Page 122 of Bride of Ice
His relief didn’t last long.
In the next moment, two English knights came at him with raised blades, demanding his undivided attention.
The length of his claymore gave him an advantage. At first. His reach exceeded theirs, keeping them at a safe distance.
But it was a slow and heavy weapon. And when a third enemy soldier began to engage him, he was unable to recover quickly enough. He was clipped under the chin with the pommel of an English blade.
His head snapped back, and his helm tumbled off. Simultaneously, the second man’s blade grated along his chain mail sleeve, nearly stripping the gauntlet and claymore from his hand.
Then the first stepped in to give him a hard shove with his shield. Colban’s heel caught on a stony prominence, and he fell backwards.
Thankfully, he had the presence of mind to keep his grip on the claymore. He braced his elbow on the ground and held the point aloft. As the knight lunged forward to give Colban a killing blow, the man’s belly met the point of Colban’s blade. Momentum drove the claymore deep under his ribs, killing him instantly.
Unfortunately, as the slain man fell, he took the claymore with him, leaving Colban to face the two remaining foes without a weapon.
Without a helm.
Without a hope.
Chapter 31
Hallie sensed danger.
Like Isabel with her feelings about the future, she could tell when one of her own was in mortal peril in a skirmish. It was almost as if she had a falcon’s eye view of the battle and could detect where her help was needed.
This time it was Feiyan.
Her agile cousin was leaping about with her usual skill, confounding the English with her strange weapons—a great fork that snapped swords in half, flying steel stars, and the slim, curved blade that looked frail, but was sharper and more lethal than any English longsword.
But though she’d managed to perplex three English knights who staggered about with damaged weapons and bodies, Feiyan didn’t see the fourth man stealing up on her between two of his companions.
Hallie loped toward her cousin, clearing a path with a violent sweep of her sword. Just as Feiyan’s eyes brightened in recognition, the man behind Feiyan lunged toward her.
Hallie wasted no time. She gave her cousin a hard sideways shove with her shield that widened Feiyan’s eyes, but moved her out of peril. Then, using the back of her sword and the force of her shoulder, Hallie hacked at the attacker just below his knees, felling him like an ancient fir.
She didn’t stay to see what happened next. Feiyan could handle what hazard remained.
Instead, her gaze was drawn again to the most immediate danger.
Colban.
He was downed. Blood trickled from his chin. He had no weapon. No helm. Just his shield. And that was quickly torn away by one of the two English knights brandishing swords over him.
If she’d had another instant to waste, dread would have kicked her in the stomach, stunning her to inaction.
But she didn’t think.
She acted on impulse. Before she could be frozen by fear.
“To me!” she cried in savage demand.
She suddenly thought of Brand’s hedgehog maneuver.
Against every instinct, she dropped her sword. In the few moments when Colban’s attackers were distracted by her cry, she dove forward in mid-air with all the intensity of a hawk on the hunt.
At the last instant, she ducked her head, forming a tight ball and rolling once across the sod. Mid-plunge, she crossed her arms to pluck twin daggers from their sheaths at her waist.
When she rolled onto her feet again, she was too close to her foes for them to use their swords. Not that they would have had time to slash at her. She instantly thrust her daggers outward with killing force, plunging them into the enemies’ shocked hearts.
