moments were ticking by, but Garth remained motionless and listened. Finally, he heard the sound of the man on the other side of the trail. The man was creeping towards the tree where Garth had been shooting from. Still, the warrior had to eliminate the man on this side of the trail first or risk exposing his back. Garth continued to wait patiently.
Soon he heard the sound of a crawling man and the sound was coming closer. Garth laid the Lanoirian Stars on the ground and silently extracted a reed and myric quill. Fitting the quill into the reed he held the blowpipe to his mouth and waited. Several tense seconds later, the Dark Rider’s head appeared not three feet in front of Garth and he blew the quill into the side of it. The man collapsed and Garth shoved the reed back into his pocket. Picking up the two Lanoirian Stars, Garth crawled to where he could see the trail and lay quietly again.
Less than a minute later, he saw the last man dash across the trail to the foot of the tree that Garth had used. Garth quickly and quietly made his way back to where he had dropped his bow. Hiding behind a bush that shielded him at ground level, Garth nocked an arrow and sat waiting for the man to climb the tree. He still kept the Lanoirian Stars on the ground, one on each side of him, in case the man decided to come back this way, but Garth was pretty sure that the man would find his old perch too inviting. It offered good cover for an ambush and afford an excellent view in all directions. Unfortunately for the Dark Rider, it was exposed if somebody was expecting you to be there.
As if on cue, the Dark Rider pulled himself onto the sturdy limb and Garth let his arrow fly. Quickly, Garth rose, gathering his Lanoirian Stars and went to check on the wounded man. The arrow had missed the mark that Garth had aimed for, but the man had died, anyway. Garth jogged down the trail and found his horse waiting for him. He grabbed onto the mane and swung himself onto the horse and took off for the canyon.
Klarg halted the column at the mouth of the canyon. “I do not like the looks of this,” he speculated. “It is too convenient for an ambush.”
“From children?” Wolinda complained. “Don’t tell me the Dark Riders are afraid of these children.”
“Not from the children,” Klarg spat. “I am sure that this gypsy and his men were the ones who ambushed us at the sea cliff. This is probably where his men are hidden. The fact that the rider came back to meet the main group supports me. It was an attempt to lessen the amount of men they would have to attack. Our left flank group never returned. They are probably ten miles from here by now chasing a nonexistent enemy.”
“Does this canyon go through?” Wolinda pressed. “And if so, how long to go around it?”
“The canyon goes through,” Klarg admitted, “and it would take an extra day to get around it.”
“Then we have no choice but to follow,” Wolinda ordered. “You shouldn’t worry. My magic will protect you. Of course, if you want to run for reinforcements, you have my leave, but your men are going in.”
Klarg clenched his fists in anger. He could not be seen as a coward in front of his men or they would refuse to follow him, yet he felt as if he wouldn’t have any men left if he followed the witch’s orders. “Let me at least take a couple of men up each side of the canyon to provide cover,” he insisted.
“Fine, Klarg,” Wolinda patronized, “play the grand strategist if you wish, but use the men from the left flank when they get here. These men are going in with me to get those children.”
Wolinda gave the order to move forward and Klarg felt like putting an arrow in her back. Instead, he turned his mount and galloped westward to find the men of his left flank.
The trackers led the procession into the canyon and followed the evident tracks. They rode deeper and deeper into the canyon at a cautious pace until the trackers hit an invisible wall. They stopped, dumbfounded, and looked down the canyon trail at the cave where Kalina and Arik stood waiting for them. Arik started firing arrows over the invisible wall into the Dark Riders. At the same time, Tedi from the right side of the canyon rim and Tanya from the left, started showering arrows down on the assembled troops.
The Dark Riders dismounted and sought cover. They started returning arrows at the three targets, but they were not able to reach the rim of the canyon and most of the arrows directed at the cave slammed into the invisible barrier. Wolinda started blasting at the invisible barrier and the two bowmen on the rim with her magic. Each time one of her projectiles struck the barrier or one of the shields, it burst into radiant colors and dissipated, but each hit weakened the shield. Wolinda ordered the Dark Riders to start scaling the sides of the canyon and directed most of her magic at the two rim bowmen.
Tanya kept trying to aim at the witch with the bright green dress, but every time she let an arrow fly, a Dark Rider or a horse got in the way. She was trying to conserve her arrows and make each one count for a hit, but the pandemonium below made that difficult. If the horses would clear out of the canyon, she would have a much easier time of it.
“I’m not sure I can hold this anymore,” Niki complained. “Every time she hits my shield, I can feel it, just like she was punching me. She must be very powerful.”
“Just keep holding it,” Tanya demanded. “I want to kill that witch and if your shield fails, we must retreat.”
“I’ll try, Tanya,” Niki wheezed, “but you don’t know what it’s like. It really hurts.”
Across the canyon, Tedi was not trying for the witch because there were too many Dark Riders a lot closer. “How are the shields holding up, Fredrik?” he asked.
“Okay, so far,” Fredrik replied. “I’ve never really done this for any period of time. It’s strange. Every time she hits my shield, I feel it more. At first it was like a distant thump, now it is more like a jab with her fist. Not hard enough to hurt, but annoying to my concentration. This is something I am going to have to practice more when I get the time.”
“You are getting practice right now,” Tedi chuckled.
“Yeah,” Fredrik laughed, “but I am concerned about Niki and Tanya. She’s not nearly as strong as I am and she is getting hit just as much.”
“Don’t worry about them,” Tedi said. “If it gets too tense, they will withdraw.”
“I hope you are right,” Fredrik grunted with another jab from Wolinda. “With women you never know, though.”
The arrows were starting to take a toll on the Dark Riders with fifteen of them dead or dying in the canyon below when Fredrik announced that he could no longer maintain the shield. “We have to retreat, Tedi. Garth was clear with his orders and I never want to feel his wrath or displeasure. Let’s go.”
Tedi backed away from the edge of the rim and Fredrik gazed across the canyon and saw that Niki and Tanya were still there. The two boys took off running and Fredrik hoped that Tanya wasn’t as stubborn as Niki. If she were, both girls would likely be dead before the battle was over.
The Dark Riders were not making much progress at climbing the walls because Arik was concentrating on the climbers. Any time a man got higher than the level of Kalina’s invisible barrier, Arik shot him down. He no longer concerned himself with the men on the canyon floor. It felt strange to him to see armed men trying to kill him and not be concerned about them. He began to think that magic did have some good benefits.
With the thinning ranks of Dark Riders Tanya finally got her shot at Wolinda. Her arrow ran true and struck Wolinda in the left side of her chest. The witch tumbled to the ground and the Dark Riders below started shouting.
“My shield just went down,” Niki shouted. “I don’t understand it. I felt it getting weaker and weaker and then it stabilized and her punches didn’t hurt anymore. Then, all of a sudden, it just collapsed.”
“It doesn’t matter any more,” Tanya replied, watching the Dark Riders heading for the mouth of the canyon. Those that could find live horses mounted and rode back the way they had come. Those without horses ran. Tanya managed to get one more as he was running away.
“Damn!” Tanya shouted. “I didn’t want any of them to get away. Now they will just get more men and come after us again.”
Garth rode into the mouth of the canyon hoping he wasn’t too late. The sound of shouts echoed off the canyon walls with the wail of men in retreat and Garth drew his sinuous sword. Garth slowed his steed to a stop a little ways from a bend in the trail and waited. He didn’t have long to wait before two riders came flying around the bend. The enemy approached while trying to draw their swords and Garth swung into action. Garth swung his sword and decapitated the first rider. Stopping the swing short, he lunged at the second rider with his sword and it cut cleanly through the man’s armor and pierced his chest. Yanking his sword free, Garth saw two more riders
