Engines & Demons - The Undestined

Chapter 47ii

Sir Kralaford should have turned and fled. It would have been his best hope of surviving the trap, but his anger forced him to decline such cowardice.

He knew, as he watched the riders flood from the stone tunnel, that he would fight. Most of them were mounted on hydrayet, but amongst their number were other creatures. Two tall razorbeaks, dirty white with red crown feathers, screeched hideously as their riders spurred them forward. One thick muscled man sat high in the saddle of a low bodied broindell, a heavy boak spear clasped in his hand.

The hydrayet rider who had been hidden in the farmhouse spurred his beast away, and Sir Bedingvale's steed crouched to pounce in pursuit.

"Leave him!" called Sir Kralaford. "Close on Sir Hogan!"

The last thing he wanted was for his knights to be cut off from each other. He knew they must fight together as they had trained to do, and that the flat land on the farmhouse's far side offered the best ground. It would also place the building, at least momentarily, between them and the archers on the valley's eastern slope.

His plans passed through his mind in a moment, and Hakansa was already moving when the first arrows flew. He leapt across the farmhouse's open room, over the woman, who yelped and threw herself to the floor. As he sprang up the slope of rubble at its far side, Sir Kralaford heard arrows strike against stone behind him.

Sir Hogan had not been so lucky. An arrow from the western slope had furrowed his steed's unarmoured flank, leaving a livid line of red, and it was only the young knight's control that prevented the beast from turning up the hill to sate his rage on his attacker.

"Concentrate on the riders!" ordered Sir Kralaford as Hakansa leapt from the fallen stonework and down to the grass on its far side.

Their mounted assailants had spread themselves into their attack, and his object was to get amongst them swiftly in the hope of foiling the archers' second volley. Sir Hogan's steed pushed itself forward, and Hakansa bounded after him. Sir Beddingvale was closing on their right when Sir Kralaford saw the last riders emerge from the tunnel.

They were not mounted on rangy hydrayet or dirty white razorbeaks, but rode the savage and agile javacs of the Clans.

There were three of them, and all wore armour of mesh and hide covered plate. At a glance he took in the familiar lethal forms of their steeds, with their long angular limbs and prehensile taloned claws. Their bodies tapered, ending in sinuous double hooked tails that they carried curved high over their backs. Black bony plates covered their bodies and their long necks. The same dark plating formed angular crests on the creatures' heads, and spread in ridges that curved below the dark spaces shading their eyes. It formed strange patterns in the tight grey fur of their broad curving snouts, which were edged with serrated teeth.

They spread into a line and halted on the height of the slope. The two riders at the flanks did not wear helmets, and both their foreheads, beneath their wild hair, were disfigured by the mark of Outcast. The rider in their centre was more heavily armed, with lance, rail-shield and war plate, and his steed was similarly armoured, with plate and helm that copied the ridged markings of the javac beneath. The knight's armour had been fashioned in semblance of his steed, but on his helm's fore-plate, above the dark holes shadowing his eyes, the mark of outcast had been daubed.

The three men seemed content to wait at the valley's end while their ragged companions charged to their first attack. Sir Kralaford drew his heavy curved blade as Sir Hogan was first to meet their charge, and he briefly saw a rider fall as the young knight's steed lowered its head and swept the legs of a hydrayet from beneath it.