"02 - In Sylvan Shadows - R A Salvatore" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cleric Quintet)

The goblins didn't even have time to cry out before they fell, scorched corpses in a sylvan grave.

*****

"It is time to leave," Galladel told Shayleigh, and the maiden, for once, didn't argue. The woods beyond the second ridge were lit by so many torches that it seemed as though the sun had come upЧand still more were coming in.
Shayleigh couldn't tell how many giants had taken positions beyond the ridge, but judging from the numbers of boulders sailing the elves' way, there were several at least.
"Five more arrows!" the fiery elf maiden cried to her troops.
But many of the elves couldn't follow that command. They had to drop their bows suddenly and take up swords, for a host of bugbears, stealthy despite their great size, had slipped in from the west.
Shayleigh raced over to join the melee; if the bugbears delayed the retreat even for a short while, the elves would be overwhelmed. By the time she got there, though, the competent elves had dispatched most of the bugbears, with only a single loss. Three elves had one of the remaining monsters surrounded; another group was in pursuit of two bugbears, heading back to the west. To the side, though, another bugbear appeared, and only one elf, a young maiden, stood before it.
Shayleigh veered straight in, recognizing the elf as Cellanie and knowing that she was too inexperienced to handle the likes of a bugbear.
The young elf fell before Shayleigh got there, her skull crushed by the bugbear's heavy club. The seven-foot, hairy goblinoid stood there, grinning evilly with its yellow teeth.
Shayleigh dipped her head and growled loudly, as though to charge. The bugbear braced itself and clenched its wicked club tightly, but the elf maiden stopped suddenly and used her forward momentum to hurl her sword.
The bugbear stood dumbfounded. Swords were not designed for such attacks! But if the creature doubted Shayleigh's intelligence in throwing the weapon, or her prowess with such a trick, all it had to do was look to its chest, to the elf's sword hilt, vibrating horribly just five inches out of the bugbear's hairy ribs. The creature's blood spurted across the sword hilt and stained the ground.
The bugbear looked down, glanced up at Shayleigh, then it fell dead.
"To the west!" Shayleigh cried, rushing over to retrieve her sword. "As we planned! To the west!" She grabbed the bloodied hilt and tugged, but the weapon would not slip free. Shayleigh remained more concerned with the progress of her troops than her own vulnerable position. Still looking back to oversee the retreat, she braced her foot on the dead bugbear's chest and gripped her sword hilt tightly in both hands.
When she heard the snort above her, she knew her folly. Both her hands were on a weapon she could not use, either to strike or to parry.
Defenseless, Shayleigh looked up to see another bugbear and its huge, spiked club.

*****

The wizards, coming in to join their allies, concentrated their magical attacks on the torches of the enemy host beyond the second ridge. Enchanted flames roared to life under the pyrotechnical magic. Sparks flew wildly, burning into any monsters standing too close. Other torches poured heavy smoke, filling the area, blinding and choking, forcing the monsters to drop back or fall to the ground.
With that magical cover holding back their foes, the elves soon cleared the third ridge.

*****

A flash emanated from beside Shayleigh's face, burned her and blinded her. At first, she thought it was the impact from the bugbear's club, but when the elf maiden's wits and vision returned, she still stood over the bugbear she had killed, clutching her impaled sword.
She finally sorted out the other bugbear, its back against a tree, a smoldering hole burned right through its belly. The creature's hair danced wildly, charged, Shayleigh realized, from a wizard's lightning bolt.
Tintagel was beside her.
"Come," he said, helping her tear her sword from the dead monster. "We have slowed the enemy charge, but the great, dark force will not be stopped. Already, our lead runners have encountered resistance in the west."
Shayleigh tried to respond, but found that her jaw would not easily move.
The wizard looked to the two archers covering his rear. "Gather up poor Cellanie," he said grimly. "We must leave no dead for our cruel enemies to toy with!" Tintagel took Shayleigh's arm and led her off after the rest of the fleeing elven host.
Cries and monstrous shouts erupted from all about them, but the elves did not panic. They stayed with their carefully designed plan and executed it to perfection. They met pockets of resistance in the west, but the broken ground worked in their favor against the slower, less agile monsters, especially since the elves could shoot their bows with deadly accuracy, even on the run. Every group of monsters was overwhelmed and the elves continued on their way without taking another loss.
The eastern sky had become pink with the budding dawn before they regrouped and found some rest. Shayleigh had seen no more fighting during the night, fortunately, for her head ached so badly that she could not even keep her bearings without Tintagel's aid. The wizard stayed beside her through it all, would have willingly died beside her if the enemy had caught them.
"I must beg your pardon," Tintagel said to her after the new camp had been set, south of the Dells. "The bugbear was too closeЧI had to begin the bolt too near you."
"You apologize for saving my life?" Shayleigh asked. Every word she spoke pained the valiant maiden.
"Your face shines with the redness of a burn," Tintagel said, touching her glowing cheek lightly and wincing with sympathy as he did.
"It will heal," Shayleigh replied, managing a weak smile. "Better than would my head if that bugbear had clubbed me!" She couldn't even manage a smile at her statement, though, and not for the pain, but for the memory of Cellanie, falling dead to the ground.
"How many did we lose?" Shayleigh asked somberly.
"Three," replied Tintagel in equally grim tones.
"Only three," came the voice of King Galladel, moving to them from the side. "Only three! And the blood of hundreds of goblins and their allies stains the ground. By some accounts, even a giant was felled last night." Galladel winced when he noticed Shayleigh's red face.
"It is nothing," the elf maiden said into his wide-eyed stare, waving her hand his way.
Galladel broke his concentrated stare, embarrassed. "We are in your debt," he said, his smile returning. "Because of your fine planning, we scored a great victory this night." The elf king nodded, patted Shayleigh on the shoulder, and took his leave, having many other matters to which to attend.
Shayleigh's grimace told Tintagel that she did not share Galladel's good feelings for the battle.
"We did win," the wizard reminded her. "The outcome could have been much, much worse."
From his somber tone, Shayleigh knew that she did not have to explain her fears. They had hit their enemy by surprise, on a battlefield that they had prepared and that their enemy had not seen before. They had lost only three, it was true, but it seemed to Shayleigh that those three dead elves held more value for the elven cause than the hundreds of dead goblinoids held for the seemingly countless masses invading Shilmista's northern border.
And for all their surprise and all the slaughter, it was the elves and not the invaders who had been forced into flight.

Two
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