Days of Air and Darkness - Katharine Kerr [14]
As they charged up to the clearing by the river, Jill saw a welter of horses and ill-armored men: two attacking the stag rider, who was already bleeding as he swung his sword and yelled; two more grabbing the reins of the ladies’ horses, and one last beating the helpless page about the head. Rhodry charged straight into the melee and killed a man from behind, then swung on another. Jill galloped past and cut at the man struggling with the reins of Ylaena’s terrified palfrey. When she sliced him across the back, he screamed and dropped the reins.
“Ride!” Jill shouted at the lady.
When Jill shifted her weight in the saddle, her battle-trained horse swung round to the rescue of the servingwoman, whose screams echoed above Rhodry’s berserker’s laugh. Jill ducked her enemy’s clumsy blow and slashed him across the throat.
“My apologies,” Jill said. “You poor bastard.”
For the briefest of moments, he stayed upright, staring at her in disbelief, then fell dead over his horse’s neck. Jill’s stomach churned; for all that she was good with the blade she carried, she hated killing. She had no need of sending another man to the Otherlands that day, however, because the rest of the bandits were already racing down the road to the north.
“Let them go!” Rhodry called out. “We can’t leave the women.”
When Jill turned back, she found him dismounted and pulling the stag rider down from his saddle. Although the servingwoman clung to her saddle-peak and sobbed, Ylaena dismounted and ran to the page.
“Get down, Larro. Let me see what that man did to you.”
Shaking too hard even to weep, the lad swung down and threw himself into her arms. Jill dismounted and joined Rhodry, kneeling beside the stag rider. His face slashed with bloody cuts, he tried to speak, then died in Rhodry’s arms.
“Ah, horseshit.” Rhodry laid him down gently. “I didn’t think they had brigands in this part of the kingdom.”
“Not brigands,” Ylaena said from behind them. “My brother would never allow such a thing, not if he had to call in every alliance he had to chase them from his lands.”
They rose, Rhodry hastily wiping his bloodstained hands on his brigga.
“I owe you my life, silver daggers. Will you escort us back to my dun? I’ll see that you’re well paid for it.”
“My lady will have our protection for the honor of the thing.” Rhodry made her a bow. “But we’d best hurry. Those cowards might realize that there’s only two of us and come back.”
Between them, Jill and Rhodry got the dead men tied over their saddles. When they rode out, the lady, her servingwoman, and the page each led one of the extra horses to leave Jill and Rhodry free in case of attack, her at the head of the line, him in the dangerous rear guard. As they trotted down the road, Jill turned constantly in her saddle and peered into the trees, but apparently the attackers were the cowards Rhodry had called them, because their terrified procession came free of the forest without any more trouble. Out on the open road among the settled farms, they were safe. With a sharp sigh of relief, Jill sheathed her sword, then fell back to ride beside Ylaena.
“I’ll take the reins of that horse, my lady. You shouldn’t have to lead it like a caravan guard.”
“My thanks.” Ylaena handed them over. “You know, I think it’s the strangest thing of all that another lass would save my life, but you have my heartfelt thanks.”
Tieryn Dwaen stood by the hearth in his great hall and shook with rage. Rhodry had never seen a man as furious as this slender, dark-haired young lord, whose right hand clenched and unclenched on his sword hilt for the entire time that it took for Ylaena to tell the tale, sitting in her brother’s chair with Lord Cadlew behind her. When she was done, the tieryn