Part 1

An arrow zipped past my shoulder as I ducked behind the wall of Castle Mulan. Nocking another arrow to my own string, I stood up and sent feathery death down on the peon who had dared attack me.

“How goes it?” I called to my general, Kalvin.

“Not good,” he called back. “Captain Misha’s unit is under heavy mage-fire. I’ve redirected our healers to that area.”

“Mage fire?” I looked around at the gates beside me. The enemy’s battering rams were getting closer, but our own mages were blasting at them, and our cavalry was ready in the courtyard. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Thank you, Prince Innes!”

I nodded and, crouching, walked swiftly over to the other side of the castle where our pegasus knights were fending off a storm of fireballs and lightening bolts. Pegasus were naturally resistant to magic attacks, but we only had one squad, and there were too many mages for them to deal with. We’d already lost four, a third of them.

I was not resistant to magic, but I was agile and my arrows struck faster than the knights. I revealed myself and pegged three mages in the space of a breath, drawing new arrows from my quiver in the blink of an eye. Then I had to throw myself down and roll as they became aware of the new threat and aimed several eye-searing spells in my general direction. Continue reading →