Richard Tuttle - Sapphire of the Fairies

Tedi chuckled and leaned back againstthe cold stonewall. The boys wiggled as far back as they could goso they could remain dry. “We can stay overnight back here if wehave to,” remarked Tedi. “I think it is about high tide now. Thisfar back would only get wet on a moon tide.”

“If we get some sleep now,”commented Arik, we can move out at low tide and it will be dark.Wherever our pursuers are they will be camped for the night and weshould be able to avoid them fairly easily.”

Tedi agreed and the boys were tiredenough to doze off.

* * * *

“Where are they now?” askedGarth laying his bow on the seat of the wagon.

“They are sleeping at the footof the cliff,” Kalina stated. “They are hoping the Dark Riders willpass them by and I think they might. Then they plan to cross overthe road and lose the Dark Riders.”

“Nice if it worked,” Garthsaid simply. “The problem is the Dark Riders are not totallystupid. They will realize that they have been duped and that willlead them back to the cliff. It sounds like the boys have adefensible position, but they also have no reconnaissancecapability. If they decide to leave their hole while the DarkRiders are near the cliff, they will be visible.”

“We could lose them before wecan react to save them,” summarized Kalina. “This is notacceptable.”

“I agree,” Garth declared ashe started moving. The bandit grabbed a coil of rope off of thewagon and retrieved his bow. “I want you to get the wagon about ahalf mile into the woods west of the coastal highway just north ofthe cliff. Avoid the Dark Riders at all costs. If you are not therewhen I need you, I will move directly south from that spot until wemeet.”

“Where are you going, Garth?”she demanded.

“Me,” he laughed. “Why, I amgoing hunting. There are a couple of pigeons on the rocks, and Iunderstand they are in season.”

* * * *

Wolinda screamed at the men, “What doyou mean, they didn’t come this way? Are you trackers or slackers?You told me they came south. You said that they hadn’t left thewater and now you’re saying that they didn’t get this far. Explainyourself.”

The head Dark Rider stepped between thetwo scouts and faced Wolinda. “What they are saying is that theboys headed back north, Mistress. They must have done it very soonafter they entered the water or we would have caught themalready.”

“Now you’ve become a tracker,Klarg,” spat Wolinda. “I thought these two fine specimens were thetrackers.”

“Enough, Wolinda,” Klargcautioned as his men gathered around. Klarg was dressed like therest of the Dark Riders in dark brown leathers with spurs on hisboots and bands of metal spikes on their leather gauntlets, but hewas also a massive hulk of a man. His imposing figure towered overthe hardy witch. “My men wanted to check the area where the boysentered the water, but you were adamant about them heading south.You have no one but yourself to blame for this delay.”

Wolinda was stunned. She led this teamand the stupid Dark Riders should know better than dispute herauthority. She could destroy every man here with her power andtheir leader hadn’t even addressed her as Mistress. “You shouldhave better control over your emotions, Klarg. I may be forced topunish you if you continue in this insolent manner.”

“Do not be a fool, Wolinda,”Klarg asserted, “and do not take me for one, either. You are incharge of this expedition and we have followed you withoutquestion, but it is the Dark One whom we both serve. If youractions jeopardize this mission, I would be within my rights toeliminate you, witch or no. I also have nineteen men to back myplay. If you managed to kill all of us, you would still fail inyour mission as you did back in Lorgo. And I’m sure you know thatfailure is death. My men and I are willing to follow your orders toaccomplish our task, but do not blame them for your actions. If wemust backtrack to capture these boys, let’s be about it withoutrecriminations. If you are acceptable to our agreement, we areready to serve.”

The color drained out of Wolinda’sface. She burned with the desire to kill every one of thesemaggots, but Klarg was right. Without them she was likely to failand one did not fail the Dark One. “Lead the men north, Klarg,” sheordered.

Klarg slapped his fist to his chest ina salute. “I hear and obey, Mistress.”

* * * *

Arik and Tedi awoke to the sounds ofhorses not far off. Quickly, the boys sat up and tried to determinewhich direction the horses were coming from. It was already darkout and the water was at low tide, but the sounds echoed off thewalls of their little hideaway and determining direction wasimpossible. The boys hefted their duffel bags and readied theirbows. Arik slid down the rocks a way and tried to pick up thesounds again. It had gone deadly quiet and he stayed perched on therocks waiting without movement. When he finally heard a sound, itwas the sound of men wading through the water from the South.“There are men coming through the water,” Arik whispered. “We needto move now or we will be trapped.”

Tedi was already at Arik’s side as thetaller boy started edging across the rocks to the north. As theboys stepped into the water, they could hear shouts coming frombehind them. Arik could distinctly hear a man bellow the order,“Take nine men with you over the top and cut them off.”Frantically, Arik tried to run through the water, but succeededonly in kicking up more water.

“We aren’t going to make it,”Tedi shouted. “They will have us between them.”

“Just keep going,” demandedArik. “Don’t ever give up.”

As the boys struggled through thethigh-high water, ten horsemen galloped up the southern incline andacross the plateau towards the northern path that led down to theother side of the rocks. The charge to encircle the boys quicklyturned to chaos as the first four riders succumbed to a ropestretched across the path at neck height, right where the pathstarted down the northern slope. The rest of the group of DarkRiders reacted quickly enough to avoid the unseen rope, butconfusion reigned as the forward riders turned their horses asideand the following riders smashed into them. While it might havebeen expected that several riders would fall from their saddlesduring such a collision, no one could mistake the sound of abowstring singing as those riders fell.

“Bowmen towards the sea,”shouted one of the Dark Riders. “Dismount and takecover!”

One of the Dark Riders dismissed theorders and charged towards where he thought the bowmen must behiding. A black shape hiding behind a bush near the cliff’s edgehurled a Lanoirian Star, which struck the rider’s forehead. Thehorse continued to carry the dead rider and plunged off the cliffstriking the rocks below.

Garth took stock of his situation. Twoof the lead riders were down and unmoving. Two were down, butwrithing in pain. Three had fallen to arrows and one had chargedover the cliff. That left two healthy Dark Riders trying to killhim and two who would regain their wits and functionality all toosoon. Garth strained to see the two healthy riders, but the foolwho had charged had distracted him and now they were well hidden.Garth crawled slowly along the edge of the cliff towards the twofallen riders who had hit the rope. He caught a momentary glance ofone of the healthy riders doing the same, but heading for thepoint. He froze for a second to make sure that the other man hadnot spotted him and then continued on.

Garth reached the last bush before thenorthern path where his rope had helped even the odds. The twowounded men lay curled in fetal positions holding their faces andhowling in pain. Garth knew he had to find the last healthy manbefore risking exposure of himself in the open to finish these twowounded men. Laying a Lanoirian Star in the dirt before him, Garthstole a glance behind him to see if the point man had decided tocome back this way. Satisfied that he had a few moments to completehis task, Garth reached into a long narrow pouch and extracted along tube and two slender myric quills. The myric quills werepoisonous and taken from an animal that inhabited marshlands. Theiruse as a weapon was pioneered by the Targan Rangers, a group ofelite soldiers in Targa before the Collapse, but most bandits andmercenaries shunned their use because obtaining the quills oftenled to the death of the gatherer. The poison in the quills was sostrong that it produced instant death and many a gatherer failed ontheir first attempt.