Wychling

Chapter 52

Tal paced up and down, fury building. Good thing too, she'd need it soon. Shimon stood giving everyone advice like he was the bloody boss of them all. She felt her neck where he'd grabbed her, scowling deeper at the memory. She hadn't needed his bloody help! She was safe as houses on those cliffs. No better climber in all of...well not round here at any rate. Wherever here was.

Tal crouched balancing on hands and knees; and watched the group of men below forming up into a rough huddle, with a bearded Acolyte giving orders from the middle. Her hand curled into a fist at the sight of his brown robe, but before it could form, it caught on something sharp. She looked down, seeing a stone with a wicked edge, and looked at it stupidly for a second before the anger took over again. She snatched it up and took a step back, standing.

Tal sized up the throw, and wound her arm around behind her, hefting the sharp stone with all of her might. It curved through the air, silently arcing towards the group of men, missing the Acolyte completely but finding an ugly featured henchman off to the right of him. It caught him square in the temple and he fell to his knees grasping his head as Tal raised her fist to the sky in savage triumph. Those below scattered as the Acolyte shouted at them, but she didn't see any reappear.

~They must be sticking close to the cliff, but they'll have to come out on the road below us to reach us all~ she thought to herself, triumphantly.

She nearly jumped out of her skin as Ulrich put a hand on her shoulder. He raised his hands apologetically, as she whirled to confront the unknown threat.

"I have an idea that might help with that." He nodded casually towards the large group of men that had come to kill them.

She followed Ulrich to the pile of bags and bit her tongue as he drew out a hempen strap about a metre long. In the middle the braid extended out to a diamond shape around a small leather square.

"I never got the hang of it myself, but my Sons are pretty good hunters with it." He said offering it to her. She took it, looking at him questioningly.

"It's a sling Tal." He explained. "You put a rock in the cup there, in the middle, and you twirl it round your head and release that end to throw the stones. The extra length it has will mean you can throw harder and further than with your arm. It'll provide us with good cover as they come up the side...I only have so many arrows." He shrugged, clearly embarrassed about that.

"You put your middle finger through the loop at that end and hold the knot on the other end with your forefinger and thumb. That's it. The stone goes in there, like that. Its got a lot of power, but it takes work to become accurate. I'm told that its all about timing the release." He carefully instructed her pointing to the different sections and closing the knot in her hand to show her how it worked.

Tal looked at the Wildman with his kind eyes and fatherly manner. She felt like crying all of a sudden and couldn't even say why. Before she could think of a response though she heard the sounds of the men below approaching, and she quickly swallowed her emotions down, before feeding her carefully stoked anger. After the last few days, it roared quickly to life.

She surprised Ulrich with a quick hug, then darted off to find stones. She thought of Rodney, and her heart grew cold and hard as the stones under her hand. She thought of the fire that had killed him and her rage became a glacier. Fire was no longer a fit metaphor for how she felt. Fire had taken her Brother from her. Her fury, her vengeance would be the opposite of that then. Slow and implacable ice, carving through the landscape of her nerves with callous certainty.

When she had found a handful of likely stones, she filled her pockets and ran back to her baggage to extract her quarterstaff too. The comforting weight made her feel better as she crouched and approached the road like she was hunting in the New Forest. She gripped her staff again, reassured by the familiar weapon. She placed it on the ground before she got to the edge, taking care to memorise its position without looking at it. She might need to grab it in a hurry.