The Secret Throne by Peter F. Hamilton

Author:Peter F. Hamilton [Hamilton, Peter F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781447288664
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

As the Rannalal commander took his swipe, the other skymaids and skyboys swooped down from the trees. Arrows flew thick. Rannalal knights raised their shields. Axes were flung upward. One of the knights even managed to let loose a silver net, which Elsie sliced in half with a sharp cutlass. Several Rannalal fell, their armour pierced. A skymaid cried shrilly as a sword slashed her leg. More arrows rained down. Stricken usrogs stampeded. Blood began to stain the ice.

‘Enough,’ Taggie groaned, hating the awful violence. Nobody saw her, let alone heard.

The Rannalal gathered together in an expert defensive formation, the outer ring holding their shields out while five archers in the centre took aim at the skyfolk above.

Taggie couldn’t take it any more. People were being hurt because of her. She had to do something, even though she hadn’t got a clue what that would be. Without thinking, she jumped up on to the rocks above the waterfall. ‘Enough!’ she roared. ‘I am the Queen-to-be, the heir of Usrith. And I say no more.’

Rannalal and skyfolk alike paused in the middle of their battle, staring at her. Taggie looked back, equally uncertain. Then two arrows came slicing out of the Rannalal formation. They were aimed true, flying swiftly – which did the archers no good at all.

The arrows reached the enchantment shield Taggie had spun around herself, and burst into flaming ruin. She glared down at the little four-legged knights in their armour. ‘I warned you,’ she said furiously. Memories rushed into her head, carrying her along. Her hand shot out, finger pointing. ‘Ki-Dionak!’

The ice covering the pond let out an enormous crack. It shattered into a thousand pieces, and the Rannalal knights along with their frightened usrogs fell into water as cold as the Arctic. Heavy red armour dragged the Rannalal down. They thrashed about frantically, barely managing to keep their heads above the bobbing fragments of ice.

Taggie gasped at what she’d done. Then she began to worry that one of the little knights would drown. ‘Ti-Hath.’ She commanded hurriedly, and the pond surface immediately refroze, locking the Rannalal knights into place.

Jemima lifted her head cautiously over the rocks and pushed her lips together as she took in the imprisoned knights. ‘Wow, Taggie, you really are getting good at this,’ she said approvingly.

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