stumbled up, and seeing his two comrades down backed away and drew his sword. The man began to call out for help and the other two soldiers were getting to their feet. Legon, Kovos, and Keither all turned and sprinted toward the edge of town. As they ran they could hear shouts from behind and the distant sound of hooves hitting the ground. They turned up a side street, running into people as they went. Keither tripped on a woman’s skirt and fell, cutting his knee. The edge of town was right ahead, and just past that were the thick woods that surrounded Salmont.
Legon looked back as they passed the buildings that marked the end of the town. Panic took a firm hold of him as he saw five men on horses, three with swords drawn and two with bows. The two with the bows were pulling back their strings to fire.
“Arrows!” yelled Legon as he started to weave.
Kovos did likewise and the two of them pushed Keither back and forth, almost like they were trying to knock him down, but every time it looked like the boy would fall, Kovos or Legon corrected his balance. As they entered the woods, Legon heard the hiss of two arrows fly past and saw them embed themselves deep in a tree. The soldiers were firing combat bows, so the arrows would be moving incredibly fast and could kill from a long range. They needed to get higher into the cover of the trees. More arrows flew by accompanied by the sound of five horses crashing through underbrush. Legon felt one of the arrows scratch his neck as it passed.
They ran, weaving through the trees, jumping over roots and logs—anything that might slow down or trip up the horses. There was yelling coming from the queen’s men, but Legon couldn’t tell what they were saying. All he heard was his own panting and the strained breathing of the other two. His legs were on fire and his body stung from hitting branch after branch. He could see Kovos’ white shirt getting speckled with blood from the many scratches.
Next to him, Keither slipped and Legon caught his arm. He felt the weight on him for only a moment before the boy continued on. He was worried. He knew that Keither had to have some strength, if for no other reason than he was fat, but he knew the boy couldn’t have too much in the way of endurance, and he had hit his knee pretty hard when he fell.
The sound of the hooves stopped. The forest in this part was too dense to ride in, so the men would be forced to go on foot. This was to Legon’s advantage—this was his forest.
“Whoa, hold up guys, there’s no point running. We’ll just be easy to track. You can’t hear in these woods and it’s too dark in here to see very well. They will have to go slow, and if we are quiet and hide our tracks they won’t find us,” Legon said in a soft voice, placing his hand on Kovos’ shoulder. All three of them were breathing hard and all were doing their best to calm down.
“You lead the way. I don’t have a clue what to do up here,” Kovos said. Keither nodded in agreement. Legon was impressed with the boy. He always thought that Keither would fall apart in a bad situation, and maybe he would, but up to this point he had more than exceeded Legon’s expectations.
He took a look around to see what kind of cover they had. It wasn’t too bad. There was lots of growth along the bottom of the trees and a thick wooly moss that they could pull over themselves. He went to work, first hiding Keither. He instructed him to rub dirt and mud on any exposed skin and then placed him at the base of a bush and covered him in debris from the ground. When Legon was done, Keither was just barely visible, and if he stayed still the soldiers might not find him. He did the same with Kovos and then hid himself in the wooly moss at the base of a tree. His was the most exposed area, but if he didn’t move a muscle he would be fine. The sound of boots tromping on twigs gave his trembling body the willpower it needed to go still.
* * * * *
The dirt on Kovos’ face made it sting, and