Wizard's Blood [Part Two] Read Online Free PDF Page B

the larger bones on its way through.
    Asari and Luzoke listened carefully for any signs of alarm. Asari had already slipped the third arrow into place on the bow, and waited ready to cock and release if needed. They heard nothing. There were no signs of alarm. Quickly slipping out of their concealment on the side of the trail, they hurried up and past the two dead men. Asari hated to leave the arrows behind, but there was simply no time to waste recovering them. He and Luzoke continued past the dead men, scanning ahead for further danger. Their luck didn’t hold, and as they made the next small turn in the trail they saw a group of five soldiers headed down the trail in their direction. One of the approaching soldiers noticed them as well, and pointed their way saying something to his companions.
    “ Uh-oh,” said Luzoke, who’d been the first to see the approaching group.
    Luzoke and Asari turned and headed back down the trail, soon passing the two men they had killed a few minutes before.
    “ Turn left off the trail at the stream,” Asari said as they ran. The stream was just around the bend from where they had ambushed the guards. They had stopped briefly for a drink and Asari remembered a place a bit up the hillside where they could make a stand.
    They could hear the group behind them coming at a run. They could hear they were talking, probably making plans, but couldn’t make out the words. Asari reached the turnoff first, and sprinted up the soft hillside, slipping a bit on the pine needles as he scrambled for the trees ahead.
    “ Keep going up the hill so they can see you. I’m going to take a shot from the first tree.”
    As they passed the two trees Asari was pointing to, Luzoke continued on, staying clearly in view from below rather than taking advantage of the cover to try and remain hidden. The approaching soldiers saw him and assumed Asari was even further ahead. They started up the hillside after them. It was a fatal mistake for the first two. The two trees formed a ‘V’, and Asari suddenly popped up and released his first arrow. Once again, a man suddenly dropped dead from the passage of an arrow through the center of his chest. A second arrow followed the first, and the next man crumpled, falling back into the third man knocking him off balance.
    Wisely, Asari ducked and started moving up the hill, only he stayed low and tried to remain hidden. The men below had had enough, and then suddenly started firing, even though they didn’t have a clear target. The lever action rifles spit round after round as the men peppered the hillside in response to the deaths of their comrades.
    So much for quiet, Asari thought as the report of gunfire echoed through the hills. Suddenly he stumbled as something slapped hard along his thigh. Recovering, he reached down and felt, his hand coming up bloody when he checked. One of the soldiers had gotten lucky. His leg felt a bit numb as if someone had hit it with a heavy stick, but he was still able to walk. He started back up the hill after Luzoke, but moving slower than he liked.
    The three soldiers were closing the distance, and they suddenly came around the bend down the trail and could now see Asari. He’d slipped the bow back over his shoulder and now had the rifle in his right hand, but his current position standing on the trail and favoring his left leg was awkward, and they would be able to shoot him before he could get a single accurate shot off.
    The first of the soldiers raised his rifle to shoot, when a blinding flash of light blasted past Asari and engulfed the man. He seemed to simply disappear. Two more flashes followed almost immediately, and the remaining two soldiers disappeared in a brief flash of white as well.
    “ No choice,” said Luzoke grimly, looking down the trail where the three men had stood moments before and realizing he’d just violated one of the rules the College had tried to drill into him the past several years. These men hadn’t