The Howling Delve - Jaleigh Johnson [4]
Dencer had crawled to his feet by the time the rider reached him. Kail could finally make out the man's face. He was one of Kail's personal guardsmen, assigned by his father. "Haig!" he cried.
The rider ignored Kail's shout and swung down from the still-moving mount, swotd leading. Dencer hastily blocked with his bow, the only weapon he could bring to hand in time. The swotd bit deeply into the wood, cleaving it nearly in two.
Dencer pushed back and thrust the older man off. Haig's attack came in a bull rush, clumsy and imprecise, as if he hoped to finish his opponent off quickly and move on. Dencer dodged a second thrust, at the same time groping with the bolt that had penetrated his armor. His hand fell slack, and he swooned.
Haig pressed the advantage, driving in close for a quick kill, and played right into Dencer's feint. Dencer dropped heavily to the sand on his good side, swept one leg behind and in front of Haig's knees and twisted. The older man bent sideways and hit the ground. In the same breath Dencer sprang to his feet, running full out for the trees.
Haig cursed loudly but did not follow. He sheathed his sword and ran for the water, picking a path across the rocks.
"Haig," Kail cried again when he reached them. "Morel- the house is-"
"Besieged, aye," the man said curtly, hoisting Aazen up in his arms. "Stay behind me." His eyes were on the tree line as they picked their way back to the shore.
"Where is Father?" His heart pounding, Kail knelt on Aazen's other side as Haig laid him out on the beach. "Does he live?"
"He did, when I left him to come for you." Haig caught Kail by the arm and guided him to the arrow still planted in Aazen's shoulder. The man's hands were square and brown. Traces of gray beard lined his cheeks and chin, yet for his age he was easily twice the width of Kali, with muscle as firm as the gauntlets encasing his wrists. He shrugged off a sand-stained cloak and spread it over Aazen.
"Remove the fletchings," he instructed Kali. "Be quick, but do not aggravate the wound."
Kail did as he was told,' snapping the feathery ends off an arrow he might well have helped build. The thought jarred him, and his hands trembled.
Aazen was white to the lips. He hadn't spoken. He would be thinking of his own father, Kail realized. An attack on the house would put Balram in the heart of the battle. "What of Captain Kortrun?" he asked. "Does he-"
"Mind your work!" Haig snapped.
Kali flinched and fell silent. He threw aside the fletchings and waited while Haig helped Aazen to a half-sitting position.
Haig looked the boy in the eyes. "This will hurt."
Aazen nodded, his expression resigned. "Take it-"
Before he'd finished speaking, Haig drove his arm forward. From Kail's angle, it looked as if he were trying to wrench Aazen's arm out of its socket, but the sound was nothing like that.
Cold sweat broke out on Kail's arms. He felt like retching. Aazen's body convulsed, but he stayed eerily silent as Haig tossed the bloody arrow aside, unstoppered a vial of milky liquid, and poured it down the boy's throat. His head lolling, Aazen slid into unconsciousness. A trickle of white slid down his chin.
"He'll live," Haig said grimly, putting the empty vial back in his pouch. "He's endured worse."
"What did you give him?" Kali wanted to know, but Haig had already pulled Kail to his feet, and was dragging him to the black horse.
"A healing potion." He mounted and reached down a hand for Kali.
"We can't leave him!"
Haig made an impatient sound in his throat. He hooked a hand under Kail's armpit and hauled him bodily onto the back of the horse.
"Young Kortrun will be safer than either of us," he said. "Now, if you would care to aid your father and fight for what remains of your house, we will ride swiftly and with no talk at all. If you fall off, I will not stop for you." He looked back at Kail. "Do you understand?"
Wordlessly, Kali nodded. Haig had never reproached him like this before. He'd never spoken to him at this length in all of Kail's life, though the old man had been a permanent fixture in