As one, the four elementals bowed. Will decided that was as close to a ‘yes’ as he could hope for. Carefully, he began plucking at the knotted enchantments. Once you are released, destroy the camp. These soldiers are trying to conquer my homeland. Help me keep my people free. Please.
He continued teasing the knots apart until first one, then another fell apart. It took another couple of minutes before he had destroyed all four.
The two earth elementals sank into the ground, while the two fire elementals swelled, growing larger by the second. The tent caught fire as Will ran out, and he almost fell as the earth began to shake. Tailtiu waited outside with one hand on her hip.
“I knew you were a fool. That sorcerer nearly killed you, didn’t he?” she accused. The tent exploded in a fireball as she spoke, but the fae woman ignored the conflagration.
“You knew I was fighting?”
“I heard everything,” she answered.
Will glared at her. “Why didn’t you help?”
“You told me to wait outside. Be careful what you say when I am bound by a bargain. I could not have set foot inside even if I had wanted.” Then she glanced to one side. “Although honestly, it might have been more interesting if you had died.”
The ground jumped beneath Will’s feet, causing him to fall, and more fires erupted from nearby tents. Everywhere he could hear men yelling, cursing, and sometimes screaming as they ran back and forth, uncertain where the source of the attack was.
Will looked up at Tailtiu, who was still on her feet, balancing on the heaving ground as easily as a captain on a ship at sea. “Unbelievable,” he muttered.
“You set his elementals free?” asked Tailtiu. “Why not take their power for yourself?”
He sensed something behind her questions, a hidden meaning, but in the chaos, he didn’t have time to think about it. “Because I’m not a fucking sorcerer,” he spat. He might have doubted his grandfather’s prejudice before, but he had felt the emotions within the elementals. Keeping them enslaved was wrong, he could feel it all the way down to his bones. Will got to his feet and promptly fell again when the earth bucked once more. “Can you help me? We need to escape.”
His aunt smiled wickedly, then knelt in front of him. “Climb on my back. I can’t carry you in my arms. I’ll need them free.”
Will gave her a suspicious look. He outweighed the fae woman by at least a hundred pounds, and though he knew she was strong, he couldn’t imagine her carrying him piggyback.
“Hurry up,” she urged.
He fell twice just trying to do that, but finally he got on, wrapping his legs around her waist and putting his arms over her shoulders. Tailtiu stood easily, then leaned back and purred, “That’s a nice place for your hands. Please continue.”
Will nearly fell off as he tried to rearrange his arms to avoid touching any of her more interesting regions. He nearly fell again as her body began to shift and change beneath him. Her skin sprouted fur, and her limbs elongated as her hands and feet changed into cloven hooves. Half a minute later he found himself sitting atop a doe nearly as large as a pony.
Tailtiu’s long neck curved back as she fixed him with one eye. “Ever ridden a horse?” she asked.
“No,” said Will, clutching at her neck so he wouldn’t slide off her back.
“Good,” she answered. “This is nothing like that.” And then she leapt forward, causing him to cry out in alarm. The next few minutes were a nightmare. Not because of the carnage and chaos occurring behind him, but mostly because he was in constant fear of being thrown and falling to what he was sure would be a quick and painful death. The fae doe flew across the heaving ground as though she had wings rather than feet, and at points she soared through the air as she leapt over pickets and other obstacles.
In the beginning he tried wrapping his arms around her neck and keeping his body flat against her back, but that caused him to slam into her every time she jumped, so eventually, he shifted to sitting while just leaning as far forward as he could manage. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw more elementals in the camp, battling the ones he had freed. Apparently, the Darrowan army had more than one sorcerer with them.
Tailtiu ran on, her swift legs, carrying her effortlessly forward across the terrain like a mercurial breeze. They had passed the outer perimeter of the camp and were nearly to the place where the forward sentries should be when she came to a gentle stop. Her body shifted back to her normal form and Will found himself trying to disentangle himself from her without touching anything else that might cause her to tease him.
The fae woman’s face flushed with excitement. “The dismount was almost as fun as the mounting,” she said slyly.
It took Will a moment to get his thoughts under control. Then he asked, “Why did you stop?”
She winked at him. “If you ever let me start, you’ll never have to ask that question.” When Will refused to respond she began to pout. “You’re no fun. My time is up. Unless you wish to invoke another of your favors I’m done. I have paid this one in full. Would you like to state your terms?”
Will shook his head. “No thanks. Do you know what time it is?”
Tailtiu glanced at the sky. “There’s roughly an hour left until dawn.”
“How long will the mist last after you leave?”
“A few minutes,” she answered, “no more. Are you sure you don’t wish to negotiate the terms of your next favor?”
Will bent his knees, then straightened them again, finding new appreciation for ground that didn’t move underneath him. “No. I’ll finish on my own.” He regretted the wording immediately, but Tailtiu only snickered lightly before vanishing in the mist.
With an hour left he knew Fulstrom’s army would be readying to march, but rather than slip past the sentries and return immediately he decided on another path. Slipping forward through the mist, he caught one of the sentries with his source-link spell and disabled him before doing the same to the man’s companion. Once more he considered killing them, but he pushed the thought aside. They won’t be able to fight until this battle is long over.
Expelling the turyn he had stolen, he moved on, targeting the next group of sentries fifty yards down the line. With luck he could get them all, giving the enemy army even less time to react when the Terabinian troops arrived.
Chapter 50
Will found the task of disabling the sentries so easy that by the time he got to the last pair he decided to experiment. He remembered seeing his grandfather catch three men at once, so he thought he would attempt to get both men at once. It turned out to be harder than he had anticipated, and he failed spectacularly.
One of the two spells fizzled immediately, and the second missed its target. The mist had already faded away, and one of the sentries caught a glimpse of his figure in the dark. The guard called out to his companion, and the two men lowered their spears in Will’s direction.
Shit! He repeated his effort, aiming for just one man this time. When the line of his spell connected, he injected a healthy dose of his turyn into the man. It was far quicker than draining the sentry, and with the other soldier leaping to skewer him, time was at a premium. His target fell forward, vomiting, while Will tried to dodge right to keep from being impaled.