JASMINE FLAMESWORTH
I reflexively pulled Camelliato my side as the Alacryan mage's command to fire rang across the field, careful to keep the sharp edge of my blades away from her. The two apple trees stepped forward into a guard position in front of our group.
Nothing happened immediately. "Go!" I ordered into the silence.
As Greengate's defenders surged forward, led by the two trundling trees, one of the tube devices exploded, sending a cloud of white fire high into the sky. A wave of dust blew over us, but nothing else.
From the way the Alacryan forces froze in shock, it was easy to guess that wasn't what they'd intended.
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"This is our chance," I said breathlessly, "while they're distracted!"
A second tube exploded, and the three Alacryans using it disappeared in the white fire. The rest broke into all out panic. A handful of soldiers were sprinting towards us, while others retreated toward their carts. Then the rest of the tubes went off.
The apple trees leaned down to shield us from the worst of the shockwave, but the wall of heat and dust was still enough to knock me back a step, and one of the girls from Xyrus tumbled over backwards with a yelp. The Alacryans that hadn't been incinerated were nearly all face down in the dirt, and I could tell some of them wouldn't be getting up again.
Suddenly, the odds seemed a lot more even.
"Attack!" I shouted, sprinting forward with a burst of wind at my back.
The soldiers who'd been farthest from the explosions were the first to scramble back to their feet, but my daggers were already spinning toward them. Both men choked out surprised gasps and fell again, then a barrage of spells flew from behind me, ripping through the rest of the undefended front line.
In the space of a few breaths, the Alacryans on our side of the smoking craters were dead.
I could hear shouted orders, pleas for help, and pained screams from beyond the cloud of smoke and dust, but didn't have a clear line of sight to the rest of the Alacryan force. There were still as many as fifty trained soldiers back there, maybe more.
"Jarrod, send the cloud right at them," I said before stepping out of his path.
He held up both hands, already swirling with wind-attribute mana, and closed his eyes as he focused on the spell. I could sense the mana building around him, a gale growing between his outstretched arms. Finally, he pushed it outward, sending a wall of wind into the slowly rising plume of acrid smoke and dust.
The gale carried the obscuring cloud away from us, right back into the faces—and eyes and mouths—of the remaining Alacryans. I was already flying over the craters before the enemy knew I was coming. Shouts rang out all around and several magical shields hummed to life.
I landed in the middle of four non-mage soldiers who were bent down to check on those caught by the blast. One shouted, and they all sprinted toward me, their swords and spears up. I deflected a spear thrust with one dagger while spinning away from a slashing sword. A second sword glanced off the layer of mana clinging to my body before my blade plunged up between the wielder's ribs, punching right through the chain links of his armor.
Infusing my legs with mana, I leapt straight up over their heads, then leapt again off a step of condensed air. Conjuring a cocoon of circulating wind, I made myself spin. A bolt of green energy flew at me from behind one of the mana shields, but it was caught up in the wind and deflected away.
Although it was hard to see anything specific as I spun like a top in the air, my attention caught on a familiar face. Gideon! I'd met the mad old inventor a few times over the years, but what was he doing in the middle of the Alacryan assault on Greengate?
When I crashed back to the ground between my three attackers, the wind whipped their weapons away and my daggers cut them down like scythes threshing wheat. A moment later, there was a sharp bang from nearby, like the explosion of a firework, but I didn't have time to wonder what it had been.
The rest of the Alacryans were forming up. From what I could see, there were only a few mages left beside the shield casters. All the other soldiers were non-mages, and they had retreated to hide nervously behind a wall of magical shields.
Two battle-groups moved forward in front of the rest, each made up of three Alacryans.
A Caster, a Striker, and a Shield, I recited, remembering what we'd been taught when the Twin Horns had taken on guard duty for shipments to the Wall.
Another green bolt shot at me, but I sidestepped it easily and waited for my allies to catch up. The Caster was a dark-eyed woman with a twitchy, fearful face. Next to her, another woman, easily seven feet tall, was entirely encased in frozen armor. She slammed her icy gauntlets together and snarled as I met her eye.
A few spells came from behind me, impacting harmlessly against the protective barriers, and then the students from Xyrus Academy and the farmers from Greengate were all there.
"Did you have to go so fast?" Camellia asked from just behind me. "These trees are kind of slow."
I huffed. "Try to keep up, kid." An idea came to me as I watched the Alacryans. They seemed hesitant to launch an assault despite their
superior training and numbers, and were likely on the edge of breaking ranks and running. "Send in the trees first. Focus on the Shields."
Both apple trees immediately lumbered forward, their bows bending toward the Alacryans. It broke the moment of tension, and green bolts and red jets of mana fired toward them. Wherever the green projectiles struck, the trees withered and died, and the red ray sheared easily through the branches.
Camellia pointed toward the enemy lines and yelled, "Fire!" Apples started flying from the boughs, splashing against the mana shields like little bombs.
When the trees reached the two battle-groups, both Strikers leapt forward, one driving ice-clad fists into a tree's trunk, the other swinging a burning flail. The Shields dropped their spells and retreated as the trees bent down, the grasping limbs ignoring the Casters and Strikers as they reached for the Shields instead. Behind them, the non-mages broke to either side, circling around the trees toward us.
A teenage girl screamed out a battle cry as she conjured stone gauntlets that covered her arms up to her shoulders. Slamming the gauntlets together, she leapt forward to engage the charging non-mages.
My daggers flew, wrapped in wind. The first was deflected by a barrier of swirling air that sent it flying off into the distance, but the other slashed across the back of a soldier's neck before spinning back toward me.
Grabbing my remaining weapon out of the air, I rushed in, skipping away from a green bolt and ducking under a punch from the ice-armored Striker. I spun in place, sending out a burst of condensed air that knocked the mages back, then slammed my dagger into the Striker's side as hard as I could.
The dagger chipped the ice, but didn't harm the mage. To make matters worse, ice condensed around the blade as it slid across the armor, trapping it there and forcing me to release it or risk my hand being caught as well.
With only the sound of gusting flames to warn me, I ducked under the flaming flail, then rolled away from the ice-armored Striker's stomping foot. A slow rolling wave of fire hit her in the back
an instant later—cast by one of the Xyrus orphans—and wrapped around her like a serpent, quickly eating into the armor.
I flinched as a red beam just missed me. Without looking, I flung a scythe of wind in the Caster's direction.
To my left, the gauntleted mage let out another scream as a spear pierced her side. In the same moment, a pitchfork hurled through the air and slammed awkwardly into her Alacryan attacker's chest, knocking him off his feet. Jarrod's face twisted in fury as he hurled spell after spell, trying to get close enough to pull the girl to safety.
From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Camellia. Her teary-eyed gaze followed the young woman, who stumbled into the dirt, hands grasping uselessly at the wound pumping blood into the dirt.
Shields were flickering to life and then disappearing all around them, keeping the non-mages safe from most of our side's spells. The orphaned students were more capable than I might have guessed, but not of the same caliber as trained Alacryan soldiers.
I turned toward the line of Shields just as the flail-wielding mage closed in on me.
The muscular Alacryan was covered head to toe in heavy metal armor, and the burning flail was whooshing around and around above his head. Panels of mana floated a few feet from him, keeping him shielded from the spells of my allies.
With the threat of the Casters still at my back and the non-mage soldiers pressing the villagers and students, I couldn't wait for him to come to me. Lunging forward, I feinted to the left, then cut right. As I'd hoped, his flail swept down to my left. I condensed a step of air under my foot to push off of before wrapping myself in a cyclone of wind, like I had back in the Underwall.
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A dull throb radiated through my body as my shoulder slammed into his heavy armor, but the burst from the cyclone sent him flipping through the air. At the same time, one of the trees leaned over and fell on a screaming Shield, crushing him.
There was a glimmer of green in my periphery, but I saw it too late to dodge. The spell splashed across my arm, burning into my protective layer of mana. I pushed more mana into it to minimize the damage, but I could already feel the corrosive substance burning against my skin.
I scanned the battlefield, looking for the Caster.
The ice-armored Striker was dead, steamed alive by her own evaporating mana. The Caster who had been shooting off the red rays was gone too; my wind blade had made a gory slash across his face.
The non-mages had closed in around the others, protected by several Shields, but I had to deal with the last Caster before I could help.
Two more green bolts flew toward me, but I dodged between them and hurled myself at the twitchy Alacryan. A thick wall of wind sprang up between us. I cast a glare at the Shield, but a second wall appeared, cutting me off from that direction as well.
Covering my body in my own wind-attribute mana, I manipulated it to push in the opposite direction of the protective barrier, then stepped right through, my spell counteracting the Shield's.
The Caster, who was building up mana for some more powerful spell, yelped as my wind-wrapped fist crashed into the side of her head, knocking her out cold.
The wall of wind faded as the Shield began to retreat, trying to take cover behind the wagons. Since he was no longer a threat, I left him there, turning my attention to my allies instead.
The first thing I saw was the mayor's body lying on the ground, her sightless eyes staring up into the sky and blood staining half her face. Camellia had retreated to hide behind Jarrod. Her face was muddy with sweat and dirt, and she was focused on animating her remaining tree, redirecting it toward the rest of the Shields.
Jarrod was focused on the villagers. Perhaps taking some inspiration from our enemy, he used his wind spells like a shield to keep the attackers off balance and block their strikes, allowing the farmers to retaliate.
Darts of fire were jumping from another Xyrus student's hands, winding around the magical barriers that kept appearing, and striking soldiers like arrows.
The Shields were struggling to deal with Camellia's tree, lacking any effective attacks against it. From within the knot of Xyrus students, she directed it to swing its branches and stomp with its roots, knocking down and crushing the enemy Shields.
When the first of them broke and ran, it was all over.
Within moments, the last of the mages were sprinting away from the battlefield, making a break to the south. Without Shields to protect them, the non-mages were easy targets for the Xyrus students.
I noticed Gideon crouched over a prone form near the carts, but shouts to the south drew my attention back to the fleeing mages. The earth cracked beneath their feet, causing them to stumble and fall, and a hail of arrows and spells fell on them.
I recognized those arrows.
Forgetting everything else for a second, I rushed toward the fallen Shields; three figures were approaching from farther south.
A big, stupid, sentimental grin split my face as I recognized Helen Shard, Angela Rose, and Durden. Helen had her bow drawn and trained on the corpses, but Angela and Durden were both giving me equally big and stupid grins as they burst into a run.
I forced a neutral expression onto my face as I reached my old companions. Raising one eyebrow, I looked at Angela Rose. "Who invited you guys to my party?"
Their grins flickered and they shot each other a concerned look. "We were on our way to the Wall, actually..."
"Come to scold me again?" I asked cooly.
"No, of course not," Durden said, looking surprised and a little upset.
"We—"
"She's winding you up," Helen said in that resigned-mother tone I knew so well.
I snorted and held out my hand to Durden. "You big oaf."
He shook his head and grinned again as he engulfed my hand in his own. Angela Rose grabbed me and pulled me tight against her chest. I tried to free myself, but she'd pinned my arms to my sides.
"No hugs, remember?"
"Sorry, not sorry," she mumbled, squeezing me tighter. "Oh, who's this?"
Finally pulled myself free of Angela's hug, I turned to see Camellia walking hesitantly toward our group, her head swiveling back and forth as she scanned the battlefield. My ward was favoring her left leg slightly, and I could see scorch marks on her loose trousers and the hem of her tunic. She looked healthy enough otherwise.
"Come here," I said, waving her over. She quickened her pace, coming to a stop with her head resting against my arm. Grabbing her gently by the chin, I pulled her face up so she was looking in my eyes. "You all right?"
The elven girl nodded, but I could see her lip beginning to tremble. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder. "Camellia, these are the Twin Horns. Horns, this is Camellia. I was trying to bring her to you, actually."
Helen patted me on the shoulder as she looked over my ward with an appraising eye. "You've been very brave. You remind of me someone, know that?"
Camellia's overly large eyes were swimming with exhausted tears as she gazed at Helen. "Who's that?"
Helen smiled warmly. "Lady Tessia Eralith. In fact, she's leading a group of brave elven warriors into Elenoir right now, to save your people from the Alacryans. They might even be back already. Would you like to meet her?"
"Oh my gosh, really?" She turned to me and tugged at my arm, her fatigue fading away at the idea of meeting the elven princess. "We're going with them, right?"
I gave her a wry smile. "I thought you wanted to stay here and be the sheriff's deputy or something?"
"Oh," she said with a thoughtful pout.
"Of course you'll come with us," Helen said, giving me a look. "It won't be safe here anymore. And who knows, maybe some of your family will be waiting for you at the..."
Helen trailed off, her words dying as her brow creased into a frown.
Durden and Angela Rose exchanged uncertain glances. Camellia wrapped herself around my arm, her eyes shifting nervously to the horizon beyond the Grand Mountains.
Something was happening to the mana, something I'd never felt before. I could tell from their faces that the others felt it too, like pressure building in the air before a storm. It made the hairs stand up on my neck.
Then the ground began to tremble.