Category : Stories

Sub Category : Drama

Up over the edge of the spur, three wild horsemen appeared heading for the gateway.
   As they dropped from their ponies in the courtyard below, Marcus and Esca drew back from the parapet."Only three, so far,"
Marcus whispered."Don't use your knife unless you have to. They may be of more use to us living than dead."
   Esca nodded, and returned his hunting-knife to his belt.Life and the urgency of doing had taken hold of them again.Flattened against the wall on either side of the stairhead they waited, listening to their pursuers questing through storehouse and guardroom."Fools!"
Marcus breathed, as a shout told them that the stairway had been spotted; and then came a rush of feet that checked at the floor below and then came on, storming upward.
   Marcus was a good boxer, and much practice with the cestus last winter had made Esca something of a boxer also; together, weary though they were, they made a dangerous team. The first two tribesmen to come ducking out through the low doorway went down without a sound, like poled oxen; the third, not so completely caught unawares, put up more of a fight.Esca flung himself upon him, and they crashed down several steps together, in a flailing mass of arms and legs. There was a short, desperate struggle before Esca came uppermost, and staggering clear, heaved an unconscious man over the doorsill.

The Eagle of the Ninth   Rosemary Sutcliff