The long days, grueling pace and lack of food began to take its toll on Brandela, and over the next couple of days she was forced to stop and rest more frequently. She apologized over and over, but Donovan would have none of it. He was impressed by how well she’d stood up to the task already and they were close now to the trade routes. If she could just keep going for a couple more days, they’d make it. He encouraged her, coaxed her, let her rest when she needed it, but she soon began to notice that he was becoming more and more preoccupied with their back trail.
“Are you worried that Garock and his men may be catching up to us?” Brandela asked when Donovan had returned from backtracking while she rested.
His face was more serious than she had ever seen it, and he nodded. “There are signs. They’re too close for comfort. We’re still a day and a half from the trade routes, if we go at top speed. We need to stop them before they reach us.”
“How will we do that?” questioned Brandela.
“We won’t,” Donovan answered. He looked at her directly. “Princess, you and I are going to need to split up for a few days. You are going to go ahead at the best pace you can keep up, and I’m going back to disguise our tracks and try to mislead Garock’s men. It’s a little easier here. The trees will give you some cover and it’s the perfect environment for me to set up an ambush.”
Brandela’s eyes were wide and fearful, staring back at him. “How long will we be apart?” she asked.
Donovan shook his head. “I’m not sure exactly. A few days. A week, maybe. It’s the only way, Brandela. I know you can do this. You will take the remaining food supplies and the blanket and keep traveling east, toward the rising sun. There’s enough food for a week, maybe more if you ration it carefully. I will catch up to you as soon as I’ve dealt with Garock’s group.”
Brandela did not like this plan at all but spoke in a deceptively calm tone when she asked, “What about you? You’re not going to take any supplies for yourself?”
“I need only my bow and my sword. I will be fine,” he answered coolly.
Brandela’s composure began to fray at the edges and her voice was tinged with barely contained panic when she added, “But you could be killed. There is no telling how many enemy soldiers are following us. You’re bound to be outnumbered. Please, Donovan, there has to be another way that doesn’t involve you running off and getting yourself killed.”
Donovan gave her the most intense look he could muster and she lowered her eyes in defeat. “Trust me, Princess, I will catch up to you. But, just in case I don’t, here’s what you must do. Continue heading eastward until you come upon a small, walled town. Bind your ears with a strip of cloth tied around your head and cover your head with my cloak so that no one discovers that you’re an Elf. In the town, it will be easy to blend in and stay safe for a while. If I don’t make it back within a month, I’m dead. In that case, find work where you can and wait a year, then sign up with one of the trade caravans headed north for safe passage. There will be some traveling between the northern free towns. Gather supplies for yourself and make your way north directly into the Wood Elven forest. Garock and his men should be long dead by then, but do not give up your true identity until you are safely home in Alderwood.”
Donovan held her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Do you understand what you need to do?”
“I am to survive, with or without you,” she whispered.
“Good girl,” he praised. “That’s right. But you won’t be alone for long, Princess. A week, maybe a few days more. I will come back!”
Brandela nodded her head, then quickly turned from him so Donovan would not see the tears in her eyes. “If I don’t see you again, thank you for everything you’ve done,” she said in a shaky voice. She picked up the bag of supplies and faced the east. Without looking at him, she called out softly, “Be careful. I’ll see you in a week.” And she started to walk.
“In a week, Princess,” he confirmed. “Travel as quickly as you can.” He watched her walking away until he could no longer see her, and then headed back the way they had come to begin putting his plan into action.
He soon found a perfect clearing to set up an ambush. He worked all evening and late into the night, digging shallow pits and setting up sharpened spikes. At dawn, he carefully followed and erased Brandela’s trail to make sure the Barbarians could not follow her. Then he returned to the spot where he was setting up the ambush and completed the job. He finished by midday, then found a suitable lookout spot and settled there to rest and wait.
The light of day was beginning to fade when Donovan, from his perch in a stout tree, spotted the enemy tracker. The man was dressed in the uniform worn by Garock’s army. Donovan positioned his bow, notched an arrow, and lined the sites up to the enemy’s silhouette. He held his breath and released the arrow, which flew true and struck its mark directly into the enemy’s heart. The soldier screamed but, within seconds, the screams died away and he lay still.
Donovan jumped down from his hiding spot and dragged the body into the middle of the clearing that he had riddled with the traps. He then climbed back into the tree, resettled himself in his perch and waited.
Thirty minutes later, a second scout wandered into the clearing, calling to the first. When the new man spotted his fallen comrade and began walking towards him, Donovan released another arrow and the second enemy soldier collapsed to the ground.
Before another hour had passed, the main group made their way into the clearing—about forty men, lead by Garock. Donovan recognized him instantly, and his eyes narrowed in hatred. As he notched his next arrow, Donovan prayed that Garock would come within range. As much as he liked the idea of letting the Shadow Elves do their worst to him, having the chance to finish him off, then and there, was even better.
Garock, spotting the two bodies in the middle of the clearing, gave the signal to halt. This was a trap of some sort, he sensed. He gave his soldiers orders to spread out and ordered two soldiers to walk into the clearing and inspect the two downed men. Garock could see clear signs of where the dead soldiers had been dragged into the clearing. The two soldiers he had sent in would most likely be killed, but he wanted to see how it happened. What had been set up for him here? He watched and waited, alert and tense, as the soldiers began checking the bodies.
He didn’t see the arrow as it flew out of the darkness and hit one of his soldiers in the neck. The next moment, a second arrow found its target in the second soldier’s back as the man tried to run out of range of the unseen bowman.
So this is your plan, thought Garock. Lure us into the open and take us out one by one? He scowled at the growing darkness. They would need to act quickly before the cover of dark gave the enemy further advantage. They needed to overwhelm and overpower him— for he was certain it was only one man.
“Regroup and prepare to charge!” he shouted to his men. As his soldiers lifted their shields and began to move, another arrow came out of the darkness, pinging off the shield Garock held in front of him. Furious, Garock yelled, “Charge!” and led his men straight into the clearing.
A soldier to the left of Garock fell into a ditch and landed on a sharpened wooden stake. As the men were pushed forward by the rush of men behind them, more fell and others stumbled over the fallen. Men scattered, trying to avoid the pit and the stakes and the impaled men, and chaos quickly ensued.
Donovan took brutal advantage of the enemy soldiers’ disarray, shooting arrows as fast as he had ever shot them before in his entire life. He shot at any target that presented itself, aiming to maim rather than kill. He shot frontline soldiers in the legs as much as possible, causing them to crumple and writhe, slowing and scattering the rest of the group.
Donovan watched as Garock’s soldiers approached his final surprise. They began climbing over a small hill, but once they got to other side and started making their way down, they tripped over a cleverly-placed, hidden vine, sending many of them tumbling down onto the sharpened wooden spikes he had embedded into a pit on the other side. Donovan grinned, pleased to see his plan work. Akenji would have liked that one, he thought . He jumped down from his perch and slipped away into the darkness, making sure to leave as many tracks as possible so Garock’s remaining men could easily track him at daybreak. Donovan ran about three leagues south, and then stopped to put his next plan into place. He rustled up a large mound of leaves, then backtracked his route for several meters and erased his tracks. He burrowed into the leaves, covering himself completely, and waited for daybreak.
By dawn, Garock had taken stock of the dead and the injured and found himself with a much smaller, and greatly shaken, group. He was furious at having been tricked. Whoever this strange soldier was, he would rue the day he was born if Garock ever got his hands on him! He would pursue and find him, and the princess, if it was the last thing he did on Ryyah.
He ordered his remaining, able men to split up and search for tracks. It didn’t take long before clear tracks were found, heading south. They followed the tracks until they came to an abrupt end. He fled for the first few leagues, reasoned Garock, and now he’s trying to cover up and put us off. We’ll see about that!
Garock split his men into smaller groups and had them spread out to search for tracks again. Donovan, peering out from his leafy hideout, smiled. The smaller, scattered groups would be to his advantage, easier to manage. He noted the positions of any archers first. At the moment, there were none within range to worry about. He waited until one of the smaller groups passed close by and chose that moment to take them by surprise. He leaped out of the leaf pile with a roar and, with one mighty sweep of the sword’s blade, he sliced one unsuspecting man nearly in half.
Donovan quickly yanked the sword out of the man’s corpse and back-slashed at an oncoming enemy soldier. The blow glanced off the man’s helmet, momentarily stunning him. Before the soldier could regain his senses, Donovan reversed his sword and jabbed the side point of the sword hilt into the man’s eyes behind the eye guard of his helmet. The man began screaming frantically, clutching at his face. Donovan kicked the man away and left him to roll and grimace in pain on the ground.
Donovan began running, with two more enemy soldiers following close behind. Without slowing down, he grabbed a small tree and used his momentum to swing himself fully around to face his opponents. He kicked the soldier who was closest, then began a fearsome overhead striking combination that completely destroyed the enemy’s wooden shield and knocked the man to the ground, exposed. Donovan stood over the fallen soldier and thrust his sword point into the enemy’s heart.
He could hear the second soldier behind him, and without looking, swung his blade back across the enemy’s legs. The soldier dropped his shield and sword and crumpled to the ground, clutching his right leg in pain.
Donovan took off at a dead run, avoiding the five new soldiers that were closing in on him. He ran directly south and slowed enough for the five soldiers to catch up with him slightly. When the first of the soldiers was directly behind him, he came to a dead stop and quickly rolled sideways to the left, simultaneously slashing his sword blade in a wide arc with his right hand. The blade caught the enemy soldier’s chin full on, bringing him down in mid-stride, and tripping the other four as they charged forward at top speed.
Donovan sprinted south again. He would be forced to keep this hit-and-run tactic up for the next couple of days, picking off Garock’s men one by one and luring them away from the princess. As soon as he could, he would start making his way back toward the trade routes. From there, he would have an easier time losing his enemy, and hopefully Brandela would have made it safely to one of the free towns.