Excerpt From The Mad Scholar's Wall—

Even as we packed into the chambers, the hoard of beasts bayed at our heels, cramming into the tunnels and pushing us back.

Within the confines of our tunnels, the hoard's numbers meant nothing. The rear guard stood shoulder to shoulder, their blades flashing in the single flickering flame a knight summoned hanging overhead.

It wasn't much, as the light cast more shadows than light, but with their mental powers, it was enough.

The legionaries filled the passage with the beastman dead. Soon, the dead were piled so high they were blocking all air and light, but the creatures still clawed their way through the dead to throw themselves at us.

In those dark, echoing passageways, time passed. Knights pulled water from the earth for us to drink, and we waited for death, surviving off our stores of food.

But the beasts never stopped coming. Hours turned to days and then weeks, and still, they boiled out of the piles of rotting bodies.

We dug deeper and deeper, using the stones we mined as projectiles while we struggled to have room to fall back from the hoard. Because even though the legionaries killed the beasts as soon as their heads popped out of the pile of rotting flesh, their bodies remained.

Remained and extended the dam of bodies by another head or torso. Our retreat was beyond slow, but it was steady.

So we dug, and we fought.

As the weeks passed, our food stores ran out, and we started cooking and eating the beastmen we killed.

And still, they came for us, and we fought. We dug.

We beat our wills against the crushing weight of stone and the dead. We survived.

I have no idea how long we were down in that darkness, hearing the constant echoes of a battle. I have no desire to liner on the haunting memories for more than a moment longer than needed.

I've seen them more than enough in my sleep.

Eventually, after all our struggles — and for the second time in my life — the elves arrived to save us in our darkest moment. Saved us within an instant.

**********

Looking in the direction that Kanieta told me was the edge of the forest, I glanced around my surroundings for a moment before starting off. Time was not on my side. The night was more over than not, so I needed to get moving.

Without Kanieta's spell of silence around me, I returned to my old ways of traveling through the forest. Good old careful steps combined with controlled shields and tendrils.

Though the distance I traveled was only a third of what I traveled while running with Kanieta from the… hidden camp, it took me hours to make it the last bit.

By the time I reached the edge of the forest, I could already tell by the rising fog and lightning darkness that there was only an hour or two until daybreak.

Trying to rush, I moved along the tree line, searching for my trainees. I told them to go back to where we entered the forest, but with all of the running around through the night, I had lost track of where exactly I was in relation to it.

Stopping, I squinted and looked to my right, thinking I saw movement. With the fog and moon shrouded by clouds drifting overhead, I couldn't see that far, even with my better-than-human vision.

Even in the best of conditions, I could only see a couple hundred yards with the light I was getting. These were not the best conditions. I could see about half that.

After a few minutes of scanning the area off to my right, I turned back to the left and started prowling in that direction.

I had no idea where I was on the forest's edge, but I knew that if I kept the woods to my left, I would eventually hit the Rush.

It was true if I went in either direction, but going left meant I was heading east. So hopefully, I should find my trainees soon.

More time passed as I searched, and I was beginning to believe that I wouldn't find them before dawn when I saw a flicker of motion off in the fog.

Focusing on the area, I waited for a minute. My eyes quickly settled on a patch of grass slowly shifting. For a moment, I thought it might be a gust of wind, but the disturbance never disappeared.

As the minutes passed, I saw it steadily move parallel to the forest's edge, confirming my suspicions.

Hiding behind a tree, I let the slow-moving disturbance in the grass move more than ten yards from me, then started keeping pace with it.

Occasionally, the disturbance would wander closer to me and then farther out into the grass sea, making me wonder if I should follow after it. But every time I was about to move from my tree to follow, it would inevitably move back toward me.

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Dozens of minutes passed, and not once in all that time did I see what was traveling through the grass poke its head above the tops of the blades.

Which was telling.

So was the lack of mental energy. I hadn't felt a single pulse this whole time. And I wasn't going to probe the being, not while I was still hiding and alone. I learned far too much over the past day to trust my safety to a misguided belief beastkin couldn't feel mental energy.

And my instincts were telling me that the probable beastkin was hunting.

If they were hunting, there were only so many options. Given that it looked like they were occasionally losing the trail and having to search for it again, I was betting the trail was that of one of my unskilled trainees. A bet that might actually have my life as the stakes.

Time passed, and the disturbance in the grass slowed, taking more time to move every step forward.

As the progress of the beastkin slowed, I spent more time looking around the area, ensuring that I wasn't being followed like I was following the beastkin. And searching the area in front of the beastkin for what had his attention.

I had a slight advantage in that area, as the forest was slightly higher than the grass, but I saw no sign of the trainees. Neither did I see anything beastkin scouts. Not that my vision can be trusted with their illusions.

Deciding to end this and move on, I crouched down and began creeping past the last few trees marking the forest's border. I was planning on sneaking up on the probable beastkin before killing it.

Before I could move past the last tree and make a silent dash for the grass, I felt a pulse message. It was a standard legion challenge and call for immediate response.

There was a beat where nothing happened — and any legion member could have responded — before motion exploded around the disturbance.

I saw multiple objects pop above the grass, then become fast-moving blurs as they tracked toward the disturbance. Within the last few feet, the projectiles dipped into the grass, and I heard the whipping slaps as the projectiles tore through the tall grass and disappeared.

Meaty thunks and a yelp of pain followed the missile's disappearance, and I could see a dark shadow make a furrow through the grass as it darted away.

Before the shadow could make it more than a few feet, I heard the sounds of more fast-moving missiles tearing through the grass and intercepting the shadow.

The shadow tumbled to a stop with a series of thumps. Then three heads and torsos appeared above the tops of the grass as they rushed forward.

They quickly made it to the body, and their arms raised and lowered in sharp motions as they brought strips of metal that glinted in the moon's light up and down. With every cycle of their arms, their blades flashed a little less.

Nothing happened for a moment, then I saw what looked like dust rise up from where the figures crouched.

The dust cloud grew thicker over the next few seconds, and I could have sworn I heard the rocks clinking. Then the figures stood and moved back the way they came.

Detaching myself from the side of the tree I had glued myself to, I moved over to the grass and slipped into it, following in the footsteps of the beastkin.

I kept an eye on my surroundings as I searched for any enemies, but if they didn't come out when one of them was killed, I doubted they would pop up for me.

Coming to where the beastkin was, I saw the ground was freshly turned over, forming what must be a new grave.

Rather smart of the trainees. The beastkin would be able to smell a body much farther than a grave.

Continuing to move forward, I passed the grave, and it was only a few steps after it that I felt the same pulse message as before.

Instantly sending the replay, as I expected it, I continued moving forward without stopping.

Within ten feet, I was intercepted by a legionary who motioned for me to follow without another word.

I heard the soft rasps as grass brushed against our shields and the thuds of footsteps signaling the presence of more trainees off to each side.

We traveled in silence for minutes, then Bellous, who I finally recognized and remembered was part of Joxin's squad, motioned for us to squat down and wait.

Settling down, I studied Bellous, who was a short, squat man with blocky features.

Within a second of his signal, I felt a probe touch my mind. Reaching out with my own tendril, I connected to the energy and joined the mental link.

"Instructor," greeted Joxin's mental voice as soon as I mentally connected, before going into his report. "Ahooha's squad returned to the Triad to report as you ordered. Traig skirted around the forest and found the ambush sight of the turma ten miles from here… They counted what bodies there were, but many of them were destroyed beyond recognition… He doesn't believe any survived. Traig's team is now resting a little ways off to the east. Kathren is keeping an eye on the river and forest edge farther to the north."

I processed the information, then asked, "Are you all linked up?"

He gave a feeling of confirmation, so I continued, "Send to everyone that the beastkin have constructed a bridge over the Rush and already have thousands on the western side of the river."

I could feel his astonishment at my mental message, but also that he was relaying my words to everyone else. I threw a glance up and flinched at the lightening sky.

Having more light was… awesome. So long as that light didn't give an even greater advantage to those hunting you. Like, say, something in the air.

As the first rays of light broke the night into a gray dawn, I spotted specks moving high in the sky. Fuck.

"More importantly," I sent, "the beastkin have constructed barges that have towers and ladders on them. Ladders that are tall enough to reach the bridges of the Triad. And they can create illusions that only rely on your eyes, and I am pretty sure they have ways of sensing projected mental energy." I thought about adding more of what I had learned, but it really didn't matter. If this essential information didn't get through, the rest wouldn't matter.

Joxin's shock was so strong this time that he let out a quiet, disbelieving, "What? That's not possible…"

"Relay it," I ordered, snapping him out of his stooper.

I knew he had sent the message, as I felt the shock and disbelief fill the mental network. All I did in response was project the absolute surety of my claims into the mental links as I continued to watch the sky.

The longer I looked, the more my stomach dropped out of my chest, and I was looking nigher long nor hard. We're not gonna make it, not all of us… and they must know that someone's out here by now. I thought to myself.

Knowing what I had to do, I looked Joxin right in the eyes, "Who has the most mental energy and control?" I sent.

There was a rapid series of messages between him and others before he returned with, "Me, Kathren, and… Jim." I saw the little flinch as he sent 'Jim's' name but ignored it.

"Ok," I replied, "this is what we're going to do."