Before they could reform, The Raven were on them. Hirad veered hard left and lashed out his sword, slicing into the chest of a cavalryman. The impact slowed him and he pulled back on the reins of his horse to keep from falling, dragging his blade back and hacking down through the man’s shoulder to finish the job. He pulled his horse round. Ren was trading blows but winning her battle, her quick strikes too much for the horseman who leaned away as he defended.
Further away, Aeb’s axe took the head from a horse and the rider plunged to the ground as the animal collapsed. Thraun was riding a wide circle, followed by a pair of riders. Hirad set off after them, roaring a call. He jumped a fallen horse, saw The Unknown with Ilkar, defending the mage easily from a clumsy attack, and drove into the flanks of the pair chasing Thraun. Letting go his reins, he leaned out and smashed his fist into an enemy face, feeling the cheek crack under the force of the blow, then raised his sword. The rider saw it coming, recovered to block but fell from his horse nonetheless.
Thraun had turned. He rode in hard, blond hair flowing behind him. Raven coming from either side, the Xeteskian turned and fled.
‘Let him go!’ shouted Hirad. ‘Raven! Raven with me!’
The regrouped Raven galloped away to resume the chase. Hirad could see Denser coming in from a great height, diving incredibly fast at the knot of Xeteskians who were now two hundred yards distant. Behind the group, three horses and riders wheeled to a stop. Mages.
Erienne released a blanket of HotRain to force a change of direction in the main group. Denser soared back into the sky. Hirad watched them go, saw Denser veer sharply right, dip suddenly as if hit, right himself temporarily then crash in a heap from a height of ten feet or more.
‘Thraun, Darrick! Defend them.’
The two men broke from the group and charged away to the fallen Raven mages as enemies closed in around them. Hirad erased unbidden thoughts from his mind and carried on north, finding himself riding through the evidence of a very recent massacre. Tents burned, fires were scattered everywhere, the bodies of men lay twisted and broken, their brutal wounds the type only Protectors could inflict.
With The Unknown and Aeb right beside him and Ilkar behind, the shield still holding, he charged up a short rise, plunged down the other side to continue the chase and found a wall of Protectors blocking their path.
He hauled hard on the reins, his horse slewing to a stop with an angry grunt as the bit sawed at its jaws. Beyond the Protectors, their quarry galloped on into safety. He stared at the blank faces in front of him, sensing The Unknown and Aeb riding to his sides, Ilkar and Ren behind.
There had to be close on a hundred of them. Hirad felt the sweep of reverence like a breeze across his face. The Protectors were facing Sol, who had almost God-like status among them. And there with him, Aeb, the Protector who was about as close to a rebel as any of the calling could get.
Hirad knew they weren’t going to be attacked. He laid his blood-spattered blade across his saddle and turned to The Unknown.
‘Can’t you make them move?’ He eyed the crescent line. They were not going to be able to simply ride around.
‘No,’ said The Unknown flatly. ‘They should be killing us but they won’t bear arms against me or Aeb. They will stop us following though.’
‘Damn, but we were so close to them,’ said Hirad. The sound of hoof beats had faded and a curious silence had fallen. Hirad was at a loss. ‘So what do we do?’
‘I don’t know,’ said The Unknown. ‘But their support mages must be close. We shouldn’t delay here too long.’
And then Aeb spoke.
‘We do not seek to harm Xetesk’s sons,’ he said, addressing the Protectors aloud presumably for The Raven’s benefit.
There was a ripple in the line but none spoke, the masks staring back impassive. Aeb continued.
‘We seek a fragment of a statue taken by Captain Yron. The elves will die without it.’
‘Aeb, enough,’ said The Unknown, and to the Protectors: ‘Xetesk is wrong to have taken it. Please. If there is anything you can do, help us recover it. A whole race depends upon it, not a few hundred lives. And do not speak Aeb’s words in the