Cathexis: Necromancer's Dagger (19 page)

Bante quickly ran to the one horse that had
stayed close to his floundering group of men and mounted up. Once
on the horse he immediately galloped toward Drake.

Seeing the corporal mounted and approaching
Drake tossed the empty crossbow to the ground and drew his sword
while kicking his mount into a gallop toward the corporal.

As their horses passed the two men’s swords
met with a loud clang and a flash of sparks. Both men wheeled their
mounts, using their knees to control the trained horses, and then
charged together again.
This time,
they met at a slower pace and exchanged three blows before the
horses separated. Bante’s horse stumbled and lurched sideways
tearing fresh smelling divots of sod out of the brown forest floor
as it struggled to regain its footing. Drake wheeled his mount
expertly and spurred ahead toward his opponent.

Nearby, Gustin saw six soldiers charging him
from the path. He looked down at the two unloaded crossbows
wistfully, and then calmly picked one up. Without bothering to use
the loading crank, Gustin grabbed the thick bow string with one
hand and the stock with the other. With his huge back and arm
muscles bulging, he pulled it straight back against a tension that
human muscles were not meant to attempt; it locked. He quickly
dropped a bolt in and grabbed the second crossbow without taking
the time
to check the progress of
his charging adversaries. He efficiently loaded the second bow in
the same fashion. Holding that crossbow in his right hand he picked
up the other in his left. When he looked up the Tchulians were only
six feet from him and coming fast. He fired both bolts directly
into the chests of the two nearest men. They flew back from the
impact, slowing the soldiers behind them as the two bodies landed
in their paths.

Gustin threw the two useless crossbows at
the other four men to help give him time to draw his sword and
ax.

The four remaining attackers dodged the
bows
and jumped over their two
dying companions. They were met by the charging Gustin who roared
his challenge like a primordial beast. The big man
leaped
into the midst of the four men and he
sunk his
ax
into the head of one
and parried a blow by another with his sword.

Drake and Bante were still fighting, each
trying to get the upper hand. Drake managed to come in on a low
line when he noticed the Tchulian’s blade move too high and out of
position as his horse pranced. Drake’s sword sliced through the
material of Bante’s trousers and into his thigh. The wound was
deep, but would not be incapacitating while he was mounted on his
horse.

Screaming his fury Bante attacked Drake with
powerful overhand blows as he tried to beat the knight’s sword out
of position. Drake would have been all right if he had not decided
to attempt a complex fencing attack he had recently been
practicing. The intricate compound attack was lost in the swirling
shuffle of the spinning mounts, and one of Bante’s brute force
swings beat his young opponent’s sword out of line to the right.
Bante’s sword came in through the opening as swiftly as a serpent's
strike and pierced Drake in the upper left shoulder. Drake managed
to lessen the severity of the wound by leaning back from the
lunge
, which was hampered by the
clashing mounts. Bante’s sword only managed to pierce him
shallowly, but that was bad enough.

Now it was Drake’s turn to curse his
stupidity, as their horses danced apart he saluted his opponent
with his sword, then urged his horse back into the battle.

Bante decided that he’d had enough of this
fight; he hated an opponent who didn’t have the decency to be
afraid of him and die. He began to concentrate on gathering his
abilities in aura power to blast this cocky young knight out of his
saddle.

Drake had no idea that he was in any danger
other than the sword and continued to fight.

Gustin was in trouble, he interposed an
enemy between himself and another then beat that man’s sword aside
and ran him through before the man behind could get around, but the
third man was free and stabbed
at
the unprotected side of the huge knight. Gustin did the only thing
he could, he grabbed the incoming blade with his empty left hand,
cutting himself badly in the process, but managed to turn the blade
and keep from getting skewered.

The man he had just killed dropped to the
ground and the one behind him came in for the kill.

Then, seeming out of nowhere, Hetark was
there with a yell and the man who had been about to attack Gustin
had to turn to protect himself from a new adversary.

“It’s about time!” exclaimed Gustin as he
turned with a grin to fight the one remaining opponent on his left.
He lifted his bloody hand to his mouth and tasted the blood with
his tongue, his opponent paled at the sight.

“We heard there were two knights trying to
take all the glory, so we decided to see what the fools looked
like,” Hetark called to Gustin as he fought with his opponent.

“Hah!” Gustin exclaimed
simply
and attacked his man with a backhand
slash toward the eyes.

Down on the path, Drake and Bante were still
battling. Bante gathered his aura power and raised his hand to
unleash it at the unsuspecting Drake, but a voice from the side
rang out high and clear in a mocking tone. “Wouldn’t you prefer to
try that on a full sorceress, you misshapen toad,” Lady Elizabeth
Ember Ardellen said as she slowed her horse to a stop. Her eyes
shined with intensity as she watched the Tchulian officer’s aura
build for an attack, she calmly raised her shields.

A sudden look of fear came over Bante’s
face, he immediately changed the direction his hand was pointed and
unleashed the bolt of aura power at the sorceress. The red lance of
his angry aura power streaked across the ten feet, splashed away
from Elizabeth and rapidly expanded into a thinning ring of light.
The sorceress sat untouched on her horse and then she laughed at
him as she said, “Is that really the best you can do, little
magician?” The term was derogatory and Elizabeth nonchalantly
raised her right hand.

The blood drained from Bante’s face as if a
faucet had been opened in the bottom of his feet. His total
amazement at his thwarted attack quickly turned to full panic, and
the corporal wheeled his mount to gallop away like the Desecrator
himself was after his soul.

Drake started to chase him, but Elizabeth
called to him, “Hold Drake, let him go. We don’t have the time
right now; we need to see if the others need our help.”

Hetark fought his opponent carefully and
efficiently with the patience of experience,
eventually,
his man made an error and Hetark’s
blade came through the opening with the inevitability of the sun
rising. He ran his man through the upper chest, which was a fatal
blow.

Gustin traded two or three attacks and
parries, then he just beat his man’s blade on its side so strongly
that it went a foot and a half out of line, the Tchulian soldier
was wide open for the thrust that skewered him to the cross piece
of Gustin’s blade.

Gustin spoke in a conversational tone as the
man’s dying face came close, “It’s not nice to stab at a man who’s
busy fighting someone else, wait... your... turn, remember that
next time.” Then he pulled his blade out and let the man sink to
the ground, dead.

Hetark had seen Gustin’s last blow and heard
his remark.

“Remind me to be polite to you in the
future, you give hard lessons.”

Drake and Elizabeth cantered up and
Elizabeth said, “Is everyone all right?”

“I’m fine,” Hetark answered.

“I’ll survive,” Gustin responded
cheerfully.

“Let me see to that hand Gustin,” demanded
Elizabeth, her brow wrinkling in concern.

“Don’t waste your powers on such a small
scratch,” he answered, making light of his injury, “How did you
know it was injured, by the way?”

“When I choose I can see a wound by the
difference in the color of the aura, but
this time,
I just saw the blood,” Elizabeth replied.

Gustin looked down at the blood dripping
from his hand and said, “Oh, it’s no worry… don’t waste your power
on this little nick.”

Elizabeth put her hands on her hips and
glowered at the knight. “I don’t want any arguments, bring that
hand here at once; you can’t protect Michael very well if your hand
is incapacitated. You too Drake, down off that horse, I need to see
to that shoulder wound.”

Looking a little sheepish, Gustin and Drake
came over to let Elizabeth heal their wounds.

While she performed her healing arts
Elizabeth scolded the two wounded knights. “Now what possessed you
two numskulls to take on the Tchulian soldiers alone? I thought we
agreed to ambush them as a group?”

“We didn’t want to waste our carefully
prepared ambush, it was such a perfect spot for it,” replied the
embarrassed Gustin.

“If either one of you had been killed I
would never have forgiven you,” Elizabeth stated.

“We had them taken care of, no problem,
milady,” Drake assured her bravely.

“Sure, other than a couple of wounds and a
much-needed
rescue, you had them
right where you wanted them, at your throats,” Hetark chimed in
sarcastically.

“We’ll try and be more
careful,
milady,” said Gustin and Drake
nodded.

“Thank you, and now that I’ve scolded you I
will say that I think you were incredibly brave, stupid, but brave
and I love you both for it,” and Elizabeth awarded them with a nod
of thanks. “But please, be more careful, I want to keep you around
for quite a long time. I foresee a time when Michael will need all
of his Knight Protectors. We are heading into the maelstrom now,
and the world will be hunting for Jatar’s heir. It will be a long
and bloody battle before he regains his rightful throne, and he
will need your strength, wisdom,
protection,
and instruction if he is to come through this
alive.”

Touched by Elizabeth’s open feelings of
growing affection during such a rough time for her, the eyes of the
two tough knights misted up. In
embarrassment,
both men turned their faces away and tried
to look casual.

Drake took out a cloth and wiped both his
eyes while saying, “Excuse me for a moment; I must have a gnat in
my eye.”

Gustin nodded, “Yes, I think there’s a cloud
of them around.” Then he wiped his eyes on his sleeve.

Hetark looked around carefully and spoke in
mock bewilderment, “I don’t see any gnats.”

Drake and Gustin ignored his comment.

“Milady, I think it’s time we got on our
way. Let’s try and collect the soldier’s horses to use as extra
mounts,” Hetark said to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth looked down to the scene of the
battle on the road where the wounded or dead Tchulians lay about
like fallen leaves from a tree. “Fine, while you do that I’m going
to talk to that soldier with the leg wound, perhaps I can get
something out of him about his leader,” Elizabeth decided,
gesturing toward the path where a Tchulian lay holding his leg.

“I’d better go with you; Hetark and Gustin
can track down the extra mounts,” suggested Drake.

“If it will make you feel better, but I’m
sure I can handle one wounded soldier.”

“You never know, he might have a concealed
dagger to throw or something else. I will keep an eye on him while
you question him,” Drake advised.

“Have it your way, come on,” she said and
picked up Michael from where he sat playing with leaves in the
cradling roots of a large tree.

The wounded soldier lay in the dirt of the
road surrounded by two dead men on either side. He was curled up
into a fetal position holding his leg, which was obviously causing
him dreadful pain. He didn’t look altogether happy with the
world.

Elizabeth stopped three paces in front of
him and crouched down where he could see her without lifting his
head. “I am not here to torture you for information, I am simply
here for a trade; I’ll heal that leg and you will be out of pain in
exchange for three questions answered truthfully.
Otherwise,
you can just lie there until your
friends arrive and hope that they have a healer with
them;
but you do look like you’re in an extreme
amount of pain.”

The man didn’t reply to Elizabeth, but his
dark eyes shifted to her and then to the watchful Drake.

“Still not convinced? Well maybe this will
help; here are the questions I would ask you to answer: Is your
commander named Harland Von Dracek? Were you instructed to kill us
or capture us? And were you part of the plot to kill my
husband?”

The man winced from a sharp pain in his
wound, but then hissed, “You can kiss my…”

But at that Drake kicked him in the wounded
leg and said, “Be civil or I’ll add another wound, this one around
your throat.”

The soldier sucked in a breath in pain and
glowered at Drake, but held his tongue.

Elizabeth stood up and started back toward
the horses.

Drake took hold of her arm to stop her as he
said,
“Milady,
if we worked on him
a little more I’m sure he will answer your questions.”

“He already did: Von Dracek is his
commander, Michael is to be captured, the rest of us killed and he
was not part of the plot to kill Jatar, which is the ONLY reason he
still lives.”

“But how...?” Drake exclaimed, rubbing his
head with his hand in puzzlement.

“The answers were in his mind, by asking the
questions I made him think about the answers. Although he had no
intention of helping us the answers still passed through his
surface thoughts. I doubt he would answer us voluntarily anyway, he
has a much greater fear of his commander than of me.”