quiver and rolling them in the poison. “Will that work, Bryn?”
“Aye, that’ll work. Do we shoot for the beasts or their riders?”
“That’s up to who is shooting,” he said, shrugging. “Normally, we kill the riders, and most of the gryphons fly off.”
Bryn treated his emergency throwing dagger, a weapon he was fine with losing. He carried his short bow, so he dipped the handful of arrows. Nevyn had two other archers on the team as well, and they went last. No one did their swords. If the swords needed to be drawn, poison was pointless.
“Where do you think we can find them?” Nevyn asked Mat as the big male stirred.
“You don’t,” he answered groggily. “They’ll find us. Thanks for letting us sleep.”
“No worries, old friend,” Nevyn said with a smile. “We’ll find a place to post up. They can track us to their own demise. You said they catch up to bother you every few days? We can spare the time.”
Nevyn and Bryn jumped off first, Varon following close behind. It was Varon who found their hiding spot, a rough incline with fewer trees and several large rocks, perfect for cover. They moved fast, everyone finding a place to hunker down and wait. Bryn looked around to make sure the unit was playing it smart and not touching anything they had rolled in the thick substance. It would dry as they waited, which would ruin some of the potency, but not by much.
They waited the entire day. As nightfall came, Nevyn gave a little bird chirp whistle, telling everyone he saw the enemy. Bryn moved to look around his boulder and smiled. He gave Varon a thumbs up, the gryphons were in range for him. Varon nodded slowly but held up a flat hand, palm out, indicating they would wait.
Mat and Zayden were near Bryn. Without bows of their own, they stayed hunkered down, watching. He had purposefully picked the same massive boulder, keeping them close. He wasn’t going to screw up now. He had ‘em, and he was getting ‘em home.
Nevyn whooped, signaling for the attack.
Bryn popped up and moved out from behind his rock, arrow already nocked and ready to fire. He took quick aim at the confused Elvasi and let it loose. It slammed into the thigh of a rider, who cursed but didn’t pull it out. Bryn readied a second as the Elvasi turned to see them and let off another, hitting a gryphon in the side, making it screech. He was able to send two more, both hitting their targets, but nothing fatal. He saw two bodies drop, both from fatal shots, and knew who made the hits, both to the eye.
Varon was still the best marksman in the mountains—always had been, always would be.
Mat screamed a war cry at the same time as Nevyn as the warriors jumped up and attacked the gryphons over them. Bryn continued to fire, hitting the soft underbellies. Varon hit a gryphon in the eye. The other two archers were more like Bryn, hitting and waiting for the poison to take effect, which would slow the enemy down for those fighting above. The only archer willing to go into the sky was Varon, who didn’t need stillness to hit his shots. Bryn was jealous. All the years he practiced, and he could never get that good.
Only one Andinna fell back to the earth as the Elvasi realized they were losing and started to retreat. Bryn fired off his last three arrows, two of them proving fatal. The remaining four Elvasi didn’t make it farther, their gryphons dropping from the sky and taking them along for the crash.
The injured Andinna, one of Nevyn’s warriors, was already on his feet by the time anyone reached him.
“Just need a bandage,” the male swore. “The hit was more of a shock than anything that should have knocked me out of the sky.” He seemed a bit embarrassed. “That was a good attack.”
“It was,” Nevyn agreed with a laugh. “Now, let’s clean up our kills, then get the fuck home.”
Bryn grinned as he grabbed Zayden next to him and pulled him in for a hard hug. Mat was next. They flew after the Elvasi, who had just tried to escape once the minor celebration was over. It was quick work, hunting down the few surviving and poisoned riders. They didn’t give much of a fight. Bryn knew they would have been dead in hours, but it was better to clean up than leave it