At that moment, a ball sailed over the low rise and smashed into a company of men. Blood fountained from the neck of one man as he fell. Others screamed as clothes and skin burst into flames.

“Mother’s tits! What is that?” Ashk saw one of the western Fae riding toward her and raised her hand in a commanding summons. When he reined in, she looked at the barely conscious man he carried in front of him and felt her gorge rise. She hoped he was a stranger and that was the reason she couldn’t recognize his face. “Report.”

“We’re outnumbered,” the huntsman said. “And spread out too thin. Our longbowmen have managed to keep them from coming up the rise, but there’s hundreds of them marching across that field and we—” He glanced at the burned and wounded men.

“What is that?” Ashk said.

“Fire,” Selena replied in a queer voice. “But not natural fire. Not the Mother’s fire.”

The huntsman nodded. “One of the humans said the Black Coats have catapults. They’re firing clay pots that shatter when they hit the ground or a man. Some are filled with scraps of metal that are flung in all directions when the pot breaks. Some have a liquid that burns when it meets air. Some have both. We’re losing a third of the men before they make it up to the rise to fight.”

“Where are you going with him?” Ashk asked.

“Message from Lyrra and Gwenn. They’re sending carriages, wagons, anything they can to bring the wounded back to the gentry houses. They should be—There!” The huntsman pointed.

Ashk looked over her shoulder. Lyrra might have thought to send the conveyances, but Gwenn, married to a baron, would have known which ones to send. A pony cart, an open carriage, a farm wagon. They could travel over rougher land, but how would they get through the stone walls?

As the thought took shape, she watched a section of the stone wall in the path of the conveyances break apart, watched the stones roll out of the way. And noticed the man on horseback.

“That Son must have the gift of earth,” Selena said. “He’s clearing the way for the wagons.”

Another ball sailed over the rise, hit the ground, and set the grass on fire. Ashk tensed. If the field on this side of the rise began to burn…

The flames diminished. The ground smoked.

She breathed out a sigh of relief. They might not be able to stop men from getting burned, but as long as the House of Gaian was fighting with them, they wouldn’t have to worry about being trapped between the enemy’s army and a wall of fire.

“See those trees?” Ashk pointed and waited for the huntsman’s nod. “Tell the men driving those conveyances they are not to go beyond those trees.”