third chapter
3
“Let’s go!” yelled Shalik as they heard the alarm horns blaring and aelfae shouting. There was also quite a bit of screaming as well. There had rarely ever been wars that the aelf had participated in, even though they had a sizeable army. Shalik and Ritherin raced through the streets toward the battlegate, where there was a rhythmic boom coming every few seconds. There was also a whistling sound from the release of arrows and yells as aelfae were taken down. They arrived at the battlegate, and it became pretty obvious what was making the boom. The gate was shaking every time there was a boom, and aelfae with pikes were pointing them at the gate, with archers right behind, with bows drawn. As the two aelfae ran up the steps to the wall, a fully grown warrior stopped them. “This is not a place for youngsters, go back.” Shalik opened his mouth to explain, but Ritherin simply pushed past the warrior. “I’m with her,” Shalik said, and went after her. At the top of the wall, Ritherin had stopped and was gazing out of one of the slits in the battlements with her fan by her side. Shalik joined her, and saw why she had stopped. A full dark army was assembled, with archery stands where gorrazu were peppering the wall with arrows. Thousands more gorrazu were in orderly ranks wearing full armor. Among them were about 100 tokilli, right in the front. Many of them were pounding on the battlegate to the sound of a drum. “Look out!!” Shalik shouted, as an arrow was sent their way, aimed strait at Ritherin. She simply raised her fan to cover her face, and the arrow broke on its carved runes. “Whoa.” Was all Shalik could say. But there was no time for that. Aelfae were blowing horns all over the city-town, and hundreds of Draconi were rising out of the trees and coming to their masters. Draconi riders were already storming the ranks of the gorrazu, and breathing fire and the riders shooting arrows off their backs. But the gorrazu were ready for this. They had long pikesmen, with pikes about 18 feet long. The undersides of the draconi were as armored as well, but the pikes could kill the riders. The draconi hovered just above the pikes and burned them to cinders. Just as the last pike was a smoldering ruin, the tokilli had finally broken through the gate. To meet the pikes and arrows. The archers did severe damage to the front tokilli, but more sprang up to take their place. A couple more had been killed with the sharp-pikes, but in all, they really starting doing tons of damage to the aelfae ranks. Shalik decided the walls were not the best place for him to be at the moment, and went back down the steps. He headed toward the battlegate. A brilliant rider rode past him with his hair flying and spear in hand. He charged at a tokilli and threw his spear. It landed in the tokilli’s shoulder. The tokilli turned and grabbed the rider off his horse and threw him over the wall. Shalik grabbed his panicking horse and mounted it. He went over to the tokilli and slashed it across the chest. Normally this would just anger a tokilli, but this one dropped dead. “Lucky shot,” thought Shalik, and charged into the battle. There was an archer cornered by two tokilli, who were both raising their clubs to destroy him. Shalik galloped over and thrust his glaive into one. It crumpled and lay dead. “Aim at its eyes!” shouted Shalik, as the archer drew back an arrow to shoot the distracted other tokilli. The archer was apparently good under pressure, because he complied very well. The tokilli fell transfixed with an arrow smack-dead in the pupil. Ritherin appeared at Shalik’s side, and said, “Let’s go, there are people that need our power.” She was holding her fan and breathing hard. Shalik looked behind her, and saw a line of dead tokilli. He nodded, and yanked out his glaive. It was spotless. There came a great whoop from the gate. Aelfae had managed to close it again, and were now running around killing the last tokilli now trapped in the city. Shalik galloped up to one that was fighting like a trapped tiger. There was black blood streaming from wounds all over it. He hurled his glaive at it, and it died. The men who were trying to slay it were awed. They had thrown several spears into the beast, but it had simply yanked them out again. Heedless of their stares, Shalik ran and caught up with Ritherin. The aelfae were having trouble closing the battle-gate. The tokilli on the other side were still pounding on it, and most of the time the gate was kept closed by aelfae pushing against it. That would not hold for long. Shalik suddenly had an idea. He grabbed Ritherin’s shoulder. She whirled around with urgent eyes. “That aelf” said Shalik, “He could give us weapons to fight the tokilli!” Ritherin thought for a moment, then nodded. She followed him to where he had last seen the aelf and the draconi fighting the hooded figure on the krilasa. When they reached the archives, they saw the body of the krilasa, and scorch marks all over the ground. A voice called, “Over here, Ritherin!” Ritherin looked around, searching for the owner of the voice. She obviously recognized it, because she called out in reply, “Hsuva! Where are you hiding?” “Over in the trapdoor!” Came a muffled reply. Ritherin looked puzzled, but Shalik went over to the rush mat next to the first step of the stairway, and pulled it up. The stranger climbed out. His sword was an angry red color, and he had a pained expression on his face. The purple wave must have obviously had some consequences, then. As soon as he saw Shalik, the pained look vanished. He quickly grabbed his face and searched his cheeks for something. Apparently Shalik had passed the inspection, and he looked overjoyed to see Shalik. He looked to his side and also saw that Ritherin was in perfect health as well. She lost no time in cutting to the chase. “Do you have more of these weapons?” Hsuva looked downcast. “No, but I can put on a temporary spell that will kill anything dark.”
“Then let’s go! The city-town is being attacked, and we need to defend it!” They started running toward the battle-gate. When they reached it, they found the aelfae ducking for cover. The gorrazu had started using long-throwers, and they were attacking the wall. Shalik told a nearby archer to give him his arrows. The archer complied, looking at Shalik for any form of a bow. “Can you do these?” asked Shalik, turning to Hsuva. He nodded, and put his hand over the bunch of arrows. When he was done, they each had a rune on their heads. Shalik gave them back to the confused archer, and told him to go on the wall and start shooting tokilli. The archer did this, and he was amazed as a tokilli dropped dead as soon as the arrow hit him. After they did this to a few more aelfae, Hsuva stopped Shalik. He was looking worn out and tired. The archers were firing volley after volley into the ranks of the tokilli, and they were dropping like bad-stings. The gorrazu had realized the threat of these seemingly normal archers. They started firing back. It wouldn’t be long before they started using the long-throwers. A draconi landed in the battle area. It flew jerkily, and that was most likely due to the fact that its left wing was shot full of pointy-arrows. As it landed, a huge boulder smashed through the battlements, taking several aelfae with it. Luckily it had missed the magic-shooters. The draconi staggered over to Shalik. It spoke in a smooth, rapturous melody, much like a fireflyer. “Are you the one who wields the tokilli-killer?” Shalik felt the horse shift slightly, away from the draconi. He couldn’t exactly blame it. “Yes and no,” replied Shalik. This was the proper way to speak in front of a draconi, in a riddling way. The draconi looked puzzled for a second, then replied, “You mean it is not the only tokilli-killer. Who has the other one?” Shalik nodded over in Ritherin's direction, and the draconi nodded in recognition. Strangely, it was the symbol of actual respect. Draconi were very proud creatures, and they very rarely gave any thought to anyone being more exalted than their race. The draconi turned to Shalik and bowed low. Shalik was shocked. Draconi didn’t do this sort of thing. The draconi started to speak again. “My previous master was killed by a gorrazu archer, and I swore revenge. As I swooped down to quick-roast the gorrazu archer stand, they unleashed a volley of sharp-shots. I wheeled to my right, but the volley hit my wing. As everyone knows, the wings are one of the three parts in which draconi are vulnerable. So I just scorched the archers, and came back here to get these cursed arrows out of me. And I am asking if you would replace my master.” Shalik was stunned. This was no average draconi. It would have not called its previous aelf a master. It would have made it look like they owned the aelf. Which in fact, they did. The Draconi race was definitely more powerful than the Aelfae race, and the only reason they allow us on their backs is so that people don’t believe the far-fetched tales about them devouring maidens, and being an anger-pest to the wrong-named brave knights who slay them. A human has never killed a draconi. Ever. But to ask Shalik to be its aelf was incredible. Anyway, Shalik was no draconi rider. His only flight on one was on an old construction draconi, for when he made his treehouse. How was he expected to ride one into battle? The draconi had bowed low, and this was not an opportunity to be taken lightly. If he refused, the draconi might place a curse on him, and draconi-spells are really hard to get off. Shalik only knew a little forest-magic, used for camping and traveling. He could do a small transport spell, a fire-raising spell, and could scry into other places, as long as they weren’t too far away. Not exactly advanced magic. The scrying sapped out all his energy, though, as did all magic. Mages usually pass out after large spells, no matter how experienced they are. With second, third, fourth, and fifth thoughts, Shalik hauled himself onto the draconi’s saddle. There was a spear in one of the loops, and the other one was empty, probably the one the draconi’s previous rider had fallen with. The draconi twisted its head around, and stared at Shalik. “Does this mean you’ll be my master?” It asked. “Sure as the Roc flies, and the Tokilli roars,” replied Shalik, using an old aelfae expression. “Good, my name is Firefeather, and…” He turned his head around to look at Hsuva, “I was wondering if you could do something about this wing?” Hsuva looked startled as the draconi looked at him with an intensity that rivaled the beating of the sun on the sharpened forest in the east. “S..s..sure, no problem. I just need a closer look at the appendage.” Firefeather lowered his injured wing so Hsuva could get a closer look, and the excitable aelf exclaimed, “How on Shahim did you make it all the way here? The gorrazu archery stands have to be 400 yards from here!” And he just had to bring up the gorrazu, didn’t he? As Hsuva fixed Firefeather’s wing, they threw hooks over the wall. A shout rang out to cut the lines, but as soon as one was cut, two more were thrown up to take its place. It was like trying to separate salt and water with a spoon. An aelfae soldier ran past Shalik, and he saw the sun blazing on his shield, with the ice bud symbol on it. He also saw a gorrazu climb over the wall with the swirl of infinity painted on his shield. That meant they were sent from Shak, the Dark Lord’s Stronghold. The symbols meant nothing, Shalik thought, it’s the fact that they’re invading that counts. How very wrong he was. Hsuva had finished with Firefeather’s wing, and the gorrazu had finished the first line of resistance on the wall. Archers from below released a volley at the gorrazu, but many of them survived. A deep horn call sounded, willing all draconi riders to return to the wall, followed by a high-pitched blast that meant that all non-soldiers should withdraw to the underground passages. With an aelfae battle cry, an assembled cavalry of horsemen charged the ranks of gorrazu. The wave of horsemen turned the tide in the fight for the wall, driving the gorrazu ranks up against the wall, where arrows were rained down on their heads by the archers above. It was easy… too easy. After that, it got less easy. The tokilli had managed to break through the gate again, this time smashing it to pieces in the attempt. The few aelfae who had remained at their posts, trying in vain to keep the gate intact were crushed immediately, either on purpose or not. A tokilli is about four times the size of a burly aelf, and the defenses didn’t stand a chance. As the cavalry was about to charge a final time, the tokilli wave hit their flank. Distracted by this new threat, the cavalry turned, and leapt into the fray, in doing so, left Shalik, Ritherin, Hsuva, a few odd foot soldiers, and Firefeather wide open to the gorrazu’s aggression. Let me lay the odds out on the table: 1 draconi with limited attack power, because of needed time to heal, 1 Shalik, who has no more military training than a mouse with the flu, 1 Ritherin, who is actually experienced and graceful in war, a magician who is armed with a magical sword and a bag of seeds, which he had pulled out instead of his sword, and about 10 wounded soldiers vs. 1 dead tokilli, 2 empty helmets, and a bunch of enraged gorr-a-zu. Are the odds tilted at all? Shalik knew it would hit the gorrazu that they were the weak ones here, and that they would basically kill them. Hsuva had thought of this too, but had no intention of running. He simply grabbed a handful of seeds, and scattered them along the ground in front of us, all cool, calm and collected. As it hit the gorrazu, you could see the wary faces dart over to the cavalry, currently busy being torn to shreds by the tokilli, to the group of goodies, the fresh meat-I mean enemy. As the comprehension dawned on their faces, Hsuva started muttering. The gorrazu charged, and were nearing the circle very fast. Shalik readied his glaive, Ritherin tensed, Firefeather drew in breath, the sensible soldiers were crawling away, and Hsuva shouted, “Aeorthararia!” just as the gorrazu reached the seeds. Grass shot up from the seeds, but not ordinary grass. This grass formed a wall of tough vegetation, trapping gorrazu inside. The top of the wall formed into battlements, and was shooting, apparently, more of this grass as sticky pellets onto the gorrazu. Hsuva moved his hand in a diagonal slashing movement, and a set of stairs formed out of the wall, allowing the group to climb up. On top, the aelfae found some good news and some bad news. The small remainder of the once proud cavalry was shrinking rapidly, as they tried to repel the enemy in short bursts, but it was clear that the tokilli were just massing for a charge. It was when the party looked skyward that the good news arrived, in the shape of draconi riders winging their way back to the wall.
“Let’s go!” yelled Shalik as they heard the alarm horns blaring and aelfae shouting. There was also quite a bit of screaming as well. There had rarely ever been wars that the aelf had participated in, even though they had a sizeable army. Shalik and Ritherin raced through the streets toward the battlegate, where there was a rhythmic boom coming every few seconds. There was also a whistling sound from the release of arrows and yells as aelfae were taken down. They arrived at the battlegate, and it became pretty obvious what was making the boom. The gate was shaking every time there was a boom, and aelfae with pikes were pointing them at the gate, with archers right behind, with bows drawn. As the two aelfae ran up the steps to the wall, a fully grown warrior stopped them. “This is not a place for youngsters, go back.” Shalik opened his mouth to explain, but Ritherin simply pushed past the warrior. “I’m with her,” Shalik said, and went after her. At the top of the wall, Ritherin had stopped and was gazing out of one of the slits in the battlements with her fan by her side. Shalik joined her, and saw why she had stopped. A full dark army was assembled, with archery stands where gorrazu were peppering the wall with arrows. Thousands more gorrazu were in orderly ranks wearing full armor. Among them were about 100 tokilli, right in the front. Many of them were pounding on the battlegate to the sound of a drum. “Look out!!” Shalik shouted, as an arrow was sent their way, aimed strait at Ritherin. She simply raised her fan to cover her face, and the arrow broke on its carved runes. “Whoa.” Was all Shalik could say. But there was no time for that. Aelfae were blowing horns all over the city-town, and hundreds of Draconi were rising out of the trees and coming to their masters. Draconi riders were already storming the ranks of the gorrazu, and breathing fire and the riders shooting arrows off their backs. But the gorrazu were ready for this. They had long pikesmen, with pikes about 18 feet long. The undersides of the draconi were as armored as well, but the pikes could kill the riders. The draconi hovered just above the pikes and burned them to cinders. Just as the last pike was a smoldering ruin, the tokilli had finally broken through the gate. To meet the pikes and arrows. The archers did severe damage to the front tokilli, but more sprang up to take their place. A couple more had been killed with the sharp-pikes, but in all, they really starting doing tons of damage to the aelfae ranks. Shalik decided the walls were not the best place for him to be at the moment, and went back down the steps. He headed toward the battlegate. A brilliant rider rode past him with his hair flying and spear in hand. He charged at a tokilli and threw his spear. It landed in the tokilli’s shoulder. The tokilli turned and grabbed the rider off his horse and threw him over the wall. Shalik grabbed his panicking horse and mounted it. He went over to the tokilli and slashed it across the chest. Normally this would just anger a tokilli, but this one dropped dead. “Lucky shot,” thought Shalik, and charged into the battle. There was an archer cornered by two tokilli, who were both raising their clubs to destroy him. Shalik galloped over and thrust his glaive into one. It crumpled and lay dead. “Aim at its eyes!” shouted Shalik, as the archer drew back an arrow to shoot the distracted other tokilli. The archer was apparently good under pressure, because he complied very well. The tokilli fell transfixed with an arrow smack-dead in the pupil. Ritherin appeared at Shalik’s side, and said, “Let’s go, there are people that need our power.” She was holding her fan and breathing hard. Shalik looked behind her, and saw a line of dead tokilli. He nodded, and yanked out his glaive. It was spotless. There came a great whoop from the gate. Aelfae had managed to close it again, and were now running around killing the last tokilli now trapped in the city. Shalik galloped up to one that was fighting like a trapped tiger. There was black blood streaming from wounds all over it. He hurled his glaive at it, and it died. The men who were trying to slay it were awed. They had thrown several spears into the beast, but it had simply yanked them out again. Heedless of their stares, Shalik ran and caught up with Ritherin. The aelfae were having trouble closing the battle-gate. The tokilli on the other side were still pounding on it, and most of the time the gate was kept closed by aelfae pushing against it. That would not hold for long. Shalik suddenly had an idea. He grabbed Ritherin’s shoulder. She whirled around with urgent eyes. “That aelf” said Shalik, “He could give us weapons to fight the tokilli!” Ritherin thought for a moment, then nodded. She followed him to where he had last seen the aelf and the draconi fighting the hooded figure on the krilasa. When they reached the archives, they saw the body of the krilasa, and scorch marks all over the ground. A voice called, “Over here, Ritherin!” Ritherin looked around, searching for the owner of the voice. She obviously recognized it, because she called out in reply, “Hsuva! Where are you hiding?” “Over in the trapdoor!” Came a muffled reply. Ritherin looked puzzled, but Shalik went over to the rush mat next to the first step of the stairway, and pulled it up. The stranger climbed out. His sword was an angry red color, and he had a pained expression on his face. The purple wave must have obviously had some consequences, then. As soon as he saw Shalik, the pained look vanished. He quickly grabbed his face and searched his cheeks for something. Apparently Shalik had passed the inspection, and he looked overjoyed to see Shalik. He looked to his side and also saw that Ritherin was in perfect health as well. She lost no time in cutting to the chase. “Do you have more of these weapons?” Hsuva looked downcast. “No, but I can put on a temporary spell that will kill anything dark.”
“Then let’s go! The city-town is being attacked, and we need to defend it!” They started running toward the battle-gate. When they reached it, they found the aelfae ducking for cover. The gorrazu had started using long-throwers, and they were attacking the wall. Shalik told a nearby archer to give him his arrows. The archer complied, looking at Shalik for any form of a bow. “Can you do these?” asked Shalik, turning to Hsuva. He nodded, and put his hand over the bunch of arrows. When he was done, they each had a rune on their heads. Shalik gave them back to the confused archer, and told him to go on the wall and start shooting tokilli. The archer did this, and he was amazed as a tokilli dropped dead as soon as the arrow hit him. After they did this to a few more aelfae, Hsuva stopped Shalik. He was looking worn out and tired. The archers were firing volley after volley into the ranks of the tokilli, and they were dropping like bad-stings. The gorrazu had realized the threat of these seemingly normal archers. They started firing back. It wouldn’t be long before they started using the long-throwers. A draconi landed in the battle area. It flew jerkily, and that was most likely due to the fact that its left wing was shot full of pointy-arrows. As it landed, a huge boulder smashed through the battlements, taking several aelfae with it. Luckily it had missed the magic-shooters. The draconi staggered over to Shalik. It spoke in a smooth, rapturous melody, much like a fireflyer. “Are you the one who wields the tokilli-killer?” Shalik felt the horse shift slightly, away from the draconi. He couldn’t exactly blame it. “Yes and no,” replied Shalik. This was the proper way to speak in front of a draconi, in a riddling way. The draconi looked puzzled for a second, then replied, “You mean it is not the only tokilli-killer. Who has the other one?” Shalik nodded over in Ritherin's direction, and the draconi nodded in recognition. Strangely, it was the symbol of actual respect. Draconi were very proud creatures, and they very rarely gave any thought to anyone being more exalted than their race. The draconi turned to Shalik and bowed low. Shalik was shocked. Draconi didn’t do this sort of thing. The draconi started to speak again. “My previous master was killed by a gorrazu archer, and I swore revenge. As I swooped down to quick-roast the gorrazu archer stand, they unleashed a volley of sharp-shots. I wheeled to my right, but the volley hit my wing. As everyone knows, the wings are one of the three parts in which draconi are vulnerable. So I just scorched the archers, and came back here to get these cursed arrows out of me. And I am asking if you would replace my master.” Shalik was stunned. This was no average draconi. It would have not called its previous aelf a master. It would have made it look like they owned the aelf. Which in fact, they did. The Draconi race was definitely more powerful than the Aelfae race, and the only reason they allow us on their backs is so that people don’t believe the far-fetched tales about them devouring maidens, and being an anger-pest to the wrong-named brave knights who slay them. A human has never killed a draconi. Ever. But to ask Shalik to be its aelf was incredible. Anyway, Shalik was no draconi rider. His only flight on one was on an old construction draconi, for when he made his treehouse. How was he expected to ride one into battle? The draconi had bowed low, and this was not an opportunity to be taken lightly. If he refused, the draconi might place a curse on him, and draconi-spells are really hard to get off. Shalik only knew a little forest-magic, used for camping and traveling. He could do a small transport spell, a fire-raising spell, and could scry into other places, as long as they weren’t too far away. Not exactly advanced magic. The scrying sapped out all his energy, though, as did all magic. Mages usually pass out after large spells, no matter how experienced they are. With second, third, fourth, and fifth thoughts, Shalik hauled himself onto the draconi’s saddle. There was a spear in one of the loops, and the other one was empty, probably the one the draconi’s previous rider had fallen with. The draconi twisted its head around, and stared at Shalik. “Does this mean you’ll be my master?” It asked. “Sure as the Roc flies, and the Tokilli roars,” replied Shalik, using an old aelfae expression. “Good, my name is Firefeather, and…” He turned his head around to look at Hsuva, “I was wondering if you could do something about this wing?” Hsuva looked startled as the draconi looked at him with an intensity that rivaled the beating of the sun on the sharpened forest in the east. “S..s..sure, no problem. I just need a closer look at the appendage.” Firefeather lowered his injured wing so Hsuva could get a closer look, and the excitable aelf exclaimed, “How on Shahim did you make it all the way here? The gorrazu archery stands have to be 400 yards from here!” And he just had to bring up the gorrazu, didn’t he? As Hsuva fixed Firefeather’s wing, they threw hooks over the wall. A shout rang out to cut the lines, but as soon as one was cut, two more were thrown up to take its place. It was like trying to separate salt and water with a spoon. An aelfae soldier ran past Shalik, and he saw the sun blazing on his shield, with the ice bud symbol on it. He also saw a gorrazu climb over the wall with the swirl of infinity painted on his shield. That meant they were sent from Shak, the Dark Lord’s Stronghold. The symbols meant nothing, Shalik thought, it’s the fact that they’re invading that counts. How very wrong he was. Hsuva had finished with Firefeather’s wing, and the gorrazu had finished the first line of resistance on the wall. Archers from below released a volley at the gorrazu, but many of them survived. A deep horn call sounded, willing all draconi riders to return to the wall, followed by a high-pitched blast that meant that all non-soldiers should withdraw to the underground passages. With an aelfae battle cry, an assembled cavalry of horsemen charged the ranks of gorrazu. The wave of horsemen turned the tide in the fight for the wall, driving the gorrazu ranks up against the wall, where arrows were rained down on their heads by the archers above. It was easy… too easy. After that, it got less easy. The tokilli had managed to break through the gate again, this time smashing it to pieces in the attempt. The few aelfae who had remained at their posts, trying in vain to keep the gate intact were crushed immediately, either on purpose or not. A tokilli is about four times the size of a burly aelf, and the defenses didn’t stand a chance. As the cavalry was about to charge a final time, the tokilli wave hit their flank. Distracted by this new threat, the cavalry turned, and leapt into the fray, in doing so, left Shalik, Ritherin, Hsuva, a few odd foot soldiers, and Firefeather wide open to the gorrazu’s aggression. Let me lay the odds out on the table: 1 draconi with limited attack power, because of needed time to heal, 1 Shalik, who has no more military training than a mouse with the flu, 1 Ritherin, who is actually experienced and graceful in war, a magician who is armed with a magical sword and a bag of seeds, which he had pulled out instead of his sword, and about 10 wounded soldiers vs. 1 dead tokilli, 2 empty helmets, and a bunch of enraged gorr-a-zu. Are the odds tilted at all? Shalik knew it would hit the gorrazu that they were the weak ones here, and that they would basically kill them. Hsuva had thought of this too, but had no intention of running. He simply grabbed a handful of seeds, and scattered them along the ground in front of us, all cool, calm and collected. As it hit the gorrazu, you could see the wary faces dart over to the cavalry, currently busy being torn to shreds by the tokilli, to the group of goodies, the fresh meat-I mean enemy. As the comprehension dawned on their faces, Hsuva started muttering. The gorrazu charged, and were nearing the circle very fast. Shalik readied his glaive, Ritherin tensed, Firefeather drew in breath, the sensible soldiers were crawling away, and Hsuva shouted, “Aeorthararia!” just as the gorrazu reached the seeds. Grass shot up from the seeds, but not ordinary grass. This grass formed a wall of tough vegetation, trapping gorrazu inside. The top of the wall formed into battlements, and was shooting, apparently, more of this grass as sticky pellets onto the gorrazu. Hsuva moved his hand in a diagonal slashing movement, and a set of stairs formed out of the wall, allowing the group to climb up. On top, the aelfae found some good news and some bad news. The small remainder of the once proud cavalry was shrinking rapidly, as they tried to repel the enemy in short bursts, but it was clear that the tokilli were just massing for a charge. It was when the party looked skyward that the good news arrived, in the shape of draconi riders winging their way back to the wall.