Ascendant (52 page)

 
"Good horse, good boy, Thunderbolt." Koren hugged the horse's neck
and stroked his shoulder. He left the saddle on, but took off the bridle and
reins, tucking them into a saddlebag. "You know your way back to the army,
right? You'll be fine, you'll be fine." He said, more to convince himself
than to calm the horse. Koren hated to leave his horse alone, but didn't know
what else to do. "Now go, go, good boy." Koren gave the horse a swat
on the rump, and Thunderbolt trotted off the bridge, then turned and stood,
watching and waiting. "Go! Go away!" Koren shouted, but Thunderbolt
simply snorted, stomped his feet a few times and flicked his tail nervously.

Shrugging his
shoulders, Koren turned and ran to the edge of the stone arch, taking a firm
grip on the rope. Knowing what to expect, he was not alarmed when the wood
bridge swayed and sagged. Trying to keep tension in the rope, so it could take
his full weight if the wood structure of the bridge fell, he walked carefully
across, feeling for a solid surface before he placed his foot down on the wood
deck. There was little wind that night, he could hear the roar of the water
rushing under the bridge, and the creaking of the timbers, and the blood
pounding in his ears. When he reached the end of the wood structure, he had to
climb up to the stone road surface, hauling himself up on the rope. The stones
at the edge were loose, the first time he tried to pull himself over the edge,
the stone crumbled and he fell back onto the wood deck, which lurched to the
side with a cracking sound. Koren held tightly onto the rope, taking his weight
off his feet, but he could feel a strong vibration, and then the entire wood
bridge was swaying wildly. With a loud clatter of hooves, Koren swung around on
the rope to see the now-panicked horse racing across the bridge toward him,
lurching from one side to the other as the wood surface gave way beneath
Thunderbolt
’
s
weight!

Koren was
about to shout for Thunderbolt to go back, then he saw in a flash that the
horse
’
s only
chance to survive was to keep going, as fast as he could. Desperation gave him
strength, and Koren heaved himself up the rope to roll onto the stone surface
of the arch. He barely spun around in time to see Thunderbolt, eyes wide open
in terror, launch himself into the air on his great legs, with the wood bridge
span rocking and sagging beneath his hooves. Koren rolled aside just before the
horse crashed down belly-first on the stone bridge surface, legs splayed out
front and back. Thunderbolt
’
s
back legs were hanging in the air, hooves scrambling as the stones on the edge
of the bridge broke loose underneath him. Koren flung his arms around the horse
’
s neck, and felt himself
being dragged over the edge, when Thunderbolt rolled on his side, almost
crushing Koren, but managing to get his back legs onto the bridge. Still
terrified, Thunderbolt scrambled up and raced off toward the other end of the
bridge, one hoof glancing Koren
’
s
leg and slamming him back into the stone bridge railing, and almost over the
edge. He had his own split second of terror as he hung out over the river,
before pulling himself back from the edge, because even the stone bridge began
shaking as the wood span splintered and began dropping into the river. On hands
and knees, and then running so fast his feet barely touched the bridge, he
followed his horse until they were both safely on solid ground.

Perhaps it was
the shock of nearly dying and losing his beloved horse, but Koren found himself
falling to his knees, hugging Thunderbolt
’
s
left foreleg, and laughing out loud, laughing uncontrollably. The image frozen
in his mind was of Thunderbolt, the mighty terror of the royal stables, flying
through the air to flop down awkwardly, sprawled on the bridge. Koren had never
seen a horse land on its belly, and he didn
’
t think Thunderbolt had either. When he could
stop laughing, he walked around the horse, checking for injuries. With Koren
’
s hands touching him,
Thunderbolt quickly stopped shaking and panting, and playfully nipped Koren
’
s hair.
“
You
stupid
, crazy
horse.
”
Koren
muttered.
“
What
were you thinking? You
’
re
smarter than that!
”
The ground shook as the wood span broke loose from the stone bridge on the far
side, and crashed into the river with a tremendous splash.

“
I guess we
’
ll not be going back that
way, huh, boy?
”
Koren said nervously. Now he was committed, effectively stranded on the enemy
’
s side of the river. He
took the bridle out of the saddle bag and put it back on, then swung himself
atop Thunderbolt.
“
Let
’
s get out of here. If the
enemy is within a league, they surely heard that bridge fall into the river.
”

Koren urged
Thunderbolt into an easy trot, feeling whether the horse was limping, but
everything seemed to be normal. He urged the horse into a slow gallop, trusting
Thunderbolt to find his way through the weeds on the road in the half
moonlight. He shook his head in amazement at his horse. That the horse could
jump off a collapsing bridge, jump higher than Koren was tall, was amazing.
That any horse could land so awkwardly, and not only not be seriously injured,
but be able to carry a rider at a gallop; Koren didn't know what to think.

It was no more
than a mile to the crossroads Koren had ridden by that very morning, which now
seemed a lifetime ago. He recognized the pair of tall, old oak trees that stood
on the northwest side of the main road. Behind them stretched a hay field, the
patchy hay barely tall enough to reach Koren's knees, the field ended in a line
of trees atop a hill to the west. Through those trees came flashes of light;
wizard fire, much brighter than he had seen before! He must be close now.
Excited and scared at the same time, he guided Thunderbolt along a slight
depression in the field that led up the hill. The depression must have been an
old road, a very old road. The crossroads at one time had gone four ways.
Wherever the abandoned road went, it was in the same direction as the wizard
fire, and that was where Koren was going.

The ancient
road used to go through the trees, but trees had long ago grown tall and filled
in the gap. What he saw from the top of the hill made him unbuckle the guard
around his sword, and take the bow off his shoulder to hold in his left hand.
The line of trees was thin, maybe fifty yards deep, on the other side of the
trees was a field that sloped down to a shallow valley, with a stream shining
in the moonlight. And the tumbled-down stone ruins of a small castle, where the
wizard fire light was coming from. A dozen or more riderless horses stood
outside the castle walls on the far side, the wall closest to Koren had mostly
fallen down, with brush and trees grown up between the stones. There was a
section where only a few stones lay on the ground, half buried, that was
probably where the castle gate used to be. Thunderbolt could jump over one of
the large stones, and then they'd be in the courtyard of the ruined castle.
With the enemy.

And then what?

Then he'd find
Paedris, and help however he could. Captain Raddick was right, the wizard had
given Koren magical fighting skills to serve as a personal guard; where he
belonged was with Paedris, not taking shelter with the royal army.

Koren realized
with sudden clarity that he wasn't afraid of dying. His life for the past year
was a gift. He could have died alone in the woods, from illness, cold,
starvation, snakebite, a thousand things could have gone wrong for a boy alone
in the wilderness. Or he could have drowned in the raging river, when he was
trying to hang onto a girl he didn't even know. He could have been killed by
the bandits, or by Duke Yarron's men, or he could have fallen off the roof of
Yarron's palace. He could have died that very morning, in battle, despite
Paedris' effort to send him away to safety. He could even have died that very
night by falling into the river, when his inexplicably foolish horse had
insisted on following him, even at the risk of his own life. Thunderbolt. He
was not afraid for his own life, but he regretted risking the horse's life.
"I'm sorry to bring you into this," he said as he patted the horse's
neck, "this isn't your fight. But if Paedris is hurt, I can't carry him
out of there all by myself."

The horse
whinnied like a pony, and craned its neck to look up at him. "You and me,
boy, you and me, right to the end." Koren said softly, and when he looked
in the horse's eye, he had the odd feeling that the animal
understood
him. Surely that was not possible? Thunderbolt winked slowly, tossed his head,
and reared up on his back legs, as if eager to get going.

He was
surprised that he was able to ride all the way down, through the field,
splashing across the stream and up to the castle, without any alarm being
raised by the enemy. What he had expected was to see soldiers running out, or
to hear an arrow whistling past his ear. Everyone inside the castle must be
focused on the battle between the wizards; this close to the castle walls, the
burnt, rotten-egg sulphur smell of wizard fire was overpowering, and the
flashes of light were intense enough to leave spots swimming before his eyes.
As Thunderbolt galloped up the gentle slope toward the ruined gate, Koren could
feel the horse's muscles quiver with excitement, or fear, or both. With a sharp
snort, the horse gathered himself and sprung into the air, to leap over a large
stone block, and into what used to be the courtyard of what Koren now realized
used to be a fortress, not any rich nobleman's castle. Scattered around the
courtyard were large stone blocks, and piles of smaller stones.

There was a
flash of wizard fire, illuminating the courtyard with harsh red light, exposing
all to Koren's eyes. And exposing him. He reined Thunderbolt to a halt behind a
large pile of stones, and for a moment, everyone froze.

Across the
courtyard, taking shelter behind stones, were enemy soldiers. Bodies of a half
dozen other soldiers were laying on the ground, bodies scorched by wizard fire.
Some looked as if they had tried to climb the walls to shoot arrows down at
Paedris, but from the broken and scorched bodies of the dead, the others must
have realized that was a foolish idea. Behind other stones in the middle of the
courtyard were two enemy wizards, only two. A blackened and cracked pile of
stones nearby must have been where the third enemy wizard met his end. With
shock, Koren realized Paedris must have sent a blast of wizard fire
through
a block of stone, to kill that wizard. He had no idea Paedris was so powerful,
the court wizard so rarely showed his true abilities.

And there was
Paedris himself, huddled behind two large stones. No, not huddled, he was
slumped over, looking tired and lost. His purple robes were blackened, his face
shown with sweat in the moonlight, and his hands shook. But what Koren saw in
the court wizard's face when their eyes met was not fear, but shock. Complete
shock, not at a rescuer appearing, but that his rescuer was
Koren
. They
had only a split second to exchange a glance, horror showing in Paedris' face,
when everything happened at once.

The enemy
wizards quickly recovered from their surprise at the unexpected arrival of
Koren, the one to the left reached back with one hand and began gathering a
fireball to throw. But Koren was faster, so fast he was barely aware of what he
was doing.  In one motion, he slid off Thunderbolt, had an arrow nocked on
the bowstring before he realized his arm had even reached back into the quiver.
Then the arrow was flying on its way toward the wizard; before Koren's feet
touched the ground, two other arrows followed it, all flying straight and true.
It was like living in a dream where the world moved so slowly as to be almost
frozen. Koren could clearly see the three arrows tracking in on the wizard, the
arrows seeming to be suspended on invisible strings in the air, see that
wizard's ugly, scarred face change from anger to shock to fear. The hand that
had been gathering a fireball flexed open, letting the fireball dissipate to
nothingness, while the other hand swept the wizard's staff up, up into the path
of the first arrow. The first arrow was barely knocked aside, its sharp tip
slicing the wizard's shoulder as it flew by. The second arrow was well and
truly blocked, the staff by now up in the front of the wizard, his lips moving
rapidly, chanting a spell; the second arrow sprang aside directly to the left
of the direction it had been flying.

But the third
arrow-

The third
arrow bored in, relentless, unstoppable. Koren's vision was so clear, in the
slowed time, that he could see the feathers of the fletching at the rear of the
arrow waving slightly, as they guided the shaft through the air. The sharp tip
shone brightly in the moonlight. The wizard's lips froze in mid-chant as he
realized to his terror that he would not have time to deflect this arrow, that
he, mighty mage of Acedor, was about to be struck by an
arrow
, a weapon
used by lowly soldiers. An arrow, of all things!