Lorik (The Lorik Trilogy) (29 page)

It was just the opportunity that Lorik had been waiting for. He fired an arrow, but once again his aim was off. He had trouble judging the distance firing from his elevated position. This time he overcompensated and the arrow fell short, hitting the Rider’s horse instead of the outlaw. The horse fell forward, throwing the Rider over its head. Meanwhile, Stone was trying to calm his own mount, but the horse wanted him off and kept bucking until Stone was tossed to the side. He crashed to the ground, cutting his thigh with his own knife.

The Rider was back on his feet quickly and moved to the side of the barn to avoid Lorik’s aim.

“Damn,” Lorik shouted.

“What do we do?” Vera said.

“Nothing we can do.”

“What about Liam?”

“Stone!” Lorik shouted as the young warrior struggled to his feet. “Get over here and I’ll pull you up.”

Stone didn’t answer, instead he stalked forward, limping slightly from the cut on his leg. His face was grim and determined. He disappeared around the side of the barn.

“What do we do now?” Vera said desperately.

“All we can do is wait,” Lorik said, looking back out to the path that ran from his home to Hassell Point. The liquid fire was still burning, and he could see three men on horseback beyond. They stood in their stirrups, watching to see what was happening beyond their reach.

“Even if Stone wins,” Lorik said, “this isn’t over. Not as long as Marsdyn still lives.”

Chapter 18

Stone could see the man trying to get inside the barn. There was nowhere else for the man to run: the property was surrounded by mud bogs that offered no shelter and would slow an escape so that the person retreating would be horribly exposed for a long time. But one man throwing himself against the barn door wouldn’t succeed in getting inside, so Stone took his time. His leg still hurt from the wound on his shin, and now that same leg had a gash in the thigh.

He was angry and tired and hurting, but it only made him more determined to kill the Rider. The man hurried further away, ducking around behind the back of the barn. As Stone approached he could smell the blood and excrement of the man he’d killed there. He moved out away from the barn as he turned the corner. The outlaw had been waiting, ready to strike just as Stone came into view, but the young warrior had been expecting that. The man shuffled backward and tripped over the body of his slain comrade, panicking as he tried to get up. It would have been the perfect opportunity to attack, but Stone was several paces away and didn’t want to rush forward. He knew the man had nowhere to go. He stalked his prey slowly, following as the outlaw came out from behind the barn and angled toward the house. The man was now moving in a line that made it almost impossible for Lorik to take a shot at him from the hayloft.

Stone followed slowly, methodically, his pace forcing the the outlaw to keep moving. The back of the house was simple, with just a set of steps leading up to the door. The outlaw expected Lorik to shoot at him and so he dashed forward, throwing himself against the door, which opened easily, and the Rider rushed in, thinking he would have some measure of safety inside. Instead, the door opening triggered the trap that Lorik had rigged. It was a simple trap, two heavy spikes attached to a board that swung down into the doorway. The spikes caught the outlaw on his left side, stabbing into his chest and abdomen.

The upper spike shattered ribs and punctured the outlaw’s lung. The lower spike punched into his small intestines, lacerating the organs. The force of the swinging trap and the outlaw’s natural reaction to move away from the pain threw the Rider back outside and down the steps, where he fell in a heap on the ground. He squirmed and cried, defenseless as Stone limped toward him.

The man cried and begged for mercy, but he was dying already. Blood was beginning to bubble out of his mouth, and it poured from the wounds in his chest and stomach. Stone dropped onto the ground beside the outlaw, supporting himself with one knee while his wounded leg stretched out beside him. Then he raised the knife and held it there for an instant.

“Don’t watch,” Lorik said, turning Vera away from the hayloft window.

Stone bellowed with rage as he stabbed the outlaw. The first blow from Stone’s big knife killed the man, but Stone kept hacking and stabbing, letting all of his frustrations, fear, and anger go as he mutilated the corpse. Blood flew, arcing through the air as he raised his knife again and again.

Lorik held Vera as she sobbed quietly and he watched the last three Riders. He wondered if they would wait until the fire died. Then he remembered that he had his bow. He helped Vera sit down in the hay and drew another arrow. He checked it to make sure it was in good shape. Then he nocked it and took aim. One of the Riders was a big man, and Lorik assumed the other two were Mert and Marsdyn. They were of the same hight and build, so he was forced to guess which one was the outlaw leader. He aimed for the man on the left and let his arrow fly. He knew the minute it left the bow that it was true, but the outlaws were expecting this. As soon as they saw the arrow fly they turned their horses and raced back out of sight. The arrow landed harmlessly in the ground just beyond the liquid fire.

Vera fell asleep while Stone sat by the mutilated body of the Rider, his anger spent. Lorik looked out at his family’s home and realized it was now a killing ground. There were bodies burning on the path, and bodies in the yard below his perch in the hayloft window. He sat down, letting his feet dangle, and watched the path. He knew at any moment a new attack could come, but he was too tired to prepare for it. He knew he needed to dispose of the dead, to eat, sleep, and make sure they were ready for whatever came next, but instead he sat watching, half in a daze.

It was a full hour before Stone got up and stumbled back to the barn. Lorik saw him coming and went down to let his friend in.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I will be,” Stone replied. “Nothing that a little sleep won’t cure.”

The young warrior had torn off his lone remaining sleeve and made a bandage for his wounded leg. His clothes were covered with gore, his hands were stained crimson, and his face was speckled with blood.

“I’m not sure Vera would approve of your new look.”

“I’ll wash up.”

“Can I ask why you did that?”

“I was angry,” Stone said, his voice both defiant and slightly ashamed. He assumed Lorik was referring to his angry mutilation of the outlaw’s body.

“No, I mean why you jumped out of the barn. You didn’t have to do it.”

“I feel like I did,” Stone was looking at the ground, not meeting Lorik’s gaze. “It’s my fault you and Vera are in this mess.”

“You give yourself too much credit,” Lorik said. “I pissed Marsdyn off all on my own.”

“Partnering with me didn’t help you much.”

“We can talk what-if’s all day, but in the end, it doesn’t change anything,” Lorik said. “We both made our choices and now all that’s left is to live with them.”

“I wasn’t sure we’d live this long,” Stone admitted.

“Well, Marsdyn’s not done. He won’t give up, and I’m not sure what his next move will be. That makes me more nervous than facing a horde of pirates.”

“I can’t believe we drove them back so easily.”

“There’s a big difference between attacking the helpless and facing armed men fighting for their lives. Your idea to set up the bodies of those outlaws was a stroke of genius, though.”

“I’ll help you clean up the mess,” Stone volunteered.

“No, get yourself washed and then take watch. When Vera wakes up she needs to check that wound on your leg and I want to know when Marsdyn makes his next move. We’ve been through too much to let our guard down now.”

“Okay, but you need to rest, too. It looks like your stomach wound is bleeding again.”

“It’s nothing. That ride up the rope almost pulled my arm out of joint, but I’ll be okay. I want something done with these bodies first, and I can rest after that.”

They went separate ways. Stone went back to the rear of the barn to wash again. He had no more clean clothes to put on, so he redressed in his wet clothes and climbed back up into the hayloft. Vera was still sleeping, and the fire on the path was out, but still smoking, which made it difficult to see the path clearly. Lorik had used one of his horses to drag the bodies into a pile on the far side of the house. He was gathering brush and wood now, Stone guessed to burn the bodies.

It was another hour before Lorik returned. Black, noxious smoke filled the air on the far side of the house where the dead were burning. The smell was strong and made Stone want to gag. Lorik had washed up a little, although his clothes weren’t wet like Lorik’s.

“You want me to spell you for a while?” Lorik asked.

“No, I can’t rest in wet clothes. Why don’t you sleep a little? I’ll wake you if I get too tired.”

Lorik nodded and dropped into the hay beside Vera. A few minutes later she woke up, her face wrinkling in disgust.

“Oh God, what is that smell?” she asked.

“Lorik is burning the dead,” Stone explained.

“It’s disgusting.”

“At least it’s not us burning. I can’t believe we survived three attacks and none of the buildings were burned down.”

“I can’t believe you jumped out the window,” she said testily. “Why didn’t you tell me what you were doing?”

“I didn’t want you to lose focus. If you knew what I was going to do, you would have been worried about me.”

“I had a right to know.”

“I can’t let the two of you risk your necks on my behalf. If I hadn’t jumped out there, those men would have set the barn on fire. Even if we had somehow survived, Lorik would have lost his livelihood. I couldn’t let that happen.”

“And what if you’d been killed?” she asked. “What would I do then?”

“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I’ve been alone most of my life, Vera. I’m not used to thinking of others. I’m sorry.”

“I know we don’t know each other very well, but I don’t want to miss the opportunity to find out what I don’t know.”

“Me neither,” Stone admitted. “I won’t do anything foolish again without telling you first, I promise.”

“You’d better let me take a look at your leg. There’s no sense in letting you die of blood poisoning.”

He pulled his pants off. They were still damp, and the bandage was soaked with blood. His boot was nearly ruined, and both wounds looked inflamed.

“Is that a bad sign?” Stone asked.

“Not really, but I don’t have what I need to clean the wounds properly,” Vera explained. “The best we can do is keep clean bandages on them. Your thigh needs stitches. I can do that, if you’re up to it.”

“I guess that means you won’t be gentle,” he teased.

“No, a good healer is never gentle, just effective. Stitching a wound is painful, but I’m guessing you already know that.”

“I’ve been stitched up a time or two.”

She poured water over the wounds as the sun began to sink toward the horizon. Then she dug through the small pack she had brought with her from the house. She found the needle and thread she wanted. Stone focused on keeping watch and did his best to ignore the pain. The skin and tissue around the wound in his thigh were swollen, the nerves inflamed. Vera worked diligently and to Stone’s surprise she was also very gentle, but stitching up the wound was very painful.

When she finished she wrapped both cuts with clean bandages and took over standing watch while Stone slept. It was late when she woke Lorik and Stone. Someone was coming up the path, and, even though it was dark, the moon was shining brightly and she could see that they were walking, not riding.

“Who is that?” Lorik asked.

“I can’t tell,” Vera said.

“Are they coming alone?” Stone asked, as he pulled his pants back on and buckled his knife belt.

“Looks like it,” Lorik said. “They aren’t trying to hide their approach either.”

Lorik had moved the bodies from around the barn, as well as the body of the dead outlaw at the head of the path. The bodies of the outlaws and horses who had been killed by the liquid fire were still there, their corpses smoking and still too hot to move. Further down the path, the pile of bodies was even bigger where the pirates and outlaws had fought.

“They’re determined,” Stone said. “I’m sure walking past that many dead bodies in the dark is difficult for anyone.”

“I couldn’t do it,” Vera said.

“I think I know who that is,” Lorik said. “It looks like Chancy’s wife, Opal.”

“What would she be doing here?” Vera asked.

“I don’t know, but I doubt she’s come to tell us that Marsdyn’s given up and left the Point,” Lorik said.

“Should we go down and meet her?” Stone asked.

“It could be a trap, but I’ll have to risk it,” Lorik said. “I’ve got a bad feeling that something’s happened in town.”

Lorik went down the ladder and out of the barn, leaving Stone and Vera in the barn. He carried his axe with him, since he hadn’t seen anyone following Chancy’s wife. The odds were good that she was alone, but he didn’t want to take any chances, and he knew his longbow wouldn’t do him much good in the dark.