The Ruby Knight

they reached the crest of the ridge where Tel signalled for a halt. ‘The next part might be tricky,’ he told Sparhawk. ‘The road runs down a ravine, and there’s no way for us to work our way around it from this end. The place is one of Dorga’s favourites, so he’s likely to have quite a few men there. I’d say that the best thing for us to do is to go through it at a dead run. An archer has a little trouble shooting downhill at moving targets – at least I always did.’
    ‘How far is it until we come out of the ravine?’
    ‘About a mile.’
    ‘And we’ll be in plain sight all the way?’
    ‘More or less, yes.’
    ‘We don’t have much choice, though, do we?’
    ‘Not unless you want to wait until after dark, and that would make the rest of the road to Heid twice as dangerous.’
    ‘All right,’ Sparhawk decided. ‘You know the country, so you lead the way.’ He unhooked his shield from his saddle-horn and strapped it on his arm. ‘Sephrenia, you ride right beside me. I can cover you and Flute with the shield. Lead on, Tel.’
    Their plunging run down the ravine took the concealed brigands by surprise. Sparhawk heard a few startled shouts from the top of the ravine, and a single arrow fell far behind them.
    ‘Spread out!’ Tel shouted. ‘Don’t ride all clustered together!’
    They plunged on. More arrows came whizzing down into the ravine, dropping among them now. One arrow shattered on the shield which Sparhawk was holding protectively over Sephrenia and Flute. He heard a muffled cry and glanced back. One of Tel’s men was swaying in his saddle, his eyes filled with pain. Then he slumped over and fell heavily to the ground.
    ‘Keep going!’ Tel ordered. ‘We’re almost clear now!’
    The road ahead came out of the ravine, passed through a stretch of trees and then curved along the side of a cliff that dropped steeply down into a gorge.
    A few more arrows arched down from the top of the ravine, but they were falling far behind now.
    They galloped through the stretch of trees and on out along the side of the cliff. ‘Keep going!’ Tel commanded again. ‘Let them think we’re going to run all the way through here.’
    They galloped on along the face of the cliff. Then the wide ledge upon which the road was built bent sharply inward to the point where the cliff-face ended and the road ran steeply down into the forest again. Tel reined in his panting horse. ‘This looks like a good place,’ he said. ‘The road narrows a little way back there, so they’ll only be able to come at us a couple at a time.’
    ‘You really think they’ll try to follow us?’ Kurik asked.
    ‘I know Dorga. He may not know exactly who we are, but he definitely doesn’t want us to get to the authorities in Heid. Dorga’s very nervous about the notion of having large groups of the sheriff’s men sweeping through these mountains. They have a very stout gallows in Heid.’
    ‘Is that forest down there safe?’ Sparhawk asked, pointing down the road.
    Tel nodded. ‘The brush is too thick to make ambushes feasible. That ravine was the last stretch that’s really dangerous on this side of the mountains.’
    ‘Sephrenia,’ Sparhawk said, ‘ride on down there. Kurik, you go with her.’
    Kurik’s face showed that he was about to protest, but he said nothing. He led Sephrenia and the children on down the road towards the safety of the forest.
    ‘They’ll come fast,’ Tel said. ‘We went past them at a dead run, and they’ll be trying to catch up.’ He looked at the ruffian with the longbow. ‘How fast can you shoot that thing?’ he asked.
    ‘I can have three arrows in the air at the same time,’ the fellow shrugged.
    ‘Try for four. It doesn’t matter if you hit the horses. They’ll fall off the edge of the cliff and take their riders with them. Get as many as you can, and then the rest of us will charge. Does that sound all right, Sparhawk?’
    ‘It’s workable,’ Sparhawk agreed. He shifted the shield on his left arm and then drew his sword.
    Then they heard the clatter of horses’ hooves coming fast along the rocky ledge on the other side of the sharp curve. Tel’s archer climbed down from his horse and hung his quiver of arrows on a stunted tree at the roadside where they would be close at hand. ‘These are going to cost you a quarter-crown apiece, Tel,’ he said calmly, drawing an arrow from the quiver and setting it to his bowstring. ‘Good arrows are