Ringing of metal and shouts caught my attention to the window. I peeked through careful not to get shot in the face.
Shadows cast down on the courtyard. Arrows flew. But not even their arrows could reach up to the top of Nanna’s tower.
On the ground men poured forth from an open gate. The portcullis was breeched.
"Nanna, get dressed, we have to leave now."
The old woman flung her comforter and turned to get out of bed. “Damn guards can’t even get you the hell’s breath out.”
My attention went back to my father's men. Everyone of those brave souls trying to stave off the attackers for us to escape. To fail them and be captured would not honor their deaths.
And then I saw him, my father, in his plate armor. I could tell it was him even from this height. No one could spot the riveted armor, the subtle grander, the meticulous detail in the gorget, breastplate and vambrace and say it didn't belong to a king. And that king was at the front of the lines protecting us.
“No!” He should be protected! What was he doing meeting the battle head on?
But father in battle was magnificent. No one escaped his flank. Soldier after soldier fell under his mace and sword. Hope grappled with fear but my elation at seeing father at his finest was a boon. Clay would not die in vain.
A man, equal in father's suit of armor also fought against the tide, headed straight for my king. Some men avoided the two. The other man was certainly bound and determined to get to father. Desire to be there, to protect the one man I truly loved filled my frustrations of being born a girl. I should be down there, fighting with him.
The two equals met and my father gave the man no soft touch, no breath to hold, no shield to hide behind. I recognized the emblem across the opponents breast plate. A white hawk with a gold eye.
Others had the emblem, but without the gold.
For his salt, the other man took the blows and delivered his own. But the aggressor over-reached and left his right side open.
Father swung his mace and knocked the man from Dreshall down.
"Yes!" I hopped in my excitement.
The golden eye of the bird faced the sky and my father maneuvered his sword to punch a hole trough the metal.
A cry, as high pitched of that from an eagle ripped through the air. I reached for my ears and watched a blond man bounded like a gazelle from the aggressors side. Father looked up then I saw the bloody tip of a sword break through the back of father's back plate.
My eyes saw, but I refused to believe.
Father dropped his sword and I staggered back.
The king of Allsviell sailed backwards and the window that let me see the battle field now seemed too high to reach. My vision tunneled. My breaths came with excruciating clarity. My palms hit floor. My neck no longer held the strength to hold my head. The long braid of my hair curled in a perfect circle under me.
Cool hands touched my cheeks. The wrinkled face of a woman who scared most men looked into mine. Her pitiless glare softened. Nanna, whose life's ravages betrayed her youth but not her wisdom, was there to comfort me. But I did not see her. Only my father tumbling down and the blood on his back.
Escape To Vampire Dam (Dark Heart Heroes Book 1) Page 8
