SWNOVELS Shadowblade: (A Dance of Fire and Shadow Book 1) – Chapter 21
THE ARCHERS MAINTAIN discipline and restrain themselves from shouting in their shock and agitation but the change in the tension of their low voices is clear as they instantly start searching for the source of the arrow.
I hope Marin is close enough to hear the shift in alertness. He has to move in and distract them before they find me in spite of my Sylvani camouflage. I nock another arrow and hope I can take out anyone trying to kill Marin before he can assert his authority over the group.
Then I see him step onto the ledge from the rocks on the far side of the ledge.
“Allantis, I need to update you on developments.” Marin strides boldly towards the young lieutenant. For a moment Allantis seems too stunned to make sense of what is happening.
“Marin! What are you doing here? We’re under attack!”
Marin draws him aside. “I know, but the Eldrin have it under control.” He steers the archer into the shelter of a boulder.
I can’t follow the conversation but within moments it seems as if Marin’s rank and his long standing friendship with Allantis have succeeded. The lieutenant calls his patrol leaders to explain that Marin and a team of Eldrin have dealt with the threat and the whole archer division is now under new orders.
Marin gives no indication of my presence so I don’t move, waiting for my chance to retreat. I watch him redeploy the archers, still overlooking the lodge, but in slightly different positions, ready to protect our delegation from Farang’s guards instead of trying to kill us on their behalf. It also gets everyone looking away from my hiding place long enough for me to scramble back down the tree and below the level of the rock ledge.
One look at the thin crack and I can see that the steep section will be too difficult to climb down. I check the ground below, hang from the tree root, and then drop the rest of the distance, landing on the steep grass and rolling down the slope to break the impact of the fall.
Marin’s orders are for me to stay out of sight and get back to the camp while Lupine scouts again. I feel as if I’m abandoning her but she has far more experience of this particular form of hunting than I have, so I head back to where we tethered the horses.
Brac and Deris are on lookout. Lania and Nem have disappeared.
“Deris, where are the others?”
“Nem thought she heard something so they went to check that it wasn’t another ambush. Did Marin take command of the archers?”
“Yes. And Lupine is scouting for more trouble.” Even as I say it, I feel uneasy. Maybe I heard something too, but it was too faint to register consciously at the time. I search my memory but nothing comes into focus.
“Ariel, you need to wash the dye off your face and get back into Eldrin livery for this meeting.” Deris hands me a water-skin and I comply, my mind still questing for that elusive clue to what I might have heard.
My pursuit of elusive clues is not only spurred by the hint of new threats. I need the distraction to help block out the image of Vogen lying on the grass with my arrow choking him to death in his own blood. My suspicions are growing that if I am destined to work at night it could well be because Jantian expects me to make the shift from warrior to assassin.
I shiver, even though the air is still warm. It seems that having taken the Blade’s gift, my path is being inexorably guided by my new skills and their potential use or threat to powerful people. It feels as if I have lost the right to choose my own future. This must be how it is for anyone who swears allegiance to the Eldrin, committing to that hard discipline for life, or else risk being overcome by Maratic’s power.
I try to escape these uneasy thoughts by retreating into memories of my home and family before this invasion started. It doesn’t help. The contrast between who I was then and what I’m becoming now is too great. Too uncomfortable.
I force my attention back to the present. That restless dissonance in my mind is still trying to find shape and form. All this has been too easy.
Far too easy.
I keep searching for the tiny detail that doesn’t fit, doesn’t quite make sense. If Farang is as cunning as they say, he would have laid a more complex trap…
Then I see it. Marin mentioned that he was the only one in our group who outranked Allantis. Suppose Farang guessed that the Eldrin would keep their key commander out of sight during the actual meeting, whether Jantian came in person or sent a substitute? What better way to draw out our leader? He prepared this lethal ambush, knowing how reluctant the Eldrin would be to kill their own countrymen.
And now Marin has walked right into the trap!
I scramble to my feet, feeling I should do something now rather than wait for Lupine to bring a warning, when to my relief she appears from the trees a few feet away. She catches my eye, then tips her head behind her and turns back. I glance anxiously at Deris for permission.
“I need to check. I think something’s wrong.”
Deris gives a brief wave, telling me to get on with it. I follow Lupine into the trees, my heart pounding, bow in hand. I don’t know what we might meet but I sense that it could be a deadly threat to Marin.
A few minutes of stealth-tracking, following the wolf through the undergrowth and I see them, three dark shapes weaving through the trees towards the rocky lookout that conceals the archers. Rapathians, but without their heavy chainmail, moving almost silently, focused intently on their goal. I release a silent arrow and reduce the odds to two on one before drawing my blades and attacking.
The fight is tougher than I expected, even without the need to search for weak spots in heavy Rapathian mail. These must be elite troops trained for speed and stealth. The first one goes down at the same moment the other moves around behind me and I have to twist and dodge just as I’m trying to wrench my blade out from where it stuck between two ribs. I dance back, and start circling him, hoping my lifelong familiarity with moving on the uneven ground of the forest will give me an advantage.
Once again, the sentan dissonance at the back of my awareness tries to warn me of something. Why did I assume these three were the only ones I had to worry about? I glance back, trying to see if there is anyone moving behind me. It doesn’t help my efforts to keep track of the enormous warrior doing his best to finish this fight as quickly as possible.
The Rapathian makes his final lunge with the heavy sword and I dodge and twist, coming up under his guard to plunge my blade upwards through his neck, deep into his brain. He topples forward and I have to leap sideways, twisting and pulling the crysteel in my efforts to avoid being pinned under his falling bulk.
And in those few moments my attention is diverted from checking behind me.
I catch the blur of movement out of the corner of my eye the fraction before white-hot pain lances up my arm and I hear the sound of crysteel hit rock as one of my blades falls from nerveless fingers onto the ground. I turn, slashing hard with my remaining blade and the Rapathian lurches back, cursing and clutching his bloody side. The momentary relief is short-lived as another warrior runs forward, his heavy sword raised for the killing blow.
I know how fast I need to dodge and feint, but the heavy exhaustion spreading from the pain is making it difficult to move and my vision is going dark at the edges. The ground feels slippery under my feet and I sense vaguely that the spreading wetness is not only from the blood of my adversaries. Warm red streams are pouring from the deep slash in my arm, down my left side and leg.
I feel a growing certainty that I’m not going to escape the deadly threat coming at me when a flash of silver-grey flies before my eyes and the warrior goes down with Lupine’s jaws tearing out his throat.
In my last moments of awareness I drop my second blade and focus on clamping my hand around the gushing wound in my arm. I’m still wondering whether I can stem the flow enough to stay alive until Lupine and Marin find me, when everything slips into the velvety blackness of unconsciousness.