Portals of Infinity: Book Four: The Sea of Grass Read Online Free

a sword sticking out of him, and a man with empty hands before him, and they attacked.
    I grabbed Goth around the waist as everything slowed down for me and picking her up I started yelling "Run! Everybody run!"
    The merchant group the one man was with drew their swords as they were set upon by the guards, a nice fight quickly erupting. One of the guards however was looking at me and yelling as well. So I ran at him and batting his sword aside with my own, I shoulder slammed him on my way towards the gate, knocking him back and causing him to lose his balance and fall.
    I ran out the gate, and there were a lot of other people running in the same direction. I could hear more yelling, and I started to run as hard as I could as I shifted Goth around to in front of me, holding her with both hands now. I made it about halfway across the ground when an arrow flew by and I started swerving my course back and forth to try and throw off the archer's aim.
    Risking a glance over my shoulder I could see that there were several dead at the gate, and a number of the guards appeared to be yelling and one of them was pointing in my direction.
    Turning my attention forward I dodged along a broken course, as best I could. I was getting far enough away that as long as I didn't move in a constant arc, I had a good chance of the archers not hitting me. Of course some of the other people running around didn't look so lucky, and as I had outpaced them, a lot of archers went for the easier targets.
    When I finally made it into cover, I slowed down and stopped, ducking behind a tree to take a good look. There were ten or so people lying on the ground with arrows sticking out of them. None of them looked dead however.
    Six or seven of the guards were double timing it after me, but I wasn't worried about them.
    "You okay?" I asked Goth.
    She looked up at me and I could see she was scared. "W... wh.... what..."
    I checked her over while she was stuttering. Then picking her up and tossing her over my shoulder in a fireman's carry I took off at a jog. I knew were I was going, and if possible I'd rather not deal with the guards behind me. From my point of view it would be a lot better if they went back saying they couldn't find me, than if they never went back at all.

 
    Two
    Outside of Barassa
     
     
    The trip back to Hiland from here was about ten days. I had two soldiers with me, whose main purpose had been to watch the camp while I was in Barassa and to help with anything I might need help with. It took me a couple of hours to make it back to the camp I had left them at.
    I got a quizzical look from each of them when I jogged into camp carrying Goth. I set her down and made introductions.
    "Goth, this is Corporal Peers, and Corporal Joe. Corporals, this is Goth. I rescued her from a bad situation."
    They looked at her and looked at me.
    "William Sir," Peers said, "Shouldn't she be..."
    "Peers," I interrupted and he stopped.
    "Yessir?"
    "This is neither the time, nor the place. Now, we need to move, so let us be on our way."
    "Yessir!" They both said and cleaned up any signs of who we might have been quickly, and then we mounted up our wolats and left. I put Goth on Tom in front of me, she was small enough I figured that was easier.
    Goth was quiet for the entire trip, I don't know if it was Tom, the corporals, riding through the forests, or all of the things that had happened in the last couple of days, but all she did was lean back against me as we rode.
    We stopped as the sun started to set and made camp. After we had dinner Goth finally started to open up.
    "Where are we going?" She asked me.
    "We're heading back home, to Hiland."
    "And then what?" She asked looking a little worried.
    "I'll see about finding you a place to live, I know several people who have children your age, you'd be happy there."
    "Why can't I just stay with you?" she asked.
    "Because I have to travel a lot."
    "I could go with you," Goth said looking hopeful.
    I shook my head,