Adrian Tchaikovsky - Heirs of the Blade

At first the bandits faced only airborne opposition, the fleetest of the Dragonfly-kinden – nobles and their retinues in light armour. They were few in number, for their strength had been spread wide to locate the fugitives, and the wiser of them simply waited high over the chase, signalling by their very presence the whereabouts of the enemy.

The rasher of the scouts, those keen to make a name for themselves, tried to harry the brigands on the ground, stooping on them with spears or loosing arrows as they dived past overhead. They soon found, however, that Dal Arche and Soul Je were both easily capable of hitting a mark whilst still running, twisting back and up to follow the flight of a passing warrior and then letting fly without ever stumbling or slowing. The scouts had minimal armour, the better to fly far and fast, and after the brigands’ shafts had brought several down the rest kept their distance.

The column of scouts, circling like some bizarre localized weather, would serve its purpose, though. Soon enough, Avaris the Spider called out, ‘ Riders!’ as the first elements of the Salmae cavalry came in sight, still distant but gaining.

A handful still, but they would be harder to turn away than the scouts. Dal wordlessly changed his direction, striking out against the rise of the land. It was not clear to anyone if he had an actual destination in mind, and so Tynisa exerted herself to fetch up alongside him.

‘We can get under cover before they reach us?’ she got out.

He shook his head, saving his breath. Aware of her exasperated look, he grimaced and rasped, ‘These we kill. The next? Depends how soon, how fast.’

Tynisa nodded, dropping back. ‘Thalric, Mordrec,’ she snapped. ‘Rearguard.’

They both glared at her, neither of them happy to be taking orders from her. Thalric was supporting Che, who was still slowing them all with her injured leg. Wordlessly he passed her to Maure, who did her best to lend some strength to the toiling Beetle girl.

‘I count six,’ Tynisa stated. ‘Your stings, my blade.’

‘They could just go round us,’ Mordrec pointed out, half-breathless.

‘Then the archers must take them,’ Tynisa declared.

‘Let me take the lead,’ Thalric put in. ‘We need a horse kept alive for Che.’

The riders were closing swiftly, thrashing their horses to make up the distance, each one of them wanting to win the favour of Salme Elass. When they saw who awaited them, however, they faltered a little, two reining in and the rest swerving away. They fear us, Tynisa thought with satisfaction, and then she was rushing towards the nearest rider, even as he tried to haul his mount aside. He had ventured too close, though, and Thalric’s sting struck him against his breastplate. The scintillating mail turned most of the heat away, but the blow still sent the rider reeling back in his saddle, and before he could regain control of the reins Tynisa had lunged up, her blade piercing the chitin shell of his armour and running itself to the hilt into his side. She saw the man’s golden skin turn suddenly pale, and he toppled from his mount.

‘Maure!’ Thalric shouted. ‘Take the beast!’

The magician rushed forward but the panicking horse shied away from her, and as she stumbled after it, another rider charged her with lance levelled. Her wings lifted her from under the hoofs, but not fast enough to evade the weapon’s point. An arrow flowered in the rider’s neck, though, between pauldron and helm, throwing him sideways, jerking the lance aside. Maure dropped down onto the horse’s neck, kicking and elbowing until the rider fell from the saddle, and then snagging the reins with one hand and dragging the beast back towards Che. She looked around wildly to see Dal Arche fitting another arrow to his bow whilst, beside him, Soul Je aimed upwards, warning off the boldest of the scouts.

Two more of the riders had chosen the same moment to attack, and the Wasps had made them rue it. Whilst the armour of a Dragonfly noble might scatter some of their stingshot, the horses were not so protected. Thalric and Mordrec brought them both down in short order, lashing the wretched animals with both hands until they reared and plunged and fell. One of the cavalrymen kicked himself free and flew, darting in the air to avoid Dal’s next shot, and putting as much distance between himself and the brigands as possible. The other fallen rider had just got to her feet, swaying but reaching for her sword, when Tynisa reached her and finished her with a single straight thrust.

The remaining two horsemen kept their distance, keeping out of arrowshot but no further. There was movement beyond them, which could only be the rest of the Salmae’s forces, or at least a fair proportion of them.

‘Keep moving!’ Dal shouted. ‘There’ll be more cavalry soon.’

Maure had Che perched before the saddle now, although the horse protested at its double load. She kept a steady pace, keeping the animal on a tight rein, well aware that if she outdistanced the bandits, the circling scouts were likely to drop on her.

A glance back confirmed that there were more riders splitting off from the main body of the Salmae force, some making straight for the fugitives, others peeling off to circle round and ahead of them, intending to cut them off.

‘There!’ Dal cried out, putting on an additional burst of speed. They were still slogging up the rise of the land, but now they could see woods ahead, and within the trees some suggestion of stone.

‘A castle?’ Thalric asked him.

‘Not quite. A tower, though. Should be enough of it left to defend.’

‘Defend? For how long?’ Thalric demanded.

Dal’s backwards look told him all he needed to know. The leader of brigands was running out of plans.

A half-mile on and the whole bloody business was played out again, even as they were running for the treeline along the hill’s crest. The faster outriders had caught up with them, perhaps only a dozen, but to stop and fight them would give more of Salme Elass’s people time to catch up. Again Tynisa dropped back, the two Wasps shadowing her automatically now.

‘Ride!’ she shouted, and Maure kicked at her stolen horse’s flanks, making a break for the trees. A couple of the scouts swooped on her, but Soul Je shot one from the air in a single fluid motion, and the other darted away.

On either side of Tynisa, the Wasps’ stings crackled sporadically, a sound that made some inner part of her twitch away, from long experience. How can they now be on my side? The first flashes were at extreme range, though Thalric still made his target rear up and shy away, almost unseating the rider. Then arrows came hissing past them, most of the riders choosing to stay out of sting reach. Their small horse-bows were still enough to outdistance Mordrec, and of course many of them would have had first-hand experience of the Wasp Art during the war. Tynisa backed up, remembering how, when the spirit of Tisamon had been with her, she had batted arrows from the air as though they were juggler’s balls.

Thalric sighted down his arm and sent off a sizzling bolt of fire that struck one of the archers clean from the saddle, his bow springing apart, the string charred through. That bought them a little more time as the other riders swung their mounts aside, circling for more distance. It seemed ridiculous that the three of them could stand off a dozen cavalry, but the reputation of the Wasp-kinden was ground deep into their foes. The man that Thalric had knocked down was clearly not getting up again.

Tynisa only distantly heard the cry of warning, but her sword came up and back without the need for thought, catching a blade as it rammed for her back, and turning the strike aside. The scouts had now sensed their chance, or else they feared the wrath of the Salmae if they did nothing, and they were dropping down all around, some with bows and some with swords.