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“Yes,” he said “I killed hiboas over five feet long when unstrung and fashioned from the heart-wood of a yew tree It could propel an arrow over two hundred paces, almost three hundred in skilled hands, and was quite capable of piercing plate arhtly thicker than most, the smoothness of the stave evidence of the extensive use it had seen Its owner had a keen eye, sending his steel tipped arrow clean through the ar noble with a fondness for poetry and a somewhat tiresome inclination to talk constantly about his betrothed who he claimed to be the fairest and kindest maid in all of Asrael, if not the world Sadly, he would never see her again His eyes were open but had lost all vestige of life His ns of a painful death; Cumbraelin archers tended to coat their arrowheads in a mixture of joffril root and adder venom The boner lay a few yards aith Vaelin’s shaft in his arm, his neck broken by the fall fro,” Barkus said, trudging through the snow, flanked by Caenis and Dentos “Looks like he was the only one” He kicked the dead archer’s head,to divest the corpse of any valuables
“Where’d all the soldiers go?” Dentos asked
“Scattered,” Vaelin said “Probably find et back”
“Bloody cowards” Dentos peered down at Martil Al Jelnek “Didn’t they like hih born”
“These supposed soldiers are the sweepings of the Varinshold dungeons, brother,” Caenis told him “They have no loyalty to any man save themselves”
“Did you find his horse?” Vaelin asked He didn’t relish the prospect of carrying the dead noble back to the ca fro the few coppers he had found He tossed the Cumbraelin’s quiver to Vaelin The arrows it held were stained ash black and fletched with raven’s feathers Their ene that?” He nodded at the bow “I could get ten silvers for it e get back to the city”
Vaelin kept hold of the weapon “Thought I’d see if I could ers train for a lifetime from what I hear Their Fief Lord re collection of coppers in his hand “Doesn’t seeht for their god not their Lord,” Caenis said “Money holds little interest for them”
They stripped the armour from Al Jelnek and heaved hi Barkus’s hand ahen it strayed to the dead man’s purse
“He won’t need it, will he?”
“We left the House seven o, for Faith’s sake!” Nortah snapped “You don’t need to steal any ed “It’s a habit”
Seven ht as theyCumbraelin Deniers in the Martishe forest aided, in the loosest sense, by Linden Al Hestian and his newly raised regiment of infantry Linden Al Hestian as conspicuously alive a fullday Vaelin felt the burden of his bargain weigh a little s The Martishe was not the Urlish, being both darker and denser, the trees so close to each other in some places that it was practically iround, dotted with hollows and gullies that made perfect ambush sites and forced them to abandon their horses They walked everywhere with bows ready and arrows notched Only the nobles a theets for the Cu nobles who had accompanied Linden Al Hestian to the Martishe four were dead and another three wounded so badly they had had to be carried out Their men had suffered worse, six hundred had been enlisted or pressed into the regione, killed or lost a when the chance arose Often they would findfor weeks, frozen in the snow or tied to a tree and tormented to death Their enemies had no use for captives
Despite the losses their so Caenis led theroup of over twenty Cu a creek, a clever move but of little value if Caenis was on their trail They followed for hours until their enemies paused to rest, hard faced bows on their backs, not expecting trouble The first volley cut down half, the rest turning and fleeing back along the creek bed The brothers drew their swords and hunted them down, none had escaped and none had asked for quarter Caenis was right, their eneod and displayed little reluctance in dying for him
The camp came into view a few miles later, in truth it was a stockade rather than an enca a sentry picket which had siht time archery practice Linden Al Hestian had been forced to order trees felled to provide ti in one of the few clearings to be found in the Martishe Vaelin and ent hated the damp oppression of the place and spent roups,their deadly game of chase with the Cumbraelins whilst Al Hestian’s soldiers sheltered in their stockade The sortie by the unfortunate Martil Al Jelnek had been the first for weeks, even then thebefore they would le arrow to set theht
A stocky brother with bushy, frost adorned eyebrows and a fierce gloaiting at the gate to the stockade At his side was a very large aze that could match its reeted him with a short bow Makril wasn’t ent he deserved a show of respect, especially in front of Al Hestian’s soldiery, so from Al Jelnek’s corpse to the dark wall of the forest as if a Cu at theed to hide his surprise when the Aspect had called hi at the red diamond shaped cloth in his hand, a bemused expression on his blunt features