Noah Read Free Page B

before it could slip from his fingers.
    Spinning around, he was confronted by the poacher leader, who was bearing down on him, pointed teeth bared and his curved blade raised above his head. Before he could bring the blade down in a killing blow, however, Noah spun again, pistoned his leg out behind him and kicked the onrushing man square in the knee, shattering his leg. The poacher screamed and fell heavily to the ground, the blade spinning out of his hand.
    That left only the bearded poacher to contend with. From the corner of his eye, Noah saw the man’s sword already arcing in a downward sweep toward his head. He flung himself backward and the blade of the sword sliced through the air no more than a hand’s span in front of his face. As the unconnected blow made the bearded poacher stumble forward, Noah sidestepped so that he was standing directly in front of the man, and raised the spear.
    The poacher’s eyes widened, but he was unable to stop his forward momentum. He staggered straight on to the point of the spear, which passed through his animal-skin clothing and into his belly.
    The bearded poacher fell, tearing the spear from Noah’s hands as he lurched sideways. Blood bubbled from his mouth and he writhed in agony on theground for a moment, his legs pedaling frantically as if trying to outrun his own imminent demise. Then, hands still clutched around the increasingly bloody shaft protruding from his stomach, he became still, his body slumping and relaxing in death.
    Withdrawing the spear, Noah looked at the three fallen men, panting a little from his exertions. Then he raised his head and looked beyond them, to where he had last seen the hound.
    Immediately his face fell. The creature was crawling gamely toward the opening in the rocks, dragging itself along using its front paws, leaving a thick, dark trail of blood. It was clear from the way its back legs were trailing helplessly behind it that the poacher’s rock had all but finished it.
    Noah hurried up to the hound and knelt before it. He muttered a few soothing words, and slowly extended his hand towards its muzzle. The hound sniffed his fingers, then licked them. Murmuring softly Noah stroked the animal’s head, his strong hand smoothing its thickly plated hide, providing comfort. But he knew the creature was doomed. He had to put an end to its misery.
    The hound closed its eyes. Still stroking its bony head with one hand, Noah slipped his knife from its sheath and positioned its point in the gap beneath one overlapping scale and another, precisely at the base of the animal’s skull.
    “Sorry, my friend,” he murmured. And then, with one quick, decisive thrust, he ended the creature’s life. It shuddered once and then was still.
    Noah rose wearily to his feet and slipped the knife back into its sheath. He was about to walk away when he heard a whimper of pain. Two of thepoachers lay dead, but one, the leader, was stirring. He attempted to rise and screamed out in agony as the bones of his shattered knee ground together. Sensing or perhaps merely hoping that Noah was nearby, he began to plead for help.
    Noah considered leaving the man to his fate, and then with a grim expression he walked across to him.
    The man’s eyes, clouded with pain, swiveled to look at him. His mouth moved. “Please,” he whispered. “Have mercy.”
    “As you had mercy for that poor creature?” muttered Noah.
    Despite the pain of his injury, confusion and indignation passed across the man’s face. “That is nothing but an animal.”
    “As are you,” said Noah.
    “Man has to eat,” the poacher whispered.
    Noah’s face darkened. “Man has a choice. To destroy Creation or to tend it, to live and work alongside it. In peace.”
    The poacher frowned. Noah’s philosophy was clearly incomprehensible to him. Trying a different tack, he fumbled beneath the layers of animal skin adorning his body and withdrew a small drawstring bag, which he opened and upended.
    A number of