cover Lelani from up there so she can stay with the tree longer.” Cal looked to the caretakers. The temptation to send them back home was written all over his face. But he needed the old couple, and they wanted to help. “Helen, take a position in the doorway of the trailer. Ben, do you have a weapon?”
Ben reached into the trailer along the side of the doorway and produced a wood ax.
“Good,” said Cal. “Crouch by the trailer hitch.” Seth was impressed with Cal’s strategy. He placed the couple close enough to the trailer for them to escape in case things went wrong. “Get back and sever the link if you have to,” he told them. They both nodded okay.
The flames were already six feet high. Light flooded the area between the trailer and the tree. Seth was grateful for the heat that dried out his damp clothes.
“We don’t have enough paper to keep this up too long,” Seth noted. “They might just wait for these pyres to die out.”
Cal considered this. “Lelani, where are they now?” he asked.
“They’ve stopped. About a hundred yards due south observing us; six gnolls and five humans. Rosencrantz and I have countered several spells from their mage already. They’re confused. Based on the rudimentary nature of their sorcerer’s spells, I don’t think they are even aware of Rosencrantz’s existence. It’s likely when they came to this reality, Dorn walked right past him and did not realize he was sentient.”
“That’s our advantage,” Cal said. “We need to go on the offensive. What I wouldn’t give for a pair of night- vision goggles.”
A light went on in Lelani’s eyes. “I have an idea along those lines,” she said. “But in the reverse… with Rosencrantz’s help, of course.” She closed her eyes and chanted, communing with the tree. The heat that emanated from her washed over them like a warm wind, and coursed into the woods beyond. Whatever this spell was, it was big. She released the tree and picked up her composite longbow and quiver.
“What are you doing?” Cat asked.
“Taking the battle to them.” Lelani searched the meadow for a sign.
“That’s suicide in the dark,” Seth said.
“Darkness is relative,” she said with a smile. “Sometimes you bring on the dark by turning up the light.”
“Have you lost your marbles?” Seth asked her.
“This entire meadow and parts of the forest are within Rosencrantz’s sphere of control.”
“So we’re going to ask Bambi to attack them for us?”
Lelani continued to search deeply into the night. “Seth, I will need you to stay in physical contact with Rosencrantz. He needs to be connected with one of us to effect change in real time.”
“Cat’s already in the tree,” Seth pointed out.
“Cat is not attuned to the magical energies flowing through this meadow. It has to be a mage.”
“I can’t do magic,” Seth argued. “I don’t remember going to school or anything.”
Lelani continued to search the darkness. “That doesn’t matter,” she said. “Once you are in a symbiotic connection with the tree, he will guide you. You are waiting for a particular spell I will cast once I’ve confronted their sorcerer. Rosencrantz will know what to do.” Her eyebrow arched and she pointed into the field. “There!”
“Where?” Seth asked.
“There.” A small speck of light, like a fallen star, meandered over a black section of the field.
“What is that?” Seth asked. Soon he noticed two more, and then several others-a convention of fireflies had been called. “Where’d the fireflies come from? It’s freakin’ winter.”
“He woke them up early,” Ben said. “He is a wizard, after all.”
It occurred to Seth that there might be a shortage of fireflies in the area this summer. He didn’t know why he had such stupid thoughts in light of what they were about to face-probably because he hoped to live long enough to see whether he was right. More flies poured in from the forest around them. Soon there were hundreds, then thousands, all convening around the enemy. Silhouettes in the shapes of men emerged in the glow.
“I can see them,” Cat said. She took aim with her rifle.
“Please hold your fire until they charge you,” Lelani said. With that, she bolted out into the night.
“What’s going on?” Helen said from the trailer.
“We might actually have a chance,” Cal said.
“Well, please explain it to us,” a confused Ben inquired.
“Yeah, do some ’splaining,” Seth agreed.
2
Lelani raced into the darkness and came to a stop at the snow line halfway between her friends and the strangers. She waited as the fireflies continued to grow in number. Her foes’ voices conveyed alarm. They swatted to no avail. The fireflies broke off into separate groups around each enemy combatant. They swarmed over each gnoll’s shoulder until a thick globe of swirling light hovered around each head. Now, the darkness served Lelani.
The centaur charged. She moved along the outskirts of the group, staying within the black of the meadow. She didn’t need to see her targets clearly. The swirls of light around their heads marked them well. As she galloped, she strung an arrow and let it loose toward the center of the light. She heard the satisfying thud and squeal of a struck gnoll. The fireflies dropped with the gnoll to the ground before dispersing back into the night. She strung a second arrow and let it loose into another bright swirl of flies. This thud was followed by the gurgle and hacking of a punctured throat.
The enemy, in a panic, let fly a squadron of bolts from their crossbows. The first volley dropped fallow as Lelani raced away protected by the dark. They launched a second wild volley covering a wider area. One quarrel found its mark and sank into her hindquarter. She had no time to pull it out. She flew around them launching arrows at will. Three gnolls dead… four. The remaining troop abandoned their equipment and ran toward the light at the center of the meadow… toward her friends. One man with a staff remained behind. She fired an arrow at him, which he easily deflected with the staff. He stood his ground blocking Lelani’s line of sight to his cohorts. But she was no longer interested in them. In the distance, Lelani heard the crack and echo of Cat’s rifle. Her allies would deal with that rabble. She came here for him.
The man let loose a flame from the tip of his staff that burned the remaining fireflies about him. In the light, she saw that he wore a white polyester leisure suit over a wide-collard shirt. He was swarthy, with a blocky build, long coarse black hair, obsidian eyes, and a thick salt-and-pepper mustache that hung like a horseshoe on a nail. One of Kraten’s desert brethren, no doubt. She aimed for his heart and let fly another arrow. With a wave, he burned it to a cinder before it touched him. He slammed his staff into the ground. A vibration emanated in a line toward the centaur, upturning snow and earth before finally knocking Lelani off her feet. She landed on the quarrel lodged in her rear; the serrated edges cut into the flesh around her wound. Lelani clenched her teeth through the pain.
She recovered, and vacated the spot a second before flame engulfed it. There was a crudeness to this sorcerer’s technique. He had clearly been wielding magic longer than she, but there was no polish to his method. He was a brawler… a street fighter who learned his craft in the dusty back alleys of some desert city. His spells were limited in scope-fire and kinetic movement only. He lacked subtlety and had little imagination.
“They send an acolyte to battle me!” he barked at her, in a southern dialect of Verakhoon. “I am K’ttan Dhourobi of Aht Humaydah. I have killed a dozen wizards. You have no hope against me, child.”
“And yet, four of your comrades are dead,” she answered back.
“I care not for dog — men.”
Lelani was sure they did not care for him either. She hoped there was a way her team could press that animosity toward their advantage… assuming they had a future after this night. Lelani pulled another arrow on her string and fired it. He deflected it easily. She had a good notion by now of his repertoire, his one-dimensional thinking. She needed to position him correctly to exploit these shortcomings. What worried Lelani was that she would have to cast two spells at once and drop her defensive posture. She was fairly sure that he would not counter with transmogrification and that she would not end up a cockroach, crushed under foot. It would be flame or flying knives… a survivable risk.
