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She stood on tiptoe to see above the commotion. She even jumped up a little and arched her neck as far as it would stretch. Chewie barked and growled amidst the chaos, but she couldn’t see where he was either.
She was too damned short!
Suddenly, she was hoisted aloft and in front of someone, onto a horse. She immediately began to struggle, afraid she’d been caught by a soldier.
“Be still,” Sorin said low beside her ear.
Divina folded like a rag doll on top of the gelding Sorin rode, clutching its mane tightly.
A quick look around told her that Ere sat behind Ariana on the second horse, while the centaurs carried their women on their backs. They stood around and behind Chiron and Andros facing outward at the soldiers. They stamped their hooves and snorted in agitation, but they still didn’t draw arms.
Why didn’t they fight to defend their leader?
“Look,” Sorin said.
Divina twisted to see what he meant and gasped.
Three soldiers had attacked Andros all at once with long, spiked chains and three-pronged whips.
A half dozen more with swords and axes crowded closer but didn’t approach. Their weapons were sharp but Andros’ reach was long. No one wanted to get stomped by one of the massive hooves of an enraged, one-and-a-half-ton stallion.
One chain wrapped around his front leg; another coiled around his upper arm, the sharp thorns ripping into muscle. Two soldiers pulled at the chains to trap him, while the third snapped the whip at his back.
Meanwhile, Chiron simply stood to the side with his hands curled into fists. The general didn’t aid Andros. In fact, he held the other centaurs back when a couple stallions lifted their front hooves as if to charge into the fray.
“We have to help him!” Divina cried. “Why is no one helping!”
“He is making a point,” Sorin answered low, his arm around her middle squeezing the breath right out of her, making her lose her voice.
“Be still. Watch.”
Under Divina’s terrified gaze, Andros locked his arms, accentuating every muscle in his upper body, and reared up.
She didn’t think it was possible, despite that she knew he was inhumanely strong, stronger now that he was centaur—somehow, he pulled both of the men that pulled at him with chains clear off their feet into the air.
As the soldiers held onto their ends of the chain, they swung like rocks on the end of a long sling. The one that was attached by the chain to Andros’ arm got hurled several yards away, landing with an audible crash and shout as he fell into a line of soldiers.
The second one that was swept off his feet by the chain attached to Andros’ foreleg got dragged through rocks and debris on the hilly ground. He choked on a mouthful of dirt and took a gulp of breath just as Andros reared and pivoted sharply. Swinging him back around with so much momentum, he crashed directly into a few of the Archons, knocking them down like a bowling ball against pins in a tangle of limbs and cries of pain.
The soldier with the whip managed to get a couple of lashes in, cutting angry red streaks into Andros’ rump and side, but he got his comeuppance shortly. As Andros turned and kicked out with his powerful hind legs, one plate-sized hoof landing directly on the man’s chest, throwing him clear off the hill.
The soldiers with swords and axes threw caution to the wind and charged in concert, but their weapons never met with Andros’ flesh. His reach was indeed too long, his aim too true. He bucked and reared in a deadly, arrestingly graceful dance, dispatching the soldiers in short order like they were mere nuisances to flick aside.
That was when the archers on horseback drew back their bows in concert and aimed, all of their pointy ends directed toward Andros.
Divina’s breath froze and her heart stopped as a shrill scream climbed from the center of her very being up her acid-filled throat.
But before she could utter a sound, Andros reared again and stamped his hooves in the air, snorting and neighing in a sound that was equally beast and man.
Primal. Undeniable.
As clearly evidenced by what happened next.
All of the horses the soldiers rode reared up as well, kicking and neighing, throwing many of their riders off. The ones who managed to stay on were either bucked off as the horses kicked out or turned around in circles as they pranced and sidestepped, purposely bumping into each other, trying to jostle the burdens off their backs.
There were men shouting, horses whinnying, stray arrows flying, a giant Chinese Tibetan mastiff barking and growling up a storm—
Divina finally saw her baby poised and ready for attack, his body leaning forward, lips curled back to reveal razor sharp teeth in a sonorous snarl, as he stood guard by Andros’ side like the centaur’s personal protector.
