Fallen Magician (The Magician Rebellion) Read Free

was unsure to what end they were progressing.
    Marian was determined to lead the ranger scouts in their expedition, but her advisers in Everec’s city council were in an uproar fearing that the mission would be too dangerous for their new Commanding Dame to lead the small force required for swift reconnaissance. To appease both sides, Sari volunteered to take the scouts and learn if there was any truth to the claim while Marian oversaw the emergency shelters and food stores for all of the refugees that would be on their way if her hunch was right. For more than a week the scouts headed south towards the Dread Marsh that stood between the orcs and humans searching for any sign of an orc horde. Every day they would search the nearby area and finding no sign of orc raiders moved farther south. They did this twice more and Sari secretly hoped to see Marian Lightfoot coming down the mountain behind her to take charge of the forces so recently placed under her command, but Marian never came. How could she? Sari’s former apprentice traded the freedom of the traveler for the luxuries and responsibilities of the nobility. How boring.
    “ They should have been back by now,” Sari said, in an admission that was more to herself than a comment to Donovan.
    “ Do you hear that?” Donovan asked suspiciously. He lied down with his belly flat on the boulder and began eyeing the tree line far below them where the soil was rich enough to grow vegetation in the low-lying areas.
    Sari perked up and listened intently. “I do not hear a thing,” she said and looked to Donovan who raised an eyebrow as if the very silence itself was a question. Then the silence bore down on her like a heavy weight and she understood what Donovan meant. The birds were no longer chirping. Something had spooked them.
    The elf took a laying position next to Donovan and they watched the tree line below for any sign of passage. Minutes passed without the pair seeing any sign of orcs coming and Sari was about to suggest they go down and investigate when a trio of humans emerged and began making their way toward Sari and Donovan. It was the southern squad leader, a young, but talented tracker by the name of Lechance Swiftstride, known as Chance to his friends. He struck Sari as a charming fellow, but a bit more confident in his abilities than he should have been. The men with him were members of the units under his command for this mission. Only the squad leaders were supposed to report to Sari’s position while their rangers established a perimeter. If some of his men were with him, then something must have gone wrong. Sari resisted the urge to run down the mountainside and compromise her position.
    “ Reporting in, Captain,” Chance said when he reached Sari with a curt salute born of weariness rather than disrespect. They must have been running non-stop for some time. “We have spotted the orc raiders and they are more than just some bandits trying to exploit poorly protected settlements. There looked to be about four hundred orcs heading our way. Two of my men, Handy and Dagson, fell victim to their advance scouts as we withdrew. They drew the orc scouts away so we could escape unnoticed and deliver this message to you.”
    “ Handy and Dagson were good lads,” Donovan said sympathetically, “They will be missed.”
    “ And their sacrifice will not be in vain,” Sari added resolutely. Handy and Dagson were both sixteen years of age, barely old enough to be considered men. For ones so young to perish was truly dispiriting to the elf. She knew that her own people’s long lived nature was often envied by the other high races, because to humans, dwarves, and the other races this seemed like an advantage, but they never saw the sparsely populated lands of Raiden or the Red Tree Forest. They failed to understand that elves did not have children as often as other races and so they felt every premature death of their kinsman especially the young ones that much