of the shots struck targets. The rest were deflected with troll magic or missed altogether. Jalissa and the elves rained down arrows, but many were blown off course by the howling wind.
A few of the trolls paused long enough to raise their own repeating rifles. One of the soldiers not far from Essie cried out. She gritted her teeth. It was the most painful of ironies that her soldiers were being killed by Escarland’s own weapons.
She finally managed to shove the last cartridge into the gun. She levered the bolt to chamber the first round, raised, and fired. The trolls were close enough now she hardly had to aim.
Should she give the order to retreat? Did they even have enough men to make a defensive retreat? If they simply fled, the trolls would cut them down as they ran. More soldiers tended to be killed during panicked retreats than were killed in the actual battles.
No more time. The trolls were too close.
She reached for the heart bond, thankful Farrendel wasn’t blocking her. She wasn’t sure how to communicate goodbye to him. Was this goodbye? After all she had done to try to get him back, she certainly hadn’t planned on dying in the snow during a night ambush before ever reaching Gror Grar.
Farrendel’s concern flooded through her, along with the growing crackle in the heart bond that felt a lot like his magic.
I wish you were here. I wish you could unleash a wave of power to blast them back. Essie raised the rifle again for one last shot before the trolls reached them. This was all too much like those last moments of that ambush, when she had glanced at Farrendel, thinking she was going to die. She tried to will that same feeling she’d had, meeting his gaze then, through the heart bond to him now. She found herself reaching for that simmer of power, as if in a desperate attempt to draw on it.
The crackle built, humming in her ears. The warmth of the heart bond filled her chest. No, not just the heart bond. She gasped, struggling to breathe past the power filling her.
Some instinct, or perhaps it was a nudge through the heart bond, made her drop her rifle and raise her hands, as if warding off the oncoming trolls.
Sizzling blue power blazed in front of her before blasting outward, hurling the trolls several yards backwards.
Essie gaped at her hands. That had been Farrendel’s magic. Had she done that? Or had he done it through her? How had he managed to decipher the impressions she’d sent him enough to guess what she needed?
“What was that?” Jalissa gripped Essie’s shoulder, staring down at her with wide eyes. “Was that...”
“I don’t know.” Essie fumbled to pick up her rifle, then dropped it again. She wasn’t sure what she should be doing with her hands. Raise them for another blast of magic? Start firing her rifle again?
The sense of a question came from Farrendel. Asking if she was all right? Or if she needed more power?
Yes. Maybe. She didn’t know. How did she even go about telling him what she needed?
A few of the trolls had clambered to their feet. One raised a rifle, aiming it straight at Essie. Even with the yards separating them, that black muzzle gaped round and deadly, about to spew its lethal projectile.
Essie flung out a hand in the direction of the troll, squeezing her eyes shut as if that would make him disappear or miss or make the bullet hurt less as it tore through her chest. She tugged on the crackle in the heart bond. Farrendel!
Another crackle of magic built in her chest before exploding outward with jarring force. Essie gritted her teeth at the sulfuric sizzle that filled the air. Her scalp and arms prickled as if all of her hair was attempting to stand on end beneath her hat and coat.
A bolt of blue magic plowed into the troll, cutting through him and the troll behind him before blasting into a wave of energy that knocked the few trolls that had regained their feet back to the snow.
She wasn’t in control of this magic. The thought tightened her chest, her breathing coming in gasps. How did she stop it? Control it? She sensed the well of power that magic had come from, and the sheer vastness made her stomach heave.
Was this what Farrendel sensed when he unleashed his magic? No wonder he used as little of his magic as