David Mcintee - The Light of Heaven

He started to swear, but she kicked again before he could get another word out.

"Don't say a thing, sinner," she snarled. "Not a bloody word!"

He glared instead. She flexed her fingers, vaguely hoping he'd provoke her again. Her jaw and cheek still throbbed and she could taste blood. "You know, my father says that any man who hits a woman is no man at all."

"I hit a Knight of the Swords," Crowe snapped back. "If you think being a woman exempts you, then you're touched in the head. You can't have it both ways."

"One way is all I'm interested in." That was when she hit him again. When he woke up, he would be in Solnos.

Crowe could hear real things over the din in his head: hooves splashing in mud. Wood snapping and the crackle of burning. The smell of wood smoke and burning clay was already in the air. On the road leading to the town, the earth was churned and damp, a few injured or dead horses slumped where they had fallen. A number of boxes, baskets and weapons were scattered around, though there were no signs of bodies.

It was hard for Crowe to tell, however, because he was hog-tied and hung across the haunches of the strawberry roan. He tried to move and was rewarded with a slap across the rump from the flat of a blade.

"I wouldn't move if I were you, sinner. If a rock doesn't crack your skull, I'll make sure this fine beast does."

"You're going to regret this, Dez."

"I lost ten good men at the Huntress," Gabriella snapped. "I already regret it."

Even before she had entered the town, the wails of women and children, pawing frantically at the ruins of a few homes at the edge of the edge of the settlement, could be heard. Evidently the Golden Huntress wasn't the only place that had been visited by the goblins while she was out there. Solnos itself had suffered too, or at least the outskirts had. It didn't look as if whatever had happened had got into the centre of town and she knew Erak would have led the defence.

Things seemed more normal in the centre and only the relative lack of people shopping in the market square indicated that something was amiss. Leaving Crowe where he was slung, Gabriella dismounted and ran into the church, expecting to congratulate Erak.

He wasn't there and a cold ball gathered in the pit of her stomach "Erak?!"

There was no response.

She ran through the vestry and the cloisters and saw no sign of Erak. The ball of ice in her stomach spread its way up her spine and threatened to shake tears loose from her eyes.

She burst back out into the plaza in front of the church and looked wildly around before re-mounting her horse and riding back to the edge of town, where people were still fighting some small fires. That was where a job needed doing, so that was where Erak would probably be. She was right; in the front of the bucket-chain tossing water onto a smouldering fence, was Erak. There were some other vaguely familiar faces in the bucket-chain and then she saw Kannis, directing those of her men who were helping out.

Erak was all that mattered to Gabriella, though. Relief flooded through her and she ran to him. The pair hugged tightly in the middle of the street.

"Good show you're putting on, Dez." Crowe's said. "The timing's in rather bad taste, but I can't say I don't approve."

Gabriella didn't want to let go of Erak long enough to go and hit Crowe. "The goblins attacked the Golden Huntress as well," she told him.

"I ran into them while I was following that rider. They shot my horse out from under me. At first I thought they were men trying to stop me catching up with him."

"Like at Kalten?"

"Very like and for similar reasons — it was the man who attacked you. I recognised him from your drawing." Erak sighed apologetically. "I'm afraid he disappeared when a goblin scouting party interrupted us. I came back here just in time; there were goblins arriving in town. Luckily this lady and her company were here as well." He indicated Kannis.

"Nice to see you again," the mercenary woman said with a crooked smile. "Though I'd have preferred it to be under less stressful circumstances."

Gabriella wanted to smile, but found that she couldn't. She was too tired and too certain that things were not going well. "I got caught up at the Huntress. My prisoner there and I were the only survivors."

"All ten soldiers?" Erak paled.

"All ten and everyone else at the Huntress. Everyone human anyway. A couple of whores might have got away, but I don't think anyone else did. I didn't expect to come back to this but then we saw the smoke from a couple of miles away."

"There were only about a score of them."

"There were at least twice that number at the Huntress.

"We saw them off quite easily. They didn't get beyond the first street. Like I said, they were scouts."

"Like yourself and Brother Brand here, we ran into some goblins." Kannis said. "We came down here for the market, to buy feed for the horses, and food for ourselves, and when we tried to leave… We found it more difficult than we thought. There are goblins setting up camp on the north side of the river, and they've circled round to the east as well. There are only about thirty of us and there were a lot more of them. We barely made it back into town. A scouting party is one tenth the size of the warband," she added. "That's the minimum."

"Two hundred?" Gabriella asked Erak. "Does that sound about right to you?"

He nodded. "And at least twice as many following, if that's the size of scouting party that attacked the Huntress."

"And they've got Solnos fairly well surrounded by now," Kannis said.

Gabriella went back to her horse at last and cut Crowe loose. A couple of soldiers emerged from the bucket chain to take charge of him. "Lock him up."

"Are you out of your tiny mind, Dez?" Crowe protested, holding up a hand for their attention. "You know they're coming here and you know you need to get the hell out!"

"You mean I need to get your cleansing arranged before it's too late," Gabriella retorted.

"What if I helped you?"

"What help could you give?" Erak scoffed.

Crowe nodded towards Gabriella. "Ask her. She'll tell you how good I am. Not that I'm one to brag, you understand."

"He is a decent fighter," Gabriella admitted. "I'll give him that."

"Look, mate," Crowe said to Erak, "where could I go, exactly?"

"Nowhere, unless you're a good magician," Kannis said bluntly.

Gabriella didn't react outwardly, but Crowe saw something in her mismatched eyes and nodded encouragingly.

"Yeah, Dez, you listen to her. Whatever happens, I'm stuck with you lot right now. If I'm going to have a chance of making it out of this town it'd be a better chance with your soldiers and the rest of the rabble. If you're stupid enough to try to fight — "

"We're not running away," Erak said firmly.

"There are too many to fight," one of the mercenaries said suddenly. "This guy's right, Captain. Let's break out. With the Knights and their soldiers-at-arms we'd be half again as many fighters. We might have a chance to break out."

"We might," Kannis admitted slowly.

Gabriella stepped in between them. "Can you do me a favour, either way? Pick three or four of your best riders. Send one each to Andon and Fayence, maybe as far as Gargas. Requesting reinforcements from the Order and subcontracting with some other mercenary bands. I presume there are others in the area?"

"Some," Kannis agreed. "I wouldn't recommend all of them."

"Are there any you would recommend?"

"I can think of a couple." Kannis said at last. "Whether they're close enough, or still all vying for business in the Anclas, I couldn't say."

"I've already had a message sent to the scrying chamber at Andon," Erak added. "At least the Preceptory there already knows what's happening here."