"High Lord, Layla's people saved us. Now they need our help."

"I know that! But like Beorn, they're just going to have to hold."

Miro pictured the small Dunfolk, gentle in nature, hunters who hid in the forest. Nightshades would tear them to pieces.

"I'll go myself."

"Miro, no," High Lord Rorelan said flatly.

"Beorn is an able commander, and he has four bladesingers with him."

"I said no! You're needed here. Your position takes precedence, Miro. People always say bladesingers are accustomed to too much freedom to make good soldiers. Free will is the last trait a commander can have. Do you hear me? You are confusing your responsibilities."

Miro turned his dark eyes on Rorelan. "We owe the Dunfolk a debt. I'm going." He followed Layla from the room, turning and speaking one last time over his shoulder. "But I'll be back."

11

11

MIRO sat still and silent, once more looking over water and waiting for the enemy to arrive. Yet this time was different: where before the river had been wide, with earthen banks to either side, this tributary of the Sarsen was narrower, and on both sides the thick bushes grew all the way to the water's edge. And rather than night, it was early afternoon. This time Miro would see his enemy.

Next to him, Layla sat with her eyes closed, resting in the bushes, her bow across her lap. There was a time when Miro would have wondered at her ability to sleep when in the next hour her life might be taken from her, but that was long past, and Miro knew the value of snatched sleep.

He considered trying to rest himself, but his nerves were taut and his senses heightened by fear. Fighting legionnaires was one thing, but nightshades were altogether different.

Miro had never actually run up against one, but he'd seen two bladesingers take on a single nightshade at the battle at the Bridge of Sutanesta. The living tree had easily triumphed, tearing the first bladesinger in half before reaching for the second. Only the intervention of a Halrana colossus had saved the second warrior in green.

And Miro planned to take on two nightshades.

Raj Vezna's masters of lore were called cultivators for a reason. Where Halrana's constructs were animated creatures built of wood, iron or bone, and required an animator to control their movements with skilled activation of the runes, the cultivators applied their lore to the living trees and vines that inhabited their forest home. Of course, the essence inevitably worked its way into the veins of the plant and killed it, but the creations of the cultivators were capable of some truly impressive feats.