“Yes,” Fiona said as she picked up the one Myna had indicated. “Surprising, isn’t it?”
“What about this one, then?” Sean said, picking up the one Fiona had finished, which showed Myna and Fiona Shaping a boat together.
“I did that one,” Fiona grinned.
“I really made that statue?” Sean asked.
“Yes,” Fiona said simply, then turned to Myna, who was staring longingly at the sculpture. “Myna, you won your bet. Did you want to know about the dream or to be held by him tonight?”
Myna glanced to Fiona, who only smiled at her, then to Sean, who was staring at the statue he’d made. “Sean? Would you hold me?”
Sean met her hopeful gaze and his heart thumped in his chest hard for a moment. Bowing his head, he nodded once. “If that’s what you want, Myna, but I still love Fiona.”
“You’ll love us both in time,” Fiona said softly as she shifted the bedrolls around so hers was on the other side of Myna’s, away from Sean. “We should be getting some sleep. I’ll take the first watch tonight.”
Myna looked at Fiona, wondering if she should follow through, and got a small nod in return. Holding to her courage, Myna got into her bedroll and waited.
Watching both of them, Sean looked at the statue again. It was like his dream, with both women kissing him. Maybe the Bond is working faster than Fiona anticipated, Sean thought. Pushing the thought away, he slipped into his bedroll. Feeling self-conscious, he put his arm around Myna’s waist and tried to keep a few inches between them. “Goodnight to you both,” Sean said.
“Night, Sean,” Fiona said as she sat on her bedroll. “I’ll wake Myna in a few hours for her watch.”
“That’s fine, Fiona. Goodnight, Sean,” Myna’s breathless voice was full of happiness.
Chapter Seventeen
Sean didn’t recall any dreams when a hand touched his face gently. “Sean, wake. It's time for your watch,” Myna whispered in his ear.
Sitting up with a yawn, Sean found Myna next to him and Fiona sleeping in her bedroll. “I’m awake,” Sean murmured as he rubbed at his eyes.
“Thank you for holding me,” Myna said softly as she slipped into her bedroll.
The dim firelight didn’t let him see her face, but from the happiness in her voice, he could guess she was smiling. “Myna… my dream was basically like the statue,” Sean said, deciding to just tell her. “I dreamt of you both covering me with soft kisses. I don’t know what it means, but I think the Bond might be strengthening faster than Fiona assumed it would. I never would have had those kinds of dreams a handful of days ago. I’ve always believed that a relationship should be just two people.”
Not responding right away, Myna rolled over to look at him. “You are thinking differently now?”
“Not yet, but I think Fiona is right, and it's only a matter of time. With you two not sniping at each other anymore, it just feels right. Before, when you both were at odds, it was easier to distance myself from the thought of you and me. Now with you two getting along, I’m finding it harder to keep that distance.”
“Good,” Myna whispered. “Goodnight, Sean.”
Sean let out a deep breath, feeling better for having told her. Getting to his feet slowly, so as to not make any excess noise, he stretched out before packing his things away and stowing them on the wagon. Taking a seat next to the fire, Sean added a log for a little more heat so the women would be more comfortable. Putting the fire to his back so it wouldn’t ruin his night vision, Sean looked around periodically and let his thoughts drift to what they would need to do once they reached a good place to stop.
We should pick up a tent, Sean mentally noted. It's only going to get colder, and it would be better for them if they had shelter. Gazing up, Sean noted the few stars he could see through the cloud cover. I wonder if one of you is Sol? Sean asked the stars with a bit of melancholy. Morrigan never really said if this was just a different world or another dimension, which means I might be seeing my old home. The thought made Sean’s lips quirk up as he imagined spaceships bridging the two worlds.
Sitting there, Sean remembered how boring night watch could be. He’d worked as a night watchman for a few months in his younger days. The sounds of the woods brought back memories of camping trips with his father, which reminded him of some of the stories his father would tell on those trips.
Sean became aware of muffled footsteps, and that the normal animal sounds had stopped nearby. Head tilting to one side, he could now make out a number of people trying to stealthily move through the woods behind him. Laying his hand on Dark Cutter, still in naginata form, he focused and caught a whispered conversation.
“We do get to play with them before the Bond kills them, right?”
“Shhh, if either of the Bonded are awake, they might hear you,” a strong voice hissed softly. “Both of them have sharp hearing from their ancestors. Now get the men ready. I need you all to focus on him, but remember to move when I call out.”
“We know how to do our job,” the first man said with a huff.
The voices stopped and Sean stretched, getting to his feet slowly and activating Mage Sight, then taking a slow shamble around the campsite. He caught sight of human outlines, all but one of them empty of color. That one had a bright red cloud diffused through it. Sean wondered what that denoted with Mage Sight. Making the circuit, he debated waking the two women before the fight started, or letting them wake to the sound of conflict.
Sean decided to nudge them as he went past on the next round. He could hear the men all come to a halt and the soft sounds of weapons being readied. Sean started the path around the camp again, but as he passed Myna, he poked her gently with the haft of the naginata. It was only two more steps to Fiona, who he also nudged in the same manner.
“Men in the woods, coming for us,” Sean barely whispered, hoping they heard him.
Both women stirred slightly, but didn’t make any overt movements to show they were awake. Making the turn back towards the road, he glanced back and saw their eyes were open and tracking him. He looked toward the woods, letting them know which direction the attack was going to come from.
Sean was sure that the men would come running in shortly, which is why he was surprised when the sound of crossbows being fired barely preceded the impact of four bolts to his back. Dropping to his knees as the pain hit him, Sean was certain he had just been hit in a few organs. The lowest of the quarrels added insult to the injuries, lodging just an inch or two above and to the side of his rectum.
“We got him. Rush them,” came the earlier voice that had asked if the gang would be able to rape Fiona and Myna.
“Sean!” Myna shouted, jumping to her feet. Her eyes widened at the sight of the crossbow bolts in Sean’s back and she spun on the six men. Snatching her blades from their sheathes, she charged at them.
Fiona stared at Sean long enough to see him rip the bolts from his back. Turning back toward the oncoming men, she stepped forward with her staff. “Myna, don’t let them surround you,” she warned as she followed.
“Liam, Orval, split off and make sure he goes down. The rest of us will subdue these two,” the man apparently in charge said as he closed the last few feet to Myna, his sword swinging.
Once he’d pulled the bolts from his body, Sean felt his healing kick in, much to his relief. Getting back to his feet, he turned towards the two men charging him. A dark smile came to him as he felt time slow. “You’ve made a grave mistake.”
The two men split, trying to attack him from different sides. They were suddenly looking a little wary, since he was clearly ready for a fight after taking four crossbow bolts to the back. Sean feinted toward one before spinning on the other, his naginata almost humming as it sliced through the air. A sharp snap was heard as the blade the man used to block with was sheared through, then as Dark Cutter continued on to bury itself in the man’s chest.
Eyes wide with disbelief, the fatally wounded man clutched feebly at the shaft and
tried to pull the blade free. Sean viciously yanked it free, spinning back toward the second man, who hadn’t realized yet what had happened to his friend. Sean deflected his attack, pushing the man off balance. Before the attacker could recover, his head was sent spinning from his body.
Myna had focused on the leader. As they got closer, she vanished from their sight, making him and the three other men approaching her hesitate. The leader grabbed the man next to him and roughly yanked the fellow around in front of himself. That move saved him, but the other man took two blades to the gut. The fellow’s hardened leather stopped the blades from entering more than a couple of inches, but he still screamed as her blades bit into him. Myna yanked her blades free and danced back as the others closed in around her.
Fiona targeted the one to Myna’s left, to make sure she had room to maneuver. The man in leather saw her coming and was able to deflect her first set of attacks. Fiona scowled as the thug sneered at her.
“If they want a fight, give it to them,” the leader said, pushing his wounded man at Myna. “Whoever drops them gets first pick.”
Sean spun toward the fight at those words, but he only made it two feet before another voice rang out in the night.
“By fire, let my will be known, purge this filth from the land!” The words came from the last man to reach the camp, and the one who had been bright red in Sean’s Mage Sight.
Flame engulfed Sean and Dark Cutter fell from his hand as he screamed in pain. Dropping to the ground, he rolled over and over, trying to smother the flames that stuck tenaciously to him. His skin was blistered and raw by the time he got the fire out.
“Hurry up and deal with those bitches,” the mage said. “I’ll need a few moments to marshal another ball of flame.”
Sean lay there gasping in pain for a moment, then got his arms under him and began to push himself upright. “I’m going to gut you for that,” he hissed.
“How did you survive that?” the mage asked in shock. “Hurry up already—kill them if you have to,” he said to the men attacking Myna and Fiona.
“Fine, kill them. We’ll have the innkeeper’s daughter when we get back to town instead,” the leader of the armed men said.
The four of them attacked Fiona and Myna with renewed aggression. Fiona, with only one opponent, thrust her staff toward the man. Snorting derisively at the attack, the man brushed it up and over his shoulder as he came inside the length of the weapon. He was surprised when the staff became a razor-edged blade slicing into his neck. Eyes wide in shock, he stumbled and went down as blood pumped quickly from the deep gash.
“A Shaper in combat?” the leader snarled. “You two finish the Moonbound bitch. I’ll deal with the Shaper.”
Myna had fallen into a defensive posture, her blades weaving a barrier as she held off the other two. She knew everything would be fine if she could buy time for the others. Small nicks caught her arms here and there as the battle went on, but as each wound was inflicted, it began to heal. Her healing gave her a dangerous idea, and she went with it before she could talk herself out of it.
As the two men pressed Myna back step by step, she batted one of their swords down but not out, letting it go straight through her gut. Pushing along the blade, she sank both of her blades into the startled man’s neck before pushing herself off his blade and collapsing to the ground.
“Crazy bitch,” the other one said as he turned to help his leader with Fiona.
Sean finally made it to his feet, his skin slowly healing as he picked up Dark Cutter and leaned against it. “Mage… you should run… because if I catch you, I’ll make you suffer.”
“No, I’ll burn you before then,” the mage said with a laugh. “It doesn’t matter that you survived the first flame. You won’t survive the second.”
“We’ll see about that,” Sean said as he took a few hobbling steps towards the mage.
Fiona had to backpedal quickly. The leader had been hard enough to defend against, but with his helper, she was bound to lose in time. “Sean, Myna is down,” she called out.
Sean glanced over to see Myna holding her stomach as blood dripped through her fingers. A surge of rage rushed through him and he turned his gaze back to the mage, his badly damaged body healing even faster. “Now you die!”
Sean started forward in a limping run, watching the mage flex his hands in front of his chest. “By fire, let my will be known, purge this filth from the land!” the mage shouted. A small ball of fire appeared between the mage’s hands, growing larger with each word. As the last word left the mage’s mouth, he made a casting motion with his right hand and the ball of fire surged at Sean, growing larger as it came at him.
Following his instinct, Sean brought Dark Cutter around as though to parry the ball of fire. Both he and the mage were shocked when the blade caught the ball of fire and flung it aside. The anguished scream from the bandit in the lead, who had caught the fire full in the face, made everyone pause.
Screaming, the leader threw himself to the ground and tried to smother the flames. Fiona was the first one to snap out of the stupor, her staff crushing the burning man’s neck and ending the screams.
The last of the leather clad men backed away from her and turned to run. He only made it a single step before two blades took his head off his shoulders. Myna was back on her feet.
“But… how… even a soul blade would have trouble doing that, unless…” the mage babbled, his gaze locked on the burning corpse.
Sean closed the distance quickly and used the haft of the naginata to club the mage in the head. A dull thunk sounded at the blow, and Sean frowned as he watched the man’s head deform. “Fucking shit, I didn’t mean to kill him.”
Shaking his head, he turned back to help Myna, only to find her standing next to Fiona. “I’m fine, Sean,” Myna said. “I took a blade to the gut, but your healing got me back to my feet quickly.”
“It didn’t feel good, seeing you down,” Sean said, planting Dark Cutter in the ground and pulling both of them into his arms. “I hate seeing either of you hurt.”
They hugged him back and then each other, and were still like that a few minutes later as the first rays of sunrise broke the horizon. Slowly breaking the hug, Sean coughed as he realized he had just flatly stated how much he cared for both of them.
“We didn’t like seeing you burnt alive either,” Fiona said as she watched the last few blisters on his skin heal.
“I almost screamed when that second ball of fire went at you,” Myna nodded.
“How did you deflect the magic?” Fiona asked.
“I just parried and hoped it would work,” Sean said slowly, recalling the pull on his energy. “I think I channeled my energy into the blade, but I’m not sure. I’m fairly sure that I don’t want to test it again.”
Fiona nodded. “I don’t blame you for that.”
“Since the sun is up, should we get an early start?” Myna asked with a yawn.
“We can, but you’ll be sleeping in the back for a bit,” Sean told her.
Myna met his gaze, then bowed her head. “If that is your command.”
Sean bit back his reply, instead reaching out to pet her ears. “It is, at least for today.”
Fiona watched the two of them for a moment before kissing Sean’s cheek and heading towards the bodies. “I’ll strip them of what we can sell easily. If you’ll get breakfast started please, Sean?”
“You got it,” Sean said.
Chapter Eighteen
Sean had two pans going over the fire and Myna had the rest of the gear packed up by the time Fiona finished searching the bodies of their attackers. “What did they have?”
“Their armor is that of Pinebough guards,” Fiona said, “which means the mage was the person responsible for clearing the bulk of the refuse the village produced. The elder is going to be in trouble when that comes to light.”
“You said something like that when we visited Oaklake,” Sean said.
“Every town or city mus
t have at least one Fire Mage to burn the refuse the city generates. Pinebough had just gotten a new one a few days before we arrived.”
“Considering the expense of having a Fire Mage, losing one is going to make getting another problematic,” Myna added.
“What have we got that we can sell off, then?” Sean asked as he flipped some meat in the one pan.
“The swords and crossbows are good,” Fiona said. “I stripped them of their coin purses, but between them all it, only amounted to a total of two bronze, all in copper. Most of that was from the Fire Mage and Captain. Myna should track back to where they left their horses. I’m sure they are branded, but we might be able to use some of the tack and extra gear before we turn them loose.”
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