"If I put Night Vision on Conner and put him up in a tower, we could get a pretty good idea," Meara mused.
    "If you put Night Vision on Conner, and then he turns invisible and flies over there," he corrected.
    "Oh, if you want to do it that way, too."
    "You can fly?" I asked.
    "Yes. You didn't know that?"
    "No."
    "Sheesh." He rolled his eyes, then wilted gratifyingly under my glare.
    "I saw you levitate once, but that's not quite the same thing."
    "I've been working on it."
    "Well, good. That's very useful. If you have any other useful skills you might want to apprise me of....."
    "Like being able to generate a field that will block missiles?"
    "Yes, like that. What do I pay you for?"
    He went, and came back, and reported there were about a hundred of them, armed with iron swords and spears, and a score of wargs as well. No bows or crossbows that he saw. He picked out their warleader easily, an Uruk-hai, maybe even the same one we'd spoken to.
    "He seemed so nice, too," I remarked.
    "He seemed like he had the best interests of his people at heart." Conner shrugged.
    "And this does not."
    "Well, maybe from his point of view. He might be assuming that the moment we finish the reinforcements we'll be using it as a defensible position from which to attack them."
    "The thing to do would have been to ask," I sniffed.
    We knew the terrain well by now; the best place to face the invaders would be the valley ridge itself, and there were a limited number of areas where they could come at it. The odds were bad, but far from hopeless. The other druid remained to defend the grove in case they got that far while we held a strategy session.
    "They'll be here tomorrow night."
    "So we attack at dawn," I proposed. "No sense waiting until night."
    "If we can get Conner to identify where the leader is burrowing in....." Meara looked thoughtful.
    "Send a strike force in. You, do not use the North Wind," I added to Llweder. "I like this area. We're not going to freeze it solid."
    Conner returned to his scouting and determined that the leader's burrow was located in the rough center of the mass of orcs. The burrows were maybe four feet deep.
    "If we were to drop a water ball on one of these burrows and then hit it with a lightning bolt...." Meara had that wicked look again. "We probably don't want to be standing too close, in case the ground's a little damper than I think. You want me to wake 'em up?"
    "Sounds like a sound tactic," I said. "How much water?"
    "I think I can summon enough water."
    "'Enough' being the bay, or....?"
    Not that much, as it turned out, but between the two of them she and Llweder could create a fair amount of the element. We made plans rapidly, and put them into action almost as quickly.
    Meara created a massive amount of water in the center of the camp. Llweder snuck through the perimeter and did the same, then beat a hasty retreat. Conner turned himself invisible (though he couldn't do the same for her) and carried Meara over the sleeping camp, where she cast her lightning bolt into their midst.
    The effect on the orcs was remarkable, even from where I waited with the warband to charge. The early morning stillness was broken by screams and wails as they bolted from their shallow burrows into the painful sunlight. The Uruk-hai erupted from the ground, most displeased with the world, sparks flying from his ring-mail. The wargs, who had been farther out and were largely unaffected, howled angry commiseration. Llweder pulled ice from his satchel and created a ring around that half of the encampment, penning them in. Claws slipped and slid on the ice. Meara took advantage of a moment to put an armoring spell on herself, as the long-distance part of the battle seemed to be done with.
    I just know I was grinning madly as my newly drawn sword coated self and steed in molten armor.
    "Charge!"
    We hit the disorganized outer line; I buried my sword in an orcish skull. Gannon found himself face-to-face with a warg, which fell to his expertly-wielded blade. The rest of them that were not trapped on the ice swarmed toward us and engaged the members of the warband. Meanwhile the Uruk-hai had freed himself and was moving in my direction, which saved me the trouble of looking for him.
    The surviving orcs—about half of them—dragged themselves free of their burrows. Llweder looked in the satchel again and pulled out more ice, which he used to immobilize the rear half of the encampment, trying to keep the ice from the area where those of us on horseback were engaged.
    Conner dropped Meara off behind our lines, picked up his bow, and flew back toward the battle. Gannon dealt an orc a serious wound and parried the return blow coolly. The main force of wargs was pushing the warband back somewhat now; Conner created a wall of fog over the ones trapped on the ice, further hampering their efforts to get to solid ground.
    I blocked the Uruk-hai's first attack with my shield; he was a big one, and quite angry. He parried mine as well.
    Meara had worked her way back into range and selected an orc as her target. Soon that orc was no more. Gannon missed, was forced to doge back as his own enemy came at him strongly. Llweder began circling around toward where the warband was engaged. A fireball off to the rear was unmistakably Meara again, setting a small knot of wargs aflame. Conner created more fog over Llweder's second ice area, enshrouding some of the already-confused orcs. He was actually hoping that some of them would take the hint and run away.
    I landed a blow on the orcs' leader, took a minor one from him. Somewhere nearby, Gannon killed his. At this point, three quarters of the wargs were out of the battle, either on ice or on fire. The rest of them were still fighting the warbard, along with a couple dozen orcs. Another dozen or so orcs—aside from the leader—were up and posed a threat near the center of the fight. Magic had certainly evened up the odds.
    Llweder tried to cast a tangling spell on a warg, but it didn't quite work. The warband was coming back strongly; Gaenor looked quite impressive in their midst. Meara cast a fear spell on herself and walked toward the nearest clutch of orcs. They retreated. Some others of their number flung a hail of darts in her direction but missed; this, of course, only served to draw her attention.
    An orc with a knife came at Gannon; he slashed it deeply. Conner had established himself in a good aerial position and nocked an arrow. As soon as a cautious orc emerged from the fog he fired at it and missed.
    I was at the moment getting the worst of it in my battle with the Uruk-hai.
    More darts missed Meara. "You're all going to die," she grinned at them.
    Llweder tried his tangling spell again. It failed again.
    Conner, being a mage, decided that there was no better time for an experiment. He cast a spell on one of his arrows that would move it very quickly; it turned out to be less effective than using his bow, but quite accurate. Gannon barely failed to parry his orc's next attack, but barely is important in these situations, and he took a serious wound. Conner nocked another arrow.
    Meara tossed down one of Llweder's potions to restore energy, cackled, and threw a fireball at the orcs with the darts. They exploded. Some of the others were retreating.
    I missed again. Fortunately, so did he.
         

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