Return of the General's Daughter-Chapter 356: A Life in the Valley of Death

When Luki’s group reached the crest overlooking the Ponte Pass and saw the empty trail on the far side, dread gripped their hearts. The group they had been hunting—families with children, and weary prisoners—had somehow crossed the perilous terrain ahead of them. The bandits’ earlier arrogance vanished like mist under the midday sun.

"How in the gods’ names did they make it?" Luki’s deputy muttered, stunned. "They had women and children with them..."

Luki’s jaw clenched. He yanked the reins, bringing his horse to a halt. They were still over a hundred meters from the narrow pass. Traversing it now would be madness. He hadn’t expected Odin’s team to move with such speed, or determination.

"Boss," said Kobe, one of his most trusted men, riding up beside him. "We can beat them to Mount Ma-Anyag if we take the Exile Road along the river. It’s faster. We wait for them there and ambush them."

Luki considered it. It was a sound idea.

Swoosh!

Aarrgh!

Kobe toppled from his horse, an arrow embedded deep in his chest. Before the others could react, a second volley tore through the air. Screams echoed as six more men dropped—one of them Luki’s own deputy.

"Damn it! Take cover!" Luki bellowed, spurring his horse behind the shelter of a huge tree trunk.

Above them, the cliffs groaned. A tremor passed through the ridge, and stones tumbled down. Then came the rumble—a sound that shook the marrow of their bones. Riderless horses bolted in panic, galloping straight through the pass.

"The horses, don’t let them escape," Luki shouted furiously. However, his men were busy finding cover, and no one heed his words.

Then came the true calamity: a massive boulder, the size of two carraiges, detached from the crag and hurtled down. Luki looked up but it was too late.

"RUN!"

He screamed, lashing his horse just as the rock slammed into the earth below. Screams were cut short. A third of his men were crushed instantly. The rest, driven by terror, fled in all directions—some straight into the narrow pass.

But the pass was death itself. Its second name was the Valley of Death. Anyone who fell off the ridge would be dead, crushed to pieces by the jagged rocks that carpeted the valley below.

Waiting beyond the narrow ridge were the prisoners-turned-warriors, led by General Odin. Arrows and swords met the fleeing bandits with ruthless efficiency.

General Odin and his men showed no remorse for killing those men. They knew that they were the bandits turned human traffickers and loan sharks who made the lives of ordinary people a living hell.

From his position, Luki saw his men fall—some into the abyss, the valley below, others skewered by the very people they thought helpless. Rage filled his eyes, red and burning.

"Attack! Use yourselves—ride out and meet them head-on!" he snarled.

"Boss! Captain! Calm down. We will be lamb offerings for slaughter." One man reasoned. "We need to retreat!"

The speaker’s head separated from his shoulders before he could finish. Luki’s blade had answered in place of his voice. The body crumpled. The head rolled to a stop at Luki’s feet.

"Who else dare disobey?"

Everyone went silent.

Clad in full armor, Luki was a terrifying sight—his black plate gleaming, stained with dust and blood. Confident that no arrow could pierce his mail, he turned and spurred his horse toward the pass.

Across the narrow trail, hidden behind a rocky outcrop, Lara waited. Her bow raised and an iron arrow nocked. Alaric was beside her with his bow and arrow while the Norse brothers flanked the two on both sides.

Lara inhaled. Her vision blurred—not from fear, but fury.

Lara inhaled. Her vision blurred—not from fear, but fury. Images flooded her mind: her father and bothers, tied and dragged behind Luki’s horse; Nicolas, whipped in public; brave General Amnon, humiliated in chains. Men of honor—broken by a monster who pretended to reform.

The audicity to humiliate them!

She pulled the bowstring tighter, her fingers steady.

The moment Luki shouted "Charge," an arrow entered his mouth. It struck with deadly precision, plunging straight into his throat and bursting through the back of his neck. The force knocked him off his horse. He fell just in time to be trampled by his own men, their mounts unable to halt in the chaos.

Then the air exploded with arrows. The rest of the bandits fell in a storm of iron, and those who escaped the barrage were swiftly met by blades wielded by Odin’s vengeful soldiers and the freed prisoners.

Luki wasn’t killed by the arrow, but by the hooves of the horses that trampled him. The rest of the arrows were released, and those who escaped met the swords of the generals and the other prisoners.

"Damn! That idiot Luki was all bark and no bite!" Galahad spoke after the last body was removed from the ravine and the horses had been recovered. They now had twenty additional horses. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

Odin stepped forward, surveying the bodies. "His surrender was a ruse. The bastard tricked Ma-Anyag’s general. Those fifty men he brought with him—they were never reinforcements. Just more wolves in stolen uniforms, still raiding towns in the dark."

Even when he was assigned in Carles, he still received intelligence reports from the other generals and commanders across Northem.

"Now that the immediate danger is removed, let’s continue with the journey. There is a clearing beside a spring not far away. It is a good place to rest." Prince Alaric said, his eyes on Lara. He could tell that she was exhausted.

They arrived at the clearing a few minutes later and set up camp. It was a safe place to stay the night.

He glanced at Lara. She hadn’t said a word, but her exhaustion was evident.

The group made its way to the clearing, a peaceful spot surrounded by trees and the sound of birdsong. Tents were quickly erected—one for Alaric, one for the women and children, and a smaller one nearby at Alaric’s command—for Lara alone. He knew her well enough to give her the space she needed. If she has a choice, she would not sleep with strangers.

Alaric sat sharpening his sword while Orion and Jethru tended to the wounded prisoners. A lot of them had blisters on their feet and wounds from whiplash that had already pestered. The forest did not lack the herbs they needed to treat the wound, so the two masters were not worried.

In the middle of the night, the symphony of the nocturnal animals was drowned by a sudden scream.

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