“It’s recent,” Marac said, pointing at the limbs. “The leaves are still green.”
“Maybe we can find a way around. Surely there’s a way through.” Brice glanced at the trees. “There, to the right. An opening.”
Laedron walked alongside the tree to its trunk and found scratches and cuts at the base. Fresh cuts. Sap flowing from the nicks. His eyes widened, and he drew his scepter. “Too recent!”
Marac and Brice drew their weapons. When he raised his shield, Marac jerked his arm from the impact of an arrow strike. He hopped to the ground. “Down! Down! We’ll not withstand them on horseback.”
Laedron leaped from his horse. “Val, through there! Get out of here. We’ll find you after.”
Without a word, she snatched the reins and rode hard northeast. Laedron watched an arrow fly past her and strike a tree. He breathed a sigh of relief when she reached the cover of the woods. Brice landed on the ground, scurried to Marac’s side, and hid behind his shield. “A steep hill to our left. I saw an archer atop it.” Marac shoved Brice. “Why didn’t you tell me, Thimble? Want to see my head taken off?”
“I didn’t see it until you jumped down. Quit pushing me!” Brice shoved him back.
“Both of you stop it, or we’ll be killed for sure,” Laedron said, peeking over them.
Another arrow struck Marac’s shield. He stared at the point mere inches from his eye. “We’ve got to do something.”
Laedron couldn’t tell if Marac bore contempt or fear in his eyes. Probably both.
Another arrow dinged against Marac’s shield. “Damned bandits. They’ll hit us eventually.”
“I think they are hitting us,” Brice said.
“You know what I mean, Thimble.”
Laedron clenched his jaw and sneered at them. “Enough. What are our options?”
“Advance on their position.” Marac braced his shield arm with his other hand. “It’s uphill, but we can’t stay here and do nothing.”
Presenting his scepter, Laedron said, “Or escape.”
“What’s the plan?”
“Keep your shields up, and I’ll set a fire.”
Marac sighed. “You’ll burn the whole forest down that way.”
Brice dropped to his knees, and an arrow sailed over his head. “Better to lose the forest than our lives. Do it, Lae.”
“Wait,” Marac said, his eyes shifting, a plan clearly forming in his mind. “Can you summon a winter storm?”
Laedron took his head in his hands. “It’s unlikely to harm them. We don’t have time for theatrics.”
“Yes, but it’ll get them off of us. Summer suddenly turning to winter? It’d make me second-guess attacking whatever could do that.”
“If you like, but it’ll make things harder to burn if they keep shooting.” Laedron readied his scepter. “It won’t take them long to figure out that there’s a sorcerer over here, either.”
“I don’t care if they know we have a sorcerer. I don’t care if they think Azura herself has come down from on high.” Marac gritted his teeth. “Do it. It’s better than setting fire to half of Lasoron.”
Standing up halfway to see over his shield, Laedron pointed the rod toward the woods and chanted a spell of wintertime. Marac and Brice crowded in front of him, doing their best to shield him from the oncoming barrage. From the large ruby, silver and blue light erupted, draping the trees and the ground all around them with ice. Even though he could see little through the canopy, he noticed the sky changing from a vibrant blue to a somber gray. Snow clouds, he mused, waving the scepter from side to side.
Fewer arrows came their way the longer Laedron held the effect, and after a while, the snow flurries were the only things flying around. He strengthened the blizzard with his finishing words, then took hold of his friends by the shoulders. “Best get moving now. It will last a while yet, but not forever.”
Barely on his horse, Laedron yanked the reins to the right and took off in the direction he’d sent Valyrie. He drove the horse onward until its hooves flung dirt and pine straw, the cold air replaced by the hot summer haze beyond his spell’s reach. When he cleared the trees, he felt the sting from the branches that had struck him in the face and the wetness of the blood on his skin. Funny. I hadn’t noticed them hit me on the ride here. His thoughts were cut short when he spotted her horse.
Riding over, Laedron first realized that Valyrie was nowhere to be found. The cliff was the second thing he noticed. He climbed down from his horse and ran to the ledge. If it weren’t for his eagerness to find her, Laedron could have spent hours staring at the breathtaking landscape, the rolling hills in the valley and the lush green treetops extending to the horizon.
“Val!” His voice echoed into the distance. “Valyrie!”
Marac and Brice emerged from the woods, and Brice stopped just short of the drop, his horse obviously riled at being so near the cliff.
“Help me find her.” Laedron held his hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun. “Val. Where is she?”
“I hear something… over here,” Marac said, scurrying to the ledge and falling to his knees. “Look, down there.”
Laedron ran to the edge, then dropped next to Marac. Never before had Laedron seen the kind of fear that Valyrie had in her eyes. Clinging to some exposed roots, she didn’t make a sound, as if even a muffled scream might cause the roots to give up their hold.
“We’re going to get you up. Just hold on.” He pulled out his scepter and chanted a levitation spell.
Before he could finish the incantation, he heard a snap. With a shriek, she fell.
Laedron’s instincts took over. Stepping off the ledge, he heard Marac shout, “Lae, no!”
His clothes flapping in the breeze, Laedron forced the incantation past his lips. The fear will have to wait. I must save her. I must. He stretched out his hand, the tops of the pines below fast approaching. Closer. Only a little closer. Reach, dammit!
Once their hands touched, Valyrie pulled at him, then wrapped her arms around his chest and climbed him in a frenzy.
“I can’t-” He struggled to get his mouth free, to finish the spell and save her, but her arm coiled around his head and neck like a snake constricting on its prey.
He pried at her arms with his free hand. “Va-” He knew that they must be close to the ground, but he couldn’t see. He tried to speak again. The words came out like a muffled scream. Peeling her arms over his head like a wet shirt, he broke loose long enough to shout the last word a few feet from the ground, slowing their descent.
Landing, he took a deep breath, but his knees buckled. He sat, then he lay on his back and tried to calm his nerves. Although he couldn’t see their faces, he imagined the looks Marac and Brice were giving one another at the top of the cliff. He turned his head to see Valyrie, her breathing panicked and her hair frizzled. “All right now?”
“All right?” She clenched one hand into a fist while snatching briars from her hair with the other. “We could’ve been killed.”
“But we weren’t.”
“I can’t catch my breath!” Grabbing her chest, she collapsed to the ground, using one arm to keep herself from falling flat.
He crawled over to her. “Just breathe. Take it slow.”
“Do you do this sort of thing often?”
“What, jumping off a cliff to save someone? No, not really, but in your case, I decided to make an exception.”
She gazed into his eyes. The look could have been anything-relief, happiness, or something else-but he was relieved that it was something other than anger and resentment. At the very least, it got her to relax.
“Ready to go back up?” he asked.