Quentin looked at her with surprise. She evidently counted herself as one of the protectors rather than the one protected. “Why must there be any enemy? Surely you don’t think…” Quentin stopped; he knew Toli’s uncanny instinct well enough to know that even his slightest whims should be taken seriously. He had seen them proven true too often to dismiss them lightly. “Very well, we will continue along the valley until we draw even with town. Then we can climb out below it in the shelter of the ridge.”
They started off again, but at a more measured gait. Quentin led the way, scanning the tops of the hills for any signs of unusual activity. They had proceeded only a little way when the course wound around a sharp bend. “Wait!” shouted Toli in a sharp whisper. “Listen!”
Just around the bend could be heard an odd muffled sound, as if a large animal were rooting in the soft soil of the dry stream bed. It shuffled along, breathing heavily, with an airy, bristling sigh. Blazer and Riv both lifted their ears at the sound.
“What can it be?” wondered Esme, her whisper almost lost in the quickly growing intensity of the sound.
“Whatever it is, it is coming this way,” said Quentin. “Over here!” He spurred Blazer toward the near bank to escape the path of the oncoming beast.
But he was too late. As Blazer jumped forward, the thing came churning around the bend. Quentin had a glimpse of a vast, rippling body-shapeless and ill-defined. The creature saw him too, and let out a whelp which seemed to come from a dozen throats at once. It was then that Quentin knew what it was.
“Hold!” shouted Quentin, laying the reins hard to his mount’s side, so that Blazer reared on his hind legs and wheeled about. His command echoed from the far bank. Toli was instantly at his side.
The beast screamed and broke into a hundred separate pieces, each one darting in a different direction. The strange beast was, in fact, the townspeople of Illem fleeing their burning homes en masse. The sound had been that of many feet hurrying through the dry brush and the murmur of fear as they fled.
“Hold!” Quentin called again. “In the name of the Dragon King!”
The people stopped. The sight of the instantly appearing horse and rider rooted them to the spot. For a moment no one dared to move. Quentin judged them to be as many as fifty in all-men, women and children.
One brave man stepped forward. “Do not hinder us, sir. Whoever you be, if you be friend let us go!” The man approached Quentin slowly. The others behind him were too frightened to move or speak.
“We will do you no harm; have no fear,” said Quentin.
The man looked over his shoulder and cried, “The Destroyer is upon us! We have only escaped with our lives-let us go! Even now he comes for us!”
“Who is this Destroyer? We will meet him and-”
“No, it is too late!” He made a quick motion to his followers and as they started to move on, the man suddenly threw his hand in the air. “Ahh! They have found us!”
Quentin looked behind them and saw something moving by torchlight down the sides of the ravine. He drew his sword from its place behind his saddle and heard the ring of Toli’s blade at the same time.
“Run for it!” Quentin cried to the townspeople. “We will protect your escape.”
Toli charged ahead, and Quentin saw more torches boiling down the side of the ravine. Quentin leaned forward on Blazer’s neck, darted toward the embankment and drove straight to the nearest of them. He heard Toli’s blade sing in the air and the crash of metal followed by a stifled cry. With his own sword held high, he leaped across the flat bed of the stream and caught a confused group of mail-clad soldiers as they tumbled down the bank. Two of them felt the bite of his blade, and two others fled back up the bank.
Turning, Quentin found his way barred from behind. Blazer reared and lashed out with frying hooves. Quentin’s sword became a flashing shield before him as he fought to Toli’s side. Twice a lance head thrust out of the darkness, and each time the sword sliced through the shaft. Now a buckler was cleaved in two, and then a helm.
It was clear that the soldiers had not anticipated finding men on horseback. They were uncertain what to do and ran into each other in an effort to stay out of range of Toli’s well-trained steeds. This led Quentin to believe that, though greatly outnumbered, they would prevail.
But once over the initial surprise, the soldiers quickly regrouped and surrounded the riders. “We are cut off!” cried Quentin as he raced by Toli. “We must break through the line. Where it the weakest point?”
“There-see that gap?” Esme called. Quentin saw her point past him with her dagger.
He looked and saw a space between two soldiers who were hurrying toward them. “Good eye, girl! Follow me!” He threw the reins ahead, and Blazer sprang for the spot. Closer, he saw that a wall of low bushes stood in the gap. Before he had time to think, Blazer was up and over it.
Toli was not so lucky. Riv, with the weight of an extra rider, charged up and cleared the shrubs with his forelegs, but his hind legs became tangled in the branches. Quentin saw all three go down as soldiers instantly converged on the spot.
Blazer thundered to a churning stop, and Quentin pulled him around and headed back into the fray. “Whist Orren, protect your servant!” he cried in desperation.
In the scant few moments of battle, the sky had lightened enough to see the soldiers distinct from the darker background. Quentin sounded a battle cry and prepared for the shock of the inevitable collision. He saw Riv thrashing his head as the horse regained his feet. Toli and Esme were lost beneath a dozen black shapes of soldiers swarming over them.
Quentin bore down and slashed out at the jumble of lances and swords. He heard the gasps of pain and felt the sword strike deep. He thrust and thrust again and the roiling mass of bodies parted.
Then he felt something tugging at his cloak, yanking him backwards. Hands reached out and grabbed his arms; his sword was struck from his hand. Blazer reared and jumped, but the grip on Quentin’s arms held firm and he was hauled from his saddle.
As he tumbled to the ground he saw Esme leap up out of nowhere and then past him. For one heartbeat their eyes met. In that same instant Quentin thought she would come to his aid. But she turned away and was instantly in Toli’s saddle. Then Quentin was on the ground and a foot smashed into his throat.
As the world spun sickeningly before his eyes, he heard the sound of Riv’s hooves pounding away.
THIRTEEN
HEAVY DRAPERIES were hung across the windows of the Dragon King’s chamber. The barest thread of light shone through a chink in the gathered cloth to fall in a single shaft upon the King’s high bed. Otherwise, the room was as dark as a cave deep under a hill.
Durwin entered quietly and stood for a moment by the door. He pressed a finger to his chin and then moved closer, listening to the irregular and shallow breathing of the still form on the bed. He stepped near the stricken King and stooped to peer into the sleeping man’s face. It was then that he detected the faint, putrid odor of death.
The holy hermit spun around and lay the wooden goblet he carried on a nearby table. He went to the high narrow window and seized the draperies in both hands and pulled with all his might. There was a tearing sound and a crash as the stifling folds came tumbling down beneath an avalanche of dazzling morning light now streaming into the gloomy chamber.
Fresh air swept fair and warm into the night-chilled room and banished the foul stench. The man on the bed, pale and wizened amidst his mounds of thick coverings, stirred feebly. A breathless moan passed his lips.
“My King, awaken!” shouted Durwin, bending close. “Do you hear me? Awaken, I say, and throw off the sleep of death!”