The little one was dawdling.
Taghai couldn't see him; the sweeping face guards of his helm saw to that, but he could hear the cadence of his nag's iron-shod hooves, and he knew the sound of a beast at a gallop. Whatever the broken rhythm the human forced his beast to use, it was a long way from a gallop or a threatening charge.
Fine, Taghai snorted. Let the man pick flowers.
The first ring hung out over his path, and Taghai put his lance through it without breaking stride. He captured the ring more from curiosity than any great desire to. It wasn't that difficult after all, and in the blink of an eye the ice ran down the shaft and burst against his vamplate in a shower of tiny shards of ice and faintly luminous energy.
"Hmmm," Taghai mused as he charged toward the next one.
