Warrior's Heart (Book 1 of The Warrior Chronicles)

Chapter 1

7 years later...

"Lieutenant?" Sergeant Rurik couldn't keep the question out of his voice even as he raised his fist to his left breast in salute. Two soldiers and the third-year recruit on the horses beside him followed suit, their eyes not quite reaching hers. Leyla was used to the lowered gazes; those of lesser rank were often afraid of being caught staring at the scar on her face. From beneath her right eye, all the way to the corner of her lip, Leyla wore her short officer braids tied up, doing nothing to hide the jagged line that was an ugly raised pink.

"I was nearby," she told Rurik to explain her unexpected presence. It wasn't entirely true, but she wasn't ready to disclose her theory about the recent No-Lander activity.

Drawing her horse alongside the Sergeant's, Leyla looked out over the edge of the forest in front of them. They were a two-hours ride North from the keep, on the border between the unforgiving grey dust that was Warrior Land and No-Lander territory. Just a short distance ahead of them, the thick branches of bright red Duya trees formed arches over the green life that sprouted from the fine brown soil below. Leyla soaked in the colours, her fingers itching to touch the swaying leaves; there were days that high-winds carried the scent of living-land to the keep, but nothing grew in the Warrior Kingdom.

"We are waiting on a single wagon, Lieutenant." Rurik said beside her. The older man was obviously not buying her excuse and was understandably curious about her sudden appearance, but that was neither here nor there. He would not dare to question a Warrior of higher rank. "We would not want to waste your time..."

Ignoring the Sergeants' comment, Leyla checked the position of the sun in the sky then frowned. The delivery wagon from the Green Lands should have been visible by now. At the very least, it should have been audible. Of course, if the Bone Eaters had turned up as she suspected they might...

"The Ear!" She called out.

The Sergeant motioned the furthest of the soldiers beside him to do her bidding. Every escort party had a 'trained-ear'; a soldier that could tell the distance of moving horses through the vibrations in the soil. The boy put his head to the ground, then lifted his eyes in surprise: "There is no movement!"

Bloody Bone Eaters.

"Red formation!" Leyla gathered her reins as alert faces turned her way. "Use your bows, target the flanks first and they will scatter!" She kicked her horse into a gallop, not waiting for the acknowledgement of her orders. This was the Warrior army where an officer never had to repeat a command.

They rode a straight path into the forest, hooves eating up the ground as the men spread right and left behind her. The sound of steel on steel reached them a moment before the wagon from the Greenlands came into sight. Leyla assessed the situation as her horse galloped forward: a handful of No-Landers lay dead, four Warriors were fighting about two dozen more while an enemy archer was shooting arrows from a secluded spot to the west.

She fired five arrows in quick succession; five No-Landers went don't howling. The attackers looked around in panic as the Sergeant and his squads arrows found their marks. The Warriors on the ground took advantage of their distraction and made short work of four more enemies before running after the rest who were now trying to escape.

Leyla saw the third-year recruit slow his horse from the corner of her eye. Before she could call a warning, an arrow lodged into his shoulder. The fool! She was going to have to take the enemy archer out before he wounded any more of her people.

"Keep them alive!" Leyla commanded as she steered her horse to the left and rode in the direction of the archer. He had to be hiding in the taller trees behind the shrubs surrounding the wagon path. The vegetation was too thick for the horse to move quickly. She jumped down, leaving the horse as she moved fast and low, making sure she kept out of sight.