Rory POV

It all happened in a heartbeat. Emalynn first launched a barrage of arrows at the slavers walking with the children. Her strike knocked out four of them, and then chaos erupted. I rushed in with my twin blades at the ready. I aimed for the throat on the first few, watching them fall to the ground behind me as I sped across the divide of trees. The men and women were shouting ‘Ambush’ as they tried to tighten their grip on the slaves. Seven slavers died, and thirty-three were left to immobilize.

Three horse-drawn caravans were separating the adults and kids. One probably carried supplies for the slavers. Another might carry some slaves, and the last one probably had more slavers inside because there were only ten around the kids. Two were on horses, four stayed close to the children, and the others had fallen from our attack. I saw fourteen of them walking alongside the adults. Four more rode on horseback around the caravans. Three were driving the caravans, leaving nine more inside one of the wagons. The whole group had come to a stop when the chaos erupted.

Emalynn fired again striking one in the leg and another in the eye. I zigzag across the people, dodging fire blasts and swinging swords to finish the two Ema had shot. Thirty-one to go as I sliced through my targets. A woman blocked my path, matching my movements with her blade. Another threw magic at me like that would slow me down. I tripped the woman into the ice blast where she became stuck to the ground. Thirty more.

The crowd began to rumble with cheers for their unknown rescuers. Shouts to save the children first rang out as I tried to keep any of the remaining slavers from reaching the group of kids. I let myself become a blur as I kicked the three remaining slavers back. Four more slavers popped out of a caravan to help catch me. Another magic user fired more wind magic at me. It wasn't fast enough to affect me.

“It must be a wind magic user!” A male swinging an ax at me called.

“No, I have seen this speed before from a beast person.” An old man on a horse announced as he launched another fireball at my feet.

“Could it be the one the council is looking for?” The ax welder suggested.

“It could be. The bounty for catching or killing it is worth more than half of the slaves we captured.” The old man considered the situation closely. “Whatever it is, it wants to save the children. Use that to your advantage-”

The old man was shot in the eye by an arrow. He spit up blood and fell from his horse. The horse ran off into the forest. Twenty-nine more bodies to subdue. Another barrage of arrows hit three men who were about to grab a kid from the group. I ran toward them and stabbed their exposed joints, disabling another three. Twenty-six left. Armor was only effective if you could afford to cover yourself in metal or if you were fast enough to protect the exposed areas on your body not covered in leather armor. Most of these slavers had leather armor, not metal.

Five of them wore full metal armor riding horses, which was expensive. Those five were likely the ones in charge of this group since they had the money for the armor. It was possible they had gotten the armor another way, but if they were here herding slaves to Solis, I didn’t care to know much about them. Slavery was wrong even if someone fell into debt. The people were often abused and tortured for fun. I can only imagine what they wanted elf slaves for and every bit of it was horrible.

“No,” Cried a father.

Another voice begged, “Leave them alone!”

The four slavers, near the kids, had their blades ready to strike. There was still one horseman chasing me as I tried to keep them all back from the kids. My speed was helping, but the kids were in danger from the magic blasts and sharp blades flying about. Ema managed to hit the horse with a few arrows, causing the rider to fall off. I stabbed the rider in the back of the head when his helmet fell off from the fall of the horse. Twenty-five more to go.

We weren’t going fast enough. The longer we attacked the slavers, the better chance they had of winning. Where were Braxton and Silas? My speed wouldn’t win this battle for us. I could feel my heart pound in my chest from the strain of constant running around a small area. Magic was flooding through my veins, threatening to take over. A frenzied attack wouldn’t be beneficial in this fight. I could use my terrain magic, but I would have to stop long enough to cast it.

“Attack the kids!” One of the caravan drivers called. “The blur can’t save them all!”

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I flung myself back into the kids and slammed my hands into the dirt, plunging my magic into the ground. The ground shifted as I forced the ground to rise away from the attackers. Small clung to me as we slowly rose up into the air. I listened to the once scared silent kids cry out as the situation became more dangerous. We were out of reach of the blades for a moment, but it dawned on me that I had just trapped about thirty kids on a ten-foot dirt tower.

“My baby!” So many panicked parents shouted at the same time.

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“What the hell, lady?” One of the older boys behind me shouted.

I wasn’t sure I had a response for the sixty or so eyes staring back at me. Most of the kids were elves, but a few were dwarves and orcs. The smallest ones weren’t higher than my knee, and I am considered short for a human. They were scared, angry, and very unsure of my intentions. Was there any comfort I could offer them?

A fireball came flying at us. Kids began screaming, and I knew I needed to throw the rulebook out the window if we were going to survive this. Ema tried to stop the fireball with an arrow, but it flew straight toward me. I struck it down with a bolt of lightning, causing a stir below.

“It must be the nasty hybrid up there!” Someone yelled. “No beast could wield lightning magic!”

Myrra was right. I suck at keeping a low profile. If they knew who I was then there was no need to hold back. Braxton had helped me control the wild lightning that sparked at my fingertips. It was time to test my strength in battle.

“Kids,” I called out, silencing the group. “I am here to help. I am sorry if I scared you with everything, but I am trying to keep you alive. So, huddle behind me and close your eyes if you get too scared because I am going to light it up down there.” The kids stayed quiet, but one small voice thanked me, which was enough to fuel the magic in my veins.

The most amazing thing about metal is how it reacts to heat. I wonder how the heat of my lightning might affect those remaining horsemen in their fancy metal armor. Perhaps, I shouldn’t be rash to burn them to the ground. The horsemen weren’t showing restraint as they kept casting magic at the kids to get a rise out of me. I suppose if they want to see red so badly, they will adore the color of my lightning. Four powerful sparks snapped from my fingertips in bolts toward the horsemen. It was too quick for them to run, and they fell, shaking and screaming in pain. A second round of bolts escaped my hand to finish them off.

Twenty-one slavers were left below. Magic attacks toward us on the dirt tower increased as I had to keep firing bursts of lightning to protect the kids. This was the most magic I had used since fighting that librarian at the Wizard’s Guild. Some adults were breaking free from their bounds, fighting back against the slavers. The slavers scrambled out of caravans to try to load some of the slaves into the wagons. Another slaver was freeing the woman from the ice that I had left trapped. An all-out riot was ensuing below, and there was nothing I could do to stop or help it.

That’s when the cavalry had arrived. Braxton and Silas were standing with what I assume to be Captain Onyx Yalton from Le’Anisa. Elf soldiers flooded the forest path, subduing all who were within reach. A few slavers fought back only to be stabbed on the spot. Some tried to escape from the soldiers, but only two got away. The magic attacks on me finally ceased, and I collapsed onto the ground of my dirt tower.

A cheer erupted from the children the moment my ass hit the ground. Several kids tried to hug and tackle me while others watched me cautiously. They called me the ‘Weird Red Lady’. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it, but that was a problem for later. For now, the kids were safe, and the adults were rescued.

“Umm, Miss, can you get us down now?” An older girl asked as she pushed the younger children back.

Oh, right. Was it safe to let them down? I looked over the cliffside. Soldiers had rounded up the last of the slavers. A few adults were hugging. Emera hadn’t come out of hiding yet, which was weird. Did she think it wasn’t safe? Before I could go find her, Braxton, Silas, and the captain approached my dirt tower.

“Is that who I think it is?” The older girl asked me like I would.

The older boy crossed his arms in judgment. “Huh, so the royal family does care about us.”

“Shut up, Lyle,” the older hushed him. “The prince could hear you!”

“Which one is the prince?” I asked. I didn’t want to spoil my first impression of a royal of Desfyra.

“You don’t know?” Lyle chuckled. “Can you believe it, Estra?”

I shook my head.

“The man with the long black hair is Prince Silas Halestone of Desfyra.” The older girl called Estra pointed at the man I knew as Silas, a researcher at the Wizard’s Guild with some connection to nobility.

The same man then floated up to the top of the dirt tower on his wind magic. His eyes were full of relief to see the children who bowed to him out of respect. He allowed all of the little ones to run to him and tackle him. It was endearing to see him with the children although my head was still trying to wrap itself around who it was that I was looking at. Silas hadn’t lied to me in any way, but he had secrets like I did, and I wasn’t sure how to react to this new information.

“So, everyone is okay?” Silas laughed.

“Yeah, cause of the Weird Red Lady!” One of the small voices yelled.

Silas looked at me laughing hard at the nickname. “Is that true Weird Red Lady?”

My words failed to form when I tried to answer him. Everything became fuzzy all of a sudden. I blinked, trying to focus enough to say something, but my voice was mute. Emera popped out of nowhere, catching me before I fell backward off the dirt tower. She examined me closely. Her expression became panicked as she called Silas over to me. The rush of battle had finally faded, and in its place came pain. Lots and lots of pain.

The familiar comfort and warmth of Silas’ healing magic consumed me. It dulled the pain, but I couldn’t hear what was being said. Emera was twitchy and panicked while Silas had become serious. The happy cheery faces of the children had dissipated into grim expressions. Were they upset? Is it because they were stuck up here? I can fix that. My hands were mostly numb to me, but I called for my magic once more. I barely felt the ground under my right hand, but it was enough to make contact. Magic rushed through me once more as I forced it into the ground. The dirt tower shook as it slowly lowered down.

“Stop!” Emera shrieked, trying to pull my hand from the ground. When she tried to move my hand, it would budge like a sword wedge in stone. “Ro, you have to stop! Your magic is feeding off your life force now.”

Her words didn’t make sense to me. The dirt tower had joined with the ground once more, but no one moved. My hand relaxed on the ground. The magic rush calmed into a stream as I felt Silas’ magic pouring into me. No one moved as they watched us. It was peculiar to me. What did they expect? I didn’t have time to think about every cut, gash, and magic burn I had obtained during the fight. I was not going to come out of something like this unscathed. If it wasn’t for Ema, I would have been dead. Besides, after a long battle, a Weird Red Lady was bound to be covered in red blood.