Ascendant by Craig Alanson Page A

was now very loud, and Koren could see bushes swaying along the
riverbank as the horses knocked them aside in their haste.
    “ Too late. Good luck to
you, Togan. ” Said the bandit who had been trying to help Togan, and at that, the other
bandits melted back into the woods.
    “ Ungrateful scum! I ’ ll get you for this! ” Togan shouted after his
disloyal fellow criminals. “ And
you! ” The
bandit picked up his knife with his one good hand. “ Forget the girl, I ’ m going to kill you. ”
    “ I don ’ t think so. ” Koren said, keeping
himself between Togan and the girl, his knife ready. For some reason he couldn ’ t explain, with the knife
in his hand, he wasn ’ t
afraid, not one bit. Men on horseback burst out of the woods, and a half-dozen
men slid off their saddles, drawing swords or fitting arrows to bowstrings.
Koren was about to say he was glad to see the men, when their leader, a tall
man wearing a tunic emblazoned with a golden dragon, shouted at his men. “ Bandits! Seize them both!
Kill them if they move! ”
    Koren ’ s heart fell. There he
was, standing over the girl, a knife in his hand, just like Togan the bandit.
Of course the soldiers thought he, too, was a bandit. If he were captured,
Togan would likely confirm that Koren was indeed a bandit, and Koren would be
thrown into a dungeon, or hanged. Koren glanced behind him at the river. He
would rather take his chances in the rapids than be captured by these men.
    The leader of
the soldiers saw Koren looking at the river, and knew what he was thinking. “ Don ’ t you move, boy. I ’ ll shoot you if I must. ” The man scrambled down
the riverbank.
    Just then, the
girl moaned, and raised a hand to her face. It was enough of a distraction for
Koren to spin around, leap onto a rock, and throw himself into the river. He
almost made it, but the soldiers were experienced and disciplined, and one of
the men put an arrow into Koren ’ s
left shoulder. Shocked by the searing pain, Koren dropped his knife, and fell
head-first into the foaming rapids.
    “ Find him! ” The leader ordered, and
two of his men climbed out on rocks into the river, but Koren could not be
seen. The wounded boy had been swept under, likely to drown, if the arrow hadn ’ t killed him.
     
    Koren was
barely aware of something gently rocking him side to side. There was a bright
light above him, he blinked and it hurt to look at the light. He hurt all over,
especially his head and his left shoulder. The rocking motion was making his
shoulder hurt even more, pain which made him grit his teeth and tears to run
down his face. The shock was giving him chills, chills not caused just by the
cold river water. To protect his left shoulder, he rolled to his right, and
almost breathed in a mouthful of water.
    He was laying
on his back, in shallow water near a riverbank, below the last of the rapids.
The current was rocking him side to side. Somehow he had survived the trip
through the raging waters. How far he had been pulled down the river, he did
not know. The bright light above him was the noonday sun. This part of the
river was wide and calm, with only a few ripples on the surface to show how
fast the current was moving. It was quiet and peaceful, except for-
    Horses. Again
the sound of men and horses. They were hunting him, they would never stop
hunting him. The soldiers would never believe Koren had only wanted to help the
girl, after all, they had seen with their own eyes that he was a bandit, hadn ’ t they? He rolled onto his
knees in the shallow water, and used his right arm to push himself to his feet.
He could barely stand, the pain in his left shoulder was making him sick to his
stomach. He felt with his right hand, and discovered part of the arrow shaft
still stuck out from his shoulder. He needed to get it out, somehow. Later.
    Horses
splashed into the water on the other side of the river, and men shouted
something to him. With eyes that could not focus properly, Koren