Page 194 of Ash and Feather

The ghostly elven army advanced in earnest, now, their relatively silent movements adding to the overall haunting effect they created.

Some drove straight for the wall of fire I’d made, pulling more of their small bombs from the bags slung across their chests.

Other groups began splintering off, charging in opposite directions. Theycouldgo around the cliffs and converge from both directions—arguably a worse situation than all of them simply pouring straight forward. It would take them longer to accomplish it, but the end result…

Valas caught my attention, and we wordlessly coordinated our next moves, taking to the sky and heading off every group we could get in front of. Closing off paths with magic. Forcing them to waste their finite supply of magic-negating bombs. Slowing them down even further.

While we worked from above, Mairu’s magic worked from hidden places alongside the moving army, sowing confusion and chaos into their ranks.

She focused on controlling the ones who carried the bomb-filled slings across their chests, forcing them to launch several of those bombs in wrong directions. Not only did this waste the weapons, but it also created several scuffles among the soldiers as they argued over orders not being followed.

Little by little, the composed, quiet, ghost-like lines began to break down.

Yet even as they did so, the situation continued to go from bad to worse.

Because their numbers simply kept increasing.

How could we possibly stop them all?

This emerging army, and the rest of it still hiding in the woods…most of this first wave had answered Andrel’s command to assemble, to attack. Yet there was no telling who was loyal at their core, and who could be swayed back to a more reasonable position if given the chance.

And soon, the ones loyal to Savna would be secretly weaving their way into the fray as well, hopefully impossible to tell apart from the others until the moment came to reveal themselves. Maybe this was already happening.

So we couldn’t unleash our true power—couldn’t slaughter them indiscriminately.

But we had no time to bedelicate, either.

I decided to focus on the ones directly attacking the barriers Valas and I were planting. I went back to the largest of those barriers—the first one I’d established—and took aim at the group currently trying to destroy it.

As they closed in on my wall of fire, so did I, sending a new line of flames lashing toward them. They scattered in all directions—but they didn’t go far before gathering their courage and turning back to the fight.

Back and forth we went.

I kept driving them away until they were no longer close enough to throw their bombs at the wall—but this didn’t entirely stop them; arrows flew next, with balls of exploding powder affixed to their heads. They cleared a smaller area, and with less force, but they struck faster and in more places at once.

Several flew uncomfortably close to me as well. I wasn’t sure the effect that powder would have on my current form, but I wouldn’t risk a repeat of what had happened in Mindoth.

I soared higher, out of range of the archers. From just above the top of the cliff, I continued to rain fire down upon them.

They grew bolder, several of them sacrificing themselves in order to get closer to the wall and destroy it, continuing to press on even as their fellow warriors caught fire and fell beside them.

And all the while, the numbers pouring from the Hollows kept increasing.

I tried to be strategic with my aim. Tried not to add any more than necessary to the already overpowering stench of blood and fire that filled the air.

When this strategy began to fail, I flew even higher—high enough to see the human encampment on the other side. I was considering landing on that other side, preparing them for the onslaught to come, when a strange sensation slammed through my chest and distracted me.

For several seconds, my vision blacked out.

I couldn’t breathe.

Yet nothing had struck me.

It wasn’t my own pain, but one I felt through the divine bond of my court. And the desperate cold that followed, it felt like—

“VALAS!”

With the sound of Mairu’s sudden cry came a wild burst of her magic. That magic caught the trees in a merciless grip and bent them as if she had them between her fingers, snapping them as easily as twigs.

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