Dust and Water: A Song For The Stained Novella (A MAGICAL SAGA) Read Online Free PDF Page A

into the horse’s sides like I’ve seen countless other riders do, and the big brown horse follows Ash.
    A horse I’m legally riding. A person who’s not out to hurt me. How did all of this good stuff come from such a great big mess?

Battle Clamour.

    ‘The neighbours’ consists of fifty or more men, including their older sons, all mounted and carrying swords and rushing with battle orders to fight off bandits.
    I’d like to be able to say that I just peacefully slip out of the back of the group and walk home – back to my pile of sacks in the cellar of a tavern.
    But I can’t go back home now, not without a hoard, or my pile-of-sacks bed becomes a kicked-out-on-the-street bed.
    The bandits have taken something of mine, and a part of me wants to see if I can’t get it back.
    The other, bigger, part of me just can’t walk away from all this energy. The people who aren’t trying to hit me, asking what my name is and who I’m here with. The cheers and war cries and the odd song that bursts out as the last of the neighbours are arriving.
    Which means I’m going to battle.
    Half the men stream out through the front gate and the other half through the back. I’m at the tail end of the back gate lot.
    It’s quite, no one’s talking and it’s right on dusk so light is already limited. We amble into and out of field after field.
    “We’ve got ‘em now boys,” Wallace says, letting out a low whistle.
    Three big dogs come running, sniff the ground and take off into the bush.
    “How does he know we’ve got them?” I ask no one in particular.
    “They’ve taken their dead,” Ash says. “They only ever take the fallen ones if they’re camped nearby, and they light a big fire to burn them. They only do that when they think they’re superior enough that they won’t be attacked. Tonight they’re wrong.”
    “Oh,” is all I can say.
    The crisp evening rings clear with the sound of twenty-five swords being drawn. The lead riders chase after the dogs and soon everyone else is diving into the trees, fanning out, giving each other room, and all tracking after the dogs.
    “You chicken?” Dom asks, nudging his horse to stand on my other side.
    I chuckle. “Wouldn’t know. I’ve never even eaten chicken. Damn sure they don’t hang around sharp objects either.”
    “Well, you better grow some muscles, kid, because this is going to get real messy.”
    “Been spying on me in the washroom again Dom?” I tease. “Because only the ladies know about my muscles.”
    A few of the men in front of us laugh and Dom’s face goes white.
    Dom draws his sword. “On second thought, maybe you should stay here – safe.”
    I reach down into the cuff of my boot and pull out a dagger as long as my forearm.
    “I think I’m pretty safe,” I say, the smile glued to my face by Dom’s wide-eyed and lost for words expression.
    The men in front of us disappear into the trees and it’s our turn to give chase. Dom spurs his horse, then Ash and the horse I’m on takes off after them. I’m almost the last person, but soon I’m not thinking about that. All of my energy goes into watching for low tree branches, logs on the ground, and spots where the trees are growing too dense to fit a horse through.
    I hold white-knuckle-tight to the reins and the mane and I really wish I hadn’t drawn my dagger because trying to hold on to that too, is difficult.
    The horse follows its herd, snorting at the ash and flesh smell, as we get closer to the fire.
    Noise, shouts, war cries. Limbs sticking out from under a tee-pee of sticks and smoke billowing up through the trees. Bandits, in rough clothing, and their hair so messed it’s stuck in giant clumps, against the farmers whose eyes are wide with battle-berserk. The horses dance around, their big glassy-eyes reflect the fingers of the fire; and children – tiny – dash into the trees to escape it all.
    They’re safe from us. None of these men would hurt a child.
    I finally notice that