The excitement builds as the release
of
Kriki's Gift, Book Two of the Geometry
of Power
draws near.
"We're
under attack!" Captain Rodal bellowed. "Defensive positions!"
He spurred his horse forward to protect the decoy wagon.
The
captain knew that the safest thing to do would be to charge onward and simply
move out of range of the attacking archers. However, the entire purpose of
this expedition was to draw out the Valkea so they had to remain in place until
the monster appeared. The best they could do was to take a defensive position.
All his officers knew what was expected of them so with discipline the men
quickly moved into defensive postures.
To
add realism to the charade they were playing, Sergeant Garbarek quickly pushed
the fake Carra into the back of the wagon for this protective move would surely
be expected. Then he put a horn to his lips and blew a far-reaching blast to
draw in the soldiers who were hiding in the surrounding areas.
Darrine
found herself on the ground in the midst of a hailstorm of arrows, although
none of the bolts were being aimed directly at her now that her horse was
downed. As expected, the Valkea's fighters were trying to keep her alive so
they could capture her. She noticed that Sergeant Garbarek had been shot at
and was now bristling with arrows stuck in his cloak and surcoat, but he
appeared to be safe inside his armor. The archers avoided firing directly at
the wagon so they could take Carra alive, too. Trooper Kulm's horse was down
and he leaped off the dying animal to jump next to Darrine with his sword drawn
to protect her as she struggled up from the ground. He had two arrows sticking
from his cloak, but they had penetrated no deeper than the cloth because of his
breastplate.
Captain
Rodal interjected his horse between the Valkea's archers and Kulm and Darrine.
"Get
back!" he commanded as he leveled his lance and held his shield high to
protect them as best as he could.
No comments:
Post a Comment