Chapter 2

Riulan looked up from the injured man before her as the rain struck her back. She turned her dirt-streaked face towards the drops. Ignoring the dirt and blood, and the battlefield itself, she would have been quite beautiful. Her brown hair was long, lying in a braid halfway down her back. Her green eyes were intelligent and normally would have been smiling and had often comforted the keep’s children after a childhood injury. Now though fatigue and weariness wore on her, and the rain, dirt and blood caked her features and hair. She savored the feel of the rain for a moment before turning her attention back to the man dieing before her. An arrow had pierced his side, passing through both lungs before exiting his body through the other side. She held his hand quietly as the alcohol took effect and his eyes closed, numbed by the drink and blood loss, the rasping sound of his breaths slowing and then stopping altogethor. She gently removed her hand and stood looking about the walls as she did. Here and there stood demons summoned by the Sorcerer Mistrew. In front of them, crouched along the wall were the men of Mistrew’s lands. Their eyes glazed in terror and hopelessness for they too knew that outside the walls stood their death. And should they even manage to win the battle they knew that it would merely delay the inevitable for word had reached them that another army, headed by Sorcerer Terimak himself, had been raised and now he himself marched on Castle Tewith with a second army should this first fail. A loud thunderclap rang over the castle, echoing back from the walls of the keep and towers. All looked at the sky, but no lighting could be seen there. Instead a cry came from farther down the wall.

Riulan turned towards the keep and from the tallest tower a green glow was washing out the light of the day. All about her men pressed in terror against the wall for the magics wouldn’t care about friend or foe, and all the men knew that one of their own had been used to fuel that dark ritual. She glared at that dark glow for a moment in hate, before moving on down the wall to find others maybe less injured that she could help before she too was killed by the armies coming against Mistrew. She quietly prayed as she walked, “If there be any gods left send us help.” Her voice held no hope that such prayers, ignored before, would be answered now.