When she awoke from her exhausted sleep, after breaking her fast with more fatmeat and fish (which she was getting a little sick of) she said, “Aignew, I’ll attack the goblins just after daybreak tomorrow. They’ll be tired and hopefully disorientated.”

“I’d suggest midday would be better, my witch. Give the females a chance to truly settle after their nighttime activities. I haven’t asked because I’ve been weakened or you’ve been busy but what small castings do you know?”

“Banishment of fatigue, firelighting, vermin removal, vermin warding, purification of water and drying.”

“What?! How long were you apprenticed?”

“From my first moon’s blood, nearly five turnings.”

“Your previous Master should be whipped. How are you meant to learn all the skills a witch must know and in the depth you must lest you risk destruction at the hands of the beings you will bargain with? No, I will not stand for any witch of mine being so poorly prepared. We will postpone your attack and the next several days will not be pleasant.”

They weren’t, but she learned and fast.

********

She woke in darkness and couldn’t fall asleep again on the day chosen to make her attack, she tried but eventually had to give up because her nerves wouldn’t let her.

Feeding small branches into the ash of the fire she blew on it trying to coax it back into life but it had been a small fire and was as cold as the stones around it. A few muttered words and a well controlled blue cored flame lit the small twigs and she spent a few minutes feeding it up, when it was crackling nicely she muttered the casting for the magic pot and filled it with water, setting it to boil.

A cup of herb tea to settle her stomach while the fire burned down enough to cook the rushcakes would be just the thing.

Aignew’s faintly glimmering lines drifted out of the darkness and he said, “What are you doing awake?”

Shaking her head she said, “Couldn’t sleep, nerves.”

“You already know five ways to ensure sleep, either herbs or a casting. Why did you not use one?”

“Didn’t want to risk any side effects.”

“You know the casting and some of the herbs have none.”

“Fine! I didn’t think I’d need too. I wasn’t expecting to be this nervous.”

“I forget at times you are so young still, in most things you act with a maturity far past your years.” The lines of his eyes narrowed and he said, “You slept well enough, so I doubt it will be a problem. Eat, drink, meditate. You will need the strength and the calm.”

She drank her tea and tried to eat a few rushcakes but the food was like ashes in her mouth, cloying and dry so she gave up. As the sun rose she tried to meditate but her mind was unruly and would not settle, she gave up on that too.

Instead she sat there sipping at tea as the sun slowly crawled toward it’s zenith, when it was close to it’s peak she stripped and applied the salve while chanting the casting to activate it. As the golden paste spread over her skin in cool lines it slowly started to glow and as the chant reached a crescendo there were three pulses and then it set into a steady golden glow.

Downing the boost potion she winced at it’s astringent burn in her mouth but she felt a rush of energy and strength flow through her.

The potions effects would last around the same length as the salve so while the glow lasted she was protected, she much stronger, and much faster.

Dressing again she checked her sling, it’s ammunition, and her knife, finding all in order.

Prepared but horribly uncertain if she was ready, she called Horse to her with a small casting. Swinging onto his back she started picking her way through the swamp.

The butterflies that had been tormenting her gut calmed as she had to concentrate to keep Horse and herself out of the deep water and deeper mud. When she reached the small rise she’d camped on that first night after scouting the Goblins, leaving Horse unhobbled she used a small casting to ‘suggest’ he stay put. He nickered and pushed at her with his nose, snuffling after the swamp apple she had in her pocket.

She smiled and pulled it out, giving it to him.

She patted his neck and leaned in, burying her face in his warm horsey scent then stepping away she said, “Aignew, these nerves won’t leave me be. I’m enhanced and they’re only Goblins but I keep thinking, there’s an entire tribe crouching in the dark down there. Two hands of females and two males, though those fat lazy creatures won’t be a problem the females will fight very hard to protect them. Even these morons understand no males means no more young.”

She heard his cold whispering voice at the back of her mind, “Steady my witch. As you say they are morons, barely more intelligent than beasts. You have a plan and you are well prepared, execute that plan and they will fall. So take a deep breath and calm yourself. You can, and you will do this easily.”

She took a couple of deep breaths and shook out her hands then slipped into the water and swam slowly to the willow at the ruins. The concealment of it’s trailing thickly leafed branches was critical for the first part of her plan.

She breathed in, deeply. Fighting off the butterflies she used a small casting to shove a loose rock out of the wall. It fell, clattering loudly across the weed-choked stone flags in the insect humming stillness of the ruins.

Nerves twanging like a plucked string she waited for the Goblins to respond.

Nothing happened, no reaction at all. Lazy damn creatures.

A few more casts, a few more shoves and the rock went tumbling and rattling down the cellar stairs.

They had to respond to someone throwing rocks into their home and they did, eight small grey and green creatures boiled up out of the darkness. Brandishing a variety of weapons from fairly decent looking repurposed tools to vaguely club shaped lumps off wood their beady red eyes flickered around the ruins trying to spot what or who had thrown that rock.

When they hadn’t found anything after only a very short while, the weapons started dropping. Muttering and snarling at the bright sun they turned and headed back into the dark depths.

Another deep breath, this was exactly what she was waiting for but there would be no coming back from this…

Her sling whirred and just before the last pair of Goblins set foot on the stairs, two stones snapped out, the second in the air before the first had even hit.

The lead Goblin’s head was thrown forward as blood and brains spattered the stairs and the surrounding flags as the stone hit her right behind her pointed ear.

She toppled forward and slid down the stairs.

The second stone was hurried and slightly off target, it merely hit the Goblin in her shoulder but the impact was still enough to twist her around and throw her down the stairs as well.

Raelea heard enraged screams, thumps and the clatter of fallen weapons from the cellar stairwell. The Goblins rushed back out waving their weapons and screaming loudly.

A little surprised Raelea found she could understand them, it was mostly obscenities and colourful descriptions of what they’d do unless she showed herself. They really were stupid.

She tensed when a group of five formed up to start searching the area but relaxed when they headed away from her behind the wall. The last three started marching back and forth in front of the stairwell self-importantly with their weapons held ready.

As soon as she was sure the group weren’t coming back she let fly again. One dropped, skull shattered. The second was stunned by a glancing blow which left a blood welling crease along the side of her head. She’d recover if given time but hopefully that was time she wouldn’t get. Raelea’s hands blurred as she hurried the third shot because the final guard was turning to look at the soft thumps of the other two falling.

The stone whistled through the air and slammed into her forehead, snapping her head back and cutting off her shout of warning before she could do more than draw the breath for it.

Sprinting over to the three fallen Goblins Raelea kept a nervous eye on the wall where the others had disappeared. As she leaned over to slit the stunned one’s throat the stench hanging around her scrawny rag covered body made her recoil. The small creature stack of meat long past edible, sweat, dirt, excrement, and the musty tickling stink of mouldering reeds.

Her nose wrinkling with distaste and scrubbing her hands convulsively on her leather pants after she’d dragged the bodies into a weed choked corner she ran to the stairs before the searchers could return.

There were only a pair of males down there right now and they were no threat. Hurrying she sprinted down the stairs, she wanted to be ready to ambush the Goblins on their return and she wanted one of the males to use as a meat-shield.

She hit the bottom of the stairs and saw the Goblin she’d brained laying awkwardly sprawled at the foot of them. The other one she’d only ht in the shoulder had toppled over the side and was laying half-in and half-out of the pool of light that splashed across the gloom of the cellar. Still moving quickly Raelea made to check on the fallen Goblin, if she’d survived the fall her knife would make sure she didn’t survive any longer.

Crouching over and reaching toward the Goblin she finally took a breath because she’d been moving too fast to need to until now. That was when she abruptly realised she’d made a terrible terrible mistake.

The stink that had lingered on the Goblins outside was nothing compared to the eye-watering foulness of the hovel they’d lived in.

Stomach heavily helplessly she vomited on the corpse.

Coughing and gasping, she crawled with her eyesight blurred by tears toward the bottom of the stairs. Needing to get out, out was where the sweet, clean air of the swamp was. Air she desperately needed, in her misery she barely even registered the dark shapes that moved across the bright square of the stairwell before she was hit by something and fell sideways.

From the floor she saw a Goblin dancing around wildly with an upraised mallet.

Pushing herself to her knees with a grunt and with her head swimming she tried to keep crawling toward the light and the fresh air, she’d just put her hand on the first step and could see the blue blue sky when there was an outraged scream behind her and she was hit again. Blackness took her.