Page 11 of The Sorcerer's Alpha

Marut scoffed. “There’s no use defending this valley.”

“The Skopoy have creatures of some sort,” the wizard said, coming up to them with the wrapped tent a tidy package in his arms. “I’m meant to capture or kill one. That’s why the king sent me here.”

Keerti spat on the ground. “And here I am being told nothing. This is worse than foolish. All right. Marut, gather your team. We’ll ride to aid our troops and deliver the sorcerer to his task.” He met and held Marut’s gaze. “The orders I gave you before still stand.”

“What’s the word from the lookouts?” Marut asked.

“Skopoy troops gathered at this mouth of the valley. No attempt yet to attack at this end.”

“Understood,” Marut said. There would be no escape without fighting their way through, then. The horses might all make it up the hillside, but the ridge at the top was too narrow for them to get the footing to go down the other side. And going on foot through the badlands was a death sentence.

His team was ready, all of them with their bedding and saddlebags tied to their horses. “Three ahead and three behind,” he told them, “and you between,” pointing to the wizard. “Follow my lead. If I say to go, we go.”

They all nodded. Marut turned Bunny toward the valley’s mouth.

Their progress was limited to a trot by the soldiers running in the same direction and all the tents and fires strewn around in no pattern. No wonder the Skopoy were making such inroads if this was how the Chedoy army operated. Marut ground his teeth together and mastered his frustration. Better not to ride headlong into night combat.

Ahead of them, the shouting took on a new tone, and a shrill, inhuman scream filled the air, loud enough that Marut raised one hand to cover his ear. The horses all shied in tandem.

“What isthat,” Agasti said, a question none of them could answer.

Marut grimly nudged his heels against Bunny’s sides, and Bunny moved forward again, although he held his ears pinned back to show that he was displeased about it.

The scream came again, louder than before. “Stop here,” the wizard said, and Marut brought Bunny to a halt and turned to look at him. In the fire-lit darkness, his face bore no expression, and he met Marut’s gaze without wavering.

“What is it?” Marut asked.

The wizard dismounted and crouched on the ground. As he had on the ridge, he pressed a hand to the earth and closed his eyes. Marut saw Jyoti and Nilay exchange a glance. They waited in the unquiet night, soldiers streaming forward around them, and the rest of their patrol continuing ahead of them. Another scream sounded. After a tense, endless minute, the wizard rose to his feet and said, “Our troops are outmatched. The valley won’t hold.”

CHAPTER5

Marut’s first thought was that Keerti had been right. If any of them survived this, it was Keerti’s doing.

His second thought was that they needed to get out of the valley. “Nilay, ride ahead and find Keerti,” Marut began, and then was interrupted by a sudden shift in the flow of infantry. A soldier ran past them in the other direction, eyes wide and white in the darkness, then another. The sounds of human screams echoed off the valley walls. Horses fled, many of them riderless. “Never mind,” Marut said. “Follow me.”

The Chedoy army wasn’t made of cowards. Whatever these men had seen was beyond words.

He directed his team to a hollow in the canyon’s wall, out of the path of the panicked soldiers. When he saw another scout team go past, he whistled sharply, the bird-like whistle they used to signal to each other in the wilderness, and the team leader wheeled her horse around and joined them.

“What news,” Marut said.

“Beasts,” the woman said, wild-eyed and sweating. “Like men, but twice as tall as a man, and they move around on all fours, and have tusks. At least five of them that I saw. And a full complement of troops behind them. Keerti is bringing the patrol back this way with all the cavalry he can muster. We’re going to fight through the southern canyon and ride to Beas.”

A disaster, but they had no other choice. This was no time to stay and fight. He had to protect the wizard.

“Let’s head that way, then,” Marut said, already turning Bunny to leave the hollow. Soldiers were running past in a steady stream, some of them catching at riderless horses as they passed and swinging themselves up onto their backs. Marut rode with Jyoti at his left and Nilay at his right, their horses close enough together to prevent soldiers from cutting between them. Even with that three-across barricade, they were buffeted on all sides by fleeing men.

As they drew nearer to the southern end of the valley, Marut saw a vast crowd of people milling around. The soldiers had run out of room to run; there was nowhere to go but up the slopes or through the canyon. Marut did see some attempting to scramble up to the ridge, but most, having considered their options, were rallying to a cavalryman on a white horse who was shouting orders to direct the troops into action.

“Chandran, go ask that man what his plan is,” Marut said, and Chandran nodded and rode off.

Another scout team approached, and with them, Keerti on his piebald stallion. Marut whistled to them and they came wading through the sea of soldiers, all of them looking more frightened than Marut had ever seen.

“We can’t linger here,” Keerti said, raising his voice to be heard over the commotion. “Is the canyon blocked?”

“I sent Chandran to speak with that cavalryman,” Marut said, pointing to the rider, who was now sending archers up the slopes.

Keerti swore. “There’s no time for this. The colonel is dead, the camp is overrun. We’ve been routed. The Skopoy will be on us in minutes.”