Page 97 of The Robber Knight's Love
Arriving at the bridge only two minutes lateron a totally exhausted horse, she was aghast to find only twoguards atop the barricade. Two! She had orderedtwentyto be there at all times, and when anactual attack came, even more were supposed to rush to the defense!And now there were only two, and these two weren't even looking inthe right direction. They were staring off to the side, totallyoblivious to whatever enemy was crossing the bridge.
Quickly sliding off her horse, she climbedthe barricade and grabbed the arm of one of the soldiers. “What'sthe matter with you, man? The enemy is ther—”
The words stuck in her throat.
From atop the barricade, she could see whathad previously been out of her field of vision. She could see themeadow across the river, she could see the forest beyond, and shecould see the bridge. There were no mercenaries on it. Not a singleone.
“What's the matter with you?” she asked thesoldier, breathless. “What possessed you to sound the alarm?There's nobody here!”
Wordlessly, the man raised an arm, pointingin the direction he had been staring the whole time, off towardsthe left, to the river. Annoyed, Ayla turned her head. What couldpossibly be on the river that could be of any interest?
And then she saw them. The sight hit her inthe stomach like a fist of iron.
Boats. Dozens of rough, small, wooden rowingboats. Some of them had the marks of axes and bits of bark still onthem. All of them carried soldiers, moving determinedly across theriver, using rough wooden paddles. They weren't going very fast,but the river wasn't very broad, either. They would be across soon.And there were many. Too many.
Behind them, clearly visible on a small hilloverlooking the river, the red robber knight sat on his stallionand watched the proceedings calmly. The deadly aura radiating offhim was almost palpable.
“Shoot them,” Ayla yelled, pointing to thesoldiers on the river. Was it only her imagination or did her voicesound slightly higher than usual? “Shoot them all! Now!”
Before all the words were out of her mouth,she spotted Waldar on the bank of the river beside a company ofarchers, his arm raised. Suddenly, the fat man didn't seem quite sosilly to Ayla anymore. He had already given the orders. Now, hisarm came down, and the arrows took flight.
The soldiers in the boats, however, hadapparently just waited for this. Quickly, they discarded theirpaddles in favor of wooden shields, holding them up over theirheads as the hail of arrows came down upon them. The arrows stuckin the shields or even bounced off harmlessly. Laughter eruptedfrom the boats, and Ayla's eyes widened in shock.
Nothing! Their counter-attack had had noeffect whatsoever. Her eyes darted towards the red robber knight.He still sat on his horse which hadn't moved an inch. He didn'tneed to shout commands or run about. He was master of thebattlefield. Slowly, he raised his arm in her direction and held uphis hand in the most threatening greeting she had ever seen.
Near tears, Ayla wrung her hands indesperation. What was she supposed to do now? Was there another wayof counter-attack? Anything else her soldiers could do?
As if in answer to her silent question, SirWaldar turned and saw her standing on the barricade. For once, hewas not laughing or making jokes. Fixing her with his eyes, heshook his head.
That was it. He didn't know how to repel thesoldiers. And Ayla? She had no idea. There were at least a hundredof them in the boats. Once they were across, there would be nostopping them. They had already covered a quarter of the way.Regardless of how many arrows Ayla's men fired, they would onlydistract their enemies, not destroy them. Soon they would comeashore, and then it would be over.
Ha! Bitter self-disgust shot through Ayla.She had played at being a leader for these last couple of days, butthat was all it had been—a play. When things got dirty and bloody,she had no clue what to do. How could she? No one had ever preparedher for something like this. She was no commander.
Unlike the red robber knight.
There was only one person who could help hernow. Only one person who could possibly know what to do.
Suddenly decided, she slid down the ladderand ran to her horse. The poor animal could hardly stand, but sheswung herself into the saddle regardless. If she didn't do this,they would all suffer the consequences. She, her people, even thepoor animal panting underneath her as she drove it on towards thecastle.
For that matter, they might still suffer—ifGod in his mercy didn't work a miracle today for the man sheneeded.
Please let Isenbard beawake, she prayed.Please let himbe awake!
*~*~**~*~*
By the time Ayla arrived at the keep, herhorse was half dead. It tore at her heart to have to hurt afaithful animal so, but she couldn't spare any thoughts on itnow.
Jumping from the horse, she raced up thestairs to the front door and didn't slow down inside, making herway up the inner stairs and down the corridor in record time.
Exhausted as she was, she almost fell againstthe door and into the room. Next to Isenbard's bedstead, shecollapsed onto her knees and began to shake the old knight by thearm.
“Wake up!” she shouted. “Wake up, we needyou! Please!”
Isenbard's head rolled from side to side fromher shaking. Other than that, nothing happened. He didn't reply,didn't even open his eyes. His unnatural sleep was as deep asever.
“On your feet, Sir Knight!” She tried to keepback the sobs that were threatening to break through, tried to makeher voice sound commanding. “We need you now! Please, wake up atleast. I don't know what to do...”
No response. Isenbard's lined features didn'ttwitch. It was as if she hadn't spoken.
