Auraus arrived without incident, and we hurriedly reapplied makeup that had become smudged and rechecked our clothes. It was a pity we hadn’t been able to get some Chirasnivian armor while dashing through the battlefield, but that couldn’t be helped.
“It’s eerie,” said Heather, looking over the Wind-rider’s shoulder as she helped with touching up Auraus’ face makeup to the rocky training fields beyond.
I looked, too. Where last time Under-elves and dranth alike had been drilling, the training grounds dimly lit by the luminescent lichen encouraged to grow on the tall stone pillars was now empty. Or at least, as empty as far as we could tell owing to the annoying Under-elven trick of disappearing from sight at too far a distance.
“We can’t have lucked out like that,” said Jason doubtfully. “They have to be out there somewhere.”
“Not necessarily,” said Dusk. “The warriors and their leaders will be waiting with their units until called up by the Chirasnivian Primus, and will likely be doing it where their barracks are. If we are going to succeed in traversing this cavern, we need to somehow get Chirasnivian clothing.”
“There is plenty of it that way,” said Ragar, pointing over his shoulder back at the melee. He left for the battle before we could say anything.
Heather was a little squeamish when the mountain-cat-elf brought back a couple of bodies, but it was safer for him to do that than to stay and strip them in the middle of battle. Ragar ended up making a couple of more trips, and eventually we had makeshift Chirasnivian armor. My chainmail was thin enough despite its strength to be put on under a larger sized Under-elven piece, so I did that because I did not want to be parted from my goddess-given armor despite the extra weight. We respectfully laid the bodies out behind the gate, and Auraus and I were going to give the Rite of the Dead to them but Dusk stopped us, saying it would have to wait.
“Why?” I asked, puzzled.
“Because we don’t want to give the Conductivus any more ammunition to send against us, do we?”
I blinked. I hadn’t thought of it like that, so she and I reluctantly left the Rite unsaid. I felt weird about leaving the souls where they were, but Auraus made me feel a bit better about it by explaining that the Rite simply hurried up the natural process of soul release, and that the souls weren’t aware of where they were until they exited their shells on their own, so it wasn’t like we were torturing them or anything.
“So what’s the plan?” Jason asked when we had finished our disguises.
“Suggestions?” I asked everyone.
“There are only two things that can be done, Lise,” said Dusk. “We can either go boldly across the training grounds towards the tunnels that lead through the military ring, or we can skulk around the cavern walls to the tunnels that lead to the military ring.”
“Shouldn’t we wait until the fight comes this way first?” asked Auraus.
“That would provide plenty of distraction,” Heather said, adding her two cents.
“We have no idea if the Kelsavaxians will be able to break through or not,” Dusk said. “Fighting in a narrow space like a tunnel will always favor the defenders. The Kelsavaxians need to push through into the training grounds to have a chance of winning, but that will be hard since every Under-elf has some knowledge of arms. The Kelsavaxians must be really upset to push this, this far.”
“But how can the forces that we’ve seen win over an entire city-state?” asked Jason.
Dusk blinked, then looked thoughtful. “The only way I can see that happening is…”
“Is what?” I asked.
“Is if they bring all of Kelsavax with them.”
My jaw dropped “Can they–will they do that?”
“Who knows?” he shrugged. “But it is the only explanation I can think of that makes sense.”
“It would be one hell of a distraction,” Heather said.
Out of the blue a deep rolling horn sounded on the training grounds.
“Oh, that can’t be good,” Heather moaned.
And it wasn’t. The sound of many boots marching in unison and headed our way came to us from somewhere across the training ground.
“Quick! Inside the guard house and hide!” said Jason.
“But don’t run. March!” Dusk added hurriedly.
We all quick-marched inside the guard house and ducked down so we could not be seen out the openings in the walls or the door. Or at least, that was what we had intended to do. We were surprised to see a quad of warriors and the Conductivus for Chirasniv in here. Her honor guard was just as surprised to see us. The Conductivus didn’t notice our arrival because she was lying down on a travel cot, her eyes completely black and staring sightlessly upwards at the stone ceiling of the room. Her skin was even paler than usual and a thin sheen of sweat covered her skin. Ragar was the first to recover from our mutual surprise-fest.
“Haiii!” He roared, stunning everyone with the strength of his roar in the enclosed room, and leapt forward with claws extended.
The Under-elf who was his target reacted too late. He was still drawing his sword when Ragar crashed into him, knocking him to the ground. That galvanized everybody into motion.
“Protect the Conductivus!” shouted the Sub-leader in charge.
The two subordinates still standing rushed with weapons drawn to stand protectively in front of where the Conductivus lay while the Sub-leader threw himself at us. Dusk stepped up and intercepted the Sub-leader while in the background Auraus said some arcane sounding words accompanied by the usual tingle of magic being cast. On her last syllable the Under-elves slowed noticeably, and each yawned hugely before dropping to the ground asleep.
“Quick,” Auraus said, sweat dotting her forehead. “The magic won’t last long!”
Ragar punched the one he was on in the face before getting off him. Using their own sword belts and strips of cloth cut off their uniforms, we tied the warriors up as best we could. When Ragar was done with his and stood up, I saw that some of his fur on his side was stained with red.
“Ragar!” I said concerned. That explained the black eye he’d given his opponent.
“Here, let me help you, Ragar,” Auraus said, casting a healing spell on him.
A brief tingle later, the red on his tan and black fur stopped spreading. I saw with concern that the Wind-rider had lines of strain at the corners of her eyes now coupled with the sweat on her forehead, and I guessed she was at the spell limit she’d mentioned earlier. That was kind of a blow for me to realize. I’d been hoping her magic could help smooth our way into Chirasniv some more.
Auraus looked over at the white-clad figure lying so still on the cot and frowned. “It does not seem that the Conductivus was affected by my spell,” she said. “We should do something about that.”
“But what?” I said. “It seems kind of cruel to tie her up because she doesn’t look very strong. She couldn’t fight us physically if she woke, anyway.”
“Yeah, but she’d still be able to allow herself to be tapped by souls and have them do stuff to us,” Heather said. “Which is probably what she’s doing right now for the battle outside.”
Ragar stood up swiftly, took two strides over to the Conductivus, and smashed his fist into her temple. Her sightless black eyes closed instantly.
“Ragar!” I said, horrified.
Auraus stepped over swiftly to check her over. “She but sleeps,” said the Wind-rider, “though she will likely have a serious headache when she wakes.”
“Heather made a good point. And I agreed with it,” the mountain-cat-elf said defensively.
“Lise is leader here, Ragar,” Auraus reminded him. “Ask first next time!”
Before they could start arguing, the sounds of battle went up several notches. We jumped for the windows to see what was going on.
It seemed that Ragar’s impulsive action had been the right one. The fight that had been outside the Chirasnivian gates was now boiling in through it.