When the unseen newcomer called her a "witch" by name, she froze. There was confidence in those words; these were no mere bandits.

"Can you go look?" she asked.

Even Nusina sounded afraid. "I'll try." She flew out through the door.

The deep voice said, "We see your sidekick there. Right where I'm pointing. Hello, spirit."

"Eep!" Nusina said.

Ruyo went to her door and opened it a crack. She shouted, "If you've got something to say, come here!"

The man out there called back, "You've got a bunch of guests. We're going to start killing them if you don't come stop us by the count of ten."

"Leave them out of this! There are no 'witches' here."

"One. They're followers, aren't they?"

Ruyo shouted obscenities at them, and, "Everyone wake up!"

"Two. They're not waking for a while."

There were lumps on the ground where the sleepers had pitched their tents, making her think of dead bodies. She said to Nusina, "Can they really see you?"

"I've tried sneaking around, and yes. I spot a big, tough man and a cloaked archer woman trying to hide. Probably no others."

"Three," the man jeered.

Ruyo tried to steer her elementals to fly out of the cave, but the icy things moved sluggishly. By the the count of five they were outside, but degrading into the near-useless waterball creatures she could conjure anywhere.

"Six. Is that your best, witch? Send your spirit out to harass us and get us wet?"

Nusina said, "What should we do?"

"We should kick their asses. Just a minute." She shouted out, "I've made no evil pacts, and I've sent a party to your town to ask for peace already. The sleepers include children of the nobility of Averell. Do you want to start a fight with their families?"

"Do you want to hide behind them? Seven."

Ruyo grabbed a staff she'd made and attached a glass speartip to. She flung open her door, ready to dodge an arrow at any moment, and raised both hands in front of her to stream gallons of water to the ground at her feet. The twin streams trickled downhill and shined in the moonlight. A man in dark leather stood there with a hatchet in each hand.

Ruyo gave up on diplomacy. She felt her power nearly at its peak here, just outside the cave. She imitated her elementals' best attack and raised shards of ice from the soggy ground to fling like daggers.

Even better than expected, her improvised storm of icicles flashed and whirled toward him. He reacted by holding up one hand and making something flash in it. The force behind the magic blow faltered, and all the ice fell harmlessly at his feet.

"What?" said Ruyo.

"We came prepared," the man said, and charged her like a bull. He crossed the open ground so fast she barely had time to raise her staff and block the swing of one hatchet, then the other. His strength left her staggering. She had no time to counter.

Nusina and the waterball elementals whipped toward him, trying to engulf his head. He moved aside, dodging even as he harried Ruyo. Then the hidden archer struck. An arrow whizzed by and gashed Ruyo along her left arm, shallow but painful.

Ruyo had been taught she lacked the raw strength to stand up to someone like this. She fell back and ran toward the archer, zigzagging. She whipped up ice as she changed targets, and pelted the spot where the arrow came from.

At the same moment an arrow blazing with green light came right at her. It bounced off her but exploded, magic threads tearing at her like vines. She yelped and tried to shake them off, before realizing they weren't physically there. She had to yank at the magic itself. And behind her was the bull...

The hit came before she could break free. A flying axe struck her in the back of her right leg, biting in. Ruyo screamed and stumbled. The archer rolled out from cover to take up position behind a log. Relentlessly Ruyo used her magic to lift and hurl as much ice as she could, stabbing again and again to chase her. A cry of pain came from just out of sight.

Ruyo risked a glance over one shoulder and forced herself to pull the hatchet out before she could think about it. Through her own red-tinged vision she saw Bull struggling with Nusina and the elementals, who were viciously trying to drown him. "Hold him off! Can he block all my spells?"

"He's not blocking me! He hit me but that'll get him nowhere."

Ruyo leaped over the log and came down hard on her injured leg, shouting in pain. Her spells faltered long enough that she had time to see the archer laying on the ground with a long, icy blade through her chest and another in her arm. The assassin fired desperately but Ruyo tripped, turning a hard fall into a splashing dodge that left her disoriented. She whipped around, ready to tackle the archer.

But the woman threw down her bow and said, "Mercy!" Her hood fell back to show a young but scarred face.

Ruyo stole the bow and hurled it toward Bull, who slashed again and again at the water-creatures as they tried to choke him to death.

The bow fell uselessly away. Bull tried once more to reach her, driving her back. Ruyo threw her spear next. It grazed his clothes and clattered to the wet grass. Nusina and her minions were relentless now. She said, "Kill him?"

She answered aloud, "The woman surrendered. Give him one chance."

Nusina lifted off from around his head and screeched, "Surrender or die!"

Hacking and coughing up water, he hardly reacted as Ruyo whipped more icy shards up to float around her. She said, "We mean it! Your partner's already down!"

"A... alive?" he wheezed.

"And disarmed. Down on the ground, now!"

Nusina had gathered the waterballs to whirl beside her, ready to force them down his throat. The man coughed up more water, hands on his knees, and then dropped his hatchet. "I surrender."

Ruyo made him kick it forward, then seized it as though she knew how to use it well. The blade was facing the wrong way. "I'm not a damn evil witch!" she shouted, feeling her own wounds bleed. "But if I can't get that message across and make you leave me alone, I will burn your village down and then flood it just to stay on theme!"

Her enemy coughed and lowered himself to the ground. "You weren't willing to let us pick the sleepers off, and you got this far. You pass."

The hatchet was heavy in her shaking hands. "What? What?!"

"We weren't outright trying to kill you. We have a problem back home."

"You sure do now!"

"Not you. Something that made it worth testing you."

"You've got half a minute more of my patience, killer. Nusina, is archer gal sneaking up on me?"

"No, milady."

"We were trying to find out," the man said, "if you were the right person to kill what we keep chained in our temple. Because we're not sure anything less than a god will keep it down there much longer, and we've sworn on our lives not to let it out."

~ Arc 2: Wavebound Mentors, End ~