothing clung to her every curve. Her brown hair was matted, of course, but that only made the woman?s round brown eyes seem all the larger.

Despite her trials in the Underdark these months from Sundabar, Aleina Brightlance exuded health and solidity.

?There will be time for this later. Let us be gone from this place,? the woman said, clearly noticing Wulfgar?s gaze. She had met it with her own. She motioned to the priest, who moved to Wulfgar and began to cast a spell.

?Water breathing,? Regis explained. ?You?ll need it.?

CHAPTER 7

MOVING TARGETS

MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED WERE HERE, COME TO THE CALL OF Sinnafein, and the elf lady looked

around the clearing in the center of the Glimmerwood with satisfaction and pride. When war had come, bringing the hordes roaming the borders of the forest, the elves had

abandoned their villages for a defensive posture they had perfected centuries before. They called it hallaval planeta, or ?wandering warrior,? a nomadic lifestyle seeking safety in constant movement about this land they knew so well. They had spent the better part of the year, certainly since Bromm?s fall, and even before that to a great extent, operating in small bands, often secluded from others of their race. The borders of the Glimmerwood were littered with the rotting corpses of orcs shot down by elf patrol bands, but in the course of these many months, only a few elves had been wounded, and not one had been killed in battle.

The orcs couldn?t kill what they couldn?t catch.

And now the orcs weren?t pressing in on the Glimmerwood?not even the frost giants ventured too far into the elf-haunted forest. Of all the kingdoms of Luruar, this one, the clan of Moonwood elves, had fared best, even more so than Everlund, whose walls had not yet trembled under the weight of giant-hurled boulders. The elves did not need the trade with any of the cities. The Glimmerwood gave them all they required, and more.

?It is good to see you, my lady Sinnafein,? said a tall warrior named Vyncint. ?Our lives these days, in small groups ? we do not know how others fare.? He shook his head. ?That is the pain of the wandering warrior. You must trust in your friends, though they are lost to you in dangerous times.?

?By all accounts, all of the groups have fared well,? Sinnafein replied, and Vyncint nodded. ?And now you would end this,? he said. ?Why??

?Why indeed?? asked another, a deadly archer named Allafel, brother of Tarathiel who had been killed by the original King Obould a century before. ?What do you know??

?That all of the kingdoms about us are in dire need,? she answered. ?That Sundabar has fallen, Nesmé, too, and Silverymoon is sorely pressed.? She moved out more to the center of the field and its gathering, as she spoke loud enough for all to hear. ?I know that the dwarves are caught in their holes, all three citadels, and they grow desperate with hunger. They have tried to break out from Mithral Hall and Felbarr, but were chased back into the holes in short order.?

She paused as she came up to grim-faced Allafel. ?They came forth from the safety of their fortified citadels against great odds. Indeed, unbeatable odds.?

?That speaks to their desperation,? Allafel admitted.

?No less is true of Citadel Adbar,? Vyncint added. ?My fellows and I have haunted that region to the northeast. Many battles have been fought; the dwarves are relentless in their attempts to break the orc siege.?

?Relentless and unsuccessful,? another elf added.

?You have called us together that we can aid the dwarves,? Allafel reasoned, and there was

a measure of accusation in his tone, though it was not without sympathy, Sinnafein noted hopefully.

?If we do not, then all that we have known about us as neighbors and allies will likely perish,? Sinnafein replied. ?Only the orcs will remain.?

?Not all of the dwarves have been the best of neighbors, Lady,? Allafel reminded, and Sinnafein recalled immediately the incident to which the brother of Tarathiel likely referred, a most unpleasant argument with the dwarves of Adbar who had ?come like orcs to fell the trees of the northeastern forest,? so the reports had claimed. The dwarves, under duress due to a great demand for weapons from Sundabar, had run short of fuel for their forges, and so they had crept down to the Glimmerwood in the hopes of taking a few wagonloads of lumber.

Allafel and some friends had met them, and had turned them away, but the encounter had not been without some minor bloodshed on both sides.

?Better even at that troubled time than the orcs, surely,? Vyncint said before Sinnafein could, and to Sinnafein?s relief, Allafel conceded the point with a nod.

?What do you propose, Lady?? another elf called from behind.

?The minions of Many-Arrows are grouped in vast encampments,? another reminded her. ?We would have to cut the trees of half the Glimmerwood to fashion enough arrows to truly thin their ranks.?

?As soon as we sting them hard, they will come against us, of course,? Vyncint said. ?With fire,? Allafel added.

?Do you believe they will not do exactly that in any case?? asked another, and Sinnafein smiled when she saw Myriel walking up to stand in front of Allafel. ?When they are done with the cities in the south, when the dwarves are dead in their holes ? when Adbar falls and they mean to power her forges. Do you think they will take only a few wagons of our trees then, Master Allafel? They will raze the land without regard, to feed their fiery frenzy.?

?It is time to suspend hallaval planeta, I believe,? Sinnafein said. ?It is time to concentrate and coordinate our warriors, to strike hard at the orcs in the hopes that at least one of the dwarven citadels can break the siege, and they, in turn, can join with us to bolster their kin.?

?Our numbers are few, our enemies vast,? Vyncint reminded. ?What can we do??

Sinnafein had no logical response to the reality of Vyncint?s words. He was being honest, and not trying to play a negative role or to challenge her authority, minimal as it was.

She tried to sort her options, to find some way the elves might prove effective, though the smallest of the orc encampments she had seen outnumbered the whole of the Glimmerwood?s elven force a hundred to one. A long and uncomfortable silence passed.

?What can we do, Lady?? Allafel prompted.

?We can try,? was all that Sinnafein could offer in persuasion to her kin. To her surprise, though, that was enough.

?They are cutting,? came word a few days later. A band of orcs had come to the forest?s edge to take lumber for their campfires. Likely that was happening all the time now, away from this southeastern stretch. By concentrating their forces, the elves had surely left vast swaths of the Glimmerwood open to orc lumbering intrusions.

But now, finally, the monsters had come to the forest within reach.

Off went hundreds of elves, silent as shadows, invisible in their forest domain even in winter with most of the trees bare of leaves. Practiced and coordinated, they broke into smaller bands, and each of those took up positions to form a semicircle around the orcs.

Perhaps threescore of the ugly brutes were at work with their axes, supported by a quartet of frost giants, milling around just beyond the forest?s edge, piles of rocks beside them at the ready.

A bird whistled, but it wasn?t a bird.

Answers came back, two, three, four, as the elves took up their positions.

Several of the orcs even looked up curiously, perhaps not quite as stupid as the elves believed.

It hardly mattered, though, for with those few whistles, the elven bands had identified their target, and on a five-whistle quick count more than two hundred arrows went off, a near-equal number aiming for each of the frost giants. The behemoths staggered and stumbled under the weight of the blows, with nearly every shot on target, more than fifty elven arrows entering each giant?s flesh almost instantly in a great moment of trauma and explosive agony.

And by the time those arrows struck, each of the skilled elves had already set another arrow to a bowstring, and the rain of death began upon the orcs, sweeping outward from close to back.

How they scrambled!

A few took up axes and charged the forest, and fell only a few steps later, riddled with arrows. Most retreated, diving from stump to tree to stump, breaking clear and running, missiles chasing them every step. Farther out, two of the giants still stood, one merely trembling, using every bit of his strength just to avoid tumbling down in darkness, the other stubbornly trying to lift a rock.

Five short whistles later, a stinging swarm of arrows reached out again, and the giants were of concern no longer.

Now the elves focused once more on the fleeing orcs, and one after another, they, too, went tumbling down.

In mere heartbeats, four giants and fifty orcs lay dead or dying around the Glimmerwood?s edge, with just a handful running for the orc encampment. A few others might still be about, hiding, but the orders had been explicit, and they were not to draw swords and go out to finish off any of the wounded or those hiding.

And indeed, those orders proved prudent moments later when the orc encampment began to swirl toward the forest like a great black cloud of locusts.

So came the call to scatter, and the elves did, in coordinated fashion, running off into the forest in predetermined groups of five.

The orc wave rolled into the Glimmerwood without resistance.

Many trees went down under orc hatchets then, the frustrated creatures taking out their anger on the living targets that could not flee.

For not an elf did they find.

Some groups of orcs foolishly probed deeper in pursuit, and each in turn was sent running, half of them dying, the others stumbling out to rejoin the main orc force.

?They will be better prepared when next they come to collect their timber,? Allafel said to

Sinnafein and the rest when at last the orcs broke off and returned to their camps.

?We killed more than threescore, and a handful of giants besides,? Vyncint reminded, a measure of satisfaction in his voice.

?They lose that number each day to attrition, and yet their ranks continue to grow,? Allafel replied.

?It felt good,? Vyncint countered, drawing a smile from Allafel, who certainly would not disagree.

?They will be more prepared, and no doubt the word of our ambush will spread to the orc encampments all around our home,? Sinnafein agreed. ?To the beasts in the northeast besieging Adbar, and to those camped across the river holding tight about Mithral Hall.?

?So what, really, can we do against them?? Allafel asked. ?Truly, Lady,? Myriel added.

Sinnafein looked at her young protégé and saw the pain that Myriel had felt in even asking the despairing question, but Sinnafein knew, too, that the question was an honest one.

?Will sixty dead orcs and a few dead giants make a difference if King Emerus tries again to break out from Citadel Felbarr?? Sinnafein asked them all.

?I don?t know, but likely not,? she admitted before any of the others could answer. ?Likely not,? she reiterated glumly. ?We will find more opportunities to strike at the beasts.?

?But we?ll not likely prove this effective again,? Allafel interrupted.

Sinnafein nodded, conceding the point. ?We will find patrols, and we will slaughter them,? she told her people. ?We will find orc scouts too far out from their allies, and we will kill them. Perhaps this vast horde will be thinned by another two hundred when King Emerus comes forth again. Perhaps only by one hundred. But that is one hundred fewer spears the dwarves will face.?

?But will it make any difference?? Vyncint asked.

Sinnafein looked at him, trying to keep a measure of optimism in her expression and her voice. They had just won a great and sudden victory, at least, yet here they were, their mood as dark as the sunless sky above them. ?I do not know, and likely not,? she admitted again.

?But we must try,? said Allafel, nodding at her, and she appreciated his support.

?Though there is nothing more,? Sinnafein admitted. ?What can we do to truly wound our ugly enemies??

It was a rhetorical question, of course. They had discussed this at length, but to Sinnafein?s surprise, to Allafel?s surprise, to the surprise of all the elves, there came an answer, and one from a source more surprising still.

?Aye, and now there?s where we might be helpin? ye,? said a female dwarf carrying a massive mace over one shoulder. Beside her came a man in simple, loose-fitting brown robes ?the garb of a monk, it seemed.

A hundred bows went up and turned upon the intruders, elves whispering excitedly and confusedly as to how these two might possibly have gotten through their sentries unseen.

?Who are you?? demanded Allafel, sword in hand, and those around him, too, had weapons drawn.

?Me name?s Amber,? said the dwarf. ?Amber Gristle O?Maul o? the Adbar O?Mauls. This one?s me friend Afafrenfere?if ye canno? say it proper, just sneeze, and he?ll answer to that! Ha!?

Other elves?the sentries?came rushing in behind the pair, bows in hand and confused expressions clear to see. They, too, had no idea of how these two might have slipped through the perimeter. They, like the others, did not understand the power of the magical enchantment that had been put on this unlikely pair of companions, or the even more unlikely pair that had put those enchantments in place.

?Now to yer question o? what ye might be doin?,? the dwarf went on. ?We got a couple more friends near-about that might be offerin? ye a bit o? advice and more than a bit o? aid on that matter,? she said, ending with a wide and confident smile and an exaggerated wink.

PART TWO

Date: 2016-06-13; view: 162