Chapter Six
TRICK OF THE MIND:
Once in the courtyard, Sam stopped beside a cart filled with hay. She grabbed the wood with both hands and gulped in a large breath of air. Angus, who had been walking behind, partly for his own betterment, noticed her stopping. He watched her avidly though did not speak. Her short hair fell in front of her face. He watched her wings flap hard and had to jump away from one of the wings as it came thrashing down.
Sam breathed heavily. She yelped in pain. Immediately, the other two knights stopped and turned around to find her and Angus had fallen behind. Rohan and Ivar ran over and stopped just short of a wing snapping in front of them. She knew they were all there, gawking at her. "Oh, it's nothing. I'm just trying to put them back in." She yelped again and gripped the wood harder. "Fine, I'm fine," she gasped.
Angus frowned. "Are…you sure you're all right?"
Sam couldn't talk. She nodded furiously yet on the inside she was screaming. Her wings would not fit in properly. She sucked in air and held her breath, hearing the blood sing in her ears as she pushed with all her muscles to bring them back in. Slowly, painfully, her wings folded into her back. There was no trace of the wings ever being there at all except for the one thin, red line starting at the base of her neck and touching just below her ribcage.
Angus peered at that line and shuddered. He had never seen the small of a woman's back so clearly before. The women he had bedded were modest and rested on their backs. It was neither fun nor sexy for him to be totally in control all the time, though. This woman was dominating and it scared him just a little. He shook himself and realized that they had already begun to walk towards the gates. Sam had put her vest back on and sealed herself up. Angus walked up to her and they walked behind Rohan and Ivar out of the castle grounds.
For the most part, their walk was in complete silence, with the occasional birdcall or howl from another animal. They had taken another route away from the now-empty village, a path that seemed to stretch for miles into the distance. They were away from the forests and open to the sky. Sam kept glancing up and around her, occasionally sensing shadows whizzing by.
Angus noticed this odd behavior and said, "What are you looking for?"
She snapped to attention. "What? Oh, it's nothing. Well, it is," she laughed briefly. "Sentinels, when they don't want to appear in public view, they cloak themselves. When people say that they thought they had seen a shadow move in front of their eyes, it's a sentinel. Or…it could just be the mind experiencing some form of matrix and the latter is usually the case."
"What's matrix mean?" asked Angus.
"It's basically 'trick of the mind.' This type of natural occurrence usually happens to those who want to see something and force an image that may or may not be there…like when you look up at the clouds. What do you see?"
Angus pointed to himself. "Me? What do I see? I don't know." He glanced up and found a puffy cloud pulling apart and breaking away from one larger cloud. The sky appeared sharp blue behind it. "I think…I see a warrior…yeah, a warrior with a shield and he's fighting a dragon."
"You're not talking about me, are you Angus?" asked Rohan ahead of them.
Sam smiled. "He's just proving a point I'm making about the mind playing tricks on the brain."
"In that case," said Rohan. "You've got the perfect subject."
Angus rolled his eyes.
Sam tilted her head. "So what's your story?"
"Hm?" he said. "Oh, well, I already told you."
She pursed her lips. "No, I meant what's your real story, beyond what those ancient scrolls say? Who's the real Angus?"
He could see that she was trying to contain her laughter. "Knock it off," he grumbled.
"No, I'm serious," she said, punching his arm. "I want to know. You're a thief…oh, excuse me, former thief," she added after seeing his glance. "C'mon. Tell me."
"Why?" he shrugged.
"Humor me." She leaned in closer so that only he could hear. "Between us, we're more alike than you think."
He turned his head to look straight at her. He blinked. "Did you hit your head when you were a baby?"
She threw back her head and laughed. "No. I sprouted wings. Look, I was generous enough to tell you about me."
"I don't trust you."
"Point taken. But answer me this: if you don't trust me, why are you walking beside me instead of following me like you were at the castle?"
Angus turned away from her. He didn't know why he was walking beside her. It didn't happen on purpose. He shrugged. "Don't know."
"Could it be, perhaps, that you wanted me to give away some bit of information that would tell you I was a liar?"
He breathed. "Yeah, something like that."
She smiled. "I love irony." He frowned. "You're a thief and you criticize me of lying."
"Like I said," Rohan said over his back, "Don't pay him any heed."
"I always find that the more complex the character, the better the person," she said.
"Don't flatter me," said Angus.
"Oh, trust me," she said. "I wasn't." 'What am I doing?' she asked herself.
They didn't talk for several minutes. When they did, Angus was first to speak. He said, "Did you know that Rohan and I have been friends since we were kids?"
"That's quite a long time. You must know each other well."
"Painfully well, you might say." He suddenly reached into his pocket and pulled out a shiny, gold coin. He showed it to Sam, who glanced at it and nodded. "It's my lucky coin."
"Every one's got something they believe in," she said.
"Do you?" he asked.
She looked him in the eyes. "No."
Angus blinked, unsettled.
For the rest of the walk, they talked. He took most of the trip referring to his childhood and his past experiences with thievery. There were tales that made Sam laugh hard, a sound Angus liked to hear when he told a joke or two. He was relieved of the fact that she refrained from criticizing him. Instead, she listened. Of course, Rohan and Ivar were there to fill in the gaps when Angus purposefully avoided a certain point in the story.
"I've got a joke," said Sam after their laughter had died down.
"Oh yeah," said Angus, raising a brow. "Let me tell you right now there's not a man nor woman can best me with a joke so funny, it causes men to fall off their chairs and women to cry."
"Thanks for the warning," she smiled.
"Well," he said. "Go on with it."
"Very well. A man at a local bar has knocked back a few since he walked in a little over an hour ago. Feeling lucky, he wants to make a bet with the bartender for ten gold coins. So, very inebriated, he calls over the bartender and 'outlines' his plan. The bartender, finishing his water, humors the drunk man and says with a smile, 'All right, what're we bettin' for?'
The man thinks for a minute (which to the bartender is an eternity) but has no idea. The bartender, thinking he can get easy money off of this guy, says, 'How 'bout this? I'll give you twenty gold coins if you can complete three tasks for me. You up for it?'
'Hell yes I am," the drunk man says. "What is it I've gotta do?'
'Well,' the bartender says, scratching his chin. 'You see that big, husky lookin' fella over there? He's my guardsman. You're first task will be to knock him out. Next, downstairs I've got my big, black dog tied up. Now, he's normally a good pet 'cept as of late he's been in lots of pain and he's been quite mean. For your second task, you've gotta yank out his bad tooth.'
'All right," says the drunk. "What's the last task?'
'Lastly, you've gotta make love to my grandmother, who's upstairs in her room."
At this point, Angus had chuckled.
" 'You've gotta make her reach climax three times.' The bartender holds up his fingers for the drunken man to see.
'Very well,' the drunken man says and shakes the bartender's hand.
As soon as he finished his drink, the drunken man takes his mug, chucks it at the guardsman's head and the guardsman falls to the floor, cold unconscious. Then, the drunken man stumbles off his stool, runs across the bar, whips open the door and stumbles down the stairs. At first, there's a lot of growling and yelling and this goes on for a good ten minutes. And then, suddenly, everything's quiet. A minute later, there's a thumping and then everyone in the bar sees the drunken man limping up the stairs, his face is bloody and he's got scratches all over his body. He limps into the bar, stops, turns to the bartender and says, 'Ok. Where's the old lady with the bad tooth?'"
For a minute, all was still. They had all stopped at a fork in the road and were breaking to listen to her story. Suddenly, Angus broke out laughing, doubling over and holding his gut. Rohan and Ivar joined in and Sam watched with amusement. She adjusted her hair and dusted off her vest and said, "Well, how d'you like them apples?"
Angus held up a finger and couldn't speak. When he could, he was grinning broadly and jovial, all tension wiped away from his face. "You," he breathed, "have just won my trust."
Her smile faded. His qualifications for trusting a person were quite dull.
"I never thought I'd hear such words from a lady," said Ivar.
"I'm no lady, either," she said.
Angus glared at her, raising his brow, almost as if to say, 'can you prove it otherwise?'
She smiled. "I'm a warrior."
