Zoran Chronicles Volume 1 A Dragon in Our Town (12 page)

            
“Ride up and dismount quickly!” Zoran ordered. “Pull the wagon in closer and
form a circle around the wagon.” Quickly, everyone did as ordered, drawing weapons
and circling the wagon as it pulled up. “Tomas, Milan, take cover in or under the wagon.
This is our fight.” The drover and his guard did as ordered; obviously a big fight was
about to occur any second. The seven waited, but no attack came. Still, Zoran’s inner
sense told him it was eminent.

            
“What are they waiting for?” Karel whispered angrily.

            
“Probably want us to think that it is not an ambush — that the tree just fell there.
When we finally think it is not an ambush and go to move the tree, then they will strike,”
Jarka espoused her theory, based on what she would do, given similar circumstances.

            
Zoran smiled, “She’s probably right. Okay, Zdenka and I will go see about moving
the tree. The rest of you, prepare to attack them as soon as they attack us. Come on; keep
your bow at the ready. I’ll pretend I am dealing with the tree.”

            
“Be careful. I’ve got you covered,” she whispered. Cautiously they approached the
huge tree lying across the road. Nothing happened. “No birds. Men must be nearby,” she
whispered. “It has to be a trap.”

            
“Of course it is. I sense a large number of men close at hand. They are waiting for
the right time. Okay, I am going to pretend to lift the tree.” Zoran tried to budge the tree,
but all he could do was make a few branches wiggle. It was a heavy tree, carefully chosen
to form an ideal barricade. His inner sense screamed and forced him to turn his head
sideways, just in time to see two arrows heading for Zdenka and himself. Once more his
lightning fast training kicked in. He dove towards Zdenka so that the arrow coming at
him would miss, and as he was falling towards the ground, his right hand snatched the
arrow that was heading for her chest. He hit the ground and rolled several feet before
springing to his feet, while drawing his pair of swords.

            
He was in time to see a pair of arrows strike Emil and Renata squarely in their
chests. His only thought was, “They will be out of the action.” Both arrows merely
bounced off their chests, after punching a hole in their leather tops!

            
At the moment that Zoran attempted to move the tree, two dozen men moved out
from behind the trees. Ten fired off a volley of arrows, while the others raced to close the
distance to the seven who were protecting the wagon. Jarka, Karel, and Bernard both
barely escaped arrows meant for them, mostly because of the haste with which they were
fired. Dropping the bows, the ten headed into the combat as well.

            
Jarka, totally unwilling to go hand to hand with these bandits, cast her Fly spell
and rose above the battle. Karel and Bernard had no choice but to draw their swords and
engage in a sword battle. Their opponents gave them no time to cast a spell. Zoran
seeing Jarka’s brilliant move, ordered, “Zdenka, I’ll hold them off; get up there with
Jarka!” He became a whirlwind of blades, fending of two men coming after him plus two
who were headed for her. He bought her enough time to get airborne. He had no time to
look back and figure out a way for the twins to save themselves. He realized that neither
even had a dagger on them. Surely unless they could Fly out of the melee, they would be
killed outright. He’d have that on his conscience for the rest of his life; he failed to
protect two of his team!

            
Now fighting four men, Zoran focused all his attention on his foes, his twin
swords in rapid continuous motion. Seeing an opening, he lunged, struck, and retreated,
allowing the man to drop to his knees in pain, blood flowing rapidly from a gut slice.
Zoran intended to give no quarter to these men. Another moved in to take the fallen
one’s place.

            
Hovering stably, Jarka fired off a Sleep spell; ten of the men around the central
area dropped to the ground and began dozing. Their respite didn’t last long; another
bandit rushed over and began kicking them awake. Zdenka began shooting her Magical
Arrows at the men who were giving Bernard and Karel a very hard time. Both men
already had blood tricking down their arms and wouldn’t be able to hold on much
longer. Jarka now took her lead from Zdenka, firing off her Magical Arrows at the same
group of men, hoping to give Bernard and Karel more breathing room.

            
While all this was going on, three men each rushed towards the twins, who stood
there unsure of just what to do. At first, they looked at the holes in their tops, annoyed
that their nice leather tops now needed mending. Two men drew up to Emil, while
another two reached Renata. All four men took a mighty swing, intending to cut these
two down right where they stood. Loud cracks of breaking steel resulted. Four blades
broke, although both now had large slices in their tops, not just a puncture hole. Swung
with such force, all four blades simply shattered upon contact with their bodies.

            
“Damn you. You ruined my leather top!” Emil cursed and swung his fist at the
man closest to him. His fist totally smashed in the man’s head and sent him flying
backwards ten feet. On his left, Renata did basically the same thing. She swung her fist
at first one and then the other of her attackers, achieving the same result as her brother.
Now, both were broiling mad and began going directly after other nearby bandits, who
saw two unarmed teens charging them with clenched fists, not even holding a weapon.
None had time to reflect upon what happened to their men behind the charging duo.
One blow and their heads were smashed and their bodies went flying backwards.

            
Three minutes later, Zoran had slain three of his opponents and was dueling the
last one, when Emil walked up to the man and punched him in his head. Zoran got to see
the result; the man’s head took on an entirely different shape, as his body flew back
some ten feet. Emil grinned. “Ruined our new leather shirts, they did. Made me mad.”

            
Sweat pouring off of him, Zoran gasped, “Amazing. Thanks.” He looked around
for more opponents, but saw none; all were lying around the immediate area, all quite
dead. He saw the two flying women landing.

            
“Who’s hurt?” Zoran called out.

            
Jarka yelled, “To Bernard and Karel! They took a beating.” All rushed to the two
men at the side of the wagon. Bleeding from several nasty wounds in their arms and
legs, they had slumped to the ground, leaning against the wagon wheel.

            
At once, Zdenka and Zoran began ripping up makeshift bandages out of their
bedroll sheets. Emil and Renata watched, for neither had any notion of what needed to
be done. There was no time to waste explaining. The two needed immediate attention.
“I’m going to use two of our healing potions on them,” Jarka called out. “Their wounds
are deep and nasty. Hang in there a minute, fellows.” She retrieved her pack from the
wagon, pulled out two flasks, and raced to the men. “Drink!” she commanded. Both men
did as she asked.

            
“Wow. This stuff really does work, Zoran!” Zdenka exclaimed as the blood flow
began to subside. She could see the wounds starting to close right before her eyes.

            
“Well, of course it works, Zdenka,” Jarka sneered. “It
is
a healing potion, after all.
What did you think it would do?”

            
“Still, they ought to be bandaged up, just in case they don’t fully close because
more than one potion might be needed,” Zoran added. Five minutes later, their bleeding
ceased, though both men were still weak.

            
“Now let’s see your wounds, Emil, Renata. You took several nasty chest cuts,”
Zoran said.

            
“No wounds. Look, see?” Emil took off his rather cut up leather top. “Now I guess
I will need to use my Mend spell.”

            
“Oh here, brother, let me do it. You’ll mend it goofy-like,” Renata interrupted
him. She had already mended her top, and only barely visible lines showed where the
sword cuts had struck her.

            
Zoran rubbed his hands through his hair. “How on earth did you two manage not
to get mortally wounded? I mean by all rights, you both ought to be lying on the ground
bleeding to death.”

            
“Hey, ask them how come the bandit’s swords
broke
when they hit them?” Jarka
called out. “All
four
of their swords no less. While you are at it, ask them how come their
fists totally bashed in the bandits’ heads and sent their bodies flying? I’ve never seen
anything like that before. Man, Emil literally crushed their heads in. How
is
this
possible? Ask them
that
why don’t you?”

            
Bernard, now feeling a bit better, spoke up, “Well maybe the bandits had really
cheaply made swords. It has been known to happen, Jarka.”

            
“Yes, but all four? Bernard, that potion is making you hallucinate,” Jarka
retorted.

            
“We are stronger than we look,” Emil fumbled around for a plausible explanation.
No way was he going to tell them the truth. His dad’s words echoed in his mind.

            
Jarka, spreading her legs apart in a defiant stance, retorted, “No one is that
strong, Emil. You and Renata smashed in their heads, and you don’t even have a red
mark on your fists!”

            
“Oh, are we supposed to have red marks? What ought they look like?” Renata said
naively, looking her hands over and seeing nothing unusual about them at all.

            
“We are just strong, Jarka,” Emil continued his lame explanation. “Look.” He
picked her up with one arm, holding her high over his head.

            
“Put me down! Put me down this very second!” Jarka exclaimed very much
annoyed with Emil. How could he possibly be doing this raced through her mind. He
doesn’t even have muscles to speak of!

            
“I don’t get it either,” Zoran broke up the confrontation. “Let’s worry about all
this later on. Jarka, you search the bandits for anything useful. Zdenka, use your Dig
spell to start making some graves. I’ll help them unhitch the draft horses and use them
to try to get that huge tree out of our way.” Jarka agreed, mumbling to herself as she
began searching the two dozen bodies.

            
Emil asked Zoran, “We need the tree out of the way so the wagon can get through,
right?” He nodded. “Well, let Renata and me see if we can move it first. If we can, it will
save us lots of time.” Zoran agreed, and ran his fingers through his hair once more.
Everyone watched the twins walk to the huge tree. After a bit of discussion, they each
grabbed a hold of a thick branch and lifted together. Right before everyone’s eyes, the
tree rose three feet from the ground. With some effort, the twins pushed and shoved the
tree off to one side, paralleling the road.

            
“How’s this?” Emil called out to Zoran. As the twins looked back at their friends
and the two from the mining camp, they saw seven gaping mouths. All seven were
completely speechless, none more so than Zoran, who had tried to budge the tree right
before the bandits attacked.

            
“That’s not possible,” Zdenka whispered.

            
Zoran called out, “Perfect, thanks. Saved us at least an hour or more. Good
going.” He had to make them feel that they had done a good job, which of course they
had. He kept his total amazement to himself. How can this be? Where were these two
from? Was everyone in their country this amazingly strong? He had so many
unanswered questions that he just focused on the here and now, intent on getting the
wagon moving as soon as possible. The rest of his team would undoubtedly ask the very
questions he had.

            
In silence, the stunned team mechanically resumed their chores. The drover and
guard rounded up their seven horses. Zdenka dug a mass grave with her spell, though
she had to recast it several times to make a sufficiently large hole. Jarka continued her
scavenging operation, but she asked, “Zoran. What do you want us to take? I mean we
can confiscate weapons and sell them in Brn, probably some of their clothes too. Might
make a few gold pieces on it.”

            
“No, let’s not bother with that; just get their valuables and such. Are you checking
to see if anything is magical?”

            
“Of course, I am always
very
thorough,” she replied in a snide tone of voice. “Are
you going to go looking in the woods for anything else they might have had, like
horses
?”
she asked, knowing that he probably had not thought of this. From the surprised look on
his face, she knew she’d guessed right.