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Both parties stared at each other for several long moments, neither making sudden moves.

“Rangers, remount,” Dusty said calmly. Those that could, did so. Those who had been dismounted and whose horses had wandered away instead reloaded and took cover behind some of the fallen horses who had died in combat. Sige Sharp-Sighted rode up next to Dusty, as did Jed the junior ranger. Without looking at Brutus, Dusty said, “I would be obliged if we could make a temporary truce and y’all help us out with this.”

Brutus hesitated for a moment before replying, “Agreed. Temporary.” He joined the others behind one of the horses, a mix of bandits and rangers crouching side by side.

With a whoop, the gnolls spurred their horses and rode down the ridgeline toward the entrenched group. Dusty still couldn’t believe it; gnolls didn’t ride horses. They ate them but didn’t ride them. He had reloaded his crossbow and had it in one hand and his saber in the other. He would shoot and slash like before until the fight took to the ground. He knew Sige would do the same, firing for as long as possible before engaging in melee. “I got the lead,” Dusty told Sige. “You take the one to his right.” Sige nodded in reply.

The gnolls rode in like a prairie fire, hot and fast spreading. As they got closer some of the bandits fired arrows at them, but missed as usual. The rangers maintained discipline until Dusty gave the order to fire, which he did when they were 50 yards out. Arrows and bolts launched into the oncoming riders. Some arrows found their mark and stuck, while others, including one of Dusty’s, had seemed to sail through their target unhindered.

Those mounted drew sabers or swords and met the oncoming gnolls. The fighting was furious. Several of the horses screamed as they died, launching their riders into the air, or crushing them underneath where they fell.

But something was off. Dusty couldn’t quite put his finger on it until he slashed at one of the gnolls. His stroke would have removed the taller monster’s head from its shoulders, but instead, the saber went straight through just as if he had slashed through the air. The gnoll locked fearful eyes with Dusty, and then he knew their earlier hunch had been correct. These weren’t gnolls at all. They were riders disguised as gnolls.

Dusty’s course converged with Sige’s. “It’s magic!” He called out. Sige nodded and put an arrow to his bow. He had just noticed all but one of the gnolls had ridden down the ridge. One was left on top of the hill, a staff raised in its hand, muttering. “That’s it,” he said, pointing out the lone gnoll to Dusty.

“Do it,” Dusty ordered and then turned his horse back towards the fight. Sige spurred his horse up the hill to meet the lone figure, who, realizing his death was near, began to lower his arms and back away in fright. Sige fired an arrow into the center of the gnoll. As he did so, the illusion was dropped. Suddenly the rangers were not fighting gnoll savages, but men, dark elves, and and others wearing hyena skins over saffron-colored robes. Some had features that reminded Dusty of snakes, having flattened noses and slitted eyes.

The change created enough of a distraction for both parties that the fighting broke off. The newly revealed riders, those who were alive, rode off back towards the ridge. Dusty slew one while charging back to the group, while an arrow found the back of another. There were six left, but they rode out of bow range and over the hill in a panic.

Dusty and Sige rode hard, followed by the other rangers at a distance after finding mounts. They had to ignore the bandits, which Brutus took advantage of and slipped away with his remaining men.

Faster and faster they pursued in the wild chase, the rangers feeling renewed with battle glory and the knowledge of a confirmed enemy. The robed men were frightened and rode with little skill. They rode over foothill after foothill, sometimes losing sight of each other for a moment. But as Dusty crested another hill he saw the robed riders make for a camp at the base of a canyon wall. There was a quarried stone slab on its side like a table, with two small figures tied to it, surrounded by other figures in saffron colored robes. A pink-skinned tiefling was standing on the slab hovering over the small, tied figures.

Dusty could hear the riders ahead calling something out. The men in camp scrambled to find horses or weapons, while the tiefling stared at them. Dusty saw the tiefling was a female, and she had a jagged knife in her hand poised over the children. He and Sige pointed their bows at her and fired in unison. They saw both arrows hit. She fell off the table and out of sight.

The other rangers had caught up and were killing who they could, but many of the robed figures had managed to escape the ranger’s wrath. Dusty and Sige rode to the stone slab and jumped off their horses. The elven girl and the halfling boy were tied to it. Sige cut their bonds while Dusty ran to the other side where the tiefling had fallen, but her body was not there. The only evidence she had been there at all was a small spot of dark blood on the ground.

He and Sige wrapped the children in blankets. Dusty called Jed over to stand watch over them, thinking his youth would be less intimidating after the trauma of being kidnapped and nearly sacrificed.

That was a hunch he confirmed through one of the robed fighters they had captured. He was a dark elf, a drow, who stared at Sige with hatred through gritted teeth, clutching at a large gash on his side, unsuccessfully stopping the flow of blood seeping out of the wound and soaking into the thirsty ground.

At first, he wouldn’t talk, but then Dusty placed a boot onto his open wound and stepped down with his weight, causing the dark elf to cry out in agony. He let up and watched the dying elf gasp for breath. “Who are you?” Dusty asked.

The drow tried to ignore him until Dusty stood on his wound again. He groaned. “My name is Eldrith,” he gasped. Dusty released the pressure, letting him breathe again.

“Great. Ok, Eldrith. What the hell is your damn problem? Why did you take these youngsters?”

Eldrith was breathing hard. Dusty made to step on his wound again, but before he could, Eldrith began to talk. They were The Whisperers, he said, and the children were to be sacrifices in a ceremony. The tiefling woman was a witch named Mathonwy. She was trying to strike a bargain with some being, a hag perhaps, but he didn’t know for sure. Mathonwy was the one that granted them speed, while the man Sige had killed on the hill had disguised them all with a spell to look like gnoll raiders.

“The witch is gone. Where did she go?” Dusty asked.

Eldrith smiled. “Then it’s not over,” he said. He made a biting motion and then began to shake and convulse. Foam formed at his mouth. Sige reached down and pried the dark elf’s mouth open but it was too late. He had bitten into a hidden capsule of poison and was dead.

There were no other survivors. The others had fled in all directions, but the rangers could not pursue them, not now that they had the two children. Dusty and the others returned to the slab and saw Jed and Cletus entertaining the children by Jed riding on Cletus’ back like a horse. The children were giggling; a good sign. Cletus saw Dusty watching him and stopped mid-run. He stood, throwing Jed off balance and tumbling to the ground.

“If y’all are done being bally fools, we can go now,” Dusty said. He smiled, and helped the elven girl onto the back of Sige’s horse, while another helped the halfling boy onto the back of Dusty’s pony Amigo. They rode away back to the halfling camp. After staying the night, they would continue back to Breckenridge Falls.

That night the rangers and halfling clan slept around small fires downstream from the burned-out camp. Dusty Thorngage sat awake, with Sige Sharp Sighted next to him. “What are we going to do about that cult, The Whisperers,” Sige asked. He hardly needed to. He knew the answer.

“Find them and kill them all,” Dusty replied.

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This is part four of “Hell’s Warband.” If you like these free stories, please subscribe. If you REALLY liked them, please consider leaving me a tip by purchasing it on Kindle for .99 (the cost for 1/3 of a cup of coffee).