orc in the tree to move more into the open, where a bolt from the south finished him.
Waving her bow, Denea let out a triumphant cry, then led her group in against the orcs. At the same time Xanon’s surged in from the north. Steel met steel. Nightsabers clashed with wolves.
Denea had changed her bow for a glaive. She slashed through the throat of a slavering wolf as it seized her by the leg. Her sleek, raven-colored hair, bound in a tail, darted like a whip as she looked this way and that for her next foe.
The orcs fought savagely . . . even more savagely than Haldrissa had expected. They left themselves open at times, seeming to prefer simply to try to get to an enemy no matter what the risk. While by sheer force they kept the larger contingent of night elves momentarily at bay, the odds were clearly too great against them.
Could it be—? the commander started to realize, only to have to forgo completion of the thought as another mounted orc dove in at her. Haldrissa dropped her bow and brought up her glaive, using the nearest of the curved blades to deflect the axe. Her arm shook as the two weapons rang together.
The wolf dodged to the side of her nightsaber’s claws in order to give its rider a better opening. The commander’s cat twisted to protect Haldrissa, but the orc had already swung.
The foremost blade cracked under the force of the strike. The upper half flew into Haldrissa’s face. She felt stinging pain by her left eye, then her sight there vanished. A wetness spread over her left cheek, and she nearly passed out from shock.
A part of her mind screamed, The orc! Beware the orc!
One hand clutching her ruined eye, Haldrissa tried to focus on her foe. Through her tears, she made out his general shape. He was nearly upon her, even with the nightsaber now doing its best to fend off the wolf.
Haldrissa twisted the glaive in order to bring one of the remaining blades between her and where she thought the axe was. Her head pounded, and the outline of the orc faded.
She knew she was going to die.
But the killing blow never came. Instead, the nightsaber ceased its violent rocking, as if the battle between it and the wolf had come to a sudden conclusion.
“Commander!” someone shouted in her ear. She recognized Denea’s voice.
“The orc—”
“The orc is slain!” A slim hand seized her weapon arm. As Haldrissa blinked away tears from her remaining eye, Denea came into focus. “Be still, Commander! You need aid, quickly!”
“The battle—”
“Is over! The orcs are slain to a warrior, their wolves perishing with them!”
A prisoner would have been good to have, Haldrissa knew, but a capture could not always be accomplished in the midst of frenzied fighting. As another Sentinel came around her blind side and began working on her wound, Haldrissa finally managed to better focus on the situation. One thing immediately came to mind.
“The outpost . . . we must reach the outpost. . . .”
She was forced to wait while they finished with her eye, and even then Xanon suggested that they turn around. Haldrissa began to feel like an old grandparent rather than their commander, and grew angry. The other night elves acquiesced to her orders, and the party finally raced toward the outpost, all expecting the worst.
But as they neared the wooden structure, to their surprise, a pair of sentries stepped out from among the trees. They looked stunned by the party’s appearance, especially that of the commander, who now sported a long cloth over the damaged side of her face.
Before they could speak, Haldrissa quickly asked, “The outpost—all is well?”
They glanced at one another in some confusion, one finally replying, “Yes, Commander! It has been very quiet!”
“Were there other sentries posted in the trees behind us?”
“Two . . .”
There had been no sign of either the pair or the other scout Haldrissa had sent. She had no doubts as to their fate.
“A scouting force,” Denea declared to her. “They managed to maneuver around the outpost without being caught, but the missing sentries must have run across them.” A dark smile crossed her features. “Well, they will not be ferreting out any secrets to pass back to their warchief; we have seen to that and avenged our lost comrades as well!”
Xanon and the others seemed to agree with her, but Haldrissa remained silent. She thought of the fatalistic determination of