Tavi watched, but could see that Atsurak was at a disadvantage too serious to overcome. Overwhelmed by sheer physical power, too hurt to get away, it would only be a matter of time. Doroga’s hands lifted and locked around the hordemaster’s throat. Atsurak locked his hands onto Doroga’s, but Tavi could see that it would be a hopeless effort.
Tavi stared, unable to look away — but something drew his attention, a faint motion in the background. He glanced up and saw the Marat all focused on the contest, stepping closer, eyes bright. Hashat was all but panting, her eyes open too wide as she watched Doroga’s struggle.
Beside Hashat, though, Tavi saw that Skagara, the Wolf headman, had taken a step back, behind her vision. He reached a hand back behind him, and Tavi saw one of the Wolf warriors touch a stone-tipped arrow into a small clay jar, then pass it to Skagara, together with one of the short Marat bows. Moving quickly, the Wolf headman drew the poisoned arrow, and lifted the bow.
“Doroga!” Tavi shouted. “Look out!”
Doroga’s head snapped up, at Tavi and then over at Skagara. Doroga rolled, and wrenched Atsurak’s form between himself and the would-be assassin.
Tavi saw Atsurak draw the Aleran dagger with its gold hilt from his belt and slash wildly at Doroga’s hand. The Gargant headman cried out and fell back, and Atsurak rolled free of his grip.
“Kill them!” shouted the hordemaster, his eyes blazing. “Kill them as we did the Fox! Kill them all!”
Doroga roared and rose to his feet, charging toward Atsurak.
Without a breath of hesitation, Skagara loosed the poisoned arrow. Tavi saw it flicker across the brief distance between them and vanish into Doroga’s arm with a meaty crack. The Gargant headman went down.
Hashat spun, her saber flashing in the sun as she drew it, and cut through Skagara’s bow and the Wolf headman’s throat in the same slash, sending him to the ground in a sudden wash of blood.
The courtyard erupted into chaos. The great Herdbane birds near Atsurak screamed as he turned to them and flicked a hand at Doroga. They charged the fallen Gargant headman. At the same time, Doroga’s gargant bellowed and rolled forward to his defense. Outside the walls, what had been hushed silence erupted once more into tumult and cacophony. Hashat’s clan charged forward, toward the fallen Doroga, and Atsurak’s warriors did the same.
Fade let out a wail and clutched hard at Tavi’s shirt.
“The knife!” he heard Amara yell. “Get the dagger!” The Cursor started forward, only to be stopped by the sudden press of Marat warriors, spears glittering with the same dark deadliness as the eyes of the herdbanes beside them. The Aleran troops fell into lines, even as Bernard grabbed at his sister’s arm, and Amara’s, and dragged them both back behind the shields of the troops.
Fade let out a screech of fear and turned to follow Bernard, mindlessly dragging Tavi along.
“Fade!” Tavi protested.
“The knife!” screamed Amara. “Without the dagger, it’s all for nothing!”
Tavi didn’t stop to think. He just dropped his weight, lifting his arms up and slipping out of the too-big tunic. He rolled to his feet, looked around the courtyard wildly, and then ran toward the downed Atsurak. The hordemaster’s warriors now either engaged the Alerans or faced Doroga’s furious gargant and were far too occupied to notice the fleeting form of one rather small boy.
Atsurak watched the melee around Doroga’s gargant. The great beast had rumbled forward and crouched over Doroga’s fallen form, swinging its huge head, clawing, kicking, and bellowing at anyone who came close. Tavi licked his lips and saw Doroga’s fallen cudgel. He picked it up, though it was a strain, prepared to give it one good swing at Atsurak’s head, grab the knife, and run back to his uncle.
Instead, there was a sudden rush of wind that threw up hay (what was hay doing all over the courtyard?) and dust and blinded him, all but throwing him down. Tavi shielded his eyes, looking up to see several men in black tunics and armor, wielding weapons of steel, hovering over the courtyard. One of them had his hand extended toward Atsurak and must have been controlling the winds that buffeted the courtyard.
Another Knight Aeris swept down and dropped the same innocuous-looking, balding man Tavi had seen before onto the stones of the courtyard. The man stepped forward to the blinded Atsurak, and with a casual jerk on the man’s hair and a short knife, cut the hordemaster’s throat.
The hordemaster jerked and twisted wildly, and the dagger flew from his hand, skittering over the stones of the courtyard and landing in a clump of hay not far from Tavi.
“The dagger!” barked the man with the bloodied knife. “Get the dagger!”
Tavi stared at the man standing over Atsurak’s jerking, twitching form. He had no doubt that this man would kill him just as quickly. But he also knew that the man was not loyal to the Crown, that he had been pursuing Amara and Tavi, and that he had tried to hurt his aunt and uncle.
Two days ago, Tavi thought, he might have let the man recover the dagger. He might have turned and run. He might have found someplace to hide until all of this was over.
“Two days ago,” Tavi breathed, “I had a lot more sense.”
Then he darted forward, seized the dagger where it lay, and began to run.
“There!” Tavi heard the man yell. “He’s got the dagger! Kill that boy!”
CHAPTER 43
Tavi ran for his life.
The courtyard was a mass of confusion and motion, but he knew the one direction he had to go: away from the man who had killed Atsurak. Tavi spun, dashed around a pair of struggling Marat warriors, and fled toward the other side of the fort. He heard a roar of wind above him, and then a sudden burst of it sent him tumbling along the ground. Tavi yelped and tried to make sure that he didn’t stab himself to death with the knife in his hand, rolling and bumping along the stones of the courtyard.
When he came to a stop, he looked up to see a Knight Aeris in full armor diving toward him, the spear in his hand held extended. Tavi clawed at his pockets. Even as the Knight came on, Tavi hurled a handful of rock salt he had taken from Bernardholt’s smokehouse at the oncoming Knight, and then dove frantically to one side.
The Knight let out a sudden shout, clawing at the air — but he dropped to the ground, moving too fast, skipped along for a pair of desperate steps, and began to tumble end over end on the unforgiving stones. Tavi heard one of his limbs hit with a sharp crack of impact, and the Knight shrieked.
Tavi regained his feet, looking around him wildly. More Knights Aeris had risen above the courtyard, looking for him. On the other side of a struggling knot of legionares, the huge swordsman Tavi had seen in the stable at Bernardholt spotted him and came toward him, sword lifting to clean any opposition out of his way. The man who had killed Atsurak was nowhere to be seen.