Elminster_ The Making of a Mage - Ed Greenwood [121]
*****
It was late one day when she found battle again. She trudged up a hill, frowned curiously at a trampled, fresh-broken gap in a farm fence, and went through it. The field was empty, but the hilltop in the field beyond it was a crowded place. A large band of Athalantan armsmen stood in a large ring about a lone figure- a woman in robes-firing at her with crossbow quarrels.
A farmer stood leaning on a stout cane at the gate where the two fields met. His lips quivered in anger as he watched, eyes blazing. He turned his head like an angry lion as Elmara came up beside him, and put out his cane to block her path.
"Stay back, lass," he warned. "Yon dogs are out for blood- and they won't care who they slay. They'd not have dared when I was younger, but the gods and the passing years have taken all from me but my smart mouth and this farm…"
The woman on the hilltop knew sorcery; crossbow quarrels were bounding aside from unseen shields, and she was conjuring small balls of fire, and hurling them to consume some of the bolts leaping at her. Her shoulders sagged in weariness, and when she tossed long, tangled hair out of her eyes, the movement was tired. The armsmen were wearing her down fast.
Elmara patted the old man's arm, stepping around his cane- and strode briskly off into the field, heading for the ring of arms-men. As she approached, a bolt took the sorceress through the shoulder. The woman reeled and then fell to her knees with a sob, clutching at the dark, spreading stain where the quarrel protruded.
"Take her," the battlelord outside the ring snapped, waving at his warriors with one imperious gauntlet.
The armsmen rushed in, but the sorceress was muttering something and gesturing hastily with one bloody hand. The trotting soldiers slowed, and one slumped bonelessly to the trodden turf, followed by another. Then a third, and a fourth.
"Back!" the battlelord roared. "Back, before she has all of you asleep!" When the armsmen were back in an unsteady ring, leaving many of their fellows sprawled on the ground, the commander glared around at them, and snarled, "Shoot her down, then. Bows ready!"
The sorceress knelt with bleak eyes, watching helplessly as crossbows were wound, loaded, and made ready all around her.
Elmara sat down hastily on the muddy ground and spoke one of the most powerful prayers she had, timing it carefully.
"Loose!"
At the battlelord's command, the armsmen let fly their quarrels, and Elmara bent forward, eyes blazing, to watch her spell take hold. Abruptly the battlelord was standing in the midst of the ring, and the sorceress was slumped on the ground where he'd stood, outside it. A score of bolts thudded home. Not a few pierced the opulent armor and found the face that the raised visor did not cover. The battlelord staggered, roared, transfixed by many shafts, lifted his hand-and then slowly toppled onto his face, and lay still.
The armsmen were still gaping at the body of their commander when Elmara's hasty second prayer-spell took effect. All around the field, armor glowed a dull red, and men began to grunt, squirm, and cry out, dancing in frantic haste and clawing at their armor.
Hotter it glowed, and hotter. Men were screaming now. The stink of burning flesh and hair joined the metallic reek as arms-men flung their armor desperately in all directions, howling and rolling about naked in the field.
Elmara turned and walked back to the farmer. He flinched at her approach, clutching his cane up in front of his chest like a warding weapon, but stood his ground.
"Ye should be able to deal with them now," she said calmly, looked back at all the writhing, shrieking men, and added, "I fear I've ruined much of your planting."
From empty air she plucked a handful of gems, put them into the astonished old man's hand, and embraced him. Into one large and hairy old ear she murmured, "Ye seem a good man. Try to stay alive; I'll need thy service when this land is mine." Then she turned away.
Darrigo Trumpettower stood with the gems glittering in his hand like