Free The Wizard's Coming by Juliet E. McKenna Page B

captain's mossy cloak as he watched his man breaking cover from the thicket that offered a sentry a clearer view both ways along the track cutting through these coastal pastures. 'He can tell us himself.'
    Every man drew his sword, even Bair with his hands still gory. Up on the headland, Narich did the same. Caught half way between the tents and the cliff, Hosh dithered, looking this way and that.
    'Horsemen, Captain.' Bair stood beside him, half a head shorter but considerably broader in the shoulder. He pointed with his sword.
    A trio of riders appeared as the track rounded an undulation in the cliff-edge pastures. The first horseman lifted a fist in salute. Up on the headland, Narich raised a spyglass, swiftly lowering it to wave his own clenched fist in reply. He began running down the slope, pausing only briefly to berate the hapless Hosh and order him up to the exposed headland.
    'It's Corrain,' the captain said tersely,
    'With Dancal and Ostin,' Bair breathed, relieved. 'All safe.'
    Neither he nor any of the rest moved to sheathe their swords until the three riders arrived. Unlil, the sentry, arrived scant moments ahead of the horsemen.
    'Gefren--' The foremost rider recollected himself as he halted his mount. He wore finer linen than the others beneath his uniform of grey wool and buff leather. 'Captain.'
    Gefren waved away Corrain's familiarity. 'Report.'
    'Nothing.' Corrain glanced at the two riders flanking him for their nods of confirmation. 'Not even a peasant grubbing up acorns to feed his pigs.'
    'Captain!' Hosh's shriek startled everyone. Up on the cliff edge, he was hopping from foot to foot, pointing out towards the distant horizon. 'The wizard! The wizard's coming!'
    Corrain hauled on his reins to turn his horse towards the sea before Gefren could give any order. 'Narich, let me see!' Kicking his mount into a canter, he barely slowed to snatch the spyglass from the man's raised hand. He stood in his stirrups to search the rolling grey sea, pulling the horse up just short of the precipitous drop.
    Narich hurried to the tents. 'We're packing up, captain?'
    Unlil the sentry and the bald man Avayan were already hauling packs and blankets out onto the damp grass. The curious wind tugged at flapping canvas.
    'Don't bother striking camp.' Gefren watched Corrain intently. 'Get ready to ride.'
    'Hosh, get down here,' Narich bellowed.
    'It's them,' Corrain shouted, cantering down from the headland. 'It must be,' he said with quieter desperation as he reached them. 'Saedrin save us, it must be.'
    'Are they flying the flag?' demanded Gefren, still stony-faced.
    Corrain nodded and gestured towards darker grey skeins of cloud promising an approaching storm. 'They must have a mage aboard, to be countering those squalls.'
    'Get your gear together, Hosh.' Unlil kicked clods of turf into the fire pit as the youth arrived, puffing hard.
    The youth stared at Bair instead, accusing. 'You're taking all the meat to fill your own belly?'
    'I snared it.' Bair swathed the skinned rabbits in a linen rag and scrubbed blood off his hands onto the turf.
    'You know what we must do.' Gefren looked around his men. Dancal and Ostin, the scouts who'd arrived with Corrain, were already on the verge of departing while Hosh was still struggling to roll up his blankets. Gefren's gaunt face grew still grimmer. 'You already know that we've been betrayed. May all the gods watch over you. I pray we'll meet at Lord Halferan's gate.'
    'Or we'll see each other before Saedrin's door to the Otherworld,' Hosh muttered bleakly.
    'Forewarned is forearmed--' Corrain rebuked him.
    Gefren spoke over him. 'Our lives will be well spent if we save our lord and our families with our deaths.' He accepted the reins of his own horse from Elkan and mounted swiftly. 'Corrain, you can wait and take Hosh with you. Bair, go with Serde instead.'
    Without a glance for those left behind, the captain kicked the restive bay gelding into a gallop for the track. Avayan, Narich