Chapter 6

Truth and Lies

They woke at dawn. Gathering their things quietly, they tiptoed to the counter and left their money for the last day. Saddling their horses, they started their long journey in silence.

The first few days passed quiet and uneventful, and not many words went between the two companions. By the end of the first week, they had traveled a good fifty miles.

"You couldn't have lived in a farther city, could you?" Emmett asked one night.

"We are traveling much faster than I would have thought," mused Ayden. "I'm glad we decided to get the horses. At this rate we should be there in a couple of days."

"And where exactly does this friend of yours live?"

"Well, if she still lives where she did, Willow will be close to the outer wall of the city. Her house was different from everybody else's house around there. It was made of grey stone instead of the red brick that people now use. Her house was built before any of the others, so you should be able to spot it pretty easily."

"Ok, good to know."

The next day they began to feel slightly less like they were being chased and built a fire that night.

"With any luck, we should be there by tomorrow afternoon." Ayden said, toasting Emmett.

"Finally! I've never been this long without a decent meal or a bath!" he exclaimed.

They feasted like kings that night, laughing and joking, never thinking that they might be in danger; not realizing that they were being watched by King Rupert's men.

…

"That man means nothing. Don't try to kill him unless he gets in your way. He is not trained in combat like the woman. Wait until they fall asleep, then take her out."

The men waited in silence, hoping that they would fall asleep soon.

…

Finally, Ayden put out the fire and they fell into a deep slumber. Suddenly, she woke up with a knife to her throat and a hand over her mouth. She looked around wildly, trying to figure out who these people were, but a voice started speaking in her ear.

"Now you know what it is like, to wake up with a knife to your throat; death staring you in the face. How does it feel?"

Ayden tried to scream, but the man jerked her head to the side. She saw Emmett, still asleep, but with another man sanding over him with a knife over his throat.

"One sound, and he dies."

Nodding, Ayden closed her eyes and clenched her teeth tight together. She felt the cold steel of the blade slide down her neck and the man whispered, "A sudden death would be to good for you, why don't you suffer, like your husband did."

Taking the knife, the man thrust the blade into her abdomen, twisted it, and knocked her unconscious.

Satisfied that they had done their job, the men left to return to the king. But the man who had been holding a knife over Emmett accidentally bumped into him as he left, waking him slightly, but no one noticed.

When Emmett fully woke up, he rolled over, wanting to go back to sleep. But he heard quiet voices retreating from their camp. He sat up slowly and looked around. The people who had just been there had already gone deep into the forest, and could no longer be seen. At first glance, everything seemed to be normal. Ayden was quiet so the didn't seem to have awakened her, the horses were still asleep where they had left them, and none of their bags seemed to have been rifled through.

But he looked again at Ayden and noticed that there was something sticking up from her stomach.

"Ayden." he whispered. "Ayden!" he scrambled over to her and took her head in his hands.

"Ayden, come on. Wake up! Ayden!" jumping up, Emmett took all of their luggage and loaded it on Rose.

"Listen Rose, you can come or not, its your choice. But if you come, you are going to have to run, girl."

Emmett ran back over to Ayden, lifted her up onto Ace, and got on behind her.

"Alright Ace, looks like we are going to have to find Willows house without our guide. Yah!"

Emmett rode almost non-stop all day, with Ayden hardly holding on. Thankfully she was not loosing too much blood. He had removed the knife from her stomach and also removed his shirt so he could have something to use to put pressure on the wound so that it would not open too much and cause her to bleed to death.

Stopping only a short while to let the horse rest, he made it to L'eau Douce Vallée by sunset, getting stopped only once at the gate.

"Stop!" the guard had cried in a heavy Irish accent. "What is your business here?"

"Please, my um, sister was injured by… robbers. I need to get her help. Please." His hesitation went unnoticed by the guard. It seemed as though he was scared and out of breath, instead of stammering and trying to come up with a story that wouldn't get them thrown in jail.

"Very well, go on about your business."

Without giving the man a second glance, Emmett rode into the city, searching for the house that Ayden had described. Soon, he found it.

Grabbing Ayden, he cradled her in his arms as he walked to the door and knocked. A petit woman about Ayden's age answered.

"Can I help you?" she asked, but stopped short and gasped when she realized what was in Emmett's arms.

"Yeah, could you help me help her?"

"Well, I'm not exactly qualified to officially help with this, but there is a physician near by. I could get him if you liked. What happened?"

"Look, I'm sorry, but I don't want a physician. I'm looking for a girl named Willow? She knows this girl and I only want her to help."

"That's me. But who is she? I don't believe I know her, or you for that matter."

"Time is wasting, will you help or not?"

"Oh, of course. Bring her in and lay her there, on the couch. I'll get some supplies." Willow said as she ran around trying to make sure that the girl was comfortable.

"Thank you." and that was all Emmett said as he laid Ayden on the couch and watched Willow as she slowly drew his shirt away from Ayden's stomach.

She worked in silence and finally finished on the unconscious girl lying on her couch.

"Will she be ok? Is she going to wake up soon?" Emmett finally asked.

"Yes, she will be fine. But I don't know when she will wake up. Now, maybe you could tell me who this…" As Willow was speaking she moved up to look at the face of the girl that she had just saved. She had not seen that face in years.

"Oh…my…gosh…who are you? And how did you find her? And what happened?!"

"Which do you want me to answer first?" Emmett said hesitantly.

"What happened?" Willow was staring at Ayden's face as if she were a ghost.

"We were coming to find you when some men came into our camp and did this to her. I have no idea why… no wait, I do. It must have been the kings' men. They have been hunting her down for a while."

"What? Why? And why were you trying to find me?"

"She was worried about you, and she also wanted you to know that she wasn't the one who had killed William."

"What?" Willow looked up at Emmett, tears starting to form in her eyes. "William is dead?"

"Oh…um…yeah. Sorry, she thought you knew."

"No, I didn't know. The last I had heard from them was their wedding. I always wondered what had happened to them. But… William, he can't be dead. Why is he dead?"

"I think that is something Ayden will have to answer herself when she wakes up."

"Who are you?" Willow asked. Tears were streaming down her face as she gazed back down at Ayden.

"My name is Emmett. She kind of saved me a while back, so I stuck with her. My town was attacked and I was the only survivor. I didn't have anywhere else to go, so she let me tag along."

Ayden woke later that night after Emmett had already fallen asleep.

"Ayden? Are you ok? How do you feel?" Willow asked quietly.

"Willow? Wait, how did I get here?"

"That man Emmett brought you. You should have seen him, I've never seen a man look so scared before in his life."

"Willow, I have to tell you something. I know you may think that I did it, but you've got to believe me when I tell you that I didn't. We were happy, and I loved William. I didn't kill him." she turned her head to look at Willow as she said this and saw that beneath her tears, Willow looked confused.

"That's what Emmett was telling me. But why is William dead? What happened? And why in the world would I think that you killed him?"

Ayden sighed, then started her story, the same one she had told Emmett.

"So you thought that if the king told me that you had killed William, I would have believed him? I never would have thought that, not even for a minuet."

"I'm glad. I truly loved him. And I would never have hurt him."

"Yeah, I know. Now, what about this Emmett guy? Are you…like, you know…?"

"What? No, no, no, no, no…not at all. It's nothing that that…at all." Ayden declared, glaring at Willow. "Not at all."

"Well then you don't mind if I go for him? This town is in low supply of cute, available guys."

"Oh, um no…go ahead." Ayden answered.

"Ayden, I know you better than you know yourself. You like him, admit it."

"No, after what happened to William, I don't think that I could ever love again. My heart is still his, even after all this time. And even if I did move on, what's to keep the same thing from happening again? I don't think I could stand it. I am still broken, and no one, especially Emmett, deserves broken pieces." But under Willows unrelenting gaze, she broke.

"Ok, so he is really good looking, and really sweet; but still, no. Where is he, anyway?"

"You'll come to your senses soon enough." was all Willow said in reply before Emmett walked in.

"Come to her senses about what? That is a hard thing to make her do, so I've heard. Good to see you're awake finally. How are you feeling? You need anything?"

Ayden's eyes widened just a little bit when she saw him. "Oh gosh." she thought, and checked to make sure she wasn't drooling.

"No thanks Emmett, I'm fine for the moment. What happened? How did you get here? And where is your shirt?" the last she asked hesitantly, because in all honesty, she really didn't mind him without one.

"My shirt was bloody, so I really didn't feel like putting that back on just yet. And I was going to ask you the same thing, what happened? But uh, I loaded all of our stuff onto Rose and took off with you on Ace."

"You put all our stuff on Rose?! What happened to her? My money, our weapons, everything was on her! And didn't you just get a couple new shirts?"

"Whoa! Calm down! She followed us here. She's a smart horse. And oh yeah, I forgot about that." Emmett put up his hands in defense.

"Oh good. You scared me." Ayden sighed. Then she looked at him again.

"Why don't you go put a shirt on?" Ok, she was pushing that fact just a little bit, and Willow seemed to catch the hidden meaning behind her being all flustered. But she didn't say anything; she just gave her a funny look from behind his back.

"I'll put one on in a minuet. You know, I'm not that big of an idiot, if she hadn't followed us, then once I got you here safely, I would have gone back to get her. Now, what happened to you?" he asked, his eyes softening as he leaned towards her. For a moment, he thought about brushing aside a loose strand of hair on her face, but thought against it, then sat down instead.

"Well, I woke up with a knife against my throat and…"

"What!" Emmett interrupted, standing up again. "Why didn't you scream?"

"I was getting to that," she answered, glaring at him for the interruption as he sat back down. "Anyway, as I was saying…I awoke with a knife to my throat, and tried to scream. I started to actually, but the man jerked my head to the side and said that if I scream he would…um, he would kill the uh…horse. So I didn't, and that was the last thing I remember." Ayden looked down as she fumbled over her feeble lie. Surly, she thought, surly they could see through her. As she hesitantly looked up, she was surprised to find Emmett staring at her in disbelief and anger. She recoiled from this unexpected fury.

"You didn't scream…because he would have killed the horse!? Are you insane?" He glared at her, his face red. And she could almost imagine smoke pouring from his nose.

"Well, I uh…really like that horse, I didn't want him to die." She answered quietly, glancing at Willow. Tears glinted in Ayden's eyes and her face turned a bright shade of red. Willow saw the signs and knew their meaning, but they went unnoticed by Emmett in his rage.

"So you thought that I was being careless when I put all our things onto a horse and hoped she would follow us, so I could save your life…when you would so easily give that up so the horse wouldn't die! Unbelievable! You are…ugh!" Emmett stormed out of the room, not taking the time to glance back.

"Well, that didn't go as planned." Ayden announced.

"Ha, oh really? And what did you plan?" Willow asked.

"I expected him to see straight through my really bad lie, realize that I didn't want him to feel responsible for me nearly getting killed, but also realize that he is the reason that I was nearly killed. I didn't scream so they wouldn't kill him. That's what I expected."

"Well that is certainly not what happened."

"No duh." Ayden said, rolling her eyes. She sighed as she said, "You were right, as usual. Hey, maybe you could…no, never mind."

"What?" Willow prodded.

"No, it's silly."

"Oh, come on, it cant be that bad." Willow leaned forward, expectantly.

"Well…do you remember when we were little, and there was a cute guy that one of us liked? And how we would get the one of us to go talk to him and try to find out if he liked us too?"

"Yeah, why? Wait…oh no…ooohhh no, no, no, no. No. I am not going to go try to find out if Emmett has a 'crush' on you. Ha you can forget that. Ayden we are not little kids anymore, that kind of stuff won't work."

"Please? You never know till you try. Come on, for old times sake? Please?"

"Alright, but what will you do with the answer? If he says yes, are you willing to start another relationship? You told me just a few minuets ago that you weren't. You also said that you were still broken, and he doesn't deserve broken pieces. What if he says no? Hmm? Are you just going to look past it and claim that it was only a silly crush?

Or are you going to get hurt?"

"Your right…again." Ayden sighed.

"I guess it would be best for me just to let him be in control. If he has any kind of feelings for me, he should be the one to tell me. I shouldn't have to get my friend to weasel information out of him and then pounce on him myself. If he wants to be with me, he will let me know; and if he doesn't…well, that will also become known."

"Exactly. Pushing the guy before he is ready hardly ever works out."

Willow confirmed. "But if it helps, I think he really cares for you. You should have seen him when he first showed up on my doorstep with you in his arms. The guy was frantic. And then his reaction to your story just confirms it. He likes you, just give him time."

"Really? Do tell…what was he like?" and Ayden settled herself into the couch as Willow began to describe to her what she had seen.