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

was going on. They sped toward Savanest to distract him from his battlewith her. She sensed Savanest’s dark sorcery rise and almost felt the heat ofit as he scattered fire at them.

The two men dodged, but still some of the blast hit them andthey were sent sprawling. But Ferla kept her will on the beasts and the lasttwo of them died, killing each other.

Her anger flared anew then. She had been forced into usingthe dark sorcery of the stone, and she knew she would use it yet once more.

She strode toward Savanest, and warned her two friends.

“Stay back,” she ordered. “I have this now. Savanest ismine.”

“Nay,” the knight answered. “You are mine.”

She knew what he would attempt, and was ready for it.Indeed, she was already doing it herself to him. Through the were-stone shesent a pulse of magic and invoked its own dark sorcery. She would transformSavanest into a beast as he had done to his men. No punishment could be morefitting.

Her magic and his clashed. Her will fought against his. Thedark sorcery of the stone built up, towering invisibly and ready to unleashitself. But neither Morleth Knight nor Kingshield Knight, for so she knew shenow was, held the ascendancy.

The storm raged around them, with lashing rain and wind.Hail fell, smashing into the stones of the slope and hammering into the boughsof the trees, bringing down leaves.

Ferla ignored it. It was nothing compared to the battlebeing fought.

Asana and Kubodin were ready to attack, but they held theirpositions. They trusted her, and followed her order. But if she faltered theywould launch themselves at the knight. And surely die.

So she stepped closer, and redoubled her efforts to drivethe sorcery of the were-stone into Savanest.

The knight attacked her. Not with magic or steel, but withwords.

“Fool girl! Join us, and the world will be yours. Defy us,and even if you live all your friends will perish. Especially Faran, for wehave learned where he goes and already a trap is set for him.”

Ferla felt her emotions reeling. She could not bear to loseFaran. Not ever. But was this merely an attempt to distract her?

Her will faltered, and Savanest stepped toward her withconfidence.

“Join me, and I will save Faran. Defy me, and he will die.”

It was too much to bear. How could she make such a choice?But she knew what Faran would want. And over and above his life, and hers, shehad a responsibility. Faladir needed her. Her people needed her.

She gathered her will, and drove it with her anger. “Wewould both rather die. I am the seventh knight, and I judge you and sentenceyou.”

Even as she spoke she hurled her magic into the stone.Savanest reeled back, and she strode toward him. She was no longer Ferla. Shewas the seventh knight of legend and prophesy, and her rage was terrible.

Tears streamed down her face, for she may have condemnedFaran, but she stood above her adversary and unleashed the power of thewere-stone.

Savanest tried to resist, but she overwhelmed him. Theknight screamed, and held up a hand imploringly. She ignored the gesture.

The magic roared through him, and he screamed again. Hairsprouted all over him, and became fur. He lifted high his head, and Ferla heardbones crack and lengthen. His body changed, and muscles swelled until hisclothes split. He bent and gnawed with great teeth at belt and boots, worryingat them until they came free.

Savanest, once a Kingshield Knight was become a beast, andFerla was glad. He had got what he deserved. Had she been merciful, she wouldhave killed him. Instead, she flung out an arm.

“Flee!” she commanded. “Run, and haunt the wild as ananimal. Shun men, but know that once you were one!”

The beast stood trembling, a deep growl throbbing in itsthroat, and then the force of the magic that controlled it took full force. Itleaped away into the forest and was gone.

Asana gazed at her, his clothes torn and bloodied, his eyesfull of sympathy, and perhaps even shock at her sense of justice. But he didnot disagree, else he would have spoken.

Kubodin merely grinned at her. “Now that’s what I callfitting,” he said.

The storm faded. They found shelter from the remnants of itin the forest, and tended their wounds. They were lucky to be alive, and knewit. Asana had fared worst, being bitten and raked by claws. He would need daysof rest to recover, but that would not happen. They could not stay here, butmust continue to flee or risk being found again.

Yet that was not her greatest concern.

Epilogue

When their wounds were bandaged and they had restedbriefly, Ferla insisted they find the bodies of each of the beasts. She wouldnot risk the were-stones ever being found and used again.

It was a grim task, but they each carried it out withoutcomplaint. No one disagreed that it was necessary.

Destroying the stones was a harder matter, though. Night hadset around them by the time they were done, and for once they lit a fire. Cold,wet and wounded they had need of warmth. And Ferla surmised it would be theonly way to destroy the stones.

She did not think they were indestructible as the MorlethStone was. But the task would require heat. Heat, and magic.

When they had rested as long as they dared, she cast thestones into the fire and then fed it with her magic until it leaped as high asthe treetops in twining columns of multihued brilliance that tore the night.The others, holding her up for she nearly fell, were solemn.

When she was done, she withdrew her magic and the firewinked out. Only a black hollow in the ground was left, full of greasy ashes.Kubodin, holding a flaming branch, kicked it with his boots, searching for anyremnant of the stones.

“Gone,” he said. “And good riddance.”

“Time for us to be gone also,” Ferla told them.

She could barely stand and they knew it. But they did notargue. They would not spend the night here with the corpses of the beasts allaround, and the threat of being found.

“But where do we go to?” Asana asked, and there was sympathyin his eyes as there