Matáo and the rest of his company had arrived with the main camp nearly six days passed. Shortly after informing Prince K?dú of his attack, K?dú sent him back to the entrance to the path where the enemy group had turned away from the main road. Leaving the majority of his men behind, Matáo led two others, Twiggy and Sam, to see if the enemy was returning that way or if they ventured forth without the catapult.

  They had barely entered the clearing where he had found the broken axle before they spied the enemy coming towards them through the tree on the far side. Matáo silently gestured for the other two to stay low and they quickly returned to the road. When they arrived, they set up a hurried ambush. He placed several archers in the trees overlooking the road and had the rest of the men take cover where they could find it.

  After a short wait, the enemy soldiers emerged from the clearing and came into the road. Matáo signaled the archers to fire arrows at the feet of the men that were entering the road. They quickly stopped and raised their shields. There were only about fifty men huddled together. Matáo stepped into the open and called out to their commander who was huddled into the center of the men.

  "Lay down your swords and you will not die today," were the words that flowed from Matáo's mouth before he had a chance to think about it. A puzzled commotion went through their ranks until it reached their commander who shouted, "Kill them all, before Claremont feeds you to the beasts!" The puzzled commotion turned into a murmur of confusion and then into a buzz of nervousness.

  "Kill them I say! Kill them a…!" Came an order that fell silent. A man from the center of the group shoved his way to the front of the group dragging the slain commander. He stepped towards Matáo and threw his sword at his feet. "To hell with this, I ain't dying today, not for this," said the man that threw a bloody sword on the ground. He then turned and spat towards the commander that laid dead beside him. He began walking away. One by one, the enemy men began to lay down their weapons and walk away.

  Matáo had his men stop the weary men and tie them up in a line. After the last man had his hands tied, Matáo said, "I swore to you that you would not die today. I am taking you back to Oaken Meadow where you will be held until this matter with Claremont is resolved. "Good," said the man who killed the commander. "If we were to go back to that mad man, we'd be killed for letting the weapon be destroyed."

  Matáo returned from delivering the captives to Oaken Meadow on the sixth day and K?dú and the rest of the regiment had nearly caught up with the enemy ahead of them by that time. K?dú and his men had made camp on the side of a long hill. Matáo found him lying at the top looking into the valley that lay below.

  As Matáo neared the top, he began to crawl on his belly until he was at K?dú's side. Stretched out in front of them was the enemy force. K?dú estimated that there were nearly ten-thousand men camped in the valley below. K?dú handed Matáo a spyglass and pointed towards the far side of their camp.

  Matáo raised the glass to his eye and saw, in the far distance, two catapults like the one that he had set on fire, only much larger. It was nearing nightfall and Matáo could see Claremont's tent setting between the two catapults. He could also see shadows moving around the tent, and just before the sun slipped over the horizon, he saw the shadows take form and stand next to Claremont. Matáo recognized the shadowy figure closest to him. It was one of the Luna Stala, and it was missing an arm.

  Matáo handed back the spyglass and the two of them slipped back into the camp. They were in K?dú's tent before either of them said a word. "We must attack tonight, before they know we are here," said K?dú. Matáo said nothing but took off his shirt. He pointed to the still healing scars from the last time he encountered one of the beasts.

  "This is what will happen to you if we attack at night, if you are lucky," said Matáo. "He has the Luna Stala with him. I know that you have heard of the creatures and you know what they are capable of," he explained. "We must douse the fires so they do not become aware of our presence," said K?dú.

  "Do that, and not one of us will see the sun again.," began Matáo. "Those creatures have already smelled our presence and will be, undoubtedly, on their way here shortly. The best thing that we can do is build as many fires as we can and keep them burning all night. They can easily pass between the shadows, and take us out one by one. In the light, they are useless and cannot harm us."

  K?dú ordered the fires to be lit, and Matáo went around the camp to be certain that there were no shadows that the creatures could use to travel through the barrier of fire. He also had Master Kranthem, a member of the Order, set up some defensive barriers and wards, using his magic.

  Matáo could not sleep. His arm ached where the creature's claws had dug into it and tore away at the flesh. Every time he drifted off to sleep, his arm would throb and wake him. He got up from his bed roll and began checking the fires. He could somehow feel the creature's presence just beyond the barrier. The men had built a ring around the camp from wood and lit it on fire to keep the creatures out.

  Matáo knew that it was nearly dawn, but they were running out of wood and other things that they could add to the fires. He woke Master Kranthem and had him assist with getting more wood for the fires. He took Thom and Sam with him. They found an area where the fire was low and they used pikes to push the logs away just enough for them to pass through.

  Master Kranthem led the way holding a glowing orb of light in the palm of his hand above his head for all to see by. They began dragging whatever they could carry towards the ring of fire. They had made several trips out into the surrounding woods and before too long the fires were roaring again. As they approached the ring of fire on their final trip, Matáo felt a searing pain in the back of his arm.

  He spun around to see a wolf-like creature that was missing one of its legs. It snarled and growled at him. He looked to his surroundings and saw two more of the creatures walking slowly towards them in the shadows of the trees. One of the creatures spoke with an eerie sound, "Your magician is running out of his magic." The creature let out a small hissing chortle when the light from the orb began to dim.

  From inside the encampment, they heard someone shout out in agony. Then another and another. The screams and shouts started coming from all around the camp. Then as soon as it began, the sounds started to fade away and Matáo knew that one of the creatures had made it through the perimeter of the fires. He looked to the trees and noticed that the shadows cast by the moon on the horizon had created a path over the fires to the camp.

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  He saw a dark figure that climbed through the shadows of the trees that stretched out throughout the canopy and down into the camp near K?dú's tent. It was one with the shadows as it crawled down the side of the tree. It began to slowly rise out from the tree and stood in the shadows with a grin on its face. As it emerged and started to take shape, Matáo saw something in its wolf-like mouth. It quickly flicked its head and the object sailed into the light that surrounded Matáo and the others and rolled to a stop.

  Matáo knelt to pick it up, and dropped it immediately when he saw that it was a human head. He stepped backwards, away from it. He could see that Master Kranthem's orb was beginning to dim faster, so he yelled to the others, "Run!" They were not far from the fires that surrounded the camp and the three men pulled the rest of the wood they had gathered behind them. They dropped their loads as they passed through the narrow opening.

  The wood was dry and began to burn quickly. The flames climbed high enough to remove the shadows from the trees. Matáo looked to the east and he could see a faint glow on the horizon. His arm began to pulse again and he could hear the creatures' gurgled laughter as they moved away from the fires. The sounds of their disturbing laughs began to soften and Matáo knew that the creatures were making their way back to the enemy camp.

  Though he was tired from the night, he made his way to K?dú's tent. He threw open the flaps and saw K?dú laying in his bed. He was covered in blood and gasping for air. Matáo grabbed a blanket from the bed and tried to stop the bleeding. He called for Master Kranthem, but he was already tending to others that were wounded in the camp.

  The creature had clawed K?dú's back and arms, but the worst of the damage was from a single slash on his throat. It was difficult to see how bad the damage was. K?dú's hands were covering the wound. He was coughing hard, trying to breathe. Master Kranthem entered the tent as Matáo held the blanket on his neck. K?dú tried to speak, but the words that came, sounded of gurgling.

  Master Kranthem took the blanket from Matáo and began chanting in the ancient language, but before he could finish, K?dú took a final gasp for air and was no more. Matáo went to the prince's wash basin and tried to remove the blood from his hands. The more he tried to remove it, the more spread out it became. He gave up trying to wash it off and settled for wiping the blood on the blankets.

  He left the tent to survey the rest of the damage. Thom came to him and informed him that the two lieutenants and K?dú's general had been slain as well as eighty-three of the men. Matáo had the bodies of the fallen moved to the center of the camp. He had the bed rolls of the dead men placed over them. Once the last roll was in position, he ordered everyone else to prepare for battle.

  Matáo climbed to the top of the hill and with K?dú's spyglass, he saw the enemy marching away from them. A wry smile came to his face as he saw that the enemy had entered into a vast meadow with no trees or anything else for cover. He knew that the men on foot would be able to catch up with them, but it would take most of the remaining day to do so and they would be virtually used against that many soldiers.

  He also knew that he had nearly a thousand men on horse. He ordered the men on foot and his archers to make their way to the base of the hill and to wait for his signal. He and his riders mounted their steeds and charged down the side of the hill. He motioned for his mounted archers to take the lead as he and the rest carried swords, axes, and pikes.

  They raced across the meadow and once they were within striking distance, Matáo shouted out, "Archers! Ready!" After several hoof and heart beats, he gave the order, "Fire!" The archers released their strings and sent a hail storm of arrows sailing towards the enemy. "Again," came the order. Another volley of arrows flew through the sky, hitting their marks. The enemy soldiers turned to face the approaching men.

  Matáo signaled the archers to fall back, and he and the rest of the cavalry, with pikes in hand, crashed into the line of men. The pikes hit their targets and fell to the ground with the dying men. They released their hold on the pikes and drew their swords and began slashing at anyone they could reach. Matáo and the other riders tore through the ranks of men on foot at the rear of the formation. Once they cleared a path to the other side, they turned their mounts and charged through the fray again.

  After they reached the end of the formation, they raced back towards the hillside. Matáo signaled two more volley of arrows before the archers returned to the base of the hill with the others. Matáo led his steed up the side of the hill and surveyed the battlefield from a distance. The other riders moved to the rear as the men on foot and archers closed the gaps behind them. Matáo watched as the enemy commanders began to reorganize their remaining men and prepare for an attack as the rest of the army proceeded on their way to the capital city.

  The enemy charged towards them with, by Matáo's estimate, five hundred riders and another fifteen-hundred men on foot. The riders spread out in front of the men on foot and began to trot towards Matáo and his men. The riders charged in four lines and spread out as they approached. Matáo ordered the men to fall back behind the line of trees and for the archers to take aim.

  Matáo sent four volleys of arrows into lines of riders. Many men fell from their mounts and were drug away by their horses, while others continued to charge ahead. By the time the first line of riders entered the trees, nearly a third of them had been lost. Matáo placed a line of men holding pikes inside the entrance to the trees. They hid themselves behind the trees and just as the riders entered the woods, the men placed the end of their pikes into the ground and braced for the incoming charge.

  The enemy riders were unable to turn their mounts in time and crashed into the line of pikes; impaling themselves and their horses on the sharpened metal at the end of the rods. The rest of Matáo's men on foot charged in and began attacking the riders with axes and swords. The closeness of the trees made it difficult for any of the riders to maneuver around. Many fell at the hands of unmounted men. Some were killed by Matáo's men, while others were trampled by their own horses that were spooked in the battle.

  Matáo's cavalry began to ride through the trees, unseen by the advancing men, and began to circle around the men that were entering the battle on foot. They charged in, attacking at will. From his post near the top of the hill, Matáo located the two commanders. They had turned their horses and began to retreat, leaving their men behind to die. Matáo signaled Sam, who he had left hidden behind a large stone in the meadow.

  Sam drew back his bow and shot one of the commanders, knocking him off his horse. He drew his bow again and the commander threw his weapons away and halted his horse. Sam then blew a horn to signal Matáo that he had captured the commander. He waited until Twiggy arrived and tied the commanders up, before he lowered his bow and returned to the rest of the group with his captives.

  By the time that Matáo had returned to the battle, the remaining enemy soldiers had surrendered. Their commanders had been placed in chains and many of them were dead or dying. Matáo had Master Kranthem see to the wounded on both sides of the battle and he was able to save many of the wounded from suffering a fatal outcome.

  Matáo and his men had captured another five-hundred men of Claremont's army, the vast majority of his forces were currently out of reach of him and his men. Matáo entered the trees and the men began shouting praises and cheering for him. He tried, unsuccessfully, to quiet them, but after a few moments, the cheers began to die away. He walked over to the commanders and drew a knife from his belt and asked them a single question, "Where does Claremont keep the people he took as prisoners, the women, and children of these men?"