Chapter Five

The Night Ambush

ANNA

"This is pointless." Anna mumbled in undertones as she trudged out of the tent with Melody in tow, and squinted as a bitter, cold wind blew in her face. Snowflakes peppered her purple winter coat, but she ignored them. At this point, she was far too tired to bother about her personal appearance.

"Might be," Melody had heard her. "But I think it's worth a shot."

Anna gestured for Hayley to fetch their horses, and swept her hair over her shoulder. She stuffed her quivering hands into the pockets of her coat as her teeth chattered.

"Usually I wouldn't peg myself as a pessimist, but I really doubt they're going to listen to us now." Anna said. "We've been fighting an internal war with the Confederation all this time. Why would they retreat now, when we're already so close to the capital?"

"I don't know." Melody admitted. "But we have to tell them about the Mage Slayers. They deserve to know that we're up against more than just Kane and the Imperial Horde."

"Alright." Anna relented. "But we better tackle Helmsley and Horatio one at a time. We'll probably stand a better chance than if we take them on at the same time." Arguing with the Confederation members was almost as dreadful as an actual battle.

Hayley led two horses to where they were waiting, and Anna mounted her horse as Melody mounted hers. They set off into the night, with Anna leading the way.

"Best if we go to Helmsley first." Anna told Melody as they rode side by side before coming to a particularly narrow intersection of tents. "Easier to deal with him than the hot-headed brat."

"If only Prince August was here, we'll at least have three of us against two." Melody lamented.

"You have the hots for him, don't you?" Anna couldn't seem to gather up the strength to tease her, and it came out sounding a little more like an accusation.

"What?" Melody's cheeks flushed red. "I…I just think he's cute. Sensible and level headed. And cute."

Anna stifled a giggle. So she was right. Melody did like the Vjorman Prince. "Well, after all this is over, I could set you up with him. As far as I know, he's the most eligible bachelor in the Confederation. Unless of course, you're going to consider Horatio."

Melody's face twitched and she scowled at Anna. "I'd much rather hand myself over to the Order now than hook up with that immature prick." She shook her head irritably. "Can we focus here? I seriously doubt it's the right time to be talking about dating."

"Alright, alright." This time, Anna allowed herself to let out a laugh. Humour was in short supply these days. But really, she could see Melody and August as a couple. She stole a glance over at Melody, who still looked awkward and kept her eyes ahead. Yes, they would make a very nice couple indeed.

The Einsfeltai division was camped at the rear of the column today, and the distinction was made rather obvious by their gloomy grey uniforms that pretty much blended in with the snow. The soldiers that noticed Anna and Melody riding past their tents stood and saluted lethargically, while a good many of them didn't. They all looked incredibly drained, and most of them just sat stone-faced by small fires.

The Duke's personal tent was unmistakable. It was large, perched on the crest of a small hill at the centre of the Einsfeltai division's side of the camp, and had guards in grey standing guard outside. Melody expertly slipped out of the saddle and handed over the reins of her horse to a pasty faced lance corporal. Anna dismounted and handed the reins of her mount over to the young soldier as well, who took them with an awed expression on his face. It was apparent that he'd never seen the Queen of Arendelle and the Princess of Denmark up close before.

"Thank you." Anna acknowledged him and they plodded up the small hill to the crest where the tent had been pitched. Two guards stood outside at attention, and to their credit, neither showed any signs of feeling cold, Both guards saluted simultaneously with disturbing synchronisation. Their faces were blank and impassive.

"I'm here to speak to the Duke of Wellingbrook." Anna said.

The two guards glanced at each other. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty. His Grace gave us explicit instructions not to disturb him as he's about to turn in for the night."

"It's urgent." Anna mustered up a firm and severe tone. "It's a matter of life and death. I need to speak with the Duke."

They exchanged glances again. Then, one of the guards swallowed and nodded slowly. "Yes, Ma'am." He scratched at the tent flap and poked his head in. Even from outside, Anna could hear the old duke's grunt of displeasure as he was roused from his rest.

Without waiting for the guard to permit her, she pushed the tent flap away and slipped past him and into the tent. Inside, she found the duke trying to button up his shirt. He was still in his night clothes, and he immediately shied away when he saw her enter.

"Your Majesty," He sounded extremely annoyed as he hurriedly fumbled with his buttons. His plump fingers failed him. "Couldn't this wait one night?"

"Frankly, no." Melody said as she entered the tent as well. "It's urgent."

"Well, pray tell," Helmsley finally succeeded in buttoning his shirt and perched his spectacles on his nose, looking rather vexed. "What's so important this time of night?"

"You might want to sit down, Your Grace." Anna said. The duke hadn't offered them seats, but she had more pressing concerns than royal etiquette and decorum.

Helmsley sat down at his desk, trying to maintain whatever dignity he had from being caught in his nightclothes. He gestured stiffly at the two chairs opposite him, but the two girls remained standing.

"Let me guess." Helmsley's voice was strained as he peered at them crossly. "You're both here to convince me that we need to withdraw our forces again."

Before Anna could get a word in, he let out an uncharacteristic snort. "As we speak, the Vjormans have by now established new lines of communications at Korynes. Before we know it, they'll have sent supply wagons with all the food and equipment we need to sustain us for the final leg of the campaign. We won't even need the foragers after that. So please, don't tell me that our people are going to starve out here. Our people are far more resistant than you give them credit for, Ma'am."

"I'm here to tell you that we're facing a far greater threat than just the Imperial Horde." Anna said bluntly.

"Oh?"

Anna glanced at Melody, who gave her a tiny nod as if to say "go ahead". She took a deep breath. "As you already know, there is sorcery in this world. But what you do not know, is that there are forces beyond even sorcery that are on the Empire's side."

"Ma'am, with all due respect, are you going to bring me any form of evidence, or am I supposed to just take you at your word?"

"And why would I lie?"

"Forgive me if I find that hard to believe." Helmsley pushed his spectacles up the oily bridge of his nose. "We're hanging by a thread, as it is."

"Then withdraw. Before we lose even more than we can recover from." Melody said. "We can still turn back."

Helmsley set his jaw. "I'm afraid I cannot do that. Not until I receive word from the King of Einsfelt telling me to stand down."

"The King of Einsfelt isn't here in the field." Anna could feel herself growing increasingly impatient. "You are." She jabbed at their surroundings. "We are. And we're not going to survive the coming onslaught. There are dark forces out there that's working to undermine us before we ever reach the gates of the capital."

The duke shook his head stubbornly. "I can't."

"Why must you be so obtuse?" Anna tried to keep her voice from rising. "Why can't you see that I'm trying to prevent us all from getting slaughtered?"

"Ma'am," Helmsley retorted. "We are not retreating. Not when we are so close to victory. I am not going to waste this entire campaign over your unfounded claims about these darker faces at work. And that's the end of the discussion. Now please, I would like to get some rest before tomorrow's march. God knows I need it."

Anna opened her mouth to argue further, but wisdom told her that she wasn't going to get anywhere at this rate. Maybe if they could somehow convince Horatio, the Coalition would be turned around. But she found that prospect highly unlikely.

ELSA

It couldn't have been more than a few minutes since Melody had left with Anna when a single crack echoed through the night, drifting into the tent. Elsa stiffened at the sound.

Tracy started from her nap. "What-"

"Musket fire." Elsa recognised the sound almost instantly, and got to her feet. The others followed suit.

"An ambush?" Maui raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know." Elsa ducked out of the tent. Another crack echoed throughout the air, and by now, the Arendellian soldiers, who were camped somewhere near the rear of the Coalition, were beginning to emerge from their tents to see what was going on. In the near distance, Elsa could see the Molcorrans who formed the rear of the column drawing their muskets from the stacks beside their tents.

"More skirmishers." Janus said, joining her, and the rest of the Warriors emerged from the tent as well.

"That's a first." Deirdre said. "Attacking at night."

"Yeah, don't these guys need sleep too?" Tracy yawned. "What are they doing so far away from their own camp?"

"Suicide mission." Elsa said grimly. "Kane's throwing everything at us to slow us down. He doesn't care about the casualties."

"Hold up, something's not right." Tracy frowned. She shut her eyes tightly, all of a sudden.

"What?" Maui said. "Sense something?"

"Yeah." Tracy's eyes flew open abruptly. "I sense a demon's sorcery in the air."

"The Mage Slayers." Janus concluded and Tracy nodded pale-faced.

There was no time to waste. The Molcorrans weren't equipped to deal with a supernatural assassin. They needed all the help they could get.

"The Witch Hunters." Elsa whirled to face Janus. "Are they still with us?"

"They're camped somewhere near the Northuldra, last I saw." Janus answered. "Still waiting to collect their bounty for helping us back in Swynvort."

"Rally them." Elsa said quickly. "We're going to need their help to level the playing field."

Janus set off at a run in the opposite direction to fetch the bounty hunters. They would come in useful with their expertise in combatting the supernatural.

"Split into two teams. Deirdre, get Vonco and a few others and protect the other edge of the camp. No telling if they'll strike from there too." Elsa continued.

Deirdre gave a prompt nod and left to return to where the League of Sorcerers were camped.

"We're coming with you." Maui said.

Elsa nodded. It wasn't like she could stop him. "Come on."

Together, Elsa, Tracy and Maui ran towards the camp borders, passing by some of the Molcorrans who were clambering for their weapons to repel the skirmishers. Already at the borders, there were Molcorrans hunkered down behind makeshift barricades that had been hastily set up to provide cover against enemy fire.

As of now, none of the other Coalition divisions had dispatched their men to deal with the problem at the camp borders. Elsa suspected that there was trouble at the other end of the camp as well.

"Sure those are the Exonians?" Tracy asked as they stopped a distance from the barricades. Musket fire continued to rumble and crack from both sides.

"Who else?" Elsa said.

"Don't know." Tracy squinted. "They don't look the same from here."

Elsa narrowed her eyes too, trying to make sense of the firefight taking place in the dark. Out there beyond the camp's borders, it was almost impossible to see what the Molcorrans were shooting at. But amongst the stab of flares from the musketry, Elsa could make out figures clad in white which helped them to blend in with the snow covered landscape.

"Strange." Elsa stared.

"Is it them?" Maui asked. It took Elsa a moment to remember that he'd lost his superhuman vision together with his demigod powers.

"Doesn't look like Exonians. Not the ones we've been fighting so far." Elsa frowned. From this distance, she could only see the white uniforms and thick fur coats moving amongst the snow every time there was a stab of musket fire.

Tracy scratched her nose. "Didn't know there were more than one kind."

"Might be a separate elite force." Maui suggested. "A replacement after the First Imperials were destroyed."

That made sense. After she and the others had led the Insurgency to take out the First Imperials and stormed Denmark's castle, the Empress' elite guard had been shattered, their leader Captain Dolan having been killed by Janus. Eleanor would've formed a new guard.

"But it doesn't change anything," Maui continued optimistically. "They're still just soldiers."

"And what about the Mage Slayer?" Tracy looked uneasy. "I sensed him somewhere out there. Or them." She pointed at the dark woods about two hundred yards away from the camp borders, where the soldiers in white had to have emerged from.

Elsa grimaced. That could only mean the Mage Slayer was in league with the Imperial Horde. Eleanor must have gotten desperate and reached out to Lord Magnus for help. Whatever the case, the Coalition now had two new forces to worry about. These new soldiers in white which were probably far more deadly than regular men from the Imperial Horde, as well as the Mage Slayer.

"We have to intercept them." Elsa said, walking forward towards the barricades where the Molcorrans had taken up positions. The others followed her. "We can't let the Mage Slayer attack these men. It'll be a massacre."

Tracy gave a wild snort. "That's cute. And what if they massacre us?"

"We stay within sight and range of each other. Fight as a unit." Elsa spouted off the top of her head. In their circle, Melody and Janus were the tacticians but neither of them were here right now, so she would have to improvise. "One Mage Slayer can't take on three of us at the same time."

"Heh. You should've seen the one Melody and I fought," Tracy said half acidly and then pointed out: "and your plan has a chance assuming there's only one of 'em."

"Let's hope." Maui swung his fish hook onto his shoulder. Even without his powers, he was still able to lift that ridiculously large weapon. "So now what?"

"We make a run for the forest, clear out as many of the soldiers in white along the way." Elsa said. "Tracy, you lead the way and block the musket fire. Once we get to the woods we can take out the Mage Slayer before he even gets anywhere near our camp."

"Sure we brought enough backup?" Tracy glanced out at the shadowy woods. It looked ominously dark like something out of a horror story.

"Don't have time to wait for Janus and the Witch Hunters to get here." Elsa shook her head regretfully. "Once they get here they can join the fight. But we can't afford to wait. God only knows when the Mage Slayer will decide to attack."

"Alright." Maui slapped the fish hook against the palm of his hand. "Let's go."

Hastily tying her hair back into a ponytail, Elsa nodded. "We run on three. One."

Tracy positioned herself in front of the others, ready to lead the charge and fend off the lead balls with her magic.

"Two."

Eyes darting to the forest, Elsa felt dread fill her. She wasn't too keen on fighting a Mage Slayer again, but she didn't have a choice. Her foot lifted off the snow.

"Three."