Mercenary Little Death Bringer (4 page)

It was our ongoing joke that I figure out
ways to be able to combine my skills with the manly arts with that
of my womanly arts, such as keeping a sword inside my dress. I’d
had very little success so far because somehow Amadis always knew
when I had things hidden on me that I wasn’t supposed to have. It
was like some weird sixth sense.

Fire’s ears shot forward just as Favian drew
his sword from its sheath and slowed Ice. “Riders, six of them, are
moving fast this way.”

Another elf perk I envied, extremely good
hearing. I kept my sword sheathed to appear as a delicate female
human being escorted by an elf. It was surprising how well that
tactic worked on dumb men. The riders appeared on the horizon line,
still barely visible to me, but in perfect sight for Favian. “Human
bandits. Be ready.”

I nodded my head at him and then draped my
right leg over my horn so that I was essentially riding side saddle
instead of regular. Even though I was wearing pants, that wouldn’t
deter most men since putting women in pants was a common tactic to
make them appear less helpless, which helped us make me look more
helpless in the current situation.

The bandits spotted us finally and charged
the horses forward to encircle us. They were all very hairy with
facial hair so thick that I couldn’t see any of their mouths. They
all wore dirty leather outfits that needed a soaking and then a
washing. I was sure they wouldn’t smell very good either, but I
didn’t try to find out, beginning to breathe through my nose as
they moved closer.

The leader moved his horse closer to me and I
pulled on Fire’s reins to move her closer to Ice and Favian,
tucking my head down and widening my eyes as though I were scared
of him. Luckily my cloak hid my sword so he couldn’t see it on my
belt to realize I wasn’t scared of him or his hairiness.

“Don’t be frightened pretty lady. We won’t
hurt you,” he said as he circled us. I thought he might be smiling,
but it was hard to tell if his mustache had moved upwards or
not.

“Leave us be,” Favian said, “Or I shall be
forced to defend myself and the lady.”

“One elf isn’t enough to take on six men,”
the leader said, “especially not a young elf such as you.”

That was where they were wrong. I knew
Favian’s true strength and it frightened me sometimes. Never get on
an elf’s bad side or you won’t live to regret it.

“Last warning,” Favian said and then
smiled.

“We’re going to wipe that smile right off
your face,” another of the bandits said angrily. Was that a frown
or was his beard just particularly droopy?

The leader reached out towards me to try to
grab me from my saddle and as soon as his arm was within reach I
grabbed it and jerked him towards me, pulling him from his saddle.
I shrieked as though shocked and scared at what had happened and
then the fight began. Favian killed two men instantly with his
throwing knives in their throats before they could even draw their
swords and then he moved towards the other three.

The leader pulled his sword just as I pulled
mine and then he came at me. He must have realized I wasn’t
completely defenseless or he wouldn’t be attacking me. I parried
his blow and then stabbed him with one of my knives. “Not all of us
are damsels in distress,” I whispered before yanking my knife
out.

He raised his sword to strike me and I
plunged mine into his belly. He gargled in pain and then fell to
the ground dead. I was right, they did stink. I turned just in time
to duck a punch by one of the other bandits and caught a whiff of
his stench which made me gag a moment before swinging at his face
with my fist. Favian finished with the bandit he was fighting and
turned to me. “Need help?” he asked.

I punched the bandit in his face and then
blocked his return punch. “No, I’m fine,” I said as I hit him in
the throat with my hand. He stumbled backwards gasping for air and
then pulled a knife from his belt. I moved to pull mine, but Favian
had already thrown one of his into the man’s throat, ending his
life. I turned and frowned at him. “I was fine.”

He ignored me, hopping off of Ice’s back to
retrieve his knives. “You were moving too slow. He could have
stabbed you before you got your knife out.”

“If you don’t let me protect myself I won’t
learn,” I told him as I wiped my knife and sword on the bottom of
my cloak to clean the blood off.

“You can learn at school with dull blades
that won’t kill you,” he retorted. He was upset, but I had no idea
why. I hadn’t done anything wrong, well at least not that I could
think of. “Quickly check them over,” he ordered.

I searched each of the men, coming up with a
measly forty coins. I was searching the leader, sure that I would
find nothing when I came across a small painted picture in his
pocket. I stared at the picture in shock and couldn’t move. It was
me. Why would he have a picture of me?

“You find anything?” Favian asked.

I turned the picture over and found two lines
of writing:

Kidnap alive.

Bring to me.

No signature. No name. Favian took the
picture from my hand, scaring me and making me jerk a knife from my
belt in reaction. He looked at me in shock a moment until he read
the writing and turned the picture over. “We’re going back to see
Father,” he said angrily.

“No!” I yelled. “We are already late for
school as it is. We cannot be any later.”

“Someone sent these men after you, Marin.
Don’t you understand that?” he asked as he faced me.

“Yes, but they failed and we are only a day
away from school. Whoever hired them won’t have time to learn of
their failure and hire new men before we arrive and you know as
well as I do that the Academy is impossible to break into.”

I could see the decisions warring within him
and crossed my fingers behind my back. This was a tough decision
for him since he was the one who had vowed to protect me when I’d
been found and brought to the castle. Now as my self-proclaimed
protector, he had to decide which the best protection was, the
Academy or the elves where I would try to sneak away to return to
school.

“I have to finish at the Academy,” I pleaded
with him, “I only have three months left. Please Favian.
Please!”

He sighed. “Fine, but I’m sending word to
Father about this.”

I smiled happily and hugged him. “Thank
you.”

He pushed me away and put the picture in his
pocket. “Get on your horse.”

I did as he asked and we rode off at a brisk
pace towards the Academy. We would have to camp off the road later
that night since we had gotten such a late start to the day and
then we would reach the school by midday tomorrow. Macon would be
very upset that we were half a day late, but the worst he would do
was force us take an extra shift of guard duty.

I glanced at Favian to find him releasing his
long silver hair from the silver clip he wore to hold it back from
covering his ears. He wasn’t ashamed of his Elven heritage, but he
found it beneficial to hide it sometimes. Other times it meant he
was mad at me and hiding his ears because he knew I preferred his
hair up and his ears out. I was pretty sure it was both things
prompting him to let his hair down currently.

I wanted to talk with him or joke to lighten
the mood, but he had his serious face on and that meant that for
the next eight hours we were going to be riding in silence. Silence
would have been fine if I wasn’t slightly freaked out by the fact
that someone had hired bandits to kidnap me. Why? Who on earth
would want to kidnap me? And to what purpose? Were they going to
use me for ransom from the elves? That would only end up bad for
the kidnappers. The elves would agree to their terms and then as
soon as I was safe again they would send out assassins to kill
those that had kidnapped me.

Had I angered someone so much that they
wanted me dead? No, otherwise the note would not have said to
kidnap me alive. Had I angered someone who would want to kidnap me?
I wasn’t the most loved person, but I didn’t really have any true
enemies, just some childish dislikes. Even the three jobs I had
done had all ended well and hadn’t created any enemies for me.

It seemed like minutes had passed when I
realized that the sun was setting. “We’ll set up camp now,” Favian
said as he steered Ice off of the road and we made our way through
the trees to find a suitable camping spot. Luckily there wasn’t
much brush so the horses were able to walk easily into the forest.
We stopped about a mile from the road at a spot just wide enough
for our horses and us to sleep. I dismounted and grabbed the small
water skin off of Favian’s pack to fill with water. “What are you
doing?” he asked.

I looked at the water skin and then at him.
“Getting water obviously. I can hear a stream nearby.”

“You can’t go off alone,” he said
adamantly.

I glared at him. “I can protect myself,
Favian. I have been going off in the forest alone since I was
six.”

“Someone tried to kidnap you, Marin. It’s not
safe for you to wander off alone.”

I thrust the water skin at him angrily. “Then
you go get water while I unsaddle the horses.” He clenched his jaw,
but walked in the direction of the stream. Elves could be so
stubborn sometimes that it was infuriating. I removed Fire’s bridle
and saddle and she shook all over, shaking dust from her coat. Ice
nudged my shoulder, impatient to be unsaddled as well. “Easy boy.
I’m working on it.” I set Fire’s stuff on one side of the clearing
and then unbridled and unsaddled Ice and set his stuff on the other
side. “You two be nice and don’t wander too far. And Fire, don’t
bite your brother anymore. Favian gets upset at me when he finds
the teeth marks in Ice’s coat.”

Fire bobbed her head and then she and Ice
trotted off into the forest in search of drink and food for
themselves. The horses couldn’t truly understand me, but they were
trained extremely well and understood us better than most horses
did. Elves were animal gurus and could train them to do just about
anything. Favian and I had raised them since they were born and
trained them together. Irritably Ice was better trained than Fire,
but I still loved her. The main thing they were trained to do in
these situations was not to wander too far and to come galloping at
our call.

I made sure the clearing was empty of rocks
and then shook out my bedroll and laid on it a moment to ensure it
was comfortable. I opened the food pack on Favian’s saddle to see
what the chef had given us, keeping my fingers crossed for
something good. Sadly there was no meat since the Elves were
herbivores so I was stuck with bread and leaves from plants which
were supposed to be highly nutritious. I dug deeper and was excited
to find a piece of berry cake, but left it in the bag, not wanting
to eat it if it was for Favian only.

I sat on top of my bedroll chewing on the
bread when Favian made it back. “Still in one piece,” I told him
sarcastically. He didn’t look like he thought it was funny and
simply tossed me the water skin. I took a swig from it and then
tossed him back the half of the bread I didn’t eat. Elven food was
fortified with special ingredients which made it very filling and
healthy so you could survive a long time on a little bit of food.
“Good night,” I said as I climbed into my bedroll.

“I accidentally dropped the necklace in the
river,” he said around his mouthfuls. “It was swept away too fast
for me to grab.”

“Tragic,” I said.

“Can you help me tie yours back on?” he
asked.

He could tie the necklace himself, but he was
trying to make amends. It wasn’t fair of me to be mean to him so I
opened my bedroll and sat on my bent legs. He walked over to me and
then sat down just in front of me, facing me. I took the necklace
from his hand and put it around his neck, trying to ignore the
closeness of our faces and the scent of his body.

I hadn’t realized how upset I was until I
tried to tie the necklace and couldn’t because my hands were
shaking too much. I tried again to tie it and dropped it. “Dammit,”
I said angrily. I reached down to pick it up, but he grabbed my
hands and held them inside of his.

“Everything’s going to be alright. I won’t
let them take you,” he said seriously. I was avoiding looking at
his eyes, but he tilted his head sideways and down so he could look
at my face. “I’m going to protect you like I promised to twelve
years ago. You don’t have to be scared.”

I jerked my hands away from his and quickly
tied the necklace around his neck. “I’m not scared. And I don’t
need your protection.”

He ignored me and went to his bedroll to
finish eating. “I hope Macon isn’t too angry. Maybe we’ll get out
of it because of what happened.”

“Good night,” I said as I wrapped myself up
in my bedroll again, choosing to ignore his attempt at
conversation.

“Good night,” he said softly.

I knew I should have been nicer, but he’d
made me mad by his niceness. Even as crazy as it was to be mad that
he was nice, I was. He should have kept that comment to himself
instead of telling me. I knew he would protect me because he always
did. He took his word seriously and when he vowed to protect me
back then he hadn’t broken it since.

For once I really hoped he would keep his
word and even though I said I didn’t need his protection, I truly
wanted it.

I relaxed and prayed that tomorrow would be
uneventful and we would make it to school easily. As the time
passed I didn’t think I’d be able to fall asleep, but then Favian
moved his bedroll closer to mine and with his reassuring presence
so close, I fell asleep to the sound of the nocturnal creatures
stirring and the crickets chirping.

~~~~

CHAPTER THREE