Araxis's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

The black horse stood still before Araxis, its red eyes fixed on him. Moments ago it had charged to kill. Now it breathed slow and waited. The glowing sword in his hand had done this. The orb's power ran through the steel, and the steel had bent the beast to his will. Araxis stepped closer. The horse did not flinch. It lowered its great head and pressed its muzzle against his chest. "Careful," the braided woman said. She kept her knife out. Her two companions stayed behind her, one gripping a short spear, the other half-hidden behind her shoulder. They had tracked these raiders with Araxis for days, and none of them trusted a demon that had just tried to trample them. "That thing wears their mark. It knows where they sleep." Araxis had not thought of that. He looked at the horse again. The power in the blade pulsed, and a strange certainty filled him. He could feel the beast's mind now, dark and cold, but open to him. He snapped his fingers. The horse lifted its head. A low voice came from it, rough as grinding stone. "The camp lies south. Past the dead river. Thirty men. They wait for the one who carries the light." The words scraped out of a throat never made for speech. The halflings froze. The braided woman lowered her knife an inch. "It talks," she breathed. The one with the spear took a step back. "They are waiting for you," she said to Araxis. "They felt the orb. They set a trap." "Then they know I am coming." Araxis gripped the reins that formed from the horse's black mane. "Good. Let them wait." "Thirty men, Araxis." The braided woman stared up at him. "Four of us. This is not a fight we can win by charging in." He knew she was right. But the horse had given him more than a direction. It had given him a way inside. He swung onto its back. The beast held his weight without a sound. From up here he could see the long grass bend toward the south, toward the dead river the horse had named. "We don't charge," Araxis said. "We ride in wearing their own mark. They see one of their mounts return. They open the gate." He looked down at the three small faces. "Will you follow me that far?" The braided woman weighed it. Then she sheathed her knife and nodded once. Her companions moved to her side. "That far," she said. "No further until we see the odds." Araxis turned the horse south. The sword glowed steady against his hip. The raiders had set a trap and named him their bait. He meant to walk into it on their own cursed horse, and spring it from the inside. The beast carried him forward, and the halflings followed on foot through the bent grass.