The Foolhardies 101 Out Of Time

I thought Luca and I were going to die. That was the thought racing through my head as the hundreds and hundreds of angry Magesong soldiers ran for us.

The death of their great general seemed to have caused them to snap, and like berserkers, they charged with no regard for the Darah army around them who had come to the defense of our great general. The result? A battlefield that was in complete chaos.

My first instinct was to point my sword toward Ardeen Spellweaver, the crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d who caused said chaos, but he wasn't where I last saw him standing over his dying father after he and his Masked friend carved Great General Spellweaver up.

Other than the twitching body lying on the ground, its life ebbing as I watched, Ardeen Spellweaver was nowhere in sight. He'd just vanished into the chaos while we weren't looking. And this presented a new problem for me, Luca, and Darah. Every Magesong soldier present wanted blood and ours was the only one they could get to.

"General, I think we have to go…" I offered Darah my hand. "We really need to go…"

With her free hand, Darah grasped mine and pulled herself up so she could climb onto Myth Chaser and sit behind me.

My hand was wet from her touch. I glanced down and found a sticky dark red coating my palm.

"G-general…" I glanced behind me.

Darah looked tired and paler than usual. Dark blood poured out of the wound on her shoulder. Still, there wasn't an ounce of defeat written on her face.

"Lend me your falchion, Dean," she ordered.

I pa.s.sed her my falchion with its shadowblade still drawn.

With my falchion in one hand and her golden sword in the other, Darah swung to the sides and parried the attacks of the first Magesong soldiers to reach us. Her next swings relieved our attackers of their heads.

"Dean…" Darah's voice was weaker than I was used to. "I'll deal with these fools. You lead us out of this deathtrap."

"Y-yes ma'am," I said with furrowed brows.

Sure, she'd take the easy job and leave me to work on the harder one. That's what I thought, at first. But I couldn't even see the attackers whose shadowblades came streaking toward us while Darah easily parried each one and then sent them a counterattack that was a deathblow four times out of five.

In fact, Darah had fended off five enemies by the time I called on Luca to watch our backs.

"Anyone got a plan?" Luca asked. He'd just finished chopping off a hobgoblin limb with his ax. "This is getting crazy!"

I glanced left and then right. Despite the haze of my vision, I could tell our soldiers weren't completely able to hold the Magesong soldiers back. And throughout all of this, my ears could still hear the wailing horns of the Scarlet Moon as they continued to blast and reverberate throughout the battlefield, only adding to the confusion.

"General, the way I see it, our army can't survive both the Magesong and Scarlet Moon attacking us," I reasoned.

"Yes, although I believe we could make them bleed for every inch they claim on Trickster land," Darah answered.

"But that's just a—"

"—a waste of lives," Darah finished for me. "I know, Dean… so what is your recommendation?"

"A strategic retreat, ma'am," I answered quickly. I already knew what we had to do hard as it was to swallow. "We need to get all our forces out of this theater of war so that we can regroup at a more defensible position… maybe even prepare for a long siege. It's the only way we'll survive against such overwhelming odds."

It took her a few more seconds to respond than I would have liked, but once she'd decided, Darah called on one of her nearby guards to signal Thors and the other army commanders for a full retreat.

"What are you waiting for?" Darah demanded of the guard who was looking at her with surprise in his face. "Fly, you fool!"

Half-startled, he nodded. Then he unfurled the gossamer wings hiding under his midnight blue cloak and flew into the sky where he was met by other pixies who seemed to have been waiting for him. They had a brief conversation in the air before dispersing in all directions. No doubt to relay Darah's orders to the other army commanders.

I looked up impressed. "Airmail, huh?"

"Focus, Dean," Darah chided.

"Um, yeah, sorry ma'am," I answered. "Whoa!"

I pulled on Myth Chaser's reins to avoid the trio of elves who'd appeared to attack us. Each one of them fell off their mounts, not to Darah's swords, but to the firebolts that hit them squarely in the backs.

"Dean!" Aura yelled. She reached into her pack and tossed me the item she took out of it.

I caught the metal cylinder with both hands as it might have been disastrous if I'd failed to catch it and it fell to the ground and broke without warning.

A few months ago, I'd asked Zarz to make me a weapon that we could use against Thom's drow clan during that confusing debacle at Broken Sellsword's Canyon. The heavy metal cylinder that he'd cooked up was a total dud, but we'd never given up on making it work. The new and improved version in my hands was about the size of a c.o.ke can. It had a similar metallic casing riddled with holes systematically placed across the metal surface.

Luca's brow furrowed at the sight of the cylinder. "Um, is that what I think it is?"

"Break in case of emergencies," I said happily.

I glanced behind me and grinned.

More enemy soldiers were coming, their faces red from anger.

Seeing their desperation only made me grin wider. It was the perfect opportunity to test whether or not we could use Mudgardian tools effectively in the Fayne.

I pulled out the metal pin at the top of the cylinder and threw it over Darah's back. Then I pulled on Myth Chaser's reins and urged it forward.

"Cover your eyes, Darah soldiers!" I yelled, hoping anyone who heard me would pay attention and follow my suggestion.

There was a loud popping sound that pierced through the noise of the battlefield. This was followed by a searingly bright light that I could see even through my shut eyelids.

Screams ensued. Voices of all kinds crying out that the light had blinded them. Suckers.

One second pa.s.sed. I kept my eyes closed. Two seconds pa.s.sed. I took a quick peek.

The chaos had only intensified with momentarily blind fools las.h.i.+ng out those around them out of fear. there was a lot of friendly fire.

"Time to go!" I yelled while silently thinking of giving Zarz a raise for the spectacular craftmans.h.i.+p that may have just saved all our b.u.t.ts.

We ran, pus.h.i.+ng our mounts to wade through the sea of grays and blues and race out of the encirclement of spectators. Those soldiers who saw their great general riding behind me cheered before falling in behind us like an honor guard following their master to escape.

To my Foolhardies fell the responsibility of guarding our sides. Aura led the group on the right while Luca led the team on the left of our procession of Darah soldiers. And they had their job cut out for them.

As if possessed by demons, the Magesong soldiers continued their attacks on us. They harried us every step of the way so that we were forced to veer off course several times, moving further and further away from our own front lines.

It was at this moment that I decided to take a risk.

"Please take the reins, general," I said, offering Myth Chasers reins to Darah.

"Should I scratch your back while I'm at it, Dean?" Darah asked jokingly while she accepted the reins from me. "Or would you prefer a cup of tea while you laze about and leave me to do all the hard work?"

"Hilarious," I said. "Just keep us alive while I keep watch from on high, ma'am."

Hearing my plan, Aura, who was now riding at our side, said, "But, Dean, you've already overused Fool's Insight, haven't you?"

I heard the worry in her voice and knew I should just lie to her. It would have been easier to just lie about it. But I never could lie to Aura. It wasn't just our bond, I just thought that I needed to always be truthful with her so that she would always be truthful with me.

"It's okay, Aura… I think I have a bit left in the tank for one more look," I reasoned.

"But the risk—"

"—would be less than the risk of not using it," I reasoned. "Can't you tell, Aura? Something's wrong here, and we can't make the best decisions without seeing the whole board."

Aura went quiet. She knew I was right. But her concern for me was touching. Even made me blush and fidget in my seat. stupid teenage hormones at work again.

'Do it, Dean," Darah ordered. "Find us a way out of this mess before we're out of time."

"Yes, ma'am," I answered.

I closed my eyes and spoke the words floating in my mind's eye, "Oh great fool, let me see the unseen that I might know the unknowable," and felt the magic stir. Then came the pain, and right afterward, the screams began.