Betrayal Read Free

another struck high on his neck. He fell heavy and awkward to the ground. The attendants crouched over him.
    One yelled, “He’s dead!”
    An arrow struck him and that man went down too.
    Nisero yelled from under his horse. “Go for the cover of the trees!”
    The remaining Guardsmen and a few of the prince’s men moved to obey. As they did, dozens of armed men charged from the darkness. Nisero knew they were overwhelmed and outnumbered. All Nisero saw was their black helmets as the attackers cut through men he had served with for years.
    Nisero fought one leg free and drew his sword. He watched in growing desperation as the men that still fought were surrounded by three and four attackers as they fell one by one.
    The lieutenant saw three men with bows step out of a ditch and walk among the fallen horses and human bodies. One of the attendants raised his hands from the ground. “No, please.”
    The archer fired into his chest and strung another arrow. They went body to body checking.
    Nisero laid down flat on his back. He braced his free foot against the horse’s saddle and pushed, pulling his leg free inch by inch.
    One of the archers stood over Nisero and drew his bow. Nisero swung up and sliced off the archer’s hand at the wrist and snapped the arrow he held in two. The man fell away screaming.
    Nisero sprung to his feet and ran.
    A second bowman spun around on him. The lieutenant swung through, missing the bow, but hitting the archer in the skull. His shot went straight up in the night sky as he fell to the road.
    Nisero charged the third as the man drew back the string. The lieutenant dropped and rolled as the arrow soared through the space Nisero used to occupy. Nisero came up on his knees and sliced deep through the archer’s gut.
    The helmeted men in the trees shouted. “Get him!”
    Nisero stood and leapt over the ditch where the archers had hidden during the ambush. He heard feet and horses behind him as fled across the dark field.
     

Chapter 2 : On the Run
    Nisero sprinted across the open field in the pitch black. He stumbled a few times, hitting his knees and shins on the sharp edges of rocks. His feet dug deep into the ground, which felt like it was left fallow under the new grass whipping past his legs. The deep steps threatened to turn his ankle and end his retreat in capture and sure death.
    Cloud cover muted the stars, and there was no moon. The bandits could not have chosen a night of deeper darkness to cut down the Elite Guard.
    The lieutenant reeled from his painful run and the gravity of realizing how sudden and complete the attack had been. They were in a gauntlet. The archers rose out of the opposing ditch, perfectly positioned to pick off every man on a horse before he could react. They hit the prince first, then his attendants, and then the guardsmen . As soon as the thoughts passed through his oxygen starved mind, he realized it was wrong.
    No , Nisero thought, they had hit the Guardsmen first, and then the prince, before seeking to finish off the Guard. The timing and order was deliberate .
    Nisero had only survived by the chance of dismounting on the opposite side of his horse. The archers had put two into the beast’s neck, level with where Nisero’s head would have been.
    As soon as I sounded the order. They aimed on my voice .
    They saw him dismount before they attacked. They went for him in particular. They either wanted to take him out before he could escape on foot, or they knew rank.
    He had ordered the surviving men to find cover on the manor grounds as the bandits knew they would. They waited in the trees and caught them in the dark. Even still, Nisero would have expected the Elite Guard to fair better in the battle. They always had. His mistake was in assuming they always would. Had he not been pinned under his own horse, he would have been with them.
    I should have been with them .
    Nisero thought about the captain and the advance party splitting off to hail the lord of the