Thornwyn Mossbrook's Arc

Chapter 21 of 38

The scream north of the ridge cut off. Then hooves. Two horses, maybe three, moving fast through the brush. Thornwyn pushed her back harder against the stone and reached for her staff. Her hand closed on it. Nothing answered. The wood stayed cold under her fingers. "Behind me," she said to the girl. "Not the trees. Behind me." The girl slid around her hip and pressed against the stone. The elf shifted onto his good knee, knife out, between Thornwyn and the north gap. The piebald deer met the first rider at the line between the two trees. Thornwyn heard the horse balk, the rider curse, and then the wet sound of antlers going in. The horse went down. The rider hit the ground and did not get up cleanly. A second rider came through behind him. The deer turned and took the second horse in the chest. The horse reared. The deer fell under it. Thornwyn heard him try to rise. He did not. "Hold," she whispered, though he could not hear her now. The second rider was on his feet. He came into the firelight with a short sword. The elf stood up on his bad leg and met him. Steel rang once. The elf took the man's wrist with his free hand and drove the knife up under his ribs. Both of them went down. The elf rolled off and did not stand. A third horse crashed south through the brush. The chimera rose from where he lay. He did not wait at the line. He went out to meet it. Thornwyn heard the horse go over. She heard a man shout and then stop shouting. The chimera came back into the firelight. His muzzle was dark. He walked to Thornwyn and lay down across her legs. The elf was crawling. He reached the fire and rolled onto his back. His hand was on his side. Blood came through his fingers. "Three," he said. "There were six." Thornwyn listened. The forest gave her wind and one horse moving away north at a run. Then nothing. "Two ran," she said. "One is dead out there. Maybe another." The girl crawled to the elf and put both hands on his side over his. She pressed down. She looked at Thornwyn. Thornwyn dragged herself along the stone until she reached him. Her leg screamed. She put her hand on the girl's hands and leaned her weight into it. She could not stitch him tonight. She could keep him bleeding slow until morning. "Stay awake," she told him. He nodded. She looked past the fire to the north gap. The piebald deer did not move. His long tail lay flat in the dirt. She had asked one more thing of him and he had given it. The shelter was quiet. The girl kept pressing. Thornwyn kept her hand where it was and waited for light.