“He is a horrible man,” she continued, tears beginning to soak his shirt. “He beats me and tells me how much he hates me. He rarely lets me leave the manor and I never see my family. His guards act more like jailers, and this chamber feels more like a cage every day. I prayed to the Founders every day for the first year of our marriage to help me escape, but they did not hear my prayers. I have no children because of what he did to me.
“Now you are here, though.” Alexandra said, pulling away from his chest and taking his hands in hers. “You can take me away from all this! We can run away, take new names and be free of this horrid village. Oh, please tell me you will help me?”
Boris wanted to say no. Something in the back of his mind urged him to say no. Years of being around dishonest denizens of the underworld had taught him to detect traps and lies, and also to suspect everyone who spoke of lying and every friendly face of trying to entrap him. No, this is Alexandra, he thought. She wouldn't lie to me. I'm being paranoid. I've been around dishonest people so long that I suspect everyone of lying. “I will do what I can, Alexandra, though you should know I have no money to my name. Are you ready to leave now?”
“Money does not matter to me, Boris,” Alexandra said as she lifted his hands to her lips and kissed them. “I am just so happy to see you and I want to be with you. Return to me tonight at midnight and I will accompany you.”
“How will I get past the guards? Surely they will not permit me to enter at so late an hour?”
“The guard changes at quarter to midnight. There is a hillock that runs along the northeast side of the palisade. You can climb the wall there and slip in through the servants’ entrance. It is unguarded and the servants will be asleep.”
“I will do it,” Boris said with a bow and a final kiss. “See you tonight, my dear.”
“Good night, my love. I will wait anxiously for your return.”
Chapter 4 - Unexpected Allies
John clung to the iron bars for stability as the slave cart trundled through the woods. He crouched due to the low ceiling of the cart. “Jason, are you all right?”
Jason, laying in one corner, with Ashley kneeling over him, removed a hand from his head and looked over at John. “Other than the splitting headache and fact that I might have a concussion, sure, I'm doing just peachy. Oh, and waking up in a cage might have freaked me out just a little bit.”
“We weren't even unconscious and it freaked us out,” Ashley said.
“Listen,” John said as he neared them and lowered his voice. “In case you missed it or forgot, they're going to ‘have their way’ with Ashley tonight. I think you know what that means, Jason. So we have to do something. Night is falling.”
“What are two unarmed guys and a girl going to do against all of these mercenaries,” Jason asked. He gestured around them. A dozen mercenaries walked along, scattered around the cart. The slave master rode a horse ahead of the cart. “Not to mention these cuffs.” The chain between the cuffs clinked as he pulled it taut.
“I don't know, but have to do something.” John raised his finger to indicate a new idea. “I know, we will overpower the guard when he comes to unlock the door. Kick out the door in his face and make our run for it. We can scatter, to make it more difficult for them to catch us, or stick together. What do you guys think?”
“I don't want any more of us getting hurt,” Ashley said.
“Would you rather be violated by these men?” John asked.
“Well, no, but...”
“Then we have no other choice. That's the plan. Let me do the kicking, then you and Jason follow me. We will all run to the left. Get some rest if you can until it’s time.”
Several hours later, the caged slave cart came to a rest in a clearing as the sun slipped below the horizon. The slavers moved in the moonlight and prepared a fire and small encampment. As John watched, one of the guards approached the cart, keys in hand. “Back away from the door, slaves,” he growled.
John and the others backed up, though John crouched lower, ready to rush toward the door in an instant. As the lock clicked and the door opened outward, John launched himself forward and slammed his shoulder into the iron bars of the door. The door gave way with ease and slammed into the man, knocking him to the ground with a grunt. “Come on!” John said, beckoning the others to follow.
Together the three raced out of the cage and ran to the left. Shouts began to echo throughout the campsite as the mercenaries realized what was happening. “Get them!” The slave master shouted. “Get a crossbow and bring them down! I want the wench alive!”
John was three steps from the tree line when a sharp pain took his breath away. The pain dropped him to his knees and he looked down to find a crossbow bolt sticking through his chest, the point covered in blood. Ashley stopped and turned, gasping and covering her mouth in horror. “John!” Her face began to fade as darkness closed on him and unconsciousness came.
***
Ashley watched as John fell forward onto the ground. She turned to Jason. “Jason, help me get him up. We'll have to drag him. Hurry!”
Jason bent over John and tried to lift him. He strained and grunted, but couldn't pick him up. “Can't...lift...him.”
Ashley looked back toward the clearing and saw the crossbowman who had shot John had reloaded and was taking aim again.
As the bolt released, Ashley closed her eyes and imagined it streaking toward her. In her mind’s eye, it was as if she could feel the grain of the wood, brush her mind across the feathers, feel it slicing through the air. In her moment of desperation, Ashley prayed the bolt would either stop or miss. She imagined a wall stopping the bolt. She heard a sound in front of her that made her open her eyes. There on the ground in front of her was a crossbow bolt, lying in pieces. She looked up to see a look of surprise on the crossbowman's face. How did that happen, she wondered.
The man's surprise had bought them valuable time. Pushing the man from her thoughts, she reached down and grabbed hold of John's legs. “Grab both his arms,” she commanded Jason. “We'll lift him on three. One, two, three, lift!” Together she and Jason lifted John a few inches off the ground. “Hurry.” Moving backward, Jason led them toward the woods.
Ashley had almost entered the woods when an animal of some sort - possibly a wolf - flashed by on her left. “Wait,” she said to Jason. “Set him down.” Together they lowered John to the ground.
Ashley turned to see the animal racing toward the man with the crossbow. He had almost reloaded, but his hands began to shake as the wolf raced toward him. At the last moment, he turned his crossbow as if to shield himself, but the wolf went low and snapped at his legs, dropping him to the ground with a shriek of panic and pain and sending his crossbow flying.
The wolf took no time disengaging itself from the man's legs and leaping forward to rip his throat out. The man's feet kicked as he died, becoming still as blood flowed from his neck. The wolf lifted its head and looked back at Ashley. It's yellow eyes seemed almost human – as if it were intelligent.
The man's shout had alerted the other mercenaries to the location of the escaped prisoners, and several of the mercenaries ran toward them with swords and other weapons in hand. They slowed as they saw the wolf and the dead mercenary.
“It's just a damn wolf,” the slave master shouted. “Surround it and kill it, or just shoot it with a few bolts.” His words seemed to break the men out of their uncertainty, for they began spreading out as two of the men loaded their crossbows.
“I wouldn't do that if I were you,” a voice said from Ashley's left. Ashley turned and glimpsed a man dressed all in black striding forward. It was hard to tell in the poor light, but it appeared that he had a breastplate covering his chest, and a pair of objects reminiscent of scabbards hung from his waist. His face was concealed by a hooded cloak which shadowed his eyes. “In fact, if I were you, I would run.”
“One man, against almost a dozen of my guards? Just who do you think you are?” Horacio asked. �
��A fool?”
The cloaked man continued forward to stand beside the wolf. Reaching up, he undid the clasp around his neck, causing his cloak to fall to the forest floor. “I am your worst nightmare. If you and your men value your lives, you will surrender or run. If you fight my friend and I, it will not end well for you.”
Horacio threw back his head and laughed. “You must not be much of a gambler, for the odds are heavily against you and your wolf. Men, kill them quickly and get those slaves back.” He stepped back as his guards moved forward.
The guards with the crossbows had readied their weapons during the conversation between the newcomer and Horacio. They took careful aim as their companions advanced, then fired in unison.
As the bolts neared the man, Ashley again closed her eyes and let the image of the bolts come into her mind. In that instant, she imagined the bolts stopping and falling to the ground, as if there was a wall before the man. She didn't know whether the bolt earlier had been because of her, but she had to try. When the grunt she had been half-expecting was replaced instead by a gasp of surprise from the mercenaries, she knew what she had done had worked. Opening her eyes, Ashley noted the outline of two crossbow bolts lying several inches from the man's feet, shattered like the other one. They had not touched him.
The man glanced in Ashley's direction and nodded. Turning his attention back to the approaching mercenaries, he reached down and drew his swords. The swords were difficult to identify and follow in the dim light, for they appeared to be forged of a dark metal, but they looked longer than the swords wielded by the Roman legionnaires of old, while being able to be held in one hand easily. The man began first walking, and then running, forward, his swords held out to his side, tips pointed toward the ground. He bent his legs at the knee and hunched over as he ran, allowing himself to stay lower to the ground and presenting a smaller target. Behind him, the wolf had run to the right and seemed to be circling the group of mercenaries.
As the man approached the first pair of mercenaries, he brought his swords up to parry their clumsy strikes. Sliding his swords off each of theirs, the man stabbed forward before they could react, piercing the chest of each man. He seemed to be moving faster than a normal man, his blades becoming blurs in his hands and difficult for Ashley to follow.
As the first two guards fell, the stranger continued advancing toward one of the crossbowmen. The man fired a bolt at close range and, before Ashley could stop it, the bolt had reached the stranger and gone right past him. Ashley blinked. She was certain the bolt was going to hit him, the aim had been perfect. Perhaps my depth perception is off, she thought.
The first crossbowman died and the man turned toward three guards who were approaching in unison. A fourth guard, attempting to approach unseen from behind, began charging toward him. The guard had just begun running when a furry blur came darting from the darkness to drag him to the ground, tearing into him.
The stranger glanced behind him before advancing on the three guards. Parrying the first guard’s sword into the path of the second guard’s sword, the stranger dodged the third guard and stabbed forward to impale the second guard in the stomach. Stepping backward, the man parried the next pair of strikes before blurring between the two men and stabbing them each in the back. The two men collapsed.
Several more guards died until, at last, only Horacio was alive. He had tried to flee in the confusion, but the wolf had him pinned to the ground not far from Ashley, growling. The stranger approached and stood over him. “Who do you work for?” he demanded. He pointed his blade toward Horacio’s face. “Who sent you to plague these woods?”
“Please don’t kill me,” Horacio whimpered, pressing himself into the ground as far as he could go. “Please, I’ll tell you anything!”
“Then start talking,” the stranger growled, moving the blade closer to Horacio’s neck. “Who is the leader of your band of slavers? It’s obvious you don’t work alone - you’re not smart enough or brave enough. You’re just a lackey.”
“There’s this mage, a man named Ferdinand. He’s the leader of all the slavers in this region. He…” Horacio cut off as the wolf growled.
“So it seems we’re on the right track, eh, Anwyn?” the man asked, referring to the wolf. “Where can we find this Ferdinand?”
“I don’t know. I ain’t never met him,” Horacio stammered. “He moves around a lot, never being caught. Rangers been hunting him for years and ain’t never found him. He’s like a ghost.”
“There is no such thing as ghosts,” the man replied. “You’re not being very helpful, Horacio. If you don’t start giving me more information, I will let Anwyn have her way with you. Trust me, she’s not in the mood to play. Where have you heard he was last? How do you get your orders?”
“Last I heard, he was down south, west of Stoneridge, hiding in the deep woods. We collect slaves and take them south to Stoneridge, then we go out and look for more.”
“Where do the slaves go once in Stoneridge? Slavery is illegal on this continent.”
“I don’t know, honest, I don’t. All I know is that we go, sell our slaves and leave. I heard they get shipped over to Imperial lands, but I don’t know how. I’ve told you everything I know. Are you going to let me go?”
The stranger sheathed his swords before reaching into his belt pouch and pulling out rope. “You’ll live, for now. But we can’t have you trying to run away.” As he knelt down next to the man he looked up at the wolf. “Anwyn, attend to the boy, he’s wounded. I’ve got this man.”
The wolf bowed her head in what looked like a nod before trotting over to John.
Chapter 5 - Stories
Jason stepped back from the wolf, but Ashley, fascinated, remained where she was.
The wolf’s eyes glowed in the dim light as she assessed the bolt sticking out from John’s back. At last she raised her head, looked at Ashley, and turned to race into the woods.
“Wait,” Ashley called out. “Where are you going?”
“What are your names?” the stranger asked, startling Ashley, who had not noticed his approach.
Ashley tapped her chest. “My name is Ashley. This is Jason, my brother,” she pointed toward where Jason stood a short distance away, still watching the woods, “and this is John, my boyfriend. Please, can you help him?”
“We will do our best. Anwyn will be returning momentarily. My name is Dawyn. Let me unlock your cuffs.” In his hands he held a key ring. Moving toward them, he unlocked both pairs of cuffs from them and from John’s wrists.
Moments later, true to Dawyn’s word, a woman walked out of the woods, draped in a dark colored cloak. She approached the group and immediately fell to her knees next to John’s prone body. She ran her hands along his back, then moved to the arrow, which she stroked briefly. She seized one of John’s hands and turned it around. The blue symbol beneath his skin was lighter than it had been earlier, but it still glowed faintly. She looked up at Dawyn. “He has the mark.”
“What mark?” Ashley asked, as she studied the woman. “Who are you?”
“My name is Anwyn. You are Ashley, he,” she pointed toward Jason, “is your brother Jason and this,” she tapped John’s back, “is your boyfriend John.”
“But you - how did you…” Ashley began.
“There will be time for further explanations later,” Dawyn interrupted as Anwyn opened her mouth to speak. “Anwyn, we have to remove the bolt. Can you stem the bleeding long enough?”
Anwyn nodded. “Yes, I should be able to. But I will need some materials.” She pointed toward Ashley, “You, go fetch me some scraps of cloth - preferably clean. You,” she pointed at Jason, “go fetch several canteens of water from those corpses. We’ll need as much water as we can get. Don’t just stand there,” she barked, as the two looked at her dumbfounded for a moment, “get going.”
Shocked into action, Ashley and Jason set out collecting scraps of cloth and canteens. A short while later, a pile of canteens and cloth scraps sat next to Joh
n.
“Help me roll him onto his side,” Anwyn said. Jason grabbed him by the shoulder while Ashley placed a hand under his butt. Together they pushed up, bringing John into a side position.
“Good, hold him there and hold him steady.” Anwyn reached out and grabbed the bolt with a firm grip. “Take some of that cloth, roll it up and shove it in his mouth.” She waited until Ashley had complied. “Once I pull this out, Jason, I want you to pour water over the open wound to help clean it. Ashley, I want you to apply pressure to the wound from the front, while Jason applies pressure from the back.”
“What can I do?” Dawyn asked.
“Just wait over there,” Anwyn said. “There could be other dangers lurking. Alright, on three. One, two, three,” she began to extract the bolt with care. John moaned during the procedure. After a few painstaking moments the bolt had been removed. Blood began to run from the front and back of his chest. “Now, apply water and bandages.”
Ashley watched as Jason poured water from canteen after canteen over the wounds. Once the water was exhausted, Jason took several scraps of cloth and applied them to the wound in John’s back. Ashley did likewise with the front, applying pressure with one hand while holding him in a side position with the other.
Anwyn studied the bolt for a moment, before tossing it into the woods. She looked up at Dawyn. “If the boy is anything like you, they won’t have to apply pressure for long.”
“Alright, we’ll wait for a time to see. Then we’ll make for town.” He pointed toward Jason. “You, Jason, come with me to help gather some firewood and bring that cart over here. We’ll need it to carry your friend back to town.” Without waiting for acknowledgment, Dawyn strode into the woods. Jason hurried after him, leaving Ashley to apply pressure to both wounds, using her body to keep him upright.
The Shadow Trilogy Complete Box Set Page 20