Men were dying all around Terryll. He had tried shouting out warning to the Earl as he fled down the long hill and alongside the brambles, but half of Lord Ryndor's men had blocked their retreat and the other half rushed in after Terryll to box them in. Terryll tried grouping his men together, but Vinton took a spear in the chest and Kipp took a glancing blow to the head that knocked him unconscious.
Terryll found himself clumped together alongside the Earl and his men along with Palomo, inexorably getting pressed closer together and pushed back toward the ravine. The Earl and his men were stout warriors, but they were hopelessly outnumbered and fighting from an inferior position.
Terryll brushed aside a spear with his curtelaxe and cut his assailant's throat open with a backhanded slash as he made his way to the downstream side of the melee, intent on finding an opening to break free and make his way to Lyrie and Lord Klaye. Another soldier jumped forward to bar his path, this one more disciplined than the previous. He kept Terryll at bay with a series of tight spear thrusts, one of which stabbed Terryll in the shoulder. With an angry curse, Terryll hacked off the iron tip of the spear, then lunged at the man. The soldier jabbed Terryll in the stomach, but without the point it only knocked the air out of Terryll and angered him more. He snapped the spear shaft in two with a swipe of his free hand, and cut the soldier's legs out beneath him at the knees. The man collapsed, and Terryll hacked off the man's hands as he held them up protectively.
Lord Ryndor shouted an order from beyond the skirmish, inspiring his men on both sides to make a push. The Earl was forced back into Terryll; the two of them became sandwiched between their own men, unable to move. Palomo went down with a curse, along with several of the Earl's men at once. Bodies fell away from Terryll and the Earl, and they could move again, though they were hopelessly outnumbered and boxed in by the roaring waters of Gildan's Sprite. Seeing nothing else to do, Terryll tossed aside his curtelaxe and grabbed the Earl.
"What are you doing, you damned fool?" the Earlwheezed out. In reply, Terryll threw him from the ledge into the creek, andjumped in after him.
ESTÁ A LER
On the Black Wind to Baldairn Motte
FantasiaPlunged into a war of succession, Terryll Payce, captain of the Black Wind, and Lyrie, a whore from a high-end brothel, are forced into the service of the powerful Earl. Ensnared in a tangle of bargains and betrayal, Terryll and Lyrie fight for surv...
