The Battle for Skandia- Character Reaction

32

"I'll read next." Cassandra sighed as she spoke, flipping through the pages before resigning them all to the worst.

IT WAS A MUTED SOUND—SURF ON A BEACH A LONG WAY AWAY, or maybe the rolling of distant thunder, Will thought. Except no thunder had ever sounded like this. Cassandra and Will both snorted. This sound never seemed to start and never seemed to end. It just continued, over and over, repeating itself constantly.

"That didn't help at all," Horace muttered, fidgeting with the pommel of his sword.

And, gradually, growing louder. It was the sound of thousands of horses cantering slowly toward them.

"Well, that's one way to make an entrance," Gilan said lightly.

Will flexed the string on his bow a couple of times, testing the feel and the tension. His eyes were fixed on the point where they all knew the Temujai army would appear—a kilometer away, where the narrow coastal strip between the hills and the sea jutted out in a promontory, temporarily blocking their view of the approaching army. His mouth was dry, he realized, as he tried, unsuccessfully, to swallow. Will shook his head.

He reached down for the water skin that was hanging by his quiver and missed the first sight of the Temujai horsemen as they swept around the bend. The men around him let out an involuntary cry. The horsemen rode stirrup to stirrup, in one long extended line, each horse cantering easily, matching the pace of the horse beside it.

"There must be thousands of them!" one of the archers said, and Will could hear the fear in his voice. It was echoed in another dozen places along the line. From the ranks of Skandian warriors beyond them, there was not a sound.

Erak smiled grimly. "Trust me, we were thinking it," he said. Will chuckled.

Now, above the dull rumble of the hooves, they could hear the jingle of harness as well, a lighter counterpoint to the rumbling hoofbeats. The horsemen came on, moving closer to the waiting ranks of silent Skandians. Then, at the single blaring note of a bugle, they reined in and came to a halt.

"Came to a halt," Gilan repeated. Halt rolled his eyes.

"You're never going to stop with that, are you?" he asked.

"Of course not!"

The silence, after the rumbling beat of their approach, was almost palpable.

"The author certainly knows how to build tension," Pauline remarked.

Then a massive roar rose from the throats of the Skandian warriors who stood by their defenses. A roar of defiance and challenge, accompanied by the ear-shattering clash of axes and broadswords on shields. Gradually, the sound died away. The Temujai sat their horses silently, staring at their enemies.

Halt rubbed his ears. "My hearing will never be the same after that," he said. The Skandians laughed.

"Keep still!" Will called to his archers. Now that he saw the Temujai front rank, his force seemed ridiculously small. Horace coughed, "Like you?" and Will glared at him. There must have been six or seven hundred warriors riding side by side in that first rank. And behind them were another five or six times that number. At the center of the army, where the commander sat his horse, a sequence of colored signal flags waved. Halt rolled his eyes. Others answered from positions in the line of horsemen. There was another horn blast—a different note this time—and the front rank began to walk their horses forward. The jingling of harness was apparent once more—then a massive metallic slithering sound filled the air and the weak sun gleamed on hundreds of saber blades as they were drawn.