Don't mess with an angry mother with a sword...doesn't go well.
Kad had faced death before. Seen it too. Many times.
She never got used to it.
The night air was cool against her skin. The grass she ran in shot back into their holes as she rushed past. Her breathing was rushed and her mind was blurred. Behind her she could hear hoof beats, pounding, getting closer and closer. Kad pushed herself harder, even though she knew there was no point.
There was no way an eight year old girl could outrun a horse.
The sound got louder, she could hear the horse's breathing. Something suddenly whisked over her head, grazing the hair on her head. Kad threw herself to the ground. That was metal that grazed her. She looked up at the dark cloaked figure as he turned his horse around. A glistening sword held in his hand. He then threw himself from the saddle and came charging for her. Kad scrambled to her feet and ran back the way she came. The man was too quick though.
His hand reached out and grabbed her hair, ripping her back to a halt. She screamed before feeling the cold steel of the sword against her neck.
"Got you." He breathed, Kad reached down and grabbed her knife from her belt. She then drove it in the assassin's leg, plunging the blade through skin and muscle, scraping bone.
The man screamed and Kad managed to wriggle free. She scrambled through the grass that shied back at her presence.
"You dirty little bastard mongrel!" the man snapped and suddenly grabbed her arm. Kad looked back at the sword still held in his hand, preparing to tear her apart. Her eyes grew wide until footsteps came up from behind the man.
"GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!" A woman screamed.
Kad watched from the one blue eye that she could still see out of as another sword was brought up over the assassin's head. The man released Kad as a Azish woman sliced his head free from his shoulders. He didn't even have time to scream.
The corpse dropped to the ground as the head went rolling off to the side. Kad looked up at the woman with dark skin and eyes. She wore a simple tunic and trousers with her jet black hair hanging loosely from her shoulders.
Ren looked down at the body and then to Kad. She dropped her sword and then swooped up Kad in her arms. Kad didn't care about the fresh blood on her mother's hands.
She was safe.
Ren went to her knees as she cradled her daughter in her arms. Pressing her face into the curly, matted black hair on Kad's head.
That had been a close call.
And it wasn't the first time she had nearly lost her daughter to death's hands.
Ren pulled away from their embrace and cupped Kad's face in her bloody hands. She studied her face, staring into her eyes.
Kad's right eye, that had once been brown, was now grey and sightless with a large scar running over it from where a sword had grazed her before.
"Are you hurt?" she murmured, Kad shook her head, feeling the warm red liquid cake her cheeks.
Ren looked around and then back to the body in the grass. She yanked Kad's knife from his leg and wiped the blade on her trousers.
"We need to leave." she said, handing back the knife that Kad sheathed at her belt. She took her mother's hand after she had picked up her sword and they walked to the horse in the distance.
Ren grabbed the beast's reins and talked softly to it to calm it. She climbed into the saddle and then rode up beside Kad. Kad was lifted up and placed in front of Ren. They rode away from the dead assassin in the grass that was now starting to emerge from their holes. Kad turned her head to look back but Ren placed a gentle bloody hand on her cheek and turned her head away from the corpse.
"Don't look back, only look forward." she whispered gently.
"Why are they trying to kill me Ma?" Kad whimpered, looking up at her mother's elegant, beautiful face that had speckles of red blood on her cheeks and forehead. Ren set her jaw, her gaze turned cold and she didn't meet Kad's eyes.
She never answered that question.
No matter how often she asked.
But that day was different.
"He's looking for you." she answered darkly. Kad felt her blood go cold at her words.
Kad knew who he was.
The man who created her.
The man who took advantage of her mother and spawned her.
"Why? I'm no threat to him. I'm a girl, Alethi girls can't become highprinces or powerful leaders…" Kad replied, Ren looked down at her and ran her fingers through the tangled mess of hair on her head.
"He's afraid of your mind...ever since you were born I knew you were special. You could speak clearly before other children, you could run while others were walking...somehow he knows of your intelligence...and he's afraid of what you will do." she said, Kad thought about that for a moment.
"Ma? What will we do? We can't keep running forever…"
"Your right...and I don't know…" Ren replied.
"What if...we find other people? People who would protect us?"
Ren set her jaw. She didn't really like other people. They thought she was cold and heartless but Ren thought of other people as greedy and selfish.
Especially Alethi.
"Could we go see Urithiru?" Kad finally asked, changing the subject. Ren gave her a small smile.
"Someday." she said fondly, Kad smiled and nestled herself close to her mother. The sun was rising in the horizon as they rode down the path. Ren hummed a small tune as Kad's eyes closed. It had been a long nightmare that Kad would wake up from by drifting off to sleep.