Vulnerable to: daylight, sunburst

  Special attacks: fear, raging fury

  No, I didn’t mention Glasha is female, because it’s irrelevant. Glasha climbed to the top of the heap in what passes for orc society through cunning, treachery, violence, and wicked self-interest. She is a ravager’s ravager, a powerful swordfighter, and a brilliant tactician. In addition to her ravager’s abilities, in combat she can become gripped with raging fury, which increases the damage she does on a successful hit and makes her likely to attack with her teeth instead of a weapon. It also decreases her chance of landing a successful hit, but not by as much as I’m sure you’d like.

  If Glasha wins this war, she will murder or enslave every human in the Southlands. Then she’ll turn her sights on the north. You received this quest for a reason, Aderyn. Now you know what it is.

  Aderyn scrambled to her feet and drew her sword. “Watch out for their fear effect!” she shouted. The room was huge, but not so huge that [Amplify Voice] was necessary. Owen fought with the cold precision she knew so well, holding off all three ravagers at once. A flash of crackling blue light sent a gust of freezing air past Aderyn’s face, and one of the ravagers cried out as ice speared through his body.

  Weston’s [Fire Dancer’s Knife] shot past Aderyn, striking one of Owen’s opponents, and then the other orcs converged on their group. Aderyn couldn’t find a way past them for [Outflank]. She came face to face with one of the female ravagers, who snarled and raised her notched, heavy sword for a skull-cleaving blow.

  As the blade descended, and Aderyn prepared to block, the ravager’s expression became bewildered, and she shot five feet to the right of Aderyn. The sword whiffed through the air, nearly taking Aderyn’s scalp with it. Aderyn knew [Reposition] too well to mistake it for any other maneuver. “Suveer!”

  “I can move them around!” Suveer replied. He sounded surprised rather than pleased.

  “Yes, but—all right, keep an eye on—” She decided not to give him instructions and further decided to save yelling at him for nearly getting her killed until after the battle. “We can control how they stand, so let’s work together!”

  Suveer was already gone, running to the far side of the room after an orc who flailed his arms as [Reposition] slid him out of reach of Isold. Aderyn gave up. Suveer would do his own thing, and hopefully it wouldn’t get him or her friends killed.

  She caught sight of Glasha again. The orc commander general stood some distance from the fight, her massive, muscular arms crossed over her chest. Her lip curled in disdain. Then she turned and left the room, slamming the door shut behind her. Aderyn almost cried a warning. Glasha was their target, not these stupid orc ravagers. But they didn’t have any choice but to fight their way through.

  Heavy tentacles of dark, rich earth sprang from the floor and immobilized three of the ravagers. Livia ran past them, ignoring them in favor of attacking a ravager menacing Weston. Isold had control of one and had compelled him to fight another ravager. Even Suveer was moving orcs around, five feet at a time, apparently growing more confident the more success he had in disorienting them.

  Aderyn leaped to intercept an orc who attacked Suveer, using [Compel] to keep the orc's attention on her. She dodged the female’s unexpectedly swift blows, infuriating the orc into roaring. The edge of the ravager’s fear effect struck Aderyn, but she shrugged it off and went on the attack, aiming for the weak spots of throat and armpits and groin. The memory of the spectral guardian’s poison made her feel lighter than usual by contrast.

  Congratulations! You have defeated [Orc Ravager].

  You have earned [19,500 XP]

  The unexpected system defeat notice when her opponent hadn’t fallen startled Aderyn into dropping her guard. The ravager seized her momentary distraction to stab Aderyn in the side. It felt like being punched rather than stabbed, and now it was the ravager’s turn to be startled at how her attack had failed. Aderyn had never been so grateful for her . The ravager’s grip on her sword loosened, just for a moment, but in that moment, Aderyn struck, and with a lucky blow wrenched the sword from her opponent’s hand.

  The ravager stepped back. Aderyn raised her mystery sword and with [Reposition] dragged the orc in one swift motion forward onto the blade. The ravager choked and involuntarily grabbed the length of steel embedded deep within her stomach. Aderyn drove it home harder.

  Congratulations! You have defeated [Orc Ravager].

  You have earned [19,500 XP]

  It took some tugging to pull her sword free of the dead ravager, and another system defeat notice flashed as she did so. She heard Owen shout her name and discovered he’d made it to the far side of the orcs he was fighting. She shoved another orc aside and got into position for [Outflank].

  “Glasha’s gone!” Owen shouted. “What now?”

  “We should go after her/Pretend to turn your back, Owen,” she replied. [Secret Message] was still clumsy even now that she could speak to multiple people at once.

  Owen half turned away. The ravager he’d been fighting laughed and aimed a blow at Owen’s back. Aderyn dragged the fuzzy yellow ball that was its focus on Owen to herself. The orc let out a surprised yell as it spun around to face Aderyn. Before it could recover, Owen drove the through its body so deeply the glowing tip emerged from below its breastbone. Aderyn slashed its throat and darted back to avoid the spray of blood. Another system defeat message appeared. Four down. No, five—the victim of Isold’s [Compulsion] drove a knife through the eye of his fellow ravager.

  “Aderyn, watch out!” Owen shouted.

  Aderyn spun around in time to meet a pair of daggers aimed at her face. She dodged one, but the other scored a deep line along her cheek, cutting to the bone. She shrieked in mingled pain and surprise and threw herself at the orc, not thinking how stupid it was to try to body check something nearly twice her size. With the sword, she aimed a powerful blow at the ravager’s neck. The tip of the blade struck the hollow of his throat and was deflected upward by the orc’s tough skin, tearing through the corner of his mouth with its blubbery lips and cutting a line across his face to match her wound.

  They faced each other, not moving, both breathing heavily. Then the orc roared in Aderyn’s face, his hot, stinking breath on the raw wound making her wince. Aderyn let the fear effect wash over her, like a fog, and ignored it. She shoved him away with [Reposition], moving him a good fifteen feet back to give herself time to recover her equilibrium.

  Cold air riffled her ponytail as Owen’s [Weapon Mastery] skill activated its elemental damage, and another system defeat message appeared. The chill was welcome in the overwarm, dim room that stank of orc, and it boosted Aderyn’s morale. With a scream of defiance, she launched herself at the orc, who barely got his crossed daggers in place to block her attack. Aderyn disengaged and drove her sword into the orc’s belly. It didn’t penetrate deeply, so she tried again. Sharp pain, barely noticed in the heat of battle, shot through her below her shoulder. The orc backed away, stumbled, and collapsed. Aderyn pounced, wounding it a third time, and in seconds, the fight was over.

  Congratulations! You have defeated [Orc Ravager].

  You have earned [19,500 XP]

  The system defeat message was blurry, and blinking did nothing to clear Aderyn’s vision. She felt along the place where her chainmail arm opening was, and her hand came away bloody. Then Isold was at her side, pressing the to the deep wound. “Are we winning?” Aderyn asked, then felt stupid. She knew how many orcs they’d killed.

  But Isold answered the question she’d intended. “Livia got hit hard, but I reached her in time. Everyone but Suveer has taken some damage. And I’m only guessing about Suveer, since I can’t see his health bar. He’s simply stayed out of the way of every attack.”

  “It’s [Reposition], and I’m glad he’s doing something.” Aderyn wiped her bloody hand on her trousers and gripped her sword more tightly. “We’ll survive. And we’ll kill Glasha.”

  “We have to find her first,” Isold said grimly.

  Aderyn took the opportunity to examine the situation. Livia and Weston were fighting back to back, Weston with his rapier that flicked in and out almost faster than even Aderyn could follow, Livia with both fists wreathed in the magical glitter of stone fist. Suveer was, as Isold had said, darting around the room, moving orcs at random. And Owen fought two ravagers at once, using the brilliance to throw them off balance. Seven down. Six to go.

  “Isold,” she said, “work your way around to the left and neutralize the two pressing Weston and Livia. Immobilize looks like it’s about to collapse, so we have to defeat those two before the three Livia trapped reenter the fight. I’ll help Owen. Suveer—just stay out of Suveer’s way, all right? I’m not sure how much strategy is going into his [Reposition].”

  She hurried to [Outflank] with Owen just as one of Owen’s two foes struck him a terrible blow to the side, making him stagger. Peripherally, she saw Owen’s health bar drop, enough that she again thanked the Miracle Meal for keeping the hit from doing more damage. With [Compel], she wrenched the ravager’s attention to herself. “Help me/Focus on the one facing you,” she called out to Owen.

  Just as she’d hoped, the ravager attacking her grinned and pressed forward, forcing Aderyn back. Aderyn moved just far enough to be certain he couldn’t go on threatening Owen before using [Reposition] to slide him ten feet to the left, into one of the few open spaces. It was interesting fighting creatures who spoke her language! Interesting, and unsettling, but Aderyn wasn’t going to let herself be thrown by the situation, or imagine herself into the head of an orc.

  She followed the ravager, attacking before he recovered his balance from being magically moved. The ravager got his blade up to block her first swing, but only barely, and Aderyn shoved it aside and pressed the attack. Stumbling back, the orc roared in her face, and Aderyn winced at how the heat of its breath stung her wounded face. If her opponent had intended to frighten her, he’d failed, because Aderyn didn’t feel even a hint of unnatural fear.

  She blinked away a couple of overlapping system defeat notices and struck again, this time darting to the side to slash the ravager’s legs. Sweat ran down her face and gathered in the long cut, stinging. The ravager took a step back, unhurt by Aderyn’s attack. For a moment, the two stood facing each other, poised and waiting. Aderyn Assessed the monster again, hoping for new weaknesses. This time, in addition to blue points of light in the usual vulnerable places, the ravager’s right knee was marked in blue. Aderyn kept her attention on the ravager’s face. If the monster knew his knee was vulnerable, and saw that Aderyn had noticed it, he would protect it and she would lose her chance.

  The ravager leaped forward, left leg extended. Aderyn dodged and struck his right knee, putting all her strength behind the blow. The orc screamed in pain, wobbled on his one good leg, and hit the ground. Aderyn was already within his guard and thrusting for the gap in his armor beneath his arm. The orc screamed again, dropped his sword, and grabbed Aderyn around the throat with both enormous, black-nailed hands.

  Aderyn’s gasp of surprise cut off along with her air supply. She overrode her instinct to claw at the ravager’s hands and instead drove the sword blade deeper, twisting it. The edges of her vision fogged over, tunneling so sharply her air-starved brain told her she was falling backward into an endless, black well. Her grip on her sword hilt loosened and then fell away. With one hand, she tried to pry the meaty fingers away from her throat; with the other, she groped for the . Her hands were too numb to grip anything. She closed her eyes. The last thing she saw before she slipped into unconsciousness were feathery lines of silver light.

  Blackness faded from her vision, and she rose upward through a dark shaft whose walls rolled away from her the higher she got. She blinked. She was looking at a ceiling of dingy white plaster crisscrossed by thick oak beams, and something heavy lay atop her. In another blink, she remembered being throttled by the orc ravager, and she shoved and kicked with trembling arms and legs until its body rolled off her and she could stand. Her throat ached too badly for speech, but she breathed freely.

  After a few blissful breaths, Aderyn Assessed the room once more. Only three orc ravagers remained, and as she dismissed the Assessment, another couple of system defeat messages popped up. They were followed swiftly by a flash of icy air and a third defeat message. Aderyn rubbed her throat, which only hurt worse. The room was still and silent.

  Then Owen said, “Aderyn?”

  “I’m fine,” she tried to say, but her throat couldn’t manage speech. She came to his side and hugged him instead.

  “Aderyn and I are the only ones injured enough to matter,” Isold said. He ran the up his arm, making the deep slash seal up, then pressed the to the hollow of Aderyn’s throat. She wished she could see the effect, to know what her throat looked like when it was translucent and glowed green. It was an idle wish, given that she cared much more about being able to speak.

  When her throat felt less raw and her face no longer stung, and Isold had put away the , she said, “We don’t have much time. Glasha clearly believed her ravagers could kill us, but she’s not stupid. She’ll know to the minute how long it should take them to do that, and if they haven’t reported back by that time, she’ll know we’re coming for her.”

  “Then let’s use the and get there first,” Owen said.

  “No,” Aderyn and Suveer said simultaneously. Aderyn waved to Suveer to continue. “We need to take her by surprise by attacking from a direction she doesn’t expect,” Suveer said. “It’s possible she has other of her minions positioned along that hall—” He pointed at the door Glasha had entered by— “and we’ll have to waste resources fighting them. In fact, she’s probably counting on it.”

  “What we need to do,” Aderyn said, “is use scry to locate Glasha and then transport to move us directly to her location. How are your resources, Livia?”

  “I’m doing all right, though I don’t have enough reserves to use my highest-level spells. Scry and transport are no problem, now that I’ve seen Glasha to be able to scry her. Give me a second.”

  “One thing first,” Owen said. “Suveer, I want you to join our team. It’s safer for you, and you deserve to gain experience from these battles.”

  Suveer’s eye widened. “Me? But after what Ruan did⁠—”

  “I don’t know what Ruan did. You can tell us later.” Owen extended a hand to Suveer. “Hurry up. We’re losing time.”

  Aderyn’s team roster flickered, and Suveer’s name, class, and health bar filled the empty final slot. He didn’t appear to be wounded at all, for which Aderyn was grateful.

  Livia already had her scrying mirror out and murmured a few nonsense words. The mirror flashed once as if struck by a stray sunbeam, and then they were looking at Glasha’s ugly, sneering face. The view expanded rapidly, dizzying Aderyn. It showed a room lit not by dim torches or sunlight but by lanterns that reflected off metal shapes that turned out to be armor. Not orc armor, which Aderyn knew was usually rusty and dirty and not at all reflective, but chainmail and studded leather and steel plate. Human armor. Human trophies.

  Three other orcs faced Glasha, two of them heavily built, one almost skinny the way Ahda the chanter had been. A door behind the skinny one opened, and another orc entered. Aderyn scanned the scene frantically, looking for anything that would give her a tactical advantage, but it was like trying to plan an attack by looking at a battlefield through a hole in a piece of cloth.

  “Got it,” Livia said, stowing the mirror in her knapsack. “Everybody huddle up. We get one chance at this.”

  “Go for Glasha. Ignore the others,” Aderyn said.

  They huddled together as Livia chanted the long, long syllables of transport under her breath. With a rumble of thunder, they were elsewhere. The light became somewhat brighter, and the room smelled not just of orc but of paper and grease and burning oil.

  They broke their huddle, and Aderyn Assessed the room, looking at numbers instead of the long script of [Improved Assess 4]. Five ravagers. Three elites. A chanter. One grunt, the one who’d entered the room just before transport had taken effect. And Glasha. Aderyn rejoiced at how bewildered the orc commander general looked.

  Owen didn’t say a word. He leaped at Glasha, the blazing. Glasha recoiled. She recovered immediately and drew her sword. Unlike most orcs’ weapons, it shone almost as brightly as Owen’s blade and had honed, unnotched edges. She brought it up to block Owen’s attack.

  The struck Glasha’s sword with a chime that sounded like ice cracking. A blast of arctic wind swept through the room.

  Glasha’s sword shattered.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Glasha, stunned, dropped the hilt of her broken blade. Everyone else froze in astonishment—everyone except Owen. He followed that first spectacular blow with a slash across Glasha’s midsection. Glasha grunted and stepped back. Then she grabbed the nearest ravager and dragged him toward her. When Owen attacked again, she used the ravager’s body as a shield. The ravager screamed as Owen’s impaled him through the chest. Aderyn’s shock made the system defeat notice almost imperceptible.

  Glasha snatched the sword from the ravager’s dead hand and shoved the corpse at Owen, who converted his next attack into a dodge. “I’ll kill you painfully for that,” she snarled.

  “Don’t just stand there!” Owen shouted.

  It had all happened in seconds. Aderyn rushed to Owen’s side, but was blocked by the chanter, who held up a hand the way Isold always did. “You want to kill that one,” he said, his voice breathy and not at all like an orc’s. He pointed at Owen. “Strike from behind.”

  Aderyn lowered her sword and took two steps past the chanter, her movement dreamy. Then she spun around and stabbed the chanter through the chest. “Never again,” she spat.

 

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