Dragonfire by Charles S. Jackson

Author:Charles S. Jackson [Jackson, Charles S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Darren Lethaby
Published: 2018-11-25T22:00:00+00:00

The hallway was short, narrow and surprisingly empty. Four metres to their left stood a pair of closed doors while a similar distance to their right, the corridor ended in another, rather solid-looking wooden door reinforced with thick bands and bolts or iron. An ornate emblem depicting a blue bird of prey on a golden background adorned its centre, and it was obvious even to Nev that they were looking at some kind of official emblem.

“Royal Crest of Huon,” Godfrey explained in a whisper, momentarily at a loss as to which way to go. That’d have to be Baal’s private quarters. Doubt there’s any escape in that direction, so I guess that means the only way out is through there…” he added, nodding toward doors at the other end of the hall.

“You’re not sure?” She asked nervously, clearly struggling with Lester in her arms; he’d started moaning softly now – hopefully a good sign.

“Well, I was out cold when they brought me here… don’t know about you…” he shot back with a faint smile. “Come on… let’s…”

He was cut off as those same doors flew suddenly open, revealing a set of steps that presumably led upward in the direction of the main deck. The matter of the two guards now standing in the doorway was not an insignificant one however, although the collective shock regarding the presence of both parties left each staring at the other in surprise for an excruciatingly long moment.

“Guards…! Intruder…!”

The cry of alarm galvanised everyone into action and Godfrey was first to react, lifting the crossbow and firing a bolt straight into the chest of that man who’d called the warning. Instantly casting the weapon aside, he raised his sword, preparing to charge forward, however the second guard had other ideas. As his colleague died without a sound and collapsed to the deck beside him, he raised his own crossbow and fired at Godfrey in return.

The next moment passed too quickly for Nev to think about crying out, either in fear or warning. Far smaller than Lester’s huge weapon, the guard’s compact, stockless model nevertheless packed enough force to twist Godfrey sideways and slam him into the wall as it struck him in the right shoulder. He tumbled to the deck, grunting in pain as his blade flew out of his hand and landed almost at the guard’s feet. As it happened, her first instinct wasn’t to cry out at all. Instead, with a single, apologetic thought of ‘sorry, Lester’, she allowed his body to slump to the deck and leaped into attack past Godfrey’s fallen form, the katana already out of its scabbard and slashing downward.

The second guard should have done exactly as Godfrey had done – cast away the now-useless crossbow and reach for the cutlass at his belt – however the sudden, unexpected chaos of combat being what it was, the man was a long way from thinking clearly. There was a weapon in his hand – one that required reloading – and his first flawed instinct was to reload the crossbow he already held.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.