Page 15 of Silver & Gold
They both jumped in surprise. Then Raider shouted—because Seth tackled him to the ground and shoved him into the grape-crushing pit. Raider cursed as he tumbled into the stone cavity.
“Stay down!” Seth ordered and twisted his right wrist, activating his forearm bracer. Its arcane glove cascaded from its housing to encase his hand.
Snatching his chakram from his utility belt, Seth burst to his feet. He spun in the direction from which the arrow had come. The predawn light had bleached the darkness to gray, enabling him to identify an archer at the corner of the wine-ageing shed. Seth hurled his chakram.
The circular weapon clipped the corner of the mudbrick building, but Seth’s target had vanished. As the glove summoned the chakram’s return, Seth spun to face the charge of another combatant. The man was clearly unaware of the chakram’s function because he ran straight into its return path. He screamed as the razor-sharp weapon sliced his raised sword arm.
Seth caught the chakram in his gloved fist. Ducking around the slashing blade of another charging swordsman, Seth whipped the chakram’s edge across the man’s throat.
By that time, Raider had climbed from the crushing pit, and the archer was taking another shot. A second archer had appeared atop the wine shed’s roof.
As Raider went charging up the slope toward the first archer’s more protected position, Seth hurled his chakram at the rooftop archer. Right as the man’s bow twanged, Seth’s chakram hit him in the chest. The arrow went hobbling off course.
Seth caught the chakram on its return. Cursing, he went running after Raider, who had reached his target and was fighting both him and another assailant.
And, no surprise, more kept coming. The bulk of Rahim’s force had taken position behind the wine shed, but others began to emerge farther up the slope near the house.
Seth clipped his chakram onto his belt and yanked his sword from its scabbard at his back. As he did, a spear came flying his way. Raider swept his scimitar into the spear’s path, knocking the weapon aside.
“Get Julian!” Raider shouted over his shoulder.
Seth ignored that, racing forward to grab Raider and haul him clear of another archer’s firing path. Raider’s back hit the wall of the building.
“I can take an arrow or two—you can’t!” Raider snapped. That argument pissed Seth off at the best of times, and right now—
“I’m pretty fucking sure those aren’t just arrows,” Seth snapped back, “so you can shut the fuck up with that.”
Raider didn’t spend the kind of time with arcanists that Seth did. There was a reason the archers kept aiming at Raider instead of Seth. Chances were about ninety percent that their arrows were laced with something that would take him down hard.
At the sound of a frightened screech coming from the front of the building, Seth and Raider both charged around the corner. A guard had Julian by the back of his kaftan and was dragging him through the doorway.
Seth threw his sword. It spun end over end to its target and struck deep into the man’s chest. He was flung back, tumbling down the slope and away from Julian.
The young arcanist scrambled to his feet and shouted something that Seth couldn’t make out. Something about a boot? Pack thumping at his back, Julian went racing down the slope.
By the time Seth had reached the body housing his sword, Julian was past the wine-pressing pavilion and cutting along one of the rows of vines. Seth yanked his sword from the corpse. By then, more guards were charging toward them.
With no way of knowing the full size of Rahim’s band, their best option was to flee. Seth swiped his sword clean and sheathed it at his back. He and Raider raced to where they’d left their packs beside the crushing pit. Snatching them up, they went charging after Julian.
Grape leaves whipped against Seth’s pumping arms and legs as he and Raider raced along one of the rows. Ahead of him, Raider ducked under a whizzing arrow. Seth’s heart leaped. He hadn’t seen that one coming. He tried to locate the bowman as he ran, but the dim landscape was blurred by his speed.
At the end of the row, Raider swung a left and raced down the slope toward the river, where Julian was crouched beside the boat—ah, boat, not boot—that Seth had spotted earlier.
“The chain!” Julian cried frantically as Raider skidded to a stop beside him.
“Get in the boat!” Raider barked, shoving Julian out of the way as he used his quicksilver fist to punch at the chain locking the boat to its anchoring point.
As arrows came flying from up the slope, Julian scrambled over the side of the boat. Raider punched at the chain again then wrenched at its mangled link. It snapped. Raider tossed the end of the chain into the bow of the boat along with his pack.
Seth tossed his in as well then helped Raider shove the boat into the water. Hopefully the thing was faster than it looked. Though it had an arcane engine and sharp prow, the wide belly suggested the boat was meant to transport cargo, not serve as a getaway vessel.
More arrows whizzed. One struck the side of the boat as they pushed it off the bank. Seth splashed into the water then hauled himself onto a platform at the back. Beside him, Raider vaulted into the boat, landing with a squelch of wet sandals. Seth swung in after him, leaping over the engine housing and the tarp-covered cargo at the back.
Julian was in the driver’s seat fiddling with the controls. The arcane engine whop-whop-whopped to life … then the boat glided serenely into the slow current.
Arrows were still flying, and now several mounted men came charging down the vineyard’s slope. Raider had the sense to get down, but Seth had to leap for Julian and squash the young arcanist’s head down as an arrow flew by.
Raider shouted from the back, “We’re gonna need more speed!”