The arrow soared across the grassy field, the soft whistle of its flight completely drowned out by the ongoing melee. Its golden fletches glinted in the sunlight, and the magical enchantment coursing thought its shaft kept its trajectory straight despite the buffeting winds. Almost two hundred yards later, the tip struck one of the attacking gnolls directly between its oversized shoulder blades, knocking the creature face-first into the blood-sodden dirt.
I had already fired two more shots before the first landed. The gnolls, distracted by the chaos of battle and their own frenzied bloodlust, only had a split second to react. It wasn't enough.
"There's another band approaching from the north," Aluriel warned, her keen wood elf eyes squinting off in the distance.
"Take them," I said. "I'll defend our people."
Clutching my bow tightly in my right hand, I used my left to vault myself up onto the saddle of my horse, Whisper. A single kick of the stirrup was enough to start him charging towards the ongoing fray, and I guided him with my knees while I nocked another arrow and took aim.
"
Felo'tala
!"
Magic coursed through the limbs of my bow, and a moment later the arrowhead burst into flames. I released the string, hoping that the primal fear of fire would be enough to convince the rest of the gnolls to leave their victims alone. The arrow struck another of the beasts through the chest, piercing his heart and immolating his fur in a radiant orange burst.
His friends, regrettably, didn't seem to care.
I grimaced and kicked Whisper into his fastest gait. My scout patrol was only about a hundred yards ahead at this point, but all of my soldiers were already wounded or unconscious aside from Lieutenant Vander. As skilled as he was with a blade, he wouldn't be able to fend off the last three gnolls by himself. And if Aluriel couldn't distract or delay the reinforcements pouring out of the forest...
She will get the job done—she always does. Just focus on the problem in front of you.
I nocked and fired another arrow. I didn't hit any of the three gnolls, but I wasn't trying to. The magic in the arrowhead detonated when it struck the ground, blanketing the area in a billowing cloud of gray smoke. Vander used the distraction well, spinning into the choking mist and hacking down one of the gnolls before it could track his movements. The other two beasts turned and braced themselves for a charge by the incoming rider.
Unfortunately for them, I had no intention of engaging them in melee. Nocking another arrow, I vaulted sideways off my horse and fired in mid-air. The shot struck one of the gnolls in the neck, and he roared and flailed backwards as a fountain of blood erupted from his throat. His partner, rightly horrified, hunkered down behind his battered shield just in case the rolling elf woman tried to shoot him, too.
At which point Vander's sword erupted from inside the creature's chest, skewering him from behind. The gnoll slumped over, dead, just as I hopped back to my feet.
"Brace yourself," I warned, whirling about into a crouch. "More are on the..."
I trailed off when I glanced back towards the forest's edge. The gnolls were already retreating, though Aluriel continued firing from horseback and picking off as many of the beasts as she could. She had accumulated an astonishing body count in a short period of time. I knew I shouldn't have been so surprised—my adjutant was easily the second best archer in Highwind, and probably the best from horseback. What Aluriel lacked in magical training she made up for sheer athleticism.
While she finished chasing off the rest of the gnolls, I signaled for Vander to help me check on our wounded. Miraculously, all of our scouts had survived. A few had suffered serious wounds, but my limited healing magic was able to stanch the bleeding and stabilize them until they could return to the city.
"I doubt the gnolls will be back for a while," Aluriel said once she'd returned and dismounted. "We blooded their noses badly enough that they'll probably hide in the forest until winter."
"We got lucky," I said, turning and glaring at Vander. "Especially you, Lieutenant. What in the abyss were you thinking? I specifically ordered you
not
to pursue anyone past the ridgeline!"
Vander swallowed and visibly braced himself. "I'm sorry, General. I just...I really thought we could take them out before they reported back to the main group."
"And instead you walked right into a trap. Unbelievable.
Unacceptable
."
The young man nodded and lowered his eyes. He was a normally a good kid, all things considered—he was a skilled fighter and scout, and he usually had a cool head on his shoulders. But like so many human males his age, his ego occasionally got the better of him. He had probably spotted the gnolls over a hill and started daydreaming about the prospect of regaling some tavern slut with stories of his "glorious triumph."
Monster-hunting was apparently a potent aphrodisiac in human-dominated cities. There were times when I was convinced the only reason any young males ever signed up to become a ranger or paladin was so they could bluster their way beneath the skirts of as many women as possible.
"You are a ranger, Lieutenant, not a glory-seeking Knight of the Silver Fist," I chastised him. "We don't recklessly charge into battle and put our fellow soldiers at risk. We calmly evaluate all our options, and then we strike when and if the time is right. Do you understand?"
"Yes, General," he assured me. "I'm sorry, General."
I grunted but continued glaring at him. He was a good-looking kid, despite his idiocy. Tall and whipcord lean, he had the body of a runner and the reach of a swordsman. He kept his brown hair short—a rarity amongst the male rangers—and he always had just enough scruff on his square jaw to add about five years to his twenty-something face.
"I'll remind him of his place, General," Aluriel offered, grabbing Vander's shoulder and dragging him away. She didn't stop until they were well out of earshot, but I still watched her silhouette as she dressed the kid down.
Unlike Vander and his squad, Aluriel was completely reliable. She always obeyed orders, and she never let her ego get in the way of the mission. There was a reason I had made her my second-in-command long before I'd made her my lover.
Short, supple, and slender, Aluriel was a physical paragon of her people. Her brown hair dangled just below her ears, and her almond-shaped eyes were a piercing shade of green. Back home in Nelu'Thalas, our people were often rivals; highborn like myself saw wood elves as little more than savages. I had treated her like one myself when she had arrived in the city last year, and I'd regretted it the instant her soft tongue had first slipped between my lips.
"Round up the horses and get the wounded in their saddles," I ordered, turning away from the shouting match and facing the rest of my men. "I want to be back in Highwind before nightfall."
We met my deadline with at least half an hour to spare, and I made certain the injured received the attention they needed in the temple infirmary. As annoyed as I was with Vander for putting his men in such a difficult position, they were still
my
rangers. Their safety was ultimately my responsibility, and I had no interest in seeing them suffer. We could discuss their performance later, after they had all recovered.
Aluriel wasn't so generous. She used the extra time to further scold and discipline Vander and the other mostly healthy men. I knew how much they all despised her, but that only made me respect her more. Like any good adjutant, she was willing to take the heat in her general's place. In the long run, it was better for the army's morale.
After a short meeting with the city's other military leaders explaining what had happened, I finally returned to my office in Duskwatch Tower. Aluriel followed and locked the door behind her.
"It could be worse, all things considered," she said, tossing her bow and quiver onto the nearby couch. "We didn't suffer any permanent casualties, and we won't have to deal with the gnolls for months."
"Maybe not, but we still can't afford to get soft," I said. "Vander and his men need to be punished."
Aluriel grinned slyly, dispelling the aura of grim determination that always surrounded her when we were on duty. "You're unbelievably sexy when you're angry, did you know that?"
I snorted and sighed. "I'm being serious. With all the new recruits coming in, it's more important than ever to enforce discipline."
"I know that. It doesn't change how much I love that wicked twinkle in your eye." She sauntered forward until she was standing barely an inch in front of me. "It makes me want to hold you down and fuck you all night."
She leaned in and kissed me. Her lips were so soft and warm they melted my lingering annoyance in a heartbeat. As our tongues embraced, she placed her hands around my bare midriff and pulled us closer together.
"You really are insatiable," I whispered when she finally leaned away.
"We survived a battle, and every one of our men made out alive," Aluriel said. "Seems like as good a reason as any to celebrate."
I grunted softly. "I could summon one of the servants and have them bring us up some food."
"Why? I have all I can eat right here."
She shifted her hands down to my thighs and promptly lifted me up onto the edge of my desk. I leaned back on my palms and let her get to work, knowing full well how dangerous it was to get between Aluriel and her meal. Her slender fingers dexterously pushed up my leather skirt, and before long she had stripped off the silken thong beneath. My bald quim tingled in anticipation as she gently pushed apart my thighs and dove in.
All the day's strains and worries evaporated on the tip of her tongue. I propped my leather boots up her shoulders as she worked, marveling once again at her voracity and skill. We had only been lovers for a few months now, but she already knew exactly how to make my spine tingle and my toes curl. I bit down on my lip as a climax shuddered through me, thankful as always for the sound-proofing spell Headmistress Telanya had woven into the walls at my request.
Aluriel was smiling up at me when I finally came down, her lips glistening and her face smushed between my slender thighs. "I wish the men could see you like this. They think you're stern and serious all the time. They don't know the real you at all."
"And I plan to keep it that way," I told her, still breathless. "I need their respect, not their friendship."
"There's no reason you can't have both. Look what happened when you reached out to me."
