{"id":3004,"date":"2016-10-07T00:00:46","date_gmt":"2016-10-07T04:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3004"},"modified":"2016-10-06T17:59:02","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T21:59:02","slug":"forty-one-04","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3004","title":{"rendered":"Forty-one – 04"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thom’s point of view.]<\/em><\/p>\n

The pace of the drums in the distance sped up for a moment. Thom felt his heartrate increase along with their tempo, breathing growing a little ragged as his lungs tried to keep up.<\/p>\n

Calm. Stay calm.<\/em><\/p>\n

All he wanted to do was get his wife and unborn son away from the coming danger.<\/p>\n

Tell Carolyn to saddle horses and get them out of here\u2014Marin and Neve and Phelan and Tala and the babies and Angie. Tell her to saddle horses and get them out of here, ride out across the bridge and far away. Tell her to ride to Cameron and to wait for us to come for them\u2014if we ever do, if we can.<\/em><\/p>\n

His mouth went dry.<\/p>\n

The drums stopped.<\/p>\n

Thom\u2019s stomach dropped.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s too late for that. No one escapes now.<\/em><\/p>\n

He breathed a curse and closed his eyes, though only for the barest moment. He heard Leinth\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re here,\u201d she said, her voice soft.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they are, we can\u2019t see them yet,\u201d Sif growled. Her bowstring creaked, though not enough for it to be a full draw. She was simply making ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeamus,\u201d Thom said, managing somehow to keep his voice steady. \u201cThe archers from the Hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll loose on your mark,\u201d he said, anticipating the question before Thom gave voice to it. \u201cThey\u2019re yours to command.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s something.<\/em> \u201cWhat about the riders?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMustering on the far side of the bridge, ready to cut them off as needed. Carolyn and I worked out their signal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thom drew another steadying breath.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t expect that from Carolyn, but it\u2019s certainly smart.<\/em><\/p>\n

Paul whistled from the watch tower. \u201cRiders,\u201d he called. \u201cLooks like they\u2019ve got a flag up. Maybe they want to talk first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another curse escaped Thom\u2019s lips and a chill crept down his spine. \u201cMaybe,\u201d he said, though he hardly believed it. \u201cSeamus, I\u2019ll want you with me. Where the hell is Thordin?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere,\u201d his voice said, the sound breathless, as if he\u2019d run all the way to meet them at the wall. \u201cI\u2019m right here. And if it\u2019s the Southron clans, you don\u2019t want him with you. Take Leinth if you take anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d she said, her voice firm. \u201cMy place is up on the wall.\u201d She nodded toward where Rory was perched, watching the activity going on below with a quirked brow. \u201cThis is my home, Thomas, and I will defend it from them until my dying breath, but if I walk out there with you I fear we\u2019re as good as dead. No. You can do this. You don\u2019t need us to walk beside you\u2014you\u2019re strong enough to do it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

A shiver wracked him, but he nodded slightly. Her words were as terrifying as they were comforting and he knew he sure as hell didn\u2019t want to walk out there alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re going to talk to them, you\u2019d better get out there fast, Thom,\u201d Paul warned.<\/p>\n

Thom swore softly.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpen the gate,\u201d he ordered, his voice quiet.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d rather have my wife or my brother at my side, but sometimes, you just have to do things alone.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf they so much as twitch wrong, shoot them,\u201d he told Sif as Seamus and Thordin unbarred the gate so Thom could pass.<\/p>\n

Sif nodded grimly. \u201cIf they set so much as an eyelash out of line, you can be sure that they won\u2019t continue to breathe afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thom nodded back to her, then walked through the gates to meet the riders approaching, flying their flag of parley.<\/p>\n

Damn. I hope I\u2019m doing the right thing.<\/em><\/p>\n

I hope this isn\u2019t a trap.<\/em><\/p>\n

Too late now.<\/em><\/p>\n

Twenty feet from the gates, he stopped and waited, silent and watching.<\/p>\n

Hoping.<\/p>\n

Praying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thom’s point of view.] The pace of the drums in the distance sped up for a moment. Thom felt his heartrate increase along with their tempo, breathing growing a little ragged as his lungs tried to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,222,14],"tags":[150,163,171,170,166,149,223,148,218,159,168,147,167,165,158,169,146,195],"class_list":["post-3004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-5","category-chapter-41","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-carolyn-roberts","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-leinth","tag-original-fiction","tag-paul-van-rijn","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-rory-ohara","tag-seamus-vaughan","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-sif","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-thordin","tag-web-fiction","tag-wild-hunt"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Ms","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3005,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3004\/revisions\/3005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}