Chapter Eleven
MASK
Two weeks later and she stood opposite the prince in one of the training rooms. Two weeks of training under Leigh and two lessons under the prince had shown her exactly how different their teaching styles were. Leigh had taught her everything from fighting from horseback to throwing knives across huge distances. The prince, by comparison seemed intent upon keeping her knowledge basic.
“You ride for Carin tonight?” She asked, blocking his move and retaliating with a lunge that forced him to step backwards out of range.
“Yes. I’ll stay overnight so you have tomorrow off.” He replied “Watch your guard on the right.” He warned as he lunged and tapped her lightly on the shoulder with his blade.
She’d been purposefully making errors like that all morning, Leigh had suggested that it would be harder to suspect her as the woman who’d killed the assassins if she feigned being worse than she was. In reality, she had perfected these techniques over a week ago.
They continued the game of thrust and parry for a few more minutes before stopping. The other adjustment she had to make with the prince was the use of a short sword instead of her normal double broadswords. She suspected the prince didn’t know how strong elves were and was using the lighter swords for her benefit. She didn’t like that he was thinking of her as some weak little maid but it was necessary, she reminded herself. She had taken up that catsuit now she’d have to deal with it.
“How large is your guard going to be?” She asked.
“Why? Worried about me?”
“Humour me.” She replied.
“I have twenty of my finest men coming with me.”
“There are larger numbers of bandits than that in the forest.” She informed him. “Surely more would be appropriate?”
“Any more and I’d leave the city guard short.” He paused, “Seriously, don’t worry about me. I give you my word that I’ll come back safely. I always do.”
Trying to ignore the subtle change in the tone of the conversation she nodded and pulled on a jacket over the strap top she’d worn for their lesson, and handed him the sword. “When are you leaving?” She asked.
“In an hour.” He replied. “You should use the time off to relax. You work too hard.”
“Relaxing has never really worked for me.” She replied.
Talking like this with the prince had become almost natural for her in the two weeks where she’d been assigned to his every move. She rarely put up the ice shields that she’d used before, only when the prince attempted to ask anything personal about her, something he was learning not to do.
“Have you tried it?” He asked, just as she picked up on frantic footsteps headed in their direction.
“Of course I have.” She retorted. “My brain just gets bored of the inactivity.”
“Whatever you say.” He replied, then glanced behind him.
Romana followed his gaze to find Oliver running up behind them. “Your highness.” He said as he reached them, bowing low. “You instructed to find you an hour before your leaving. I have readied your clothes, and your boots were just finished.”
“Very good Oliver,” The prince replied. “I’m afraid I have to go, can we continue this conversation another time?” He asked her.
“Very well.” She replied, “Enjoy yourself as much as you are able.”
“Have fun on your day off.” He replied, walking away with Oliver following.
She stopped walking at a human pace when he’d left, and sped back to her rooms. Writing a note to Katelyn, with pictures under the words so that the little girl would understand, she ran straight to her caves, trusting her speed and the darkness to keep her face hidden, because she’d left her mask with the catsuit.
She’d taken Jayde to the stables the night before, everything having been pre-arranged a week ago. She was to follow the prince along the road to Carin. Leigh had recommended going when she’d heard about the ball, and she met Romana as she walked from the fireplace.
“When is he leaving?” She asked, as Lena brought out some orange juice for them to drink.
“In three quarters of an hour.” She replied. “He’s taking a company of twenty of his finest. Shouldn’t that be enough to protect him?” She asked.
“My reports indicate that over four times that number of bandits are organising his capture at this moment.” Leigh replied. “Do you not want to help him? I had the impression you were growing to like him.”
“I find it unlikely that the bandits will succeed.”
“She’s lying,” Lena called, “she just doesn’t want to wear the armour.”
The centaur frowned in disapproval. “Would you prefer to fight in a dress?” Leigh asked “It’s perfect for fighting, streamlined, and blends in with the night, making it camouflaged. There aren’t any flapping, or loose pieces of fabric to snag on your blades and it’s—”
“It’s a symbol, I know. I know. I know.” Romana replied “But couldn’t the previous owner have found something that doesn’t look like it came from a whorehouse?”
Leigh’s gaze turned thunderous. “My mother and I were saved by the woman who wore that armour before you! My clan and I have tremendous respect for her, and anyone else that the Ancients appoint to wear it.”
“Alright. Alright. I’ll wear the suit.” She replied, raising her hands palm out.
“You’d better hurry about it. If you want to get back to the palace in time to follow them from the gates, you’ll have to trot Jayde for half the journey. She’ll get tired, but she’ll make it.” Lena inserted before Leigh could argue further. “I packed some food, for tonight, and tomorrow when you ride back.”
“Could you leave some in my rooms at the palace for Katelyn as well?” Romana asked, having shown Lena the location on the map a while ago, when she’d forgotten to leave out dinner for the girl in her haste to get to her lesson.
“Of course, of course.” Lena replied. “Now hurry up. Get going.”
Romana nodded and strode to her rooms. She opened the wardrobe, and raked her gaze over the catsuit again. Taking it out she selected her silver knives, and a bow and quiver. Next to come out were her swords, the boots, her mask and the cloak. When it was all out on the bed, she quickly changed into the catsuit and the boots. Then she began strapping her knives into place around her body. Last weapons on her were the swords, which she strapped over her back quickly and efficiently. Then she fastened the cape into position over them, so that all you could see from the outside was the two sword handles.
When she turned to look in the mirror, she saw the mask lying on the pristine white bed sheets, black ribbons twisted slightly to reflect the light from the lamps. She walked over and picked it up. Maybe it was just her imagination, but it felt heavier this time, like she was finally coming to realise the burden she’d accepted.
She put it on and tied the ribbons at the back of her head.
Somehow it didn’t feel right. She fiddled with it, trying to understand what was wrong.
“Don’t fight her child.” Leigh’s voice washed over her like the ocean, cool and calm. “Just accept it.”
Accept what? She wanted to ask, but her lips felt too heavy to move.
Then everything went black.
Chapter Twelve
AMBUSH
Standing from where the girl had fallen, the wytch looked over at Leigh.
“You could have pre-warned the girl; she appears to have no idea what has happened to her.”
She looked in the mirror adjusting the cloak and the number of weapons so it appeared less bulky. The girl’s judgment of her armour was based on the fact that Romana had no idea how to look intimidating while wearing it; fortunately for the wytch she didn’t have that problem.
“She would never have chosen to do this if she knew the true risks.” Leigh replied her voice as crisp and calm as it always was in these conversations. Of course, the stupid centaur was on the verge of hugging her with excitement, but
the woman probably knew how well that would go down.
“Still, it would have been better for all of us if the soul merging had worked when she was a child. The surfacing of my consciousness now is only thanks to age and the proper spell work done in advance.”
“It’s been over eighteen years since we’ve spoken. The amount of time spent lurking in her subconscious must have been damaging to you.”
“It was only as damaging as the ennui of time without significant activity always is to my mind.”
“You remember what she does?” Leigh asked.
She nodded. “Everything since the attempt to meld our souls failed. If memory serves now, I must be going.”
“Correct.” Leigh replied. “Everything is ready for you.”
The wytch didn’t bother with a reply or thanks; instead she strode out of her bedroom and into the stables, where the girl’s horse, Jayde, was waiting. Her white star had been covered with brownie polish, the substance stuck like glue to anything, an opaque black layer until a brownie touched it. Good idea. She thought to herself.
She strapped the bow and quiver, her favourite set, to the side of the saddle, and mounted.
“I will be back by tomorrow nightfall. Be prepared to deal with the girl then. I believe she will reject the idea at first, but if you can convince her to allow me out occasionally, it would be appreciated.”
Leigh nodded, and she squeezed her heels into Jayde’s sides.
Ohh, the feel of the air rushing past her skin after all these years, she sighed in contentment. Bliss. Absolute bliss. Scents that had been faded impressions in the girls mind now bombarded her in their millions. Colours she hadn’t seen for near two decades whizzed past her. The pleasures of the real world.
She remembered the merging ceremony. Remembered hearing the Ancients scream in rage at what they thought was an abomination.
She called it survival. And it had seen her through millennia.
A branch whipped across her face, cutting a line below her eye. The pain was welcome. Anything that made her feel alive again. Shame that it would heal soon, she thought.
She drew her hood over her head as she approached the palace. It was a new city; one she hadn’t seen for herself, having been imprisoned in the girls mind before it’s creation a decade ago.
But now was no time to look around. She drew back into the shadows, watching the south gate for any signs of the prince’s party, watching the forests beyond for any hint of the bandits.
It was about ten minutes later that the royal guard finally emerged, the prince of the human realms at the front, next to the stern man that was his captain of the guard.
She rode next to them, in the shadows of the woods, in silence. Her elvenhearing picked up fragments of the conversation as they rode along.
The thump of a rabbit hopping into it’s hole.
Male laughter, banter about a younger guard travelling with them.
Two lowered voices, one slightly lower than the other, discussing the politics behind this trip.
She tuned into the conversation, wiping the drying blood from the cut away as she did so.
“…it’s dangerous for you to be out here now. Twilight’s nearly here, we’re deep in the heart of bandit territory, where we know we’re outnumbered. Can you not suggest to her highness that maybe next time the ball could be held somewhere like Grenov, or Morendor? Somewhere that there’s a decent road and armed patrols along the route?”
“You know that I can’t go there. She would see it as me being the good little boy and coming back home once I’ve had my fill of attention.”
“Sire, it’s not my job to think about the politics of a situation, just how to get you from A to B without your head being separated from your body. Here you’re in danger. My gut feeling is that someone’s already watching us. Damn bandits.”
“I made someone a promise that I’d get back to them unharmed. If those outlaws make me break that promise I will be severely aggravated.”
“The elven lady?” The captain guessed.
“Is it that obvious?”
“You’re around her a lot.” He explained. “But does she feel the same?”
“Hang on!” The prince replied “I don’t feel that way about her. We’re just friends. I’d doubt she even considers us that.”
There was the sudden sound of shuffling, and through the trees she could make out hand signals being waved at. She listened intently; there was no-one else nearby.
Then their horses changed pace. A trick, she realised, as she changed Jayde’s pace a nanosecond later. But it was too late, they’d heard her.
“They’re good.” The captain murmured. “Why haven’t they attacked yet?”
“They may be planning an ambush.”
“Should we stop?”
“Yes. Send three pairs out to scout the area closest to us.” The prince whispered in reply.
She brought Jayde to a halt at the same time the guards stopped. A pair came blundering into the woodland just meters away from her.
She knocked them both out cold in a second, then pulled her quill out and wrote on one of their white tabards in blood from the already sealing cut on her face.
Stop playing hide and seek, or you’ll be late for your big party. But I might play games with you on the way back if you ask nice. She wrote.
She moved the two quickly to a spot ten meters from where Jayde stood, and watched as they were discovered and taken back.
“It’s a message.” The prince replied.
“Yes, it clearly says, ‘I’m an insane bandit, who learned how to write in school’.” The captain replied sarcastically.
“If it said that, then why are the men unconscious and not dead?” The prince asked. “It means someone’s out there on our side, but they don’t want to be known about unless they’re needed.”
“Nice to know we have a guardian angel out there.” The captain mumbled. “Onwards again!”
They kept up a steady pace until dark fell. They were half way there when she heard the first signs of other people in the woods. She pulled out an arrow from her quiver, and sliced her finger with the tip before dipping her quill in the blood.
Ohh, look! Another party and they’ve invited us to join them. How polite. She wrote on the shaft of the arrow, before knocking it to her bow and firing. It hit the tree just in front of the prince. A perfect shot. He took one look at the writing and started signing frantically, in frequent chops of his arm that she thought must mean something like; ‘we have company’.
The pounding of hoof beats grew loud as the prince’s guard slammed to a stop and drew weapons. She heard the patter of human feet as she drew Jayde back behind a large rhododendron bush that was bursting with the pink and purple flowers.
The prince’s company was soon surrounded on each side by invisible ranks. The bandits were hiding in the undergrowth, waiting for the prince to make a move where he was vulnerable. Growing impatient with the waiting game, she pulled another arrow out, and aimed at the back of a human who was standing by a tree. Relaxing her right hand slightly, she let the arrow loose, and watched as it soared through the back of his neck. He crumpled forwards into the clearing where the prince was.
Then all hell broke loose.
The bandits charged at once, and she began to pick them off one by one with her green feathered arrows. Concentrating on the other bowmen, and anyone close to the prince, she fired at elvenspeed.
Soon though, the bandits figured out where she was in the undergrowth, and she had to concentrate more on her own problems. When she looked up, half the guard was still locked in combat, while the other half and the prince had gone.
Typical. She thought, the lowlifes had forced the party to split up, making them easier targets. She rode Jayde through the clearing, scattering guards and outlaws alike as she continued shooting, guiding Jayde with her knees.
It didn’t take long to find the other group.
The captain of the guard
and five others were fighting over four dead guards and a greater number of dead bandits. She jumped down from Jayde and cut down the remaining bandits using elvenspeed. It took seconds.
“Where is he?” She asked the captain who just put his head in his hands and shrugged.
“It all happened so fast, I couldn’t see him.” He replied, but she was already gone, jumping back into the saddle, and following the sounds of battle to a clearing far away from the original battle site.
There were over twenty of them, surrounding the prince, who was being wrestled to the ground as they jeered. His horse was gone, dead or fled, and he was sporting several large cuts to his body.
She shot through them, leaving an arrow in the ground.
“He is mine.” She called, trying to sound as masculine as possible. “Leave!” When they all looked around confused, she shot one of them through the heart. “Leave!” She repeated, louder this time, more angrily.
They were scared now, and most of them openly ran, a few lingered, and all but three ran after another arrow to their feet.
She rode into the clearing then, her knives whirring in her hands as they sliced through their throats.
“Your guards are to the north.” She informed him, pulling her hood back up from where it had fallen down in the fight, before he could see her plaited long hair or her mask. “They will not trouble you again. But it looks like you’ll be late after all.” She kept her voice low, manly. Men were so much easier to deal with if you didn’t have to worry about them being chauvinistic idiots.
She pulled Jayde right, intending to leave then, without giving him a chance to ask who she was.
“A ride?” He asked, politely.
She gave him a hand up. “Would that be straight back to your captain or just to Carin?”
“My captain if you please, and then back to Morendor.”
“I didn’t volunteer as a taxi service.” She replied. “I only do single destinations, and then you won’t see me again.”
Romana's Freedom (Soul Merge Saga Book 1) Page 9