Life Bonds

by Daniel Schinhofen

  The one man at the table whose armor had silver trim sneered at Sean. “Sit down, or you’ll regret becoming part of our entertainment.”

  Ryann stood up behind Sean. “Let the girl go.”

  “Ha, can’t even control your little woman,” the man laughed. “Maybe she just needs a firmer hand to show her where a woman’s place should be.”

  “Master,” Myna said softly as she rose to her feet and turned to face the table of men, “maybe you should let us deal with these pests for you.”

  “Oh, you can deal with us,” one of the others laughed. “I know just how I want you, too,” he continued, getting laughs from the others at the table.

  Fiona got to her feet as the two men continued to manhandle the barmaid. Looking over at the innkeeper, Fiona spoke softly, “Sorry for any trouble, but we’re going to play with these men.”

  “Just don’t hurt my daughter,” the innkeeper replied.

  “They won’t,” the armored men snickered as they all got to their feet, except for one who pulled the barmaid onto his lap.

  “Master, sit down. We’ll take care of this,” Myna said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Please?”

  Sean sat back down, turning his chair to watch the seven men sneering at Ryann, Fiona, and Myna. “We should take this outside,” Fiona said with a smile.

  “I think we should take it upstairs,” the one with silver trim snickered.

  Fiona shook her head as she headed toward the door, followed by Myna and Ryann. The seven men followed them, while the last one remained at the table, still groping the barmaid. Sean watched the men leave before he focused on the one staying behind and pulled a copper piece from his pouch.

  “Anyone betting on the fight outside?” Sean asked at random, as the few people in the common room rushed over to look out the windows and door. “I’ll match any bet that the women win.”

  The man mauling the barmaid laughed. “Them against us? Are you daft?”

  Pulling his arm back, Sean grinned. “If I want your two copper’s worth, I’ll pay you for it.” With that, he flung the copper. The coin hit the man right in the bridge of his nose and shattered it.

  The man let go of the barmaid to clutch at his face, cursing loudly. Sean got to his feet as the barmaid scrambled away toward her father. Just then, the stable yard door burst open and the stable master came in carrying a hammer.

  “Who’s manhandling my daughter?” the large woman growled.

  “The one with the broken nose,” the bartender said, pointing at the armored man getting to his feet and snarling at Sean.

  Clutching his broken nose, the man pulled his sword. “I’ll kill you.” The words were a slurred mumble, his broken nose making him hard to understand.

  Sean jumped back, pulling his own sword. “Don’t do this.”

  With a vicious snarl, the madman attacked Sean, who parried the wild swing. “After you, I’ll pay the bitch back who started this.”

  Sean edged the man around the table and in a circle, fighting defensively the entire time. When the man’s back turned to the stable master, she stepped forward and hit him square in the head with the hammer. The sickening crunch of a skull being fractured sounded loud to Sean, who stepped back and sheathed his sword.

  “I’ve been told it’s a bad idea to kill people,” Sean said calmly.

  “He attacked my daughter and a guest,” the stable master said, “the magistrate will see it my way.”

  “They’re using weapons,” came a cry from one of the onlookers by the window.

  “Fuck,” Sean cursed as he ran for the door. Bursting out of the inn, he found the seven men bloodied, standing on one side of the street and the three women still looking fresh just in front of him.

  “You fucking bitches will pay for this,” the one in silver armor raged, his sword in hand.

  “Stop where you are!” a very large man in chainmail said as he came around of the corner of the building nearest the armed men. “As the guard captain of this village, I command you to put down your weapons.”

  Eyes flickering to the captain, then to the women, the leader sneered. “Stay out of this or we’ll deal with you as well, Captain,” the last word was said with contempt.

  “Landis, if you don’t stand down, even your Patron won’t be able to save you,” the captain said grimly, his sword sliding free of the scabbard.

  Landis spat at the captain. “Damn it, Geoff! Stand down, or he’ll hear about your interference.”

  Geoff brought his sword up into a guard position. “Three women in the middle of the street is too much. I can’t let that go unseen, Landis.”

  “I’d rather apologize to him than leave these three breathing,” Landis hissed. “Get them boys, I’ll deal with Geoff.”

  Stepping up beside Fiona, Sean sighed, “I tried not to start anything...”

  Myna vanished, as did two of the seven men coming toward them. Fiona nodded, “I’ll deal with the two Camouflaged men. We know you tried, Master.”

  Ryann pulled and threw two knives in quick succession. The first knife was batted away, but the second hit her target right at the shoulder joint, making the thug drop his sword from a nerveless hand.

  Sean Shaped his sword into a spear as he stepped forward, engaging the other three while Fiona pivoted to his left. Playing defensively, Sean bought time for Myna, who appeared behind the men and hamstrung two of them before the third spun on her. Sean lunged, catching one in the knee, his blade slicing through as if it was nothing more than butter.

  Fiona had engaged the two men she had called out, and when her first target appeared, Ryann hit the man with her last two knives; one to the knee, the other to the gut. Turning from the heavily wounded man to the other attacker, she parried away his first strike, making the surprised man backstep from her.

  “Enough!” Geoff yelled with a ragged cough, wiping at his bloody lips. “Landis is dead, stand down.”

  The one remaining thug glanced around, then dropped his sword. “I surrender to the magistrate’s men.”

  “There’s another inside the inn,” the stable master called out. “He tried to rape my daughter and attacked a guest. I think he needs healing. I hit him in the head.”

  Geoff winced. “I’ll see to him in a minute.” Pulling out a whistle, Geoff blew three loud blasts before putting it away. “The guards will be here in a moment. Everyone, please go inside the inn.”

  Sean cleaned off his blade and looked down at the crippled man before him, who had passed out from the pain and blood loss. Fiona and Myna also cleaned their weapons, joining Sean and Ryann as they went back inside.

  The innkeeper brought them a bottle and glasses. “On me. Thank you for helping my daughter.”

  “You’re welcome,” Sean said. “Is she going to be okay?”

  “She’ll be all right, sir,” the innkeeper said. “The debt I owe you for stepping in is high, I don’t know how I’ll repay it.”

  “Refund us the price for staying and we’ll call it even,” Sean said, “which is meant as no slight to your daughter, we just all hate rapists.”

  Bowing deeply, the innkeeper placed a handful of coins on the table next to the wine. “I’ll make you something special, if you don’t mind waiting a bit for your meal.”

  “We’ve worked up an appetite,” Sean said as Ryann’s stomach growled. “Can we start with the stew? We’ll still have plenty of room left for what you make, sir.”

  “Of course,” the innkeeper said, hurrying away.

  Fiona took the coins off the table. “No one bet?”

  “No takers, and I was busy dealing with the idiot who stayed behind,” Sean said. “Now, how the hell did that go from fistfight to weapons?”

  “I kept throwing rocks at them,” Ryann said, looking a little pale. “I hit them in the eyes and nose, mostly. Not hard, I was just trying to drive home the point, but all it seemed to do was piss them off more.”

  Sean sent her a trickle of energy to help stabilize
her. “You did the right thing, Ryann. It’s not your fault that guy thought he could get away with murder.”

  Sean took a sip of his wine, surprised to find a blush instead of the red he expected. The fruity flavor was much more pronounced than the wines he’d had before, and it tasted much sweeter, but not cloyingly so.

  The innkeeper was back quickly, carrying four bowls of stew and a full loaf of bread which had been split and buttered. Giving them all a smile, he hurried back into the kitchen, leaving his wife behind the bar.

  A few people went to leave the common room, but came right back inside. “Why won’t they let us leave?” someone muttered in complaint.

  Sean exchanged glances with Myna and Fiona as he took another bite of the fowl stew. The food was good, but Sean kept waiting for the next shoe to drop and it was distracting him from the meal.

  They were finishing their stew when guard captain, Geoff, stepped into the building, looking much healthier now. “Okay, where’s the one with the head wound?”

  The stable master pointed to the man who lay on the floor, no longer breathing. “He and his friends were molesting my daughter and talking of raping her.”

  Geoff sighed deeply. “Well, Landis is dead, so it won’t matter much that one of his lackeys is dead, too.” Sticking his head out the door, Geoff called out, “Got a dead one in here.”

  “Yes, sir,” the words carried clearly to Sean, Fiona, and Myna.

  Looking around the room, Geoff frowned. “Anyone want to give a statement?”

  No one said anything and Geoff sighed again, “Fine, you’re all free to go.”

  Everyone fled the inn, except for the innkeeper and his wife, and Sean’s group. Sean wasn’t surprised when Geoff came toward them. “Captain, have a seat,” Sean said, inviting the man as he knew the captain was going to talk with them regardless.

  Geoff paused, then nodded as he snagged a chair and set it at the end of the table. “I wasn’t expecting to be greeted so kindly. Not many enjoy it when the guard gets involved.”

  “I figure you want to talk about what just happened,” Sean said. “How might we assist the guard?”

  “I killed Landis, and Teresa claims to have killed this one,” he pointed over his shoulder, just as two guards came in with a stretcher to remove the body. “None of the rest had any life-threatening injuries, though. I’m surprised that two Life Bonded and a normal Bonded were able to defeat them, much less piss Landis off to the point of being willing to commit murder.”

  “We stopped his men from molesting the innkeeper’s daughter, then made him and his men look like fools,” Ryann replied. “You showed up just as he decided that he’d had enough.”

  “How did you goad him to that point?”

  “We hit them with rocks,” Fiona said. “Repeatedly, every time they tried to move toward us.”

  “I find it hard to believe that rocks against armored men would have that much of an effect,” Geoff said.

  “Every rock hit them in the face,” Myna added, touching her cap to make sure it was still in place.

  “That seems highly improbable,” Geoff frowned.

  “I’m more curious why men this despicable appear to have been given passes before,” Sean commented as he sipped his wine.

  Geoff’s lips thinned. “I’ve been constrained on that front.”

  “Well, now they’ve been dealt with,” Sean said.

  “They have, but their Patron will be not happy, and he’ll want answers,” Geoff said, a hint of fear in his eyes.

  “That’s going to be an issue you’ll have to tackle,” Sean replied.

  “I need you all to tell me what happened,” Geoff stated firmly.

  Sean looked at Fiona, who nodded just the tiniest fraction. “Fiona, explain to Captain Geoff what transpired.”

  Fiona gave him a smile. “As you command, Master.”

  She launched into a bare bones description of the event, finishing as the innkeeper came out of the kitchen with a large platter. “That was when you showed up, Captain.”

  “I see,” Geoff frowned as the platter was set on the table. “The innkeeper providing you a special meal gives your story credence, as well.”

  “Please enjoy,” the innkeeper said as his wife brought over another bottle of wine with new cups and plates. “Thank you again.”

  Sean smiled as he poured the wine for the women, then himself. “Frankly, it should have been done long before. We’re just glad we were here to help.”

  Bowing, the innkeeper and stable master left them with the platter of seared meat on a bed of veggies. Sean served the meat to his companions before pulling his belt knife and starting on his. “Are we done, Captain?”

  Geoff got to his feet, obviously upset that they seemed so blasé about the incident. “Well, you didn’t kill anyone and you helped a citizen of the village. I guess I should thank you. I’d much rather you move on, though.”

  “We’ll be leaving in the morning,” Sean said. “Good luck with explaining things, Captain.”

  Geoff grumbled and left them to their meal. Sean watched him go before turning his attention to the finely cooked food before him. After eating, they retired to their rooms for the night.

  Crawling into bed with Fiona and Myna, Sean didn’t do anything but snuggle. “Master, you did the right thing,” Myna murmured as she yawned.

  “It was the right thing to do,” Fiona agreed.

  “I just hope whoever that idiot’s Patron is doesn’t cause problems for us later,” Sean sighed.

  “Did you notice how happy Ryann was that you let us handle it for you?” Fiona asked as she stifled her own yawn.

  “No,” Sean said, blinking slowly. “Was she?”

  “Indeed. It proved that you trusted us in her care, as well as trusting that we could handle the men,” Fiona said, not able to stifle the next yawn.

  “Hmm, maybe she’ll say something tomorrow,” Sean managed, just before sleep claimed him for the night.

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Sean woke as the first light of the day crept over the horizon. He found himself alone in bed. “Now where have they gotten off to?”

  His clothes and personal items were the only possessions left in the room; Myna and Fiona had apparently already carried their other bags down. Sean got dressed and left the room in time to meet Ryann coming out of the smaller servant’s room with a bag over her shoulder. “Morning, Ryann. I see everyone is up already.”

  “They woke me a bit ago,” Ryann said. “I believe Fiona said something about getting breakfast sorted. Myna was going to make sure the wagon was good and see about selling one of the saddles to the stable master here.”

  “Those two,” Sean chuckled. “Gods know I’m not left wanting with them around.”

  Ryann’s right eye twitched, but she nodded. “Thank you for keeping the noise down last night.”

  “We passed out, so that wasn’t an issue,” Sean snorted. “I do try my best not to make things uncomfortable for you,” he added as they walked to the door.

  “I’m thankful for that,” Ryann said, her hand on the doorknob. Pausing, she looked back at Sean. “Thank you for letting us handle the situation last night. I’d been starting to feel like I wasn’t needed in your group.”

  “You’re a good person to have with us, Ryann,” Sean said, wondering why she wasn’t opening the door.

  “If I asked you to extend our deal before the year was up, would you consider it?”

  “Of course, though I’m not sure you’ll want to by the time we get to the end of the year,” Sean chuckled. “It seems like there’s always a complication or three when we get to any kind of village or town.”

  “If you’ll let me do what you’ve hired me to do, then it will be fine,” Ryann said, opening the door.

  “I’m doing the best I can. I’m not used to having anyone, much less a woman, fight for me,” Sean said, following her out the door.

  “You object to having women fight for you?�
� Ryann asked as they started for the stairs.

  “Not really, but my father raised me to protect the women in my life. It feels a little off to have you all in danger while I sit in the bar.”

  “Ahh. That was your old world, though,” Ryann said softly as they started down the stairs. “You are adjusting to this one, I hope.”

  “Slowly, but getting there,” Sean chuckled.

  In the common room, Sean smiled at Myna sitting at a table. “The wagon is all ready?”