Take the Darkness...: Epic Fantasy Series by julius schenk, Manfred Rohrer Read Free Book Online Page B

and feared them. This new King was living in a dream world where trade councils ran the realm. She had no idea how the King had even found out; surely, some farmer in Red River had run to the King’s couriers and inform him because they might have taken some crops and livestock without paying. What a world. Dierdra looked at the nervous courier and understood the boy’s fear. This had been written just a day or two after they had begun to march. Now her force was arrayed beneath the walls of the Keep and clearly readying an attack.
    She stood from behind the desk and approached the boy, who actually flinched as she came towards him. Luthor’s two Dark Guards stood at the boy’s sides; they hadn’t left after showing him into the tent.
    ‘So what do you see out there, boy?’She asked sweetly.
    The boy was terrified, but clearly smart enough to know the correct answer. ‘I see a training exercise.’ He said.
    Dierdra smiled, and pulling a few gold coins from her pocket, she pushed them into the boy’s shaking and sweating hand. ‘Good boy. Now, you take your time getting back home, and spend a few days dallying in Pellota on my coin.’
    The boy almost sighed with relief. He turned and was ushered out by the guards, who looked to the Duchess as they left and saw her make the sign of the cut across her neck. The guards just nodded and led him away. She could use his blood anyway, as she was starting to feel hungry again.
    She paced up and down in the tent with her fine leather boots clicking. She read the letter over and over again, and wished that her husband was here with her. She’d never liked this side of things, and was always much better at being the strong one by his side. Still, in almost every battle he’d fought and won, it had been by listening to her council. Now she just had to follow her own advice.
    She had to admire the young King for his organisation, and while she had no wish to get involved in a fight with the royal army, she didn’t have any choice but to try to make this quick and get the hell back to Twin Plains before he found out. Her Captain of the guards came back in and spoke to her.
    ‘The men are ready for the attack. We’ve 150 grapplers and three companies of archers. Should we proceed with the attack?’
    Dierdra slowly ripped up the King’s missive with her fine white fingers. ‘Of course.’
     
    ‘Hooks!’ The cry went up from a section of the wall and Grimm, axe in hand ran to the section. There were at least fifty crouching archers and guards spread along the wall, and more waiting in the courtyard to relieve them. He saw the three large metal hooks hanging over the wall and into the field below. He waited to the count of three, and then with quick cuts, leaned over the wall and severed the ropes holding them. The men attached to the ropes fell hard to the ground with the sound of broken bones and cries as arrows whistled past his head. They had archers in the field just waiting for a good shot.
    ‘Archers, scorpions, litter that field!’ Dagosh yelled as he saw what had happened. The huge scorpions fired their bolts into the field and the archers did the same, yet it was aiming at glinting metals and shadowy running figures in the dark.  Again, the cry of ‘hooks’ went up, and this time a young guardsman cutting the ropes got hit. He fell back hard with an arrow in his throat, the first death. Another guardsman managed to cut the ropes, but this time with the black clad soldiers of Twin Plains’ faces looking at him as they fell. This time, there were muffled thumps as they hit, but no cries.
    It was a cowardly way to fight a battle, thought Grimm, as he ran back and forth across the wall. Arrows were firing thick and fast from the dark field now, and his own troops of archers were answering back. They often found their targets in tracking where shots came from, but these cowards were literally firing once and then running to a different position. His own men were