Dawn

The Witch's Daughter: Chapter 28. It seems the bravest villagers have given their all but an unexpected ally arrives, and Hilde's friends retreat to lick their wounds. The Normans march on.

A hammer came from nowhere. Flew out of the white. Hilde gasped and held a hand to her mouth.

Saint Brigit save us.

It struck the invader knight in the stomach, and he frowned. As if an insect had bothered him.

The knight in green and black and his downward sword blow, folded like a bedsheet. The billet of iron thrown with the force that makes legend, would have downed many. Winded, the knight bent as if to look at the hammer as it tumbled to the stone. The man stumbled back two paces, and raised his head, looking for his next sword blow.

But Fergus Keenan strode from the mist, long legs closed the gap, more hammers at his waist, and another long handled one in his raised hand, its pointed end flying down toward the invaders head.

With that uncanny speed, the man in black and green, snapped out his small shield, and braced his stance, moving at the same time toward his horse.

The blacksmith’s bulk and height all lay behind that hammer blow. And the pointed end of the metal piercing the shield drove the invaders hand down, forcing his whole body off balance. Keenan raised his boot to kick the mans head like a pigs bladder at the May fair.

The man’s other hand groped, reached his saddle, and yanking hard, pulled himself clear of Fergus’ boot with no more than a hairsbreadth to spare him. Hilde jumped from the parapet and ran to Donegal. The trickle of blood from his mouth flowing stronger now, his eyes fluttered then shut.