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

They fought within the first few trees of the forest, butthey could use no trunk to guard their rear. Instead, they formed a tightcircle, fighting back to back. But if one fell, then the other two would beexposed to attack from two sides at once.

Kubodin cried out some war cry that she had never heardbefore. His great axe, Discord, flashed in deadly arcs. Asana fought silently,barely seeming to move but evading attacks and dealing death with sublimegrace. Ferla herself, though her arm was beyond tired and her breath heaved inher chest like fire, fought off her own attackers.

It could not go on. The were-beasts were frenzied, andthough most of them had fallen since that first arrow, there were still enoughleft to overwhelm tiring opponents. And behind them all, she caught glimpses ofSavanest, not risking himself in the battle but ready to pounce when he couldand take her prisoner.

“I will never be a Morleth Knight!” she screamed, and fromsome hidden depth new strength flowed into her. She laid about her with hersword, dealing death. The beasts withdrew from her, dismayed.

But her new strength did not last long. It was the last ebbof her defiance, and she stumbled.

The enemy were on her again. Jaws snapping, howls rendingthe air. Even as a great were-hound leaped at her, silhouetted by a streak oflightning that sizzled through the air nearby, she tripped and the beastsmashed into her chest.

The earth shook with thunder even as she crashed to theground, the weight of the beast atop her. Somehow, she lost a grip of hersword, and her two hands came up to grab the creature’s neck, trying to throwit off her.

It was to no avail. It was too heavy and too strong for her.Had it wanted to kill her, it could have. Its fetid breath was hot against herexposed neck, but it did not try to bite

Another hound joined the first, and the weight was crushing.Her only hope was help from either Asana or Kubodin, but that did not come. Shecould not see them, and they may even be dying themselves as she lay there. Orperhaps they could not reach her.

Her hands gripped the thick fur, and she strained with allher might to shift the creature off her, but she was not strong enough, and knewit.

Yet she did not give up. She would never give up, and as sheheaved the pale were-stone glimmered before her eyes against the dark hair ofthe beast. How she hated it!

She could sense the evil of the thing. It infuriated her.What mind could encompass the making of such a thing? What mind could invokeits magic?

Savanest had done so though, and it occurred to her that shecould also. What he could do, she could as well. But dare she?

She would never do so. Not for the purposes Savanest had.But to save her life? To save herself from capture and being brought before theMorleth Stone? Some instinct flared to life that transcended morals. It surgedthrough her, giving her hope, however desperate.

Her hand crept through the fur. Suddenly her fingers touchedthe stone, and then she gripped it in a fist. It was cold against her skin, butshe felt the magic of it and her own sparked to life.

The two magics met, and she pulsed her power into the depthsof the cold stone. Suddenly she was one with the were-beasts. She sensed whatthey sensed and felt what they felt. She sensed their animal natures, but so toowhat remained of them that was human. She saw through their eyes, and perceivedalso the overriding command sent by Savanest himself, for he too was connectedby magic to all the stones.

Even as she became aware of him, he became aware of her. Shefelt his shock though that she had touched the stones and joined her magic tothem. That was to her advantage and she acted swiftly to use it before he thoughtto counter her.

She hated what she was doing, but swiftly she sent an imageto the beasts of them rending each other. She sent the thought to them thatthey must kill one another, for they were their own true enemies.

The were-beasts yelped and howled. The two atop her began tofight, and she feared they would kill her by accident as they snarled and biteach other. But she held firm to the were-stone, and the chain that secured itto the beast snapped as it rolled off her.

Snatching up her sword in her left hand she sprang to herfeet. Blood dripped from her right hand where the chain had ripped into herflesh.

She ignored the pain. Looking around, she saw Asana andKubodin were still up. They were drawing closer to her and away from the beaststhat fought each other. They wanted no part of that battle.

Through the stone in her hand, she felt Savanest try towrench control of the beasts back from her. She defied it with all her will,but she knew instinctively she was at a disadvantage. The stone she held wasconnected by magic to all the rest, but it was not the controlling stone.

The fight she now fought was every bit as fierce as the oneshe was fighting just before. But this was invisible, and a contest of willalone. She held in her mind the image of the beasts attacking one another. Butshe saw also Savanest’s image of them turning and rending the flesh of Asanaand Kubodin.

Ferla went down on one knee with the strain of the battle.Through the stone she sensed Savanest’s triumph, and it was at just that momentthat she decided to attack him.

She dropped the sword and from her left hand lòhren-firedarted toward the knight, and he leaped out of the way in surprise. But hisconcentration was broken, and she wrested control of the beasts fully toherself.

She sensed the fighting that was going on, felt jaws onthroats crushing away life, saw in her mind claws ripping open bellies. She wasaware of it all and the slipping away into death of those she was connected to.

Asana and Kubodin must have had some glimmer of recognitionof what