Read Lorik The Defender (The Lorik Trilogy) for Free Online

the monsters’ whirring wings grew louder. The night was gloomy, but eventually they saw the horse creatures, with their scorpion tails and the upper bodies of men. They were moving slowly, their wings buzzing like hummingbirds, their heads down.
    “Are they awake?” Stone whispered?
    “I don’t know, but they’re moving slower than normal.”
    “We’ve never fought them in the darkness,” Stone said. “Do you have a plan?”
    “No,” Lorik said. “I was hoping to get an idea of their numbers.”
    “I can’t tell in the dark,” Stone said.
    “Me either, but it doesn’t seem to be more than we fought the other day.”
    “Do we take them on ourselves?”
    “No, not in the dark,” Lorik said. “In fact, it might be better if we pushed on. If we could get the group moving, we could probably stay ahead of this lot until sunup.”
    “I doubt we could get everyone awake and ready to march,” Stone said. “Half of that lot is on the verge of coming up lame. I wouldn’t push them.”
    “Then we need to get back. Perhaps we can lure the monsters into a trap.”
    “What have you got in mind?”
    “I’ll tell you on the way,” Lorik said.
    They jogged back to the camp. The bonfire was roaring by the time they arrived and Lorik had to quickly give his volunteers orders. They split into two forces, each one moving far out of the ring of light cast off by the bonfire. Lorik and Stone took positions directly in front of the fire, but they kept their weapons hidden. The archers with quivers of fire arrows stood behind the bonfire, a brazier of coals ready to ignite their arrows when the time came.
    Lorik was soon sweating from the heat of the bonfire. The night was cold, but Lorik was tense as he waited for the monsters to arrive. They had been moving slowly in the darkness, but as they approached the fire, they sped up.
    “Here they come,” Stone said.
    “Predictable,” Lorik said loudly. “Wait till they’re almost on top of us to fire those arrows.”
    The Leffers closed in, their black eyes glistening in the firelight.
    “Now!” Lorik shouted.
    Four fire arrows arced over the heads of the Leffers. There were a dozen of the huge monsters. Their scorpion tails dripped a deadly looking venom. The first closed on Lorik, who drew his sword. The tail whipped forward and Lorik brought the sword down in an overhead slash that met the monster’s deadly stinger head on. The blade dissected the stinger and cut into the tail, but then it wedged in the hard exoskeleton. The Leffer reared, jerking its tail back and lifting Lorik off the ground. He refused to let go of his sword and twisted frantically in the air.
    Stone had several spears lying on the ground beside him. He flicked up one of them with his foot, caught it in the air and hurled it all in one smooth motion. The spear flew like a wraith and buried itself in the monster’s human chest. The creature dropped to its knees and Lorik, landing deftly on his feet, jerked his weapon free. Then, he spun, dropping to his knee to avoid the strike of another monster’s tail, and severed the foreleg of the beast.
    Stone hurled another spear, just before the mounted volunteers hurled their own weapons from the darkness. The archers were shooting arrow after flaming arrow high into the night sky, illuminating the scene in a dim light that gave the entire attack a nightmarish quality.
    The Leffers fell to the attack, many impaled on more than one well thrown spear. The battle was over so suddenly that Lorik felt apprehensive. The volunteers were still on their horses, the mounts nervously pawing the ground. The bonfire roared behind Lorik, while flaming arrows dotted the ground in the distance, their flames like dancing stars on the dark landscape.
    “Is it over?” Stone asked.
    “I don’t know,” Lorik said.
    The Leffers were still twitching, their tails flailing reflexively, making it too dangerous to recover the spears that were used to kill them.
    “I want