Vhenlar, however, was still as nervous as a mouse in a hawk's nest. The archer paced the barn's loft, watching the windows but keeping well out of the line of fire. In the field directly below them, six bedraggled elves were chained and staked amid the rows of aromatic plants. It was Bunlap's plan that the elves appear to be field slaves-a plan that was about as effective as hitching three wild deer to a plow and expecting a straight furrow to come of it. The strange little folk adamantly refused to cooperate with their captors. Even the smallest child would rather take a beating than harvest a single leaf. Weakened by lack of food and sleep and by the frequent lash of the whips, the elves nonetheless showed a fierce, stubborn resistance that Vhenlar almost admired.
The archer watched as one of the mercenaries on guard duty drew back his whip to punish a recalcitrant slave. His intended victim, an elven lass not yet old enough to bed, faced the man defiantly as the whip flashed up and forward.
Up came the girl's arm, moving with a speed that rivaled that of the flailing leather thong. Even as the whip curled around her wrist, the elf maid exploded into action. Moving faster than Vhenlar would have believed possible, the girl seized the whip with both hands and threw herself into a backward roll.
The sudden tug worked with the whip's momentum to pull the mercenary off-balance. He stumbled forward. Before he could recover, the elf was on her feet. With the speed of a striking hawk, she was upon him. A quick flash of her bleeding arm, and the now-slack whip was looped around the mercenary's neck.
Darting around him, the fierce elf child leaped up high and planted both bare feet on the small of the human's back. She kicked out hard, launching herself back and pulling at the whip with all her might. Vhenlar winced as the mercenary's head snapped back sharply. He fancied he could actually hear the distant cracking of bone.
"Another man down," he noted laconically, watching as three of the guards rushed in and wrestled the girl to the ground.
When Bunlap merely shrugged, the archer turned back to the scene below. He felt oddly ill at ease in the barn's loft. Trapped, almost. Yet Vhenlar was no stranger to the task before him. During his years stationed in the fortress known as Darkhold, he'd often hidden in the rocks above some nearby mountain pass, picking off travelers. When would-be invaders challenged the Znentish stronghold, Vhenlar was always called to the walls to help pin down the attackers. His aim was almost legendary, and he had over two hundred confirmed kills to his credit. But compared to the uncanny skill of the forest elves, Vhenlar felt like a clumsy-handed novice. Not even the extra measure of precision granted him by his elven bow evened the score to his satisfaction.
Suddenly the mercenary captain leaped to his feet, his gray eyes blazing in his elf-scarred face. "There it is, men!** hissed Bunlap. "Take your places. Move!"
Although Bunlap's men exchanged uncertain glances, all did as they were told. Kneeling beside the small windows that vented the loft, they gathered their weapons, fixed then- eyes upon the tree line, and waited.
"What d'you hear, Captain?* Vhenlar murmured as he nocked an arrow-one of his own, this time, steel-tipped and fletched with the blue-and-white striped feathers of a bird that brightened the bleak landscape of his native Cormyr. The arrow felt good in his hands, not at all like the black-shafted arrows he had pillaged from the quivers of slain elves or torn from the bodies of his own comrades. There was something unnatural about those elven bolts. Vhenlar couldn't pick up such an arrow without the strange feeling that it might at any moment turn against him.
"The call of a wood thrush," Bunlap returned with grim satisfaction. "A sort of bird that never ventures from the forest to the fields. It would appear that our elven friend has less sense than the bird he imitates!"
Vhenlar squinted into the trees, but he could see nothing. He nodded toward the captured elves in the fields below. "If you recognize that birdsong, so do they," he pointed out.
This, Vhenlar thought, was the weakest point of Bunlap's plan. Surely the elven slaves realized they-were bait for an ambush. If they had bothered to count, they would have to know there had been more humans in the raiding party that destroyed their homes than the few who now guarded them. But the elves also knew enough about their human captors to realize that they themselves would probably not survive a rescue attempt. Vhenlar had no idea whether the elves would try to warn away any would-be rescuers or whether they'd keep quiet and hope for the best.
Then a pale bolt arched up high over the field, followed by two more. The arrows descended upon the three guards who were busy subduing the elf girl with considerably more force than was needed. Startled oaths and shouts of pain floated up toward the barn as the guards leaped to then- feet. The men whirled about, pawing at the arrows embedded between their shoulder blades.
"Just out of reach, just above the heart," murmured Vhenlar with admiration. It was an astonishing feat of skill. Even more remarkable was the range at which the shot had been made. Not even a crossbow-fired arrow could have taken the guards with a level shot. To reach the humans at all, the elves had had to shoot upward at a sharp angle, trusting that the arrows would fall in precisely the right place.
Before he had time to marvel at this feat of marksmanship, the unseen elves' purpose became apparent. The elf maid, suddenly freed, seized a hand-axe from the belt of one of the distracted men and with one fierce blow severed the chain that tethered her. At once a second barrage of arrows exploded from the forest and took all three of her tormentors through their throats. She nimbly dodged their falling bodies and ran like a deer for the trees.
Instinctively Vhenlar dropped the elf bow and snapped his loaded crossbow up into place. Before he could bring down the elf maid, Bunlap seized his wrist.
"Fool! You'll give away our position!"
"And she won't?" Vhenlar retorted.
For once Bunlap had no argument. He released the archer's wrist and nodded grimly.
Vhenlar pulled the crossbow's trigger. The arrow streaked toward the fleeing girl, and though she was at the outermost edge of his range, he saw his aim would be good.
But while the arrow was still hurtling downward toward the elf maid's back, an answering flash came from the forest's edge. There was a sudden bright spark, clearly visible against the darkening forest, as Vheniar's steel arrowhead met one of stone. Both arrows fell to the ground, and the elf maid disappeared into the trees.
"Bane's dark blood," the archer swore in an awed tone. Had he not seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed any mortal being could shoot accurately enough to hit an arrow in flight, point-to-point.
Bunlap seemed to be having similar thoughts, for he edged away from the open window. He cupped his hands to his mouth and bellowed instructions to the men below. The guards unchained the captured elves and, holding them as shields, began to drag them back behind the barn.
"Lot of good that will do," Vhenlar muttered. "Elves are small; there's still too much human target exposed. Those elven archers could put a bolt through a hummingbird's eye!"
"So we might lose a few guards," the captain returned coldly. "What of it? Enough men remain to bring the captives out of range-and out of sight. The wild elves won't stand and fight, but we'll give them something to think about. Every now and again we'll cut one of their womenfolk. They can sit there and enjoy the music while we kill off their people, bit by bit, or they can leave the shelter of the trees."
The archer responded with a derisive sniff.
"An easy choice for them to make, is that what you^ think?" inquired Bunlap. "Mark me: that fox-haired elf will come. Hells' dungeons-I'd come, if for no other reason than to take up the gauntlets weVe been leaving all over the forest!