By the Sword - By Sara Flower Page 0,47
run faster, angry that a stupid beast had nearly finished him.
His men were standing over the girl. She was on the ground.
“Is she dead?” Jalarn asked.
“No, I didn’t club her good enough,” said one of his men.
He patted his weapon, and the others joined him in a loud chorus of laughter.
Jalarn removed the man’s mask and punched him in the face. That wiped off his incompetent grin pretty quick.
Everyone froze and stared at their general.
“There was no order to kill her. I want her alive. Have I made myself clear?”
The knights looked among themselves in confusion.
Idiots.
“Yes, Sir,” they said at last.
“Good.”
A piercing whinny broke the quiet.
Jalarn spun around. It was a horse. Two of his men were attempting to subdue her.
It must be the girl’s.
The animal reared up on her hind legs and knocked them both over.
“Incompetence will be rewarded with death next time,” Jalarn muttered.
One of them lassoed her with a vine.
Jalarn approached the beast and noticed her wings. She was a Malinorian-bred mare. A Pegasus. How in the world did a knight from Sanctus obtain such an animal?
That’s not the only question I would like an answer to.
He looked at the unconscious sword maiden. They would never catch up with the giants now, and it was all because of her. But she had spared his life. He needed to know why. Then he would kill her.
A scroll peeked out of her left-side pocket. Jalarn took the rolled paper, curious as to why she would have carried it with her.
“Carry the girl back to camp. The giants are long gone. We will return to Malinor tonight.”
*****
It had been a rigorous afternoon. General Edandir was confident that his knights were more than ready for the battle.
The soldiers rushed to the meal house, ready to devour their evening meal. The general decided to stay back for a while.
As Edandir practiced a couple of different swings with his sword, he thought of Talya. He had heard tales of vicious giants eating any unfortunate human that dared to enter their forest.
There was still so much left unsaid between the two of them.
Edandir shook his head. He was such a fool. He needed to pray harder than he ever had before. That night he would devote his time to the Lord. He would become more like a general worthy to lead a God-serving army.
“General?”
It was Tanel. Seeing Talya’s best friend made Edandir miss her even more.
“Before dinner, I was hoping to go over my sword fighting technique. I was wondering if you would show me the ones you use the most, Sir. If it would not be too much trouble.”
“Yes, of course.”
*****
Ittonifer felt uneasy as he put away the spell book that he had been studying. He had a strange feeling that Jalarn might not persuade the stubborn giants in time. His nephew was the one that the prince willed to take Ittonifer’s place after he died. Surely that meant that he would not fail this mission. More than one failure in a week would not be acceptable.
Ever since Jalarn was a lad, he had demonstrated power. Ittonifer had used Jalarn’s mother’s death as a means to fuel the boy’s anger and hatred, which had formed him into the superior fighter that he was.
His nephew possessed not only physical strength, but he was quickly becoming skilled in the dark arts. Malinor would be in good hands when Ittonifer left the world to join his lord at last.
The door of Ittonifer’s study creaked open and then slammed. He heard Naeshi’s heavy footsteps as he entered the room.
Ittonifer glared at him.
“Since when do you think you can barge in here? Do you want to lose another body part?”
“My lord, your daughter has run away!”
“You fool! She’s probably in the courtyard or in the library.”
“No, she isn’t. I found one of her handmaids, and she confirmed that Chrissa has run away for good. She left them a note saying she will not be coming back.”
“That stupid, stupid wench.”
Ittonifer shook his head. He should have made sure that the guard locked her door last night.
“I am going to go look for her,” said Naeshi.
“There isn’t the time,” said Ittonifer.
Why had he waited so long to marry off that headstrong female? No matter. There were more important things to focus on. She would come back eventually. She was just a spoiled little girl that wanted her own way.
No different than her mother was with those infuriatingly defiant eyes.
His empire was so close to covering the entire western continent. Everything