Chapter Three: Decisions

It was signed in blood by forty men (Alanna guessed they were commanders of each regiment), to prove that they were serious. It was indeed their true blood, agreed by Alanna.

"Well, it looks like we have a fight on our hands," Alanna said with remorse. "We could give them the money and horses, but Daine is certainly not going. The fools are crazy!"

"They want revenge for Daine warning us," one member pointed out reasonably. "But how did they find out?"

"They have mages," Daine said sorrowfully. "But only strong ones can detect Wild Magic."

"True," Alanna agreed.

"This is my entire fault!" Daine cried. They all looked startled at her sudden outburst. Alanna put a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"No, it's not. It's no one's fault but theirs. Don't go blaming yourself for something that you couldn't change."

A sudden fire burned in Daine's eyes. "But there is something I can change."

She left them to sit in her tent, eyes closed.

Friends of the forest, she called with her magic. The People's voices suddenly clamored in her head, all fighting to be heard.

Quiet! Sudden silence.

I need your help.

Daine explained to everyone what she wanted them to do: bears and wolves had the task of tearing apart their food supplies and making lots of noise; birds had the job of emptying their bowels onto people and shredding the tents with their talons; beavers and others had to destroy the enemy's weapons. Snakes, a little hesitant at first, finally agreed to bite any bandits they came across.

Nodding her head in satisfaction with her work, Daine broke her concentration. They had three days… the animals wouldn't bother her camp much, so they should sleep pretty well. The man had signed in blood, so unless he wanted his blood to boil in his veins, his force couldn't do anything until dawn of the third day.

That night, as she listened to the enemy's terrified yells and screams, she pondered her fate. She would go. Their numbers were going to decrease anyways with all the snake bites and no food. All she had to do was surrender herself to these savages, then escape. It would be easy. But they had also asked for horses and money, which were ready to be sent over on dawn of the third day. They would give up the horses and fifty nobles and see if they could work something else out. The group hadn't even given a thought to giving them Daine; to them it was barbaric to even think of it. Daine had made up her mind. Before dawn of the third day, two days from now, she would walk the three horses over and end this madness.

Day Two: dun dun dun…

Wonderful breakfast smells reached her sensitive nose the next morning. Opening one sleepy eye, she peered around the tent: Alanna was gone. The sun was well up in the sky, telling Daine that she had slept late. She crawled out of the tent.

"Finally decided to grace us with your presence?" Raoul joked to the mussed Daine.

She laughed sarcastically. "Very funny."

"Daine, are you all right?" Alanna's worried eyes watched her.

"Yes. Why wouldn't I be? I just didn't sleep very well last night."

Alanna seemed to accept this because she pushed a plate of ham and biscuits at her. Daine took it with thanks and sat down to satisfy her growling stomach.

"Daine, if you're worrying about those bandits, don't. He's only being a git. Mikal could've asked for any of us."

"I'm not." Daine said flatly. She and Alanna were gathering more fire wood. Alanna shook her head.

"You're just as stubborn as I am. But don't you even think of going. Numair would kill me, so would many other people, and what kind of friends would we be if we gave you up? If you even step one pretty little foot towards that bandit camp, I'll chain you in Numair's tower myself."

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Daine asked her friend.

"Well…" They laughed.

That night, as they were preparing for bed, the ground shook and rolled, slamming the riders to their backsides.

"Great Goddess above!" Daine heard Alanna yell. Following were some colorful words. Alanna then came flying out of her tent, the same thing everyone else was doing. Daine had been spending time with the poor horses that had to be turned over to the bandits. Now she was on the ground, stomach feeling sick. What was this?

"Look!" Someone shouted. They looked in the direction of his pointing finger. There, across the shrinking gorge, stood a yellow- robed mage, hands raised. Red fire glittered around the edges of Alanna's deformation, and the mage was slowly pulling the two split land pieces back together.

"We've got trouble," A white-faced Alanna predicted before the second shock hit, knocking everyone off their feet again.

"Can you stop him, Alanna?" Raoul shouted above the moan of the earth. Alanna shook her head.

"I can't. He has too much momentum now to try and stop it. As it is, someplace on the other side of the earth will be experiencing an earthquake. I can't stop it and risk more lives." So they were forced to wait it out.