I somersaulted to my feet in time to see the second rider in the column pulled off to the side aiming an arrow straight at my chest. Throwing myself to the side I felt the arrow slide along my ribs on my left side. Throwing the Nizak blade overhanded I watched it hit him in the throat causing him to gasp loudly and drop the bow. He fell heavily to the ground, as his horse galloped off.
The first rider had turned in the narrow confines of the forest and charged me now with his lance pointed down. Mere moments before he would have impaled me I slipped behind a young pine tree trunk. I heard the swish of the bladed lance slicing through the air, where I had just been moment before. Coming around the tree trunk I threw my last knife hard, with my right hand and watched as it lodged to the hilt low down on the rider's back piercing its way through the armor platelets. He managed to stay on his horse, until he made it to the meadow and there he fell off heavily to the ground.
Grimly I watched the fallen rider struggle to rise only to fall back to the ground. It gave me no pleasure to kill, but these men had asked for what they had gotten for tracking me down. I collected my knives not wanting to see such fine weapons rot in the undergrowth of this dark forest. Reaching down to retrieve a knife I winced, as the arrow wound reminded me of its presence. My fingers found the wound on my side. The arrow had hit nothing vital, but it had left a nasty gash where it had skidded off my ribs, and the wound was bleeding profusely.
Flin perked up an ear at my reappearance and even looked halfway interested that I had returned. Gathering the reins I led him through the forest and out to where the last soldier lay. The warmth of the afternoon sun felt good, after the cool moist darkness of the forest. Blood dripped off my fingers, which held a wadded up piece of rag to the wound in my side, as I approached the last soldier in the meadow.
The man was still conscious, but he didn't have long by the looks of it.
Looking up at me he coughed up some blood as he shook his head, "Should have known better than to come after you! I saw you fight in the arena once." He said.
"Who sent you?" I asked.
"Marfoul and some others like him. He doesn't like you very much." He said grinning up at me.