The Sworn Knight by Robert Ryan (novels to read txt) 📕

They passed through the forest like avenging wraiths. Thewind tore at them, and lightning gleamed in their eyes and off their weapons.

Ferla slowed when she reached the point near where Savanesthad stood. Crouching low, with the others nearby, she came to the very crest ofthe ridge and looked down.

The enemy was most of the way down the slope. She wasneither too early nor too late. The were-beasts had spread out, trying to finda good path, but there was none. All about them the rocks turned and shiftedunder their tread, and it was worse now that rain had slickened them. She wouldnot like to be caught down there and suffer attack by arrow. If that happened,she would seek cover. Yet now, she must incite the enemy to attack uphill.

Savanest was there too. He was among the beasts, though hewas apart from them always. He commanded them by the power of the were-stones,but he was no comrade in arms. Perhaps that was to her advantage. He would nothesitate to see the beasts die. He might send them to attack where he would havespared a troop of men. Maybe.

Ferla stood, standing on the crest and no longer shelteredby trees. The wind tore at her clothes and slashed at her eyes. This much atleast was not to her advantage. It would diminish the range of her bow and heraccuracy.

She nocked an arrow, but then she hesitated. The enemy hadnot seen her, but could she loose an arrow into one of their backs?

A moment more she hesitated, and then she acted. This waswar, and the enemy in her place would give her no quarter. She had no need towarn them, and yet she would. An arrow sped by surprise could scatter them anddefeat her purposes. She needed them scrambling up the slope toward herinstead.

She lowered her bow, and the wind fanned her red hair behindher.

“Hail, Savanest!” she shouted. “Coward knight and servant ofthe dark. Why do you run from me?”

Even above the rumble of thunder and the whistling of thewind along the stony slope, her voice carried.

Savanest spun around, drawing his sword. The were-beasts gatheredaround him, uncertain. Some howled and others grunted.

“You have come to me, girl.” Savanest answered. He seemednot to shout at all, and yet his voice carried above the din of nature andbeasts combined. It was in some way enhanced by magic. “I knew you would submitto my authority.”

That sent a shiver of anger through Ferla’s body, and yetshe did not answer straightaway. To either side of her, Asana and Kubodin drovetheir spears into the ground point first. They could be grasped that way forthrowing without wasting the time needed to bend to the ground and pick themup.

The anger that Ferla felt receded. In its place a wave ofcold fear rolled over her. She remembered Savanest binding her when she spiritwalked. She remembered the feeling of helplessness and acceptance of her fatelike a deer with a wolf working its jaws into her throat. There was no point inresisting. Better to accept fate and let it run its course swiftly.

Then she understood. Savanest was not only using magic toenhance his voice, but also to strike at her as a weapon, to fill her mind withdoubt and defeat.

She laughed, and she infused the sound with magic and droveit into the teeth of the wind. What skill did Savanest possess that she didnot?

“Are you a knight, or a petty trickster, Savanest? You arenot worthy to fight me. Flee! Begone, and take your ragtag band of slinking,servile beasts with you.”

The were-beasts howled and barked and grunted at that. Theyunderstood her, and she knew they would.

Yet still she was surprised that her ploy worked.

In a frenzy, the beasts scrambled up the slope toward her.She had reached them, and insulted them. So too with Savanest, and if he hadthe power to recall his servants, the moment to do so had passed and was lost.He followed in the trail of the beasts.

Ferla marked a target. It was a hound, jaws slavering andeyes feral. It was, she thought, the one that had originally scented her trail.It had been a man, and somewhere within it the mind of that man still endured.She did not know if she did it a favor now, or if it wanted to live. But if shewere to live, or evade a fate even worse than the hound’s, she must kill it andas many of the others as she could take.

She released her breath slowly, and her first arrow wingedthrough the wind. It was a distant target, and conditions were bad with boththe wind and the slope to contend with. Yet still the arrow flew true, and evenas the hound stumbled over a rock that turned beneath the weight of its paws,the arrow hit it square in the chest.

The hound leaped in the air and howled. When it fell, thearrow was buried deep in it, and it worried it with its massive jaws.

Blood frothed on those jaws, and darkened the thick fur ofits chest. But it clambered no more up the slope, and Ferla ignored it.

This was but the beginning of a battle that would decide herfate, and that of her companions whom she loved.

25. Through Their Eyes

Ferla did not hasten. She trusted her skill with thebow, and her long years of practice.

To her, she was not moving fast, yet to the others it wouldseem so. Her movements were slick and smooth, and another arrow was nocked andthe bow drawn in little more than a heartbeat.

Against her nose and cheek, she felt the bow string. For amoment, she hesitated. Savanest was her main target, but she had no clear lineof sight. If she killed him, it was possible that the magic of the were-stonethat was used to control the beasts would be directionless, and they wouldscatter. It seemed unlikely, but it was worth the attempt.

Savanest stumbled over a rock, and she released her breathletting the arrow speed away. Even as she drew another one from her quiver, shewatched the speeding arrow through