The excitement builds as the release
of
Kriki's Gift, Book Two of the Geometry
of Power
draws near.
Suddenly,
a flight of arrows sliced through the air above them to blanket the landscape
to the right of the road. Rangers had taken up position on the steep and
wooded slope north of the river and were plying the positions of the attackers
with a steady rain of arrows. They were using long bows so they had the carry
to easily make their shots land on the slope across the river from their
positions. Rodal and his men still couldn't see any of the Valkea's people,
but the pace of the attack slowed - presumably because the enemy was taking
shelter from the Rangers' ferocious counterattack.
Captain
Rodal turned his horse out of the line of defenders to look at his men. He
could see that at least two of his men were down and he counted seven dead
horses, not including Darrine and Kulm's. There were both men and horses
numbering among the wounded. "Those on the south side of the road - hold
your positions," he commanded. He looked at several of the men perched on
the wagons. "Get our casualties loaded on the wagons. We leave no one
behind," he yelled.
All
of the men knew that the Valkea's minions were cannibals and no man would leave
a fellow Guardsmen behind to be so defiled. Men started to jump from the
wagons to help their wounded comrades and to load the bodies of the two men who
had been killed.
The
Rangers kept up an uninterrupted stream of arrows from their positions on the
north side of the river. Rodal continued to gaze up at the slope to see if he
could spot what was happening. It was obvious at this point that the Valkea
was shielding her fighters from view. Surely, some of the Rangers' arrows were
finding targets, but there were no cries of pain or other sounds coming from
the Valkea's people. Perhaps she could disguise sounds as easily as she could
sights.
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