Word of Traitors_ Legacy of Dhakaan - Don Bassingthwaite [98]
With a swift motion, she hurled it into a campfire burning at the back of a knot of hobgoblins.
The fire erupted into a column of gold-white flame that blasted all those nearby, defenders and attackers alike, off their feet. The Darguul defenders took the worst of it though: their backs smoldered and two hobgoblins lay where they fell, unmoving.
The elf commander turned again, a second flask in her hand, and took aim at another fire. “Stop her!” Ekhaas shouted.
A chain hissed out of the battle and wrapped around the elf’s raised forearm. The whipping metal spun up her wrist and hand, hitting the flask—and shattering it. Shards and golden dust rained down over half of the elf’s face. Her eyes opened wide and she shrieked in agony. Red welts streaked her skin wherever the dust touched. She dropped her scimitar and groped at her face, but Keraal still held the end of his chain. With a tremendous heave, he yanked the elf off her feet to squirm on the ground. His free hand grabbed the fallen scimitar and drove it into her back.
Shrieks and squirms ended. Once again silence fell on the night as Valaes Tairn and Darguuls stared.
Then the dar were shouting in victory and the last of the elves were fighting to escape. Hobgoblins moved to pursue the red-garbed forms that darted into the night but Dagii’s stern voice called them back. “Let them go! The battle is ours!”
A cheer rose. A trio of bugbears grabbed Keraal where he stood, panting for breath, over the body of the elf commander, and hoisted him onto their shoulders. Keraal stared around in surprise and his eye fell on Ekhaas. He grabbed one of the bugbears and tried to point at her, but Ekhaas just shook her head and stepped back.
Dismissing her remaining illusory duplicates with a whisper of song, she went to find Dagii.
She found him walking among the victims and the survivors of the attack. He saw her and nodded, but stopped first beside a young warrior crouched over the body of a fallen elf, flipping through the folds and pockets of her clothing. The warrior glanced up, saw who it was, and sprang to his feet, thumping his chest in a salute. Dagii looked him up and down. “Who are you?”
“Faalo of Rhukaan Taash, thevk’rhu.”
“You killed this elf?”
Faalo straightened. “Yes. My first kill in real combat.”
“A good clean blow.” Dagii examined the wounds on the body. “Well done.” He clapped Faalo on the shoulder, a moment of contact between two comrades in victory. Faalo seemed to stand even straighter, his ears high and proud. Dagii released him and came to Ekhaas.
“I saw what you did,” he said.
“Driving off seven elves or giving you a chance to join your soldiers?” she asked him.
“I was thinking of the elves.” His gray eyes narrowed. “The diversion was not so well done. I could have made it back on my own. You put yourself at risk.”
“At more of a risk than facing seven elves?” Amber eyes met gray.
“Chetiin shouldn’t have let you do that either.”
“Chetiin went to deal with the elf archers.” She dropped her eyes and looked him over. His armor had new dents and scratches. The links of mail protecting one side of his torso were broken and his stance favored that side, though no blood seeped through the padding beneath the armor. A thin bloody scratch traced the line of his jaw just beneath his helmet. She stepped around him, examined the stump of the arrow that still stuck out from the back of his shoulder, and snorted. “I’ll give you healing now.”
“There are warriors who need it more than me.”
“You are their leader. They look to you for command. You need to be healthy.” She pushed him over to one of the remaining campfires. “Take off your armor so I can get the arrowhead out.”
His face flushed. “Not in front of the troops!”
“Why? I’m a duur’kala. I’m offering you healing.”
The muscles of Dagii’s jaw tightened and his mouth pressed into a thin line. He reached up—a little awkwardly because of his side and his shoulder—and pulled off his helmet. The shadow-gray hair that had come early to him fell lank and sweaty. Ekhaas helped him remove his