Excerpt: Ambassador: Tirgalon Book 2

Logene jerked awake at the sound of a shout from the street outside. He jumped up, blundered across the dark room to the window, and threw open the shutters to admit the dim grey pre-dawn light. Curls of morning mist blanketed the ground, obscuring Logene’s vision. He squinted down but saw nobody. Maybe he had dreamed the shout.
“I heard it as well,” said Analise from the other side of the room.
“All’s silent now,” began Logene, and stopped, throwing up a hand to signal Analise to silence. He had heard something else, a sibilant scraping sound almost muffled by the mist. A shiver ran through him. He knew that sound.
Analise joined him at the window, her bare feet padding silently across the floor. She raised an eyebrow questioningly.
Logene shook his head at her, then leaned out the window and strained his ears. Now he heard nothing, but he didn’t think he had imagined the sound of a blade sliding from its sheath. Had he? No matter how hard he listened, he could no longer hear anything. Sighing, he turned away from the window. He was jumping at shadows.
“What did you hear?”
“I don’t know,” said Logene. “Probably nothing.”
Someone outside screamed suddenly, making Logene jump.
“Not nothing,” Analise said calmly.
More shouts joined the first, a babble of voices growing louder and more frantic. Someone’s voice rose in a terrified scream, and suddenly stopped. Logene’s heart jumped into his throat. Fire, flood, bandits? He spun away from the window and scrabbled beside his bed for his sword. “I’m going to help them,” he shouted, already halfway out the door. “Stay here!”
“I don’t intend to sit here in the dark waiting for you to come back!”
“Stay here!” Logene repeated.
Analise’s eyes flashed coldly. “I will not.”
He strode back across the room and shoved her down onto her bed. “You will! Analise, I don’t know what’s happening out there, but I can’t put you in harm’s way!”
“Don’t give me orders, Logene.”
“Then don’t make me give you orders! Just stay here!”
“I can help.”
A door slammed downstairs, and Marius shouted, “Bandits in the village! Kasha, take the children and get out!”
“Stay!” Logene yelled at Analise. He snatched his sword from the floor and took off at a run, almost falling down the steep stairs in his haste. “Marius! What’s happening?”
“The Bandit King!”
“He’s here?”
“His men, at least.”
“Where?”
“Everywhere!”
Logene squeezed the hilt of his sword so tightly that his fingers started going numb. He wasn’t ready for a real fight, not yet. Where was Derek? Logene cursed himself as an idiot. Why had he come so far? He knew never to spend the night away from Sparkwell without Derek’s permission.
“My lord?” asked Marius.
Taking a deep breath, Logene turned to his host. “Yes?” he asked, trying to sound calm.
“What shall we do, my lord?”
What should they do? A laugh tried to force its way out of Logene’s mouth. This was what Derek had been training him for. He was supposed to be a knight and a commander. Of course Marius looked to him for direction. But he couldn’t think.
“My lord?”
Logene said nothing. He could hear the shouting more loudly now, and the frightened sobbing of women and children. What should he do? Derek would tell him to leave, to get himself and Analise to safety. But Derek wasn’t here.
“It’s nothing but a training exercise,” said Analise’s calm voice in Logene’s ear.
He jumped and spun around. “It’s not a training exercise!”
“Pretend it is.”
Logene took a deep breath. Analise was right; he needed to clear his head. Stop thinking about the people outside and only think about how to stop the bandits. He nodded. “Analise, go to safety,” he said firmly.
She met his eyes for a moment with her cold, inscrutable gaze, then jerked her head in a sharp nod and started back up the stairs.
“Marius, we need to begin by gathering all the men we can.”
“Yes, my lord.” Marius threw open a cupboard and pulled out a long kitchen knife. His face glowed with determination. “This way.”
Logene followed Marius out of his house and down a small side street. The shouts and cries faded away to his right, then grew louder as they turned again and circled back toward the center of the village.
Five men raced out of a nearby alley, armed with axes and machetes. “Marius!” yelled one, sliding to a stop. “Altare’s men!”
“I know,” said Marius. He glanced sideways at Logene.
“How many?” Logene asked. He clutched his sword more tightly than ever, trying to prevent his hands from shaking.
The men all glanced uncertainly at one another. “At least a score,” said one after an interminably long moment.
“What are they doing?”
“Herding everyone to the center of town.”
Logene nodded and tried to force himself to think logically. It was like an exercise; Derek and Father had given him hundreds of similar scenarios over the years. “We must come at them from the outside,” he said. Was that correct? All the exercises blurred together in his mind until he could not remember what to do. If the bandits gathered in the center of town, the defenders must encircle them and pin them down. That had to be correct.
“There’s fighting in the streets,” said one of the newcomers, brandishing his machete uncertainly. “We’re not letting them in our town without a fight!”
“We must get closer to the town center,” said Logene. He glanced down at his sword, clutched in his white-knuckled hands, and clipped it to his belt. His hands started trembling as soon as he released his grip. “Aldor’s wind guide me,” he breathed.
“This way,” said Marius again, and they all raced down the street. “Turn the corner and you’ll see them,” Marius whispered.
Logene drew his sword and peered around the building. A quick glance showed him a group of men with sturdy bamboo spears, herding people toward the open village square. Everything beyond them vanished in a blur of mist.
“That’s my sister!” shouted one of the men behind Logene.
“Quiet!” Logene hissed, but too late.
One of the bandits turned around and saw Logene. “Go gather them up!” he growled, and several men split away from the group.
Logene stood frozen for a heartbeat, then flung himself back around the corner. “Get ready!” he shouted. “We’ll have to fight them!” He glanced frantically at Marius and the other five, armed with nothing but common tools. Seven of them against four bandits, but Logene was the only one with combat training. And the bandits had longer weapons. He bit his lip and turned to face the attackers.
The four bandits rushed around the corner as one, and Logene’s training snapped his muscles into action before he could think. He swept his sword up to knock aside one of the bandits’ spears, then stepped forward, close enough to render the spear useless, and slashed. He felt his blade slice into flesh, and the man staggered back with a cry of pain and quickly ducked out of the fight, retreating the way he had come.
Another bandit lunged forward with his spear, pushing Logene against the wall of the house. He parried automatically and stumbled sideways out of range. A quick glance showed him that Marius and two of the other villagers had fallen. Then a spear jabbed at him again, and he jumped back, barely blocking the stab. He couldn’t let himself get distracted again.
Two fo the remaining villagers fled into the nearest alley, and the third fell with a spear through his belly. Logene struck wildly, trying to parry three weapons at once. He knew it was impossible, even for an excellent swordsman. And he had never been more than a decent swordsman. The bandits had the longer reach; he couldn’t touch them, but at any instant one of their spears would slide past his guard.
Suddenly, one of the bandits crumpled with a red-feathered arrow in his back. The other two sprang back, staring wildly for the source of the arrow. Another bolt struck the second bandit in the neck; he collapsed, gurgling horribly. There was something unreal about the sight of Derek’s red-fletched arrows at the centers of two growing pools of blood.
Logene jerked to his senses and swept out with his sword, slashing the last bandit across the chest and bringing him down. The fight ended as suddenly as it had started, leaving Logene standing alone. He stared at the dead and wounded on the ground. He had just killed one of them, hadn’t he? There was blood on his sword.
“With me, Logene!” bellowed Derek’s voice.
Logene looked up as the tall knight strode toward him. “Altare’s men are attacking, Sir,” he said needlessly, feeling that he had to say something.
“With me!” Derek repeated. His eyes blazed furiously. “Where’s your sister?”
“Marius’s house.”
Derek turned sharply down the nearest street, angling away from the village square toward Marius’s home without glancing back.
Logene followed.