Richard Tuttle - Sapphire of the Fairies

“The group split up here,” oneof the trackers supplied. “Two to the right and two to the left.The rest continued straight.”

“What does it mean?” Wolindaasked. “Why would they split up?”

“I would suspect,” Klargmused, “that they plan to siphon off the children a little at atime with instructions for them to meet in some town, like Lorgo. Iwould expect to see another split-off about ten minutes down thepath. If we follow only the main trail, we will end up behind onlythe gypsies and they will plan to disappear on us.”

“I don’t care about thegypsies,” Wolinda snapped. “I want the children.”

“We will have them all,”declared Klarg. “Five men to the right and five to the left. Therest will continue on. Trackers, continue down the main path.”Klarg laughed. With thirty men at his disposal, they could split upas much as they wanted and he would still get them all.

The five men detailed to take the lefttrack took off at a gallop. With any luck at all, they couldcapture their two runaways and still make it back for the battlewith that gypsy devil with the wicked sword on his back. Once ithad been determined that the gypsies had been hiding the children,Klarg placed a high bounty on the gypsy warrior. Klarg wasconvinced that the gypsy was part of the group of armed men who hadhelped the boys escape the trap by the seaside cliff. That madeKlarg want him more than the children.

Garth heard the thundering of the DarkRiders’ hooves a full two minutes before he got first sight ofthem. Perched on a sturdy branch with an excellent view of thetrack, Garth had one arrow already nocked and three more stuck inthe tree within easy reach. He quickly pulled another arrow fromhis quiver and slammed it into the tree. There was not much chancethat he would be able to down them all from here before they gotwise, but he would be prepared if they gave him thechance.

The first shot would be the trickiest,as Garth planned to take out the last rider first. If it worked, itwould confuse them as to where the attack was coming from. One ortwo of the other riders might notice that the arrow had come fromin front of them, but there would be no time for them to tell theothers. When the front two riders went down, the confusion justmight give him a chance for the remaining two.

Garth pulled back and let the firstarrow fly. He immediately nocked the next arrow and sighted on oneof the leaders. Garth heard the piercing cry of pain as he let gothe second arrow and nocked the third. Garth knew that the DarkRiders had not bought the deception and they started to split up asthe third arrow found its mark. The last two men were going to eatup valuable time now and Garth grabbed the two remaining arrows andreturned them to his quiver. Quickly, he climbed down out of thetree and crept off at an angle to the track the Dark Riders hadbeen following.

Garth nocked an arrow as one of theDark Rider’s mounts passed in front of him. He wasn’t sure wherethe remaining two men were, but they had each chosen a differentside of the track. They had dismounted by now or he would haveheard them high-tailing it back down the trail. Getting closer tothe area of the attack, Garth discarded his bow and took twoLanoirian Stars out of a pocket as he dropped to his belly. Lyingquietly, he listened for sounds. One of the men on the trail wasnot dead. Garth could hear him moaning and realized that it musthave been his third shot and the man had turned to flee into thewoods while the arrow was traveling.

The noise of the horses was alsodistracting and Garth could not pick up the sounds of his enemies.Precious moments were ticking by, but Garth remained motionless andlistened. Finally, he heard the sound of the man on the other sideof the trail. The man was creeping towards the tree where Garth hadbeen shooting from. Still, the warrior had to eliminate the man onthis side of the trail first or risk exposing his back. Garthcontinued to wait patiently.

Soon he heard the sound of a crawlingman and the sound was coming closer. Garth laid the Lanoirian Starson the ground and silently extracted a reed and myric quill.Fitting the quill into the reed he held the blowpipe to his mouthand waited. Several tense seconds later, the Dark Rider’s headappeared not three feet in front of Garth and he blew the quillinto the side of it. The man collapsed and Garth shoved the reedback into his pocket. Picking up the two Lanoirian Stars, Garthcrawled to where he could see the trail and lay quietlyagain.

Less than a minute later, he saw thelast man dash across the trail to the foot of the tree that Garthhad used. Garth quickly and quietly made his way back to where hehad dropped his bow. Hiding behind a bush that shielded him atground level, Garth nocked an arrow and sat waiting for the man toclimb 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 thisway, but Garth was pretty sure that the man would find his oldperch too inviting. It offered good cover for an ambush and affordan excellent view in all directions. Unfortunately for the DarkRider, it was exposed if somebody was expecting you to bethere.

As if on cue, the Dark Rider pulledhimself onto the sturdy limb and Garth let his arrow fly. Quickly,Garth rose, gathering his Lanoirian Stars and went to check on thewounded man. The arrow had missed the mark that Garth had aimedfor, but the man had died, anyway. Garth jogged down the trail andfound his horse waiting for him. He grabbed onto the mane and swunghimself onto the horse and took off for the canyon.

* * * *

Klarg halted the column at the mouth ofthe canyon. “I do not like the looks of this,” he speculated. “Itis too convenient for an ambush.”

“From children?” Wolindacomplained. “Don’t tell me the Dark Riders are afraid of thesechildren.”

“Not from the children,” Klargspat. “I am sure that this gypsy and his men were the ones whoambushed us at the sea cliff. This is probably where his men arehidden. The fact that the rider came back to meet the main groupsupports me. It was an attempt to lessen the amount of men theywould have to attack. Our left flank group never returned. They areprobably ten miles from here by now chasing a nonexistentenemy.”

“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 aroundit.”

“Then we have no choice but tofollow,” Wolinda ordered. “You shouldn’t worry. My magic willprotect you. Of course, if you want to run for reinforcements, youhave my leave, but your men are going in.”

Klarg clenched his fists in anger. Hecould not be seen as a coward in front of his men or they wouldrefuse to follow him, yet he felt as if he wouldn’t have any menleft if he followed the witch’s orders. “Let me at least take acouple of men up each side of the canyon to provide cover,” heinsisted.

“Fine, Klarg,” Wolindapatronized, “play the grand strategist if you wish, but use the menfrom the left flank when they get here. These men are going in withme to get those children.”

Wolinda gave the order to move forwardand Klarg felt like putting an arrow in her back. Instead, heturned his mount and galloped westward to find the men of his leftflank.

The trackers led the procession intothe canyon and followed the evident tracks. They rode deeper anddeeper into the canyon at a cautious pace until the trackers hit aninvisible wall. They stopped, dumbfounded, and looked down thecanyon trail at the cave where Kalina and Arik stood waiting forthem. Arik started firing arrows over the invisible wall into theDark Riders. At the same time, Tedi from the right side of thecanyon rim and Tanya from the left, started showering arrows downon the assembled troops.