Arthur just stared. Bloody hell…
Her eyes shifted between them and he guessed Rubio was sporting an expression much like his own. Arthur's mind was reeling. Had he really witnessed all that? How had a woman as frail-looking as her single-handedly defeated half a dozen trained guards?
She jumped from one horse to the other as if it was nothing…She broke that guard's neck as if it was the easiest thing to do…
She shifted uncomfortably in the saddle, most likely feeling the weight of both his and Rubio's astonished stares.
But how…
Arthur was by no means a fresh lad, but he had never seen anything like that before. He had never seen anyone perform the things she so effortlessly had. Hell, he couldn't even remember ever seeing a woman fight, much less single-handedly take down six men at least twice her size.
Another thing added to the long list of things I need to wrap my head around…
"You are going to burn holes in me with all that staring so, I'd appreciate it if you both stopped."
Her voice snapped him out of his inner musings, and he realized he had indeed been staring for far too long. He shifted his gaze to Rubio and for the first time since meeting him, Arthur noticed that the man was lost for words. Unable to control himself, his eyes fell on her once more.
She had her arms crossed across her chest, the reins clutched loosely in one hand. She seemed a bit annoyed though he could tell she was nervous. It was obvious in the way she kept biting her lip.
He could barely keep himself from attacking her with all the questions buzzing around in his head. He doubted she'd answer them anyway.
"Oi! I said stop it!"
Rubio chuckled. "Can't blame me now, can you, lassie? That was one remarkable performance right there."
The horse beneath her snorted and she tugged at the reins, though Arthur was almost sure that she did it to cover her discomfort. It was obvious that she was reluctant to talk about the incident.
But why? Who taught her to fight like that? Why did she have to learn in the first place? What the hell-
The sound of thundering horse hooves broke him out of his thoughts and he momentarily feared that they had been yet again discovered by Blacklegs. He sighed in relief when he saw that it was Bedivere and Bill. The men pulled on their reins, bringing their mounts to an abrupt stop.
"We heard the commotion. Are you harmed?" demanded Bedivere, looking around. His gaze immediately fell on the bodies of the guards. "What the hell happened here?"
Rubio snorted in amusement. "You might want to rethink the importance of his presence, Bedivere." he said, motioning to Arthur. "Now that we have her, we might not even need him."
Arthur wanted to smack him, but he refrained from shoving the other man off the saddle. Instead, he watched the expression on Bedivere's face shift from confusion to disbelief.
"This is your doing?"
The woman, Sakura, waved him off. "I just helped out a bit, is all. Nothing serious."
"A bit? Nothing serious?" he heard himself say. "You took down those Blacklegs on your own, woman." He looked at her pointedly. "And you've certainly done it before."
"I told you she was bad news. We should have-"
"-left me there while you still had the chance. Oh, will you stop with that?" she growled at Bill. "Had it not been for me, you would have found them both with swords through their guts, you whiny ass."
Arthur's lips quirked upwards. Well, won't you look at that…
The slight flare of her temper told him more about her character than all the hours he had spent riding right behind her put together. Her face betrayed her annoyance, and by the way she was clutching the reins it was obvious that her muscles were tense. It was interesting to watch, and it was quite honestly the most truthful he had heard her be up until then.
"Easy now," he said. "Like it or not, we're still on the same team. You people had the right mind to save this handsome face, so the lot of you can't be that bad." Rattled as he was by not one, but two near death situations, confidence was something he knew well. In the corner of his eye, he saw the woman roll her eyes but at the same time, her lips curled up in a small smirk. Aren't you a peculiar one…
Bedivere sighed in exasperation and looked at the woman. "You are hiding things from us."
She snorted. "Oh, I bet you've been completely transparent with me."
Arthur chuckled inwardly. Witty little minx…
"I do not ask of you to reveal your secrets. But the fact that you can fight could greatly impact our mission. You might not understand it, but the fate of the Realm rests on our shoulders." Bedivere's voice was not harsh but it was commanding. It was easy to see why the man had been knighted.
She chuckled and Arthur found himself frowning at how humorless it was. "Oh, trust me, I understand. A lot more than you can imagine."
The woman remained silent for a minute after that, and so did everyone else. He couldn't know what was running through her mind but the heaviness in her voice compelled him to believe her words had merit. She did understand. Her eyes seemed calculating, assessing not only the situation but the rest of them too. It was a bit unnerving, her gaze. A bit too bright, a bit too intense.
A bit too smart…
After a little while, she relaxed. "Well, you aren't entirely wrong. And since we banded together to save the princeling over there, I guess that makes us a team."
"Does that mean you're fighting with us from now on, lassie?"
"Why, that's exactly what it means, blondie." She flashed Rubio a wide grin. "I busted my butt to keep the princeling's head attached to his shoulders. No one's ruining my hard work if I have a say in it."
"Thank you for talking about me as if I'm not here."
"That's irrelevant, princeling."
"I never could have imagined you had that kind of fight in you, lassie. No offense, but you don't look like a warrior." Rubio noted and Arthur couldn't help but agree.
She chuckled, blowing a lock of hair away from her eyes. "But that's exactly what makes me so good at it."
Her grin was cheeky, and though he couldn't completely shake off his suspicions, Arthur caught himself smiling.
Bedivere still appeared dissatisfied and more than a little mistrusting, but he nodded curtly. "Let's go. Those Blacklegs might be dead, but there could be others. We can't lead them back." He pulled on the reins and started leading them south, away from the fallen bodies. The horses fell in step, with Bedivere and Bill leading and the rest of them bringing up the rear.
"Right, now that you brought that up…is anyone going to tell me where the hell we're going?"
"You didn't tell us you were trained in combat. What makes you think we'd tell you anything?"
She snickered. "Don't sound so annoyed, Billie. I might think you don't like me."
"Trust me, lass, the moment I start liking you is the moment I swallow my bow."
Arthur snorted in amusement and she shifted her green eyes to him.
"Anything you find amusing, princeling?"
He shrugged, flashing her a smirk. "An eye for an eye, woman."
"Sakura."
"Huh?"
"My name's Sakura."
He crossed his arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow. They were both aware that she hadn't stopped calling him princeling throughout their short acquaintance.
"Point taken." She smirked. "Now, just one little thing to settle…" She moved her mount right beside his and without so much as a warning, she shoved him off the grey gelding. "Find your own horse. This handsome boy is mine."
From his place on the ground, Arthur stared up at her with wide eyes, watching her jump from one horse's back to the other's. Snapping out of his daze, he scowled at the triumphant look on her face.
Pulling himself up and on the back of the horse that she had taken from the Blacklegs, Arthur pinned her with a glare. "Wench."
She nudged her gelding forward and flashed him a lopsided grin over her shoulder. "Come and get me, princeling."
His blue eyes lingered on her form for a few seconds longer before he too urged his mount into a light trot and caught up with the rest of their party.
Watch what you wish for, lassie…Watch what you wish for…
XxxOxOxOxxX
"W-We lost them…in the woods…T-The woman! It was her doing!"
The guard trembled under the ferocity of his glare.
Rage burned right under his skin, asking to be unleashed upon these useless fools. The more the guard cowered in fear, the angrier he became. He abhorred weakness, but it seemed he was surrounded by nothing but worthless weaklings.
The few people in the room were deathly quiet as he paced up and down slowly. For a few seconds he focused on the rhythmic tapping of his heeled boots as he walked, trying to contain his anger. The whimpering fool kneeling a short distance away was making it hard to concentrate on anything else other than how much he wanted to kill them all.
King Vortigern aimed his harsh gaze at the Blackleg. "You mean to tell me that not only did you let that vermin escape with the Sword, but a woman got the better of you?"
The guard flinched. "I watched her from my hiding place as she took down the others. I had to return and report this. She's a sorcerer, my King! No human woman could have ever done that!"
Vortigern's eyes blazed with a hateful fire as the guard recounted his experience. A woman…A sorcerer…Curse those abominable mages!
For a moment, his gaze landed on Maggie, standing straight some distance away. She didn't flinch and kept her head high. He hated it when they didn't fear him. Fear controlled the crowds, fear made people his pawns, fear kept them from disobeying. His late brother never understood that.
Uther…always valiant and honorable, weren't you, dear brother? Always so disgustingly righteous…
"She pulled a man from his horse with her bare hands, Sire! And broke another's neck like it was nothing and-"
"Silence!" Vortigern roared and the candles in the room blew out. "I am this close to success and you're telling me that you lost the Sword from right under your nose, you worthless simpleton!" In his anger, he slapped a cup of wine off a table, the loud 'clang' of the object as it hit the floor echoing around the room.
"But, the woman-"
"The woman!" he spat the word as if it were poison. "As if it wasn't bad enough that my brother's accursed spawn managed to escape, I now have a peasant wench embarrassing my troops and trying to foil my plans!"
The air in the room was suffocating and getting worse by the second. No one was unaffected by his foul mood, and Vortigern liked it that way. If he were to suffer, they'd suffer too.
I haven't gotten this far just to be brought to my knees by peasants…He clenched his fists. I will crash them, like I did with so many others before them. Like I crashed Uther.
He looked at the two guards standing on either side of the room's door. "Remove this blundering fool from my sight…"
The men immediately sprung to action, pulling the Blackleg to his feet and starting to drag him out the room.
"Mercia…"
The man fell to one knee. "Whatever you command, Sire."
"I don't care if you have to burn down the whole Realm, bring me that woman's head!"
TBC
Hiya, awesome people!
Sorry this took longer than expected and that it's not action-packed. It's also a bit shorter. I really want to write but sometimes I do get stuck! These first couple of chapters are always a bit tedious until the characters start having real chemistry. Things will get better from now on, I promise! I'm super excited to finally get to the great stuff!
I'm curious, have any of you been having issues logging in to their accounts these past 48-72 hours? I can't seem to be able to log in from my computer. An "Invalid email and password combination" error message keeps popping up. I have contacted support but haven't heard back from them. We shall see!
Having said that, I really hope you liked this chapter. Things are going to get more interesting from now on. Sakura is now on Vortigern's radar and that's bound to cause a few remarkable situations!
If you'd like, leave a review to let me know what you think! Reading your feedback always makes me happy!
Until then,
Lots of love!