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With the terrain being so steep and rocky, it was impossible to ride horses in this area, and so Yoreno stepped up the path. Perhaps if they were planning to do very much battle, he should arm himself with a shield.

As if she had heard his thoughts, Mai said, “Don’t worry. If any arrows come our way, I’ll put up a barrier.”

“I doubt any of the scouts will get past Sorika’s eyes,” Dantera said from behind.

Yoreno glanced back at her. Ito Farralia was hanging at her hip, the scabbard belted to her waist like her much larger sword that she would be using.

At least she was carrying the blade now.

Yoreno glanced up into the hot sun.

“Sor’s back,” Mai said.

She came quickly, her footfalls far more silent than Yoreno’s. “No forward scouts. The lookout is up ahead.”

“All right,” Yoreno said.

“Do you think you can kill the lookout with an arrow?” Dantera asked.

“Mmhm,” Sorika noised.

“Then do it,” Yoreno said. They followed Sorika to a level spot where there was some grass under a tree. She crouched low and Yoreno did the same. He scrambled to a withering patch of grass overlooking the trail leading to the cave and saw the goblin standing in the lookout tower, his armor misshapen and dirty.

Goblins were short, about chest-height with Yoreno when standing erect. Their green—and sometimes light brown—skin made them blend in well with their environments.

“Do it,” Yoreno said with a nod.

Sorika got up on one knee, lifted her bow and knocked an arrow. She pulled back and loosed. The string thrummed and Yoreno watched the arrow strike the goblin in the neck.

It squealed like a pig and died without alerting the others. The three goblins below behind the palisade of sharpened stakes snarled and glanced about warily.

One screamed as Sorika loosed another arrow.

“So much for our sneak attack,” Mai said.

“Let’s go!” Yoreno called and got up. He lunged forward, trudged down the grassy mound. He slid halfway as he went, kicking up dust. The goblin before him screamed and ran toward him, his club of bone and metal shards raised for a strike.

Yoreno unsheathed his sword with a crisp metallic hiss and sliced the bone in half. The goblin snarled and glanced at the damage he did and then looked back at him with alarm as he lifted his boot and stamped the goblin in the chest.

He fell and Yoreno put the point of his sword in its belly. It squealed and died as Sorika continued loosing arrows up the path. Two more goblins scrambled toward the cave as three more came down.

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Their confusion and disarray did not surprise Yoreno. They were goblins after all. Dantera stepped forward, her hand on her big sword’s hilt. She didn’t even unsheath the weapon as the first goblin struck at her with an ugly curved sword. With a side step she dodged the attack, then kicked the goblin in the back.

It flailed forward and Yoreno finished it off in a spray of dark green—almost black-red—blood. The second goblin howled, swinging his sword in fast arcs. Dantera bent her knee forward while her left hip was angled back toward Yoreno, her leg outstretched.

She was going to unsheathe her sword in a powerful strike and—

A shaft hit the goblin in the eye and he convulsed once and fell on his back, twitching like a leaf. Dantera turned around and glanced up at Sorika with an annoyed look. Their rogue member shrugged.

“Wow,” Mai said. “I didn’t have to do a thing.”

“Good,” Dantera said. “Save your magic for later while Sorika takes care of all the monsters, eh?”

Yoreno chuckled. “Let’s not waste time. Two of them went up the path for reinforcements.”

Dantera nodded. “Right!”

Yoreno sprinted up the path. After a moment, it became too steep to run straight forward, and so he switch backed across the rocks sticking out of the dirt.

Something flitted through the air.

“Arrows!” Sorika called. She was just behind Yoreno, her bow raised. She loosed an arrow, then made a sound of exasperation.

Yoreno raised his sword and deflected an oncoming missile. It clicked against the flat of his rune-etched blade and flung away when the magic reacted.Trees were growing up on the sides of the path ahead, their thick branches and dense canopies providing dark shade—the goblins underneath all but invisible.

Mai called out a spell and a white ball of light shot forth, illuminating the two goblins with short bows underneath. Yoreno rushed forward, deflected another shaft and stabbed the panicked goblin in the chest as Dantera exchanged sword blows with the second, but he didn’t last long underneath her flashing blade. His blood spilled across the dry dirt, drops landing on Dantera’s boots. She didn’t say a word as she was befouled by their red-black viscera.

The path ahead opened up on a flat of undulating ground. Sir Wynet and his party hollered and yelled as they cut down goblins. At the mouth of the cave two torches crackled with licking flames as a small group of goblins surrounded a larger of their kin with a tall staff of intricately fastened bones.

“That’s a shaman!” Mai called.

The goblins screamed and cried, loosing arrows as the one in the middle, shielded by his allies, danced, invoking a spell. A barrier appeared over them. The lead goblin screamed and the warriors turned and fled into the cave.

Sorika loosed an arrow, but it clacked off of the barrier and fell harmlessly into the ground. Mai uttered the incantation for a spell and a plume of pink magic hit the barrier and exploded, dirt and debris kicking up in the air all around.

When it settled, revealing the clean barrier, the shaman looked at them, then casually turned and entered the cave mouth.

Yoreno and Wynet’s parties met at the berrier.

“He’s gone!” Andaloo spat. He raised his sword to the magic.

“Wait!” Mai shouted. “Don’t touch that.”

Andaloo looked at her and seeming to understand that danger was involved. He nodded and stepped back. Sir Wynet came up behind the fledgling battle mage and locked eyes with Yoreno. “How did you fare?’

“Well,” Yoreno said. “And you?”

Sir Wexel, breathing like a dragon, came up trailing the rest of Wynet’s party. “Gods!” he cried. “Why… why did we have to come up a mountain?”

Wynet smiled. “As well as can be expected.”

“How do we get in here?” Dantera said as she regarded the barrier with narrowed eyes.

“I’ll have to try to take it down,” Mai said. “It seems it’s too powerful to be destroyed easily.”

“Can’t we keep attacking it?” Sir Jerrin asked as he looked at Mai. His hair was silky and long and ending with a widow’s peak on his forehead.

Mai shook her head. “We don’t know if something is powering this. There could be a magic crystal or the spell could be very powerful. We could be here all day trying to physically destroy it. I need to weave spells.”

“Get to it,” Yoreno said. “Sor, Liora, and you men”—he pointed at Wynet’s soldiers—“secure the area and set up forward sentries. I don’t want to get attacked just when we think we have these goblins on the run.”

Sir Wynet nodded. “You’re a good leader, young lord.”

Yoreno returned the nod. “Thank you.”