Crown Sword

Chapter 12

One minute I was falling, falling, falling. The next, I hit the water with a splash, feet first. The cold water seeped through my clothing as I held my breath, opening my eyes to the green, murky water.

The soldiers' shouts were garbled above me. I scissored my way as quickly as I could beneath the surface. My lungs were screaming at me, but I knew I could not get to the other side for the soldiers were lined up against it. I decided my best bet was to swim to the side of the tower.

I coughed, breaking the surface of the water, bumping against the bottom of the tower and turned around. As expected the soldiers were still there searching for me until I saw one point and shouted my way.

I ignored them as I looked around. There, by the castle's entrance I saw Leon gallop out  of the castle's open drawbridge. Closely following behind, Alcott and Terrowin. The wizard was nowhere to be found.

They headed down the length of the moat searching until they found me.

"Swim!" Leon shouted as he galloped forward, "swim!" The guards began to chase them.

"Shoot her!" Norwin had burst through the drawbridge pointing an angry finger at me.

The archer soldiers knocked their arrows. Shit.

I ducked my head under the water and swam in the direction Leon had taken. A volley of arrows shot into the water right where I had been before. I swam like I was being chased by a snapping shark. My legs were on fire.

The arrows followed me as I went and I knew I couldn't stop for a second. I had to keep moving forward. I swam deeper into the water hoping they couldn't see me as I looked up at the surface. Leon was far ahead of me. Just then I felt something underneath me.

A small seahorse looking creature faced me, except it wasn't normal. It didn't look like a seahorse, it just looked like a horse.

Really? I thought to myself, really? This was not another time to have a hallucination, I swam on.

Without a moment's notice, I was suddenly pushed out of the water, the horse underneath me as it galloped on the surface of the water. I paid no attention to the stream of arrows as I gasped in awe.

It was a horse. Made of water.

I heard the people beyond the moat surprise too, as the stream of relentless arrows faltered. I looked down and touched the horses neck, expecting my hand to sink through but it didn't. It was like solid water. Not ice, just solid water.

Leon was just in front of me, Alcott and Terrowin ahead. The horse galloped faster, water spraying everywhere. Finally, he was just in my reach. I called to him extending my arm and he turned trying to grasp it. Just a little more...

An arrow grazed my arm and instinctively, I pulled back almost crying in pain.

"Jane!" he was in reach now. I extended my arm and reached under it and pulled me onto his horse. I wrapped my arms around his big self as tightly as I could, my arm stinging in pain. I turned back.

    The horse stood on the bank of the moat and bowed its neck to me. It collapsed into the water just before an arrow whistled through the air it left behind.

    The sound of the horn blared through air, quieting the frenzied crowd. The king raised his hand from the platform at which he stood and the archers lowered their bows.

They looked towards the drawbridge in which a group of soldiers burst through, Scar at the helm, Norwin beside him. Even from here I saw as the prince's eyes bore into mine as he spurred his horse on.