Ragged Heroes: An Epic Fantasy Collection

by Andy Peloquin

  Chapter 5

  Kai

  Kai grew increasingly nervous as night fell. They’d tracked the mercenaries throughout the day, and had ended up in a small clearing where the men stopped to make camp. The women were forced to sit around a tree with their backs to the trunk, then were bound with heavy ropes.

  Kai watched from the concealment of dense shrubs as the night wore on, and the men curled up in their bedrolls one by one. Eventually there were only two men left to stand guard.

  “Are you ready?” Anna whispered, creeping up to his side.

  He clenched the pommel of the unfamiliar dagger at his belt. He would have preferred to try his hand at Anna’s bow, but stealth was of utmost importance. They couldn’t risk any of the men screaming before they died. The bow had been left hidden in the brush some distance away, along with her pack.

  He shivered. The men would all have to die. If they didn’t, the women might suffer an even worse fate. He swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded to Anna.

  She watched his face for a moment, then replied, “Good. Don’t worry about the two standing guard. I will take care of them. You sneak in from the far end and begin dispatching the men in their beds.”

  He nodded a little too quickly. He was going to be sick.

  “Remember,” she added, “just a clean slice to the throat. Silence them before they can scream. We cannot avoid some of them waking up, we can only hope there will be few of them left to fight us.” She seemed to think about her words. “If you can, go for the big ones first.”

  With that, she darted off into the night. He could barely hear her footsteps as she disappeared into the darkness.

  His palms slick with sweat, he began to make his way around the clearing. The men’s bedrolls were spread out, none sleeping too close to each other. It shouldn’t be too difficult to reach the farthest ones without waking any of the others. The difficult part would occur once he reached them.

  He couldn’t help but feel he was sacrificing a small part of his soul in helping the women. He could only hope they’d be grateful for it.

  * * *

  Anna

  Anna took deep, steady breaths, carefully picking her way across the ground so as not to step on any branches or dry leaves. Her daggers rested at her belt, ready to be unsheathed and driven into the nearest throat.

  Two men stood guard, one near the women, and one on the other side of the camp, nearest the path. She’d take out that one first, as the one near the women would be tricky. She couldn’t risk any of the women screaming while Kai was vulnerable amongst the sleeping men.

  She paused near a tree and watched as her primary quarry shifted his weight, constantly flicking his gaze around the forest ahead of him. His bald head reflected the moonlight, showcasing various scars. While he was clearly not new to his trade, he wouldn’t expect any threats to come from behind.

  She darted behind another tree closer to her quarry. Slowly, she unsheathed her twin daggers, waiting for just the right moment.

  The man yawned, stretching his arms over his head, and she leapt, thrusting her right arm over his shoulder seconds before dragging the dagger across his throat.

  He made a soft gurgling sound, and she caught his body as it fell to the ground. She let him down gently, careful to not stain herself with the blood welling from his throat, black in the moonlight.

  A shiver crept up her spine as she cleaned her dagger on his shirt, then quietly dragged him to the cover of a nearby shrub. She didn’t like killing, but she liked these men preying on the weak even less. She’d been weak once, and no one had bothered to save her. These women would not suffer the same fate.

  With the dead man as hidden as he was going to get, she turned her attention to the rest of the campsite. Perhaps she should help Kai with the sleeping men, leaving the guard beside the women for last.

  Forcing her thoughts away from the corpse she left behind, she crept onward to find Kai.

  * * *

  Kai

  Kai knelt before the man sleeping furthest toward the edge of camp. The man’s sickly sweet breath permeated his nostrils, making it difficult to breathe. Or perhaps it was just the panic constricting Kai’s lungs. He had his dagger ready. He already should have slit the man’s throat to move onto the next. He needed to kill as many as possible before one awoke.

  He swallowed the lump in his throat and poised his dagger. Sweat dripped down his brow as his hand began to tremble.

  He couldn’t do it.

  He withdrew the dagger and prepared to creep away. He would simply find Anna and tell her they needed a new plan. Perhaps if these men were trying to kill him he would be able to fight back, but to murder someone in their sleep? It just seemed wrong, no matter how deserving the victim might be.

  He began to stand, then nearly screamed as his would-be victim’s eyes fluttered open. The man stared up at him for a moment, confused, then began shouting. Kai knew he should have silenced him right there, but instead he stumbled backwards.

  “You fool!” Anna’s voice hissed, as an arm wrapped around his bicep. “Run, now!”

  He wanted to obey her, but his feet didn’t seem to be working. Roused by the man he should have killed, the mercenaries all climbed from their bedrolls, glancing around. The man who’d started the shouting was now on his feet, advancing toward them while brandishing a small hatchet.

  Suddenly he charged, swinging the weapon at Kai as his companions swarmed toward them. Kai would have met his end right there, but Anna darted in, faster than any fighter Kai had ever seen. She deflected the hatchet with one of her blades, expertly flicking the weapon out of the man’s hand before slicing her second blade across his throat.

  As the man crumpled to the ground, Kai finally found his feet, but it was too late. The men were advancing to surround them, and Anna was already fending off another attacker.

  “Run!” she hissed again. “I’ll be right behind you!”

  This time he was able to listen. He turned on his heel and ran, shutting out the image of the blood pouring from the man’s throat. Had he the time, he would have vomited, but he was now too intent on keeping himself alive as the men shouted after him.

  He ran and ran into the dark woods. He wasn’t sure where Anna was. She said she’d be right behind him, but he couldn’t spare the time to look. Instead he charged onward into the night, forcing his legs to carry him faster, though his lungs and bruised ribs screamed out in agony.

  He ran until his legs finally gave out, and he collapsed into the dirt. He rolled over, panting and dripping with sweat as he gazed up at the still moon. He could no longer hear the shouts of the men pursuing him, but cold fear still clutched his heart. Where in the blazes was Anna?

  Chapter 6

  Anna

  Anna groaned and lifted a hand to her throbbing head. How had that blasted brute gotten the drop on her? The last thing she remembered was felling another one of the bandits, then something slammed into her skull and knocked her to the ground.

  Though she couldn’t remember it, something must have hit her in the ribs too. There was a massive weight on her chest. She tried to move, but something rough was pressed against her back.

  Her eyes snapped open as full awareness hit her. The weight she felt was a rope looped several times around her chest, pinning her to a tree. The light of dawn was slowly creeping in. She’d been unconscious all night.

  She blinked rapidly as her sight went from blurry to clear, then groaned again. She was in a seated position, tied to a tree just a few paces away from where the captured women were tied. One of them was already awake, staring at her with sad blue eyes from beneath matted russet hair.

  Her panic increasing, Anna groped at the ropes securing her chest, but could find no knots. It must have been secured on the other side of the tree, the trunk far too wide for her arms to flail anywhere near the knots.

  She gritted her teeth and tried to come up with a plan. Kai was most likely dead, so he’d be of
little help. There was no way she was getting out of the ropes. Her daggers had been taken away, and . . . she halted her racing thoughts as she shifted her right foot in her boot. Curses, they’d taken the dagger there too. The thought of the filthy men thoroughly searching her unconscious body for weapons sent a chill of revulsion down her spine.

  She took deep, even breaths, willing herself not to vomit. Back to making a plan. She wasn’t getting out of the ropes, but they’d have to untie her when they moved on for the day. Else they’d leave her to either starve or be eaten by wild animals. She found both options preferable to whatever else the men might do to her.

  If, however, the men decided to lump her in with the other women and take her with them, she should be able to find a way to escape. Even outnumbered, she could outwit these men with two hands tied behind her back…or shackled with heavy irons.

  “Morning, princess,” a rough voice said from behind her. “Not so tough without your blades?”

  She winced. She’d nearly forgotten about the men she’d killed. She might end up lumped in with the other women, but she’d surely be punished for her crimes along the way.

  The man stepped into her line of sight. He was younger than he sounded, perhaps only just past his twentieth year, though the scars littering his bare, muscled arms told the story of a rough youth. He sneered from beneath grubby, dark bangs, showcasing his numerous missing teeth.

  “Who was your friend?” he questioned. “Will he come back for you?”

  So he wasn't dead? She smirked. “A casual acquaintance, nothing more.” Even if Kai was still alive, he wouldn't likely return for her, but she still saw no benefit to putting the men on their guards.

  “You don't seem too sore that he abandoned you,” the man observed.

  She glared up at him. If he thought she would pour her heart out to him, he was dead wrong. “What do you intend to do with me?” she asked evenly.

  He smirked. “You think you’re any better than the rest of our fair damsels?” he gestured to the woman tied to the adjacent tree. “You’ll all be sold to new masters, though I might take the time to find you a particularly loving owner. Some of the men you killed were my friends.”

  She took deep, even breaths. If she got her hands on a blade, she’d send this foul man right to the grave along with his other friends.

  “No clever retort?” he asked, then spat in the dirt near her feet. “Fine,” he continued. “We’re just another day’s journey from the drop off point. You’ll change your attitude long before then.” He gazed lasciviously at the other women. “Isn’t that right, ladies?”

  The redhead who’d met her gaze before flinched, but the others barely reacted. All Anna could think was broken, they’d all been broken. She’d avenge them, if it was the last thing she did.

  She smiled sweetly at her captor. “My attitude will only change once I’ve just cut out your tongue, and you’re hanging from a tree by your entrails.”

  The insult won her a kick in the ribs. Her vision blacked for several seconds.

  When it returned, the man had walked away, and the red-haired woman was watching her with a smirk on her lips. Anna returned the smirk with a nod. She knew without asking that when the time came, at least this one girl would be there to help her.

  * * *

  Think, think, think, Kai repeated in his mind as he trudged through the dense forest. His body was unbelievable tired, and he was starved, but Anna was surely faring far worse. He’d gotten close enough to the camp to see her tied to that tree. He’d been entirely ready to sneak in and save her before that oily, dark-haired man showed up. He’d noted the small axe at the man’s hip, and the dagger jutting from his boot, and had known he would stand no chance against him…especially not after the humiliating show he’d put on the night before, running for his life while Anna cut down their foes one by one.

  He sighed, kicking his boot into the mucky soil in irritation. Something small and brown came loose from the ground and toppled out of the tall grass. He crouched down and picked up a small mushroom, then took a deep whiff of its porous flesh.

  His nose wrinkled at the sweet scent. He’d encountered such mushrooms the previous year. They grew in sticky soil with a high clay content, usually beneath the shade of tall grass or other plants. Because of their tendency to hide, he hadn’t noticed the batch growing in their pasture until half of the sheep had eaten them. They’d gone utterly mad, stumbling all over the place and running into fences. Some had even died.

  He made to drop the mushroom back into its hiding place, then stopped. He might not be able to disarm the men holding Anna captive, but hallucinations accompanied by violent stomach rumblings just might. The only problem was, how would he convince the men to eat the mushrooms?

  Leaving that issue for later, he frantically began searching the grass for more growths, plucking them and piling them into the hem of his shirt as he went. He knew he was quite mad for even considering such a plan, but it was the only one he had.

  * * *

  Anna

  “We should have killed her for what she did,” one of the men nearest Anna grumbled. He was older than the others, yet had fewer scars. As if Anna needed any more evidence that he was a coward.

  “She’s worth more to us alive than dead,” the dark-haired man who needed his tongue cut out said.

  Each of the two men held on to the ropes binding the women together by their irons. It was difficult enough for Anna to keep her feet as they were jostled about, let alone plan her escape. She’d ended up next to the red-haired woman, but had been granted no opportunity to speak with her. On her other side was a blonde girl, likely still a teenager, whose eyes never left the ground.

  The rest of the remaining men walked further ahead or behind, confident the two men would have no trouble herding seven women in irons.

  Anna’s gaze occasionally flicked the the daggers strapped to the dark-haired man’s wrists. If only she’d been placed at the end of the line of women, she could stand a chance of disarming him.

  Of course, that was exactly why she’d been placed in the center.

  As they trudged onward, her eyes darted about for anything else she might use. There were some small rocks on the dirt trail, and a few branches here and there, but nothing that would do her much good. Her eyes landed on a few oddly round, brown pebbles at they passed them. No, not pebbles, mushrooms. She was not well versed in foraging, and so, did not know their type, but she imagined it was unnatural for them to just be sitting on the side of the trail like that.

  She subtly scanned the surrounding woods as the men grumbled amongst themselves, paying little attention to anything other than their tired feet thumping down the path. She nearly gasped at a flash of movement in the low shrubs. She could have sworn she’d seen . . . Kai?

  She kept walking, wondering why her eyes were playing tricks on her.

  “What are all these mushrooms doing on the path?” one of the men ahead of her asked.

  The party stopped walking, giving her a chance to scan the foliage once more, but she did not see the movement again. Yet, what if it had been Kai? Could he actually be planning on rescuing her?

  She looked down at the mushrooms as a few of the men knelt to pluck them from the side of the path. Could Kai have placed them there? If so, why? She didn’t imagine he’d be out to feed the hungry mercenaries.

  Suddenly an idea dawned on her. It was far fetched, but she really didn’t have anything to lose. She strained against the ropes tethering her to the other women, barely managing to pluck one of the mushrooms from the ground.

  A moment later, the dark-haired man swatted it from her grasp.

  “What the Horned One’s name do you think you’re doing?” he growled.

  She glared at him. “What in the Horned One’s name do you think? You didn’t give me any breakfast.”

  He glanced down at the fallen mushroom as the other men watched on. “How do you know they’re safe to eat?”

&
nbsp; She rolled her eyes. “I’ve lived in these woods for a while. I eat them all the time. Another traveler must have gathered them, then dropped them accidentally.” So she might be tricking them into eating harmless mushrooms and she’d feel like a fool. If they weren’t harmless, she’d feel quite clever indeed.

  The man watched her, calculating. After a moment, he sneered. “I don’t believe you.”

  Blast it all. Perhaps she’d underestimated his intelligence.

  “If you don’t want them,” the red-haired woman began from her side, “can we have them? My da’ used to make a hearty stew from them. The sweet taste reminds me of home.”

  The dark-haired man shifted his gaze to her, pondering. After a few seconds, he smiled triumphantly. “Gather the mushrooms, lads,” he announced. “We’ll be havin’ a bit more than stale bread tonight!”

  The men all laughed and set to gathering the mushrooms sprinkled along the side of the trail. When all of their backs were turned, Anna flashed the red-head a quick smile, which the woman returned, her pale eyes sparkling with excitement. Perhaps she knew more about the mushrooms than Anna, or perhaps she thought Anna knew more about them than her.

  Either way, they’d find out that evening.

  Chapter 7

  Anna

  Anna grunted as her back was slammed against a tree. One of the men pressed a rope against her chest, then handed the ends to another standing on the other side of the trunk. It would have been the perfect opportunity for her to head-butt the man in front of her, steal his dagger, then stab the other one, but the dark haired man was watching on, his friends just behind him, starting a fire. The gathered mushrooms were piled in the dirt next to a large iron pot.

  As one man finished tying her ropes, the man who’d unceremoniously slammed against the tree sauntered off toward their nearby supplies, then turned and tossed her a hunk of stale bread, which she barely managed to catch with her shackled hands.