Page 43 of The Witch who Trades with Death

Chapter Forty-Three

A horn blew, echoing off the mountain walls and rattling the thick cloth of Khana’s tent. She jerked awake, pulled from an old nightmare and straight into a fresh one.

“Ambush!” Neta yelled. “Poison Darts, get your weapons!”

She, Khana, and Lueti scrambled over each other to grab their helmets and weapons and get out of the tent. Luckily everyone slept in their wool armor for warmth, so at least they weren’t going into this unprotected. The sun hadn’t yet risen, forcing everyone to rely on torches, starlight, and the dying embers of their campfires.

“Not good. We’re not in a funnel,” Yxe said beside her. He was right. They were in the open, having made camp in one of the mountain’s many valleys. The Reguallians must have marched all night to get here.

“Don’t we have scouts who are supposed to spot sneak attacks like this?” Haz demanded.

Khana gulped. “Night creatures probably got to them.”

“Dammit.”

Something whistled in the air, like a thousand dying birds. “Arrows!” Neta cried. “Shields up!”

Several nearby units obeyed, bringing their shields over their heads. Khana winced as the deadly tips smacked and scraped against the reinforced leather. One metal tip poked through right above her arm.

When the wave passed, Khana lowered her shield. A few dozen bodies littered the ground around them.

More horns blew. Orders were shouted and relayed: “They’re coming at us from the north! Move!”

They ran to the mountain path leading into the valley. They had to trap the Reguallians there before they spilled into the valley and surrounded the Ghuran forces with their numbers. If the Ghura could bottle them up in a narrow space, they stood a much greater chance of winning.

A nightmare swooped down and snatched a soldier from the ground, ripping her apart with its talons. Another came down on the unit ahead of Khana but was killed by a spear throw. A third was much more successful, snatching a soldier and tossing it to another night creature to eat.

Red units mixed with Blue, but it didn’t matter. They reached the lip of the ravine and locked shields with each other. Khana and her unit were back a few rows, so while she couldn’t see the foot soldiers coming at them, she could see the shadowy men on top of the two rock walls that formed the narrow ravine. The archers.

How could they fend off the foot soldiers while night creatures and archers attacked from above?

“Target the archers and nightmares!” she heard Sava order. “Fire!”

The Blue Owls Company had lit their arrows on fire, creating streams of flame across the sky that briefly lit up the mountain wall. Half went to the archers while the other half went to various night creatures flying above. Four nightmares hit the ground, bodies burning. Others set Reguallian soldiers on fire. Some fell, screaming or silent all the way to the ground. Others crumpled right where they were, their burning bodies betraying the locations of their fellow archers.

“Shell formation!” Chief Phramanka ordered from somewhere up front.

Everyone behind the front line put their shields over the head of the person in front of them, protecting and being protected by their fellow soldiers. It was a defensive position, making it very difficult to move forward and attack. They were supposed to crouch while they did this, too, making it easier to cover each other. Khana, short as she was, barely ducked down, and only just managed to cover the head of the man in front of her – the serji from Red Frogs Six – as the Reguallian archers released another volley. An arrow pinged off her shield. To her left, a nightmare tried to smash into them, only succeeding in knocking a few Ghura down before it was speared to death.

An instant later, the Reguallian forces crashed into theirs. Or at least, Khana assumed it had, as they were all pushed back. Through the gaps in the shields over her head, Khana could see another volley of Sava’s flaming arrows arcing over their heads to the mountain wall.

“Witch!” someone screamed from in front.

For a second, Khana thought they were calling for her. But then the first few rows of the Ghuran troops were shredded by a man glowing blindingly bright.