by John Booth
There were four other men in the room. They looked like mercenaries or possibly slavers. Their eyes were ice cold. Two guarded the door in a professional way. The others watched their boss taunt Jalia. A ghost of a smile played over the taller man’s face. The other watched with his tongue just showing between his lips. Jalia guessed she had at least a couple of sadists in the audience.
“My name is Vincend Gore,” the fat man continued. He held one of her knives in his hand and was admiring its balance. “I’m one of the seven remaining Mine Owners of the Association and I’ve come to recover our gold. Our leader, Yandin Selda is very angry with you. He has ordered that you are to be treated to a slow and painful death once you have returned the gold.”
Vincend brought the knife close to Jalia’s throat and whispered. “They say I am Gore by name and gore by nature. I worked hard for the gold you stole. I even dug some of it out with my own hands until I was rich enough to buy slaves to do the physical work. No slip of a whore is going to take my money from me and live to tell the tale.”
Vincend slit the top of Jalia’s shirt with her knife and moved further down. He used the tip of the knife to open the shirt so both her breasts stood proud. He put the knife tip against her right nipple. “You won’t need nipples to talk, now will you?”
The only people in the mansion were Jalia and Talla. Sam was in the town house to serve his master as had the other servants. With Karn elected as the new ruler of Brinan, there were guests to be catered at all times of night and day.
Daniel was on his way back from visiting Karn’s town house. Karn was anxious that he and Jalia should leave the city soon. However much the people of Brinan appreciated what they had done for them, the last thing they wanted was an attack by the Mine Owners Association. With Jalia and Daniel gone, it would be difficult for the Association to persuade mercenaries to risk their lives when there was no certainty the gold to pay them would ever be found.
Even as it was, people whispered whenever Daniel or Jalia were seen. They were the only people in the world who knew where the Association’s gold had gone. Some in Brinan were starting to discuss ways to get them to reveal that secret.
Jet was jumpy as Daniel rode into the mansion’s stables and dismounted. Daniel took off his saddle and put some oats in the stall. Jet pushed against him and tried to kick Daniel as he tied him into the stall. Daniel thought his horse’s actions most peculiar.
It was becoming second nature for Daniel to be cautious and he had not approached the mansion directly. He had ridden around it before he entered the stables, looking for any sign of trouble. It would take a very good man to catch Jalia unawares, but such things happened. Life was a gamble when you chose to live it on the edge, and Jalia always lived on the edge.
Daniel strode through the door connecting the stables to the house. As he walked in he was grabbed from behind by two men. Each took hold of an arm. A third man stepped in front of him and pulled Daniel’s sword from its scabbard. Daniel kicked him in the groin to help him on his way but he couldn’t break free from the men holding his arms.
“Take it easy. You can’t escape.”
The one who had his sword curled up, retching on the floor as Daniel’s boot had done him considerable damage.
“Magic sword, please cut these bastards throats,” Daniel said clearly.
The man who had spoken laughed. “We have your sword you …”
Whatever else he was going to say was cut short as Daniel’s knife flew from his belt and sliced the man’s throat from ear to ear. Daniel felt a blade pierce his back. The pain was agonizing, but stopped almost immediately as the men behind him fell to the floor clutching at their throats.
Daniel hoped the wound in his back wasn’t deep. He could feel blood trickling down his back and it was already dripping on the floor. He knew that somewhere they were others and they had Jalia. He had to get to her before his blood loss of rendered him useless. He certainly didn’t have the time to see to his wound, even if he could.
Daniel picked up his sword and stabbed the man still retching on the floor as he walked passed him.
The mansion was big, but raiders tend to act in a predictable way and Daniel headed straight for the state room. He kicked the left door of the double doors so hard that the door broke from its hinges and crashed to the floor. The man standing to one side of it gawped for a second before a slash from Daniel’s sword sent his head rolling across the room. It stopped inches from Vincend Gore who had stretched Jalia’s nipple out and was about to slice it off.
Vincend looked at the head of his compatriot and the head tried to say something, the eyes sliding from side to side and the tongue and lips moving. Without lungs and it is difficult to mak a sound and the head was silent as its eyes glazed over. Vincend let go of Jalia’s nipple and stood back to defend himself.
“Magic sword, cut the ropes around Jalia,” Daniel commanded just before his loss of blood dropped him to the floor unconscious.
Vincend turned to Jalia with a grin on his face. His grin vanished as Jalia rose to her feet and whispered something. The knife he held fell from his grasp as he found his arms and legs stretched outwards slowly and inexorably by some invisible force. Held inches off the ground, he heard the first of his joints pop as the force increased.
Jalia ignored Vincend and picked up the knife. She saw the stain of blood on Daniel’s back and knew she had to deal with the remaining men quickly so she could help him.
The men in question were backing away from Jalia in panic. Not only had Daniel freed Jalia using some kind of magic, but their boss was being torn apart while hanging in mid-air. His arms and legs formed an X and they saw him straining against the forces stretching him. Sweat poured from his podgy face as he fought for his life.
Daniel’s dagger had fallen to the floor beside Jalia after completing its mission. Jalia would have liked to take the time to kill these men using her knife, but she knew that Daniel didn’t have that much time. She picked up his dagger and whispered a command. The men grasped their throats as the dagger passed by, slitting each in turn before spinning on its axis and cutting Talla’s bonds.
Jalia ran to Daniel and cut away his shirt. He had a wound low on his back from which blood pulsed out. Jalia didn’t have a clue what to do. Before she could think of anything Talla pushed her aside and pressed down on the wound with the palm of her hand.
“Get my sewing kit, and if you have any of that magic left, tell it to hold the cut in Daniel artery closed. Move woman!” Talla demanded. Jalia’s indecision lasted less than a second and she ran to where Talla kept her things. She issued another command to the ring and hoped it understood what she was telling it to do.
She was back in the room in under a minute with Talla’s sewing kit.
“Your magic seems to be working. That’s a blessing because I don’t know how we would have a chance to save him otherwise.” Talla selected a needle and thread. “I’ve been trained as a healer, but I was never much good at it. I’m good at sewing though.”
Jalia watched Talla work on Daniel. She felt helpless, which wasn’t a feeling she was used to. She blamed herself for this mess. She and Daniel knew the Association would send men against them, but she hadn’t spotted her attackers and woke to find herself trussed up like a chicken ready for roasting.
“All done,” Talla said with satisfaction. “He should be fine when he wakes up. He’ll need to take it easy for a few weeks and not do anything vigorous, but apart from that he should fully recover.”
Talla looked up to smile at Jalia when she saw what was behind her. She screamed and fainted.
Jalia rolled to the floor spinning around. Her knife was in her hand and she was ready to fight anything now Daniel was safe. What she saw caused her to pause before slowly coming to her feet.
Vincend Gore was living up to his name one last time. He was still suspended in mid-air but his arms and legs were stretched to over six feet long. His flesh had torn and there were pud
dles of his warm steaming blood on the floor. Only sinews still held the parts of his body together.
There was a laugh from the floor and she spun again, ready to throw her knife. The laugh came from Daniel who looked up at her and what remained of Gore.
“I see you sentenced him to a long stretch,” Daniel said before falling unconscious again.
11.Ambush
Daniel woke in agony. It felt as though a red hot poker was sticking in his back. He opened his eyes to discover he was lying in a bed. He could feel how soft the bed was, but that didn’t stop the pain. He arched his back in agony and tried to press his hands into the place that hurt, but Talla and Jalia grabbed his arms, one on each side of him and held them away from his back.
“You mustn’t move, Daniel. You have to give it time to heal,” Talla said anxiously. She was having trouble holding his arm, despite Jalia giving her the left side.
“Stop struggling, stupid!” Jalia shouted and Daniel relaxed back onto the bed. If Jalia was shouting at him, he probably wasn’t going to die.
“You were stabbed in the back. Do you remember?” Jalia asked and memories flooded over him.
“Did you get them all?”
Jalia smirked at him, “Do cats drink cream?”
Daniel tried to sit up but Jalia pushed him back onto the bed. “The knife cut an artery and Talla has sewn it back together, but you have to give it time to heal or it may break open and you’ll die.” Jalia looked at him to annoyance. “Unfortunately we have to leave right now.”
“Karn wants us to leave?” Talla asked, puzzled at this unexpected news.
“It doesn’t matter what Karn thinks, does it?” Daniel whispered from the bed. He had discovered talking normally caused him a lot of pain. It turned out whispering was still half as painful, but it would have to do.
Jalia nodded, one of the things she liked most about Daniel was that she never needed to explain the obvious to him. For Talla’s sake, she provided the explanation. “The Association know where we are. They will attack again as soon as they discover this attack failed. Next time they will come in greater numbers and overwhelm us. We have to leave now.”
“We go to Telmar.” Daniel whispered.
“That’s madness,” Talla said in disbelief, “They’ll kill you there for certain.”
“Daniel’s right,” Jalia said in a thoughtful tone, “The Association will have spread the word about us, no doubt offering a big reward for our capture. The only place they will not expect us to go is Telmar.” Jalia looked at Daniel apologetically, “I only wanted to go there to see a goldmine. It looks as though we’ll have to deal with the Association instead.” Daniel blinked his eyes in agreement. They had no other choice. They had to go to war with the Association and trust to their luck.
“You are both completely mad,” Talla exclaimed. “Daniel will be lucky to be hobbling around in the next month and you want to take on a city run by the most evil men in Jalon. Men determined to torture you to find out where you hid their gold before they kill you.”
“You don’t have to come,” Jalia said. She had got over her jealousy of Talla when Daniel sent her out of harm’s way a couple of weeks before. How could she be jealous of a woman that Daniel didn’t want by his side in battle, the whole idea was absurd. Jalia needed Talla to nurse Daniel as she had no skills in that area, but she wouldn’t ask the woman to face danger unwillingly.
“Of course I’m going with you. Someone has to patch you up. Besides which, my husband’s relatives live in Modan, a village ten leagues from Telmar. They’ll give us shelter and hide us from the Association.” Talla’s face fell as she thought of the other news she had to bring them. Jord was dead and telling his mother would be an ordeal.
“I’ve sent word to Karn of your condition and he’s arranging a cart stuffed with the softest down pillows to protect that little scratch on your back from any nasty bumps on the road.” Jalia winked at Daniel and he winked back. Daniel found that even winking sent pulses of excruciating pain rushing down his back, but he tried to smile anyway. Jalia was getting on with the job and that was the main thing. “We leave as soon as the cart arrives. I’ve even packed your things onto those damned donkeys, so don’t fret about them.”
Karn provided a two wheeled cart and a large horse to pull it. Daniel fainted from the pain when Jalia picked him up and carried him to it. Jet and the donkeys formed a train behind the cart, tied in a line. Talla’s job was to drive the cart while Jalia rode alongside to provide their defense.
They were about to start when Daniel croaked from the cart, “Crossbow.” Jalia found the crossbow Daniel had bought in Taybee and armed it, putting a bolt into the slot before handing it to Daniel.
“Don’t shoot yourself in the foot with it,” Jalia cautioned as she remounted Swift and rode him away down the road. Talla snapped the reins of the cart and the horse began to pull the cart down the road.
The journey started uneventfully, they passed through the city gates to applause from the guards and soon the winding road between the hills put Brinan and its comforts out of sight.
Daniel found the journey unbearable. Every bump in the road caused him massive pain. And that wasn’t his only problem. A pressure was building in his head. It was similar to the feeling he got when a thunder storm was about to break, but a thousand times stronger. He felt that some part of his mind wanted him to do something and he had no idea what. In many ways, it was a worse feeling than his back.
It was as daylight began to fail that the ambush happened. Half a dozen crossbow bolts shot through the air killing the horse pulling the cart. The bolts just missed Swift who Jalia pulled sideways at the first sound. Swift reared in panic, Jalia’s reins were cut as a crossbow bolt went through them and she tumbled off her horse.
The cart horse had slumped to the ground forcing the shafts down with it, which pushed the back of the cart into the air. The motion threw Talla out of the cart and onto the road.
Daniel fell forward as he and his pillows tumbled to the front of the cart. His body bent and he felt the stitches in his back break under the pressure. As blood started to pour from the wound, he felt the force in his head explode and his back burned. When the heat went away he felt weak, but whole. There was no pain from his wound, nor any feeling it was bleeding. He pulled up his shirt and felt his back. The wound had vanished though his hand came away covered in his blood.
The pillows had covered him as he tumbled forward. Daniel groped between them and found his crossbow. He moved the pillows out of his line of sight to try and see what was going on.
Talla stood by the side of the cart with her hands in the air. Six men were coming down the hillside with loaded crossbows in their hands. Jalia was on the ground and looked as though she had been knocked unconscious. Swift stood quietly beside her.
Daniel didn’t have his magic dagger or his sword. Both would have been dangerous for him to wear while in the cart. His magic dagger was fastened to Jalia’s waist and his sword was tied to Jet’s saddle.
“Check the woman,” the man in front ordered his men and two of them ran to Jalia. They turned her over.
“Just a bruise on her head, Malk,” one of the men called back. “She’ll recover.”
“Strip her naked. Take everything off her down to the ring on her finger. She freed herself and killed Vincend with some kind of magic. I saw it from the window before I ran for my life. Lucky she’s alive though, it would be us fleeing for our lives if the boss discovered we’d killed her.”
“Do you want me to check on the man in the cart, Malk?” another man enquired.
“He was unconscious when she carried him to the cart so I don’t think he is going to be able to fight us after the cart spilled over like that. He’s probably dead under those pillows.” Malk looked over at Talla, “We don’t need you, my dear. The boys are going to be mad that they don’t get to have you first but I think you have to die. Nothing personal you understand.”
Talla s
tood with her arms raised as Malk’s words sank in. Then she turned and ran for her life. Malk’s men laughed at her attempt to escape. Malk raised his crossbow and took careful aim at Talla’s back.
He never felt the crossbow bolt penetrate his skull and bury itself deep in his brain. Malk’s eyes turned upwards and he fell as Talla reached the comparative safety of rocks on the far side of the pass and flung herself behind them.
Malk’s men had been watching Talla waiting to see her fall. Malk was their best shot with a crossbow and never missed a target. As Talla disappeared behind the rocks they turned to discover Malk lying face down on the road.
Daniel knew that the moments after he shot Malk were going to be critical to his survival. If his men turned towards the cart, he was going to be dead. He had to hope they were so busy watching Talla that they wouldn’t see him climb from behind the cushions and hide behind the cart. His faithful donkey, Ferd waited there with a supply of crossbow bolts in his bags. Daniel grabbed a handful of bolts and positioned himself behind the upended cart.
The two men with Jalia had removed her weapons and most of her clothes except her knickers. One of the men pulled the ring from her finger and put it in his pocket. They turned to watch Talla being shot and then watched their comrades as they examined Malks body. Neither of them paid any attention to Jalia and so they didn’t see her eyes flash open and then close to slits.
“He’s been shot by a bolt, right between the eyes,” One of the men stated unnecessarily. All five men lifted their crossbows into firing position and looked around warily. The road and mountains were quiet. A long way away, some birds called to each other, but nothing moved in the immediate vicinity.
“What are we going to do, Wilf?” one of the men asked. The one in the middle of the three by the body, , scratched his bald head before shouting.