Windcatcher: Book I of the Stone War Chronicles (22 page)

As Raylan tightened his muscles, readying himself in case the wolf would decide to attack, Gavin guided himself and Xi’Lao behind the wagon, staying out of the wolf’s direct vision. Using his horse to block the wagon’s horses, Gavin tried to keep them from turning their backs to the wolf, as well to keep them pointed toward their only escape route. If the horses decided to circle on the plateau, they would never be able to get out.

The wolf almost disappeared behind the back of the wagon as Raylan tried to keep it in view, when suddenly, it shifted its body toward the wagon. It noticed Stephen...
or is it going after the egg?

Crouching down, the wolf got ready to launch itself at the wagon. Raylan knew it was impossible, but he could not help himself. He shouted anyway.

“Stephen, get out of there. It will be on you in seconds!”

But instead of jumping into the wagon, the wolf raised its head sharply, twisting it around to look across the battlefield. It darted off in an instant, throwing itself into the tumult of men, fighting near the path entrance.

“Now!” he heard Gavin shout. “Everyone move. This is our chance.”

Raylan dropped back onto the wagon seat and snapped the reins hard to get the horses into gear. Richard and Ca’lek were already making a break for the stone arch on foot, while Kevhin and Rohan turned their horses around and set off in the same way.

Galen sent Peadar ahead, while kicking a soldier in the chest, who attempted to pull him from his horse. The spear, which the soldier thrusted at him, locked under his massive arm, as the kick dislodged the soldier’s hold on it. Galen swung the spear around in one hand and threw it with a short, powerful motion into the chest of another soldier coming toward him.

Gavin, who had moved ahead of Raylan and the wagon, reached the stone arch. Tightly holding on to Xi’Lao, he raced across it. Richard and Ca’lek had just reached the other end and were looking back to see if everyone was following.

Kevhin and Rohan galloped across the thin stone arch at full speed, the thundering hooves of their horses echoing across the ravine. Peadar followed, shortly, with two of the spare horses. With each small group passing, the cracks in the stone arch lengthened by a few inches…the cracking sounds passed unnoticed because of the stomping of hooves.

Just before he turned the wagon onto the stone bridge, Raylan saw Harwin slip in front of him to get to the other side. He had no idea where Harwin came from…he lost sight of him as soon as they were surrounded; but judging by the blood on his face and armor, he must not have had a clear path to retreat across the bridge.

A rock bounced the wagon a small ways into the air, making it thump down its heavy weight onto the rocky surface of the arch. It was indeed almost too narrow for the wagon to get across, the wheels a mere finger’s length from a very steep drop straight down. Leaning over the side, Raylan peered down into the abyss. He saw pieces of rock breaking off the stone arch and tumbling into its depth.

“It’s cracking!” he heard Richard shout ahead of him.

Harwin just passed the waiting duo at the other end, which meant only he and Galen were left to reach the other side. He had no time to wonder about Galen though, as he saw a crack originate under the wagon and shoot out across the length of the stone arch all the way to the point where Richard and Ca’lek waited. Snapping the reins feverishly, the horses jolted, increasing their speed even more. He saw foam running from their noses and mouths, their eyes stretched wide open, as the panicking animals both tried to push away from their side of the abyss, with the poor result that they only ended up working against one another.

Finally, hurtling past Richard and Ca’lek, Raylan let out his breath. He had made it in one piece and with the egg nonetheless. Keeping up his speed, Raylan passed Gavin and Xi’Lao, who seemed to be sitting a bit straighter.

“Keep going!” was the order.

He followed the path as it bent to the right. Looking across the ravine, he noticed the two enemy men who had addressed him, locked in a fight near the edge of the cliff. As the wolves clashed, he saw the tumble, as one of the men rolled off the ledge from the momentum. He was unsure which of the two men it was, but he saw the remaining person scramble to his feet, looking around and noticing the wagon across the ravine. Unable to fully hear the rampage, it was clear the person was very unhappy with the fact the wagon was on the opposite side of the ravine. Pointing toward the stone arch, Raylan saw him shout something, as both wolves sprang into action and stormed straight to the narrow crossing.

In the meantime, Galen reached their side safely; but the stone arch developed even more cracks along its length, as another large piece of rock broke free and dropped into the raging water below. Reaching the other side, Gavin called out to him.

“Dismount! Let Ca’lek take the horses!”

In one fluent motion, Galen jumped from his horse, making room for Ca’lek, who was up on the saddle before the horse had fully come to a stop, urging it on again.

“Ca’lek, get out of range of any archers. We need those horses,” ordered Gavin, as he let his voice carry across the distance.

As the path turned right, it slowly ascended. The weight of the wagon, in combination with the nearly exhausted horses, made the wagon slow down to a walking pace. If he did not want the horses to die from exhaustion—or stress, he had to give them some breathing space now. They were far enough from the battle to be safe; but Gavin would not approve of him stopping completely, so he let the horses slow down to a walk instead. Standing on his coach box, he peered backward. Gavin dismounted and set Xi’Lao onto the path, commanding her to get to safety.

Raylan saw Gavin run toward Richard and Galen. While on the other side, the two wolves stormed across the plateau toward the bridge. Some soldiers that survived the skirmish moved in from the other side of the plateau, apparently with the same destination as the wolves.

As he saw Gavin gesturing, shouting, and running toward Galen and Richard, the latter moved and thrust the back end of one of his new axes into the crack that had formed across the stone arch. Galen took his war hammer from his back and started hammering at it right away, as Gavin encouraged him. The clear sound of metal hitting metal rang out against the mountain cliffs. After the third hit, a loud cracking sound escaped the stone arch, and Raylan saw a large part of the arch shift in its place. Another two hits and the arch started crumbling, a large boulder letting go on the side and crashing into the ravine.

With its stability gone, the stone arch gave off a series of loud cracks as it broke off, piece by piece, creating a gap of twenty feet.

The soldiers stopped dead in their tracks, but could hardly turn around as the remaining commander and his two wolves were now right behind them. The commander, who had reclaimed his horse, was furious. Riding back and forth, shouting at his troops, he seemed to order the men to across the gap. At first, none of the soldiers seemed crazy enough to attempt the jump; but when both wolves were steered toward them, one of the terrified spearmen did a run-up and launched himself across the gap. As he plummeted down into the ravine, his scream discouraged the remainder of the soldiers, no matter how big the wolves were.

All the while, Richard and Galen were on the other side, observing. Gavin turned around and signaled Kevhin and Rohan back. They fired off two arrows, which struck one soldier in the neck, making him keel over backward and disappear into the depths of the ravine. Another was hit in the arm, as the group of soldiers tried to escape out of the arrow’s range. As they turned to flee back to the plateau, their commander ordered both wolves to make the jump.

Crashing straight into the fleeing group, another two soldiers lost their balance, as they were thrown aside by the first wolf making the jump…their screams quickly disappeared into the depths.

Just when Raylan reached the top of the hill with the wagon, the wolf soared across the gap. Another piece of rock broke off the stone arch where the wolf pushed off for the jump. Landing heavily, the wolf came to a screeching halt a few feet from Richard, Galen, and his brother, who were still on the remaining stump of the collapsed arch. It pounced directly onto Gavin as if given a direct command. It seemed the enemy commander wanted to take out their commander, to weaken them. Seeing the wolf land heavily on his brother, Raylan resisted the urge to turn around and help him; he knew he could not leave the dragon egg and the wagon alone. Gavin would never allow it.

Some nights ago, when Xi’Lao opened up a little about the dragon egg, she made it clear the importance this egg had for the world, or rather, how catastrophic it would be if it fell into the wrong hands. The historical information on dragons, led her to believe they were creatures of great power. Gavin gave her his word to defend the egg at all costs. This included keeping it out of enemy hands, even at the risk of losing the lives of everyone in their squad. Their task now solely consisted of getting the dragon’s egg back to Aeterra, where it could be kept safe until the king officially handed it over to the royal family of the Tiankong Empire.

Peadar circled the wagon, nervously.

“Come on Raylan. What are you waiting for? We have to keep going.”

“But Gavin...” Raylan protested, as he could not turn his eyes away, no matter how much he wanted to.

Fortunately, Galen did not hesitate to act. As the wolf snapped its jaws left and right of Gavin’s head, his brother dodged the incoming attacks as much as possible, using his swords to divert the razor-sharp teeth.

Approaching from the flank, Galen came in swinging his war hammer low. Hitting the wolf just behind its foreleg, he used all his power and speed to push the wolf upward. Being pushed sideways on to three legs, the dark terror turned its head toward its sudden attacker, snapping its jaw at him.

Grunting loudly, Galen pushed harder, his muscles bulging, straining under the weight of the stone wolf. His efforts were rewarded, as the movement of the wolf—and Galen’s forceful push—toppled the stone wolf onto its side. However, as it rolled over and lost its footing, its hind leg swapped Galen’s feet from under him.

Raylan wanted to shout out a warning, but the words were unable to leave his throat, as the scene played out beyond his control. Losing his balance, Galen stumbled forward together with the wolf. In sheer horror, Raylan watched as the unlikely duo rolled over the edge of the stone arch. Both the living statue and the man disappeared into the dark chasm, on their way to meet the white, foaming, swirling waters at the bottom.

Raylan saw his brother and Richard dash toward the edge, only to watch helplessly how their comrade disappeared into the depths.

To make matters worse, the second stone wolf came flying through the air, landing heavily on their side of the now broken stone arch. This one completely ignored the men on the bridge and immediately started running toward the top of the path. It was going after the wagon.

“Raylan, snap out of it. What are you waiting for? It must be coming after the egg. Go. Go. GO,” shouted Ca’lek, who was just reaching the top with the two spare horses in tow.

Snapping back to his own troublesome situation, Raylan dropped onto his seat and whipped the reins to get the horses moving again.

How the hell are we going to outrun this thing?

Although the path sloped down again, it still followed the ravine. As the first trees swished past, the stone wolf all but overtook the wagon. Raylan tried his best to keep ahead of the dark creature, but the horses were near their end, and one of the wheels wobbled, dangerously unstable. At the same time, the wolf did not seem tired at all. It passed all the other people on the path, and came straight for the wagon.

Trailing the wagon, it snapped its jaws at the back wheels. Harwin and Peadar tried to draw its attention, but their efforts went unrewarded. Ca’lek rode up front, shouting back to Raylan, in case the path did anything unexpected, and trying to keep Raylan informed about the wolf’s whereabouts. Raylan had no time to look for himself. The wagon pulled heavily in the turns as the weight of chest, fire wood, Stephen, and Regis’ remains shifted from side to side.

Noticing that attacking the wheels did not do enough to stop the wagon, the wolf shifted to the side of the speeding vehicle. Its black shape ran so fast, it looked like its eyes were leaking, as the cold blue light seeped out of both sockets like smoke.

Pulling away from the wagon slightly, the wolf suddenly slammed its full body weight into the side of it. Wood was heard cracking under the weight of the attack, but the wagon’s momentum prevented it from tipping over. Another two attempts did not do much either, the wagon’s weight worked in their favor, for once.

“Rock left!”

It was Ca’lek’s shout from the front, as a huge boulder was seen, lying on the path’s left side. Raylan carefully steered to his right, approaching dangerously close to the edge of the path. An idea sprang to his mind as he saw the boulder approach. Correcting the wagon’s course, he steered the wagon as narrowly past the boulder as possible. He figured if he was not able to squish the wolf between wagon and boulder, at least it would have to slow down, dropping back behind them.

However, as the wolf noticed the obstacle, it did not slow down at all…it actually sped up.

It was still not running at full speed?

Coming up to the boulder, the wolf ran up the left side of the mountain slope and leaped to the top of the boulder. From there, it launched itself directly toward the wagon…there was no escape…