within. She moves to set it into her sling when her horse suddenly leaps to avoid an obstacle on the ground and the crystal falls from her hand.
“No!” she cries as the crystal hits the ground. She removes the remaining crystal from her pouch then gets it set into the sling just as…
Ka-Boom!
…the crystal which dropped on the ground explodes in a great eruption, throwing rocks and dirt into the air. Fortunately all their riders had passed the area before the explosion. The concussion wave from the explosion causes a few of the horses to stumble but they manage to correct themselves quickly and continue on.
With the last crystal in her sling, she winds it up and lets it loose toward the approaching cavalry between them and the beacon. “Stop!” she cries to the others and they quickly bring their horses to a halt. Hitting the ground, it lands a good twenty feet in front of the leading edge of attackers.
The approaching cavalry comes toward them rapidly and passes over the crystal lying on the ground.
Ka-Boom!
Horses and men go flying in another massive explosion. “Now!” she cries. “Ride hard!” Kicking her horse in the flanks, she gets it back to a gallop and races through the dead and dying.
Ceadric comes along beside her as they clear the area devastated by the explosion. Before them, no more than a hundred yards away, the glowing crystal beckons.
In the moonlight from above, they see the foot soldiers that had fallen behind the cavalry moving toward them at a run. A third is moving toward the glowing crystal by the bank of the river.
“We’ll hold them off,” Ceadric tells her. “You get your people across.”
“But once we start, there’s only a limited time before the bridge will disappear,” she replies.
“Just do it!” he yells. Then to his men he hollers, “For Black Hawk!”
A cry erupts from his men as they break off from Delia and her band to engage the enemy. “They’ll be killed!” Shorty exclaims.
“Let’s move,” she tells him. She veers to move directly to the light in the distance. It isn’t long before the sound of Ceadric and his men engage the foot soldiers heading for the beacon.
Upon reaching the light, she says, “Golden Gate.” The shimmering bridge once more springs into being. “Now hurry across,” she tells the others. “It won’t last very long.”
As the others move to cross, she takes Devin by the arm and asks, “Can you swim?”
Halting his horse, he turns to her and replies, “Yes, why?”
“I need you to do something,” she says.
Leading his men against the enemy, Ceadric realizes this will probably be his last fight. Sword falling, he takes out another soldier and quickly brings it back around to block the hack from another.
He needs to slow the advance of these soldiers to allow Delia a chance to activate the crystal and get across. With any luck, he and his men will be able to disengage and make it across as well.
They stall the enemy for several minutes then he glances back to the river. Seeing Delia and her group beginning to cross he hollers, “To the river!” As one, his men break off and race for the river. Several were unable to disengage successfully and were cut down before they could get away. Using the light ahead as a guide they race for their lives, which may very well be the price if they fail to make it in time.
As the light draws closer, he sees young Devin standing there with the light held aloft in his hand. He’s waving them to hurry as he shouts, “Twelve…eleven…ten…”
Ceadric hears him coming ever closer to one and pushes his men even faster. The first rider hits the bridge as Devin says, ‘Six’. On the far side of the bridge Delia and her band are lined along the banks with slings in hand, her two archers are there as well with arrows knocked and ready. At ‘Four’ Ceadric’s horse races onto the bridge. As Devin reaches ‘Two’, the last of his men hit the bridge and begin to cross.
The last five are still over the water as Devin says, ‘One’. A second later the bridge disappears. Men cry out and horses scream as they fall into the river below.
Once the bridge disappears, Devin moves to collect the bridge crystal lying on his side then places them in a pocket. A noise behind him causes him to turn just as enemy soldiers appear out of the dark before him. Turning back to the river, he races for the water and before he jumps from the shore into its raging depths, he hears Delia holler, “Now!”
Slings twirl and bowstrings twang as the enemy begins falling behind him. As closely as the soldiers are packed together, if a slug thrown by a sling misses one it’s sure to hit another, either to the side or behind. Hedry’s archers move into position with her slingers once they’ve dismounted and together rain a devastating volley of deadly projectiles and missiles across the river.
“Get the men out of the river!” cries Ceadric to the rest of his men. Moving to the edge, they work to get the men and horses struggling against the current to their side safely. Of the five men in the river, only four manage to reach the shore, none of the horses make it.
“Where’s Devin?” Delia asks as she sets another slug to her sling.
“Over here!” she hears him cry from downstream. The river has carried him further away.
One of Ceadric’s men cries out, “I’ll get him,” and then races downstream to retrieve him.
Across the river, the soldiers are falling back now that their prey is beyond their reach. Soon, the hail of arrows and slugs ceases as the enemy moves out of range.
“What’s the damage?” Ceadric’s voice rings out.
“Seventeen dead,” Hedry replies.
“Your group Delia?” he asks.
“If Devin makes it back then we’re all accounted for,” she replies.
“Everyone back away from the river,” he says. “Let’s not give them anything more to look at.”
As everyone begins moving away, Delia goes to the bank and retrieves the second bridge crystal. When she bends over to collect it, she’s surprised to see it’s broken in two. Picking up both halves, she puts them into her pouch. Mounting up, she joins the others.
A few minutes later, the man who rode to Devin’s aid returns with him and the fifth of the men caught upon the bridge when it fell. Both have been battered by the current, but otherwise are unhurt.
“Let’s return,” Ceadric says.
“We did it!” exclaims Orry.
They turn to watch the siege equipment across the water burn as they make their way toward the lights of Lythylla in the distance. Soldiers of the Empire are silhouetted by the flames as they work to put out the fires. The remaining three are being pulled away quickly to avoid any possibility of the fires moving to them.
Their group feels much lighter with the seventeen men they left on the other side. They talk in quiet hushed tones until Scar’s voice rises from where he and the others ride further back. “…no, seriously. It was on a trip me and Potbelly took across the Sea to one of the northern towns. Beset by pirates, we…”
They continue on toward Lythylla as Scar relates the events of an ill fated voyage that cost the lives of everyone on board but himself and Potbelly. Seems the way they managed to escape death was to hide in the bilge compartment below the hold until the pirates left. Of course the fact the pirates torched the ship to hide all evidence, and that they escaped by prying a board loose from the side with two spoons didn’t do much for the credibility of the story. Believable or not, it occupies their time until the walls of Lythylla come into view ahead of them.
The gates open as they approach and the men manning the battlements give out with a cheer as they pass through. Illan, James, as well as Lord Pytherian and his adjutants are there to greet them.
Ceadric pulls slightly ahead as the two groups meet and says, “All but three of the siege equipment are aflame. We lost seventeen.”
Illan nods his head. “Good work.”
“Will want a thorough debriefing about the enemy’s layout and forces,” Lord Pytherian says.
“From what I could tell, they still have a sizeable army out there,” Ceadric tells him. “We were almost caught between two attacking forces. Would have been slaughtered there at the bank of the river if that bridge hadn’t appeared.”
“From the report James has already given us,” Lord Pytherian says, “there were more men than previous reports indicated. But at least their initial assault should be stalled while they regroup.”
“Best not to give them that time milord,” James interjects.
