Founding of Deania [7]

The clan leaders didn't like the idea that they'd just be dead weight, so Dean just told them that his group would attack ahead of time to lure out the Bronze Skin orcs and deal with them elsewhere. The elves could fight a battle or two and subdue one of the minor keeps while the Sam, Dean, and the girls took care of the genuine threats.

With everything decided, nobody saw any reason to continue waiting around. The clan leaders sent messages back to their clans and soon every group had an army on the march. It was a grander display of military might than this region had ever seen, though the elves didn't march in lines or columns, and each wielded a set of self-equipped weapons and armor. Even the largest clans operated loosely and without clearly defined rules. All in all, Sam judged the orcs to be the better warriors.

They headed first to the castle of the orc known as Keergal. He was a known quantity, and Anyatara had defeated him easily during their last meeting.

Upon sensing the elf horde preparing to attack their fortress, a very confused group of orcs came forward to meet them.

"By the earth and mountains, this is fifty years' worth of raids delivering themselves to our doorstep!" An orc chortled.

A few other orcs joined in with his boisterous laughter, already preparing a set of wagons and harnessed mounts. When this elven army broke upon their walls, they didn't intend to just let the survivors slip away.

The united armies of the clans traveled in a mob through the forest until they stood under the shadow of the castle walls. They'd brought no siege equipment, and the sight of such a massive fortress was already sapping their will to fight. A few clan elders knew enough tactics to understand that they could besiege the place, but with a teleportation array inside they were unlikely to starve anyone out even if they waited for decades.

"I suppose we should show them why they need our help." Yonda said. Air stirred at her fingertip, similar to what Dean used but without the rain, clouds, and lightning.

The air in front of her shimmered and there was a boom akin to the crack of thunder. An instant later the walls of the castle split open in a gargantuan explosion that sent dirt, stone and orcs flying into the air.

The elves below cheered as the outer walls continued to crumble. Yonda swept her hand and a mighty gale cleared the rubble that had fallen into the gap between the broken sections of walls, leaving a gaping passage inviting invaders inside.

The clan leaders gave Yonda an honored bow, and after recovering their senses, they lead their kinswomen forward in a charge through the gap.

On the walls one orc stood taller than the others. He was partly armored and wore a leather vest, unlike most male orcs who chose to fight bare-chested. Just months ago he'd been among the most boisterous orcs in the castle. He'd always found joy in raiding and the victory celebrations after, but recently he'd gone quiet. He'd created a relentless training regimen for himself that was so brutal many of his underlings were frightened by his dedication and many were beginning to whisper that they'd seen him practicing through the night without any sign of stopping.

He was Keergal, master of this castle. He'd told no one of his capture and humiliation at the hands of a trio of elves, and because of that many of his compatriots had become suspicious of him when they discovered the missing teleportation arrays. He never intended to suffer such humiliation again. He'd abandon his wanton life of rowdy fighting and adventure in search of greater strength so that one day he'd be strong enough to defeat any elf.

He'd been training just minutes ago when he'd gotten word from the walls that there were elves marching in vast numbers of the horizon.

Even from this distance, he recognized the three elves hovering in the air on flying swords. They were the very three responsible for his humiliation.

"Elves!" Keergal roared. "I shall wreak such savagery on you! I have trained day and night for this day, knowing that when next we met, I would conqueror the three of you and make you call me master! Know that I, Keergal, will--"

Yonda blasted him with another burst of magic, knocking him off his feet and taking the wind out of him. When he finally came to, the elves had already tied him up and had him suspended upside down from a tree.

Erula raised her hands to the air and rain fell from the sky, splashing against the stone of the castle. Each droplet fell with the weight of a meteor, washing away stone and mortar in flowing streams that ate away at the structure with each passing second. The castle appeared to melt like ice in the sun, and towers crumbled before everyone's eyes.

The rain splashed on the bodies of the orcs, sapping them of their strength as each droplet hit them. In contrast, the elves seemed to grow emboldened and more energetic as the rain picked up its speed. The elves rushed forward, overcoming the larger and stronger orcs with ease.

Anyatara descended until she hovered just over the head of the battle, and Sam leaned over her shoulder to holler at the Songstone elder. "I suggest you try to capture a few of the orcs alive. This is as easy as it'll ever be, and turnabout is fair play."

A few elves seemed eager to turn the tables on the orcs. Sam had made no effort to lower his voice, and many of the orcs themselves had overheard him. Their voices turned a paler shade of green, and many of the weaker ones turned to flee.

"Do you think this battle will make them overconfident?" Sam asked. "Without Erula's spell weakening the orcs I think the local elves would have lost, castle or not."

"If they allow themselves to grow too arrogant, then they'll pay the price." Anyatara shrugged. "Regardless, let's not linger here too long. There are two more castles like this one to take."

Keergal had to contend with the clan leaders and heartwielders, which was an even more embarrassing affair for him than being captured by three wizards. They quickly got the teleportation array coordinates for the other castles out of him, and Erula and Yonda each teleported to one of them before regrouping at the current castle.

"Done already?" Dean asked his companions. He'd been fighting orcs alongside the elves. His presence on the battlefield alone had struck awe into the local elves, and he alone probably would have been enough to tilt the tide of battle in the elves' favor even if Yonda and Erula hadn't gotten involved.

"Both orc other castles have fallen." Yonda said. "There wasn't much of value in either, though. The orcs are scattered and broken, though hunting down those that remain will probably be an affair for the heartwielders and mage acolytes that will last generations."

"Good. Then we just have to revisit their main stronghold." Anyatara smiled happily. "Hopefully they brought over more teleportation arrays for us to take, and this time we can take our time looting."

"It will be fun to visit without needing to hide ourselves." Erula said. "I hope that group of orcs who laughed at us are still there. I'd like to see the looks on their faces!"

No army or fortress walls could stand in the way of overwhelming magical power. When the three wizards and Dean got involved, the orc's defenses quickly started to collapse one after another.

Of the Bronze Skin orc castle chiefs, only Keergal remained. Erula reasoned that they'd need somebody to give the orc’s surrender, and they'd already spared him once, so it would be inconsistent to kill him now. Plus, the heartwielders where having fun taunting him as he hung upside down from a tree and really the look on his face suggested he would have rather died in battle like the others.

"I want to come!" Dean protested as the three wizards prepared to leave for the main orc encampment. "If they have a wizard or a sorcerer equivalent, he would have shown himself by now. You girls got to have all the fun at the other castles! I'm sure the elves there are all were disappointed when you just defeated the orcs and left before they were even properly rescued."

Yonda shook her head. "I expect to sweep through their main encampment as quickly as we did the other castles, but there's plenty for you to do here, Dean. The clans love you Dean, you should hang around with them and provide encouragement."

"You too, Sam." Anyatara said. "You're no longer a mage acolyte who needs to watch his step at every turn. You're a true mage and that means power and influence."

"How about we go in using invisibility talismans?" Sam offered as a compromise. "That worked before. We'll head in with the three of you, get clear, watch you all bring down the fortress, then Dean can have his fun rescuing the elves there."

Dean shot Sam a beaming smile and Yonda reluctantly agreed, so long as Sam promised to keep Dean from rushing in before they were finished taking care of anything above the mage acolyte level.

And so Sam and Dean slapped on a pair of invisibility talismans, and together the group of five stepped into the teleportation array a second time.

<Scene break>

The chamber was quiet, as was the hall beyond it. Sam found that immediately suspicious, so he took Dean off to the side of the chamber while their three wizards shattered the wall leading outside.

Anyatara, Erula, and Yonda's powers were like stars shining in a sea of embers. They weren't hiding of disguising themselves this time, so even a magically dull-sensed orc would detect their power from afar. If there was a Bronze Skin orc remaining, he would see them coming from a league away.

Strangely, there were few orcs about. Sam could see them standing on the distant walls and by the gates, but otherwise the inner keep was deserted. Anyatara, Erula and Yonda took to the air while Sam and Dean swiftly maneuvered themselves to the outskirts of the fortress. That's where the elves were being kept, so Dean wanted to be close so he could tear the doors down the moment the girls declared their victory.

As Anyatara predicted, there was one remaining Bronze realm orc. He seemed slightly stronger than the other garrison chiefs, but Sam didn't know enough about the individual levels of orc cultivation to say for certain. After the girls tore down the third wall, he finally showed his face.

"So I take it you were the ones responsible for stealing my teleportation arrays?" The Bronze Realm orc asked as he faced the three wizards. Sam frowned at how ordinary he looked compared to the other orcs. He wore long robes that concealed his smaller than average build. In fact, he seemed barely taller than an elf, and had a thinner build than Sam or Dean. By orc standards, he was positively puny.

"Are you the great warchief we heard about?" Anyatara asked.

"I am." The orc responded coolly as he tucked a book under his arm. That too was strange. From what Sam had seen, the orcs didn't seem like the most bookish creatures. "And I knew you would return."

"You're brave to show yourself." Anyatara replied. "And yes, we stole your teleportation arrays. I must admit, I'm impressed at how many of them you had. Few wizards would have such a reserve. I was about to check to see how many more you'd bought for us."

The orc's great warchief frowned. "Don't you think it's strange that I'm only marginally stronger than the chiefs who serve under me? I was not awarded with leadership of this expedition for my ability to swing an axe. I made those teleportation arrays you stole myself. Your actions cost me a great deal of time and our sponsor is quite cross with how much this expedition is costing and how scarce the prizes have been until now.

"But that's about to change. Three wizard realm elves! I expect he will be thrilled." The orc grinned, tusks sticking out between his lips.

"Dean... I'm getting a bad feeling about this." Sam said as he pulled his companion up and over the wall. The orcs there all wore victorious expressions on their faces. Sam and Dean jumped onto the roof of the building they were hiding behind and then leaped to a nearby guard tower where two grinning orcs spoke to one another in merry voices.

"The great warchief's got them now!" One orc laughed.

"The rewards for capturing these three will be huge!" Another orc said.

Dean swatted both of them with one punch, and Sam tossed the two of them off the wall. On the wall in front of him was a long line of unfamiliar symbols.

"Sam! This looks like an enchantment. That's more up your alley." Dean said.

Sam bent over and inspected the lines of text. He tilted his head sideways, only to realize he couldn't make heads or tails of them.

"Impossible. This isn't the elvish enchantment script." Sam said. "It looks like orcish writing, though admittedly cleaner than all the examples I've seen until now. I've never seen non-elvish writing become magical like this."

Sam probed the glowing symbols with his aura fragment. "They're connected to a source of power nearby. Like a beacon calling out to something far away."

"It looks like it's activating." Dean said. Before their eyes, the symbols glowed brighter. Around the walls, orcs cut open their palms, bleeding onto the symbols at their feet.

"They're fueling the enchantment with their own vitality. Remarkable." Sam muttered. "I didn't think orcs had a way to pour so much zeal from their bodies into an external enchantment."

In the keep at the center of the orc stronghold, Anyatara, Erula, and Yonda all attacked the great warchief at once.

The combined spells of three wizard level elves should have vanquished any orc in the Bronze realm in an instant, but instead a barrier of shimmering gold sprang up along the gaunt orc warchief, protecting him from all three attacks.

Behind him a chest of gold vanished in a cloud of dust, consumed by the defensive spell he cast.

"You know goldmongering!" Anyatara accused.

"An expensive art, but an effective one if you have the wealth to spare." The orc warchief replied. "Fortunately, making teleportation arrays is very profitable."

Then the enchantment lining the walls of the stronghold came to life. Four serpents of brilliant gold flew into the air, winding around each other to create a barrier that sealed the three wizards and the great warchief inside the center of the city.

"Now you're trapped." The warchief declared.

"Don't forget that you're in here with us." Yonda said. "We'll just have to defeat you and force you to lift this little trap you've set for us."

"I'm confident that you could, under other circumstances, but this is a rather unique enchantment my fellow shamans developed exclusively for the purpose of dealing with powerful elves like yourselves. You see, it specializes in draining zeal and sapping the power of all spells that leave the body of a living entity. Within these wards, only techniques function properly." The orc tore off his long robe and tossed his book aside. Space distorted around a ring on his fist and from it he drew a quarterstaff as long as he was. "Which gives us orcs a decisive advantage. My men are going to enjoy this. Attack!"

Like a river of green orcs poured in from off the walls. The slammed into Erula, Yonda, and Anyatara like the tide striking the shore.

The three wizards cast defensive spells, but the products of their magic seemed hazy and weak. They faded soon after leaving the body and managed to slay one or two orcs at most.

To make matters worse, it appeared that they hadn't defeated all the Bronze Skin orcs after all. The warchief must have been holding his most loyal and powerful subordinates in reserve because six Bronze Skin orcs appeared around the three wizards. They moved in cadence, similar to the group of six that Dean had fought on a raid back when they'd first run into the orcs.

Like those Dean had fought before, these six had clearly trained together. They watched each other's backs and when one attacked the others defended.

Anyatara, Erula, and Yonda may have specialized in spells, but that didn't mean they were completely ignorant to the use of techniques. Their bodies had also been enhanced by magic far beyond that of ordinary elves. If they faced these six Bronze Skin orcs alone, they would have won after a few exchanges. But the warchief had proven himself to have powers beyond body cultivation, and the growing tide of lesser orcs threatened to overwhelm the three wizards with sheer numbers.

"They're going to lose." Sam said as he watched the battle unfold from the distance.

"Less talking, more disabling!" Dean said anxiously. Still invisible, he jumped to the nearest section of wall and kicked an orc in the gut, sending him flying off the wall and crashing into the stones below. He did the same to more orcs but his actions merely removed a few drops from the flood of power pouring into the enchantment.

"I can't disable the enchantment." Sam said. "It looks like the entire outer wall was built to house the script, and the core parts of the walls are hidden by another enchantment."

"Then we'll have to break the walls." Dean hurled a fist into the ground, sending cracks shooting throughout the wall below him. More than a few orcs had taken notice of fellow orcs flying off the walls as though thrown by an invisible assailant, and now that the walls themselves were under attack they were starting to get a clue as to where Sam and Dean were.

"We can't. They're enchanted as well." Sam warned. "There has to be a weak point somewhere, but I can't find it without a thorough examination!"

Several orcs pulled away from the energy input stations around the fortress walls and moved towards the growing crack in the wall to figure out what was going on.

"Dean, we have to pull back." Sam said.

"Not while the girls are down there alone!" Dean looked as though he was going to dive off the wall and go charging to the rescue. But like the elves, his power lay mostly in spells. if he were to charge forward, he'd be even more helpless than they were.

"Yonda and Erula made me promise to keep an eye on you." Sam said. "And I know Anyatara wouldn't want me to change blindly to her rescue. We're retreating!"

Dean bit his lip and dug his fingers into his palm. With great reluctance, he followed Sam's lead and jumped off the walls. Still invisible, they fled the battlefield.

Note:

Book 4 is almost ready to go out the door. I'm editing a few minor plot points beta readers noted but the majority of the story is set. I'm mostly just taking notes and starting to plot book 5 in greater detail than what I've got in my series outline. I imagine I'll be ready send the novel on its way around the same time the cover art arrives. I'm hoping to be putting up book 5 chapters on here by the second week of November.