Jeff Inlo - Nightmare's Shad

She did not, however, allow that light to remain extinguished. Her skills and talents remained, she simply needed to redirect them. She found new purpose-new life-in joining with the most powerful wizard in Uton.

The wizard agreed to let her become his guard, but he offered more. Enin trained her to be more than she was, to strengthen the magic that was within her. She called on that strength with a spell of nature that glowed with the cascading brilliance of emerald renewal.

Holli's spell grasped the elements of life. Every particle that once made up a living tree drank in Holli's energy and reveled in rebirth. Spectacular growth from the inanimate exploded in every direction. The roots, trunks, limbs and branches expanded with incredible intensity.

Not only did the newly invigorated vegetation surge in growth, it also recognized the presence of an enemy. The giant insects represented a threat, one that would not be tolerated. Roots and branches struck out at the beetles. They wrapped around the legs and the hard-shelled bodies of the insects. They strangled the life out of many, ripped others apart.

Holli and Jure stood calm and still at the center of the bedlam. The beetles could not reach them and the revived tree sections would not attack them. They would survive the first attack.

Despite their momentary safety, they both understood that such security was fleeting at best. The battle had begun and it would not end with the casting of one spell.

Without moving, Holli called on all the sight spells available to her and she examined the full breadth of the attack. All of Baannat's forces entered the fray, but the spell casters at her disposal had responded as she hoped.

Goblins fired crossbows, but their bolts were redirected back at them by powerful wind spells. The river rogues rushed forward across the bridge but were immediately driven back by two spell casters well versed in fire. Gremplings bounded into the city and attempted to take high positions on rooftops but were quickly and efficiently flipped back into the trees by simple force spells. Holli's spell casters proved clearly capable in dealing with each of those threats.

The rock beetles, however, were causing greater disruptions. Their tunneling brought down several buildings and their ability to surface at any point left many spell casters vulnerable to surprise attacks. The insects represented the one true danger to her forces.

Her spell had proved effective in dealing with the beetles in the immediate area, but there were hundreds more across the town, utilizing underground tunnels to appear and disappear at will. She had exhausted most of her energy and another spell of such power was not within her. There were, however, other alternatives, one of which was noticeably absent.

"Where is Heteera?" Holli demanded. "She knows to come here when the battle begins."

"I'm not certain," Jure admitted.

Holli considered her options. She was loath to under utilize her assets, but her choices were limited.

"I have to direct this fight. Find her and bring her here. We are going to need her power."

It might have been a waste of his abilities-to be a simple messenger-but Jure did not hesitate for even a moment. He stepped clear of the dying beetles and the disorganized mass of animated tree parts and exited the building as quickly as he could.

The elf guard turned her attention back to the escalating conflict. The very ground all about the abandoned town was becoming a hazard. If the rock beetles continued their assault uncontested, she believed they would all sink into a crater of rubble. They needed to be stopped and she knew who was best suited for the task.

Holli directed her strategy at the spell caster who had caused Ryson so much trouble in the desert. His power focused on the land itself. Rock and dirt would bend to the fury of his red energy and so she called upon him to eliminate the beetles.

"Neltus!" she commanded in thought. "Turn the land against these creatures."

Far across town, the middle-aged sorcerer with long disheveled hair frowned at the order. He did not wish to be in Pinesway, and he didn't like taking orders from an inferior elf.

In his mind, the opposite should have prevailed. She should be taking orders from him. He had more control over the magic, and much more power. His was a primary color, one of the pure forces. She cast in green, the essence of nature-trees, grass, shrubs. It was laughable. What were plants without soil? Nothing.

Unfortunately, there were others who disagreed. Enin for one, and that optimist, Jure, for another. Neltus didn't care for that one. Jure was growing more powerful and yet seemed to be more than satisfied in taking a subordinate position. And the old man was casting in near white color with a perfect circle. Such a waste.

Many of the spell casters in Pinesway agreed to fight because they felt they had to restore some honor of some ancient magicians that weren't even a memory. More nonsense. They could believe that all they wanted, but Neltus understood. And he believed the others did as well. They just didn't want to admit it. They fought because Baannat wasn't going to let them hang around if he took out Enin. It was better to fight in a war with a chance at winning than to be hunted down and killed without any hope of help.

The problem was, if you accepted help, you had to accept the people who went with it. That's why he was in that Godson forsaken town with an overbearing elf guard that pretended to be a sorceress.

Neltus decided to follow the order, not because he was willing to yield to the elf, but because it would give him a chance to show his true power. Holli appeared concerned by these beetles, but they were a joke to him.

He took hold of the crimson energy in his mind and turned his will upon the land. Rock, sand and soil moved at his desire. The ground called out to him, revealed to him the location of beetle tunnels, allowed him to see the greatest concentration of their numbers.

Rock beetles were at home underground. They could hear and smell through the soil. Beyond that, they could sense vibrations through the ground, pick up the faintest steps of prey far in the distance. They were open to any tremor and used it to find their way in the total darkness of a buried existence.

Neltus decided to use this against the creatures. He could have compacted the ground around the beetles, crushed them in their tunnels. He could have broken the subterranean fields apart and sent the insects deep into an abyss. Either method would have sufficed, but neither held the dramatic flare he wished to employ. He wanted every spell caster in Pinesway to truly appreciate his power.

The sorcerer focused his power on echoing waves-pulses of motion. Crimson energy surrounded Neltus until he forced it downward beneath his feet. Immediately, the ground began to quiver and tremble like the shivering fingers of a thin beggar caught out in the cold.

A series of tremors turned into hundreds of violent underground swells. The ground did not break apart, but the vibrations under Pinesway amplified a thousand times over. Every rock and stone, every grain of sand and soil, every mineral no matter what its property, pulsated in the upheaval.

Confusion boiled over within the ranks of the insects. The beetles swooned against the conflicting vibrations. They could discern neither the source nor the composition of the activity. Those that were above ground circled about in mad patterns. The beetles still in the tunnels lost any sense of direction and awareness.

The pulses continued unabated. They grew stronger, sending the beetles into mass panic. Rock and dirt growled with tension. The land itself shuddered, and every vibration was sent directly at the rock beetles.

The giant insects could not fight back, could not find the true source of their misery. All they could do was react to the vibrations in ways that either forced them to flee or drove them to distraction. Those far enough away from the center of Pinesway tunneled off into the distance in retreat, but any beetle within the town borders suffered from overwhelming confusion. The chaotic impulses led to a breakdown of their senses and eventually death.