Rescuing the Captive: The Ingenairii Series Read Online Free PDF Page A

wolves, and a forest like this was sure to be home to a pack that could lope along the roadside waiting for the right moment to attack.
    They kept climbing the gentle incline of the road, mounting higher along the side of a ridge, and the moonlight brightened as the cloud passed beyond it. The horses seemed slightly calmer, and Alec felt a faint hope that they had gotten beyond the threat. As the horses reached the top of the ridge, Alec saw a brief glimmer of light below in the next valley. He felt relief at the thought of reaching some settlement, and being among other people again. There would be safety there.
    The road began to slope downward, and the sight of the lights was lost behind the reach of the trees again as the road turned and twisted along the natural topography of the ridge. Several minutes later they reached a wide, sweeping hairpin turn, and began to descend back towards a bright blue star, low in the sky while the lights of the settlement at the bottom of the ridge were briefly visible again, noticeably closer. Alec could distinguish several discernibly separate lights grouped together.
    His attention was dramatically redirected as one of the horses screamed loudly, and the wagon began to slow down. Alec could see someone shambling alongside the horse, attempting to grab its bridle, but falling behind. He raised up off the bench, holding his crowbar, waiting for the attacker to drop back next to his position so he could beat him away, when he heard a scrambling sound behind him.
    Alec was astonished at the notion of a band of bandits trying to ambush his wagon in the dead of night without using weapons, and he fearfully expected to feel an arrow pierce his torso at any second. His moment to fight back was about to occur; he whipped the reins madly, urging the crazed horses to move out rapidly and began to swing the crowbar at the man in the front of the wagon as he came alongside Alec’s place.
    As the heavy metal bar made contact with the man’s skull, Alec saw to his horror that the face of the man was decayed, the eye sockets empty, and when the bar hit the head the skull broke and the neck tilted violently away, but the gruesome man only staggered and fell farther behind. Alec gaped in sickened horror at the sight of the dead body that was stumbling away, then turned and saw something sickening similar crawling up over the wagon bed towards him. At the same time the far lead horse screamed, and Alec momentarily saw another of the undead fall beneath the hooves of the galloping horses, and then he felt the wagon wheels violently ride over the body.
    Alec roiled the reins again, then jerked them just as violently, trying to slow the wagon as he saw another switchback turn quickly approaching. The heavy wagon and the wild horses were slow to respond, but the decrease in momentum tossed the crawling attacker on the wagon bed forward towards the bench.
    A flare of energy seemed to erupt in Alec, as he said a quick prayer, and grabbed the tumbling undead body, using its own momentum to throw it out of the wagon, towards the side where his vision seemed suddenly enhanced and he could detect three other members of the attacking crew trying to reach a position to fling themselves at the wagon.
    Bethany was awake, he realized. “Take these reins and hold them,” he told her. Without understanding why he believed it was possible, he stepped over the front of the wagon, and hopped from horseback to horseback, then landed on the ground in front the lead horses, and used some supernatural reservoir of strength to slow the wagon enough to allow it to safely make the sharp turn. He raced around the side of the team of horses, and threw himself at the legs of the pursuers, knocking all three of them down. He rolled and stood again, then raced back to the wagon, which was gaining a lead, and jumped back up onto the bench.
    “ What’s happening?” The young girl asked sharply as Alec took the reins from her and