Avalyne Series 02: The Easterling (20 page)

Aaron
mounted his horse just as another arrow flew past him and embedded its point into a nearby tree. Melia lingered long enough to retrieve her crossbow but she agonized at leaving a wounded beast to the ministrations of the goblins. However there were enough arrows in the poor animal to ensure that it would not be alive when the goblins came.  Hurrying away from her mount  to his, she caught Aeron's outstretched hand who pulled  her onto the saddle with him.

The horse bolted
as soon as she was seated with arrows flying after them. One tore through the fabric of her breeches, cutting close enough for her skin to bleed. Melia winced in pain but knew the injury was minor. Her arms slid around Aeron's waist as he rode hard through the Gorge, intending to reach the river if possible. Another volley of arrows flew at them from a different direction, forcing the Prince to steer away from the path that would have taken them there quicker.

Melia glanced over her shoulder and glimpsed the goblins moving in the between the shadows of the rocky hills, peering through them from cracks and shaded rock shelves. Her heart froze at just how many of them there were, waiting for the sun to go down before they swarmed the area in search of food.
In search of them, she thought. The goblins were taking full advantage of the hilly terrain that surrounded them as they escaped the Gorge.

Leaving the narrow passage did not aid their case as the rocky hills no doubt hid many places  from which the goblins could continue their attack. As arrows flew at them, Aeron steered the horse away, hoping to move  to higher ground. He
could hear water rushing and knew that if they had to, they could use the river to escape. Goblins did not like water and most did not know how to swim.

More arrows came at them
and Aeron shifted their path again even though he suspected there was some method to the goblins' action. He and Melia were being herded. The arrows were forcing them to take the path the enemy would have them follow.  As they went higher, he dug in his heels and forced their mount to burst through trees, determined  to find an alternate route  to the river and penetrate the goblin blockade,

‘
Keep your head low!’ He barked at Melia who took refuge in his shoulder as he himself lowered his head to avoid the branches snapping at them as they rode past the trees.

The horse thundered forward through the uphill track, past trees and rocks, a slave to its master's demands when suddenly it came to such an abrupt halt that it did not entirely stop. Too late did
Aeron see what it was that made the animal halt so sharply but could do nothing to stop what was coming. In the split second before they went over the edge of the cliff, he came to the unhappy conclusion that perhaps goblins would not be the death of them after all.

The fall would.

‘What's going on….’ Melia demanded when she felt herself being propelled forward by the combination of their great speed and the sudden stop that followed it. Her words turned into a scream as all three toppled over the edge of the cliff into the dark waters of the churning river below.

****
**

Aeron
's horse reached the water first, breaking the tension with a great splash before the braying beast disappeared under the frothing river. Aeron and Melia followed, plunging feet first into the water below. A blanket of cold water immediately swirled overhead and drove them to the bottom of the river. It was hard to keep stock of each other after such a tumultuous landing and all Aeron could do to get his bearings was to follow the direction of the bubbles escaping his mouth to reach air.

When he broke surface, he immediately sought out Melia and saw their horse struggling to reach the embankment. He couldn't see
any sign of the watch guard at all and that filled him with a surge of sense of panic. It did not help matters that the current of the river was strong and was sweeping them further down its winding length with each passing moment.

‘
Melia!’ He tried to call after her over the churning white water.

There was no answer for a few seconds and he was ready to call out again when he heard her voice crying frantically for him from behind.

‘PRINCE!’

Aeron whirled around in the water and followed the direction of her frightened cry to find her not far behind him.
She had managed to surface long enough to utter that terrified cry but he soon saw why she was so frightened, because she was trying to keep her head  above water. It took but a second to realize that she was not swimming or threading water but frantically flailing as the water threatened to drag her under once more. She disappeared again, only her arms visible as rapids swirled around her. 

She could not swim!
Aeron realised with another surge of panic. Melia could not swim!

Surging ahead, he broke
into powerful strokes as he fought the current to reach her. The white frothing waters around him did not make it easy and finally he knew  if he continued this way, she would drown before he ever reached her. Taking a deep breath, Aeron dove beneath the waves, descending deep enough for the current’s strength to diminish so that he could swim towards her.

T
he elf reached Melia just as she went under again, her body bobbing up and down as it struggled to remain afloat. Trying to call for help, Melia's efforts only succeeded in more water rushing down her throat. With far more speed than he thought himself capable of, Aeron wrapped his arms around her waist just as she became completely submerged in the icy water. Securing his arm around her, Melia immediately clung to his neck and held on for dear life as he used their collective buoyancy to push them both to the surface.

When they broke the surface, Melia was gasping greedily for air she had been denied almost to the point of death when he had reached her. She clung to him tightly as he tried to steer them towards the embankment but her added weight upon him and the strength of the river would not allow them to break free of its powerful currents.
Aeron tried to catch sight of their horse and saw that the steed had been born further down river.

‘
Hold on,’ he ordered over the sound of the rushing water and she complied with a frightened nod as he let himself relax no longer fighting the flow of the river. The rushing water was more than happy to accommodate them as it swept them further down its length, until they were moving so fast that it was difficult to keep track of the enemy and almost as difficult to keep the river from claiming them permanently.

The river carried them further downstream for how long, neither Melia or
Aeron could say but the water had frozen their limbs beyond tolerable levels and it was very necessary for them to leave its cold behind or else be seriously chilled. Neither had any desire to have that especially when it felt as if they were on the edge of the world or beyond it perhaps. Aeron knew that if his elvish endurance was teetering to the point where he was unable to withstand their situation, Melia would be in even worse condition.

It was still light but the day was fading and soon their pursuers would be out in force. He could sense
danger all around them but not from any specific place so he could not tell whether it was safe to make an attempt to reach the embankment. Catching sight of their horse staggering out of the water, Aeron headed towards it as the steed appeared exhausted as its hooves dug into the shale beach. It shook the water off its body and did not appear uneasy as it had been during their flight from the goblins.

He started swimming towards the edge, deciding that the nearest shore was as good as any to make their emergence. Fortunately, his bow and arrows had remained fastened to his body as well as did Melia's crossbow. If there were to encounter the enemy, at least they would be far from
defenceless. After what seemed an eternity, they arrived at the shore, almost completely exhausted from the effort because the weight of their clothes and their weapons had increased the load upon them considerably.

Aeron
was rather surprised that they had managed to remain afloat whilst battling the river but would not question what little consolation that was to be had from their present situation. Upon crawling onto the embankment, they collapsed heavily against the sand, succumbing briefly to their ordeal in the river. Melia was already starting to shiver thanks the icy cold water soaking her skin but she was doing her best to tolerate it.

‘
How is it,’ Aeron asked through his exhausted breath when he finally turned to her, ‘that you can fight as well as any man, shoot a bow better than most
and
I might add curse like a Lenkworth sailor but somehow forget to learn how to swim?’

Melia scowled at him,
‘I come from a dry country Prince. We used our water for bathing and drinking, not anything as frivolous as swimming!’

‘
But you have been in Avalyne for some time, did you never think to learn?’ .

‘
No!’ She declared defensively. ‘Do you know how to sew?’

‘
No but I know how to keep from drowning,’ he retorted and earned himself a shove.

‘
We need to get out of here,’ she grumbled, wringing the water out of her hair and quickly scanning the surrounding trees.

Aeron
was already on his feet and striding towards the horse that had sighted his master and came in search of their familiar scent, waterlogged as it might be. For someone who was soaked to the skin, he moved with surprising speed and made Melia swear under her breath when she stumbled about like an infant on unsteady legs, in her saturated clothes. She needed to get warm but could not even think about anything resembling a campfire until they were well away from here.

The sun was setting and the goblins would
not be far behind.

‘
The saddle is gone,’ Aeron stated as he ran his hand across the bare back of the animal. Only reins still remained but everything else was swept away by the river. Aeron was accustomed to riding without a saddle but was uncertain if Melia was capable.

‘
You first,’ he stated as he took hold of the reins and steadied the animal.

Melia nodded, loosening the fasteners that held her crossbow in place across her back. Her stores of bolts had dwindled substantially
after being washed away in the river. Only a handful remained in its pouch and she was not happy of this fact. They were hard to replace at the best of times and out here in the middle of nowhere, this was all she had. Aeron helped her mount the horse since she was used to doing it with stirrup before he climbed up in front of her.

‘
We must move now,’ Aeron suddenly exclaimed, digging his heels into the horse's flank and sending the animal surging towards the cover of trees.

She did not need to ask why. The sun had disappeared behind the mountains and though there was some light left, it was not near enough to keep them safe. No sooner than he had spoken, a band of
goblins burst out of the bushes near the embankment. The closest one ran across the ground with surprising speed towards them, brandishing a cruel looking mace that was meant to disable their horse. Melia raised her crossbow without thought and let fly a bolt of steel. It embedded itself in the goblin's forehead and the creature barely had time to shriek before dropping dead where it stood.

Aeron had already gotten them
moving but the horse was struggling to pass the goblins who were quick to bar its way. Breaking into a gallop nonetheless, the steed’s pace struggled for haste as its hooves sought firmer ground than the soft shale of the embankment. Nostrils flaring, the horse neighed in dislike at the goblins in its way, stamping its feet as it charged through them. The orkish creations withdrew only a little but orchestrated themselves to push Aeron and Melia off the animal to prevent their escape.

Fro
m the corner of her eye, beyond the chaos caused by the goblins in front of them, Melia caught sight of two of the foul creatures closing in from the rear. One rose a dagger to impale either the horse or its ride prompting Melia to aim her bow and putting an end to the threat of him once and for all. Meanwhile Aeron kicked another and returned his attention to escaping the vulnerable position they found themselves. He reached for one his own daggers, tucked neatly with his bow and slashed wildly at the horde attempting to converge upon them.

‘
Back you foul things!’ Aeron cursed and slammed a boot into the jaw belonging to one of them, shattering bone with his heel. Another swung at him but the elf turned in time to catch the blade, returning it with a far better aim. Melia was shooting her steel bolts at the enemy but he could tell by that taut expression in her eyes that she was running out of them. They needed to get away from here now.

Suddenly a glint of moonlight caught something speeding towards the
Prince. Melia saw it an instant before it struck. She pulled Aeron out of its path without thinking and they both fell off the horse just as the creature broke into a run, dragging goblins with it in its desperate attempt at escape. The arrow that would have killed her Prince was now embedded in the steed's neck, blood staining the white of its hide. The goblins that had succeeded in unseating the elven Prince and his companion were now closing in for the kill. Aeron knew that if they were allowed to be trapped neither he nor Melia would live to see out the hour.