I ran to my younger sister’s side when the soldiers burst through the doors of the convents sanctuary.
“Kat,” I whispered while the other
sisters scrambled around us, “you mustn’t let them find out we are related.” I put my hands firmly on her shoulders,
“Promise me.” I gave her a quick shake
to get her attention off the chaos around us and look me in the eyes. “Promise
me Kat, whatever happens, promise me you’ll keep silent.”
“Cora.” I gave her a sharp look. “I promise.”
“You’ll be safe here; the sisters
will take care of you.” I tried reassuring her.
“And if father comes?” She asked.
“He wants you safe that’s all you
need to worry about.” I whispered.
Then one of the men that broke into
the sanctuary started yelling orders at us, “Everyone in a line, now!”
Most of the sisters were frightened
by the intrusion, I tried to play the part as well but I wasn’t afraid. I grabbed Kat’s hand and rushed to where the
line was being formed, grabbing another sisters hand upon reaching it to
hopefully show impartiality. The man
yelling orders came closer to examine us.
He was taller than me by a few inches, muscular with sandy blonde hair
cropped short. I would have thought him
handsome under different circumstances.
“You, “he pointed at Kat, “come
here.”
He motioned for her to stand next
to him while looking the rest of us over.
She looked at me out of the corner of her eye. I squeezed her hand and gave the slightest
nod of my head to let her know it was okay.
She took a deep breath, let go of my hand and walked over to him. He gazed at her as she walked to him then
wiped his mouth with the back of his hand as if satisfied with his
selection. My blood burned and I wanted
to take his life but just as the thought entered my mind he looked right at me,
as if waiting to see my reaction to his choice.
Had he seen us together? I intentionally kept his gaze to assess the sort
of man he was and if he would have noticed us before. His lips curved into a slight smile and gave
me my answer.
He broke eye contact first which
gave me a chance to search him and observe my surroundings, my options for
protecting my sister. The convent
sisters were now huddled in a group just behind me and the man was in the
process of tying Kat’s hands together.
“So, that’s the sort of man you
are, is it?” I said with spite in my voice hoping it would strike a nerve. It worked. He stopped tying her hands and turned towards
me.
“And what kind of man would that
be?” He asked with a hint of annoyance.
“I just thought, given your appearance,”
I looked him up and down and smiled seductively at him, “that you’d rather have
a woman accompany you, not a child.” He
looked me over once and gave me a cruel smile before speaking.
“You’re right, I would rather have
a woman,” he paused, taking a step closer to me, “but I can sell her as a slave
and aside from the obvious, what do you have to offer me that’s more valuable
than gold?”
“I am a skilled fighter and beside
that, you wouldn’t get much gold selling her.
Just look at her, she’s scrawny, malnourished, no muscle, you’d be lucky
to negotiate seventy-five pieces of gold for a boy like that let alone a girl
at any slave trade.” I could feel the
heat from Kat’s eyes glaring at me. I
met her eyes, you know I mean nothing by
it, sister, just trying to keep you safe.
“You have a quick tongue, I’ll give
you that. “ He scoffed then asked intrigued.
“How are you with a sword?” I
laughed to myself, it worked!
“Better than you might think. Let the girl go and I’ll show you how
proficient I am personally.” I smiled playfully. He untied Kat and seeing I had no sword gave
me one from the soldier that he’d ordered over to initially take Kat away then
gave that same soldier his sword. He was
a large man but nothing I couldn’t handle.
Kat, you need to leave here
now. Take refuge within the convent and
whatever happens, stay inside. I saw
her nod out of the corner of my and then she was gone, I breathed a sigh of
relief then prepared myself for tackling this mountain of a man.
“Then prove yourself.” He laughed and gestured one hand toward the
same soldier he’d given his sword.
He slowly stepped out in front of
me, sword in hand using it like a cane, smirking, as if I were easy prey. With one hand I lifted my sword vertically in
front of me, in a sort of salute, then swung it down, turning it quickly in my
hand while getting into a fighting stance.
I waited for him to make the first move, which he eventually did by
taking a swipe at my legs. It was easy
enough to dodge but I could tell he was holding back. So I lifted my sword over my head, gripped
with both hands and lunged at him bringing the sword down as I lunged. He was able to block it but it caught him off
guard just enough which allowed me to bring him to his knees. While he was on his knees I kicked him in the
chest and knocked him to the ground and quickly put my swords point to his
neck, drawing a small amount of blood before moving it away. It was over faster than either he or his commander
had thought it would be.
“Impressive,” I eyed him proudly he
scoffed then yelled to his soldier who was still on the ground, giving him a
kick as he stood, “Get up, fool!”
Directing his attention back to me, “I presume you have skills other
than swinging a sword around?” It was more of a statement than a question as he
tossed a bow to me while saying it.
“Where’s my target?” Was all I said
before I saw the soldier I’d bested with the sword dragging a man covered in
filth toward a nearby tree. “There is
your target! “ He let out a vile laugh,
keeping intense eye contact with me to see if I’d waiver, “Unless of course you
don’t believe in killing innocent people.”
As he was saying this, a young
woman, about my age came running, toward the filthy man appearing to be
searching for someone. She looked quite
horrified to see me with a bow strung with an arrow aiming at the man, until I
realized it wasn’t me she was looking at, it was the commander. I assumed she was in some way connected to
the commander, be it sister, wife, lover or what have you, so I made a quick
decision to aim my arrow at her and then gave him my answer.
Before losing my arrow, with a wild
look in my eyes, “That’s just it,” I paused and looked at the woman, giving him
a chance to see my mind then looked back to him adding a fierce smile to my
look, “I don’t believe anyone is innocent.”
As I let the arrow fly from my hand
I could see the horror in his face as he shouted, “NOOO!!” and kicked the end
of the bow in hopes of making me miss my shot.
I wasn’t actually going to let the arrow kill the woman but I wanted it
to be close. I used my telepathy skills
to guide the arrow just past her head, deeply grazing her check before it
struck the tree behind her, she let out a shriek and fainted. The commander turned towards me as if to
strike me but thought better of it and ran to the woman’s aid. He picked her up and carried her to a waiting
caravan and put her in the back of one of the carriages before growling orders
at his men to tie me up and put me on the back of his horse.
Once they were done looting
provisions from the convent, I was loosely tied up, sitting behind the
commander on his horse at the back of his regiment. I looked back at the convent one last time
and saw Kat peeking out the front gate.
It had been our home for the last three months and it was a little sad
to leave it behind, especially since I didn’t know when I’d see my sister
again. She raised her arm up to wave, I
smiled solemnly and turned away so she wouldn’t see the tears that fell.
It was dusk before we reached their
well established encampment. There were
a lot of tents set up, what looked to be a whole army’s worth, with three
larger tents in the center of the rest.
I assumed the one we were heading towards was this commander’s tent and
one of the other two was probably the meeting tent, but what was the third
large tent for? Perhaps it was for the
woman I’d grazed with the arrow. When we
arrived at the commander’s tent, he hastily got off the horse, brusquely helped
me down and shuffled me inside as if to hide me away. He sat me in a chair and surprisingly untied
me, grabbed a couple of glasses and set them on the table next to me, then
looked around for something to fill them with and upon finding an empty bottle,
glared at me and grabbed both my shoulders hard.
“Do not leave this tent.” I said nothing in reply so he turned and left
quickly. After he’d been gone a few
minutes I peeked outside the tent to see if there was an easy way to escape. As I was looking around I saw the woman I’d
grazed with an arrow walk into the tent that was just a few yards away from the
one I was in followed by a rather burly man.
He looked my way before entering the tent behind her and stared for a
moment. He looked angry like he knew her
wound was my fault, so I ducked back inside the commander’s tent to avoid a
confrontation with him. I sat back down
in the chair I had previously been in and no sooner than I’d sat down, the
commander rushed in with a small bottle of rum.
I downed the first glass he poured
a little more quickly than he expected still a little shaken from the other
mans look. He smiled greedily at me and
poured me another glass after first finishing his. I could only guess what his plans for me were
once the bottle was empty. I just had to
be sure he drank the lions share without noticing I’d slowed down or stopped
all together. He never spoke while he
was drinking, he just stared at me every so often as he slowly paced the tent
stumbling as he went, removing his boots and jacket then running his hand
through his disheveled hair and letting out a long sigh before slumping into
the chair across from me. He drank
another glass; eyeing me the whole time then awkwardly slammed it on the table
next to us. I stood slowly from my chair
and thought it best not to make eye contact with him yet but poured the last
bit of rum in his glass. I put it in his
hand and helped him out of his chair and walked him over to the bed, he took a
few sips from the glass and sat hard on the bed facing me. He swayed even though he was sitting, I knew
then he’d had enough to drink where he wouldn’t remember what we did or didn’t
do tonight.
I unbuttoned and removed his shirt
then pulled off the outer part of my dress leaving the slip underneath on. His eyes blinked heavily as he watched me and
he smiled with delight as I sauntered over to him and laid him back on the
bed. He was an attractive man in face
and body and losing myself in the moment, having had too much to drink, I
leaned down and kissed him lightly. His
hands twisted through my hair and pulled me closer he was gentle which caught
me off guard. It wasn’t as unpleasant as
I thought it would be with him either so I lingered there and a moment longer
and as I did so, he passed out.
I sighed then rolled off of him
onto the bed next to him and laid there for a while before moving. There was a rug made out of a bear skin on
the ground next to his bed that I was going to make my bed tonight so I grabbed
one of the pillows off the bed, found another blanket and curled up on the
ground, my back facing the opening of the tent.
Sometime after I’d lain down on the ground I heard the tent flap open
quietly with a man’s voice following it.
“Robert!” he hissed sharply, then
again a little louder, “Robert! Get up you lazy…” He trailed off and I guessed
it was because he saw me laying there. I
didn’t move, pretending to be asleep, when I heard the tent flap close
gently. I soon fell asleep and I slept
surprisingly well for being on the ground.
I woke up when I heard the man I
now knew as Robert stirring. Moving as
quickly and quietly as I could, I crawled in bed next to him bringing the
pillow and blanket with me. Feeling my
movement he draped his arm over my stomach with a grunt. Seconds later the tent flap flung open and in
walked the burly man I’d seen with the woman last night.
“Robert!” The burly man said
loudly. I recognized his voice; it was calmer
this morning that it had been last night.
Robert woke startled when he’d
heard his name; fumbling for the sword he usually kept by his bedside. He gave up the quest when he saw who the
voice belonged to and rolling his eyes at the man sat up before speaking.
“What do you want, Gavin? Can’t you see I’m busy?” He said, gesturing
towards me. I sat up pulling the blanket
up to my chest and looked at the end of the bed avoiding the eyes I knew were
watching me now.
“Yes, I can see the two of you were
in the middle of a wild game of sleeping.” He said with a smirk, I smiled to
myself. “Now, if you are done with your whore, get up, we need to talk.” I grimaced at the use of the word whore
towards me, it sounded as if he’d spit it out.
The tent opened suddenly again and in rushed the woman I’d struck with
an arrow.
“Gavin, husband, it’s not his…” She
stopped speaking when she saw me sitting, half dressed, next to Robert on the
bed. Her face went white, “Oh, I’m
sorry.” She squeaked out. When she
turned to leave I thought I saw tears in her eyes.
Robert chuckled to himself before
getting out of bed. He grabbed a shirt
and pushed past Gavin to leave the tent.
Gavin stood there for a moment before he followed Robert out. I made myself look at him before he left, I
had nothing to be ashamed of so there was no reason to hide my face from
him. I took a deep breath in and then
met his gaze, he was strikingly handsome, more so than Robert. His jaw tightened for a brief second when our
eyes met, and then he turned and ducked out of the tent. I let out the breath I was holding then
quickly got up and threw my crumpled dress on and followed him out of the
tent. I needed to find the woman.
