The Deepcombers

Chapter Forty

"Mel. Open it and get in!" Saeya wiped the tears from her eyes and ran to her dog cart. She leapt over its bentwood side and onto the drivers' bench. Jarl stopped her forward momentum and steadied her into the seat. Lon followed two paces behind and threw himself into the bed.

Melcart lifted the latch and kicked open the gate which creaked away on rusty hinges. The blond huntress didn't waste a moment. She took the reins and hissed her dogs forward. The rogue had to run alongside and jump-in as the wheels passed between the gateposts. Lon caught him and helped him aboard.

"What's happening?"Jarl asked over his shoulder. He couldn't feel the smilkripple and so he had no idea there was a deadly threat nearby.

Before Lon could answer, another pulse coursed through his body. This time the disturbance was accompanied by a clash of swords and distant screams. Jarl figured it out.

"Go Tisker, Go." Saeya spoke the lead dog's name and whisked the reins and all passengers held fast as the cart sped away. The overloaded carriage left the pasture and snaked into the Dairy Lane. This road was a tree lined corridor which became split rail fences that led back to the settlement. The ground was hard-packed, and they made good speed until disaster struck.

Valari galloped past them on her horse but rather than keep to level ground she chose enter the wheat field directly and have a look around. She pointed her charger through the hedge and over loose stones in the verge. The lead dog followed Val off the trail and into the trees and there was nothing Saeya could do to avert the catastrophe. Lon and Melcart held onto the rails and Jarl hissed in real terror. The dogs careened through the gorse and toward the fence where there was no breach wide enough for the wagon. Crunch. Lon heard the main brace crack against the axle case. 

The occupants clung-on behind as the dogs squeezed through the treeline and into the green wheat beyond. They made it through to the other side, but no farther. The speeder became a sled in the soft soil. The buggy stuck and four passengers proved too much weight for the huskies to haul.

Valari circled and looked sorry to have caused the crash. She shook her head in disbelief and her wide eyes seemed to say, I didn't think this would happen. But her blond friend gazed away at something else. The canines barked at movement on the opposite side of the field. Lon recognized the marauders.

One hundred paces away on the far side of the wheat crop were fast-moving wildkin raiders. Twenty warriors on shaggy black pony- goats carried long lances over their shoulders and dangled steel sabers at their sides. Lon knew it was the same tribe that'd chased him and Tharus, Clyde and Jarl earlier in the week. Now they looked set to raid the peaceful hamlet he'd admired yesterday.

Vercino was visible even at this distance. He led the invaders on their prancing mounts. His staff was capped with a white skull fringed with blue feathers and his green copper coat clanked as he rode. Zed had said each leaf was stamped with the name and date of some a grisly triumph and today he'd add another plate.

Saeya's howling pack dogs alerted the enemy general to his new audience. He gazed south at the defenders stuck in the wheat crop, but he didn't slow the wildkin assault. Instead he merely raised a short black horn to his lips and issued a piercing call which echoed about the mountaintops. His plea garnered six cohorts. The wolf-faced leader pointed his shaggy blue staff and Lon thought he felt a smilkripple but it may have just been his own nerves.

Vercino dispatched six riders to assail them. The mounted warriors were a hundred paces away when they started their charge. They galloped toward what they must have believed were teenage herdsfeigor. They could see the locals were stuck in the field and their five barking dogs only added to the appeal. The hunters sensed an easy slaughter and came on with speed.