A half-moon hung in the sky, illuminating the field of winter barley. Sarah attempted to crouch lower as she spotted the black line of orcs marching up the road. The torches some of them carried illuminated their grim faces. She looked down the road, and the line extended beyond the horizon. They only numbered in the hundreds, certainly not enough to breach Corrington’s walls and wondered if they intended to pursue the refugees all the way there.
That is if the City Guard could be trusted. If they suddenly spilled out of the Citadel and fell upon the defenders’ exposed backs… Her blood froze. Why didn’t she think of that earlier? Then, she sensed a presence behind her and whirled around to see John.
“Well?” she whispered.
“As you can see, there are hundreds of them,” he replied, “I found no sign of prisoners.”
Sarah felt a ball of ice form in her stomach. “Perhaps they’re being held in Milford.”
“Perhaps,” John replied, not believing it any more than Sarah did.
The fate of the people of Milford didn’t bear thinking of and Sarah counted their blessings that they hadn’t arrived there before the orcs did.
“We should reduce their numbers,” Sarah said and quickly told John about her worries.
John looked at the column and frowned. “We’re out in the open here.”
“Look at the pace they’re marching at,” Sarah said, “They will catch up with the Smiths and the others long before they will be able to reach Corrington.”
“How many of them do you think you can take?” John asked.
“Plenty, now that we don’t have to worry about collateral damage,” Sarah replied confidently.
“Wait, are you going to cast that?” John asked with raised eyebrows.
Sarah looked at the column and shook her head. “No, we’re too close. Do you remember what happened the last time?”
“I agree. Don’t cast it.”
Sarah took a deep breath and chanted a prayer to Agni. When she was done, she pointed at the front of the column. “Fireball!”
She had the next spell prepared the moment the ball of fire flew from her fingertip and aimed it at the rear of the column.
“Fireball!” she cried again.
The second ball of blue fire flew from her fingertip just as the first one crashed into the front of the column, engulfing the orcs in flame. There were screams and cries of confusion as they burned. However, the second fireball exploded a good thirty feet short of the orcs as it struck an invisible barrier.
“They have wizards among them,” Sarah breathed.
A horn sounded out from amongst the orcs, followed by the howling of wolves. John grabbed her by the arm and started running. “Come on, they know exactly where we are!”
Moments later, they heard a crash behind them. Sarah turned around to see a black ring around where they had just been standing. The barley within withered into dust before her eyes. The snarling of wolves came a moment later.
“Burning hands!” Sarah cried, incinerating one of the wolves and its rider. The other leapt forward and John tackled Sarah out of the way.
They turned to see another black ring where they had just been.
“You need to stop casting your spells,” John cried, “They give our position away to their wizard!”
John raised his crossbow and fired at the wolf. The beast scarcely felt the pinprick and continued its charge.
“Wall of fire!”
A wall of fire materialised around them. The wolf was mid leap as it appeared. Both beast and rider were burned to a crisp. Sarah ducked as they heard something strike the wall behind them, but whatever it was could not penetrate it. She waved her hand, and the portion of the wall in front of them disappeared, allowing them to run.
“Good thinking,” John gasped as they crashed through the field of barley.
They heard more howls behind them and quickened their pace. They ran a few more paces and looked over their shoulder to find that they were no longer being pursued.
“They don’t want to fight us out of their wizard’s range,” Sarah panted, “good. With luck, they’ll proceed with more caution.”
“Let’s catch up to the others,” John said, after they’d taken a moment to catch their breaths, “we don’t want to be locked out of the city.”
Sarah nodded and they continued through the field in the direction of Corrington. She was shocked when they caught up with the Smiths’ group before dawn.
“You’ve only made it this far?” John asked incredulously.
“We had to rest,” one of them said, “Many of us have been on the road for weeks.”
“The orcs aren’t resting,” John said, trying to contain his temper, “They have been marching through the night.”
“But you dealt with them, didn’t you?” Beth asked, “We saw the fire…”
“They had a wizard with them,” Sarah said, shaking her head, “They are still after us.”
“How far behind are they?” asked a gaunt faced man named Andrew. He was one of the hunters who had helped Sarah the day before.
“I don’t know,” Sarah replied, “But hopefully we have discouraged them from travelling by night.”
Andrew nodded. “If we continue without rest, we should reach Corrington by dawn tomorrow. We will be safe as long as we can evade them until nightfall.”
“What about my family?” one of the women asked. Sarah recognized her as one of the refugees who had managed to flee from Corrington.
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“We saw no sign of prisoners,” John said, and the woman began to wail.
“But we didn't go as far as the town,” Sarah added quickly, shooting him a dirty look.
“We cannot help the people left behind,” Andrew declared, “All we can do now is run for Corrington as quickly as we can.”
John cupped his hands together and began shouting. “Everyone on your feet, we’re leaving!”
“Where’s everyone else?” Sarah asked looking around.
“They left,” Vincent replied, “Every man for himself, they said.”
“They have a point,” John mused, “Unless you’re helping to carry the infirm, there’s not much you can do by staying with us.”
“What are you saying, John?” Sarah gasped.
“Am I wrong?” he shot back, “The two of us can stay back because we can actually hold them up.”
Sarah couldn’t find anything with his argument. She then noticed that Andrew was looking intently at a field of young oats to their right.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Something’s…” his voice trailed off as he fired an arrow into the field in one fluid motion.
A shriek ran out from the field as the arrow found its mark. “Fire Wall!” Sarah gasped.
The travellers cried out in fear as a blue wall of fire appeared before them. Moments later, something crashed against it releasing foul black smoke that was quickly swallowed up by the flames.
In the corner of her eye, Sarah saw John slip into the field and exhaled. An arrow fired by one of the hunters whizzed past her head. Sarah turned and saw it strike an orc who had appeared from the field on the other side of the road.
Sarah heard an orc bark an order in their incomprehensible language. Sarah sensed something foul in the air and moments later, a powerful spell struck her wall of fire, shattering it.
“They’re using soul gems!” Sarah cried, hoping John heard her warning.
Another arrow whizzed past her. Sarah watched as it glanced off an orc who charged the hunter who had fired it and cleaved him clean in two with a one handed swing of his axe.
“Fire blast!”
The bolt of fire exploded against the orc’s shoulder, but he looked like he scarcely felt it. The orc glared at Sarah before charging at her with blinding speed.
Sarah managed to raise her hands in the nick of time and cried, “Burning hands!”
The orc staggered as it was struck by the two pillars of blue fire and quickly succumbed to the flames. The creature eventually fell and decayed rapidly before her eyes.
“Fire Wall!”
The wall of blue fire shattered almost as soon as she had cast it as a black bolt of magical energy struck it, sending Sarah flying. She tried to scramble to her feet but suddenly felt incredibly fatigued. She then realized that she had never used so much of her fire before and felt utterly spent.
“Surrender to me!” roared the voice.
She could feel the presence taking over and struggled to resist. However, in her weakened state, she felt her control slipping.
“Accept your fate!”
“No!” Sarah felt her voice was feeble, even in her own mind.
“Surrender!”
As the other presence began to take over, she felt something grasp her hand. She looked up to see John, looking deeply concerned.
“Get away,” Sarah gasped, “I’m losing control and I don’t know what will happen when…”
Her voice was cut off and she felt a surge of rage from the other presence that was directed at John.
“The anchor,” it hissed.
Sarah felt John’s hand tighten around hers and dug deep to summon the last reserves of her strength.
“No, you will not take over!” she cried, wresting control back from the other presence.
“You cannot fight me off forever!” the presence warned before fading.
Sarah felt John cradle her head and looked up at him. “What about their wizard?” she asked weakly.
“I think that last spell took a lot out of him,” he replied, “I got him, but…”
John held up the remains of his short sword. The top half of the blade looked like it had been melted off and what remained was twisted and charred.
Sarah’s eyes widened. “And you, are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” John said, “I’m more concerned about you.”
“We need to leave,” Andrew warned, “there could be more of them out there.”
“Give me a moment…” Sarah’s voice trailed off as she found the effort of speaking too great.
“Someone help me carry her!” was the last thing she heard before her consciousness slipped.
When she came to, she felt herself being rocked from side to side, like she was a baby in a cradle. As she shifted her head, the cloth that was covering her eyes fell off and the light from the sun dazzled her. She blinked help her eyes adjust and saw that it was already late morning.
“Ah you’re awake,” Andrew said gruffly.
Sarah lifted her head and saw that she was being carried in a makeshift stretcher. Andrew was carrying the rear end, while John was at the front.
“How long was I asleep for?” she asked.
“About six hours,” John replied.
Sarah tried to sit up, but the stretcher wobbled, throwing her off balance and forcing her to lie down again.
“You should rest a little longer,” John suggested.
“No,” she said, as she struggled to climb out of the stretcher, “I’m only slowing you down like this.”
“Do you think you’ll be much faster if you walk?” John asked.
Beth rushed over to help Sarah steady herself. “There,” she said, “You shouldn’t push yourself.”
“What choice do we have?” Sarah asked as she looked down the road, fearing that at any moment, wolf riding orcs would appear, “We are running for our lives.”
“For what it’s worth, we haven’t seen any sign of them yet,” Andrew remarked.
“And with luck, those who went ahead will have told the people in Corrington what happened,” Vincent added, “If that’s the case, help is surely on the way.”
John was about to say something, but Sarah elbowed him in the ribs, shutting him up. “Yes, maybe they will,” she said.
“What was that for?” John demanded when the others gave them some privacy.
“You were going to tell them help wasn’t coming, and that there were traitors among the City Guard, weren’t you?” Sarah asked accusingly as she leaned against him for support.
“I might have been,” John said, “But why coddle them with lies?”
“What good would telling them the truth have done?” Sarah asked, “They are already scared out of their minds.”
John fumed but stayed silent. They walked in silence for a few minutes when he eventually sighed. “It’s funny, isn’t it? It’s like fate is guiding us back into the fray at Corrington.”
Sarah managed a wane smile. “I suppose you’re right.”
She looked at the horizon ahead worriedly and added, “I hope everyone’s alright.”
“I’m sure they’re fine,” John said, “For all you know, they might have resolved that entire Night Goddess thing already, and the orcs at our backs are merely out for a last bit of revenge.”
Sarah laughed. “You make a poor liar, Johnathan Stadley.”
“Well, you’re the one who said you’d prefer a comforting lie to a cruel truth,” John shrugged.
Sarah crinkled her nose and smiled. “Ooh, are you a philosopher now?”
“You keep it up and I’ll have you walk on your own,” John warned good naturedly.
“It’s good to see the two of you in high spirits,” Beth said as she walked up to them, “I hope I’m not getting in the way of anything.”
“Oh no,” Sarah smiled, “Is there anything we can help you with?”
“I just wanted to see how you were feeling,” Beth said, “We were all worried about you. You really saved us back there.”
“I didn’t do much,” Sarah said modestly.
Beth arched an eyebrow. “Blue fire? I’ve never seen that before. We were all afraid at first but having you with us certainly is reassuring.”
“Oh it’s nothing special,” Sarah offered weakly, “All it means is that I can’t use the other gods’ powers.”
Beth’s eyes widened. “It’s a damn sight more than what the rest of us can do, isn’t it?”
There were cries of alarm from the people behind them and Sarah turned around to see that the column of orcs had appeared on the horizon.
“It took them long enough,” John muttered.
Around them, those who could, increased their pace. Sarah looked up at the sky. It was scarcely midday, and she was wary of the wolf riders.
“Do you think you can use your magic yet?” John asked.
Sarah swallowed. “I think so.”
“Let’s get her back on the stretcher,” Andrew suggested, “I get the feeling we’re going to need her to be as strong as possible when the time comes.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to go ahead?” John asked.
The hunter shook his head. “What kind of man would I be if I left you two kids alone to face them, eh?”
John and Andrew quickly prepared the stretcher and Sarah climbed on without arguing. They quickly set off, and soon found themselves alone at the rear of the long line of travellers. Behind them, the orcs were slowly but surely closing the gap.
“If it comes to it, leave me and run,” Sarah said, “I can hold them off.”
“Never,” John said flatly, “we’ll face whatever happens together.”
“They’ll catch up to us just before dusk,” Andrew warned as he checked the orcs’ progress.
“You don’t have to share our fate,” John offered, “We won’t think less of you if you make a run for it now.”
“You might not, but I will,” the hunter replied grimly.