The Grey Tower

Ubriel looked at Mehrin, momentarily bewildered and startled to see the bloodied mess walking past her. She had seen him on the field a few times through the melee of her own battles. She was going to need to talk to the Gaidar Captain and the Mistress of Arms and the Yellows who attended him. Something wasn't ... right. But that was a problem for tomorrow.

Today, what was left of this morning, there were still an inexplicable number of Trollocs pouring through. It suddenly struck Ubriel as very strange. Why are there this many? Why is this town so important as to warrant this level of attack? The thought sent sudden chills through her marrow. She wheeled Peach around and stopped Zacharyn in his tracks. "I need to get to back to the Commander, now!" Holding out a hand to Zacharyn, he took it and swung up behind her saddle on Peach. Peach, fer her part was glad her girl was finally seeing sense and needed very little urging to run back toward the hilltop. Two more channelers of the Grey Tower had opened their own Gateways and were holding them and guarding them behind the line of defenders with the Commander.

When Ubriel approached, she had to bellow to be heard over the wailing ruckus. "Commander, has there been any word from Heeth, Demien or Rena?"

The Commander snapped his head around and his eyes went wide, the blood-shot whites showing brightly against the paleness of his suddenly horror-stricken face. "No." The realization that had dawned on Ubriel could be seen breaking across his features. "No, the soldiers of Heeth should have been here just a few minutes after your own arrival. They never came. With the turn of the tide of the battle here, I didn't stop to wonder for them. We can't yet send anyone back for them."

"You can send me. I am not engaged here any longer and I know the route that they would have taken." Ubriel twisted to look at Zacharyn. "You will need to go back to the Tower or find a horse."

Zacharyn slid from the saddle and said, "I'll take that one..." He threw a Weave of Air at the riderless horse wandering to one side of the field of battle and hobbled the gelding by its reins. As he ran to collect his prize, Ubriel looked around. None of the people from her patrol were anywhere nearby. The Commander seemed to understand her thoughts. "I will look after your people. Marken and Stoms will go with you." The Commander told off two of his soldiers and they saluted her.

Nodding, Ubriel wasted no more time. As Zacharyn rejoined her on his new mount, she saluted the Commander and urged Peach out the East road of the town at a dead run. Zacharyn, Marken and Stoms were close behind her and she prayed fervently that she would find the men of Heeth Tower alive and well and simply really slow.

OOC: Okay folks. If anyone wants to join this last scene from my end, just write yourself in. Ubriel is going to find the actual ambush. :p

This horse is less than appropriate for the Blight." Zacharyn complained to himself. The horse felt strange under him, but he needed to stay with Ubriel. As their small party began moving away from the battle behind them, Zacharyn began to worry about the battle ahead.

"What do you suppose we'll run into in Heeth? With this many trollocs here, and the unit from Heeth tower not having arrived, I'm not certain that there will even be people there." Zacharyn finished morbidly.

Allowing his horse to get much closer to Ubriel and Peach, Zacharyn began to speak in hushed tones.

"I was worried about you when people started talking about refugees from the blight coming into the tower. I would like to bond you soon... Both for you protection, and my peace of mind.." Zacharyn finished. No embarrassment. Just resolve. Ubriel wouldn't necessarily be safer after being bonded, but it did come with it's benefits.

Ubriel kept Peach to a fast walk. She wanted to hurry but didn't want to run into anything she didn't have time to see that they were approaching. She glanced at Zacharyn and sighed inwardly. They were going to have to talk and soon. She couldn't finish this mission with him tagging along if he was worried about her so telling him about the baby would have to wait. Light...

"You are going to have to be full rank before you can bond me. I won't let you otherwise. It would look very bad on me in my position to make a breach like that." She watched him nod in acquiescence and then gestured to the two soldiers. "Let's pick up speed and cover some ground." She urged Peach to a ground eating trot and posted lightly in the saddle as they hurtled down the road. Heeth Tower was not very far anyway but they didn't have to go that far.

She would never be really certain of what it was that made her slow down. She slowed their pace back to a fast walk as they topped a rise in the road and the smell of copper and iron from all the bloody puddles of mud nearly over-powered the smell of the Blight. The mud was what did it. Ubriel leaned from her saddle and heaved and wretched. As they squelched through it, as she brought up bile, she thought, Where are the bodies? With all this blood, there should be hundreds of bodies. But she knew. At the top of the next rise, she was able to see the path the Trollocs had taken. Tracks of carts, heavily laden, probably with the bodies of the dead men of Heeth Tower, ran North from the road and into the Blight.

They continued on and soon came upon the devastating truth. Heeth Tower was empty save for three dead men hanging from the top of a battlement. As Zacharyn and the two soldiers were cutting them down, the refugees came straggling into the open gates. Not from Kataba. From five other border towns scattered between Heeth and Demien. The battle was over and they had only been fighting a small piece of it.