“Lyese … don’t move.” Glissa said softly.
“Way ahead of you,” Lyese whispered.
“Stop this at once!” the gravelly voice bellowed, and Glissa saw a hulking human step from behind a large boulder. Glissa had never seen a human like him before. She hadn’t even know humans lived in these mountains. The man’s huge frame was clad in the robes of the priests, which covered jagged spiked armor that looked like the wearer had attached raw pieces of the mountain to his body. He wore black, irregularly shaped gauntlets covered in rough edges and what looked like dried goblin blood. Wiry scarlet hair topped his unprotected head, and the human’s eyes glittered with red fire. “Much as I would enjoy it, there is technically no need for violence. My lord wishes to speak with you, and would appreciate it if you were unarmed.”
“Your lord?” Glissa said. “New shaman in town, I suppose? What’s a human doing working for a goblin fanatic, anyway?”
“I am no mere ‘human.’ I am a Vulshok high priest, elf. And the old goblin shaman is dead,” the human replied. “These creatures have been called to serve a far nobler cause. Now, if you would be so kind to step down from those remarkable birds and follow me-keep them covered, my friends-everything will be made clear to you.”
The elf girl shot her younger sister a look, and saw Lyese return a faint nod. She was thinking the same thing. This was not a friendly invitation, and if the elves were going to act, it had to be now.
“Go!” Glissa shouted, and kicked her zauk firmly in the flanks. The bird reacted as expected, and bolted toward the nearest goblin warriors. She heard a squawk as Lyese did the same, and then cries from another group of surprised goblins. Those who had held drawn arrows released them at targets that suddenly weren’t there, and ducked as projectiles from their fellows opposite clattered to the ground around them.
Two goblins went down under Glissa’s charging zauk, and she was free. Arrows whizzed past her head and one ricocheted off her helmet, but the goblins, as it turned out, were not particularly good shots. “Come on, Lyese!” she cried. She received no reply except the sound of clashing blades behind her. As Glissa’s sleek mount bird charged toward the looming mountains, the elf girl looked back over her shoulder to see what the big human was doing. This Vulshok was an unknown quantity.
The Vulshok hadn’t taken a single step, though Lyese was fighting his goblin warriors right in front of him. Lyese hadn’t gotten through the line as Glissa had, though she’d certainly put up a fight. Her sister’s sword rang as she batted back goblin spears. The human reached into his robes and produced what looked like some kind of silver mesh fabric. Before Glissa could shout a warning, the Vukshok had tossed the net over Lyese and her zauk. The bird and the elf girl quickly became entangled and fell over sideways, the panicked mount kicking wildly.
“Flare!” Glissa cursed and yanked hard on her zauk’s reins, trying to turn around. The bird’s muscular neck didn’t give an inch. “Come on, you stupid-” Glissa snarled, pulling vainly with all her might. “Stop!”
Maybe I kicked it a little too hard, Glissa thought as she fought the panicked creature. She looked back again at Lyese, who was kicking in the air as four goblin warriors dragged her out of the net. Her zauk was now motionless except for quick, shallow breaths and blood that poured from several spear wounds. So the prohibition on violence didn’t apply to their mounts.
“Halt! Whoah! Slow down, bird brain!” Glissa was almost raving now, and started pounding the zauk’s necks with her fists. This only seemed to make the bird run faster.
When she again checked on Lyese, her sister and the goblin ambush team were specks in the distance, almost lost among the rusty, rocky spires of the Oxidda Mountains. She had to do something, or she really would lose Lyese again. She didn’t even want to think what this Vulshok and his goblins would do to her little sister, especially if the “new lord” the human had mentioned was who Glissa suspected it was.
There was really only one solution, and it was going to hurt. Clutching the strap that held the longsword to her back, she let her feet slip from the stirrups and rolled backward off of the zauk’s rump.
She landed hard, but was able to flatten out and keep the sword on her back from flapping around and doing her more harm than good. She came painfully to rest against a jagged black boulder, shattering her pteron-bone helm, which saved her skull from the same fate.
Dazed and bruised all over again, Glissa sprang to her feet. Still dizzy, the elf girl drew her blade with an unsteady hand and stumbled as fast as she could back to the fight. It took her a full minute to cover the same distance that had taken the zauk seconds, a full minute Glissa had to plan what she was going to do to that Vulshok. Size wasn’t everything, and Glissa had taken down foes that large before. But by the time she reached the enclosed area where the goblins had ambushed them, there was nothing left but an dead zauk and Lyese’s helm, which still wobbled back and forth on its side. She’d missed them by moments.
The elf girl scanned her immediate surroundings looking for some sign of the goblins or her sister. It didn’t take her long to spot the band of diminutive figures surrounding the towering Vulshok as the group moved over a narrow path that cut into the mountains. They had a good head start, but they gave no indication-no quickened pace, no shout of alarm-that they had spotted her yet.
Glissa, on the other hand, had good aim. She pounced behind the dead zauk and heaved it over into its belly. She fumbled with the saddle until she freed Lyese’s longbow and arrows.
Staying low, the elf girl dashed from hiding place to hiding place, slowly gaining on the surprisingly fast-moving goblin pack. Glissa almost lost them a few times when they rounded ferrous outcroppings or passed under natural bridge formations, of which there were many. After twenty minutes she had closed within bow range. Glissa stalked the goblins and their Vulshok leader, carefully selecting a target-a fat, slow moving goblin that was conveniently bringing up the rear. Far enough from Lyese to ensure she wouldn’t accidentally be hit, close enough to Glissa for a successful shot. With a quick inhalation of held breath, the elf nocked an arrow, took aim, and let fly.
The arrow whistled in the air, and the elf saw the fat goblin look up in surprise just before the shaft skewered him through the leg. Fatty went down, howling in pain. The remaining goblins scattered and took cover behind massive natural growth of copper ore and scatter, scraggly trees and bushes. Glissa charged, ducking the goblins’ wild return shots and a few wobbly spears with ease.
The Vulshok, however, remained perfectly still, and so did Lyese. The human had a wicked-looking dagger pressed against her sister’s throat. “Stop!” the human bellowed. “Come any closer and you’re an only child again.”
Taken by surprise, Glissa blurted, “How do you know-?”
“You’d be surprised what I know, Glissa,” the human said. “How about this one? I know what you’ve been seeing in your dreams. A world without metal. A world of flesh, and wood, and rock, and earth and bone and skin. A world where life, as they say, goes on. Something like that?”
Glissa was baffled, but tried not to let on. “No need to do anything rash,” she said. “Yes, you’re right. We can talk about it. Just let her go. If you hurt her, the next shot goes through your eye. I don’t care how big you are, you’ve got to have a brain in there somewhere.”
“No deal,” the human laughed. “I thought you were smarter than that, Glissa. You want to deal? Drop the bow and come quietly, or she dies.”