As soon as there was enough room drants started pushing past the gates and the lead calvarymen charged to meet them. It was hard to see much from where we stood behind the calvary. The mounted warriors blocked our view but apparently they were either killing the drants or pushing them back because the calvary began to move forward, at a walk. There were screams and the sounds of battle but Venzik touched my arm, distracting me. I turned to him. “We should mount up now, sir. We want to be ready to go when the time is right.”

I nodded. “Good thinking. Let’s get moving!” I figured by the time we were all ready to go we would start moving out but all the calvary still weren’t through the gate. I started worrying that the plan was going to fail. I had forgotten about the mages. Two of the apprentices that had travelled with us from Aandarvi stepped out of the guard towers on either side of the gate. They were protected by guards with large shields while they started casting and soon whatever they were doing started having an impact because the calvary was able to move at a much faster pace. As soon as the last of them were through the gate I turned to Venzik. “Should we close up?”

He nodded and began to urge his horse forward slowly, his extra mount following after. “We need to be near enough to the gates that we can see when the time is right for us to make our move.”

That made sense to me so I raised my right hand into the air to get everyone moving toward the gates and started after him.

When we reached the gates we saw that the calvary was doing well. The apprentice mages must have put some of the drants to sleep because I could see groups of them laying on the ground with no injuries. “Let’s pick up the pace.” I yelled and urged my horse to get moving. The Calvary was moving as a wedge killing some drants and forcing others to the side to open up a protected space for us to ride into. There were a few who had been killed and a handful who fought from the ground, I guess their horses had been killed. I finally spotted one whose belly had been opened up.

We moved further into the open space behind the Captain Klote and the leading point of the calvary wedge and just followed behind them. I didn’t even need to draw my sword. The plan worked quite well. More calvary fell as we pushed through the drants but not as many as I had expected. I looked back and saw that some of the calvary had closed in behind us, so we were completely encircled by them. Nice.

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The calvary was picking up speed now so we did the same. Instead of trying to kill the drants our escort was just pushing through them, although they were still hacking at whatever drants they could as they rode by, or over them. A particularly large drant leapt onto one of the leading riders and threw the horse’s previous occupant into his brethren behind him. The soon to be dead man’s companions started swinging their swords at him as he crouched on top of the saddle and prepared to leap onto another rider but the massive warhorse reared, spilling the off balance beast to the ground to be slashed and trampled.

It seemed but a few moments before we broke through the drants and truly began to pick up speed. The cavalry split to either side of us and we began to outpace their overburdened and tired mounts. Captain Klote waved us on and we pushed our horses to the limit, at least for a short while.

When Venzik motioned for us to slow our horses to a walk my mind turned to the last time I had left Ansdron. It was on this very road and even though I knew it was too early I looked for signs of the place that Enick had died fighting the first Kathaldi we had faced. The foppish Lord Helf, who had killed the ex-gladiator with such ease. It didn’t put me in a very good mood, and I looked around me to find someone to talk to in the hopes it would cheer me up. Thilos noticed me looking at him and called out that there was a stream not far where we could water the mounts. I nodded. That seemed like a good idea. “Let’s do it.” I called out to him loudly, since we were a good distance from each other. I prodded my horse to head over to him, followed by my father, who was still taking his imaginary job of guarding me quite seriously. “Thilos!” I called out as we approached. “You remember my father, Jirik.”

He smiled warmly, which seemed a little much to me. “It is good to see you again, sir, and to have another person we can count on for the mission.” I rolled my eyes for Thilos’ benefit. He ignored me. “Jirik, may I present my wife, Imprid, a priestess of Cramyk.”

“It’s an honor, mam,” Jirik said, with a nod of his head. “You’ve got yourself a good man there. He was always a good friend to my Dirk, here, when they were boys.”

Imprid laughed. “Yes, I have heard some stories.”

“Anyway,” I interrupted, to head off any sharing of embarrassing childhood memories, “I was wondering about scouting? Do you think we should do any now or are you saving them for when we get closer to Mount Kathaldi?”

Thilos nodded. “I think we wait. We only have five warders, counting myself, and I think there is more value to using them with the Kathaldi. We are bound to encounter drants before we get there and I do not want to lose them. What do you think?” He asked me.

“That makes sense to me, but it is up to you, they’re your warders so how we use them will be up to you.”

Thilos eyed me closely. “I appreciate that but Lord Tarin was most clear with me that you are in command, Dirk.”

I chuckled at that. “Let’s hope he made it clear to Padral, as well.”