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The earth trembled beneath her feet…
A shriek rose in her mouth. Kellach turned in circles. The earth trembled beneath her feet, as horses galloped everywhere, leaped over barricades, pounded the ground and stirred up fierce clouds of dirt. One thought entered her mind. Her weapons. In the fort. She had left them there.
Coughing and choking, she dashed forward blindly, her feet smashing the ground with enough force to sting them through the thin soles of her boots. She gasped. Her heart beat with the strength of high waves in a ferocious ocean.
She spun around. The shrouds of powdery earth flying through the air were so heavy, the haze obscured everything in front of her. The haze enveloped her. She stared at the filmy wall. Her throat was parched, her mouth clogged with grit. This scene was worse than any of the nightmares she’d suffered for years.
Her sense of direction went awry. Where was she?
Her woolen shawl fell from her shoulders. She ignored it and shouted into the wind, “Lunn! Lunn!” Afraid no one had heard her, she cupped her hands around her mouth and shrieked louder, “Call out our men. Warn everyone. Hurry!”
She turned, bewildered. Not until she saw a silhouette of a man near the fort did she have any sense of her direction. The man waved to her.
She yelled, “We’re being attacked.”
He pointed to something behind her. Kellach spun around and peered into the dimness.
Through the fog of dust and flying shale, a huge black horse cleared obstacles with room to spare and raced across the expansive yard at the forefront of other horses. The man atop the black was as massive and muscled as the horse. Without a doubt, he was the leader of the raiding party, with a force far superior to hers.
The surprised of the ambush stripped her of her usual bravery. She was glued to the spot, unable to move, rooted in a horrid scene from the past. Memories assailed her…
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