He saw Tar Endid draw his kali and move to face Tar Cowell who hesitated, but even so, Tarina Zabino inched forward a step, pulling her own kali free. She looked into Gwaynn’s eyes and took another step forward. Three more Tars stood and moved along behind her, clearly coming to her aid. Zabino nodded to them then turned back to Gwaynn.
“Please young prince,” she said quietly. “You have no chance against us all. Your death would be unfortunate.”
Gwaynn’s heart pounded. He knew what she said was the truth. He was skilled, trained by the best, but against a dozen Tars he would not last very long.
“As would yours,” he answered and crouched then he moved forward slightly. Her eyes widened slightly at his aggressive stance, but then she and the others began to slowly circle around Gwaynn, surrounding him.
“This was not what I had in mind,” Bock quipped nervously, but he drew his own kali and stood back to back with his Prince.
“Please stop this!” Kostek yelled loudly but the Tars surrounding Gwaynn and the Travelers paid him no mind. They continued to circle and advance. Gwaynn was reluctant to strike against Noble and desperately racked his brain for a solution, wanting to avoid a conflict at all costs. But then Zabino tensed and he knew an attack was eminent. He grew calm and waited. Just as the Tarina moved forward to engage Gwaynn another bridge exploded directly in her path. The bridge was powerful and appeared instantly. It was much, much larger than the bridge conjured by na Gall. The force of its expansion created a shock wave that knocked Zabino and the Weapons Masters directly behind her from their feet. They hit the floor of the Hall hard. Zabino’s legs flew up and her robe slipped a little, revealing long, white legs. She struggled to a sitting position and the surprised look on her face turned to shock as Tar Nev and nine other Solitaries stepped into the Grand Hall, their weapons drawn.
The ten new arrivals fanned out and the bridge disappeared with a loud bang, and many in the hall jumped as the sound reverberated off the walls. But no one moved as the Solitaries took up defensive positions around Gwaynn, Bock and the two Travelers.
Tar Cowell and Piros gingerly retreated from the nearest Solitaries, unnerved more by their smiles than their aggressive actions.
“Is there a problem Hyla?” Tar Nev asked Tarina Ethelridge, his face, as always, filled with good humor.
As it turned out, there wasn’t.
ǂ
Captain Tanner waited just inside the tree line of the small grove. He waited with a dozen other horseman and Speaker Wynth, who arrived in the latest group from Light with the High Zarina Monde. Wynth joined the cavalry because he was a much better rider than the large Zebo Sorbello. They also recruited another Speaker, a young woman named Sarbeth, who was currently with a group of scouts shadowing the Temple Knights and reporting their movements back to Manse. Sarbeth was an expert rider and would have made a fine knight herself if that was her only talent, but she was far more valuable as a Speaker. If they lost this fight, it would not be for the want of information. The Speakers and the Travelers were going to give them a distinct advantage in the coming fight. Despite this fact Tanner was nervous. He was nervous even though he believed the strategy being employed by Gwaynn was sound, sound but bold to the point of recklessness. The Captain was sure it was a strategy that Gwaynn’s father would never have considered; he would not have rejected such a strategy because Tanner was sure such a wildly aggressive plan would never have entered his thoughts in the first place. To abandon a highly defensible position seemed…Tanner grunted.
“Sir?” Gaston asked, but Tanner just shook his head and continued to watch the eastern exit to the Scar Gap, the exit that led into Massi. They were waiting for the Rhondono to appear. Prince Phillip and the Toranado abandoned the Gap the previous night before making their way to Manse. They would ultimately be heading up to the Aleria Pass to face the approaching Palmerrio army.
‘They have their work cut out for them,’ Tanner thought. ‘The Palmerrio were already far to the north, but of course they would still have to make their way through the mountains…not easy marching…pass or no.
“You think they’ll come?” Gaston asked, revealing his own doubt. The Rhondono stubbornly remained in the Gap, like a timid mouse afraid to leave its hole.
Captain Tanner nodded. “They’ll come…eventually. If they’re reckless enough to leave the sanctuary of the Gap before the Knights control the lands from here to Cape…well, then we’ll teach them something of respect.”
“If the Knights arrive while we are engaged with the Rhon…”
“The bulk of the Knights are still fifty miles east of Cape,” Tanner interrupted. “You must show faith in our new allies from Light.”
Wynth bowed slightly at the endorsement. “The Knights have split into three groups,” he said his voice rough and deep. “We believe one small group is heading east to scout Cape, while another of maybe a hundred or so horsemen are heading south toward Manse. But the main army is still a fair distance from Cape and poses no danger to our forces at the moment.”
Jeffery Gaston was silent for a moment. He was nervous, on edge, and the fact that an Executioner managed to slip past him caused him to seriously doubt his own judgment. It left him uneasy as he wondered what other little surprises the enemy had in store for them. He was just relieved that Cyndar Huntley would live. She was far too beautiful for such a death; luckily she was a mighty fighter.
“I would still feel better if we were on the move,” Gaston finally said, which made Tanner smile; it grew wider as he caught movement at the mouth of the Scar Gap.
“Perhaps we soon will be,” he said in a low voice and raised his right hand for silence, though the Rhondono were well over a half mile below them. They watched as a small force of enemy soldiers, no more than two thousand men in all and less than a hundred horse, exited the Gap and headed along the north road toward Cape.
“Fools.” Gaston commented even as the enemy horsemen spread out away from the main body to scout for any possible danger hidden in the hilly countryside. A group of perhaps twenty to twenty-five riders headed directly for their grove, but Tanner and the rest did not stay around to be discovered. They moved back among the trees and then out and down the far side of the hill. They rode quickly several miles to the southeast to the main body of Massi cavalry, which now numbered nearly forty-five hundred.
“Contact Zebo and Sarbeth,” he told Wynth curtly and then formed up his men quickly. They were packed in tight formation but even still stretched for nearly a quarter of a mile.
“Captain Gaston, take two hundred men and eliminate the scouts heading our way. We’ll meet you at Bald Knock Hill,” Tanner ordered and the younger man nodded with a grin, happy to be attacking the enemy, happy to be delivering his own surprise.
Bald Knock Hill was a long, high piece of land that ran east and west for nearly seven miles and separated the hilly southern country from the low-lying area near the northern shore. The road to Cape ran directly at the base of the hill for more than three miles before angling toward the north and then continuing on its way to the second largest city in Massi.