“We aren’t going to make it,”Tedi shouted. “They will have us between them.”
“Just keep going,” demandedArik. “Don’t ever give up.”
As the boys struggled through thethigh-high water, ten horsemen galloped up the southern incline andacross the plateau towards the northern path that led down to theother side of the rocks. The charge to encircle the boys quicklyturned to chaos as the first four riders succumbed to a ropestretched across the path at neck height, right where the pathstarted down the northern slope. The rest of the group of DarkRiders reacted quickly enough to avoid the unseen rope, butconfusion reigned as the forward riders turned their horses asideand the following riders smashed into them. While it might havebeen expected that several riders would fall from their saddlesduring such a collision, no one could mistake the sound of abowstring singing as those riders fell.
“Bowmen towards the sea,”shouted one of the Dark Riders. “Dismount and takecover!”
One of the Dark Riders dismissed theorders and charged towards where he thought the bowmen must behiding. A black shape hiding behind a bush near the cliff’s edgehurled a Lanoirian Star, which struck the rider’s forehead. Thehorse continued to carry the dead rider and plunged off the cliffstriking the rocks below.
Garth took stock of his situation. Twoof the lead riders were down and unmoving. Two were down, butwrithing in pain. Three had fallen to arrows and one had chargedover the cliff. That left two healthy Dark Riders trying to killhim and two who would regain their wits and functionality all toosoon. Garth strained to see the two healthy riders, but the foolwho had charged had distracted him and now they were well hidden.Garth crawled slowly along the edge of the cliff towards the twofallen riders who had hit the rope. He caught a momentary glance ofone of the healthy riders doing the same, but heading for thepoint. He froze for a second to make sure that the other man hadnot spotted him and then continued on.
Garth reached the last bush before thenorthern path where his rope had helped even the odds. The twowounded men lay curled in fetal positions holding their faces andhowling in pain. Garth knew he had to find the last healthy manbefore risking exposure of himself in the open to finish these twowounded men. Laying a Lanoirian Star in the dirt before him, Garthstole a glance behind him to see if the point man had decided tocome back this way. Satisfied that he had a few moments to completehis task, Garth reached into a long narrow pouch and extracted along tube and two slender myric quills. The myric quills werepoisonous and taken from an animal that inhabited marshlands. Theiruse as a weapon was pioneered by the Targan Rangers, a group ofelite soldiers in Targa before the Collapse, but most bandits andmercenaries shunned their use because obtaining the quills oftenled to the death of the gatherer. The poison in the quills was sostrong that it produced instant death and many a gatherer failed ontheir first attempt.
Garth fed a quill into the long blowtube and raised it to his lips. Steadily, he sighted on thefarthest man and blew. He reloaded the tube as quickly as he couldbecause he knew that the cut off of the man’s screams would bringhis enemy running towards him. Garth sent the second dart into theclosest man and shoved the tube into its pouch as he lifted theLanoirian Star he had placed in the dirt with his other hand. Thetwo remaining Dark Riders were charging his position, one from thepoint behind him and the other from across the clearing by thesouth path. Had Garth been visible, arrows would be coming his wayinstead of charging men. Garth leaped to his feet and hurled theLanoirian Star at the man coming from the point. Even as he watchedthe man clutching his bleeding throat as he tumbled off the cliff,Garth pulled his large sinuous sword from the scabbard on his back.Holding his great sword with both hands, Garth twirled just in timeto slice through the last Dark Rider’s midsection.
Garth ran to the four dead men by therope and cut off two of their scabbards before wiping his bladeclean on one of the dead men and sheathing it. He grabbed the twoDark Rider swords and ran down the path to the North.
Arik and Tedi heard the shouts andscreams from above and hurried on. Tedi continuously turned hishead to look behind himself for any signs that the men were gettingcloser. He never caught sight of the men, but he gasped when he sawthe Dark Rider and horse plummet over the cliff to the rocks below.The boys had just made it to shore when another Dark Rider bouncedoff the side of the cliff and landed on his back in front of them,a Lanoirian Star buried in his throat. The boys leaped over thebody and continued running though their legs felt like they wereabout to give up.
Trying to run through the undergrowthwas almost as difficult as running through the water and both boyswere getting very tired. As they broke through the bushes to thepath that paralleled the seacoast, they both came to an abrupthalt. The bandit from Lorgo stood directly in front of them holdingthe reins to three horses in one hand and two sheathed swords inthe other. “Why am I not surprised that it is you two who arecausing so much fuss?” chuckled Garth.
The two boys looked at each other andstarted slowly backing up. “Let me guess,” Tedi spat, “you expectus to believe that you aren’t one of the Dark Riders who arechasing us. We give you our weapons and you escort us back to theircamp so they can torture us before killing us.”
Garth just smiled and tossed the twosheathed swords at their feet. “I would hardly welcome yourcompany, fisherboy, but Kalina thinks you are worthy of rescuingfrom the Dark Riders. You can have the swords and two of theirhorses to do with what you want. If you come with me, I can offeryou safety. If not, then take the horses and get going where youwill, but make your mind up now because I am not waiting. I’vekilled ten of them up on the plateau, but there are ten more comingas we speak, as well as a witch, and I am getting tired of killingmen for the sake of boys.” Garth stepped forward and shoved thereins of two of the horses towards the boys. Arik stepped forwardand grabbed the reins. Garth twirled and mounted his horse as soonas Arik had taken the reins.
The sounds of men shouting behind themindicated that the Dark Riders pursuing them had found the bodythat had fallen from above. “Time’s up, fisherboy,” Garthwhispered. “Follow or flee, I head west.” Garth took off headingfor the coastal highway.
Arik and Tedi exchanged glances andquickly picked up the swords and mounted their new horses. “I don’tsuppose being hung as horse thieves is any worse than being killedfor no reason at all,” Arik remarked as he turned his horsewestward.
“Surely you don’t believe hisstory,” Tedi quipped as he turned to follow. “You don’t reallythink one man could have killed ten Dark Riders by himself? And whois this Kalina?”
Arik sighed as he followed the paththat the bandit had made through the bushes. “I don’t know if hedid it by himself,” stated Arik, “but I have no doubt that the DarkRiders died up there on the plateau. These scabbards have been cutoff somebody’s body and there was blood on the blade that cut them.These horses didn’t just wander in from the road and the DarkRiders who were supposed to be coming over the top of the plateaunever made it. Think what you want, but I am inclined to followthis bandit, at least until I learn more of what is goingon.”
“I think he is one of them andthat this Kalina whom he is taking us to is the witch who held uson the docks in Lorgo,” Tedi declared.
“Well, my father said thatthis man was a killer,” argued Arik. “He certainly just had thechance to kill us without anyone finding out and he didn’t. Thatmeans, to me, that we can trust him to some degree. I don’t mean totrust him very far, but right now we need a safe place to hide andfigure out what is going on. I don’t know of any other solution,Tedi.”