Taka looked about the square, as if doing a rough calculation in his head. “Yes.”
“You think the villagers will pick up weapons and come to your aid.”
“Dear gods, no.” Taka shook his head again. “These people couldn’t defend themselves against a strong wind. On the other hand, I couldn’t tell you how to make cheese out of milk. Always seems like a miracle to me – where does the milk go? Everybody has their area of skill. This is mine. Not necessarily more or less important than making cheese, but very useful right now. Whereas, cheese is probably less so. No, I don’t expect the villagers to help. I hope they don’t. They’d be shit at it and we’d be wasting time trying to stop them getting killed when we ought to be killing you.”
“You’re a very confident man,” said Cyrsan. “A man like you should be standing where I am.”
Taka laughed. “I wouldn’t be in your shoes for all the money in the world. And that’s saying something, because I love money. But you’re standing alongside people who live their lives by a credo of violence, and who you led into this situation. Some of their men are already dead and I guarantee more are going to follow. And for what? A party in a dead-end town? Let’s say you’re right, and by some miracle you win this afternoon. What then? You think your fellow chiefs are going to forgive and forget. Like I said ‘King’ Cyrsan, one way or another, you die today. If we don’t kill you, then one of your allies is going to.”
Cyrsan was trying to act as confident as Taka, and given that weight of numbers was on his side, he ought to have been good at it. But he looked very uneasy now as he recognized the truth in Taka’s words.
“So, if you will accept nothing less than our deaths,” Cyrsan struggled to regain the upper hand, “what do you want? Why are we talking now?”
“I’m creating a distraction to give my men some time,” explained Taka, as mild and easy going as ever.
Cyrsan gritted his teeth, his frustration at being the one in the position of power and yet, somehow on the back foot, becoming more and more obvious. “If you and your men don’t get out now, then I shall order my men to start killing the people of Stenheim.”
Taka nodded. “That should be long enough.”
There had been a background murmur growing during the last few exchanges of the conversation, and now it broke out into cries and pointing fingers.
“The camp’s on fire!”
I looked across the houses in the direction of the bandit encampment and saw a plume of black smoke. As I watched, there was a sudden flare of flame and a billowing of more smoke as the fire located something particularly flammable.
Before Cyrsan and his fellow chiefs could issue an order, a new sound overwhelmed the voices and the crackle of the fire. Hoofbeats. The bandit camp had been located near the stables, horses do not like fire, and it seemed that someone had opened the stable door. Horses stampeded into the village square, galloping across in a mad frenzy, finding any way through they could, and trampling anything in their path. The villagers had retreated to their homes when all this began, but the bandits were still on the streets and were now desperate to get off them as horses, made crazy by the fear of fire, threatened to plow them down. The other thing that horses do not like is panicked humans and, right now, they were surrounded by them. They reared up, pawing the air with their front hooves, or lashed out backwards, kicking at any who might be there.
Through this melee strode Taka, quickly but calmly, his composure his shield against the horses. He passed through them as easily as a hot knife through warm butter, as if the horses sensed some aura of authority around him, and had reached the group of bandit chiefs before they had even realized what was happening.
I had wanted Cyrsan’s death to be a big moment. I wanted him to understand that he was a bad guy, and have the opportunity to regret what he had done in underestimating his adversaries. I wanted him to suffer like he had made me suffer. But mercenaries are only interested in the end result – it wasn’t personal. Taka took down the bandit king with a single thrust of his spear and moved on to the next without pause. The weapon spun in his hands as the chiefs and their hangers-on moved to defend themselves even as they tried to avoid being trampled. Taka moved like a man born to fight, his every move perfect and economical. Another man might have gone over the top and used all their strength with every blow, might have paused to enjoy each victory, but Taka did enough; no less, no more. It was all in a day’s work.
I would have liked to watch, but I had problems of my own. I was on the street with the horses, which had now found the street down which I was hiding. One shoved me hard against the wooden wall of a house, knocking the breath from me. I tried to get between them, imitating Taka, but the horses sensed my inner panic. I fell to my knees as another swiped me with its lashing mane. Around me was a sea of writhing legs and stamping hooves, nowhere for me to turn.
Suddenly, I felt a grip on my collar and I was hoisted onto the back of a horse.
“What in the hell are you doing here?” asked Rex, easily strong enough to pick me up one-handed. “Didn’t Luca get you clear?”
“I wanted to help,” I said meekly.
“Help? Why you… Hold that thought.” He had caught sight of a group of bandits hiding down an alley, too narrow for the horses. Looping his steed’s reins to a hitching post, Rex swung to the ground, axe in hand. The bandits launched themselves at him. The first had his head split while Rex dodged the sword of the second, grabbed him by the neck and smacked him into a wall hard enough to splinter the wood. The spear of the third sliced through the flesh of Rex’s arm but he barely seemed to notice, catching hold of the shaft and using it to pull the bandit into the path of his axe. The final two ran. Rex hurled the spear of his last victim and it kebabbed one of the runners in a spurt of gore. The last man dived into a house and I saw Rex follow. A split-second later, the bandit was hurled out and from inside I heard Rex say, “Excuse me, Ma’am,” to the householder before following the bandit out and efficiently breaking his neck.
He returned to the horse. “Where was I?”
“Where’s Kai?” I asked – I hadn’t seen him since this started.
“In the church tower. Traditional for archers. Now, I haven’t got time to look after you. Taka needs me with Luca on the perimeter to make sure these bastards don’t get away. There’s a nice lady in that house down there – get in there and stay put!”
He shoved me off the horse, into the alley, and rode off, beheading a fleeing bandit as he went.
I ran towards the house but then, just beyond the far end of the alley, I saw a dead bandit, lying on the ground with an arrow stuck in his chest. That was how I could help!
I ran on past the house where Rex had told me to hide, and tugged the arrow from the bandit’s corpse. He was far from alone, Kai had been peppering the bandits with arrows from his vantage point in the church tower. He had to be running short of arrows by now. The rampaging horses were now spread out a bit, though still managing to cause a fair amount of chaos, and I was able to weave between them to the dead bodies, grabbing arrows as I went. When I had a fair number, I ran as fast as I could towards the church, through the doors and up the spiral stairs to the tower.
There, crouched by the window, was Kai. He spun about as I entered, his arrow pointed at my face.
“No! It’s me. I brought you arrows.”
“What the hell are you doing here? I thought Luca was getting you someplace safe?”
“I brought you arrows,” I tried again, and for a moment Kai did look grateful, he had been getting short. But it turned out that arrows were not all I had brought.
“She went this way. Come on.” Voices came from the stairs and I realized that some of the bandits had followed me, rightly surmising that I might lead them to their attackers. In an instant, Kai was on his feet and at the door to meet them. His short sword clashed with the weapon of the first bandit.
“Get the girl.”
The second pushed past to grab me and I
lashed out with my fists to defend myself. Kai stabbed his sword sideways to take out my attacker, but that put him in a bad position with his own bandit, and as he tried to repel the man’s blade, his sword was knocked from his hand. It went skittering across the stone floor to fall from the low tower window.
The bandit grinned and stabbed at Kai. But the archer was too quick; pivoting on one foot, he brought his other around in a roundhouse kick, stunning the bandit. Grabbing the man’s sword arm, Kai delivered a series of sharp punches to his face then kicked him down the stairs. He lay lifeless at the bottom.
Kai turned back to me. “Thank you for the arrows. Now, sit down there. Be quiet and be still.”
Maybe it was time for me to do as I was told. Frankly, I felt that I had been helpful but maybe it was best to quit while I was ahead. And I would have sat out the rest of the battle up there, were it not for something I saw from the window. As Kai picked out his next target and sighted along the arrow, I saw Luca. He was going house to house, looking for bandits who were hiding out. Almost as soon as he opened the door, I saw him backing away, holding his hands up. He was followed out by a bandit with a knife to the throat of a child. I stared, wide-eyed, I knew that Luca would not let the child be harmed, but I did not see what he could do. As I watched, Luca laid down his sword, doing as the hostage-taker commanded. More bandits now emerged from the house and grabbed Luca by the arms. I couldn’t watch any more, I ran down the stairs as fast as I could.
“Keira!” I heard Kai’s irritated shout behind me.
By the time I got outside, Luca had been dragged back indoors by the bandits, aware of Kai’s marksmanship. I raced toward the door. Inside, I saw that the bandits had let the child go and it now stood in a corner, cowering behind its mother, watching helplessly as the bandits worked on Luca. Three of them held him fast while another punched him over and over in the face and gut.
“Not such a big man now, are you?” the bandit sneered.
Luca spit blood into the man’s face.
“You’ll regret that.” The man drew a knife. “How much do you think I’ll have to cut you before you start to scream?”
“Luca!” Nothing I said could do any good, but I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut.
The bandits turned at my shout. And suddenly Luca came to life. His head, which had sunk to his chest, snapped sharply back, cracking the nose of the bandit behind him. He stamped on the foot of one of his captors, and the man loosened his grip enough that he could wrench an arm free and deliver a punch that would have stopped a bull into the face of the man on his other arm. The man with the knife now flew at Luca, knocking him to the floor.
“Hold him.”
Whichever of the bandits could still move tried to pin Luca down, and with horror I saw the knife going into Luca’s stomach. But in the next moment, Luca reared up with a roar, throwing his attacker over. The knife jabbed up, this time into Luca’s shoulder, but he fought on. Unable to hold back, I grabbed a chair and smashed it over the head of one of the other bandits. Another made a run for the door – torturing a man was fine when he wasn’t fighting back, but this was getting dangerous – I saw him drop dead with an arrow through his neck before he’d gone two paces. Luca had the wrist of the last bandit in his grasp, fighting for control of the knife.
As I watched, I saw the bandit’s face turn to horror as the point twisted toward his throat. Beaten, stabbed and losing blood though he was, Luca was still strong enough to take this man down. The mother in the corner finally hid her child’s eyes as the bandit shrieked.
I rushed forward, hurling the corpse to one side. “Luca!”
The mercenary slumped in my arms, his blood flowing hotly over me.
“Luca?”
Outside, the sounds of battle were ceasing – the bandits had been defeated. But in here, it didn’t feel like a victory.
Chapter 20
Stenheim was a mess. In the mercenaries’ defense, the situation had forced them to resort to desperate measures. If they had been able to tackle the bandits their own way from the start, then they would not have done it this way. If they had been able to tackle the bandits by night, rather than coming to rescue me during the day, then they would again have done things differently. But the bandits were dead – perhaps a few stragglers had managed to get past Rex, but they would not be back – and not a single villager had been killed in the battle, the bandits being so keen to get out that they did not stop for reprisals.
I felt as if I had played my part. When Bren had gone to take my message to the guys, they had already been on their way, assuming that by that time I must have gotten myself into trouble, so he had met them en route. He had told them of the sheer number of bandits they would be encountering – several gangs’ worth – and they had altered their plan accordingly. Without my rash intervention, they might not have prevailed.
As for the people, they were forever grateful and wore their guilt heavily. Taka, of course, dismissed it out of hand; ‘it’s all worked out for the best, hasn’t it?’
Had it?
For a while, it had not seemed that way to me. By the time Taka found me and Luca, he had lost more blood than I could bear to think about. His body looked broken and felt limp in my hands as my tears fell on it. Taka was an experienced battlefield surgeon, used to dealing with the horrific injuries of war, but I could see the concern in his face when he looked over Luca.
“Do you need me to fetch anything?” I asked, still desperate to be useful. “Water or anything?”
“I need you to hold his hand and talk to him,” said Taka, gravely.
“Talk to him?”
“Right now, what he needs more than anything else is something to live for. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Luca with anything to live for, but you’re it.”
And so, I knelt there on the floor with Luca, whispering words of love into his ear as his commander stitched him up.
I don’t know how much I helped him pull through - Taka’s surgery was surely the deciding factor – but when the mercenary leader took me aside afterwards, he thanked me.
“A month ago, injuries like that would have killed Luca and I think he’d have been happy enough to die. Since meeting you, he wants to live. Don’t underestimate how much that matters. Thank you, Keira. You may have just saved my friend’s life. And not just today.”
Though I would hardly have called Luca’s brush with death a plus point, it did mean that the guys were forced to linger in Stenheim longer than they had originally planned. Tough though Luca was, even he could not travel with the injuries he had sustained, though, of course, he protested that he could.
The guys were made more than welcome by my friends and neighbors, and I myself was treated as a co-hero of the hour for bringing them here. Again, I thought there was more than a little guilt over what I had endured, and people were keen to make amends any way they could. Funnily enough, I found that I didn’t resent anyone for what had happened, and felt no need for them to make it up to me in any way. Perhaps a little of Taka had rubbed off on me – there were worse things that could happen.
As for the guys, with the exception of Luca, they made themselves busy. The town had taken a beating from the bandit occupation, the horse stampede, and the following battle. There were repairs to be made all over Stenheim and Taka, Rex and Kai willingly pitched in while their comrade was convalescing. I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I took a warm pleasure in watching them work; Rex, working shirtless, sweat sheening his massive body as he carried piles of planks to where they were needed; Kai, nimbly ascending buildings to re-thatch roofs, beaming a smile as he worked; Taka, his strong arms, gleaming as he worked, cutting down trees, and stripping the branches. It was not just how strong and handsome they looked as they worked, watching them in this rural setting activated a wealth of other related images in my head. Hopeless dreams that would never come true, but there seemed no harm in indulging them.
“What will you do when they leave?”
Bren and I were seated up near the crags, tending the goats. Though it had once been used as a punishing chore, I now found I relished the quiet and peace. A little excitement can put what matters in perspective.
I shrugged. “What can I do?”
“I think they’d take you along if you asked.”
I shook my head. “No. They’ve made that very clear.”
“They love you. All of them. I don’t claim to know how that works, and please don’t ever feel obligated to explain, but it’s as clear as the nose on your face. And you love them, too.”
Of course I did. But they were them and I was me. Their place in the world was out there, having adventures. Mine was here among the goats. Truth be told, however much I would miss them, however much I wished I was going along with them so I could stay with them, I did not envy them their life. In one day, I had had enough blood to last me a lifetime. Nearly losing Luca had put a firm end to any idea I had of being a mercenary’s wife – to sit at home, waiting to find out if they would all come home alive? I couldn’t have borne it. Maybe there was money to be made out of their life, but they had to walk a bloody trail to get it. I hoped it was worthwhile for them, I hoped that the money made it worthwhile, and I understood Taka when he said that he never wanted to be poor again – never to be beholden to powerful and influential men. But I was happier with the goats. If only there had been a way to have both.
“How’s Dana?” I asked. Bren’s heroism during the bandit raid – which the guys had helpfully talked up – had gotten him the girl he wanted.
“She’s great. Don’t change the subject.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I want you to tell me you’ll fight for what you want. That’s what the Keira I grew up with would do. They’ve said you can’t go with them – when was the last time you did as you were told?”
“Maybe I’ve grown as a person.” I had shared pretty much every aspect of my life with Bren since we were toddlers, but I couldn’t explain this to him. I couldn’t explain how my view of my little village had changed so much. I had always loved my village, but now it was more than that, it felt like a part of me. I had had a similar experience to that of Taka and the other guys – I had left home and found something wonderful outside of it; the guys. There had been a period when I had hated my village and would have left it and the people in it behind. But I had been lucky, I had not had to see my village destroyed to learn how much it mattered to me. I had not left it too long, I had still been able to go home. I understood the guys better now.
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