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All the betrayals that lay waiting outside this room where time, which would not stop, was going to carry them
Chapter 14
?RIDE!? ALESSAN CRIED, POINTING TOWARDS A GAP IN THE hills"There's a village beyond!"
Devin swore, lowered his head over his horse's neck, and dug his heels into the animal's flanks, following Erlein di Senzio west towards the gap and the low red disk of the sun
Behind him, thundering out of the brown twilight hills, were at least eight, possibly a dozen brigands of the highlandsDevin hadn't looked back, after their first startled glimpse of the outlaws and the shouted command to halt
He didn't think they had a chance, however close this village might beThey had been riding at a bone-jarring pace for hours and the horses Alienor had given them were tiredIf this was to be a flat-out race against chanel cambon handbags fresh-mounted outlaws they were probably deadHe gritted his teeth and rode, ignoring the ache in his leg and the sting of reopened cuts from his leap in the mountains earlier that day
The wind whistled past him as they rodeHe saw Alessan turn in his saddle, an arrow notched to his fully drawn bowThe Prince fired backwards once and then again into the twilight, his muscles ridged and corded with the effortAn improbable, desperate attempt at such speed in the windDevin quickly looked back and saw one of them fallA handful of erratic arrows dropped well short of the three of them
"They've slowed!" Erlein rasped, glancing back as well"How far to this village!"
"Through the gap and twenty minutes beyond! Ride!" Alessan did not shoot again, bending low to urge more speed from his own greyThey fled into the wind along the track of the chanel bag gold chain sun, between the shadowy bulk of two heathery hills and into the gap between
They didn't get out
Just where the path bent to follow the curve of the encroaching ridges eight riders were waiting in a line across the gap, bows calmly leveled at the three of them
They pulled their horses to rearing haltsDevin flung a glance back over his shoulder and saw the pursuing outlaws entering the pass behind themThere was one riderless horse, and another man clutched at his shoulder where an arrow was still embedded
He looked at Alessan, saw the desperate, defiant look in the Prince's eye
"Don't be a fool!" Erlein snapped"You can't run through and you can't kill this many men
"I can try," Alessan said, his eyes darting across the defile and up the steep hills on either side, wild to find a way outHe had stopped his horse though, and did chanel quilted bag classic black not raise the bow
"Straight into a trapWhat a splendid ending to two decades of dreaming!" His voice was corrosively bitter, raw with self-laceration
It was true though, Devin realized, rather too lateThis pass between the hills was a natural place for an ambush, and the Triad knew there were enough outlaws hi the wilds of southern Certando, where even the Barbadian mercenaries seldom went, and honest men were never abroad this close to the fall of nightOn the other hand, they hadn't had much choice, given how far they had to go, and how fast
It didn't seem as if they were going to get thereThere was still enough light to make out the outlaws, and their appearance did not reassureTheir clothing might be random and carelessly worn, but the horses were far from the beaten-down creatures most brigands rodeThe men in front of them canvas gucci bags looked disciplined, and the weaponry leveled at the three of them was formidableThis had also been, very clearly, a carefully laid trap
One man rode a few paces forward from the silent line"Release your bows," he said with easy authority"I don't like talking with armed men
"Neither do I," Alessan replied grimly, staring at the manBut a moment later he let his bow fall to the groundBeside Devin, Erlein did the same
"And the boy," the outlaw leader said, still softlyHe was a big man of middle years, with a large face and a full beard that showed deep red in the waning lightHe wore a dark wide-brimmed hat that hid his eyes
"I don't carry a bow," Devin said shortly, letting fall his swordThere was mocking laughter at that from the men in front of them
"Magian, why were your men in arrow range?" The bearded man said, more loudly tiffany jewelry wholesale now
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