Darkness fell over them and Espella guided Risha the mare to one of the large deadwood trees nearby. She helped Eldren climb down and then slid off the saddle herself to tie up the horse.

“We’ll have to camp here tonight,” she said. Her voice was grim and Eldren could tell she was unhappy with their circumstance.

“Overnight? With that—thing— that thing that’s following us?”

“Yes.”

Eldren fought to keep his composure. Espella was beginning to remove a few basic camping necessities from her saddlebags. It was meager even by adventurer standards; she produced a single cast iron pot, a few lengths of rope, and a waxed sheet of canvass that he assumed would become a lean-to. She held out an apple for Risha to munch on.

“Lady Espella—-,” he began.

“General,” she corrected without looking up from the horse.

“What?”

“General Espella,” she said. He could feel himself blush at his mistake. Not off to a great start.

“General Espella,” he repeated. “I should inform you that my powers are very weak at the moment.”

“I assumed as much,” she said.

“You assumed my powers were weak?” He frowned. “Why?”

“Whatever delayed you three days must have been a significant obstacle. I can’t remember any other envoy from Assembly of Magi ever being late, for anything. That, and I know that Lord Razola requested the most skilled temp mage they had, specifically to ensure we don’t lose ground against the Coven before a full-time replacement wizard is found for the court.” She turned and looked him up and down, before adding, “For you, their most powerful temp, to be in such a state when I found you must mean that whatever waylaid you on the road proved difficult to handle and exhausted your spells.”

Eldren was partially relieved that she wouldn’t expect him to be of much help against their stalker but also partially insulted. What did she mean by “in such a state”?

“Surely, there’s another way across the river?” he asked hopefully.

“None that we could reach tonight. And riding aimlessly through the swamp in the dark is more dangerous than settling in to defend a fortified position.”

“Fortified? Is there a keep nearby?” He gestured at the empty swampland around them.

“We will fortify the camp ourselves, in this clearing,” she said calmly. Through the darkness, he could just barely make out her gesturing to an area just off of the main road through the sparse tree cover. “Ah, here we go!”

A pale pinkish-white light flickered on, suddenly illuminating Espella’s face and their immediate surroundings. She held up a small jar from which the light was emanating.

“I always carry a little faefyre,” she said before he could ask. “Handy in a pinch.” She fastened the jar onto her belt through a metal loop on the lid so that it was functionally a hands-free lantern.

“Why haven’t we been attacked yet?” Eldren asked.

“Probably waiting for us to sleep,” she said. “Smart. Less chance that we fight back if they take us by surprise.”

“They?”

“There are two creatures,” she said, as she removed the great sword from her back and began to hack at some of the smaller straggles of trees near the road.

“Fantastic,” Eldren mumbled.

“Drag this to the perimeter of the clearing.” Espella handed him a huge branch of dry brush. “We’ll fence ourselves in for the night.”

Although he wondered what good dry brush would do against swamp monsters, Eldren didn’t argue with the general and dragged brush around at her command for another hour. The woman worked at a relentless pace, hacking away with her giant sword. Soon, they had encircled themselves with a makeshift fence. Eldren collapsed on the ground in the center of the clearing, dirty, sweaty, and covered in red, thorny scratch lines.

“That should help slow anything down and give us time,” Espella said, standing back from a small campfire she had built up in the middle of the clearing. “I’ll take the first watch. You should get some rest, wizard so that you can begin to recover from your journey and regain your magic.”

Eldren nodded but was certain he wouldn’t be able to sleep. He pulled his sweatshirt hood up and tried to drift off next to the fire, but every creaking tree branch and rustle of wind stirred his imagination, sparking paranoia about monsters and demons lurking in the darkness. At some point, he must have dozed off, though, because he was suddenly being shaken awake by the shoulder.

“Wha—”

“Shhhh.” Espella crouched next to him, hand on his shoulder, and jerked her head toward the far edge of the clearing, beyond their brush fence. Eldren looked and watched the area. The fire had died down significantly, but against the dim light of the embers, he thought he could see a patch of deeper darkness shifting against the normal darkness of the night. Something was moving beyond their perimeter.

“What is it?” he whispered.

“Something I’ve never seen before.” Espella was frowning. “A new evil the Coven has cooked up, no doubt.” Eldren still didn’t understand what the Coven was but didn’t think now was the time to ask.

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“Just one?” he asked.

“Three.”

“Three!”

“Shhh,” she hissed. “Yes. Three. The other two are circling behind us for an ambush. No! Don’t look.”

Eldren’s heart was racing. His eyes adjusted and beyond the brush pile he could see now that the shadow was not just large — it was a massive creature, nearly three times the size of Risha.

“What do we do?” he asked urgently.

“How quickly can you climb onto the horse?” Espella asked him.

“With or without your help?”

“Without,” she replied.

Snap out of this. Be Eldren Pendergast, not Cam. Confidence! he thought.

“I can do it quickly,” he said, sounding surprisingly sure, even to himself. Espella paused, looked him over again, and finally nodded.

“Okay. When I say go, you must run to Risha and climb up. You must be quick. She will start running on my cue. Fast.”

“Got it,” he replied, steeling himself and turning his attention to the mare across the fire. She had sensed the presence of whatever creatures were lurking and circling them beyond the firelight.

They waited patiently for the better part of an hour. With each passing moment, Eldren’s tensed muscles begin to ache more. The adrenaline burst that had given him the courage to commit to Espella’s plan had faded away and now his anxiety and fear were creeping back in. Finally, at long last, something happened. The rustle and scraping of brush. Whatever monster was on the other side of their fencing was beginning to try to crawl through into the clearing.

“Soon,” Espella whispered.

Eldren watched in horror as the stalker made its way to the edges of their firelight. The brush seemed like a trivial barrier and the creature quickly had wedged its way through, pushing aside tree limbs and snapping branches. Soon, a huge shadow was standing twenty feet away, inside the fence. It reared onto its back legs — or what Eldren presumed were legs. He couldn’t quite make out what the monster was and wracked his brain, trying to think if it was something that he recognized from perusing his copy of the Monstrous Menagerie when he ran game sessions. The monster was jet black and as it reared up to its full height of nearly nine feet, it unfurled six more arms in the air, each ending in needle-tipped pincers. Suddenly a clacking sound began coming from the creature. It was seemingly clicking its pincers, trying to draw their attention, presumably away from the rest of its pack that Espella had said was circling behind them. He had no idea what this thing was.

“Now!” she shouted. Espella leaped into action with a ferocious battlecry. Except — she didn’t sprint toward their horse. She was sprinting towards the shadowy spider monster.

Eldren’s legs wobbled like jelly as he lurched to his feet. His muscles were tight after spending so long crouched in anticipation. In comparison to Espella’s lightning-quick reflexes and speed, he felt like he was moving in slow motion. He sprinted as fast as he could toward the horse but he wasn’t in great shape. He reached the mare wheezing and fumbling with the reins, trying to pull himself up. His foot kept losing traction on the stirrup, but finally, he gained purchase and hoisted himself up and swung a leg over Risha’s back.

As he settled into the saddle, he turned and looked toward the monster. The other two creatures had burst into the clearing from behind where he and Espella had been sitting. Her awareness of their presence had saved their lives.

Espella was locked in combat with the first shadow. Its pincers clashed against the thick, serrated blade of her great sword. Seemingly out of nowhere, she had produced a large, glowing golden shield that looked partially translucent, as if made of thin wisps of radiant light. Given the absurdity of everything that had happened in the last ten hours, a golden shield made of light didn’t even register to Eldren who was solely focused on escaping.

“Come on, witch spawn!” Espella taunted the second and third shadow monsters as she deftly parried the six-pronged attacks from the first. The other two monsters appeared confused and then one began to move toward her. “That’s right! Come on!”

The plan began to unravel before it got off the ground. Instead of clustering around Espella, the remaining two creatures split up and one began clacking its dark pincers and scuttling its way across the clearing toward Eldren.

“Uhhhh. Espella!” He called out to her, not knowing what to do. He had no weapons to help.

Across the clearing, she glanced in his direction as she parried one of the shadow beast's legs with her shield and then rolled underneath another.

As she rolled to a knee, she let out a high-pitched whistle. Eldren wasn’t prepared and almost flew backward to the ground as Risha shot forward at full speed just as one of the pincers of the third shadow beast lanced through the air where Eldren had been a moment before. He clung to the pommel of Espella’s saddle for dear life.

To Eldren’s dismay, Risha darted into the fray and not away from it. She wove in and out of the legs of the beasts near Espella, who was working her toward them by slashing and blocking, slowly backing up. As Eldren reached her, she skillfully deflected a blow from the beast on her left with the golden light shield and, at the last minute, heaved her sword through the air sideways with immense strength into the body of the creature on her left. As the creature reared back in pain, its legs clicking wildly in agony, Espella grabbed the dangling reins and swung herself up onto Risha.

Eldren wrapped his arms around her as they sprinted from the clearing. Espella dug her heels into Risha’s sides and the horse vaulted over the brush fence. As they passed, Eldren saw Espella fidget at her waist and drop something from her hand.

As Risha’s hooves thudded into the muddy ground on the outside of the fence, Eldren was suddenly blinded, wincing at the bright light flaring out of the darkness behind them. The brush ignited, shooting up great pinkish-white and purple flames. Espella had dropped the faefyre jar, which—apparently—was very flammable stuff. Eldren could see the two shadow creatures, still unnaturally black with no discernible features, on the other side of the flames, stuck in the burning circle. The fence hadn’t just been protection; it had also been a trap.

As Eldren admired Espella’s cunning, his stomach churned. He glanced back again to count. Two creatures. Two.

“Espella!”

“What?”

“The two are back there. But where—“

He was cut off as something shot out of the marsh to their right and slammed into Risha. The horse screamed and toppled. Espella went flying off into the mud, top-heavy in her bronze armor.

Searing pain blinded him momentarily. He had fallen underneath the back of the horse, and she was pinning his left leg to the ground. He could feel the wetness of the blood pooling under his knee and knew at least one bone was broken. He couldn’t focus through the pain and his vision swirled. Somewhere to his left Espella moaned. Risha was unmoving.

The shadow monster crawled over the top of the horse and peered down at him — although he couldn’t see its eyes, he assumed that must be what it was doing. This was it. He was going to die, maybe for the second time, in just twenty-four hours. No weapon. No magic.

The creature reared back and raised its front two pincer arms like a praying mantis towering over him. He closed his eyes, bracing for more pain. Then—nothing.

More nothing.

He opened one eye and then the other. The shadow creature had stumbled and fallen over backwards, onto its back. Like a spider, its legs went skyward and convulsed, shriveling and withering unnaturally fast. It had made no sounds in death, eerily. Eldren squinted. In the glow of the faefyre, he could see protruding from the underside of its abdomen a single arrow fletched with large black feathers.

He heard a fluttering sound behind him, almost like the beat of a bird’s wings when it took flight.

“Awfully close, eh?” a voice said, a little too cheerfully.

Eldren passed out.