Invasion Read Online Free Page B

image of a horse came to mind — a perfect black mare.
    Images of himself riding this horse at impossibly fast speeds and jumping over a wide canyon flashed into his mind and vanished again before he made sense of it. He focused hard to regain the images without success and his head throbbed with the effort.
    He shifted his mind further back in time and found himself on top of Arthea’s western wall surrounded by soldiers and looking out over a battlefield covered with thousands of orcs. This image must have meaning but as he dwelt on it no further information revealed itself.
    So he went back further in time. He was hiding high up in the branches of a tree looking down at a wooden fort crawling with large orcs. The gates of the fort opened and they marched out. Panic struck him. He had been sent there to watch these orcs and he needed to report any activity from them. But he had a sickening feeling that he knew exactly where they were heading and so instead of reporting in, he shadowed them to confirm his suspicions.
    His mind flashed forward and he found himself meeting a dwarven general on a road. He recognised the face and the name of General Ludko came to mind with an effort. He warned the marching dwarf army of an ambush set on the road by the large orcs and instructing them to go around it.
    Once again his mind leapt ahead to where he stood on the edge of a canyon shooting arrow after arrow down at a mass of orcs who were battling dwarves on the canyon floor. He emptied his quiver and then recommended to the General that they move on. This they did, abandoning the dwarves in the canyon to their fate which is against every natural fibre of a dwarf’s being.
    His memories came flooding back to him. Finding out about the arrival of a new orc breed from another world, the destruction of El Rasa, the capture of Fort Lowmount, the attack on Arthea and Master Pilk’s desperate act to defend it, his own scouting mission on the orcs’ homeworld with Mistress Cali, the march on the orc fort which led to an unlikely alliance, discovering Ciara, a magical horse which eventually allowed him to ride her and then the battle on the orc world which he thought would be his last — but apparently it had not been.
    Amongst all these flashing images that sped around his recovering mind was a woman’s face. Every time he conjured the image he felt at peace — reassured that all would be well no matter the situation so long as she remained by his side. But then he remembered that she had gone home, back to Zin-Baiden, and a new kind of pain seared through him. Tears came to his painful eyes unwillingly until he heard a familiar voice. A comforting voice. A woman’s voice. He opened his eyes suddenly and there she was leaning over him, calling his name and then his tears took on a whole new meaning.
    “You came back,” he croaked.
    “You almost died. I had no choice,” she replied.
    “Well I’m glad you came and not just because you saved my life.” His head spun.
    “It was Koren that saved your life. I just sped along your recovery. Now get some rest. We can talk later,” said Cressida.
    Decker closed his eyes once again and found that the pain didn’t bother him as much now. Soon after he drifted off to sleep.
     
     
     
    Sylestra watched the slow movement of the sun, wishing that she could speed along its progress in the sky. She wanted this fight over and done with and Gnash along with the entire Black Skull tribe in her hands so that she could deal with more important matters.
    The result of the upcoming fight remained clear in her mind; no one had come close to besting her in battle in a very long time. Gilkan’s size did not intimidate her in the least as she had fought many of the giant kin on Aleri before it had been abandoned and the smallest of them were as large as him.
    Her main concern was that the humans and dwarves would find a way to close the Gate before she got there. She needed to keep the army