place, but the thought of fighting ogres had sobered their jubilation.
“You will have to aim at the same vital areas with your arrows,” Garth continued, “but you may do so from a greater distance. As far as I know, the ogres have no magicians, but do not depend on that. If we get into an attack, defense shields will be the first priority of those with magical capabilities. If you can maintain a shield and attack at the same time, do so. There is no such thing as a surrender in a battle with ogres. We either kill them all or they eat us.'
The mood had turned rather gloomy as the Children went to the practice area, but the practice itself was tough. All four of the warrior Rangers practiced their archery skills, each trying to outdo the others. Arik with his longbow was clearly the winner, with Tanya second. Each of the Rangers practiced as if the skills they honed today would be used in battle tomorrow. Garth called an early halt to the practice and stated his intention that everybody get as much sleep as possible. They would search tomorrow until they located the fairies, even if they had to proceed after the darkness came.
Garth let everyone sleep until first light and then canceled morning exercises. The Rangers had breakfast and took to the trail. The oak forest got thicker and the coming of light did little to improve visibility. The group rode through the morning with two stops for Arik to check on the direction shown by the Sword of Heavens.
Shortly after their stop for the midday meal, they started seeing live, healthy apple trees. Tanya started to gather apples for dinner until Garth told her to keep her hands free. The light also started to penetrate the forest better as the oak trees thinned. Excitement started to percolate again as there were several false sightings of fairies. Garth did not share in the excitement. Instead he started to grow tense with a premonition of danger and his eyes started scanning the forest.
Tedi was in the lead when his horse just stopped. Garth rode to the front of the procession and asked Tedi why he was stopping.
“I didn’t stop,” Tedi said. “My horse just stopped. Tedi lowered himself from the saddle and checked on his mount.
“He’s sleeping!” Tedi exclaimed. “I can’t believe it, he is just sleeping.”
Garth also dismounted to verify Tedi’s statement. Arik came walking forward from the end of the column.
“All of the mounts are sleeping except yours and Kalina’s,” Arik stated. “What is going on? We didn’t push them hard yesterday. They have never acted like this before.”
Garth shook his head and started looking around at the forest when he heard the shouts behind him. He quickly pivoted and saw Fredrik and Kalina rushing to where Niki had fallen to the ground. His senses reeling, Garth searched for some sign of his enemy. He watched as Fredrik collapsed to the ground and heard either Tedi or Arik falling behind him with a shout.
“It’s magical!” Kalina shouted as she hurriedly tried to erect a shield over the entire party.
Tanya dropped to her knees as Garth heard another thump behind him and turned to find both of the Lorgo boys stretched out on the ground. He pulled his sword from its sheath as he turned back to see Kalina collapse. His arms grew heavy under the weight of the sword and it dropped to the ground as the trees above his head swirled in flashes of green and gray. He struggled to grab onto something to hold him upright as his eyeballs rolled up into his head and his body collapsed beneath him.
Chapter 23 Fairies
Nothing moved on the forest trail where the Rangers lay crumpled in heaps on the ground. Down from the sky floated a small, blue fairy no taller than a man’s index finger. The fairy’s wings fluttered as she landed on the back of Tedi’s horse and surveyed the sleeping party.
“Why did you attack them, Pixy?” the blue fairy asked. “They would have passed through without ever knowing we were here.”
A green, and slightly larger, fairy swooped down and soared along the trail over the unmoving forms, finally landing next to the blue fairy with a dazzling flourish of outstretched wings.
“Bah, Nixy,” he grumbled. “Humans are always trouble. It is better that we have stopped them before they went any farther.”
“I think you just enjoy being mischievous,” Nixy pestered. “What if they are friends or an envoy from another land?”
“The fairies have no human friends,” rebutted Pixy. “It will be best for all if we dispose of them now. We can levitate them into the acid pits of the ogres.”
“Do you speak for Queen Mita now?” Nixy persisted. “Besides, we can never levitate them that far by ourselves. We will need a great deal of help, especially with that big one. You had trouble getting him to lie down.”
“It would have been easier if you had decided to help earlier,” growled Pixy. “That female with the long, black hair was trying to use some magic to shield herself. She distracted me. If I hadn’t been distracted, the big one would have gone down easy enough.”
“I’m sure,” Nixy drawled sarcastically. “Still, I think we need to get them into the Stay Bushes as soon as possible. If one of them has the power to break your sleep spell, they could be dangerous to us. I will get others to help with the levitation.”
“I’ll go,” Pixy offered. “You keep a watch for any signs of wakening and don’t let any of them get away.”
Without waiting for a reply, Pixy forcefully spread his wings and soared down towards the trail below before fluttering off through the apple trees. Nixy stood watching the strange party of humans for what seemed to be a long time before Pixy returned with scores of other fairies to help transport the invaders to the Stay Bushes.
“You are taking them to the Stay Bushes and not the acid pits, aren’t you?” Nixy inquired.
“Yes, yes,” Pixy sighed. “I think they ought to be disposed of, though. One human in the Stay Bushes is all right, but all of these can be dangerous. Midge found out somehow and demanded that they be taken to the Stay Bushes and that I report immediately to Queen Mita. You will have to supervise the moving. Make sure they are kept asleep even after you have delivered them.”
Pixy left the mass of fairies assigned to deal with the invaders and flew into the orchard. Soaring between apple trees which held the homes of his fellow fairies, Pixy angled towards the very center of the orchard where the great Father Tree stood, the tree that the Mage had used to restore the orchard after the blight caused by Alutar and his ogres. Father Tree had a hole through its bark, level with a human’s head and sporting a wide protrusion outside of it. It was on this lip that Queen Mita held court and Pixy set down on it with the precision of an acrobat.
“Your Highness,” bowed Pixy to the blue fairy. “We have captured a large band of humans bent on invading our homeland. Nixy, at this very moment, is escorting the interlopers to the Stay Bushes. There is one among them that uses outlander magic and I think we should send them off to acid pits at our earliest opportunity.”
“I did not know that your head was large enough to accommodate an ogre brain, Pixy,” Queen Mita rebuked. “Would you send every human who comes close to our home directly off to the acid pits? Would you have handled the Mage in a like manner when he showed up to restore this orchard?”
Flushing with embarrassment, Pixy responded, “Of course not, Your Highness, but these invaders are warriors and come heavily armed.”
“What do the humans look like?” quizzed the Queen.
“They are all dressed in black and carry great swords and large bows,” Pixy answered.
“And what were they saying when you observed them?” prompted the Queen.
“He does not know,” answered a green fairy upon landing on the platform. “According to Nixy, he issued the Sleep Spell before any of them had uttered a word.”
“Thank you, my son,” Queen Mita greeted Midge.
“Of course they were saying nothing,” protested Pixy. “They were trying to sneak up on us.”
“We have a further complication, Queen Mita,” Midge interjected. “We have transported six humans, but there are seven horses and they were all being ridden.”
