The Obsidian Arrow

The Obsidian Arrow: Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

[Arria’s POV]

The breeze was strong at dusk pushing against Arria’s already cold face. She led the army in the front and pushed them hard to continue on their path without any breaks. The few that were weak and wanted breaks were already dead by her blade. Weakness was not acceptable to her and she would not tolerate it. If the tremulous hike to the south of Sudegam was too much for them than what use would they be in battle?

            She knew that the elves would expect an attack from the north and would probably have the east and west scarcely covered as well, but the south was where she knew to attack. They had to travel all the way around the elven capital and far enough away from it to not arise suspicion. She had lived in Sudegam long enough to know where its weakest point for attack was. The southern border the road leading into the city expanded in all directions making a scattered pushed attack impenetrable.

            Arria knew this was because they had no enemies to their south, only allied elf towns, or faerie towns, but the faeries never gave the elves any trouble. They weren’t allies, but they were smart enough to not be enemies. Arria remembered stories of them once being allied before thousands of years ago in a war against the dragons, but she wasn’t old enough to know for sure. There hadn’t been sight of a dragon in so long that they must have been extinct.

            Arria hushed them back and tried to keep them quiet as she tiptoed forward to look through the opening. What she saw surprised her. She was right to assume that the elves wouldn’t be worried about the southern border, but what she saw was the humans being led by that same one she had fought protecting the south entrance. He stood next to the pearly white gates that surrounded the rest of the city with an army of men and a captain. The walls were too large to climb and so they had to use the entrance. Trees surrounded the gate and even continued inside. Elves were the only race that had wild trees continuing into it.

            It posed her a threat, but it was still the best route inside the city. She could smell the fear in the air that night. The smell pleased her as her most favorite smell was fear. She turned back around to bark orders when she noticed elves in the trees.

            “Attack from above!” Arria yelled.

            The confused daerions and draeyks looked everywhere until one had fallen to the ground in a magic blast. They all cried out in terror as some pulled crossbows from their back to fire back at the elves hiding in the trees. Their arrows were almost ineffective against their magical blocks.

            Arria scanned the trees noticing dozens of elves firing magic down towards them. She remembered the days when the elves feared all magic. That was until… “Aliuqa…” Arria whispered. The elves were always scared to use magic until Aliqua the dark skinned elf showed up. She showed them spells of nature and healing, but they were still scared of the black magic. The magic that Arria had to use to save mother… and she would have saved mother too…

            The thought of her mother had her mind scattered and full of anger and hate. Hate towards the elves, especially the elves who cursed her magic while they had no problem using their own. The spell casters, and here they were and it was her chance to eliminate them.

            “Everybody, fire arrows into the trees, and keep them busy. Hit what you can!” Arria yelled.

            The draeyks and daerions obeyed orders in hopes that the undead elf wouldn’t come tear them apart herself. Meanwhile Arria licked her lips as she ran towards a tree removing two short blades from her sash. She jumped in the air and thrust the daggers into the tree and began climbing up almost faster than the eye could see. Pieces of bark slid off the tree and came crashing to the ground where she had stabbed it repeating with her daggers on her climb up. The nature of the tree didn’t matter to her though, as only the speed in which she reached the treetops and had the chance to meet her attackers.