Despite his mount’s rearing and shying Herzer managed to get it stopped and turned. Whispering to it he uncased the bow and pulled out an arrow. It was a clap shot if he could just get the horse to hold still for a moment; he wasn’t about to dismount under the circumstances. He lined up the tiger and let fly just as Alyssa fired from the other vector.
His arrow flew into the tiger’s chest just under the neck but one arrow, even driven from a compound bow, wasn’t going to stop the beast and it turned around, snarling, wondering what had hit it. He fired again, before Alyssa and the second arrow drove into the tiger’s ribcage.
It took three arrows from him, and more from Alyssa, before the cat finally stopped spinning and hissing. Herzer stayed where he was, though, and waited until a pair of hunters came out from the fences and prodded at the beast with their spears.
“Good shooting,” Alyssa said, cantering by.
“Thanks,” he responded, taking a moment to catch his breath and soothe his upset horse.
All things considered, he decided that it was best to keep his bow out.
While the excitement had been at his end of the corral, more animals had been filing into the area delineated by the fences. He saw some cattle and some absolutely gigantic deer that had to be the wapiti that Kane had talked about. They were nearly the size of the female cows and had antlers in velvet forming on their heads.
“Bull herd,” Kane said. “Kill ’em or drive ’em to the corrals.”
They were so magnificent he didn’t want to have to kill them but when the first one entered his sector and he tried to drive it towards the pens it took extreme exception to the idea and reared on its hind legs, waving sharp hooves at the horse. Backing Diablo, who clearly wanted to show who was boss, he somehow drove three arrows into the deer’s chest almost as fast as he could draw and fire, and the magnificent bull dropped to its knees then rolled over on the side.
He wasn’t about to try to drag that monster so he waved to some of the men along the fence and went out looking for something that would actually drive.
The massive corral was starting to get crowded with animals by this time, all of them angry, bewildered and driven half mad by the smell of blood that was starting to permeate the area. But it didn’t get really bad until the herd of pigs disgorged into the area.
The pigs had apparently stayed in their herd and Herzer had no idea that that many pigs were even in the forest, much less would stay together in a massive wave of tusks and smell. There must have been at least fifty of the larger ones and innumerable babies. Following them was a puma and then another tiger.
At the sight of the tidal wave of dangerous and deadly creatures most of the riders gave up any pretext of trying to herd cattle and wapiti and instead looked to their own defense. Many of them headed for the gates along the sides, abandoning the field altogether.
Herzer was well to the side of the mass and he started firing arrows for all he was worth. With a couple of exceptions he wasn’t sure where they went except downward; he was being careful of the people on the far side of the fence. He saw more arrows coming from the few hunters with longbows along the sides of the fence but it wasn’t stopping the pigs. The tiger had disappeared — he hoped nobody had been hurt when that happened — but the puma was chasing Kane for all it was worth.
Herzer took two shots at the running puma and saw one hit, turning it, then either Alyssa or one of the hunters got a killing shot in on it and it ran a few feet and dropped. But by that time the pig herd had scattered and there were at least a half a dozen big, nasty, angry “pigs” in his area.
He shot two and then saw one making a beeline for the fence and Shilan.
He dropped the bow in the case, pulled out his spear and decided to see if he could actually stay on Diablo’s back at a full gallop. With a yell he dug his heels into the horse and pointed it at the charging pig.
It felt for a moment as if the world went sideways. The horse bunched its muscles and took off like lightning, so fast that he seemed to hear his own shouting doppler behind him. He realized he was screaming madly and trying to line up the pig with his spear but it was going to reach the fence first.
The six hundred kilos of enraged boar hit the rickety wooden fence at nearly thirty kilometers per hour and the fence didn’t have a chance. The nearest posts snapped off even as the poles shivered to pieces. On the other hand, the encounter had seriously shaken the boar and it stopped for a moment to shake the blood out of its eyes. But when it had regained its senses the first thing it saw was Shilan, thrown backwards and onto the ground from the backlash of the fence.
Herzer shouted louder, hoping that the sound would turn the boar but there was no chance, it lowered its head and charged the stunned girl.
He never even realized that the lance was lined up when it slammed into the side of the boar, nearly unseating him from the impact.
Diablo was charging headlong and when the boar, caught by the spear driven through it and into the ground, stopped dead, there was nowhere to go but over.
Herzer somehow retained his hold on the spear but let it run through his hand as the horse went up and over. The combined fulcrum effect threw the mortally wounded boar over on its side and definitely prevented it from getting to the girl but the branch at the top of the jump could have cared less. With complete indignity it impacted on Herzer’s forehead and flipped him back off of the horse in a welter of his own blood.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
When Herzer came to, his mouth tasted like blood and leaf mold and he had the world’s worst headache.
“Stay still,” a female voice said. He ran it through a long, slow memory search and realized it was Dr. Daneh. He hadn’t talked to her since he’d gotten to Raven’s Mill, which seemed a couple of lifetimes ago.
“Mrwf,” he managed to say.
“Can you move your legs?” she asked.
He complied, wincing when the concentration made him tense up his neck. His head was really starting to hurt.
“Good, fingers? Arms?”
He moved those then felt hands roll him over. He couldn’t see at first and that terrified him, but then someone poured water on his face and his eyelids got unstuck. Dr. Daneh looked tired and worn, even worse than on the trip, even worse than after her encounter with Dionys. Well, maybe not worse.
“Uh ne’ res’,” Herzer said then worked his mouth and spit out some leaves.
“Yes, you do need some rest,” she said and smiled. She used a small mirror to flash light in his eyes, which made him wince, but he noticed she nodded in satisfaction at whatever information she gleaned.
“Huh, uh,” he said, injudiciously shaking his head. “You need some rest,” he corrected.
At that she smiled again and t’chted. “I’m fine.”
“No ’ur not,” he said, trying to sit up.
“Wait,” she said. “You’re in pretty sorry shape yourself Herzer Herrick.”
“Gotta get back on the horse,” he said hoarsely. He pushed her hands to the side and sat up, wincing at the pain in his head and neck. He felt his forehead where a large patch was obviously bloody, and blinked his eyes, only then realizing that part of his vision problem was the blood and dirt encrusting them. He rubbed at them and got them mostly clear then started to stand, only to be hit by a wave of dizziness. He wasn’t sure if he could get back on a horse, much less stay on one. And he was pretty sure he didn’t want to, which only increased his determination.