Treachery in Tarnstead (Stoneblood Saga Book 5)

by Robyn Wideman

  “That is true, but hardly a plan, we’ll only have the advantage while they are climbing the slope, and we only have two archers among us. Nathan is handy with his bow but not that handy,” Katla said.

  “Oh, he won’t need his bow. I have something else in mind,” said Rayan.

  …

  Lambert stood at the bottom of the mountain. All that stood between him and victory was a couple hundred feet of climbing. It wasn’t even that steep. The problem was they would be moving slow and exposed to whatever fire came from above. But with only a few hours of preparation time how much could they have? And the narrowest section of the climb was still over a hundred feet wide. Plenty of room for his troops to spread out enough to avoid a bottle neck. Lambert turned to his captains. “All archers and spearmen in a second line behind shields. Provide as much cover fire as you can until we reach the top. Then standard box formation. We’ll squeeze them in and finish them off.”

  As they started climbing, Lambert had three shield soldiers surrounding him. There was no point allowing himself to be an easy target. Things went smoothly for the first half of the assent. No attacks came from above and they climbed with ease.

  Then all hell broke loose. On the right flank archers started attacking, and at the top of the ascent they could see the glowing whip that had decimated Hussain and his men. The soldiers all started moving towards the middle. On the left fireballs started shooting out of the sky slamming into the soldiers on the left flank. Those soldiers not burned by the initial fireballs started squeezing towards the middle. Suddenly the well spread out soldiers were being packed into the middle of the slope. Lambert yelled at the men, “Spread out. Spread out.” But his yells were in vain. The men did press forward and were now three quarters of the way up the slope. They were so near the goal.

  Next came the rocks. Huge boulders came flying down the mountain as if shot from sling shots.

  “Shields up,” the captains screamed, but even with their shields up men were being crushed by the rocks and sent flying back into the men behind them.

  Then the fireballs intensified, and so did the barrage of rocks.

  “Push forward. Get to the top or we’ll all be crushed,” yelled Lambert. He was almost to the top and could see the men and women at the top of the ascent picking up huge rocks as if they were toys and throwing them down at his men. Magic, thought Lambert. His army was being decimated by magic.

  Finally, they reached the crest of the slope. The men that hadn’t been struck with rocks or fire poured over the edge and started attacking. All thoughts of forming a square were gone. Every soldier on the mountain realized they couldn’t wait, they needed to stop the barrage of stones and fireballs.

  Lambert spotted Prince Stoneblood. He was in the middle of the group on one knee touching the rocks on the ground then rolling them towards his companions. It was the prince using his magic to make the stones light. “There. Get me to the prince,” Lambert said to his men in a hissing voice. Desperation was rising as he saw more and more of his men falling. He needed to kill the prince then try to escape. With the huge number advantage they’d had before they started up the mountain victory had seemed assured. Now the idea of twenty or thirty of his survivors against the group of warriors on the plateau seemed like a recipe for disaster. But there was only one thing left to do. Kill Prince Stoneblood.

  His men pushed forward. One of his shield men fell as a boulder the size of a man’s head slammed into his helmet. The crunching of metal indicated the helmet had not softened the blow at all. Then they were there. His soldiers split with practiced ease to let him up the middle. It was now three against one, with the rest of his men squaring off against the six others. A surge of adrenalin hit Lambert as he attacked Prince Stoneblood. Finally, he would kill the man.

  As they spread out, the prince grabbed a last rock and whipped it at the knees of the soldier to Lambert’s right. The man couldn’t lower his shield fast enough and the rock struck squarely on his knee. The soldier’s leg snapped, and he fell awkwardly to the ground.

  The soldier on his left slashed out with his sword but as he exposed his arm the glowing fire whip came and struck his arm, as the whip curled around the arm the fire seemed to brighten then burn through his arm. Now Lambert was alone against the prince.

  He growled and charged. But as he raised his sword for an overhand attack he realized his mistake. Prince Stoneblood’s sword was already drawn and sitting beside him on the ground. The prince grabbed his sword and thrust it up. Lambert felt shock as the weapon sliced into his chest. His sword came down, but the prince simply rolled over and the blade slammed down into the ground missing the prince entirely.

  Lambert looked down at the weapon in his chest. The black steel was flawless. It was the same weapon that had defeated Gadwell in Elderwood. Lambert chuckled at the irony of it all. He should’ve fought the prince then instead of pawning off the task to Gadwell. He was a better swordsman anyways and on even ground with no distractions would’ve been sure to strike a blow. Lambert fell to the ground; his last thoughts were that he should’ve killed the prince when he’d had the chance.

  32

  The battle had gone pretty much as Rayan had predicted. With Katla and Kiana attacking the eastern flank and Shayla attacking the western flank all the soldiers squeezed into the middle. Giving Magnus, Raven, Hanna, and Rayan the proverbial fish in a barrel. Every rock they threw struck one or two soldiers, sometimes even more. Between the rocks and fireballs from Shayla, a full three quarters of the soldiers never reached the plateau. And the ones that did were scattered and disorganized. No match for the warriors within the party. Leaving the wounded soldiers to take care of the bodies, they left the mountain and continued east.

  They passed several villages that eyed them nervously. Most of the king’s soldiers had been pushed west of Blackpool but there were still squads of the king’s men causing havoc in the eastern countryside. While the rebellion was looking successful, it wasn’t a clean and simple victory. They passed several burnt farm houses as they moved farther east.

  They were almost to Crasmere when a large shadow flew over their heads then circled around. Shayla jumped off her horse, handing the reins to Raven and ran in front of the group. Nathan could feel his horse start to nervously prance and sidestep, unwilling to move forward. Many of the other horses started doing the same. The reason for the animals’ discomfort and Shayla’s excitement was soon evident as a large dragon dropped to the ground in front of her.

  Nathan dismounted, and stood in awe. Caritha, Shayla’s bonded dragon was massive, frightening, awe-inspiring, and beautiful all at the same time. White with red-tipped scales, and wings that seemed almost translucent and appeared far more fragile than they actually were, Caritha was a sight to behold.

  Shayla turned and motioned for the others to join her. Raven, who was familiar with Caritha and in no need of an introduction stayed back and held the reins of the nervous horses.

  “Prince Nathan Stoneblood, may I present Caritha,” Shayla said with pride.

  Nathan bowed as Shayla in turn introduced the rest of the party to the dragon.

  When Shayla was done, Caritha spoke in a soft deep voice. “Thank you all for protecting my bonded human. I could only sense the last half of your journey, but it was filled with danger and you all fought bravely and honorably. I wasn’t sure if ones with giants’ blood and demon blood could do so, but you have proven my worries baseless.”

  Nathan frowned. “Why would that worry you?”

  “Ancient enemies. There is a reason it has been far longer than a hundred years since a dragon landed in Solotine, and I don’t recall any stories of human warriors with demon spirits fighting for dragons before,” said the dragon.

  Nathan nodded as he realized the significance of Caritha’s words. His own ancestors had been enemies with dragons, and possibly spirit warriors like Hanna and Katla had also fought against dragons. “A new day can bring new alliances. We have no
quarrels with dragons."

  “But you soon may,” Caritha said. “I could smell another dragon as I approached the coast. Another dragon has made its way to Solotine.”

  Shayla looked at Nathan then to Caritha. “Are you sure? Apophis forbid it.”

  “There are more than a few dragons willing to test Apophis’s leadership. Nelarth isn’t the only dragon that wants to return to the old ways.”

  A dragon in Solotine. It was a troubling thought. Caritha seemed a noble beast, but he was bonded with Shayla. And from what Shayla had told him, any dragon that defied their leader wasn’t likely to be friendly to humans.

  “I’m sorry if this seems abrupt, but I must return with Shayla and Raven. They’ve been away for too long and Apophis needs to learn of this rogue dragon,” Caritha said.

  “I can’t thank you all enough for what you’ve done for Raven and I,” Shayla said as she mounted her dragon.

  Magnus went and relieved Raven of her horse-watching duties. The two northerners shared a few words that lasted longer than Nathan would’ve anticipated from two warriors who often had little to say. When they finished talking Raven returned to the group and thanked them. She jumped on the back of Caritha, but it was obvious that Raven wasn’t nearly as comfortable on the back of a dragon as Shayla was.

  With a flap of its wings, Caritha launched into the air and started towards the coast.

  “What I wouldn’t give to fly on the back of such a magnificent creature,” Rayan said as the dragon flew away.

  “What now?” Kiana asked.

  “We continue on to Crasmere,” Hanna said. “My ship will take us to my village and we’ll head west through Northern Solotine. I’ve had enough of being chased through Tarnstead.”

  Nathan smiled. He too was tired of being chased and the idea of heading back to Elderwood pleased him. The mission was accomplished, Shayla and Raven were reunited with the dragon safely away from any pursuit, and they were now safe from King Parth’s men. The journey through Tarnstead had been perilous but was now over. The small port city of Crasmere was just ahead, and the promise of Hanna’s ship waited there. There were still many troubling details to deal with in the future, King Parth and the news of a dragon in Solotine starting the list, but for now they could relax a little. The journey through the north promised to be far less dangerous. At least he hoped so. One never was truly safe in the wilds of the north, but after being chased by platoons of soldiers, wild beasts and barbarians didn’t sound all that bad. Not when he had warriors like this at his side.

  End

  Author notes

  Thank you for reading Treachery in Tarnstead, Book Five of the Stoneblood Saga. I hope you enjoyed it.

  Interested in learning more about some of the secondary characters in this story? You can learn more about Hanna and Katla here Hanna Halfblood.

  To learn more about Raven, Shayla and dragons check out the Dragonblood Sagas. I recommend starting with Lyric’s curse, but you can also start with the Sisera novels. Both story lines follow the same time line.