Free The Dragons of Argonath by Christopher Rowley Page B

clearly carrying a sword.
    She pulled back. Questions crowded in her thoughts. Was this a new kind of troll? And how was the light projected? And from where? She looked up for a moment into a blinding dazzle that shone down from nearby rocks. Then she shut the door again and turned back to the emperor.
    The other side!
    He needed no more warning. Opening his door, they tumbled quickly out.
    There was fighting all around them, more screams, the ring of steel on steel. Men rode past at the gallop. The driver of the coach fell in front of Lessis with a thud; an arrow jutted up from his throat.
    The emperor had his short sword out and ready. Pascal had drilled every week for most of his life in anticipation of an emergency like this. He was ready to fight. Lessis, however, was only concerned with getting away. She knew that this ambush had to be by an overwhelming force; nothing else would have been contemplated by their enemies. They had to hide, then make an escape from the scene.
    And how was that damned light projected? It was so bright, it hurt the eyes and threw shadows far away across the moor.
    Just then the coach rocked under a terrific, crunching blow. The next moment it was turned over. The horses screamed as they struggled in their harness. Lessis tugged on the emperor's arm, who came, unwillingly. The bearlike things were smashing the coach with huge hammers. The blazing light made them seem like giant men, burly-chested with fierce, hog-like features.
    A trooper spurred forward and thrust his lance home into one of the monsters. It coughed angrily, bent double, and dropped to its knees. Imps came out of the dark to thrust spears into the trooper when his horse pulled up. He screamed and tumbled, and the imps swarmed over him. The hammers continued to smash the coach. If anyone had been inside, they would have been broken like an egg.
    More imps came screaming past, bandy-legged imitations of men, wielding swords and round shields, products of an evil magic. The emperor ducked a blow, whacked an imp to the ground with his shoulder, and then stabbed down with his sword to end it. Another was about to attack the emperor from behind when Lessis thrust her knife into its back. It gasped, straightened, and then sagged. She toppled it away from herself.
    Two of the emperor's guards, Thorn and Blade, had materialized beside them, with swords drawn and eyes bright. Blade was a giant, a head taller than most men, exuding strength. More imps came up but were almost instantly slain.
    For a moment there was an empty space around them.
    "Run!" said Lessis.
    The emperor stared at her hard-faced, eyes questioning her tone.
    "Your Majesty, you must not die here. To those rocks, we have to get away."
    Pascal's eyes were wild, and his mind filled with dangerous thoughts, but Lessis's words struck home. The empire could not afford to lose its emperor at this crucial moment in history. He had to accept the need for self-preservation above all else.
    "Where?" he croaked.
    A trooper shrieked behind them as one of the bearlike things ripped his head from his body.
    "That way, to the rocks!"
    Lessis almost tripped over a rope set at knee-height across the road. There were more, arranged down the road. So that was how the coach had been brought to such a dead stop. These huge creatures had pulled the ropes up under the coach as it rolled by. The horses had fallen, the wheels had jammed.
    A dismounted trooper ran by, blood running down his face. His forehead was cut wide open, to the bone; the blood had stained his vest bright red. Pascal put out a hand to steady him. The trooper's look flashed wide in recognition.
    "Your Majesty," he exclaimed, and fell in beside them.
    They slipped farther away, out of the pool of light. The main body of imps had missed them in the confusion. Lessis glanced back. The coaches had been smashed to flinders, and there was still fighting up and down the road. About a hundred feet above the scene on the opposite