Hers to Choose Read Online Free

and his cavalry.
    “ Queen’s Guard! Form ranks!” Eric screamed. “Captain Biron, to me!”
    Biron’s plunging horse appeared a longside Eric’s restive mount. “Take Green and Silver rides to that ridge.” Eric gestured to a rise perhaps a quarter of a mile distant. “I’ll take Black and Red rides to that overlook opposite. Be ready to charge and retreat back to the rise on my signal.”
    “Gods-be-damned, Eric! Look at their numbers. There must be three, four, to our one,” Biron snarled grimly.
    “ That might give them a fighting chance, Jon.” Eric grinned savagely. “We hit and fall back, hit and fall back. Time your strikes with mine. We’ll smash them between us. Divide the point of attack. Make them fight on two fronts.”
    “Yes, sir!” Biron wheeled away and spurred along the line of horse, shouting orders. Half the squadron peeled off and the ground shook under the hooves of sixteen horses at a dead run. The dust of the desert boiled into the air in their wake.
    Eric stood in his stirrups and bellowed, “Black Ride , Red Ride , to me! To me!” Turning his mount to the opposite ridge, he sank his spurs into his horse and galloped to the high ground opposite, his horse leaping over the deep crevasses in the dry, cracked ground.
    In minutes , he and his men had achieved the heights and looked down on the valley floor swarming with their enemy turning to advance up the sides of the valley. The terrain, divided with deep cracks and crevices, slowed the foot soldiers significantly, while the mounted rides merely vaulted the crevasses.
    “Qu een’s Guard! Form abreast! Make ready!” Eric watched as his well-trained men formed a line, side-by-side, to his right. His saber flashed in the blazing light of the rising sun as he stood in his stirrups, his sword arm extended. “Queen’s Guard! Prepare to charge!” He paused for the men to collect themselves. “Charge!”
    The wind tore at his face, streaking his cheeks with involuntary tears, as his horse raced down the steep embankment, lunging over the uneven ground. He had a second to marvel at the animal’s sure-footedness before they were upon the enemy. With savage cries, the Verdantian horse crashed into the Haarb lines. The shrieks of the enemy rent the air as they fell beneath the steel-shod hooves of the battle-trained mounts and the savagely slashing blades of the horsemen. But all too soon the enemy’s agonized screams were joined by the agonized cries of Eric’s men as both horses and riders went down beneath the sheer numbers of the Haarb onslaught.
    Their enemy almost surrounded them . “Queen’s guard! Pull back! Pull back!” Eric screamed over the melee, then wheeled his horse and spurred for high ground to reorganize. The Haarb infantry pursued, howling in triumph at their retreat, but the mounted riders quickly outstripped them. Seeing the futility of pursuit over the broken, uneven ground, the enemy soldiers turned back.
    On the high ridge, Eric pulled up in a spray of loose rock and dust. His men circled in a disorganized group around him.
    “Black Ride , your losses,” Eric shouted out.
    “ Evans and Trilby, sir!” was the shouted response.
    “ Red Ride , your losses.”
    “ Decker, sir!” came the reply.
    Eric pulled out his spy-glass and watched the opposing ridge for signs that Captain Biron had reassembled. There, the Silver pennant. “Queen’s Guard! Form abreast! Prepare to charge! Charge!”
    Once again the horsemen thundered down the slopes like furies from the seven hells. The horses leapt the narrow crevices, only keeping their footing through some miracle. The Verdantians smashed into the enemy forces, scattering them like children’s blocks. The Haarb seemed to have no interest in self-preservation and the creatures leapt at the mounted warriors, five or six at a time, climbing the horses’ legs like tree trunks, clawing and gnawing as they did so. A furious howl arose from the fiends whenever they