Obsidian Mountain #02 - To Light a Candle by Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory

Author:Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory [Lackey, Mercedes & Mallory, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Epic, Fiction, General, Fantasy Fiction, Magic, Elves, Fantasy Fiction; American, Coming of Age
ISBN: 9780765341426
Google: GYCceRlX8qkC
Amazon: 0765341425
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2004-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

I will have to find a way. Or not. And whether I can or not, finding out if I can will have to wait.

Because my comrades are dying now.

Gritting his teeth, Kellen left the hut.

All around him, the battle was going badly. There weren't as many of the enemy this time, but the Elves were taking terrible losses. They simply couldn't bring themselves to attack and kill what they saw - despite everything - as women and children.

And it was costing them dearly.

Suddenly the cavern was ablaze with light - as bright as the noonday sun at midsummer. Kellen looked up, and saw that the entire roof of the cavern was glowing with bright blue Coldfire.

Jermayan and Ancaladar had arrived.

"Pull back. I'm going to burn the huts." Jermayan's voice spoke quietly, as if in his ear, and Kellen could tell by the startled expressions on the faces of the Elves that everyone else had heard it too.

They began to retreat.

But it was easier asked than done, especially when they had to protect their wounded and recover their dead, and it was several minutes of hard and bloody fighting before that could be accomplished.

The Shadowed Elves fought viciously, as much like animals - or insects - as like thinking beings.

They did not seem to care if they sacrificed any of their own - down to the smallest infant - if it brought them a greater chance of killing one of the Elves. In cold disbelief, Kellen saw the Shadowed Elf archers using their own young as shields, saw children younger than the ones he'd killed springing upon Elven warriors, armed with jars of acid like the one that had killed Celegaer.

He dragged one of the Elves out of the way just in time, striking his young attacker dead. The spilled liquid fumed and bubbled over the corpse, smoking and stinking.

The Elves were barely clear of the huts, fighting their way toward the staircase, when suddenly every stone structure within the cavern save for the staircase burst into flame.

That isn't possible, thought Kellen in awe. Any Wildmage or High Mage could summon Fire - but only to burn what would burn naturally. But this... ? The stone itself was burning as if it were seasoned wood drenched in lamp oil. In seconds, a roaring wall of heat separated the combatants from their prey.

Shadowed Elves - bodies aflame - ran from some of the huts, only to be cut down by the archers, in mercy.

The Shadowed Elves who had not been in the huts were trapped by the walls of flame. Their response to the sudden wave of magic was one of utter terror. The archers who had been holding living shields threw them down and tried to flee, but there was nowhere to go, save into the Elven army.

It was no longer a battle, but a massacre. Some of the Shadowed Elves ran toward the flames.

Kellen saw females grab struggling children and throw them into burning huts, the structures already collapsing into ash.

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