The Light of Heaven (20 page)

Crowe understood immediately. "Oh, right. Good one. I like the Faith better already."

Gabriella turned and hurled the lantern back through the Golden Huntress' shattered doorway. It flew in a perfect arc, landing exactly where it would have the most effect. A soft whooshing sound heralded a blue flame that rushed out across the floor. And then there was the first of a series of explosions as the fire reached the barrels of spirit.

As Gabriella and Crowe ran, the Golden Huntress erupted.

Every remaining shutter blew off the windows and the walls visibly bulged outwards. A few goblins were blown into the corral and the lake in screaming pieces as the building's roof collapsed and vented roiling black smoke.

Gabriella kept going, glancing at Crowe as he ran beside her.

"That won't be all of them," he said. "And the rest will soon be coming for us."

"Keep running." She shoved Crowe ahead of her and made for where the Sword's horses were tied. "Can you ride?" she asked.

"I'm a horse thief, among other things; what do you think?"

"Pick a good one. Fast and strong."

Crowe approached a strawberry roan, calming it with hand gestures and soothing sounds, before mounting it. "Well, it's been... interesting knowing you."

"Don't think you're leaving the custody of the Faith yet, sinner. A little confession is good for the soul and I'm not going to let yours stay bad."

"Even if it kills me? You don't need to answer that, all right, love?" Crowe dug his heels into the roan's flanks and set off. Gabriella rode her mare right out after him.

She had to keep ducking as they darted through an avenue of trees, but soon they were galloping across open ground and she quickly caught up with him. "God's -" He broke off as she drew within arm's reach with a warning glare. "Now comes the fun part." He jerked a thumb behind him. Gabriella looked back and saw a dust cloud closing on them.

"Goblins."

"Sorry pet. We should have lamed or killed the other horses."

"They're innocent animals."

"Not any more."

Erak's first thought had been that the assassin had stationed men along his route to throw off pursuers, as the assassin in Kalten had done. This idea was quickly dismissed when, with a screech, a goblin leapt at him.

Still half-stunned, he shoulder-charged it, knocking it to the ground, then stamped on its head as he drew his sword. As he finished it off with a quick cut, one of the soldiers was shot from his horse by another arrow. Both Erak and the other soldier spotted the goblin archer at the same time, and headed right for him. The soldier got there first, his sabre taking the goblin's head from its shoulders.

Three more goblins ran in from their hiding places behind rocks, but Erak had killed one before it even raised its weapon, and turned to parry a cut from another. The creature was strong but not well trained and he got his blade under its arm and cut wide, disembowelling it.

The soldier killed the last goblin with a vicious backhanded swipe from his sword.

Erak paused to catch his breath and looked around for the man they had been following. There was no sign of him anywhere; just the rolling hills, rocks and the occasional tree.

"Damn."

The man had got away, but by now Warrigan would have led Gabriella and her troops too far from where they had split up for him to catch her trail again.

Erak's own horse was dead, so he recovered the fallen soldier's animal and mounted that. There was nothing for it but to return to Solnos. If there were goblins in the area, they would need to be fought.

There was a bright side, at least, he thought. He was relieved that Gabriella hadn't ridden westwards. She might have been the one shot from her horse.

Something slapped at Gabriella's calf and her horse reared, shrieking with a surprisingly human-sounding voice. When she looked down, there was a clothyard shaft stuck into her horse's side, slapping against her calf as the animal ran. Another two arrows thudded wetly into its flank and the animal was already slowing. Gabriella focussed on the horse's face and noticed that the eye she could see was rolling in pain. But the creature was brave and kept going.

She patted its neck, suddenly feeling guilty for being a burden to it, and wishing it wasn't so hurt. As if it could understand her thoughts, its eye regained focus, but it was already lurching to one side and ready to topple at any moment. Gabriella knew its effort wouldn't last, as it was losing blood quite quickly now. She looked at the gear that was hanging from the flanks of Crowe's horse. "You any good with a bow?"

"For hunting game, maybe. Not for warfare."

"Thought not. You're good with that horse though."

"I bet there's a Final Faith Proscription against that too."

"Give me your hand!"

"What?"

The horses were thundering along next to each other, spittle from one flying in the face of the other's rider. Gabriella risked another look back and saw that the pursuing goblins were gaining rapidly. They were almost within the range of a throwing dagger now, let alone bowshot.

"Stretch out your hand!" she ordered. Crowe did so and she grabbed hold. "Keep your knees tight!"

Before he could ask what she meant, she had planted her feet on her horse's shoulders and leapt across to his horse. His eyes wide with fright, Crowe almost tumbled from his mount under her weight on his arm. The leverage was only there for a second and then Gabriella was crouching in front of him, on his horse's shoulders, and swinging her leg across the beast's neck so she could sit properly.

She let go of his hand so that he could grab the reins with it again, which left her facing him in an almost-embrace. Her horse tumbled immediately, landing hard on its neck. Gabriella ducked left, stretching out a hand around Crowe's hip. "Girl, I thought I was a little wild, but..."

"Don't get any funny ideas." She pulled the bow and quiver from where they hung from the horse's flanks

"Believe me, I'm out of ideas. Funny or otherwise."

"Lean right."

Crowe did so, though his eyes kept darting towards her face, which was uncomfortably close. Gabriella ignored him for the moment and leaned as far to the right as she could, until she was almost cradled in the crook of his left arm. She shoved her arm, with the bow, past his head, prompting an annoyed grunt and a sickening weave to the horse's course, then nocked and drew with her right.

The bowstring missed Crowe's ear by a finger's-breadth, but the arrow it loosed hit the leading goblin in the face. It screeched and fell from its mount.

Gabriella strung another arrow and loosed it. Then another and another. Three more goblins fell and the pursuing group slowed. In a few moments, they were out of sight and only a steadily rising dust could remained, where the remaining goblins were no doubt falling upon their less fortunate comrades.

"I think we're clear," Gabriella said at last. "Give it ten more minutes, then we'll slow and walk the horse down. Carrying both of us can't be easy."

"There is that." Crowe tensed and she quickly drew a dagger from her boot and wrapped her wrist around his neck, the blade against the artery of his throat.

"If you're thinking the horse would be happier carrying only you, I'd think again. You don't want to try that kind of leverage."

Crowe's eyes burned into hers. "I'm in no hurry. So... What do I call you?"

"Enlightened Sister."

"I meant your name, not your title."

She smiled faintly. "My name is Sister DeZantez in the Order of the Swords Of Dawn."

He blinked and rubbed a hand through his hair. "That's very long winded. Don't you Faith types have a shorter name? A given name?"

"Given names are for family and friends and we're neither, so I don't owe you one."

He shrugged. "I'm happy to be friends with any woman. My name's Travis."

"So I've heard."

He merely nodded. "It's as good as any, Dez. Did you have anywhere special in mind to go?"

"We need to get back Solnos. Our soldiers-at-arms, and Kannis' mercenaries, along with any others in the area, can hunt down any goblin stragglers." She didn't mention that she thought Erak would be disappointed if he didn't get a taste of some actual action. She looked on the bright side, though; if he had come south with her, he might have been the one shot from his horse and she couldn't bear that.

It wasn't going to be as easy as either of them had thought. They had dismounted as the sun emerged, to allow the horse to rest from the exertion of carrying two people. They had come to a shallow part of the escarpment overlooking the approach to Solnos, just to be sure of throwing off any possible goblin pursuit.

"Well, God-girl," Crowe said. "Thanks for the help with the gobboes, but I'll be going now. See you around, maybe."

"How long has it been since you went to confession?" Gabriella demanded threateningly, stepping in front of him.

Crowe feigned a look of surprise. "Does the Faith still do that? I must say, I'm shocked."

"Very funny," Gabriella said. "Been a good little monk who never puts a foot wrong, have we?"

"Can't say I've tried being a monk. I've tried putting my feet in some interesting places though. Are my eyes tricking me, or is that smoke on the horizon?"

"That's Solnos!" Gabriella immediately thought of Erak and wondered whether he was all right. It was one thing to think of him enjoying campaigning against a few goblins, but not so pleasant to imagine him on the defensive against an entire warband. Her mind kept throwing up images of a besieged church and, worse still, goblins rampaging through it in search of food and trophies. "We have to get back to town."

"No." Crowe held up a hand, then pointed at her. "
You
have to get back to town, Dez. You, not we. I don't give a monkey's toss for your roach-infested town and I care even less for spending time in the company of a Faith Confessor."

Gabriella narrowed her eyes. "I wasn't giving you a choice."

"And I'm not accepting any decision of yours, love. You got me out of the Huntress before the goblins got to me and I got you out of town before they caught up with us." He stood. "I'm sorry, Dez, but that's all there is to it. We're even."

She rose. "We're not even. You are my prisoner, Crowe."

"In your dreams, pet."

She grabbed his shoulder and spun him round. As soon as he realised he was turning, he threw his weight into it, whipping his fist up and out. Knuckles cracked against bone and Gabriella fell.

Crowe mounted his horse. "Give my regards to the Faith and don't be stupid enough to run into me again. I don't like to kill pretty girls, but I'd be a liar if I said you'd be the first."

She caught up to him ten minutes later, carefully walking the horse through the brightening day, trying to stay as quiet as possible. She had known the horse wasn't rested enough to ride yet and, for that matter, she expected that so did Crowe. He was just trying to get a good lead on her. It didn't work. The look on his face when he saw her was almost worth the pain in her jaw.

Gabriella marched up with surprising speed. Crowe didn't have time to react before she slammed the palm of her hand into his jaw, then spun and side-kicked him in the solar plexus so hard that he crashed to the ground several feet back. He roared in pain.

He started to swear, but she kicked again before he could get another word out.

"Don't say a thing, sinner," she snarled. "Not a bloody word!"

He glared instead. She flexed her fingers, vaguely hoping he'd provoke her again. Her jaw and cheek still throbbed and she could taste blood. "You know, my father says that any man who hits a woman is no man at all."

"I hit a Knight of the Swords," Crowe snapped back. "If you think being a woman exempts you, then you're touched in the head. You can't have it both ways."

"One way is all I'm interested in." That was when she hit him again. When he woke up, he would be in Solnos.

CHAPTER 10

Crowe could hear real things over the din in his head: hooves splashing in mud. Wood snapping and the crackle of burning. The smell of wood smoke and burning clay was already in the air. On the road leading to the town, the earth was churned and damp, a few injured or dead horses slumped where they had fallen. A number of boxes, baskets and weapons were scattered around, though there were no signs of bodies.

It was hard for Crowe to tell, however, because he was hog-tied and hung across the haunches of the strawberry roan. He tried to move and was rewarded with a slap across the rump from the flat of a blade.

"I wouldn't move if I were you, sinner. If a rock doesn't crack your skull, I'll make sure this fine beast does."

"You're going to regret this, Dez."

"I lost ten good men at the Huntress," Gabriella snapped. "I already regret it."

Even before she had entered the town, the wails of women and children, pawing frantically at the ruins of a few homes at the edge of the edge of the settlement, could be heard. Evidently the Golden Huntress wasn't the only place that had been visited by the goblins while she was out there. Solnos itself had suffered too, or at least the outskirts had. It didn't look as if whatever had happened had got into the centre of town and she knew Erak would have led the defence.

Things seemed more normal in the centre and only the relative lack of people shopping in the market square indicated that something was amiss. Leaving Crowe where he was slung, Gabriella dismounted and ran into the church, expecting to congratulate Erak.

He wasn't there and a cold ball gathered in the pit of her stomach "Erak?!"

There was no response.

She ran through the vestry and the cloisters and saw no sign of Erak. The ball of ice in her stomach spread its way up her spine and threatened to shake tears loose from her eyes.

She burst back out into the plaza in front of the church and looked wildly around before re-mounting her horse and riding back to the edge of town, where people were still fighting some small fires. That was where a job needed doing, so that was where Erak would probably be. She was right; in the front of the bucket-chain tossing water onto a smouldering fence, was Erak. There were some other vaguely familiar faces in the bucket-chain and then she saw Kannis, directing those of her men who were helping out.