Terry Brooks - Witch Wraith

It was a variation on the tactics the Straken Lord had used at Arishaig, and it was equally successful here. In minutes, the wings of the Elven army had collapsed and gone into retreat, and the Jarka Ruus were atop the rim of the Valley of Rhenn on both sides of the eastern pass.

Sian Aresh acted quickly to counter this advantage, sending warships from the fleet to either side of the valley to drive off the attackers. His orders were clear: Use fire launchers to burn them out of whatever concealments they tried to find and chase them back down the slopes to the plains. And don’t let up until the rim of the valley is retaken.

A trio of warships moved into position on either side of the valley and launched a sustained attack. Because the Elves did not have the use of flash rips—having adhered to the rules established by Grianne Ohmsford following the end of the war on the Prekkendorran—fire launchers were the strongest weapon the Elves possessed.

It quickly seemed as if that would be enough. The demonkind resisted only briefly before falling back—a steady, if grudging, retreat that required the warships to remain in place and continue to fire on them as the Elven Hunters driven back earlier slowly began to reclaim lost ground.

But at this juncture, the main body of the Straken Lord’s army attacked the pass, as well. Armored giants and thousands of Goblins swarmed through the staggered clusters of obstacles created to slow them as if they weren’t even there. Dozens died or were injured in the effort, but the rest kept coming. The Elves met them just inside the pass, solid walls of spearmen crouched behind shields while Elven longbows rained arrows from perches higher up. For a time, it seemed the defensive lines would hold. But the enemy forces were too strong, their numbers too great, and eventually the lines began to sag.

At that point, Sian Aresh sent another two warships to buttress their efforts, the great ships-of-the-line sliding down the length of the valley and settling in to either side of the enemy, which had pushed the defenders all the way out of the pass. Using rail slings and fire launchers, the airships struck back at the demonkind, shattering the front ranks of their assault and forcing the rest back into the shelter of the pass.

The battle was joined, attackers and defenders locked in combat within the east pass and atop the valley rims to either side, when the dragon reappeared.

It swept down out of nowhere, swift and agile, eluding the charges fired from hastily redirected weapons aboard the airships facing the pass, snaking back around behind them. Sitting astride the great beast, the armored black form of the Straken Lord howled in glee.

Seconds later, fire exploded from the dragon’s widespread maw and sent the light sheaths, masts, and decking of both airships up in flames.

Seersha couldn’t save them. She was already running back across the rim of the bluff, having sighted the dragon moments earlier and knowing at once what it intended. But she wasn’t fast enough. She got there just after the ships went crashing earthward, decks and light sheaths afire. The Elves who were still able to do so were sliding down or leaping over the sides before they were consumed. Without pausing to consider whether it was wise or reasonable or even sane to do so, she attacked. Sweeping aside her black robes, she extended her tattooed arms, assumed her battle stance, and sent lines of magic hammering into the huge beast. Because it wasn’t looking at her, it wasn’t prepared. Confident that the worst of its enemies had been disabled, it was hovering midair, waiting for the ships defending the flanks of the Elven army along the valley rim to turn toward it.

But Seersha got to it first, and her blows knocked it sideways with such force that the Straken Lord almost lost his seat, and for a moment it appeared that the dragon would go down. It staggered wildly in mid-flight, its wings beating frantically to keep it aloft as it swung about to track the source of this unexpected assault. It spotted the Druid, the residue of her magic rising like steam into the air, and, banking sharply to avoid another strike, it began to climb skyward to mount a counterattack. Everyone surrounding Seersha had gone to ground, leaving her alone and exposed atop the valley rim. Even Sian Aresh had dropped away, although she hadn’t seen him go. But that was the way she preferred it. No one could help her now, in any case. She would have to face what was coming alone.

She didn’t have long to wait. Screaming in fury, the dragon dropped toward her like a stone, banking sharply left and right to confuse her. She struck out at it anyway but her strikes went wide each time, and then the dragon was on her. It tore into the earth as it tried to crush her, claws extended, ripping out great gouts of earth and rock as the Straken Lord urged it on.

But Seersha was already gone. Using magic, she slipped the attack like a ghost, momentarily disappearing until she was suddenly twenty feet away. The dragon swung about, but she had its measure now and her magic slammed into it once more, singeing its scaly body, burning away whole sections of armor.

Then the Straken Lord’s scepter came down, pointed toward her, and something hard and brutal caught hold of her, picked her up, and almost threw her off the clifftop. She only just managed to save herself by clutching at clumps of scrub grass as she was tumbling over the edge.

Seersha had lost all perspective. She was in full battle mode as she leapt back to her feet, her warrior blood and training fueling her response. She lashed out at the Straken Lord, nearly unseating him a second time. But the dragon was using its fire again, and she was forced to throw herself out of the way as the bluff around her went up in flames. The dragon lifted off, still breathing fire, trying to finish her. She fought back frantically, her magic shielding her, dispersing the flames. The dragon banked away, momentarily breaking off the attack, though its fire continued to fill a sky gone dark with smoke and ash.

She waited until it came back around, crouched low to the ground to make herself as small as she could manage, and hardened herself against what she knew the Straken Lord would do to her with that scepter if she carried out her plan.

She hesitated to be certain of her target as the dragon swung toward her, then lashed out with every particle of magic she could muster and struck the beast right in its closest eye.

The dragon roared in pain and fury, whipping its head from side to side in agony, the eye gone, blood streaming down its face. In the same instant, while all of her concentration was focused on the dragon, the magic of the Straken Lord’s scepter slammed into her, caught her up, and threw her away like a rag doll. It felt as if every bone in her body had been broken. A small portion of her magic had been diverted to protect her from the expected attack, but she knew at once it had not been enough.

She thought she was dead then. She lay where she was, her strength gone, her magic exhausted, fighting to get to her feet and unable to do so. But to her astonishment, no further attack came. The dragon was bucking and thrashing through the roiling smoke, unable to do anything to ease its pain, the loss of its eye so damaging that it could not, for the moment, manage to think of anything else. Though the Straken Lord fought hard to bring the beast under control, the dragon refused to respond.

In the end, Tael Riverine was forced to let the creature fly him back out into the relative safety of the Streleheim so that it could deal with its injury.

Seersha had just enough time to watch it disappear, then Elven Hunters were gathering all around and pulling her to safety.

The battle between the Elves and the Jarka Ruus raged on through the remainder of the morning. The armies surged up and down the slopes of the cliffs that warded the Rhenn, and back and forth through its eastern pass. At times, it seemed the attackers had gained the advantage they needed to force their way inside the valley, but each time the Elves fought back with such ferocity and determination that the advantage quickly disappeared. Though the creatures from the Forbidding fought on with a furious intensity, it was clear that they were adversely impacted by the failure of the Straken Lord and his dragon to return to the battle, and now lacked the means to counter the damage inflicted by the Elven warships, which were now safely in control of the skies. While they were able to maintain overwhelming numbers on the ground and, under different circumstances, would likely have overrun the Elven defensive positions and claimed both the east pass and the valley before the day was out, they had no real means of protecting themselves from—or fighting back against—their adversary’s airships.