Kriki's Gift, Chapter XXIX, Reading 11

Just when she felt she couldn't take any more of the punishing assault on her senses, the madness abruptly ended and she was suddenly freed of the nightmare.  It was like a door had slammed shut in her mind to keep the darkness out.  She gasped for air almost as if she'd been saved from drowning by being pulled from a dark and muddy quagmire.  She breathed heavily and tried her best not to even think about what had just happened to her.

"My Lady?" Haxton finally queried and he grasped her arm gently.  "Are you well?"  His voice was concerned, but strained as well for he was still battling the effects of the Valkea's attack on his own sanity.

She pushed up and was glad for his supportive hold for she felt dizzy and disoriented.  When she turned to look at him, her attention was instead drawn to a blazing light far up on the slope.

"Look up there," she called in astonished wonder.  "That has to be the Valkea.  I think the King and Queen must be attacking.  That's why the horrible madness stopped."

Haxton turned to look, as did the men around them.  High above the road was a rock ledge and perched on the ledge was an intensely bright circle of light.  It shimmered with such intensity that no one could look at it for long.  The lieutenant's eyes drifted down and he suddenly saw what the Valkea had been shielding from them before with her dark deceptions.

The rocky slope below the ledge was filled with fighters.  Many were dead - having been killed by the storm of arrows the Rangers had sent their way.  The survivors stared up in stunned shock at the ledge above them for the Valkea had disappeared from sight behind the curtain of blazing light.  After a moment's pause, they charged upward forgetting their attack on the Guardsmen below.  They had to go to the aid of their dark matriarch for she was the meaning behind their existence and must be saved at all cost.  As soon as they moved into the open, the Rangers shot them down with deadly accuracy for they now had a clear view of their foes.  Heedless of the fact that they were being massacred, the horde struggled upward with singular focus.  They had to save the Valkea.

The captain could see that the Valkea's fighters were no longer concerned with his people and knew that this was their chance to get away.  They had done their job of drawing out the Valkea.  Now he needed to get Carra to safety.  "Let's get out of here, fast," he bellowed.  "Load up the wounded.  Push the dead horses out of the way so the wagons can pass."

Rodal looked down the ranks to assess the damage done to his people.  Far down the line, he spotted Lieutenant Haxton for he was nearly a head taller than the men around him.  In the crush of riders, he glimpsed Carra and was pleased she was still astride the chestnut gelding.  She was safe for the moment, but that could change in an instant.  They needed to get away.  To remain in the vicinity of the Valkea and her horde was insanity.