Cursed by Frank Miller

Author:Frank Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 2019-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

Meanwhile, a dozen Red Paladins dodged a volley of arrows and galloped into the forest to meet the ambush head-on.

With their arrows spent, Faun archers scattered and bounded away like deer, their antlers flashing in the light of the paladin torches.

“In the trees!” one of the paladins shouted. All eyes looked up to see shadowy bodies with long arms, framed against the moon, darting through the canopy branches with inhuman agility.

The horsemen rode deeper into the darkness, the leader locking in on an injured Faun, who had separated from the group but who was, even at a hobble, still unnaturally fast. But the Red Paladin had been killing from horseback for months and chopped the Faun’s head clean between the antlers without breaking stride.

Having recovered from the surprise of the ambush, the Red Paladins organized and spread out into a wider circle, trapping the Faun archers and several families of Marsh Folk in a ring of trees. As taught, the Red Paladins herded their prey by slowly closing the circle of horses. They barked and yipped like animals to enhance the fear of those trapped. A panicking Faun tried to leap over the horses, but one of the monks was ready and timed his swing perfectly, opening the Faun’s guts in midair. This gave the paladins a surge of confidence and they whooped louder, closing in for the kill.

The commander shouted, “Horned devils first!”

Marsh Folk pleaded and covered the heads of their children as the paladins’ swords rose into the air.

Yet before the first blow fell, a loud snuff resounded behind the paladin leader, along with a crunching of leaves. The leader threw up his hands, signaling a pause, and carefully turned his horse to the shadows of the glade. He waved his torch in front of him and the spreading light caught upon large, dark eyes concealed in the lattice of swamp branches. What followed was a squeal loud enough to panic the paladins’ horses. The commander lived long enough to see the head of a giant boar erupt from the gloom to a chorus of snapping branches. Its saber-like tusks, each the length of a jouster’s lance, dipped low, then swung up under the paladin’s horse, flipping both rider and mount into the trees, where they were impaled upon the twisting branches. They hung there like scarecrows as blood and leaves rained down upon the others.

The paladins’ confidence vanished as pandemonium broke out.

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