Stormlands ( Book 2 of the Torrent Skies Saga)

Chapter Three: Distractions, PT 1

Katerin crouched in the soft grass, not making a sound or moving a muscle. She was not but seventy feet away from the gates of the orc encampment. Brazen's stream of thought kept her mind from wandering, and worrying. 

She reached into her bag and pulled a small wooden box free. Inside was a strange tied-together clump of firecrackers, with a fuse sticking straight out of the top, and  illusion magic heavy across it.

Breath was hard to come by, until the orc walking a circuit turned to make his loop again. She watched him for a moment before lighting the fuse and creeping away. If this goes wrong, I'm dead, she thought to Brazen, echoing Lugaria's earlier words. She sprinted as close to the ground as she could, pulling a long fuse and placing boxes as she went.

Finally she reached the outer edge of her perimeter, and brought a flicker of flame to her fingertips—lighting the fuse and watching as it traveled towards the boxes.

She stayed crouched, and counted to herself. She was keenly aware of Brazen not far from her, as he watched for anything she might miss.

Loud noises erupted, and color sprayed up into the air. glowing and forming beautiful patterns before it fell back toward the ground. She grinned despite the feeling of not quite being able to breathe, and kept counting. Waiting to see orcs at the gates.

She rose from her crouch and pointed her finger at the first building she could see above the walls. A thin line of white-hot fire arced forward and exploded on impact at the top of the building, sending pieces of wood and clay showering down.

Sure that she now had their full attention, she waited and listened to the shouts and sounds of alarm.

We should go, Brazen warned, showing her orcs as they charged out into the grass.

I can do a little more, she insisted. She pointed to the next building and the next, and even the gates themselves, shooting small sparks of fire from her fingertips with a whisper, in the hopes to catch whatever she could alight. The magic pulled at her. She was using too much, too quickly, but she pushed those warnings away in time to hear Brazen's.

Katerin! We need to go.

The orcs had seen her now, and at least twenty were charging right for her and Brazen, with four or five ahead of the rest.

And there were some behind her, she realized, too late.

A thick hand knotted into her cloak and lifted her, slamming a fist into her stomach before throwing her into the dirt.

Before she could right herself Brazen's axe sunk deep into the orcs side, and it died quietly in the grass.

She froze, staring at the next orc charging her. He had a scar along his face that stretched across one eye. Her pause was long enough to grant her a stinging cut across her arm before she snapped her fingers and appeared a few feet away.

Brazen was beside her in a second. There's too many.

I noticed, she snapped. She planted her staff in the dirt, and unleashed a barrage of those unerring crystalline missiles into the charge. Letting the energy arc through the orcs in front of her. Let's draw them out.

She ran with Brazen right beside her until they were atop of another hill. She concentrated, willing her energy out to twist the fog so that it took on the shape of armored forms hefting weapons and charging.

It was a harmless spell, and easily distinguishable if you had the sense of mind to think it over, but it would have to be enough.  The orcs pursued them with agility and feral anger, but many paused to fend off the fog.