When the Valkea’s scouts had brought word of Carra’s
presence on the road to her, she had known a surge of heady exhilaration for
taking the woman and her servant would give her a supreme chance for
vengeance. What fools these idiots were
to think it was safe to ride forth today.
Did they really think that they had closed the only entrance she had to
her world? Did they really believe that
all her fighters had died defending the altar?
She snorted in contempt. Today
she would relieve the soldiers of such foolish arrogance! When the woman and her escort came into range
she knew her people would slaughter the soldiers and the two women would soon
be within her hands. Then she would
celebrate her victory with a sacrificial offering to the Kwetwer. She didn’t need an altar to carry out her
sacrifice and again she snorted - the Rangers were fools to think they had
neutralized her. Today she would show
them! She licked her thin lips in
anticipation of the gory revels that would follow the sacrifice. The Kwetwer would be pleased.
The Valkea stood just inside a cave entrance high on the
slope above the road. This cave was one
of her many sentry outposts and from here she had a commanding view of the area
below. Her eyes were not accustomed to
the sunlight of the surface world so she wore a gray, gauzy veil over her
face. Some of her best fighters were
standing next to her, awaiting her command to rush down to the road to join the
battle. She had already ordered her most
skilled archers into position on the slope below the cave. It was littered with talus and provided good
cover for her people so they were unlikely to be spotted even without her
shielding illusions. With her powers
protecting them, they were effectively invisible. She always enjoyed casting forth her shields
to hide things for it gave her a sense of superiority knowing the fools didn’t
have a clue how to do this. Woe to the
soldiers and the witless women they were bringing within range of her grasp!
When she was satisfied with the state of her planned ambush,
the Valkea turned her thoughts in the direction of the road and the Pass
Gate. Today the fools were going to
learn that she was capable of doing far more than just shielding her fighters. Projecting her dark thoughts into the minds
of her enemies would distract them away from their duties and eventually drive
them to the brink of madness. She
intended to weaken the men protecting the girl by destroying their ability to
act. They would ride helplessly into her
ambush like so many cattle herded to the butcher’s axe. They would be easy prey for her archers.
Projecting her thoughts westward, her mind eventually
touched the presence of Carra and her people.
She couldn’t see them, but she felt them and started to slowly channel
the power of the Kwetwer towards them.
It was important to be subtle for her control worked best when she kept
her efforts below people’s perceptions.
Then, they wouldn’t realize what was happening and thus couldn’t defend
against the lies poisoning their very thoughts.
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