Chapter Six
Ambushed
Alanna rode silently, containing her fury. Under her, Chocolate fidgeted and made random bursts of speed against his mistress's tense movements on his back. Around Alanna, the other horses and their riders moved steadily. Ralnsin and Tierinel had no trouble keeping up with the larger mounts, and instead moved easily ahead.
Gary urged Thief over next to her. "You're okay, right?" he asked, gently reaching over to touch her arm.
She jerked away from him, and Chocolate swerved to the side at the abrupt motion. Irritably, Alanna kicked the horse back to be next to Gary. "Do you think I'm alright?" she asked coldly, standing up in the stirrups to look over her shoulder, as if she would see Jon and Kadi heading back to the palace.
The big knight smirked. "I'd be crazy to think that." His expression suddenly turned serious. "I just. . . I know you said you'd protect her, Alanna, but don't blame yourself, she went off on her own."
The Lioness shifted in her saddle, staring at the forest ahead. "It's my fault, Gary," she muttered after a moment. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, and saw him shaking his head. "She was tortured, beaten, and raped, Gary. I said I'd protect her. How is that not my fault?"
"You weren't there!" Gary snarled, cuffing the back of her head. With a snarl, she grabbed his hand, digging her nails between his thumb and first finger. "Ow," he whined, trying to free his hand.
Alanna's eyes flashed, and her tone was cold when she whispered, "I said I'd protect her." She glared at him for a minute, her voice choking as she went on. "And I wasn't there to save her from that. If that isn't my fault, than I'm not the Lioness," she snarled, letting his hand go.
"Hang on!" Thayet pulled Ralnsin to a halt, and the mare spun in a tight circle to slow down. Tierinel halted next to the chestnut, her nostrils flaring. Thayet sniffed deeply, and made a face. "Up ahead," she announced quietly, leaping softly from the saddle.
Alanna nodded grimly, recognizing the proximity of the acrid scent as well, and swung out of Chocolate's saddle. The others followed suit, tying their horses to nearby trees. "For Kadi," Alanna whispered coldly, drawing her sword, Glory's Bane.
Completely out of nowhere, Raoul yelped, though quickly stifled the noise. "What?" Alanna demanded in a hoarse whisper, eyeing the forest to make sure he had not given away their position.
"Beast bit me," Raoul snarled, putting his bloody finger into his mouth. "Damn you, Rebel. . ."
"Are you okay?" Thayet asked. "Let me see." She took Raoul's hand, and examined it. "Ouch. Alanna, you might want to fix this one up for him."
Grumbling, Alanna walked over quietly, and took her friend's hand from Thayet. She closed her eyes, and applied her magic in a trick she had been taught by Maude as a child. It lanced through his finger, welding the skin back together and stemming the blood flow.
"Let's go," Gary whispered, drawing his sword. Thayet nodded, grabbing a short bow off of Ralnsin's saddle. Her quiver followed the bow onto her shoulder, and she loosened her sword in its scabbard. Buri grabbed a crossbow from Tierinel's saddle, and her own arrows. The group also grabbed warm coats from their saddlebags as the temperature began to drop. Then the small group walked quietly into the forest.
Alanna went first, her feet silent in the lush green grass and dew covered leaves. Above, the sky darkened. The forest grew thin as they moved on, and the trees barren of leaves moved further apart, offering a wider view of the sky. It started to snow softly, only some making it through the canopy of trees.
"Lovely," Alanna muttered darkly, pulling her wool jacket tighter around herself. "I hate the cold."
On they crept, the smell of fire and burned flesh growing. Alanna threw up her hand, signaling the others to halt. Then she signaled them to take cover and ducked behind a large rock, peering over the edge.
"I told you," a man's voice snarled, "that you would pay if you did anything stupid. You've given them a trail right to us. For all we know they could be anywhere by now! Even right on top of us."
She lifted her head a little higher, and saw a wide clearing. In the clearing, the snow had fallen six inches thick or so, and she could see two men. His back was to her, but she could tell he was older; his hair was salt and pepper colored. He wore a leather jacket with loose breeches. The man in front of him could be no more than twenty, and wore black from head to toe.
"What'd I do?" the younger man asked.
"Fire! You idiot," the other snarled. "They can follow it. It smells, you know?" With a growl, he shoved the young man onto the ground, next to the fire. "You'll die for your stupidity," he whispered venomously. Then he shoved the man's head into the flames.
The young man shrieked as the blaze ate his flesh, while the acridity in the air grew to almost unbearable levels. Alanna stared, not even realizing that she held her breath. Abruptly, the man's shrieks stopped, and his body convulsed into a series of death throes. The Lioness shuddered, her eyes on the other man.
"Why you--" someone behind Alanna whispered.
A scream cut the air. Alanna spun around, crouched behind the rock.
"Horse Lords curse you," someone--probably Thayet or Buri--snarled.
She moved cautiously through the shallow snow, careful not to step on any twigs. Black cloth moved. Alanna leapt, Glory's Bane coming down on the black clothed man. His corpse collapsed, his head rolled, and blood poured into the snow as he convulsed, then was still.
"Are you okay?" Alanna whispered, kicking the corpse to the side, and eyeing the trees atop a ridge she hadn't noticed before.
"As good as can be," Thayet returned, her face white with pain, "as I can be when I've just been shot in the shoulder."
"You going to live?" Alanna asked, rephrasing her question. Thayet grunted, adjusting herself against the tree on which she leaned.
"I've lived through worse before, Alanna," she pointed out dryly. "There!" She pointed to the ridge to her right. In the tree, black flashed.
Alanna stared at it, and grabbed Thayet's bow. "You can't work it anyway," she snapped as the woman started to protest. With a careful eye, Alanna took quick aim, and fired. The arrow struck, and the man fell out of the tree. She saw the black of his clothes move again, and he got up, aiming an arrow for Alanna's heart.
The arrow came, and Alanna danced to the side, causing it to fly harmlessly past. She notched another arrow. This one struck the man again, but he got to his feet. "Your aim is horrible," Thayet whispered mirthfully.
Alanna made a face, and notched a third. This time, when she struck, the man did not rise again. She wiped the bow on her breeches, and handed it back to Thayet. Then she crept back to her own hiding place.
The Lioness paused, suddenly realizing how quiet the clearing was. Surely the man had heard the exchange? Nervously, she glanced over the top of the rock, sword at the ready.
The man with the black and white hair was still standing there, watching the corpse burn. Alanna made a face. Well, we know where the stupid smell comes from, she thought, rubbing her sleeve over her aching nose. Now, are you the man who--her face hardened, her eyes dark and angry--tortured, beat, and raped Kadi?
"Huclapo! Huclapo!" Alanna spun around as men dressed in black came in from the depths forest. She did a quick head count; there were at least twenty of them. A quick glance toward the older man proved that he had fled.
"Mithros damn him," Alanna cursed vehemently, swinging Glory's Bane as the first three men closed in on her.
Thayet yelped from her hiding place, and Alanna swung furiously. Bane came down, and the man didn't run soon enough. A gouge opened on his stomach, and blood poured. He fell to his knees, his eyes wide with panic; Alanna had already moved on. She swung at the next man, who parried her with a giant wooden mace. Up and under. Score! Bane struck him on the thigh, carving a path up the inside of his left leg. His screams became high pitched as Bane bit into his groin, and she grinned icily, and yanked the blade free, blocking as the next man came at her with a sword. To the side, and back. She danced away from his wild swings, and grabbed the loose folds of his clothes. With a roar of triumph, she slammed his head into the boulder, and drew Bane across his spine. He collapsed to the snow with the others.
A wild light lit Alanna's eyes as she leapt the corpses, heading towards Thayet, and sliced to the side. The man's head rolled from where his body knelt over her friend. She spun to the side, and caught her foot on the back of the next man's knees. He glanced at her, startled as he caught himself. The last thing he saw was the Lioness's violet eyes flashing, then Bane ran him through and he fell to the ground, sputtering. Someone jumped on her from behind, but in her wild rage she found the strength to slam him into a tree. He grunted, but hung on. Swearing, she shook her shoulders, and dropped, rolling in the snow. He tried to grab her hair, but she rolled back onto her feet and spun around, dizzying him, before managing to scratch his side along a tree. His feet caught the ground, and he shoved her into the same tree, scraping her face across the trunk. She bit back a scream as the bark ripped into her skin, pulling it off. Blood fell across her face, sticky and warm on her chapped face. His grip loosened for a second, and Alanna let out a whoop of triumph, stabbing Bane backwards, hilt first. The pommel connected with his side, and she felt his ribs crack through the weapon. For a second, he faltered, and she leapt free of his grasp, running her sword through his back.
"That doesn't look good," Thayet whispered weakly as the last man near her collapsed from the dagger she had driven through his heart. She closed her eyes, her face screwed up in pain, and the Lioness saw the blood that pooled out from under her hand.
"You're hurt," Alanna stated, dropping to the ground beside her. The adrenaline pounded in her ears, and for once she hardly noticed the snow. The blood dribbled down her face, reminding her sickly of drool, but she shook the feeling away.
Thayet moved her hand away from where blood was pooling on the right side of her stomach, across her green wool coat. "Yes?" she replied weakly. Her eyes were glazed over. Then, with a grunt, her eyes flickered shut, and she fell on her side.
"Thayet?" Alanna shook her shoulder gently. "Thayet?!" She stripped the coat away from the wound, and pulled the other woman's tunic up. Shaking, she yanked her shirt out of her breeches, and put her hand over the wound. Blood poured across her hand, and she shuddered as it warmed her cold body. Her eyes flickered shut, and she reached into her magic. It waited for her, swirling amongst its own purple depths. Slowly she drew it out, a string at a time, and wrapped it into Thayet's wound like a common medic might a poultice. She burned off the beginning traces of infection, then pulled at the skin with it. The blood slowed as she pushed it back, telling it to harden and scab.
Finally, she opened her eyes, and Thayet's wound was a red-brown mark. Alanna pulled her shirt, tunic, and coat back around her, and got shakily to her feet. She swayed uncertainly for a moment, and then gripped a tree. Blinding white pain shot through her back. "Why, you little--"
"Alanna!" Gary saw Alanna fall face-first into the snow, and turned towards the hill. The man with salt and pepper hair was there, a bow in his hand. The knight launched himself at Thayet's short bow, and took aim. He fired, and the man leapt out of the way, disappearing over the other side of the white hillock. "Alanna? Alanna?!" Gary knelt down next to his friend. His gaze swept her back, and locked on the arrow buried in a rapidly growing red-patch by her left shoulder. "Damn," he swore. "Raoul! Buri!"
With a grunt, Buri shoved a man's corpse off her and ran over. Raoul wiped at his forehead as he came, trying to stem the blood that threatened to fall into his eyes.
"Alanna?" Gary's voice was tense as he pulled a dagger from his belt. Trying to keep his fingers from shaking too badly, he cut the arrow's shaft, and pulled it carefully out. Alanna screamed, but did not rise to consciousness. "Let's get back to the palace."
Raoul nodded, wiping at his forehead again. "Here," Buri grunted, pulling a cloth from her pocket and holding it to his head.
Easily, Gary lifted Alanna over his shoulder, careful of her own, and got to his feet. "We'll tie her and Thayet to their saddles, and lead the horses. I doubt we have too," he added, looking at Buri's narrowed eyes. "But we should anyway. That way, if they spook, we don't have to chase them."
Raoul pushed the cloth on his forehead away, and lifted Thayet. Together, the group made their way back to the horses. It only took a few moments for them to strap Alanna and Thayet to the saddles, and then they set off, the snow beginning to break through the thicker parts of the forest.
I've done it! I finished that chapter! Whehehehe! Anyway, please tell me what you think, because I'm having lots of fun writing this--now that I finally got back to it--and hope you're having fun reading it. Constructive criticism welcome--as always!