Free Angels Blood by Gerard Bond

redressing out there in the middle of the field. Keera found the least bloody body and turned him over, the man looked at her and held a sword to her throat. 
    “ Move and you’re dead.”
    He stood up looking at the others.  He favored an ankle, but apart from that he was uninjured.  It was the man Wollfen had bowled over in the initial clash.  Now he stood there, sword at her throat and looking about trying to work out what to do.  The others slowly moved around him.  If only they had ridden on, he could have moved off then, but no, talk of infiltration and swapping uniforms, they were spies.
    “ Do anything and I will run her through!” he called out, what else could he do?
    Wollfen stepped forward, watching the man intently.
    “ And if you harm her, you will be shot down.”
    Justin and Dark both had a bead on him, all they needed was the go ahead. Wollfen with one hand raised toward them spoke slowly but surely,
    “ Do as I say and there will be no further bloodshed.”
    The soldier looked around at the four, realizing there was nothing he could do, he lowered his sword and Keera stepped away quickly.
    “ What are you to do with me? You can’t let me go with what I know and you know I will return to base with your plans. You can’t take me with you as you would need to bind me and that wouldn’t look right either would it? You would have to explain very quickly who I am to any officer you see and even if you dress me in your clothes the odds are the officer will still want to speak to me and then you would be undone.”
    Wollfen contemplated all of it, there was no arguing with the logic.  He was a smart man too, definitely dangerous.  He dropped his hand with a cutting motion and it was over, ten dead men on the field.
    Keera busied herself with getting her gear right and then packing the saddlebags with her own stuff.  The boots she wore now were a little too big, she was sure she would end up with blisters. She had to poke new holes in the belt too, it was simply too big.  The shield was heavy, sword too big and the helmet would slip forward on her face.  If she didn’t find a way to deal with that it was going to look comical riding into the Port city looking like this. She looked around and saw everybody else almost ready too. Wollfen was still standing there at the crumpled form of the man they had executed, staring like it was his first kill.
    Dark had noticed too and had watched for a bit.  She approached him and touched his arm, Wollfen came out of his reverie,
    “ Mm?” 
    “ My darling? she asked in a low tone, “Are you okay?”
    Wollfen nodded almost imperceptibly,
    “ I do not enjoy killing in cold blood.”
    He turned and mounted his horse, setting off in the direction of Port Cholandra without another word, the rest busying themselves playing catch-up.
    Back towards the east Eldoron had been shadowing a company of two hundred men moving northeast for a day now, skirting the area of conquest but staying this side of the hills.  He hadn’t seen anything of real note, other than they would stop from time to time and their sorceress would move forward  then appear to meditate before moving back again.  Then they would set off again as before.  It was a curious way of advancing along.  Were they expecting some great magical attack? The days of Sorcerers and Witches battling it out in cataclysmic clashes had long passed this world by.  Those days were a thousand years distant and were nothing more than folklore now. Though in his travels and the way many men treated him you would think Eldoron had stepped out of folklore himself.
    Men forgot the past so quickly.  They were a dynamic race full of vigor, but their short lives meant they were destined to repeat the mistakes of the past time and again. He had seen it many times and he was a young elf at 85. Most elves found humans too immature and too impulsive to deal with, always on the go and always lusting for the next