The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 28

Part 6

It was still twilight at the top of the cliffs on either side of the narrow slot canyon that formed the pass out of the valley to the west, with the occasional beam of red dusk light still filtering through the underbrush. The Sylvan formations were lined up right to the edge of the cliffs, knowing that their god’s gift of absolute Stealth hid them from the sight of any others. All that had a vantage of the goat shed watched it intently.

When Stripe had first alerted Reggie, the great cat had been on the slope near the ridge on the north side of the valley. He’d halted his stalk at his young master’s command, and a few minutes later his awareness of his prey sharpened considerably. He now knew the locations of the closest few exactly, including their motions and the positions of their limbs, and the twins assured him that for now, the Sylvan couldn’t detect him. At Reggie’s direction, Stripe had moved west and up, gaining the top of the ridge where the cliffs to the west began, and he’d stalked along the top of the cliffs to the edge of the Sylvan formation. He was now hidden in the bush less than a meter and a half from the closest Sylvan, who crouched at the cliff’s edge and diligently watched the goat shed.

“Okay. Let’s start it.” Reggie decided.

“Wait. Are we really ready to kill these people?” Helemia asked.

“Yup. You know Vanakit’s gonna torture you to death if he catches you. He’ll just kill me quick to get me out of the way. And we’re not good enough to stop them without killing at least some of them. We’ll let the wounded live if they’re hurt bad enough that they won’t attack us anymore, but that’s as nice as I’m willing to be.”

“Good.” Helemia grinned with satisfaction. “Just checking. Let’s do it.”

At their direction, Scout took off from the tree he was in near the valley floor, and flew up to the top of the ridge to the south-west. He pumped his wings hard as he flew just above the ridge going clockwise, gaining speed.

A Sylvan who was stationed on the ridge on the east side of the valley moved over a couple of meters to get a better view of the shed, but one of the rocks he tried to step on was an Illusion covering a crack in the slope. He fell heavily and cried out before his face smashed against the rocks, and he tumbled down the steep slope for a while before sliding to a stop, unconscious.

The Sylvan woman who was stationed eighteen meters to his left stood to see what was happening, and started to move to assist him. Before she’d gone three meters the same thing happened to her. She yelled and tumbled and slid until she struck a tree, and lay there moaning from the pain of a broken arm, as well as numerous serious cuts, scrapes, and bruises.

All the Sylvan on the top of the cliffs heard the cries and the crashes of the fallen tumbling down the slopes on the far side of the valley, and stood as they tried to crowd forward to get a better look, as much as they could without crowding the ones near the edge off the precipice.

At that moment Scout flew over the southern group from behind, unseen and unheard, making his best speed. He swooped down at the last moment and slammed into the back of the second row of Sylvan from the edge. He hit two of them in the backs of their heads with his wings, knocking them into the ones at the very edge in front of them. He sank his claws into the scalp of the one between them, and drove his sharply-pointed hooked beak into the scalp of the one in front of that. His momentum dragged the one he grasped completely off the edge, knocking off those in front of him, and all the ones who were falling tried to grab the ones around them for purchase. Eight Sylvan fell, yelling and screaming all the way down.

The cliff was just over eighteen meters high, and none of them had the time or the wherewithal to cast Flight or Levitation before they hit.

On the cliffs on the north side the pass, the Sylvan crowded forward even more to see what had just happened. Stripe bounded out of cover and charged through them, knocking as many Sylvan off the cliff as he could. He reached the far side of the formation and turned. The rest of the Sylvan had backed away from the edge, but he grabbed six of them one by one by the arm or leg with his mighty jaws and threw them over before they had backed up enough to make that impractical. He leaped into the midst of them, biting and clawing and tearing amidst a cacophony of screaming, yelling, and confusion.