Sons of Ironstorm - Book 3: New Alliance

An Uneasy Getaway

"What?" Will's eyes widened as he turned to stare hard at the crowd. And thus he was in perfect position to see a tjor'riin slide into view to confront the ranger captain they had spoken to. Upon catching sight of the dark soldier so close and obviously attacking, the ranger reached for the dagger at his side, face twisted in a snarl. Before he could lay a hand on it, though, the tjor'riin was hammering a heavy bladed dirk into his side with the speed of a striking viper. Then the two were lost as the surging crowd swallowed them up, barely kept at bay by the remaining soldiers and rangers. A heartbeat later the air was split by the snarl of rough ram's horns.

"Oh, that does not sound good," Will husked, taking a step back from the border where, in a frenzy of motion the refugees were now fighting to get past the soldiers, who had swords drawn and were laying about them with alacrity in their efforts to push the desperate horde back.

"Friends of yours?" the knight asked softly as he moved his mount close to the two young nobles. He was coldly sober at the sound of the horns.

"Passing acquaintances," Lawrence replied. "Those horns belong to the same beasts that have been ravaging Kaph and Hernak these last few days. My company has had not a few brushes with them since leaving the Giant's Teeth." His glowing sword cleared its sheath with a soft ringing sound.

"And it looks like I'm about to have another one!"

Drawing his own sword once again, the knight spoke.

"Not this day, sire. I now sense you've a greater purpose than tangling with shadow spawn this day. By my oath as a knight and lord in Galental's House of Lords, I swear I'll see you survive to accomplish it."

Lawrence looked over at the knight and found the man's eyes burning into his own with intensity.

"You'll be riding instead of swinging a sword against these monsters. About ten leagues down this main road you'll find a smaller road to the left. It's for troop movement and goes directly to the capital, if that truly is your destination." The knight glanced over at the frantically struggling refugees mere paces from where they stood, their desperate cries now leavening the air in counterpoint to the snarling tjor'riin horns.

"And I suggest you go before the crowd goes completely berserk."

Lawrence was about to argue when Will's arm suddenly fell on his arm.

"The knight's right, Lawrence," the young lord noted. "You've got a quest to complete, not a battle to fight. Not now. There'll be time enough to kill tjor'riin later."

Eyes filled with the surge of desperate people pressing against the far barrier, Lawrence knew that while he desired greatly to help them and take the dark soldiers on, Will was right. There would be time enough to do that later. As loath as he was to run from a fight, the quest had to, no, must continue!

"Very well," he finally conceded, turning to make towards the last of the wagons, to the back of which his horse and Will's Keltie had been tethered.

"We go."

"And we'll do our best to hold them here, sire, if they decide to attempt an assault on the border," the knight indicated with a nod of his head.

"Maker be with you then, good sir knight," Lawrence said with a respectful nod of his own. The knight grinned fiercely behind the metal of his visor.

"He will, milord, now that our cause is just. Besides, ever since news of the horde's invasion of the Hammer kingdoms reached Galental, I've been looking for an opportunity to trade blows with one of these dark soldiers. My sword arm definitely needs the practice."