My heart pounded in my ears as I looked around the pavilion.

When the first crash of magic blasted into the gardens next to us, Thain and Spaulder shuffled the rest of us between them, except for Eberon who ran to his mother's table to watch over the flock of ladies who were now near panic. 

"Nassir!" Schula hissed. "What do you mean he's here?"

"He is near enough for me to feel," Nassir clarified. "But not so close that I think we can find him easily, I fear."

"We need to see who's attacking first," Thain said. "Whoever it is, they aren't close. These are long-ranged attacks-"

His last words were nearly cut off by the sound of another blast. This one was filled with ice, and shards flew across the ground, slicing into tables, dishes, and in a few cases, flesh. I sucked in a sharp breath as a tiny shard nicked my hand, causing a delayed trickle of blood.

"I am not standing here as the enemy attacks," Spaulder said.

"I am with you," I stood from my crouched position.

"Wren..." Thain started.

"We're triquetram," Schula interrupted him. "If one of us stands, we all stand."

I smiled at her grimly, then turned to Thian. "We aren't the same people you knew last year. We can handle looking at the front lines, you take care of things here."

Thain gave me a hard look for a brief moment. A soldier's assessment. He nodded sharply, and we split up. 

Schula was already bunching up her skirts and tying it up. The end result looked a bit ridiculous but would allow her to run. I wasn't able to follow how she did it, but when she was finished with her own skirts she turned to help me with mine.

Spaulder, Schula, and I ran out of the pavilion. Behind us, I heard Eberon and his mother give orders in turn.

"Noncombatants, to me! Lord Arceval, flip the tables into a barricade." The Lady of the estate cried out. "Vanalae, gather the unbroken bottles of alcohol. The rest of you, begin ripping the linens for bandages."

"Nassir, Thain, we're together here," Eberon called. "Able fighters, to the front! Nassir, can you erect anything from stone?"

As we left the sounds of the pavilion behind, my heart was lighter knowing everyone back there was being taken care of. Now the only ones we needed to watch out for, were ourselves. 

There were really three parts to the estate. The fields of horses, the cluster of buildings, and the expansive gardens. I could see the damage already done to the gardens, and it looked as though the attacks came from the direction of one of the fields. 

Spaulder ran ahead. He was faster than Schula, and even a little faster than me. My eyes widened, I hadn't been outrun since growing into my elven speed, and it was a shock to encounter it now. 

We passed frightened horses. They were doing their best to stay in a far corner of the fenced-in field, but they wouldn't stop moving and a few of them were pushing and kicking against the fence.

"Sorry, Eb," Schula mumbled, and she threw out some of her ice to take out the base of a fencepost. 

Schula's magic startled the horses all over again, but one brave mare pushed her way to the now broken post and tried to move it. The horses were able to push it over now, and they began streaming out of the field.

"We owe Eberon a bunch of horses," I said.

Schula shrugged. "Most will wander back. This place means food and those were tame mares."

We reached the top of the gentle hill in the field and Spaulder all but stopped. We could now see the enemy.

A line of fae creatures in the distance. A shot of fear hit my heart, and I remembered vividly the terrible battle we had at Mila's cabin in the mountains. It felt like another trap that predicted where we would go and met us there.

"I am not in my full form, so I do not know what I can accomplish here," Spaulder said. "But if we can get to their leader, I can most assuredly kill them."

I shivered.

"If DuVarick is here, I'd like to see him killed," Schula said. "But he's too crafty for that. He won't stay close enough for that. We need to take out whichever ones are throwing the big magic blasts."

As if they heard us say it, a cluster of three wicked-looking things with gray skin and scaly patches on their skin hovered together in the front line. Other creatures and fae gathered around them in a protective arc, and when the three were done gathering up some kind of power, they raised their hands toward us.

"Down!" I said. "Get down."

We fell back, ducking below the hill and moving to the side as much as we could in the heartbeats that followed. My chest felt tight as the swarm of power the three of them collected bound together into another large attack.

Woosh. Over our heads, barely by a hands width, flew the crackling life of a stream of harnessed lightning. It flew over us and headed straight for the gardens we had left behind, this time hitting the ground right in front of the pavilion. 

I sighed in relief as I saw the stone barricade shoot from the ground at the last second. The string of power that shot through the air stilled and shattered against Nassir's stone, though not before leaving it a charred and crumbling mess.

"Why aren't they charging forward?" Schula asked. "They have our side pinned in place for now. Why not move?"

"Traps in the field, I would imagine. They want to draw us out," Spaulder said. 

"Then let's go back and make a stand with the others," I suggested. 

"Yes, and Wren, we need to make a flair," Schula said. "Actually, you should go do that with Eb and his mother. All three of you can summon fire."

"A flare for who?" I asked.

Whoosh. Another attack, this one was the ice again. It shattered against another hastily erected barricade of tables and stone.

"Later," Schula said. "Go, go!"

We kept low and ran back toward the others. I could see Nassir raising more of the crumbled ground as other fae brought other things to add to the barricade. Thain stood out front and watched the incoming attacks, calling out where they were about to hit. 

Thain's eyes met mine as we drew close enough. He also kept an eye on the sky behind us, and as we drew closer his head snapped in our direction.

"Behind you!" Thain called out.

My head just turned to look when Spaulder yanked me and Schula behind him. Schula spun, shoving her hands in the air as her power surged. I put my hands on her arm, pushing extra power into hers, then I grabbed Spaulder's hand and put it on her other arm.

Schula's power exploded from her hands. A huge wall of thick ice formed in front of us as another blast hit the ground right behind us. 

The ice cracked but held. I was knocked on my back, and I think Schula was too though I couldn't see. My ears rang from the impact.

The next sensation that hit me was being lifted off the ground. A strong pair of midnight arms around my middle as I was rushed into the pavilion. Spaulder carried Schula in a similar manner, and we were both deposited on a table in front of Lady Yevaron. 

"What happened out there?" Eberon asked. "Are you okay?"

Eb watched the barrier being constructed while ripping table linen into strips and handing it to his mother. Lady Yevaron was binding cuts and scrapes, waiting for any real injuries to occur. Nassir held his barrier up and reconstructed it every time it was knocked down. 

"They aren't moving forward," Schula said. "The enemy is just groups of triquetrams that are taking turns firing large blasts our way. If they keep up their current pattern of attack, they could go on for days, there's that many of them. We need to send a flare for Autumn patrols."

"Right," Eberon put down what he was working on. "Mother?"

"I'll help too," I said.

"That's right," Eberon said, striding away with me and his mother to the back side of the pavilion. "You have fire magic too."

"Then let us send the highest flare we can," Lady Yevaron said. Her perfect hair was now coming loose and I wondered to the state of my own. 

We just left the cover of the canvas when Eberon raised a hand in the air. Lady Yevaron joined her hand with her son's, and I followed their lead. 

As Eberon gathered fire in his hands, we did the same. Soon enough, we had a large blast to fire, and when Eberon let it go it shot high into the air. So bright that it seemed to dim the rest of the sky.

"We need to get everyone inside the house," Eberon said. "This doesn't look like a quick skirmish, we need to reserve our energy and sit out a long one."

"I agree," Lady Yevaron sighed. "Let's see if we can send a few at a time to safety."

Back inside the pavilion, another attack had happened on our barricade while we were sending up the flare. 

"Vanalae, you're the fastest. Please begin taking groups of four or five to the main house. The moment an attack lands, make a run for it." Lady Yevaron began pointing to people and ushering them about the pavilion. "Noncombatants and the injured first. Once inside, if any of my people who know the house well could shutter and barricade all windows, please do so."

"I don't like the feel of this," Thain said.

"If we do not move to their traps, we are just as likely to get caught in a pincer attack," Spaulder added.

"Inside it is then," Nassir said. His breath was heavy, he had already been using his powers heavily and constantly for a while now. He couldn't keep it up without breaks.

"Let's replace Nassir," I told Schula. "I'm sure we can at least hold something together until these people are all inside."

"Yes," Schula agreed. "Spaulder, can you lend me your power too?"

"Mm." Spaulder nodded. 

"Thank you," Nassir said. "Once I catch my breath I will begin reinforcing the main house."

I held onto Schula's shoulder and focused what power I could into her. Nassir left with Thain who had begun taking people into the main house. 

Spaulder joined me, and Schula began building a large wall of ice that swallowed up Nassir's existing stone and added even more thickness to it. It was harder to concentrate my magic when it was ice. Something that didn't come naturally to me as fire did. But a wall of fire wouldn't help stop anything but footsoldiers, and we hadn't arrived at that kind of battle yet. 

Sweat beaded Schula's forehead as she focused everything into the wall under her hands. Making it thick and sturdy, pausing only when it was impacted by a new assault. 

A hand on my shoulder finally pulled me out of concentration as I looked back to see Thain. He had a hand on Schula as well, and she finally dropped her hands.

"It's time to go," Thain said. "You did well."

Schula was a bit out of breath, but she had also built a much more impressive wall than Nassir could on his own. She just nodded and the three of us followed Thain to the edge of the pavilion. 

He watched, waiting for the sign of a blast from the enemy. The moment he spotted one, seeing that the lightning's path would not hit us but the wall Schula had built, we ran. Debris and holes from the attacked so far littered our way, making it harder to run safely. Scraps of thorny rose bushes and fallen trees sat next to deep pocked holes in the once lovely garden. Marks of charred earth, shards of ice, and bits of earth from the enemy attacks were everywhere.

The front door was barely open, a hardened fae in the coat of the estate servant's opened it just as we arrived, waving us in and closing the door behind us just as it absorbed an earth-shattering blow from outside.

I nearly fell over, but Spaulder caught my arm and kept me and Schula upright. 

"What can we do now?" Lord Gand asked. "They have us cornered."

"Hush, Gand," Lady Yevaron snapped. "This house has stood through more than one war, and it will stand through this. My son has already signaled for aid, and we have some of the most powerful fae of the Autumn court with us today. We will stand through this."

"And if you weren't convinced before," Eberon said, his voice ringing through the murmurs of the fae collected in the front parlor. "Then be convinced now. DuVarick wants war, and if you want the Autumn court to come out on top, you will commit to war as well."

"They just want the elven witch," someone shouted. "And the ice fae!"

"Silence!" Lady Yevaron's voice rang through the house. "The next person to speak of it can leave my home and return to the safety of the crumbling pavilion. Do I make myself clear?"

"What now?" Nassir asked.

"We make a stand," Spaulder said. "Who present can attack at range?"

"I can," Schula said.

"Somewhat," Thain answered. "I'm more of a close-range fighter."

"I can," Eberon said.

"Given a moment of rest, I can as well," Nassir said.

"I... I may have an idea actually," I said.

Heads turned my way. 

"Um, if I can get to my things in the room, I may be able to add a protective barrier to the house. I need my supplies, but I think there's a good one in my mother's book."

"Then I will go with you," Thain said. "The rest of you who can attack at range, go."

"I'll gather what of the lords I can get to use magic," Eberon added.

"Is there a way I can get onto the roof?" I asked.

Lady Yevaron came over and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. "I will show you."

"Mother-"

"Eberon, I have lived longer than even your triquetram. Do not take my ways of the court to mean I have never been in a difficult spot before," Yevaron scolded her son. "Now, watch out for these people, and we will return shortly."

Thain nodded. "Then let's go."

I shot Schula and Spaulder one last look and a silent prayer to the Mother to keep them safe. 

And now, it was time to get to work. If I was any kind of witch at all, now was my time to show it.