Chapter 3
The pair rushed out of the tent, hurriedly taking cover from the oncoming arrows. Everywhere, Suud were falling, from enemy archers and swordsmen.
Who? Soraya wondered, enraged. Who would do such a thing?! She moved to help a little boy calling for his mama, but Kavi yanked her back behind the tent. "Don't risk yourself," he mouthed, earning himself an icy glare. "You can help them later."
They soon found who was behind all the pandemonium. Shir, in his bright silks and jewelry, lounged on a rock, surveying the scene of death before him. This time it was Kavi who leaped out of their hiding place and at the bandit-king.
"What d'ya think you're doing?!" he yelled. "You're butchering innocent people!"
Shir smiled dangerously. "Just the person I was looking for. Though where's your girlie? She run off with some other non crippled man?"
Kavi, blinked, stunned. What?
Soraya, sensing trouble, went to them. "What. Are. You. Doing?" she spat, icy rage in every word.
Shir was unimpressed. "That's what loverboy here asked. What does it look like I'm doing? Oh, don't answer," he said, taking a look at her face, twisted in fury. "I've come to get some medicine for my sister-" he gestured toward a 10-year-old sitting on the rock beside him- "for the swamp fever. She hasn't got long to live, you know." His face changed, and Kavi caught a flash of fury in his eyes before the bandit composed himself. "Seems I recall someone offering to aid us?"
Oops, Soraya thought. I forgot. And this is what he does to my friends! She began to make a scathing remark, but Kavi beat her to it.
"So? We're working on it! The Suud healers are doing the best they can, but as you said, they're barbarians." He looked apologetically at Soraya, who was still glaring at the bandits. "And there's really no need to kill all of them. If you kill them, they can't help you."
Shir shook his head, looking at Kavi like a parent looks at a child who has just thrown a fit. "Oh, but the one I need is right in front of me."