Days Of Light And Shadow by Greg Curtis

tripped? And why weren’t they getting up? Then some of the closest could see the arrows sticking out of their bodies and they understood.
     
    “Brigands!” Someone yelled out the warning and it seemed to waken a few to the danger. But too late. Heartbeats later arrows started raining out of the sky in their hundreds, and the men with their buckets fell before them like wheat being scythed. Hundreds fell and lay on the ground, bleeding, while those in the centre of the village began running for the square, with no idea what to do when they got there. Very few of them made it even that far, as the enemy finally began appearing, marching into the village with their longbows held high. As they marched they launched more and more of the arrows at the backs of the fleeing men, cutting them down in the streets.
     
    And then finally they reached the heart of the village, and there were only the women and children left. Huddling in fear in a circle as the elves approached them from all sides.
     
    “Please.” Some of the woman cried out, frightened, as the black clad elves came closer and closer, the children pushed behind them. But it was of no use. Even as they screamed someone gave an order and the longbows sang once more, cutting them down where they cowered. Women and children, the elderly and infirm, all were targeted.
     
    And when the elves were finished with their longbows, they took out their swords and started hunting among the fallen, looking for any survivors. There were some, mostly children who had been saved by their mothers flinging themselves on top of them with their dying efforts. But that wouldn’t save them. The elves pulled the bodies of the dead off the children, and stabbed them all though the heart.
     
    The song of death did not stop until not a body so much as flinched.
     
    Then after gathering up their arrows and looting the corpses, they left. They simply marched out of the burning village as if it was nothing. As if nothing had happened and they hadn’t just murdered maybe a thousand innocent people.
     
    But then they had places to go, and more towns and villages to attack. They didn’t have time to celebrate such a minor victory. They had a war to win.
     
    There were so many more humans to kill.
     

 
     
    Chapter Ten.
     
     
    The court was full as ever, and Iros would normally be grateful for that. If Finell did not listen to him, and he was sure that the rotten little brat wouldn’t, then maybe some of the other nobles would. And the position of high lord was determined by the relative strengths of the seven great houses and the deals they had made among themselves. If Finell was shown to be deceitful or dark of heart, his house would suffer for his shame. And even a high lord had to answer to his house. House Vora would not tolerate Finell shaming them. It was always important for an envoy to remember that when he addressed a ruler he also addressed his people.
     
    Of course this day it was him that the people did not look happy with. In fact seated in their chairs, dressed in their best robes, they looked angry with him. Angered with his words. And probably with good reason given what he was accusing their high lord of. Still he had to continue. It was demanded of him.
     
    “Lower Wold High Lord. My king demands answers. This attack is an outrage. An offence against the codes. A shame against the very name of Elaris. Its stench reaches to the Divines themselves.” Iros had to be firm with the high lord, those were his instructions. Actually his instructions had been far harsher than that, but he would have swiftly found himself with an arrow through the heart if he’d obeyed them to the letter.
     
    But it wasn’t difficult to show his anger when Lower Wold was a small town in Greenlands. These were his people that the elves had murdered. And it was murder. There was no war and even if there had been, the sick and the elderly, women and children would never have been fair