Mel Odom - The Lost Library of Cormanthyr

Miss, Xuxa promised in a whispering voice in the woman's mind, and I won't.

Jaeleen snarled an oath and lifted the weapon clear. "Have I ever told you how much I hate flying rodents?"

Xuxa flew to the top of the tree and took up her search for Baylee again. She remained aware of Jaeleen below. The woman scurried for Baylee's shovel and dropped into the hole the ranger had dug. The shovel's blade bit cleanly into the dark earth.

Xuxa shifted along the branch. She could neither sense nor see Baylee, though she was aware of the ores as they pursued something through the forest.

Then her attention was divided as the shovel Jaeleen wielded so vigorously broke through into hollow space. The azmyth bat peered down.

Jaeleen dropped to her hands and knees, tossing the shovel to one side. She dug frantically into the earth, enlarging the hole she'd made.

Xuxa felt anxious. Baylee had been so close to the prize he had sought. Now it appeared he was to lose not only that prize, but perhaps his life as well because of the treacherous woman below.

And even as she thought it, Xuxa knew that Baylee would probably never see it that way. She threw herself into the air.

Baylee ran along a thick-boled branch twenty feet above the forest floor. Moonlight splintered through the leaves and limbs in brief flashes.

"There!" an ore yelled in one of the few words the ranger recognized. Harsh clucking followed as other ores took up renewed pursuit.

A spear slashed through the trees, burying itself in a tree trunk in front of Baylee. He slapped it away with his free arm and kept moving.

Measuring his stride, Baylee hit the last bit of safe footing he guessed that he had on the rapidly thinning branch. He flexed his knees, riding out the spring of the limb as it bent, then threw himself forward. Graceful as he'd become over the years since his teaching in the Tangled Trees, he knew he only grasped a fraction of the woodland elves' skills in their chosen terrain.

The branch had little spring to give, so he didn't gain height, but it did allow him to leap toward the branch on the next tree he'd selected. His boots hit the rough bark and skidded. For a moment he thought he might slip and fall, then his feet found the friction point. He stood, swayed on bent legs, then turned to face his foes.

Four ores twenty paces away searched the trees for him. Their rheumy eyes glistened sickly in the dark.

Changing his stance to properly bring his target into view, Baylee drew the arrow he had ready on the string, braced into place by his finger. The shaft felt surprisingly true and straight for an orcish weapon. The grain of the wood slid along his skin, speaking volumes of skill of the arrow's making. The fletchings brushed feather light against his cheek and remained stiff and aligned. He guessed that the bow and arrows were stolen, and not long ago at that.

Both eyes on his target Baylee released half a breath, held it, then released his shaft. The arrow leaped from the bow as fast, straight, and deadly as a falcon cutting air after a dove. Before his first arrow took the rearmost ore in the throat, the ranger had another arrow on the bowstring. He released again at his second target.

The first ore seized the arrow that suddenly feathered its throat and made choking noises. The creature took a few halting steps, pulling weakly at the shaft. The second arrow slid into the face of another ore, burying itself to the fetching in an eye socket as the arrowhead crashed through the back of its skull.

The remaining ores howled in fright as they saw the one in front of them fall dead, its head snapping cruelly as the spent force of the arrow turned it. Both of the unwounded creatures turned to be confronted by the one drowning in its own blood behind them.

The hesitation gave Baylee time to get off two more shafts. The first sped true, snapping into place beneath the helm of one ore and cleaving the creature's backbone. The second shaft buried itself in the side of the last ore but did not slow the creature's frightened run back into the forest.

Keeping an arrow nocked, Baylee took four more arrows from the quiver and fisted them with the bow. He moved instantly into the shadows in case he had been spotted.

He stayed with the trees, moving silent and quick. His mind searched for Xuxa, thinking he might be within range of the azmyth baf s telepathic range. Xuxa.

I am here, Baylee. Her mental voice sounded distant and anxious.

Baylee took a final look around. Only two ores appeared to have survived the encounter and were hastily making tracks out of the forest, pausing only long enough to gather the horses tied beneath a copse of trees a hundred paces distant. What's wrong?

Jaeleen has found the sacrificial well of the trollkin you sought.

A smile tweaked Baylee's lips in spite of the fact that Jaeleen was so close to the prize he'd come seeking. Surely you didn't think she just happened along out here.

No.

Baylee turned his steps toward her, following the lay of the land.

Never once had he not known where he was during the course of the battle. I killed six of the ores.

I have killed one.

Baylee dropped to the forest floor. Another few paces and he crested a hill that overlooked the dig. He peered through the shadows and spotted Xuxa only through practiced effort near the top of the tree. Jaeleen was nowhere to be seen. However, the meaty smack of the shovel blade biting into the earth echoed to Baylee's ears.

Keep watch, Xuxa, he said as he moved for the dig.

Baylee crept up on the hole and looked down into it. Jaeleen was on her hands and knees, digging with grim determination. Seeing the hole widening before the woman fired Baylee's blood. A wide grin filled his face. He had known the well couldn't be much farther down.

Jaeleen looked back over her shoulder as she took a broad-bladed knife from her trail kit. "Are the ores gone?"

"Yes," Baylee replied. "The ones that aren't dead."

"Tymora willing, there are more dead than alive."

He gave her a tight nod, slightly put off by her apparent blood-thirstiness. Though they were ores and would have spilled his life's blood, the ranger felt that all life was precious. He culled stories from the ages, walked the paths of men and women, humans, dwarves, and elves, learned how they'd lived and how they died. In that pursuit, he had learned to revere much about many people.

"You always were good in a fight," Jaeleen acknowledged. She snapped a glance at him, her face showing thinly disguised impatience. "Those ores will be back soon, you know."

"I know."

"Then help me! By Tymora's grace, we will be long gone from here by the time the survivors are able to find us, and interest another group of ores in attacking us."

If she didn't need your help, Xuxa announced, she'd have been praying that you'd be as dead as those ores out in the forest.

You're wrong. She's not like that. Baylee stepped into the pit he'd been working on. There was barely room for them both. Their bodies brushed together, and he was too well aware of her scent, thinly disguised beneath the lingering trace of Arabellan herb soap. Not all the time.

Dragons, Xuxa assured him, are less greedy by nature. You live in the wild, friend Baylee, and you should know these things. My nature and yours… there are things we would never do. She is too civilized to trust.

Keep watch. The azmyth bat's silence rebuked Baylee. He picked up the shovel. "Move aside. We'll be here all night while you pick at those stones with that toy."

Reluctantly, Jaeleen slid aside. "Dare we risk a light?"

"The ores already know we're here. A light can do no real harm." Baylee rammed the shovel home. "How did you find out about the well?"