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Stories from the Verse
Re Verse All
Chapter 64: Hastings 207
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Beam 76
By the time Lauren had reached the front of their ranks she already had her left hand creating a figure eight in front of her with the one kau sin ke; then with her right hand she put the other into a circle above her head, ready to strike, as she surveyed the scene.
The complication, she realized, was going to be distinguishing those who were attacking the princess from those who were rallying to her aid. Yet as she scanned the room she realized that there were apparently four types, those rallying to Coronelle and those rallying to Corina in opposition to each other but not easily identified, plus those who were trying to fade into the walls or escape the room, unwilling to commit to either side presumably until it was clear who was going to win. The spider people, though, were different again. They seemed frozen, like robots who had just received equally valid conflicting commands and could not determine which to obey.
“Noar,” Tiras shouted to Sheegoka; Lauren noticed that he was using two kau sin kes very similarly to what she was doing. “Get those rear doors open and take us through. Set up defended archery position in the next room; we don’t have enough room to maneuver here, but we can hold the door against them.”
The large samurai fell back out of sight.
A moment later, Tiras shouted again. “Taz, take the princess to the other room and keep her safe.”
“Come along, your highness,” the martial artist said. “Let’s get you back behind the lines.” They, too, disappeared.
A moment later the people behind her started inching backwards. The door must have been opened, and Sheegoka was moving their people through. Lauren took a step back, maintaining her defense which thus far no one had breached. A line of drow was forming ahead of her, backs to her, apparently of those rallying to Coronelle.
As she passed her cart she grabbed it with her telekinesis. It would be at least another dozen feet to the door, and an interminable minute backing step by step toward it. As she pulled the cart through she saw the defensive line of drow fill the doorway, and another line began forming in front of them.
Tiras dropped his defense; Lauren did the same. “We have a solid defensive front line,” he said, “and I will join them. I think you should be in the second rank, using missile fire over and between the front ranks at any enemy that gets through the door, but changing to melee if the person in front of you falls. Let Sheegoka know.”
Draping her weapons over her shoulders, she surveyed the scene and saw the samurai in the rear rank, his strange bow readied with a nocked arrow. The six in the first row were all armed with weapons for hand to hand combat, including Malacon with a sword and Taz with open hands, while those in the second and third rows had missile weapons readied. It surprised her that Sheegoka was not in the middle rank; he would be a formidable fighter with his sword. On the other hand, it seemed likely he was also their most potent archer, given the size of that bow.
The princess was in the rear, and had apparently persuaded the spider people in this room to form a rear defense between them and the castle door. Lauren hoped that would hold, but then there was some reason to believe that only her sister could counter her commands, and if she dared show herself here she would very likely die for it.
She levitated herself and her cart over the heads of the others to land next to Sheegoka, and gave him the message from Tiras. He nodded and suggested she squeeze in at the end.
The confusion was rampant as the battle raged in the other room. It occurred to Lauren that Coronelle might be losing her most important and influential supporters, but there wasn’t much she could do about it at this point. All she could do was wait for that line to break, and then pick targets from among those that broke through. She readied her psionic drill and blaster, one in each hand.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with five other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #376: Characters Arrive. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
