Hers to Choose Read Online Free Page B

Then another fell, an arrow piercing his throat, then another, and another, each with an arrow piercing a vital fatal spot. His eyes scanned the battlefield. The scene re-occurred everywhere.
    Stupefied with exhaustion, he slumped on his horse as flight after flight of arrows hit their mark with deadly accuracy. A slow grin covered his face. Sophillia. Great Goddess be praised.
    Within minutes, all fell quiet. Men taxed to their limits struggled to remain standing or sagged atop their horses and looked numbly at the motionless bodies strewn about them. They stood amidst unspeakable carnage. The moans of the dying soldiers and wounded horses, and the stink of blood and feces, assaulted Eric. He methodically wiped his blade on the tunic of a dead Haarb.
    Sheathing his saber , he cupped his hands to his mouth and croaked from a bone-dry throat, “ Rides , form up!” Out of the chaos, a ragged column of cavalry struggled to assemble. His eyes ran a headcount. Goddess, so few. Thirty-two horse had ridden out of Sylvan Mintoth. Now, he counted eleven.
    A slight movement a small distance away drew his notice. In a semi-circle around the battlefield, seven mounted riders sat atop motionless horses. The heat rising from the desert floor blurred their profiles into a trembling mirage of ghostly waves. Their sandy robes flapped lazily in the hot eddy of a faint breeze felt only on the rise. Without that flutter of cloth, he would not have noticed them.
    A rider separated from the semi-circle and rode toward him. The figure’s approach seemed an eternity. The rider stopped, mere feet separating them. Robes obscured everything but blazing aqua eyes. Sophillia. A sun-browned hand reached for her face covering and removed it. Once again, for an instant, her beauty wiped all thought from his brain. You are better than this, Eric. Get it together, man. Treat her like an equal or you will lose her before you begin.
    “ Flight Leader . My thanks for your timely arrival.”
    A solemn expression crossed her lovely features. “I take the extent of your losses upon myself, Commander. We should have been here with you when the Haarb attacked. Last evening, Layna and Rhea reported large bands of Haarb mercenaries east of us. I took the flight to scout ahead. When morning broke and we saw the air behind us filling with the dust of a battle, we turned back. We pushed the horses to their limits.” Her eyes swung to the masses of dead bodies, then back to his. “I am sorry we weren’t here sooner.”
    Sweat- streaked dirt coated her face. She must be thirsty. He fumbled for the water skin on his saddle. Empty, dammit. She offered him hers with an outstretched hand.
    With a laugh roughened by dust and exhaustion, he took the water skin and rinsed his mouth before he swallowed. “I was going to offer you mine.”
    A small smile tipped her lips. “Keep it. We will all drink deeply tonight.”
    He shook his head grimly and pointed to the dead pack animals with their panniers of water skins broken upon the cracked earth. “There is our water.”
    “ That is not all the water in the world, Commander.”
    Once again, she gave a melodic whistle and the semi-circle of riders closed on their position.
    “Maeve, take Eudora and find what arrows can be salvaged from the battlefield. Adonia, Petrina, Rhea, see what you can do for our wounded. Layna, gather those water skins and repair them. We will need them.”
    He sat , numb, as she calmly organized the salvage of useful items and the tending of their wounded. I should be doing that. Ah, hells, it would be nice to get off my horse. He swung down, staggering as his feet hit the earth. He lurched his way to a useful boulder. A broad red smear marked his slide down the boulder to the ground. Oh, that can’t be good. His head lolled backward against the rock.
    His second-in- command pulled to a stop in front of him. Eric stared unseeing at the horse’s knees. “Sir, our dead. What do you wish