The Sworn Knight by Robert Ryan (romance book recommendations TXT) 📗

down. It’s getting the chop, anda new one, twice the size, is on the way in.”

The man looked at him coldly. “I’ve heard nothing about it.”

Menendil shrugged, and left it at that. But his posture saidthat maybe the soldier was not as well informed as he thought he was.

The man did not like it. But he was half convinced, for whoelse would stand there with such confidence but someone who was doing what hewas supposed to be.

“Why on earth do it at night?” one of the other soldiersasked.

It was the very question that Menendil knew would be hardestto answer, and the most dangerous if he answered wrongly.

“The way I hear it, the king thought it would be a bad lookto have his statue pulled down in broad daylight. No, not a good look at all.So it was decided to do it at night, and have the new one up before the marketsopened in the morning.”

Menendil glanced eastward. “That won’t be too far off, lads.But if you want to hold things up while you wake His Majesty … I’mhappy to wait. As long as you take responsibility for the populace seeing hisstatue toppled, that is.”

The first soldier glared at him. “Where’s this new statue,then?”

“It’s coming. Won’t be long now,” Menendil said with an easyconfidence that he did not feel.

The three soldiers shuffled about uneasily. It was clearthey were not sure what was happening, and that was a tremendous advantage toMenendil. Uncertainty stifled action, and so it was that the three men ended upturning and walking back toward the palace without saying another word.

“Quickly,” Menendil urged his men, “let’s do this now.They’ll be back shortly with a senior officer and a lot more soldiers, unlessI’m mistaken.”

He did not think he was, nor did those around him. It hadbeen a close call, and had they been forced to kill the soldiers an alarm wouldhave been raised swiftly. They may not have had the time they needed to do whatthey intended.

The ropes pulled taught, and the men strained. Nothinghappened for a moment, and then there was a groan as the bronze statue shiftedon the stone plinth.

It happened slowly, but as they pulled the statue leanedprecariously, and then it rapidly toppled and fell. The men drew back out ofharm’s way, and the thing smashed onto the cobbles of the square with a massivetumult that shattered the silence of the night.

“Pull it away!” Menendil shouted. There was no point inwhispering now.

The men did so, creating quite a gap between the fallenstatue and the plinth. But the man with the chisel had already leapt to work.

This would be no work of art. Nor was that needed. All thatwas required was that the words were legible. Swiftly the man worked, and itwas hard to see in the dark. But there was light enough from the sparse starlight.

Several moments passed. There was noise from the palace, andthe gate opened. Soldiers rushed through. Menendil was not sure how many, forthey still seemed to be coming, but there was a dozen at least. He was about togive the order to flee, no matter that the words had not yet been fully carved,when a terrible cry tore the air. It came from above.

Menendil had only begun to look up when he heard thewarnings of Night Flier and elù-drak shouted by some of the men.

He crouched down to one knee, but shifted his gaze from thesky to the palace gate instead of continuing to look up. What was happeningthere was what mattered most, at least for a few moments.

The soldiers, alarmed by the cry, had also crouched low inan attempt to avoid any danger. Others had retreated to the gate. None, as ofyet, crossed the square.

“Keep going!” Menendil hissed at the man with the chisel.After a brief hesitation, he went back to work, and the sound of his hammer andthe flying of stone chips scattering across the cobbles as they landed wasloud.

There were more shouts, and Menendil, drawing his sword,looked up. Out of the dim sky a strange figure dived at them. He had never seenan elù-drak this closely before, and he wished he had not.

Like a bat it was, at least the wings. But its body was thatof a naked woman’s, and it screamed as it plummeted toward them.

“Do not look into its eyes!” Caludreth warned. “She canbewitch you!”

The elù-drak dived toward them, but a streak of fire leapedup to meet it. Caludreth had unleashed the magic of the knights, and thecreature of the dark had not expected it. The defense was needed, but it alsosignaled to the soldiers near the palace that the escaped prisoner they hadbeen seeking was here.

The Night Flier tumbled in the air, the side of her body redand blistered. But she landed on her feet, and even as she did so one handstruck out and clawed at a man’s throat. A moment he stood, and then reeledaway. She had crushed his windpipe, and the sound of his rasping breath and theblood that bubbled from his ruined neck showed that she had killed him, even ifhe was not dead quite yet.

Menendil charged at her with his sword. But Caludreth wasquicker. He thrust the tip of the blade in her belly, and Menendil hacked ather head but struck her shoulder instead.

The creature of the dark screamed, but it would take morethan this to kill her. She reeled back, blood running from her gut wound, butshe did not retreat.

Even as she stepped back, she moved to the side and with abeat of her wings launched herself full at Caludreth from a different angle.

Some of the other men had joined the fray now, and swordsstruck and stabbed at her. More blood flowed, but it was hard to strike her andnot Caludreth at the same time, for she had crashed into him, her handsstraining to reach his neck.

On the ground the two combatants fell, rolling and vying forlife and death. Her hands reached for his throat, and he had dropped his sword,useless as it was to him in this position, and fended her deadly