With one last kiss on her forehead, Shad turned away, straightened his shoulders, and faced them. His mouth moved as if he silently took a head count. Brandi kept her head down, peeking through a fringe of bangs. She couldn’t risk him recognizing her now, not when she was so close to being a part of this adventure.
Seemingly satisfied, Shad took his place at the head of the column and motioned for Jamie to join him. With a glance in her direction, Jamie led Buster to Shad. Of course she’d be on her own while they traveled. Jamie was their scout, and he’d work closely with Shad. She didn’t have the skills to help, nor could she spend that much time near Shad. He’d notice her for sure then.
She dropped into line beside a boy who looked like he couldn’t be too much older than her fourteen years. He was a good foot taller than her. Lanky, like a scrawny buck no self-respecting hunter would take down. A dark brown horse with a star on its forehead followed him.
Gripping Blizzard’s reins, Brandi tried out her tough-boy voice and nonchalant swagger. “I’m Randy. Where are you from?”
“Uh, Deadgrass.” His head bobbed in time with his strides. “Though my family has lived in Eagle Heights for over two years. I’m Ian McCrae by the way.”
“Deadgrass. That’s not too far from Stetterly. That’s where I’m from.” Brandi fought to stop her smile. Ian wasn’t looking at her strangely, so her acting was passing. “Think we’ll get through?”
“Don’t know. I heard this Blade trainee is good. But he’s only a trainee. The other Blades will be better.” Ian glanced at her. “I saw you talking to him. You know him? Is he any good?”
“I stayed in Walden for a while. Got to know him.” She bit her lip. She couldn’t reveal which Blade had trained Jamie. Or that Jamie was actually a full-fledged Blade. “Pretty good. You got to be to get away from the Blades.”
A sharp whistle called them to attention. Shad swung onto his horse. “Mount up!”
Brandi placed her foot in the stirrup, grabbed the saddlehorn, and pulled herself onto Blizzard’s back. Her stomach flipped. This was it.
She was riding off to war.
The whistle pierced Brandi’s head. She dragged her eyes open. Ugh. Her muscles were so sore. Why had she thought this would be an adventure? All they did was hike and ride all day. Nothing more exciting than a new ridge to climb or a new ravine to travel around. Thanks to their circuitous route, they’d had to go through some of the roughest country in the Sheered Rock Hills.
Rolling to her feet, she scrubbed her eyes, straightened her grubby clothes, and reached into her saddlebag for a hardtack biscuit. While she chewed, trying not to break a tooth, she blinked at the waking camp. The pre-dawn, grey haze obscured the trees at the edges of their camp. Several of the men checked weapons or brushed their horses.
A few yards away, Ian groaned and tugged his blanket over his head. He’d joined their little circle, and so far, Brandi hadn’t had too much difficulty convincing him she was a boy. Lack of baths and no changes of clothes helped.
She tossed a stick. It smacked Ian on the head. “Stop lazing about. Even I’m up.”
Ian rubbed the back of his head and sat up. “Wouldn’t be so tired if not for your snoring. Kept me up half the night.”
“Your teeth crunching and lip smacking kept me up the other half.” She grinned. “Did you dream about eating beef roast all night?”
“My mama’s cookies.” He pulled out a biscuit and chomped on it. “Wish she was here now. She makes the best buttermilk biscuits. My brothers and sisters are probably stuffing themselves with them right now.”
“You have a lot of siblings?” Brandi worked to keep her smile on her face. How she missed Aunt Mara’s maple sugar cookies, her biscuits, the way she bustled around Stetterly’s kitchen, smelling of flowers and food. Ian at least had his mother waiting for him at Eagle Heights. Brandi had only Renna.
“Two brothers and four sisters. All younger.” The grin died on Ian’s face. He stared at the hard biscuit in his hand. “Father got us all out of Deadgrass, but he didn’t make it.”
Another life Respen had taken. Brandi ground her teeth into the stale crumbs in her mouth. They had to win this war. Respen couldn’t get away with this.
Jamie slumped to the ground beside her. Dark splotches encircled his eyes. Ian snapped his mouth shut, his eyes wide. Not fearful, exactly. More like awe.
“Did you get any sleep last night?” She handed Jamie a biscuit. When she’d collapsed into her bedroll, he’d still been scouting the area ahead of them.
“Some.” He turned the biscuit over in his fingers rather than biting into it right away. “We’re going to sneak past the Blade today. I located his lookout post last night.”
She gulped her bite of biscuit. Then today was it. By that afternoon, their group of a hundred Riders would slip past the Blade and attack the army’s flank. “And we’ll be attacking Respen’s army after that?”
He nodded, stared at his biscuit pensively, then bit into it. After a moment, he grimaced. “These biscuits just keep getting worse.”
She grimaced also and forced herself to eat the rest of hers. After she finished, she gathered and checked her weapons. When her knives and short sword were sharp and ready, she strapped her bedroll to Blizzard’s back, taking care to make sure nothing would rattle.
Shad called them into order. “Men, this is it. Today, we’re going to sneak past a Blade and surprise Respen’s army.”
A bunch of the guys gave low cheers.
Shad fixed them with a look. “We have to be quiet and inconspicuous. Blacken any shiny objects now, if you haven’t done so already. Strap your canteen and pot in your bedroll so they don’t rattle. I have strips of buckskin to tie around your horse’s hooves. Prince Keevan is depending on us. We cannot make a mistake.”
Brandi joined the line and snatched her four squares of buckskin. Blizzard remained still while she tied the buckskin over his hooves. He’d probably done this before. He was a Blade’s horse, after all.
When Blizzard was ready, she fell into line behind Ian. Ian grinned, though the corners of his mouth remained tense.
Jamie led Buster over to her. “I’ll need my hands free while scouting. I’ll tie Buster’s lead to Blizzard’s saddle. They won’t give you any trouble.”
“All right.” Brandi held Blizzard while Jamie tied Buster’s lead rope around the saddlehorn. True to Jamie’s word, Buster fell into line behind Blizzard. Jamie scrambled back to the front of the line. When he disappeared into the forest ahead of them, Shad waved them forward.
A strange silence enveloped them. Everyone remained silent, not even whispering. The leather of their saddles creaked, but the bridles and stirrups had been wrapped in cloth. Blizzard’s hooves clumped on the ground with the same rhythm, but without the sharp clatter of hoof on stone.
Brandi led Blizzard and Buster directly in the footsteps of Ian’s horse. Jamie led them along a path to stay out of sight of the Blade, but one move out of line could ruin all of it.
They reached the head of the canyon. Brandi gulped. Jamie had assured Shad that he’d found a game trail leading to the bottom, but looking at the cliffs falling away below them, Brandi wasn’t sure the horses would make it, especially not with their hooves made slick with the leather padding.
At the head of their column, Shad and his horse disappeared into the canyon.
One man and horse after another descended over the rim. Ian’s horse balked at the edge. Brandi swatted the horse on the rump. It jumped, getting halfway over before it realized what it was doing. Bracing its legs, it skidded downward and reached a wider ledge a few feet down.
Her turn. Brandi tightened her grip on Blizzard’s reins. Thankfully, Blizzard didn’t hesitate. He placed each hoof carefully as he navigated down the incline. Buster followed with the same unfazed care.
As they eased down the side of the cliff, Brandi scowled. Jamie had a strange definition of the word path. At times, the rocky ledge became barely wide
enough for their horses to place one hoof in front of another. At other times, the path disappeared altogether into a gravelly slope that the horses slid down one at a time. Dust billowed into the air, coating Brandi’s face and throat. Hopefully the dust wouldn’t billow above the rim of the canyon where the Blade could see it.
At last, they reached the bottom. Shad allowed them a short rest by the trickling creek that meandered through the canyon’s bottom. While Blizzard and Buster grazed on the tufts of green grass growing beside the stream, Brandi splashed water on her face and tried to rinse the dust from her mouth. A few bites of dried meat silenced her stomach.
The sun stabbed down from the sky and poked at their backs. Sweat trickled down Brandi’s spine in a hot, sticky river. As she led Blizzard, the reins grew slick in her fingers.
She would’ve loved to roll in the stream to cool off, but she had to keep moving and stay in line. Even though the initial dousing would feel amazing, hiking in itchy, drying clothes would be even more miserable than the sweat.
The afternoon crawled along with her aching feet. Apparently a sneak attack involved a lot of boredom.
As the sun dipped toward the horizon, Jamie led them up another winding trail out of the canyon. The horses slipped and skidded on the gravel slopes, but they lunged upward without too much trouble. Brandi lost her footing several times, but her grip on Blizzard’s reins kept her from falling.
Crossing over the top of a rise, they followed a long ridge that sloped down from the Hills into the prairie below, sticking to the eastern side below the top to remain out of sight. Silence still reigned. Brandi’s tongue hurt from clenching it between her teeth to stop herself from talking. A whole day of silence was seriously torture.
Blizzard’s head shot upward, jerking her arm. His ears pricked as he stared forward and across the ridge. Shad halted the column as his horse’s head also lifted. Jamie dropped from a line of trees in front of them and whispered something to Shad.
A breeze drifted up and over the ridge in front of them. Brandi heard it now too. Clanging. Yelling. Drumming hoof beats.
The battle. Her boredom galloped away on pounding heartbeats. A tingle rushed from her stomach into her fingers and toes. In minutes, she’d ride into battle.
The man in front of Ian turned around and whispered something to Ian. Ian nodded, turned, and leaned closer to Brandi. “Captain Alistair has ordered everyone to prepare for battle. Pass the word.”
Brandi nodded her understanding and whispered the message to the man in line behind her. When he nodded, she turned her attention to Blizzard. With shaking fingers, she untied the strips of cloth from the bridle and the buckskin from Blizzard’s hooves.
As she redid the straps on her pack and checked the placement of her weapons, Jamie appeared at her side. He untied Buster’s lead rope and quickly divested him of the buckskin and cloth strips. He opened his mouth but snapped it shut.
“God is with us.” Brandi had to believe that. Her faith still felt shaky as a cliff face, but she couldn’t let that stop her from trusting. David trusted God when he marched into battle against a giant. Today, she was going to be David. Strong. Courageous. Fearless.
Shad motioned them into formation in the line of trees. Brandi swung onto Blizzard and rode between Ian and Jamie into the clumps of trees at the crest of the ridge. A few feet from Blizzard’s hooves, the ridge fell away into rolling grassland. Respen’s army clumped on a series of hills below, dirt fortifications ringing their positions. Their line curved into the distance, ending at the black dot of Walden Manor.
On the field below the fortifications, the Resistance army streamed away from recent battle, motionless forms dotting the prairie between the two armies. One attack already failed.
If their sneak attack didn’t work, the Resistance could be broken on that hill. She fisted her hands in Blizzard’s mane. This wasn’t a game. This wasn’t an adventure. This was war. Life and death. Blood and battle.
She’d have to kill again in a few minutes. Something inside her shook, yet she forced it down. She was a warrior. Like David. Perhaps there was a cost for those who shed blood in war. But someone had to pay it.
Keevan’s shiny palomino whirled and faced the hill again. The army formed behind him, preparing for another charge. Behind them, the line of archers raised their bows.
Now or never. Brandi glanced along their line. Each face wore the same look. Determination, but more than that. Resolve. Courage. Fear. Clenching her jaw, she faced the battle below. No turning back.
Keevan’s army broke into a march and charged across the prairie. The riders that had remained with the main army galloped in a wedge ahead of the foot soldiers. Brandi tightened her legs around Blizzard. A few horses along the line stomped their hooves. Blizzard remained steady.
The Resistance army charged closer. Brandi leaned forward. Any moment now. Her tongue dried like a fall cornstalk.
“Get ready, men.” Shad’s voice, while low, cut through the evening.
Brandi drew her short sword. Beside her, Jamie and Ian pulled out their weapons.
Keevan’s palomino galloped in the lead, its mane and tail streaming like golden banners. Black slivers streaked past her cousin and the front runners. Arrows. The Resistance archers answered with a volley of their own.
A crash sounded behind them. Brandi craned her neck. A horse and a rider dressed in black burst from the trees above them and pelted down the hill.
The Blade had spotted them. But he was too late.
“Now.” Shad’s voice sliced the stillness. He kicked his horse into a gallop. It plunged down the ridge. All around her, the men kicked their horses. Brandi dug her heels into Blizzard’s sides. Blizzard leapt into a gallop in two jumps, Jamie’s horse matching him stride for stride.
Brandi leaned low in the saddle, swaying in time with Blizzard’s movements. Her right hand remained steady, gripped around her sword.
The Blade ahead of them shouted and motioned over his shoulder.
With a yell, Keevan’s army crashed into the fortifications. Even with the drumming of hoof beats around her, she could hear the clash of blades.
The men in the fortifications closest to them turned. Before the men had a chance to react, Shad and the front runners smashed into them. Blizzard gathered himself and jumped over the fortification, Buster hurdling beside them. Ian’s horse leapt the barricade a moment later.
Brandi swiped at a man lunging for her. He jumped back, and Ian plunged his knife into the man’s back. Blood spattered. Brandi gulped down her heaving stomach. She wasn’t going to be sick.
The next fortification bristled with soldiers, all of them braced for the Riders’ attack.
Shad spurred his horse forward and smashed into the line of men. Brandi only had a moment before Blizzard shoved his way between two of the soldiers. She didn’t have time to search for her friends or watch Shad. She could only watch for the next stab, the next thrust. Dropping the reins, she drew her knife. She slashed a man with her knife and thrust at another soldier. Kicking a soldier in the shoulder, she stabbed him.
Blizzard swerved. Brandi gripped with her knees and leaned low to keep her seat. A sword sliced the air where she’d been a moment before. She swiveled in the saddle and plunged her knife into the soldier. She didn’t have time to think. Didn’t have time to regret.
Soldiers piled into the fortifications in front of them. The Riders around Brandi wavered. Their charge faltered.
She couldn’t let that happen. Respen’s army had to break. Not just for Renna. Not just for Leith. But for Acktar. For the children waiting at Eagle Heights, waiting for the opportunity to grow up, live, and worship God in the freedom Brandi barely remembered.
“Forward!” She yelled the word and urged Blizzard onward. Blizzard plowed into two men, staggered a beat, and shoved them out of the way. Jamie and Buster plunged into the gap on one side, Ian and his horse on the other.
Others took up the shout. Shad’s voice roared
something at them above the din. Brandi couldn’t make out his words. It didn’t matter. Her arms hurt with the weight of her sword and dagger. She’d lost one of her knives somewhere along the way. She didn’t remember where.
The soldier in front of her wavered and took a step back. The soldiers on either side of him stumbled as well. In a wave, the line of soldiers crumbled before them as men turned and ran. Soldiers tripped over each other as they dashed away from the melee.
“Onward, men!” Shad’s chestnut horse shimmered in the sunset. “Keep them on the run!”
More slashing. Hacking. Stabbing. Blood. Screams.
Then the battle ended. One moment she was fighting, the next there was no one left to fight. She blinked at the nighttime darkness that had descended around her. In the haze, Prince Keevan claimed the top of the hill they’d fought all evening for. A ragged cheer rose from the foot soldiers gathered around him. They’d won.
Weariness poured into her body. She sat on Blizzard, not sure what to do or where to go and too weary to find out. She could feel Blizzard trembling beneath her. She should at least give him a rest.
When she slid from Blizzard’s back, her legs buckled. Her whole body shook. Somewhere behind her, a man retched. Moans and cries filled the air along with the stench of blood. Men shouted, trying to locate friends and family among the living. The shouts turned to wails at finding those loved ones among the dead.
Where was Jamie? Ian? She peered into the darkness, but all she could see were staggering, black forms moving among mounds of bodies. A stench fouled the air, one she recognized all too well from the courtyard after Respen executed Uncle Abel and Aunt Mara. Fresh death. Musty blood. Sour body.
Her teeth chattered. Her fingers trembled with an intense cold. Bile gathered in her throat, but she choked it back into her heaving stomach. No, she wasn’t about to lose her stomach. She had to be tougher than that.
Defy (The Blades of Acktar Book 3) Page 23
