Read Online The Spacetime Pool by Catherine Asaro - Free Book Online Page B

raiders
were deliberately ruining the hall, and Janelle could have wept for the
destruction of such beauty.
     
    The two outlaws caged
her between their mounts. Laughing, the bareheaded man planted his boot between
her shoulder blades and shoved her hard into the helmeted man’s animal.
     
    “Asshole!” she
yelled. The helmeted man grabbed for her, and she socked his arm. Behind her,
the other outlaw grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled back her head until
she was looking up at him. Exhilaration flushed his face. His yell rang through
the clamor, and she thought either he was mad with battle lust or just plain
crazy.
     
    Janelle twisted free,
but the effort sent her lurching into the other biaquine. It danced to the side
and reared, rising far, far too high. Its hooves smashed a column, showering
debris. Gasping, shielding her head, she staggered back, too terrified by the
enraged animal even to cry out. As it came down, it knocked her over, and she
fell to the floor, landing hard on her hands and knees. When it reared again, a
scream wrenched out of Janelle.
     
    Scrambling to her
feet, she dodged the frenzied animal. The bareheaded outlaw grabbed her, and
this time she didn’t fight when he hefted her upward. Better to be caught up
there than trampled down here. His saddle was narrow enough that he could throw
her stomach-down in front of it, her legs hanging down one side of his biaquine
and her torso on the other, with the edge of the saddle jutting into her side.
He pulled up her skirt and slapped her behind, and she cussed loudly at him. He
didn’t try to hold her down, though, and she managed to struggle up until she
was astride the animal. She nearly fell in the process, but she kept her seat
by clinging to the biaquine.
     
    Calls rang through the
mayhem, and dust clogged Janelle’s nose. The raider kept one arm around her,
clenching his reins while he snapped a whip against his mount’s flank. She
recognized Dominick’s men among the warriors. The outlaws far outnumbered them,
and most were no longer fighting, they were trashing the incomparable Fourier
Hall.
     
    Then she saw
Dominick.
     
    Towering in leather
armor, he rode a massive dark animal. He held his sword high, his face harsh
with rage. When he shouted, the marauders surged away from him, toward the
palace entrance. The first wave reached the entry and flooded out, and Janelle’s
captor galloped after them.
     
    In the courtyard
outside, the clamor lessened, muted by the open space. Almost no one remained
to oppose the invaders. Ahead of them, two men on biaquines were forcing along
a limping warrior. With a jolt, Janelle recognized the injured man as one of
her guards from this morning. His sword arm hung useless at his side, and blood
pumped from a wound in his shoulder.
     
    One of the outlaws
raised his sword above the bleeding man. In horrified disbelief, Janelle saw
the blade descend, flashing in the chill sunlight. She jerked around so she
couldn’t see, but nothing could shut out the thud of impact or the hideous
gurgle that followed.
     
    “Oh, God,” she whispered.
She prayed it had happened fast enough to spare him pain. She thought of Kadar
and her skin felt clammy. Nausea surged over her.
     
    Her captor galloped
with the other men across earthen courtyards toward the huge wall that should
have protected the palace. Yells broke out behind them. Looking around, Janelle
saw a party of ten men on biaquines racing toward their group.
     
    The outlaws reined in
their mounts with sprays of dirt and wheeled to face the palace. The sight
chilled her; several hundred raiders confronted the small party of defenders.
They would massacre ten adversaries.
     
    Then she saw
Dominick—with the outlaws. He sat on his huge dark biaquine at the front
of the formation, his gaze intent on the ten men from the palace. The defenders
slowed as they came closer, near enough for her to see who led them.
     
    Dominick?
     
    Janelle blinked,
looking