Horace nodded, disappearing into the jungle just outside the clearing. The lightning flies seemed to sense the coming dawn and had almost completely disappeared by the time the soldiers approached the camp.
Isabel waited until they were close before she cast her shield spell, but then held her place, waiting for just the right moment to strike. Six women slipped into the camp, warily looking around as they approached the fire, inspecting the ground for any sign of where their quarry had gone. Isabel started to whisper the words of her light-lance spell, allowing her anger to boil into tightly controlled rage.
The wraithkin appeared in the midst of the women. Isabel smiled fiercely as she unleashed her spell, burning a hole through the side of his head the size of an apple. Hector and Horace swept into the six women a moment later, dual short swords drawn and flashing in the firelight.
Four of the women immediately formed a battle line, raising shields and swords to face the attack, while the other two faced away from the line, searching the jungle for any sign of additional enemy.
Hector and Horace split, each targeting a soldier on the outside of the line. Hector raced toward the soldiers recklessly as if he was going to crash into the shields and expose himself to their blades, but at the last moment he transformed into vapor and slipped through the line, solidifying a moment later behind them and stabbing the surprised woman in the back before rolling around the outside of her dying body and facing the next soldier in the line.
Horace skirted around the edge of the line, forcing his opponent to turn to face him before lunging toward her with his leading blade. When she stepped back to brace herself, she tripped over Horace’s invisible servant, falling into her companion and knocking her over as well. Horace darted in and stabbed her in the lower leg, then backed off, circling around toward the front of the now broken line, looking for his next opportunity to strike.
The woman screamed in pain from the leg wound. At the same time, one of the two soldiers guarding the rear of their hasty formation screamed in fear. Shadowfang lunged at her, swatting her shield aside and going for her throat. With three of their number wounded or dead in seconds, the remaining three women of the Regency Army chose to flee. The first ran straight into Ayela, who stepped into view too late for the woman to stop, crouched down low to avoid a shield smash and stabbed her in the leg before rolling to the side. The woman stumbled, whipping her sword around in a clumsy strike that was several feet too high before stopping suddenly, realization slowly spreading across her face.
“You poisoned me,” she said, falling to the ground.
The soldier that had fallen under Horace’s opponent scrambled to her feet and looked at Hector and Horace wildly, trying to watch them both as they positioned themselves to split her focus. She lunged at Horace, exposing her back to Hector. When Horace blocked, Hector struck, stabbing her in the base of the skull just under her helmet and killing her almost instantly.
The last remaining soldier was nearly to the edge of the clearing when Isabel burned a hole through her, leaving only the wounded soldier left, her leg bleeding profusely, her face already pasty white.
“Hector, Horace, search the fallen for anything of use,” Isabel said, linking her mind with Slyder. A quick survey of the area told her that the bulk of the Regency force was still a half a day behind.
“What about her?” Ayela asked, pointing to the wounded woman.
“What are your orders?” Isabel asked the woman.
She just scowled at her.
“Fair enough,” Isabel said. “Let me guess. You were sent to kill the Sin’Rath and the House of Karth.”
The woman clenched her jaw and almost flinched.
“I’ll leave it up to you, Ayela,” Isabel said. “She came to kill your family. Do we kill her quickly or leave her for the jungle?”
Ayela frowned as the weight of the decision settled on her but she didn’t hesitate for long.
“I would like to leave her to the jungle,” Ayela said, “but we can’t afford the risk that she might survive and make a report to the other soldiers.”
Isabel nodded approvingly, then looked at Horace. In a blink, he stabbed the woman in the side of the neck.
After an hour on the move, Ayela stepped up beside Isabel. “Is it always