"Merric!"
Mairi screamed his name, her voice cracking under the sheer, shrill shriek. Merric glanced over his shoulder just in time to watch the chestnut trip and start to fall. The mare threw out her forelegs in a desperate attempt to stay afoot, but the man saw the arrow jutting out of the horse's shoulder, fallen from the sky its self. The mare's legs crumpled underneath her, folding together as the horse plummeted to the ground. The mare's neck curled forward as their tremendous momentum carried the horse into a horrific roll.
How truly awful it is when horses go tumbling down. There is something so graceful and beautiful about them. Especially Lassie. The mare always looked so lithe, so delicately elegant, as though every muscle remained constantly primed for action. Even at a standstill, her ears pricked to the distant birds, the chestnut looked like she was in motion. Watching any horse, but especially one like Lassie go down seemed so much more terrible. Merric's eyes locked on those slender, thrashing copper legs of the mare as Mairi disappeared beneath the horse's massive body.
"MAIRI!"
Merric spun his mount around, kicking the dun sharply around the ribcage, bearing down upon the chestnut mare as she thrust out a foreleg before her. Mairi lay slumped over the mare's withers, as the horse tried to climb back to her feet. Lassie's legs folded up beneath her again.
Merric's eyes went past the fallen horse, to the riders bearing down upon them. They wore tattered furs and cloth. Red marks were painted across their horses. Swirling Speyerals Triskellians curled over the shoulders and hindquarters of the swiftly approaching horses. They carried long bows, curling horn from some strange elk. Their crimson banners wavered in the wind. His eyes went wide.
"Praetori!" The man called it out, more of a warning to Mairi.
The girl finally moved, glancing over her shoulder to their looming doom. The Praetori. Ally of the enemy. Enemy of all the Iceni. The Praetori were mercenaries, blood-thirsty warriors for hire. They would stop at nothing until their quarry was dead. And, right now, it seemed like Merric and Mairi were their prey.
Merric brought his mount up alongside the fallen mare, not stopping for anything. His hand shot out, grabbing at Mairi's pale, thin wrist and hauled her up, off the ground. In one, sudden motion, the man threw his companion back by her wrist, wrenching it sharply. Mairi screamed out, but landed on the dun's bare back just behind Merric. With his other hand and his legs, Merric guided his mount around in a grand, sweeping circle, turning back around, away from the Praetori. Mairi threw her body again his, snaking her arms around Merric's waist and holding tight.
They flew off, but the Praetori were closing in.
xxxx
He looked so peaceful.
Amon had drifted back into slumber sometime not too far in the beginning of Nycole's tale. The empath had kept speaking, waiting until she was absolutely sure Amon was completely out before stopping. Then, softly, silently. Nycole rose and left, for but a moment. The girl's stiff muscles thanked her as the telepath stole out of the room, easing the door shut behind her.
In the other room, Geoff jumped awake; Raven glanced up from his work. Nycole put a finger to her lips, warning them of Amon's sleeping. Geoff gave a slight nod and gestured for her to join them at the table.
Raven leaned closer into his work, grinding down herbs with a makeshift mortar and pestle. Nycole silently pondered what exactly the runemal was up to, but she knew better than to ask and have to sit through some long and drawn out herbalist explanation. Kristo always liked to toy with alchemy, but the soft-spoken warrior always had more cut-and-dry, one word answers when Nycole questioned his actions. With Raven, some days, it was best left to just wait and see the results.
He added some sort of oil to the mix; Nycole wrinkled her nose. "Stinky."
"Yeah…." Raven didn't really have any defense.
Geoff lit a cigarette, taking a long, hard drag, feeling the smoke sweetly move on his palette. "How is he?"
Nycole sighed, shrugging deeply. "Eh. Not good, at best. Looks like he's probably got some sort of an infection in his lungs. Who knows at this point?" The empath folded her arms on the table and rested her chin on her wrists, trying to ignore the stench of the mingling scent of cigarette smoke and the herbs of Raven. "He's been in and out of it. Drifting, y'know?" Nycole jerked back, away from the herbal brew as Raven added a powder with a small puff of smoke. "It's touch and go."
"I figured," the bartender noted. "Think we can move him anytime soon?"
"No."
Geoff sighed, shaking his head and leaning back in his chair. "We can't stay here forever." The long-haired man looked directly at Nycole. "This place isn't safe; we need to leave soon."
"I know…" she paused for a moment, solemnly. "I don't think he'll live through the next week, let alone a move."
"He has to," Raven piped up, without lifting his gaze from stirring the green, thick liquid in the glass bowl he'd effectively ruined by using as a mortar. "Amon's one the Thirteen. He has to survive this." The runemal tasted the mixture, made a face, and went on. "It's not a something we can allow."
"What's that?" Geoff finally breeched the subject.
Raven shrugged, adding another bit of powder to the brew before handing the mortar to Nycole. "Put some of this on his chest and throat." He placed a small, cloth pouch in her hands. "And this under his pillow."
"Still doesn't answer my question," the bartender snickered.
The runemal nodded, conceding. "The mixture should open up his lungs a bit, clear up whatever's stuck in there. The little baggy has some cut vervain, thyme, mugwort, a touch of dandelion from the front yard, and some whole hops."
"Where in the hell did you get hops from?" Nycole blinked, mildly startled, but slightly amused.
Raven shrugged. "Pub."
"Ah." The empath nodded while Geoff chuckled to himself. "So, what does it do?"
"Help his dreams."
xxxx
"We will never make it."
Merric's voice sounded hard, determined, as he kept on kicking his horse's sides, urging the dun on, faster and faster. They were moving fast, galloping with the wind, but that didn't seem fast enough at all. Mairi glanced over her shoulder and clenched her jaw, resisting the urge to scream a shrill shriek right into Merric's ear. The Praetori were so close, the girl could actually see the features on their faces.
The young man leaned forward, begging for more speed from the dun. "No, not doubled up like this." He bridged the reins in one hand, pulling his hunting knife from his boot. "We are too heavy."
"Merric, what are you doing?" Mairi worried.
Her brother didn't answer, exactly, as he slid from the back of his mount, landing with a roll and a scream from Mairi. "Saving your hide, sister."
xxxx
Cold.
Amon coughed from some stinking odor in his nostrils, waking up. Nycole stood over him, smoothing some sort of goo on his chest, avoiding the bruised areas and the taped, broken ribs. At first, the air burnt at his lungs. Then, it chilled, almost refreshingly so after hours of raging fever. The empath smiled at Amon, leaning close to put some of it on his throat.
Unbeknownst to Amon, Nycole slipped her hand down, tucking the sachet under his pillow, giving it a slight squeeze to let loose some of the scent of the herbs. "Sorry I woke you up."
He could barely move, but Amon could speak. "It's alright."
"What were you dreaming of?" the telepath inquired softly, before draping a blanket over Robin and returning to her chair at the side of Amon's sick bed.
"How did you know I was…?"
Nycole grinned, tapping her index finger against her temple sarcastically. "Empath/telepath, remember?"
Amon tried to nod slightly. "I was dreaming your story." His head turned slightly, looking to the crack in the curtains of the window, seeing subtle, emerald, like the color of Robin's eyes, just outside. "Mairi and Merric. I can almost picture them."
"I'd imagine." Nycole sat back. "So, do you want me to go on?"
"Of course…."
xxxx
"MERRIC!"
"Do not stop." He didn't look back. "Keep riding, Mairi. Just keeping riding."
Merric stretched out his muscles cracking his joints and gripping the handle to his hunting knife. He stood there, waiting, watching without moving at the Praetori bore down upon him. The horses drew closer, closer, thundering towards him with flashes of metal from well-shod hooves. The Praetori's steeds had all the benefits of such a wealthy financial backer, threatening to trample the single Iceni in a heartbeat, crushing him beneath thousands of pounds of horseflesh.
Merric waited.
They were almost upon him; he could smell the creatures on the wind, their sweat and even the mellow, warmth of their morning oats and hay.
"ICENI HOUND!"
Merric glared, feeling his rage at the thought of all the Praetori had done to his people, waiting, building up his own anger and pure hatred, readying to battle. And, as the leader of the Praetori bore down upon him, Merric unleashed hell. The young, Iceni man leapt up, springing on the balls of his feet and jumping towards the Praetori. His blade sliced through flesh with a gut-wrenching crunch of bone and sinew.
Blood spilt upon him, warm and disturbing, but Merric welcomed it. The Praetori had been roaming the lands of the Iceni for the last ten years. The Praetori killed his mother, his father, his grandmother. Merric and Mairi had only survived by the skin of their teeth, fleeing for lands unseen and unknown. The Praetori drove the pair, constantly hunting them down, for what reasons, he could not be sure.
The dead Praetori fell from his horse's back, Merric standing atop him.
The others swirled around gathering around the man. However, to the Iceni's horror, half of these Praetori dogs split off from the main ground, continuing down the trail of hoof prints left from Merric's abandoned steed. They were after Mairi, hunting her down even at the cost of possibly losing this Iceni warrior.
"Mairi…" he breathed.
One of the Praetori barked something at Merric in their strange tongue, the language of the enemy, something Merric couldn't understand. He didn't look up, feeling a perfectly evil grin curling across his lips. His gray eyes twinkled, sparkling with a malicious sort of luster that hadn't been seen in Merric in ages.
"I will not submit."
The world stopped, freezing in a dark pang. The hummingbird's wings seemed to even slow to nothingness. Merric hated that feeling, that sluggishly that seemed to sprawl across the world in those terrible moments of darkness, seething within himself. He shut his eyes, tight, feeling something evil and unnatural crawling up and down his spine, tickling his shoulder blades.
"Die, Praetori scum."
xxxx
"Damn you!"
Mairi swore as the Praetori drew up on the heels of Merric's dun mount. Her steed whinnied sharply, as if in its own terror. His head shot up, held high at an awkward angle, eyes rolled back to watch the quickly rushing horses of the Praetori, swooping up behind him. He balked, his mouth hanging open with a bit of slobber. His breathing sounded hard and labored, heavy.
"Merric…"
The girl squeezed harder around the dun's girth.
She was so very close. All she had to do was make it home to Dun Aengus, to the cliffside fortress and the safety of the seemingly impenetrable walls. The Praetori had oft attacked, but never entered the fortress and city. It was safe. There, she could rally the Iceni, the horsemen or her people, and turn on those sons of whores that were the mercenaries.
She only prayed it would be in time to save Merric.
xxxx
Yeah, yeah, short. I know. Sorry. I'm trying to crack this out and the Save-My-Roommate Fund.
