Fire Dance Read Online Free PDF

knights to reach the narrow pass between the steep fells and gaze down at the sea of dark green, flowing like waves over the hills. Chrétien spurred his horse and rode up to Alain's side in the narrow gap at the pass.
    A whine, a thunk. Chrétien howled with pain.
    Chrétien clutched at an arrow's shaft protruding from his neck. His horse reared. Alain goaded his horse against Chrétien's big grey, lunged and steadied him. He snatched the grey's reins, pulled the beast up short.
    "Steady, Chrétien. I have it." Alain grasped the shaft, groped for the point. Not deep, stopped by Chrétien's sturdy mail. He jerked the arrow free.
    "On the ridge! There!" shouted the Norseman, Thorkel.
    Above them. High up, on the lobbed off peak where Thorkel pointed.
    "Thomas, see to this." Alain yelled, motioning to Chrétien's wound.
    "There's no trail up there!" shouted Hugh, springing down from his saddle. "The climb's too steep for the horses."
    "Take three men, Thorkel. Hugh, you go. See if you can catch him."
    The same flurry of brown skirted the knob of rock at the fell's peak, then again vanished. Hugh dashed up the slope after Thorkel.
    "Go, Alain," said Chrétien.
    Alain glanced at his friend. The bleeding was light. Thomas crammed a cloth between wound and hauberk, his silvery eyebrows furrowing as he bent to the task.
    Alain flung himself down from his saddle and climbed, clawing at rock and bracken until he reached the ridge just below the rounded knob.
    The four men stood on the ridge, breathing hard, staring at the wild tangle of rock, soil, bracken and pine that covered the far side of the fell. Swords drawn, ready. At nothing.
    "Naught?"
    "Nay, lord," said Hugh. "Not even a grouse disturbed."
    Alain trained his eyes on the knob where he had seen that flash of brown, climbed to it, and knelt to the ground from where he guessed the shot had come. White streaks on the dark stone suggested the scrape of metal. The thin soil showed the imprint of a knee among a tangle of shallow, pointed footprints. Downslope past the knob, two widely spaced prints showed the direction the man had fled. Nothing stirred beyond. The stony ground revealed no more prints.
    "One man only, I think," he said, more to himself than to his men. "Reason enough to flee after only one shot. And he could not have hoped to create much harm from such a distance."
    "He aimed for your face," said Hugh. "Chrétien merely rode between and caught the shaft in his neck."
    "An archer of some talent, then."
    "And one who would see the new lord dead. You must be wary of these folk."
    "Mayhap." Certain the archer was gone, Alain gave a sharp sideways jerk of his head for a command and worked his way back down the slope to the pass.
    "Chrétien?" he asked as he reached his friend again.
    "Well enough."
    "Only one link of the mail was severed, lord." Thomas daubed at the gash beneath the mail coif. "It should heal without trouble."
    "And you, Thomas?"
    "I, lord?"
    "What think you of this ambush? Mayhap you can tell us who conspires against us."
    "Aye, I can. There are those who have not pledged themselves. Those who fear losing their fiefs to Norman knights."
    "And well they might. But you, Thomas?"
    "By the Lady Melisande's wish, I have given mine, as you know."
    "And as you have led us into an ambush, shall I still give you my trust?"
    The man's wide mouth drew tight and thin, and his face set hard. "It is for you to say, lord."
    Their eyes locked gaze in fierce combat. Thomas stood his ground.
    "How would this man have known our direction?"
    "I know not, lord, but it would not have been hard to guess."
    "How so?"
    "The new lord would want to see his holding immediately. And it is well known the Normans are fond of their forests."
    "True enough," said Chrétien. "That is how you would have planned it."
    It was. And Thomas did not quail from his lord's hard gaze. "I shall reserve my judgment for another time. Chrétien, do you ride?"
    "Aye, Alain. It is but a minor