“Oh really?” She glares angrily.
“Yes, and I will prove it.” I shake the cup at her voraciously. “The servants, the captured people, get one piece of dried meat, where all the trusted people get two correct?”
“Yes.” I have her hooked.
“If you start treating these servants better, starting with that extra portion of meat, I will willingly kiss you in private.” I attempt to strike a deal for their sake.
“In public and you have a deal,” she counters.
“In private or no deal.”
Lady Eve crosses her arms and a sly smirk appears. She stands there for a few moments, leaving me to guess at what she’s thinking about, but she breaks the silence before I can.
“Make it a sweeter deal for me. Sleep with me before we set out tonight,” she speaks loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Out of the question.” I grind my teeth together and I can see where this is headed.
“Fine, I guess I’ll just have to take away all the meat from the servants and give it all to my trusted.”
“You would not.”
“I would and will, unless you sleep in my bed with me, tonight,” she rubs her hand across my face.
“You’re a tyrant.” I pull away in disgust.
“Now what was that about you manipulating me?” she whispers deviously. “Who has the real power here? I want to hear you say it.”
“You…” I mutter.
“That’s right. Now the deal is you kiss me in public and sleep in my bed and they continue to get meat. Are we in agreement?”
“My ethics to see these people treated better dictate one real answer to your proposal. I will do as you ask.”
“Good. You’ll come to like me eventually,” Lady Eve winks and turns around to leave.
“What about your kiss?” I ask sarcastically and grab her shoulder to stop her.
“I said in public. I plan to hold an announcement before I take you into my tent and that’s when you can do it.” She pulls away from my grip.
She is gone and I am left humiliated in front of this lot. Returning to my bowl, the old man nods in thanks, but I find that I am too annoyed to acknowledge him properly. Instead I slam my cup down, losing a little bit of water and eat while thinking to myself.
What have I gotten myself into? Outplayed, I have effectively sold myself so that these people can keep eating the same as they were. Ami and Kohan aren’t going to like this either. I’m not sure who to tell first.
After my meal and a good deal of contemplating I get up and slam my dishes down at the front, still irritated at myself for being so arrogant to think I could convince her to do what I wanted.
Leaving the tent, I watch people work for a few minutes while I look for Kohan, figuring he should probably know first. When I spot him, I move to intercept and he appears to be going over the inventory laid out, I assume for our trip tonight. When I approach him, he looks to his side, takes notice of me and then returns to counting out bullets on a cloth.
“Kohan,” I start, while looking around to see if anyone is listening in. “There’s something you need to know now before Lady Eve announces it.”
“What is it?” He stops and turns his full attention to me.
“She has manipulated me into a promise I don’t want to keep, but if I don’t, the servants will have their meat privileges revoked.” My nerves start getting the best of me.
“Spit it out Rain.”
“She has demanded that I publically kiss her during an announcement and then retire into her tent with her, to her bed, before we leave tonight.”
“Decline her,” he demands sternly.
“I cannot, those servants cannot live off of that gruel alone,” I say in a pleading tone.
“Listen here. I don’t give a snake’s tail about those servants. They’re going to likely die in the upcoming battles anyway. I’ll say it again, decline her.” Kohan becomes very agitated, his face turning a bright red.
“I am sorry Kohan. I cannot do that. Perhaps if they are fed better they will have more energy and a better morale for the upcoming battles and we will not lose as many people.”
“You don’t get it. They’re all expendable. All of them. I will put it to you this way, decline her or our plan and deal is off,” his voice elevates further.
A conundrum. That’s exactly what this is because I have two options now. Decline Lady Eve and let them suffer while Kohan’s deal stands or help the people of the camp by agreeing to Lady Eve’s deal and have Kohan betray me, likely resulting in mine and Ami’s death. As much as I want to help those people, staying here is the worst of the options for Ami and I. I have to keep her safe, for Agatha.
“Create a distraction for me,” I tell Kohan.
“What?”
“Interrupt her announcement with something. Anything.”
“I can’t just come up with something like that.”
“You are going to have to,” I point at him aggressively. “Otherwise I am going to be forced – against my will – to kiss her again and then be hauled into her tent. It is up to you to create a distraction.”
“How about I just kill you now and that’s the end of it.” He grabs me by the wrist and threatens to break it like a twig.
“I would prefer to live thanks.” I wrench my hand away. “Just come up with something. I have to go tell Ami to be on her toes.”
Sprinting toward the armored wagon where I last saw her. I climb the ladder to find her still there, pulling the cloth over the top of the framework to create a canopy. She and the others tie it down, making it enclosed, except for the front and rear sides of the wagon. With an opening to jump in before she starts something new, I find myself trying to catch my breath after running.
“Ami, we need to talk,” I whisper and pull her aside.
I brief her on all that has transpired between Lady Eve, Kohan and I and I can see she is not pleased. Pretending to be a couple has undoubtedly brought us closer together and I understand that she would be upset about Lady Eve’s proposals and actions.
“Is he going to create a distraction?” She asks.
“I don’t know. I hope so.”
“Me too.” She hugs me.
After sitting for a bit the noise of a horn blasts across the camp and everyone begins filing out of the wagon. Following them, Ami and I exchange glances and head toward the hill near Lady Eve’s tent. Standing atop it she holds a large brass horn in her hand and is beckoning everyone to gather around the front side of the hill. Her eyes dart around and I just know that she is looking for me. When she finally spots me, she beckons me with her finger. I look to Ami.
“I guess this is it,” I mumble.
She has a triumphant look about her as she stands tall and waves for me to come forward. I make my way through the crowd and up the hill, feeling the stares from these nomadic pirates on my backside. If I had not been nervous already, the hundred or so people staring would have done it. But my embarrassment has only begun. I climb the hill and turn around to face everyone. Lady Eve grabs my arm and giggles.
“My clanswomen and men, my servants, our day has arrived after being exiled into the desert to retake our rightful place amongst the other clans in the mountains! And at my right hand will be your new Lord. Lord Rain! His compassion has stirred me to be more generous and therefore by my decree, all servants now get the same amount of food as normal clanswomen and men! Take this gesture of goodwill and use it to strengthen your morale in taking back our home!” Lady Eve is boisterous and flashy with her speech and tugs on my arm a few times.
“I want everyone to eat well if you haven’t already and get their rest before we head out because tonight is going to be a long night of travel!” She finishes up with a leader’s words of kindness that I know are false. “Now to seal mine and Lord Rain’s bond!”
She turns to me and grabs both of my hands while looking at me expectantly.
I hesitate and look at Kohan who sta
nds off to the back. He is staring me down, eyebrows furrowed. With no distraction, I have no choice and begin leaning forward toward pressing my lips against Lady Eve’s. My breathing becomes heavy and I feel the sweat beginning to drip down my forehead.
This is it. I have to risk Ami’s life – and mine.
A flash of light catches my eye from the other side of the camp, beyond the caravan.
Bezzel, using a mirror to reflect what sunlight is left in the sky, is running full-speed toward the gathering, yelling heavily and unclearly. Lady Eve sees my attention is diverted and turns to find out what the yelling is about. He leaps and bounds up Lady Eve’s hill and comes to a dead stop, huffing.
“There is a large, heavily armed caravan heading this way! They’re coming from the direction of the mountains!” he yells.
“Are they a supply caravan?” Lady Eve drops my hands and turns to him, her mood turning serious.
“They are carrying mostly munitions. It’s a war caravan,” he coughs and sputters.
“How far out are they?”
“About two hours march.”
“Well, it seems that we’re not getting that rest.” Lady Eve pouts and then yells at everyone. “Pack up the rest of the stuff! All able-bodied men pick up your rifles!”
Kohan turns to move off and I jump down the hill out of Lady Eve’s grasp to follow. He does not acknowledge my presence as we walk toward where the rifles are stored.
“Good distraction,” I whisper while people bustle about us.
“I didn’t do it,” he whispers back. “I had no intentions of creating a distraction. I wanted you to publically humiliate Lady Eve so that she would turn to me instead.”
“Good. Glad to know I can count on you when I need it,” I sneer.
“You’ll have your help of getting out of here.” He glares at me briefly as we push our way through a crowd.
When we make it to the cache of rifles, Kohan retrieves the vest that is supposed to save me when I get shot to fake my death from a hiding place. It is heavy, but it is neither metal nor wood. Crouching down to hide myself from Lady Eve’s sight, I pull my white top off and fit the vest over my head, putting my arms through and cinching it down with adjustable straps. When it is on, I replace my top and stand back up. Kohan loads me up with a rifle, a pouch of bullets and a bag to sling over my shoulder. Bogged down by so much weight, I move sluggishly. But I am prepared for our plan.
Following Kohan to the front of the caravan, I notice that the air has begun to cool as the sun is nearly against the horizon. Behind and to the sides of me, I find that the rest of the camp has been quickly disassembled and packed. Lady Eve appears on the forward wagon at the front and she puts her brass horn into the air and blows. Kohan and the small army amassed, with rifles at the ready, begin to move. When I look over my shoulder I see underneath the wagons the people slaving away to push and move it.
Kohan allows Bezzel to lead our group several hundred paces in front of the wagons and like a sea of people, we wash across the sand. On the front line, next to him, I struggle to keep my footing with all the weight I am carrying, and the clunky shoe attachments catching little sand mounds, but I keep moving. On our way to plunder this caravan, I have the distinct sense that there is a familiarity about this, as if I have done this kind of thing in my past. I feel unclean.
I don’t want to take someone’s life from them, but no doubt I will have to fire to keep the charade up. I will have to purposely miss so that I can keep my conscience clean. I may be willing to fight someone, even injure them greatly if I know they are doing evil, but I don’t know if these people are good, bad, or somewhere in-between.
Walking about the time that Bezzel had mentioned leaves us still moving at dusk. Black specs appear the distance and beyond them, past several larger mounds of sand, appears the top of a dark brown mountain. Bezzel corrects our course and we move on an intercept path, their wagons soon becoming distinguishable. Bezzel holds his fist up in the air and Kohan follows. Everyone stops marching and our wagons quickly catch up to us.
Kohan raises his rifle to his face to look through the scope and addresses the immediate vicinity of rifle carriers. “As night falls, we will fall upon them! Their numbers appear to be small and we will have the advantage! Take as many captives as you can, but don’t hesitate to kill them if they resist! Spread out!”
With the sun gone and the moon just rising, our guide to their camp is a beacon of fire they have started.
Slowly at first we creep up toward the stopped armored caravan and I see our group spread out to start surrounding them. Finally, when we are close enough to them, we charge toward their caravan with our guns pointed. I cannot tell where the first shot is fired, but it quickly begins a battle of shots back and forth between both groups.
A yell from within their temporary encampment calls for reinforcement. Dozens more pile out of the four wagons with their weapons and begin firing. Ducking and dodging through the storm of bullets, I avoid being hit for the moment only to watch as our group begins to take casualties. From within the wagons the reinforcements are tossed large, clear barricade shields. They quickly set them up and continue to fire in between the gaps, turning the tide of battle in their favor. Bodies begin falling on the ground around me and the iron smell of blood begins to fill the air.
With our forces being decimated by theirs, Kohan calls for retreat and we turn to run back to our caravan, finding ourselves soon out of range of their weapons. Expecting the whole time while running to get hit in the back with a bullet I find myself surprised that I have made it back alive, along with those who turned and ran when Kohan called it out. Disadvantaged by their shield wall stopping bullets cold, and now outnumbered, I am left wondering what the next move will be.
Following Kohan, he moves to the second caravan where the munitions were stored and he climbs up to the covered area. He tosses his rifle down to me and I hold it while waiting. Scuffling can be heard, as well as a few protests from Kohan to whoever is up there, but he quickly reappears with something I had not seen before. Placing several large round objects in various pockets, he climbs back down the ladder and snatches his rifle from me.
“What was that?”
“Grenades. Those shields won’t do anything for them now,” Kohan mutters more to himself than me.
Returning to the first wagon, Kohan climbs up and I follow along. Making our way to the front where Lady Eve is precariously perched, he addresses her.
“Lady Eve, I am taking some of the plating from the wagons. They’ve constructed a bullet barrier and are picking off our men from behind it,” he tells her.
“Do it. You have my full confidence,” she tells him. Though it is dark, I can see this perks his attitude up.
Back down on the ground we find our way back to the group that made it back and he begins bellowing. Though they are recuperating, some being bandaged up from wounds, they seem eager and ready to march off again to their deaths as Kohan begins directing them.
“All able hands, start removing the metal plating from the sides not currently exposed to the supply caravan!”
Kohan oversees the removal of the plating from the front, rear and right sides of the caravans and they come off in sizes two to three bodies wide. They begin to drag them along by handles I had not seen previously. I sling my rifle over my shoulder and find an open spot amongst two others to assist in moving the plating to our defense at the front. With the plating we need down and in place, we wait for something. When I hear the wagons moving I look to see that the sides that we did not take plating from are being lined up to protect those still underneath.
Moving again, our wall of shields leaves little gap to be hit through. Kohan leads point with a single shield. Barely able to see Kohan through the gaps, I do my best to just keep up with the two others with whom I am carrying the large metal shield.
Gunshots ring out again and this time it’s clear that they are coming from the opposing camp first. The s
ound of the metal bullets ricocheting off our plating makes me feel a bit safer, but I know at the end of this I will be shot anyway. A new sound can be heard and when I hear a weapon being rapidly fired it strikes terror into my heart. With bullets pinging one right after the other in quick succession on several of our plates I can’t help but think that they set up a whole row of people just to fire, but the rate it pounds on us sounds inhuman.
“Chain gun! Band together! No gaps!” Kohan yells out over the noise.
Shuffling around we begin to make our wall solid and he joins us by drawing his metal shield back. No longer able to see him amongst the mass of people and shielding, I am left to wonder what comes next but he steps back from the crowd a few paces and begins throwing things high above our wall and toward the firing, one right after the other. Yelling can be heard briefly followed by several fireballs torching the sky and vibrations can be felt from the explosions. But even amongst all of the yelling, the bullets stop pinging our barricade and Kohan continues to hurl more of the grenades.
A large explosion rocks me to my core and it is larger than any of the others, knocking our plating out of alignment and I can see that one of their wagons has been enveloped in flames. It crackles and pops, with several smaller explosions and the opposing faction has scrambled to move the other three wagons away. Kohan sees this too.
“Charge!”
The metal plates drop and everyone charges forward, rifles at the ready, except for Kohan who turns to me and trains his gun on my chest. A crack fills the air and I am impacted directly in the chest. Knocked onto my back I wheeze heavily and I find myself having difficulty breathing. My chest aches, but somehow I can discern that it is nowhere near the pain I should be feeling if one of the bullets had actually ripped through me. Kohan begins stripping my shirt and vest and smears someone else’s red sticky blood all over my chest.
“Stay completely still. The battle isn’t over yet and we will be returning to pick up the metal plates. You need to be convincing to anyone who sees you,” he tells me while kicking sand over my lower half and running some through my hair.
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