Army of the Wolf by Peter Darman Page B

cases attached to their saddles.
    ‘Keep them together,’ Conrad shouted to Otto as the villagers reached the settlement.
    Otto began barking orders that the civilians were to seek refuge in a large barn near the centre of the village as Conrad and the others walked backwards in their wake. He could see no more riders, which meant they were outnumbered three-to-one.
    ‘Watch those bows,’ he said to the others as the attackers rode towards them, shouting in a strange tongue as they neared the Sword Brothers standing in a line at the entrance to the village. Conrad glanced behind to see the doors of the barn being shut.
    ‘Break,’ he shouted.
    He and Hans darted left as Anton and Johann sprinted in the opposite direction to take cover behind a hut as two arrows came hissing through the air to strike the cabin.
    Conrad sheltered against the wall of the hut as the riders thundered into the village. They slowed their horses as they realised that the settlement appeared empty, the last of them slackened his horse to a walk as the others looked left and right, searching for targets. Conrad and Hans threw their spears and then charged, screaming as the weapons struck two riders in the back, the points going through their calf-length coats and mail shirts worn underneath. They grunted and slid from their saddles as Conrad pulled his axe from his belt. But in an instant another rider swung in his saddle and loosed an arrow at him. He raised his shield just in time as the missile struck it. The man shouted in a strange tongue and the other archers also shot arrows at him and Hans as the others turned their horses.
    Anton and Johann had also hurled their spears, killing one of the attackers and felling another’s horse. These strange individuals with long moustaches and shaven chins vaulted from their horses and came at the brother knights armed with curved swords. Conrad threw his axe that spun in the air before its blade slammed into the face of the first raider. He fell to the ground, clutching his face, as Conrad leapt over him to attack the man following, drawing his sword and stabbing the point over the small round shield carried by his opponent and driving it into the man’s mouth, shattering teeth and bone as he forced it through the neck. He shouted in triumph as his dead enemy crumpled to the ground, only to see two archers still on horseback take aim at him. He crouched low and raised his shield as the missiles struck the leather and wood. He peered round the edge of his shield to see the archers stringing more arrows. He looked right to see Hans finish off an opponent with his sword as another arrow embedded itself in his shield and a second glanced off his helmet.
    ‘Hans,’ he called. ‘Those archers have the measure of me.’
    His friend raised his sword in acknowledgement and darted between a hut and an animal pen full of squealing pigs. He tried to make himself as small a target as possible by lying behind the dead raider and keeping his shield high, but he knew that if he stayed where he was he would be dead. He heard grunts and cries to his left and knew that Johann and Anton were battling the attackers, though whether they were both still alive he did not know. Another arrow glanced off his helmet.
    He was debating whether to make a dash for the hut on his right when he heard a high-pitched scream and then Hans’ voice.
    ‘Move, Conrad!’
    He jumped up and was going to run to the side of the hut but saw that his friend had killed one of the archers but was being shot at by the second. He retrieved his axe from the face of the man it had struck and hurled it at the archer’s horse. It hit the beast in the chest, the force enough to cause it to rear up in pain and throw its rider. Conrad raced forward as Hans ran the prostrate archer through with his sword.
    They turned to see Anton kill a man with a pointed helmet and Johann running after the last two living raiders who were galloping from the