First installment of Darkness Lifting

Darkness Falling
Prologue
Elena ran faster than she ever had before. If they caught her, they would lock her up forever, perhaps even kill her. She was gasping, but couldn’t stop. They couldn’t catch her, they could never catch her. She ducked under another tree branch. The darkness of night was to her advantage. She used the shadows to camouflage her flight.
She was almost out of breath. She turned around. She could go no further. It was time to stop and put up a fight. With her power, she could win. She had to win. The three dozen men and horses surrounded her, pointing their menacing lances down at her.
She almost panicked. Then, the lances flew out of the men’s hands to a ditch a hundred feet away. One man held on to his lance. He, too, was thrown in the ditch. His screams stopped, leaving an eerie silence as Elena glared at her foes. Half of them dismounted, leveling their swords at her. She smirked. Mere swords could not frighten her. They should know that by now. The swords were ripped from their masters’ grip, and their tips pointed back at the men who had held them. An arrow whistled past her ear. ”Snakes,” she whispered. She had forgotten about the men still on horses. “Stay there,” she ordered the swords, turning her attention to the arrows peppering the sky.
“Give up, you witch!” commanded the leader, “We have won. You can’t avoid all our arrows.”
“Watch me,” Elena said under her breath, seething. I am not a witch. She started spinning in place, trying to keep an eye on the arrows and archers. An arrow got past her sight and grazed her arm. She ignored it. She couldn’t afford to be distracted. Whenever there was a pause in the arrows, she picked an archer up off his horse and snatched away his bow. I can do this.
But she was tiring. Her sight was becoming blurry. Her head hurt from keeping the swords in place. Suddenly, the swords dropped. She was unable to pick them up, able only to keep the arrows from piercing her. The men were closing in on her. She lashed out one last time, pushing ten of the men on the ground. A net fell on her, and she collapsed on the ground, unwilling to make this easy for them. They blind folded her and threw her over a horse. She gave up, knowing that she had lost this battle.