by Becky James
“Hungry,” I supplied.
“Not my problem. Go back to Oberrot, go to your mess hall, go to.”
At the mention of the mess hall, my stomach snarled, reminding me that if I had wanted a meal, all I had to do was go to the barracks or into the castle. The food here was good but so far unpredictable in timing and in the amount of pain one needed to endure to get it.
“I don’t actually know how to get back to my world,” I admitted. “I’m sundered here. If you and your mother decide to cast me out, I’ll be stuck here.”
“If my mother does, you mean. I’m not involved. I’m taking you to the park so you can have a run around. If you can make it that far without getting killed. You’ll have to ask her to take you back.” She frowned a little. “Unless you do want to go back. I’ll open the way for you. I’m sure my mother gave you a very dire speech about never telling anyone, but as we are never going back, I don’t really care either way.”
“I’m staying.” Straightening my spine made me tower over her. I lowered my head, ignoring the ache from my shoulders. “I have unfinished business here.”
“Whatever Gough’s paying you, I’ll double it,” she said seriously. “You don’t think I can’t ask Mum for some gold or whatever it is you use there?”
“It’s not rubles I want. And I have not been ordered or coerced here, not at this spot, here with you.”
“But you were ordered to accompany my mother?” she guessed shrewdly.
I inclined my head. “The king ordered I see her safe, but those orders are completed now. I’m here now of my own free will.”
“Uh-huh. Don’t believe you.” Turning on her heel, Evyn walked on. The pavement was such that I had to follow along behind her, but at least she did not put her device back into her ears.
I slowly scanned over the scenery. The line of abodes in which Evyn’s house nestled shoulder to shoulder ended, but the solid wall of greenery continued. The pavement grew overgrown with briar-filled tendrils which Evyn plodded around or moved out of her way. I brushed one and the thorns immediately dug into my skin and trousers. I had to stop to pull it out, grimacing as my hands endured yet another wound in the form of small punctures. Wiping the blood off I caught up with Evyn. “Are those poisonous?”
“No.”
The pavement wended alongside the road and then ended. Evyn pushed her way into the thick shrubbery and found a gate that did not lock exactly, bounded by static versions of themselves.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Kissing gate. This is how it works.” Evyn went in, shutting it behind her thus opening the way forward, and walked on. Repeating the procedure myself, I entered a large open space. The grass, a rich vibrant shade of green, stretched in front of us and to the side. Taking a deep breath, I swung my arms, limbering up.
“This is the park. Go nuts.” Evyn turned back to the kissing gate.
I stared after her retreating back, letting my arms fall. “Are we returning already?”
“I am. It’s not hard to find the way home but if you do get lost, oh well.”
I sighed, looking at the space around me, more than enough to get a good training session in.
I turned to follow her. She frowned as she slipped back through the gate. “Aren’t you desperate to do your little run around and circuits? Get out of the house?”
“Yes.”
“Well go on then.” She pushed the kissing gate to clink closed behind her.
I tried to smile. “Will you stay? You could join in if you wanted. I’d be honoured to teach you.”
“That ship has sailed,” she snapped, holding the gate closed between us. “I’d be honoured if you left me the hell alone. I don’t like you, I don’t trust you, and you’ve made it clear you find me repulsive. This change is unsettling and makes me all kinds of suspicious. I’m not going to buy it; I’m pretty sure I won’t like the punchline.”
“There will be no punching. I won’t ever hurt you. More than I already have,” I amended. I kept my arms firmly by my sides, no matter how much I wanted to wrench that gate open and follow her.
“Nevermind. Language barrier. The thrust of my argument is, go away.”
I opened my mouth to apologise again but instead the wail of a child imposed itself on me. Adult voices argued loudly and hotly over the top of it. They had entered from another kissing gate on the other side of the field, and all three in the family were in full voice.
“Oh. Teresa,” Evyn said. Her eyes widened.
I looked between them. “A friend of yours?”
She bristled. “Not exactly…” She frowned. “Hey, is her… does she have a black eye?”
I stared. “Yes. A big one. I’d say it’s a day or so old.” I glanced at Evyn. “Do black eyes still indicate some form of percussive force over here?”
Evyn nodded slowly. “It means someone hit her,” she confirmed. “And she’s not a soldier or whatever so she shouldn’t be… No one should be hitting her…” Flinging the gate open, Evyn marched up the field.
I trotted next to her, my blood rising and my stomach tingling at the prospect of confrontation. “What is the average fighter’s skill around here?”
“We don’t – I mean, maybe that guy hits other guys as well as women, but we can’t just jump to that conclusion—” She gasped. I whipped my head up to see. The male was clearly menacing the woman with his fist and the woman cowered, holding her child’s arm. “Okay. I’m jumping to that conclusion,” Evyn growled. “You have to stay back, though.”
“No ma’am,” I said, grinning. A fight! My heart started to shake my chest. I called the calm of battle down.
“You’ll escalate the situation. I’m just an old, ha, friend checking up on Teresa.” She stopped and grabbed my wrist. “You stay here and if I need you, I’ll yell.”
She was touching me! Just as Shard had said, I felt the pain in my heart recede. I would have agreed to anything she said. “I don’t like it, but I will follow your lead.”
Evyn nodded once. I stayed where she left me, watching her march head up with her hands in little fists and arms straight at her sides.
The couple had regained their composure by the time Evyn hailed them. The woman seemed overly friendly. The man went to pick up the child, but the woman got there first, holding him or her close to her chest. Evyn talked. The man took a step towards her, and Evyn took a step back. The woman rounded on her man. Leaning in, the man started pointing. That pointing was definitely aggressive. I squeezed my hands into fists so hard that my shoulders ached. I had promised Evyn I would wait for her signal but at the same time, I knew posturing towards violence when I saw it, and my soul was in the line of fire.
I analysed my foe. He was tall, perhaps as tall as me. He had the look of someone who had a skill in fighting; large shoulders, prominent chest and thighs, but I could not tell what type of fighting from his body. Skienien wrestling, perhaps? I could not see any weapons but Rose had told me that knives and swords were not permitted in this world.
His pointing aimed back toward where the family had come in and then at me. Evyn shook her head, but the man lunged toward her suddenly, and I darted into an all-out sprint. While desperately gaining ground, I kept my eyes on the situation. The man saw me approaching and bolted, shouting something but my ears were filled with the rush of my lungs and the pounding of my feet, so I did not hear what he threatened.
Evyn remained untouched when I passed her. She croaked, “Stop!” I drew to a halt next to her, careful to keep one eye on the entrance where the man had fled. Suddenly my body ached terribly from all the places where the car had struck me and I had hit the road or both; the running had awakened me to the bruising I would undoubtedly have. I kept myself upright by force of will and assessed the situation.
“Are you alright?” Evyn asked.
“Yes,” I answered, but then the woman spoke and I realised Evyn had addressed her.
“It’s the Frog. Well, I never.” The
woman hitched up her child onto her hip. No longer howling, it watched its mother carefully. “What do you do nowadays then, eh?”
“Same old, same old. Listen. Do you need help?”
The woman’s eye narrowed. The other one had already swollen shut. Anger stirred in me. “From who? You?” she asked her, her tone disparaging and her mouth pressed in a flat line.
Evyn’s shoulders straightened. “I can walk you to a shelter. There’s one in town. I’ll look up what to do on the way. I can call the police.”
“All sounds a bit final, Frog.”
Evyn shook her head. “It can be a new beginning. A better one.”
“Hmm.” She jiggled the child on her hip, her face paling. “You really think they can help?” she blurted.
“Yes, they will.”
“And you’ll come with me? I need some stuff from my house. He won’t be there right now if he’s getting his mates together to deal with…” The woman looked me up and down. “Cor, you did alright for yourself, Frog.”
“He’s not with me.”
“Sure he ain’t. Dan could see it a mile off. He’s getting the lads to deal with him. You shouldn’t have come anywhere near Dan, Frog. Near us.”
“Let’s just get your things and get to the shelter. I’ll give them a call and let them know you’re on the way.”
“I’ll do it. I just need… I need someone with me when I leave. Someone like that,” she said, nodding toward me.
“Well, you’ll have to make do with me.” Evyn smiled. “Thorrn, go back to Mum. You’re not coming with us.”
The woman frowned. I shook my head, saying, “I don’t advise that at all. This man has a tendency to violence and we don’t know where he is.”
“We know where he isn’t. He isn’t at home. He’s not going to be there, so Teresa can run in and pack a bag of valuables. What he is doing is collecting a group of his friends together specifically to, ah, ‘deal’ with you. He figures you’re a threat. Wonder how he came to that conclusion.” Evyn grimaced. “I told you to stay put.”
“I said I’d follow your lead, but Special Forces can use their judgement.”
“Special Forces?” Teresa whistled. “SAS or summat?”
“No, he’s not, and Thorrn, you just got hit by a car. I’m honestly surprised you’re standing and that you ran here. Go home. I’ll be back in an hour. Two, tops.” Tucking her hair behind her ears, she raised her chin, daring me to object.
I shook my head again. Teresa asked, “Why are you helping me, Frog? I haven’t been all that great to you. At all.” I frowned. Teresa saw and explained. “Used to pick on Evyn here. Name calling, that sort of thing. Fatty. Spoff. Loner.”
My stomach iced over. This woman used to belittle and shame my soul companion? I could see the impact of her words now on my soul: she shrank in on herself, already wounded and made small by my assault.
Evyn straightened her back. “That doesn’t matter now. What matters is seeing you and your little one out of this.”
Teresa chuckled. “Rescued by the Frog. Love it. Let’s go.”
Evyn nodded. “Thorrn, go back to Mum.”
“Uh, Evyn, I’d feel better with him around,” Teresa said.
“I’d feel better with me around too,” I added.
“No, you aren’t coming.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’ll get in a fight?”
“And?”
“And get hurt!” I grinned at her. Evyn scowled. “I don’t like you but that doesn’t mean I want you to get hurt.”
“I won’t get hurt, Evyn. I can act as a deterrent. I don’t have to fight. Special Forces are great at conciliation.”
“Yes, doing a fabulous job so far…” Evyn muttered.
Teresa chimed in, “If you don’t like him, I’ll have him.”
Evyn didn’t send me back, and walked purposefully with Teresa towards the other woman’s house. We left via another kissing gate, and Teresa and Evyn walked abreast on the wider pavement. There were no large green demarcations of shrubbery here but instead taller buildings set further back from the road.
This road was busier and well-travelled by a variety of cars and all manner of larger roaring metal monsters and beasts. Teresa slowed from carrying the child; Evyn picked it up from her and then passed it to me. “Tell him which ones are cars, trucks and buses,” she said, and I was reliant on the small creature in my arms informing me which were which in a quiet, grave little voice. I held back mentioning that my back and shoulders were aching. The child was a light enough burden but the impact from the car had done some damage.
Teresa had us cross the road and go down several “streets” of houses like this before pulling up at one of the larger, taller houses. “Here it is,” she said.
“It’s a mansion,” I declared. How would she pack all her valuables from that huge space?
“It’s a bedsit,” she responded, the non-swollen eye tired and wan. “There’s this entrance and one out back. Everyone always props open the door to the smoking courtyard out the back. If Dan comes home, he has a smoke and uses the back door. When he has the lads around, they usually come in through there.”
I gave her child back to her and saluted. Teresa chuckled at my stance. Evyn and I stayed in the foyer where the stairs spiralled endlessly upwards and a set of silvrine double doors proclaimed “Out of Order” with the crest of the local lord on it. I paced it to measure it out, wincing at my hips and leg, and investigated the back door that Teresa mentioned. It was kept open by a red brick, leading out to a walled area with stone on the ground. Scrub and grass poked through the edges of the stonework, and there were small glass containers of some sort of paper. “Cigarette butts,” Evyn murmured when I asked.
“What is the local fighting style?”
She scowled, shaking her head and tracing a crack in the tiles with her foot along the floor. “We don’t militarise our population. No one is formally trained how to fight unless they take it up as a hobby. I suppose the local fighting style is, like, glassing each other with beer bottles and… uh…” She looked green. “In the papers a few weeks ago, there was a man who was beaten up around here, so much so that he’s on life support. Police made no comment, but witnesses said there were crowbars. Those are bars of metal with a hook on each end.”
I nodded. “So it’s likely they rely on brute force? No skill involved?”
“You’re not fighting anyone! Stop getting excited about the prospect!”
Taking a deep breath, I leant my shoulder against the wall next to her. “Evyn, the truth is, I really shouldn’t fight right now. I’m battered and bruised already. If something happens, if, I can end something decisively if they are a brute fighter. If anyone with the level of skill I have turns up, I am in trouble. I need to know in order to prepare as much as I can.”
Evyn paled. “Then you shouldn’t have come.”
“And leave you to face this danger alone? No.”
“There will be no danger. He isn’t going to do anything to me.”
“Are you certain?” I lowered my head and my voice. “Evyn, if a man hurts the one closest to him, he would have no problems hurting you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she murmured.
Teresa started screaming from above. “Evyn!” she shrieked down the stairwell. “He’s coming, Dan’s coming! He’s got them all, and he’s coming to the back door! You have to get out of here; he’ll be here in less than a minute!”
“Not without you!” Evyn shouted back. She turned wide eyes onto me.
“How many?” I yelled to Teresa.
“Seven, there are seven of them!”
Seven. I glanced at Evyn, who held up an entire hand and two more fingers; the same number as it would be on Oberrot. Ice settled in my stomach.
This was it.
“I’ll delay them while you get out. Make sure you get out. Get as far away as you can.”
“Thorrn, wait!”
P
ulling the brick from the back door, I shoved it closed and it sealed shut. I stood outside in the cold courtyard, tossing the brick from sore palm to sore palm.
“Goodbye, Evyn,” I said, pushing her out of my mind. I had to stay focused to give her as much time as possible to escape. I could not imagine what was happening behind me; I had to keep my complete attention on the battle ahead.
Seven. Even if I were fresh, one out of the seven brutes would eventually get a lucky hit and take me down. If they all had swords… except Rose had said that there were no swords in this world. However, metal bars would do a lot to slow me down. If I let myself get surrounded, I would be overwhelmed, but there was little I could do about that in this small high-walled space.
The uneven tramp of feet indicating a loose group grew louder. I held the rectangular red stone in my stronger throwing hand. There was nothing else in the courtyard that would serve as a weapon apart from the little glass jars of cigarette butts. I would have to be weapon enough.
The door ahead of me swung open. I pulled the calm of battle down even while my heart hammered. This courtyard was my domain now, and they had entered it.
They would not get past me.
Chapter 7
Dan headed the group with an array of men. They baulked when they saw me waiting. I did a quick sweep of them to assess their relative threat level. Two were as big as Dan, one bigger again at the back, and the rest were average-sized. They had no sword belts nor carried any shields. They were unarmed! I grinned.
Dan shouted, “That’s him! The one sniffing after my bird.”
“I saved you the trouble of roaming around to find me.” My voice came out even and calm.
One of Dan’s cohort said, “There’s something off about him. There’s more of us but he’s smiling.”
“He’s faking it,” Dan snarled. “There’s seven of us against one. Huge advantage.”