by Philip Blood
Drake looked back down the forest path. “Do you think we are safe now that these creatures are dead?”
Lady Ardellen considered and then said, “Possibly, for a day or so, but I don’t think they were the only pursuit sent to apprehend us.”
“Can you do your searching thing again and find out?” asked Gustin.
“Yes, and I will, however, I think I should explain a few things about aura powers. I have used my aura powers repeatedly during the past day. You’ve seen a little of what I can accomplish, and it probably looks wonderful, but these powers are directly tied to my aura, my life spirit, and each use of that aura diminishes my energy. The power is not limitless; in fact, I have used quite a bit of my available power healing Hetark and Gustin.”
“Will your power return?” Hetark asked in sudden concerned.
“Yes, but it’s kind of like a well if water is taken away too quickly the water level drops too low and no more water can be taken from the well until is seeps back in to refill. Your auras are like the water in the well with one difference, if you run the well dry of water it will refill, but if you ever use your entire aura, you die.”
“Are you in any danger right now?” asked Hetark while watching her face intently and biting his lower lip in concern.
“No, I am somewhat low on power, but nowhere near putting myself in danger, yet. The check on our trail will not use much energy and it may net us some important results, so I think it’s worth the energy expenditure, but I strongly suggest that you try and keep yourselves healthy, healing draws a large amount of energy from me,” she explained.
“In other words, watch out for low branches and duck, so you avoid smacking your clumsy head,” Drake cautioned Gustin sarcastically.
“Fine, Grace, and you should try and keep from falling off your horse, although I don’t know why I’m worried, it would only be a short trip to the ground,” replied Gustin as he emphasized the word, ‘short’.
“Could you two give it a rest, I need to concentrate on checking our back trail for a moment,” asked Elizabeth with a sigh.
She sent her aura out again in a slowly widening circle as she searched for the presence of other auras. Elizabeth's perceptions passed over the auras of plants and the different auras of animals until she found a large grouping of human spirits. They were very close and approaching rapidly.
Elizabeth probed them quickly, but the range was too great to learn much. She did discover that two of them had mind shields. After returning from her sojourn Elizabeth considered her options and then she spoke to her waiting knights. “There are twenty-two men on horseback following us. They have two extra mounts per man and are approximately one bell behind us.”
“One bell!” Drake exclaimed, “I thought any normal pursuit would be a few days behind us!”
“As did I,” answered Elizabeth, “but the fact remains they are right behind us and closing. I also picked up another thing; two of them have aura shields up and working. Those shields block my attempts to read them.”
“Does that mean they are sorcerers?” inquired Hetark as he thoughtfully scratched at his close-cut blond beard.
“It’s possible, not all users of aura power come from the Kirnath School, but it is rare. Untrained sorcerers seldom have the control necessary to make full use of their potential. It’s also possible that someone has taught them how to create shields, or planted them. Lastly, they could be natural shields, but I doubt that conclusion because they are extremely rare and two among twenty-two is very unlikely.”
“So it’s safe to assume that they have the shields up purposely to keep you from reading them, right?” asked Hetark.
“Yes.”
“That means that they expected that you would locate them; do you think they knew it when you sensed them?” he asked.
“Not unless they were better sorcerers than I am, my touch was very light. Fortunately, I was trying to conserve my powers, so I didn’t push at them enough for anyone, but the best to know it,” she explained.
“Do you have any idea who they could be?”
Elizabeth thought for a moment before answering. “They are Tchulian mercs; I read that from some of those who were unshielded. Lately, some Tchulian officers have been getting some limited aura training, though they’ve tried to keep it a secret from most of the world. The Kirnath have learned that much for sure. And at Michael’s acceptance dinner, I noted that Major Harland Von Dracek had a mind shield. At the time, I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t just a natural shield, but now I think it was more than that, which makes him a prime suspect in the plot against us. It is likely that he is one of the two shielded men in pursuit.”
“Well,” Gustin put in, “we should decide what we are going to do quickly. With their extra mounts, they’ll eventually catch us if we try and run."
Drake chimed in and said, "And we should avoid a fight, we can't risk using the Lady's powers of healing again so soon. There are a lot of them, even with the element of surprise on our side.”
Hetark considered their options and then asked, “Perhaps we should attempt to separate them into smaller groups? That way, with the element of surprise, we could whittle them down.”
Drake nodded and said, “If we pretended to split our group in two maybe they would do the same in an attempt to follow both.”
Gustin smiled, “That might work, but we’d need to know if we had succeeded before we engaged one of their groups.”
“I could use my powers to check and see how they split,” Elizabeth reminded them.
Hetark turned to Drake, “You grew up in this forest, tell me about the road ahead.”
“There is a fork in the road about two leagues from here,” Drake replied.
With that knowledge, Hetark proposed a plan, “We can ride to the crossroads and have Drake and Gustin take the southwest fork while Lady Ardellen and I continue along the southeast. We will gallop fast to put some distance between us and the Tchulians that follow. Then we will cut across through the forest and Elizabeth can use her aura powers to locate Gustin and Drake so that we can regroup. If our pursuers split up as planned Gustin and Drake will set up an ambush for the group that followed them and we will join them to spring the trap. Our horses will be tired, but we can procure some of their mounts and make a quick run for it to get ahead of the second group. Once we have rested up we could choose to continue or set up another ambush for the rest of the Tchulians after Lady Ardellen’s ‘well’ has had a chance to refill.”
Elizabeth smiled at that reference.
“What if they don’t split up?” Gustin asked.
“Then we’ll just leave you to finish off the whole bunch by yourself until we can think of something else to try,” Drake replied sarcastically and gave Gustin an annoyed look.
“No problem, let’s do it!” Gustin exclaimed.
Drake shook his head and said, “If they all follow us, then you two continue on your way and get Michael to safety, agreed?”
Elizabeth frowned, but Hetark said, “Agreed, but if they all follow us, then we’ll have to cut across the forest to regroup.”
Gustin nodded.
“OK, let’s get moving, and fast; we’ll need all the time we have to set up a good trap. I just hope we get to use it,” Hetark said with a sigh.
“They’ve divided up,” the scout named Mauklar said from where he crouched on the ground at the crossroads examining the tracks of their quarry. The Tchulian troop had reached the fork in the forest path.
“Did they really divide their group, or is this a ruse of some sort?” Von Dracek asked the scout.
After examining the ground again carefully, Mauklar replied, “As far as I can tell two horses carrying riders and two spare horses went each way.”
“Can you tell which way the Kirnath bitch went?” Bante demanded.
“Not with certainty, but I would hazard a guess that the woman went on the southwest fork. Look at these two horses hoof prints; you can see this horse
is carrying more weight by the difference in depth of the print. The two horses that were ridden down the southeast path had riders with close to the same weight, so those were probably two of the men,” the scout calculated.
“But are you sure?” questioned the major.
“No sir, if the woman weighed close to the same as the man she rode with, I might be wrong, but it’s unlikely.”
Von Dracek snorted and said, “Not that unlikely, you imbecile, remember that she rides with three of those worthless new Knight Protectors, and one of them was big enough to double as a tusksnout. He’s probably riding the horse that is carrying the most weight, so I'd guess she is probably in the other pair.”
“Don’t you think it’s a wise time to check which direction the woman really went using the other means at our disposal?” the corporal asked his stern commander.
“I would have already done that if I thought it was a good idea, corporal. There is still the chance that she doesn’t know we’re behind her. I don’t think she could sense me without my knowing it and I know for sure that unless I caught her at the perfect moment she would detect my probe if I sought her by aura touch. So we'll play the percentages. Unless something shows that she’s on to us we’ll keep doing this the hard way, but since we can’t afford to pass up the possibility that she was the other rider with that ox of a man, I’ll send some of you after them. Bante, take half the soldiers and follow the two men who went down the southwest path and I’ll take the other half after the woman on the other path. Drop your shield once each bell and I’ll contact you to compare our progress.
Elizabeth and Hetark paused for the second time to let the sorceress use her powers to check on the location of Gustin and Drake. Elizabeth and Hetark had left the path just over a half bell earlier and headed across the rough terrain of the forest at the fastest pace possible. Unfortunately, the going was tougher than they had anticipated; bushes and brambles often blocked their way making them detour around, and a stream with high banks blocked them at one point until they found a place where it was possible to ford.
“How far away are Gustin and Drake, milady?” asked Hetark.
“About another league,” she replied and then held up her hand to signal him to wait a moment as she concentrated on the dim glow of distant auras. “Our enemies are slightly closer; we must fly if we are to be of any help.”
“Then we shall fly, somehow, milady,” and he spurred his horse on through the forest ducking and swerving to avoid branches.
Elizabeth knew that she was slower than Hetark since she had to carry Michael, so she called out to the knight. “Go on without me Hetark, I will be there right behind you, don’t worry.”
Hetark glanced back then turned forward and urged his horse to even greater efforts.
“Where are they?” asked an excited and concerned Drake for the tenth time as he paced back and forth behind the trees that hid them from the nearby forest path.
“I’m sure they’re fine, I bet they’re just having trouble traveling across the forest without a path,” Gustin assured him calmly.
“If they don’t get here in time this trap isn’t going to work. Shortly the two of us are going to be breastplate deep in ten to twenty Tchulians who think we would look better impaled on a sharp pole, and two of them may be aspiring necromancers or worse. To put it simply, I’m not real happy about the situation,” Drake complained.
“All right, let’s pack it up and think of something else to try later,” Gustin answered as he started to stand up.
“No, we put too much work into this ambush, it will work!” exclaimed Drake, reversing his opinion since Gustin agreed with it.
“All right, we’ll stay and hope they make it,” Gustin agreed congenially.
“No, they might not make it and we would have to fight them by ourselves,” Drake said, still pacing and shaking his head negatively, unhappy with either choice.
“Look, if you don’t make up that pea brain soon our group of party guests may get here and make it up for you. Now I have a suggestion, why don’t you get down near the road as planned, and keep watch on the path. When you see them approaching you can decide if there are too many or not. If there are too many we’ll stay hidden and let them ride by, but if you fire your bow I’ll take it to mean that the ambush is on, all right?”
“Don’t forget to pull the rope at the right time,” Drake reminded.
“Don’t worry,” Gustin promised.
“And you’ll be right down? I mean, I probably could take them alone, but I don’t want to leave you out of the fun!” he exclaimed, trying to make Gustin think he wasn’t nervous.
“How thoughtful of you to leave one or two for me,” Gustin replied with a sarcastic smile.
Grinning back at the big man, Drake replied with false bravado, “Just don’t try to oink up more than your fair share, understand?”
“No problem, need a boost up onto your horse?” Gustin asked with a smile and a bantering tone.
“No thanks, my horse doesn’t like other large animals too close,” replied Drake with a wink.
Once he was mounted up Drake turned and drew his sword. He raised the blade and stood in his stirrups. His warhorse pranced in the soft sod of the forest as Drake called out to his friend. “Ho Gustin, if we’re going to do this, let’s do it right! We’ll teach them not to threaten Michael and show them why we are the Knight Protectors.” He finished with a salute, “For Michael!”
“For Michael,” Gustin agreed and smiled at his small friend while pulling his own sword in salute. “Send them to the Dark Plane, Drake.”
“You can count on it,” he answered and wheeled his horse around to canter proudly down to the path.
Sensing that he was closing on his quarry, Corporal Bante pushed his men along at a fast pace. The Tchulians galloped around a bend in the road and found a horse standing sideways on the path with a very small man sitting calmly in the saddle. With a swift move, the mounted man brought up a concealed crossbow and fired at Bante’s men. The streaking bolt hit the throat of a soldier to Bante’s right and knocked him off his horse backward.
The small man on the horse then saluted them with the empty crossbow before wheeling his horse and riding off at a gallop.
When the Tchulian officer finally recovered from his initial shock Bante screamed orders at his men, “Run him down and kill him!”
The troop of mercenaries had slowed, but at the corporal's command, they kicked their mounts back into a full gallop and followed the fleeing man down the forest path.
In a perfect move that could have been used in a clinic on horsemanship, Drake slid his horse to a sudden halt and spun it around sideways in front of his charging pursuers. He brought his crossbow up again and calmly inserted the crank to begin the loading process, as if totally unaware that ten wrathful soldiers were storming down the path only heartbeats away from trampling him under their thundering horse hoofs.
The horseman’s strange attitude finally made Corporal Bante realize that something was wrong, but his realization came one instant too late and the trap was sprung. Bante tried to yell for his men to stop, but a rope suddenly came up out of the path and went taut at neck level only a half-length in front of the charging troop. A few of them saw it and tried to react, but there just wasn’t enough time. The group plowed into the rope, which bowed, but did not break. Men were yanked off their horses as if an invisible angry giant had reached from behind and grabbed them by the head and then yanked hard.
Confusion reigned supreme as horses reared and ran every direction. Only one man had managed to stay on his mount and a crossbow bolt struck him in the chest a moment later knocking him to the ground with the rest of the men.
Bante got to his feet and yanked his sword out as he looked at the man on the horse; he was just in time to see him raising his crossbow to his shoulder again. Bante dove to the ground and the bolt took the man standing behind him in the leg. Bante waited on the ground a moment longer, he ex
pected another crossbow bolt from whoever had pulled the rope and he wasn’t disappointed. The bolt hit another one of his men who had been standing and looking around for the foe, which made him an excellent target.
Bante jumped back to his feet and yelled for his men to charge the trees off to the right before the hidden crossbowmen could reload. His men were trained soldiers and once they heard the voice of a commander giving them an objective they could understand, they reacted. The six remaining soldiers leaped up and brandished their weapons as they charged the thicket.
Bante quickly ran to the one horse that had stayed close to his floundering group of men and mounted up. Once on the horse he immediately galloped toward Drake.
Seeing the corporal mounted and approaching Drake tossed the empty crossbow to the ground and drew his sword while kicking his mount into a gallop toward the corporal.
As their horses passed the two men’s swords met with a loud clang and a flash of sparks. Both men wheeled their mounts, using their knees to control the trained horses, and then charged together again. This time, they met at a slower pace and exchanged three blows before the horses separated. Bante’s horse stumbled and lurched sideways tearing fresh smelling divots of sod out of the brown forest floor as it struggled to regain its footing. Drake wheeled his mount expertly and spurred ahead toward his opponent.
Nearby, Gustin saw six soldiers charging him from the path. He looked down at the two unloaded crossbows wistfully, and then calmly picked one up. Without bothering to use the loading crank, Gustin grabbed the thick bow string with one hand and the stock with the other. With his huge back and arm muscles bulging, he pulled it straight back against a tension that human muscles were not meant to attempt; it locked. He quickly dropped a bolt in and grabbed the second crossbow without taking the time to check the progress of his charging adversaries. He efficiently loaded the second bow in the same fashion. Holding that crossbow in his right hand he picked up the other in his left. When he looked up the Tchulians were only six feet from him and coming fast. He fired both bolts directly into the chests of the two nearest men. They flew back from the impact, slowing the soldiers behind them as the two bodies landed in their paths.
