Page 100 of The Robber Knight's Love
“Do it!”
Hastily, they did as she said.
“Fire!” she called. “Where is my fire?”
A guard hurried over from the bridge with aburning branch in his hand. Ayla gave a silent prayer of thanks forthe fact that the men always had a cooking fire going to heat upgruel or some hot drink. In her panic, she hadn't thought of wherethe fire she needed would come from before leaving the castle.
Hurriedly, she waved the man with hismakeshift torch towards the line of archers. “When I say so, youwill set fire to the arrows. Understood?”
He swallowed. “Yes, Milady.”
Ayla took a deep breath and looked out overthe river. The enemy boats had now crossed more than half thedistance. She could see the greedy eyes of many a soldier fixedupon her, the only woman on the battlefield. Well, she would see toit that these men remembered her until their dying day.
Or in other words: until today.
This was it.
She remembered the words, remembered themexactly from that time Isenbard had shouted them out and broughtdown the enemy's cavalry.
“Nock!” Ayla called.
Twenty archers put arrows to the strings.
“Mark!”
The arrows swiveled to face the enemy. Themercenaries raised their shields in preparation. Before theirwooden protection went up, Ayla could see their malevolent grins.They felt safe and superior. As earlier, nasty laughter driftedover from the boats.
“Draw!”
The archers pulled back the strings, theirmuscles bunching under the tension.
“Set fire to the arrows!”
The man with the burning branch hurried alongthe line of archers, trying not to disturb their aim while he litone arrow after another. Flames sprang up along the line ofsoldiers and enveloped the slim wooden shafts on their bows. Aylaknew she had only seconds before they would be consumed. Feelingthe weight of rule descending on her shoulders, she raised a hand,just as Isenbard had done in this very meadow, not so long ago.
There was an immeasurable second of silence,during which Ayla's eyes sought the red robber knight on theopposite shore. He wasn't sitting quietly anymore. Instead, he hadridden closer and was watching the proceedings with suspiciouslynarrowed eyes. Ayla fixed those eyes with the closest approximationof a death-stare she was capable of, and let her arm fall.
“Loose!”
*~*~**~*~*
Reuben lay on his bed, breathing heavily. Theeffort to go over to Ayla at the other side of the room had costhim a lot of his limited strength, and he was sweating all over.But that wasn't the only reason he was panting like this. He hadheld her in his arms. For just a few moments, he had felt her soft,slender figure pressed against him. It had been an exhilaratingexperience.
At another time, he might have spent moretime thinking about this. But right now, the unwelcome knowledgethat he might very well have sent Ayla to her death was a littlebit distracting.
I might never see heragain, he realized.Then thatmemory will be all I have left of her.
The thought was so incredibly painful. Hechoked out a half-laugh. A few weeks ago nothing in the world couldhave hurt him, and now a mere thought could inflict pain on him?How pathetic was that? If he only knew how the battle was going. Ifhe only knew whether or not Ayla was still alive.
*~*~**~*~*
At Ayla's command, the archers let go oftheir bowstrings and twenty fiery predators arched through the air.They hit the enemy boats, and again Ayla could hear laughter fromthe mercenaries—which abruptly cut off as flames began licking upthe sides of the boats and over the soldiers' wooden shields.
Had the enemy kept a cool head, Ayla realizedlater, things might have gone differently, considering how freshand wet the wood of the boats had to be. Had they kept a cool head,Luntberg Castle might have fallen that day. Yet it is difficult toa keep cool head in the face of fire.
Ayla watched as the first shields dropped,listened as yells of alarm went up from the boats. Suddenly, thingsweren't going as planned anymore for the mercenaries. More shieldswere thrown aside or simply dropped into the water to see where thehell those flames were coming from!
“Dip!”
