32.

Luke and Kyara attempt to avoid conflict with some of the High King's men.

32.

 

 

It had been a long day of riding for Kyara and Luke as they travelled on the road that marked the border between the Earldom of Midgranne and Midwichshire.    Mountains were to the west of them and rolling foothills to the east as they travelled along at a good speed on the cobblestone road.

They were not the only travelers, for the border road was wide, smooth and straight and many wagons, caravans, horses and walkers passed by them as they hurried along.   Luke managed to buy a cloak, helmet and dagger from a travelling merchant which made him seem more like a poor militiaman heading northward to serve time as a troop for his Lord.    He still lacked armor, but hoped to buy some at the next stop for the night.

They noticed a large number of soldiers marching southward on the road.     Although they didn’t look as if they’d seen recent combat, they hurried at a somewhat urgent pace.    Some were royal soldiers, but most were troops from the various baronies, duchies and earldoms that had been sent north to assist in the King’s long war with the Yehsaelie around the fringes of the dark northern woods.

Luke and Kyara kept as low key as they could, with their heads down and their cloaks’ hoods covering their faces.

The traffic increased by late afternoon and they were worried that there would be no place for them to stay the night when they reached the village of Trollia.

Luke drew in near to Kyara as the village appeared in the distance, “This heavy traffic concerns me.    Something is going on, for there should not be this many troops moving south.”

“What do you think is the reason?”   She asked him.

“I can’t imagine Reddric abandoning the war with the Yehsaelie and I’m certain they weren’t forced this far south by them, for the Yehsaelie won’t leave the forest.    So something new has transpired.”

“A coup, perhaps?”

“That would be possible, but they aren’t marching as fast as I would expect if the High King was in grave danger.”

“Maybe if we keep our ears open, we’ll hear some news at the inn.”

“Yes, but we’d have to mingle with everyone and that is risky for us.   Those soldiers have been battling elves of the forest for months, so they won’t be too happy to see us.”

“If they think we’re just humans they might tell us something.”

Luke just shook his head, “It’s dangerous, Yara.    Let’s get settled, then we’ll see.”

The village of Trollia was far more crowded than either of them had imagined.   The two inns were filled to capacity and even the tavern area was packed, leaving them no option but to join many others camping out in a large field on the edge of town.

Even the field was buzzing with perhaps a hundred people, but Kyara and Luke weaved through them and found a spot next to the boundary fence on the north side of the lot.

Only twenty feet or so separated them from their neighboring campers, but they had no alternative, so tying their weary horses to the fence post, they prepared to camp as inconspicuously as possible.

The evening was somewhat cold and damp and though the village had generously provided a large pile of firewood for the campers in the field to use, the wood was green.

Luke struggled for fifteen minutes to get a smoky fire going and as he and Kyara sat in front of it warming up, he noticed the men at a nearby campfire staring at them.

Luke tried not to glance directly at them, but would dare a look whenever he could conceal it with another action such as stiring up the fire.

They were burly soldiers from their armor and horses and he began to wonder if perhaps he had seen them before.  

“Who are they?”  Kyara asked in a whisper while they ate some cold rations.

“I don’t know for sure, but I think they may be some of Reddric’s men that captured and tortured me.”

“Oh, Luke!”

“Shh, don’t look alarmed,” He replied in a low voice, “Keep your mail coif on.    They may just be suspicious that we don’t quite look like human soldiers, but we don’t want to give them any more clues.”

A few minutes went by and Luke could sense they were still being scrutinized.   He decided it was a good time to sharpen his sword and Kyara took his lead and also drew her weapon to care for it. 

The men at the next camp were speaking softly but Luke could tell that they were discussing them.   He unfastened the strap on his dagger so it could be drawn quickly.

“I’m afraid we might have to flee quickly,” He told Kyara, “Can you ride a horse without a saddle?”

“I think so,” She replied, seeming a bit scared.

“Ride north if we have to and don’t slow up until we are far clear of the town.   Hopefully it won’t come to that, but…”  He trailed off as movement from the camp next to them made them look up.

 

To his dismay, the six men were coming over toward them.

“Luke!”  Kyara whispered and he patted her arm reassuringly.

“Hey!”  One of the soldiers said as they approached, “Hey you two - look at me when I’m talkin’ to you!”

Kyara stood up, her hand close to the hilt of her sword.   Luke just glanced up as if only mildly annoyed at the curt man’s orders.

“What can we do for you?”   He asked calmly.

Instead of answering, the first man approached Luke, peering through the darkness to try to get a better look at him.    He still wore his recently purchased helmet and had his cloak’s hood pulled up.   The chill of the evening could justify this, but clearly the soldier was determined to learn who he was.

Luke turned his back on the man as he neared, sitting his sword on the ground as he stirred up the coals of the fire.

“Don’t turn your back on me, damn you!   I know who you are!   You’re that damned elven knight whose balls we cut off!    Turn around here, boy, and let me see!   What the hell are you doing here, eunuch?   You ought to be pickin’ daisies somewhere!    You aint got no business takin’ up arms again.   Looks like we’ll have to teach you another lesson.   It is you, ain’t it?   I said turn around, damnit!”

He grabbed Luke’s shoulder and roughly spun him around.   Suddenly Luke thrust a burning log into the man’s face.   The soldier screamed and fell backwards to the ground, knocking over one of his companions.     Luke was on top of the second soldier in a moment, his dagger slashing savagely across the man’s neck, cutting through a thick piece of leather and severing his vein.    Before this man could even fall to the ground, Luke had flung the dagger into the right eye of the soldier behind him.

The remaining three men were stunned by the ferocity and speed of Luke’s attack and they stumbled backwards, fumbling to draw their weapons.

For a moment they had forgot Kyara and she attacked from the side, chopping deeply into one of the men’s shoulders with her sword.

“Help!   Help!”  The other two were screaming to everyone around them.

Luke had snatched up one of the fallen soldiers’ maces and lunged at the retreating men.    They tried to run but stumbled over each other.    Luke brought the mace down savagely on the head of the yelling man, crushing his nose and face with the first blow and killing him with the second one.

The last soldier had his sword out and was wildly slashing, hoping the desperate strokes would keep Luke and Kyara at bay long enough for others in the crowded camp to come to his aid.

But in the darkness, mixed with flickering firelight and a multitude of bodies and horses spread all through the field, the other campers did not know at first what exactly was going on or what direction the conflict was coming from.    So for a few moments they just jumped to their feet and listened, trying to get bearings of the direction where the fight was occurring.

Luke wasted no time with the downed man and showed no mercy, for he knew now that all these men were part of the throng of Reddric’s men that had tortured and mutilated him.

It took him only a moment to parry the terrified man’s sword and then bring the mace down hard into his gut.   Though he wore chainmail, it offered no defense against blunt force.   He doubled over in pain, but Luke ended his suffering with three fierce blows to his skull.

People were yelling now and running around, trying to find what was going on.    A handful of men, weapons in hand were running toward him, unsure what had happened, but seeing men scattered on the ground.

“What the Hell is going on?”   One yelled to him.

Luke took a chance and pointed across the fence that bordered the lot where the camp was, toward the large copse of trees behind it.

“Bandits!”  He replied, “They crept out of there and were trying to cut the reins on the horses.    My buddies saw them but they attacked them - there must have been a dozen of them!    They just fled back into the trees!”

“Come on, we’ll flush them out!”  One of the men yelled at Luke.

“Let me get a torch; I’ll be right behind you.   They went straight through there!   Hurry, but be careful, they aren’t afraid of killing!”

The men ran past him toward the fence, and several others joined them.

Luke ran back to their campfire and found that Kyara had already thrown their stuff across the back of her horse and was mounted.

“Come on!”  She anxiously encouraged him, hoping to escape in the confusion.     Two of the six men were still alive, though badly injured, but Luke went to one of the corpses and dragged him quickly over to his horse.

“What are you doing?!   Are you insane?”  Kyara asked in a loud whisper, nearly in a panic.

He didn’t pause to reply.    Fueled by adrenaline, he managed to lift the dead body and slump him over the neck of his horse.

“Luke, for God’s sake what-“

“Shh!”  He replied, bolting onto the horse, behind the dead soldier’s body, “Trust me.”

He put his spurs to the horse and it galloped through the camp, causing multiple people to jump out of his way.   Kyara raced behind him on her horse, using one hand to keep hold of their supplies.

“Look out!”  Luke shouted loudly as they rushed forward, “Move aside; my buddy is seriously hurt; I’ve got to get him to a healer!”

Several voices yelled out that they had healing magic, but they ignored them and raced out onto the road, then down the lane to the north.    The town rushed by as they rode in the dark, but thankfully there was enough light from the houses (especially since many were coming to their doors to see what the commotion was all about) for them to see.    

Though he hated to strain their tired steeds, Luke kept them at a gallop until they had gone several miles out of the village.

“Luke!   It’s too dangerous to travel this fast at night!”  Kyara called ahead to him after enduring several minutes of racing through the darkness.

“Alright,” He replied, reining in the horse to a walk, which Kyara followed suit.

“We need to find a barn or an abandoned house - somewhere to hide for the rest of the night,” He told her and as if in answer to this, they both dimly saw a large barn standing on top of a small hill in the middle of a fenced field to the north of the road.     It was one of many largely spread out farms and this barn was quite isolated.

“Will that work?”  Kyara asked.

“Let’s see,”   Luke replied and he got off his horse and took the wood fence apart enough for them to cross over into the field, then put the railing back in place.

“Why would there be a barn out in the middle of a field like this?”  Kyara asked as they rode up to it.

“It’s probably a grain storage barn - they use it at harvest time to store grain that has been reaped, and then bring carts to take it back to the main barn.    Large farms sometimes have auxiliary barns around their land to save time during reaping.    This one may be full of grain; let’s just hope there aren’t any workers sleeping in it as well.”

Cautiously they approached it, listening for any sounds, but aside from the soft scurrying of mice and little animals, it was quiet.

Fortune smiled on them; for it wasn’t locked and though it was full of wheat that had been harvested only days before, there was enough room for their horses.    A wagon, loaded down with hay was also in the barn and Luke and Kyara climbed into it to bed down for the evening.

“It’s several hours until midnight,” He told her as he sat down.

“What about that dead soldier that you brought with you?”

“Oh!   I forgot about him!”   Luke jumped up and climbed out of the wagon, then dragged the body off the side of his horse to plop rudely onto the floor.

Even in the darkness, Kyara knew it was the soldier that she had killed with a chop to his shoulder.

“I took him along to strip him of his gear; we’ll need it.”

“How macabre, Luke!”

“Sorry, but we’re in a desperate situation.”

“Did you actually know these men?”

“They were some of the ones who tortured me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, quite sure.”

“Luke…”  She hesitated, unsure what to say.

“You’re thinking that I was rather cruel to them, don’t you?”

It was exactly what she was thinking, for he had been almost like an animal when he attacked them.    It had scared her somewhat, though she knew he was justified since they had tortured him.   Still, his aggression was unsettling to her.

“I’m sorry, Luke; I just never saw you like that.”

“I never saw me like that either, Yara.    I lost control for a while there and that was very foolish.   I jeopardized your safety.   But rage just overcame me for a time.”   As he talked, he stripped the dead man of his sword belt, money pouch and riding boots.    Then he began unlacing the man’s leather armor.   

He wore a piece of hardened, fitted leather shaped to fit his torso, connected by straps and some laces.    Kyara’s sword had nearly cut one of the shoulder straps in two and he had bled out onto the armor, but still Luke took it.

“I can repair the strap and clean off the blood in a river.”

“Good Lord, Luke!”  Kyara exclaimed in disgust.

“I’ll be alright.  It will save us money too.   I figure he owes me this after he took something more personal of mine.”

“Well, okay, but I don’t want to sleep with a dead body in here!”

“Fair enough; wait here, I’ll be right back,” He lifted up the dead man and with some effort, once again placed him over the back of his horse.

“What are you going to do with him?”  Kyara asked.

“I’ll tell you in a few minutes.   I’ll be right back.”

“Luke-“

“I’ll be back in a few minutes, don’t worry.”

“Don’t worry, he says!”

Luke took his horse by the reins and walked him out of the barn.   Kyara listened to their footfalls for a few minutes until they grew too faint.   She was becoming alarmed when suddenly she heard a very distant splash.    Anxiously she waited, greatly relieved when Luke returned after nearly a quarter of an hour.

“That was more than a few minutes!”

“I had a bit of trouble.”

“What did you do with him?   I heard a spash.”

“There is a stock pond between two fields a little distance from here.    Probably for their cattle or sheep.   I just tossed him into that after I stuffed some rocks into his pants and undershirt.   He sunk well enough though I’m sure they’ll find him tomorrow morning, but he’ll not stink us out of here tonight.”

“Yesh have mercy!   What has become of us?”   Kyara groaned.

“It is brutal but necessary.   They knew who I was back there and there was no way around it.     I didn’t enjoy killing them.”

Kyara glanced at him, “Are you sure about that, Luke?    You seemed to, as you were doing it.”

Luke frowned, “No, Kyara, I was overcome with rage.    I snapped, so to speak.    Blind rage does that, but it has passed now.   All that accomplished was to create more problems for us.    I’m not proud of myself.   In fact, I feel as if I want to throw up.    But what is done is done.   I don’t expect you to really understand.   Hopefully you won’t think too poorly of me for how I acted back there.”  He slid down beside her on the wagon, his shoulders sagging with weariness.

Kyara touched his forearm, “Luke, I don’t think poorly of you!   I just don’t want anger to take control of someone that I…um…care for.”

She blushed in awkwardness, but Luke didn’t say anything and instead just sadly smiled at her.

“Thanks, Yara, you’ve been extremely kind to me.”

“Me?   I’ve not done anything.”

“You came after me when it seemed as if I was dead, instead of heading on north…as I told you to do!”

Again she blushed, looking down at her hands and she jumped slightly when he leaned over and took her hand in his.

“I can’t ever repay you for your loyalty, but I promise my loyalty to you for the rest of my life.”

She looked up with such a startled expression on her face that Luke feared for an instant that he’d said something foolish or outlandish.    They just looked at each other for a long moment until finally Luke had to ask.

“Did I say something wrong?”

To his surprise, she began tearing up while shaking her head.   

“Yara, what is it?   What’s the matter?”

“Nothing!” She replied a bit too quickly, sniffling and nervously laughing at the same time.

“Well something is bothering you!”

“Nothing’s wrong, Luke; I’m just a bit emotional tonight.”

“But why, Yara?”

“I’m a woman, Luke; I don’t have to have a reason!   Now will you please just drop it?”

“Okay, sorry!”   He let go of her hand and slid back down into the hay in the wagon, groaning from his sore muscles.

Kyara sat for a minute, regaining her composure and then, almost hesitantly, she slid down next to him.

“I just hope they don’t mount a big search for us.   Hopefully the darkness and chaos will throw them off from a focused search.    We’ll have to get up before dawn tomorrow, as farm families rise early and we don’t want them finding the body in the stock pond before we’re far away.”

“I wish this whole mess was all over,”   Kyara sighed deeply, closing her eyes as if trying to envision a better place or time.

“So what would you be doing right now if all of this wasn’t happening and your father’s kingdom was intact?”  

She opened her eyes, “Oh, if only that could be!”

“So what would you be doing?”   He repeated his question while resting his head in his hands.

Kyara grinned slightly and blushed, but did not respond, which only piqued his curiosity.  

“Come on, tell me!” 

She blushed deeper and wouldn’t look at him.    It was extremely charming to see her like this, even though he knew it was just a brief moment.

“Luke…come on…”

“Tell me, Yara!”

“No…”

“Come on, it can’t be that embarrassing, can it?   What would you be doing?   You know I’m going to keep asking you until you tell me!”

“Honestly?”

“Yes!”

“I’d probably be… flirting with you.   Trying to get you to notice me…”   She hid her face after admitting this, praying he’d not tease or torment her about it.

“Well, you’d definitely succeed, for I had already noticed you some time ago,Yara.    But you were still rather young, and then all this madness transpired.     Trust me; you’d have me wrapped around your little finger by now and about a dozen other knights and noblemen’s sons as well!”

“Really?”  She asked meekly, which amazed him.   Didn’t she know how beautiful she was?

“Really,”  He replied, staring in her eyes for a lingering moment.   Then she broke his stare and pulled her cloak out from under her so she could use it as a blanket.

“We’d better get some sleep so we can get up early tomorrow.”

“Yeah, you’re right.   Are you warm enough?”  He asked.

“As long as you stay close by so I can borrow some of your body heat, I will be.”

“One good thing about what happened tonight - our accommodations are better.    Hay is better than cold damp ground.”

“It’s quieter too.”

“Good night, Yara, pleasant dreams,”

She jumped slightly at his words, wondering for a moment if somehow he might have known about her dreams.   But it was a common saying, so she relaxed again and finally replied, “Goodnight, Luke.”

They laid there wrapped up in their cloaks, neither one able to get to sleep for a long time.     Thunder began sounding in the distance and a while later a storm moved overhead.      With a loud clap of thunder that slightly startled their horses, the rain began to fall so hard that it roared.    The old barn began to drip in a few places, though thankfully none fell on them.   But the air grew very chilled.

Kyara shivered, trying not to move in hopes of preserving heat, but she felt miserable.    Suddenly another layer of cloth was thrown over her and she felt Luke curl up behind her, wrapping his arms tightly around her.    His touch made her tingle all over but neither one of them said a word as they were merely trying to stay warm in the damp barn.

She took his hand in hers and leaned back against him, feeling the warmth of his breath on her neck.   Her heart beat wildly though she hoped he’d think it was apprehension over the thunderstorm.

She relished in his nearness for a long time, until, listening to the driving rain, she fell into a blissful sleep, cradled in his arms.