He didn’t answer.
“You didn’t have a plan?” She asked in disbelief.
“I didn’t expect to make it this far!” He defended. “I expected to kill them all right there! Or die bloody in the attempt!”
She made a “humph” sound. “Well, I hate to say ‘I told you so,’ but I believe that I was the one who pointed out that having them all in one place was a remarkable opportunity to clear the board of opposition.” She bobbed her head smartly. “But then you and Kobb just looked at me like I was a demented nutcase for suggesting it.”
“You’re right,” he agreed, “is that what you wish me to say? I’m an idiot. All of us know this.”
“I didn’t say that!” She shook her head. “I just don’t see why this is suddenly such an issue. We’re in the same position we were yesterday, only now we have the Council’s blessing.” She paused. “Thanks to me, I might add.”
“I was very impressed, Tandy.” Kobb assured her, his attention still on spotting for approaching enemies. “Well done.”
“I’m just trying to keep you alive, I don’t know why you want to fight me.” Tzadok checked the cliff above them, searching for unseen attackers. “I am going to get you back to the safety of the village, then gather up my warriors and crush the Coastal People once and for all.” He gripped her hand tighter. “I will keep you safe, I swear I will.”
“I don’t need you to keep me safe.”
“You do, yes.” He insisted. “You need to listen to me here, Tandrea. If something happened to you, I’d…” He trailed off.
Tandy kept staring at him, unsure of what to say to that.
“The difference between today and yesterday, is that my nephew now has hope that there’s a way out of this.” Kobb explained. “He’s starting to feel like there might be a happy ending here for someone, and he wants it to be you.” He shook his head. “Yesterday, this entire enterprise was doomed to failure and he didn’t foresee a future at all.”
“Aw, that’s sweet.” She smiled up at Tzadok as the man continued to search for assassins behind every bush and tree. “How about you, Kobb?” She looked back at him. “Are you feeling more optimistic?”
“There is a happy ending for some of us, yes.” Kobb agreed cryptically.
Tzadok kicked a fallen log, splintering the wood and sending it down the steep incline to their right.
“Makes it easier for them to track us.” Kobb admonished.
“They know where we are, already. The false trail from the horses won’t fool them for long.” Tzadok helped Tandy over the debris. “We need to go faster, not quieter.” He gritted his teeth in sudden anger. “I shouldn’t be running away from my enemies.”
“You aren’t. You are merely taking your Heart back to your people, as quickly as possible.” Kobb assured him. “The sooner you get there, the sooner you can mount a full-scale attack on your enemies. Thus, we are running fast. It would be dishonorable to walk slowly behind, when there is battle ahead. We should rush to meet it.”
Tzadok seemed to like that interpretation, since it allowed him to protect her without losing honor or looking cowardly.
Tandy silently debated with herself whether or not to ask him something, then decided that it was as good a time as any. “So… (weird word)?”
“Yeah?”
“That’s like… ‘marriage,’ right?”
Tzadok turned to look at her in amazement. “Now? You’re curious about this now?”
“Well… there might not be a later.”
“I’m more confused about the ‘before,’ since this has been a topic of near constant discussion between us.” He reminded her. “Was it not clear?”
“Just…” She cleared her throat. “Just answer. It’s important.”
“No.” He shook his head. “It’s nothing like your ‘marriage.’ Marriage requires a simple exchange of formal words to create the bond. It’s meaningless. But to be Keeper of Heart is… well… you can’t create it. It either is or it isn’t. And if it is, that’s unbreakable and forever.”
“But it’s still… romantic, right? The union of hearts or something?”
“More like literal exchange.” He stopped to look down at her. “You are my heart.” He told her softly. “You are the only piece of me that matters. I cannot function without you.” His hand reached up to cup her face. “That’s what it means.”
“Oh…” She didn’t know what to say to that, feeling hopelessly lost in his intense eyes.
Despite the absurdity of the emotion, given the significant risk of death at the moment, Tandy’s body reacted instantly to his touch.
“That’s… not how I interpreted it.” She breathed, trying to regain her senses. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not something that needs to be interpreted.” He leaned closer, his face inches from hers. “It just is.”
“Ah.” She nodded, recognizing the fact that she should pull away, but finding herself unable to. She really wanted to kiss him. “And you were serious when you called me that at the meeting?”
“I’m always serious.” He reminded her. “And you are my Keeper of Heart. I’ve felt it from the beginning.”
“What does it feel like?” She breathed.
“I’ll show you…”
His lips slammed into hers, devouring her with a possessive growl. A jolt of desire shot through her like lightning, tearing away her fear and replacing it with passion.
His hand settled on her waist and he pulled her closer, pressing her against him as he continued the kiss.
She didn’t resist, instead, she wrapped her leg around the back of his knee, wanting to be as close as possible to him.
It felt so… perfect.
“
Tzadok broke off the kiss, coming up for air. “We should go.” He decided, remembering the current crisis.
“We can… we can wait a couple more minutes.” She argued, trying to pull him closer again. “It’ll be okay. You’ll take care of me.”
She wasn’t entirely sure if she meant that he’d protect her or if she meant the words in a sexual sense, but either way, she was happy with the idea.
“I can…” He looked down at her, leaning in closer. “We can probably wait a few minutes.” He agreed. “Good idea.”
“Or an hour.” She corrected, grabbing the back of his head.
“Plenty of time…” His hand slid down to her rear and pulled her against him, his strong fingers kneading her flesh. “Just means I’ll slay those pathetic dogs sooner…”
“Not to disagree, but I think time is of the essence here.” Kobb snapped his fingers by their faces. “Come on. We need to get moving if we want to avoid a fight.”
Tzadok glared at the man like death itself. “I do not need to ‘avoid’ fights I can win.” He snapped. “I will shatter their contemptable bones, like cheap pottery thrown onto a stone floor.”
“Can Tandy win the battle?” Kobb arched an eyebrow. “Because if you fight here, she’s going to be in the middle of it. Your Heart will be exposed.” He shook his head. “I would not want that. I would want my Heart somewhere safe when my enemies came for me.” His voice became harsher. “If my Heart were here and in danger, I would leave behind anyone who couldn’t keep up, nephew or not!” He snapped. “So move your ass!”
Tzadok swore savagely.
Tandy made a face. “I’m really starting to dislike you, Kobb.”
“Everyone does, sooner or later.” Kobb agreed. “But it’ll be over soon.”
Tzadok swore again. “He’s right, he’s right...” He repeated, trying to convince himself. “I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry, it was selfish.”
“I’m okay with selfish.” She instantly decided. “Selfish feels pretty darn good sometimes.”
Tzadok pulled her closer. “I just…” He trai
led off. “You are everything. How did you get to be so perfect?”
“I took a lot of classes at the university?” She mumbled automatically, her brain supplying her mouth with utter nonsense because she was too busy fantasizing about the taste of his lips. “Not in… you know… ‘perfection’ or anything. Just in…” She stopped speaking because she was babbling. “We don’t have time for this, do we?”
His eyes moved down her body. “Not for what I want to do to you, no.”
“Ah.” She swallowed, somehow finding the strength to pull away from him. “Later. We’ll… we will talk about this later.” She cleared her throat. “I’m at ‘Nine’, by the way. On our chart? And it…”
“The clinical scale goes to ‘Ten.’” He finished for her. “I’m there already.”
“That… that sounds really dirty.”
“It does.” He agreed. “It really does.” He walked backwards for several steps, like he didn’t want to take his eyes off of her, then continued leading the way down the trail.
“Is this usual?” She called after him.
“Is what usual?”
“That there’d be so much fuss about someone finding their ‘Keeper of Heart’?”
“People can go their whole lives and never meet anyone who found one.” He pulled himself to the top of another obstacle, then reached down to help her climb up after him. “It is a very rare and sacred thing. The most important event anyone could ever hope to experience, and very few actually do.”
She grabbed his hand and let him pull her up. “Well… that’s an interesting custom.”
“’Interesting’ is not the word I would use to describe it.” He shook his head. “It is… it is… a miracle.”
“I know,” she nodded, ‘it’s very important, I get that.” She cleared her throat. “But… but I’ll still need my books.”
He let out an astonished gasp. “What!?!”
“I need my books, I’m sorry.” She shrugged helplessly. “That was the deal.”
“The deal did not take into account that you actually were my Keeper of Heart, only that you needed to claim to be my Keeper of Heart in order to be safe.” He protested. “The situation is different now.”
Kobb and the dark-haired woman joined them on the obstruction. “We don’t have time for that.” Kobb reminded his nephew. “That is a discussion that should happen later.” He turned to look at him over his shoulder. “And don’t yell at your Keeper of Heart. Chox forbids such things.”
“I’m not yelling at her,” Tzadok yelled down to him, “I was yelling at the lunacy of her decision and now I’m yelling at you for meddling, old man.”
Tandy reached out her hand so that Kobb could help her off of the landslide debris. “Weren’t you the one who said that you recognized that I was your Keeper of Heart immediately?” She asked Tzadok, jumping down to the ground and letting Kobb steady her. “So, technically, you had full knowledge of the situation, if that is in fact the situation, but you still offered the deal. Which created our current issue.”
Tzadok landed on his feet beside her, looking confused. “Huh?” He held out his hands in bafflement. “I don’t… I don’t even understand what that means.”
“It means that you…” She trailed off as men stepped from the shadows in front of them.
Coastal People, from the look of it. A lot of them.
She didn’t recognize any of them from the meeting though, which meant that Aix and Hawser must have placed them here before the Council of All Councils even started, just in case they lost.
Tandy made a face. She hated cheaters. There was no honor among barbarians anymore, it seemed.
Kobb nodded at the men, as if accepting a hard realization. “Well… going to the meeting was a bad idea, after all.”
“Only if we lose.” Tzadok squared his shoulders. “Otherwise, like Tandrea said, this merely puts a bunch of people I need to kill in one place. It’s less an ambush and more a convenience. Lambs lining up for a Butcher, waiting to be slaughtered.” He cracked his knuckles and pointed at the four largest men, who appeared to be more of Aix’s ringers, brought in to kill Tzadok. “I’ll take the four big ones.” He decided calmly, once more back in his element. “You hold off the little ones.”
The men in question were absolutely huge. All of them were, it was just that the four ringers were especially large.
Tandy swallowed, feeling scared about how this was going to turn out.
Tzadok started towards the warriors, raising his voice. “You show up to steal My Prize from me, you better bring a shit load’a more men than you brought today, you dog.” He informed the lead man coldly. “That is a mistake The Lord of Salt will make you pay for.”
“” The dark-haired woman told Tandy. “
“
Tandy gaped at him. “
“
He ignored the question, starting after Tzadok. He didn’t look at them as he walked past them on the trail. “
Tandy was too shocked to say anything and stood still.
The dark-haired woman frowned in confusion. “
The men began to group around Tzadok, who didn’t seem in the least bit intimidated by them.
Kobb held up his hands, to halt the confrontation. “If you wish to kill my nephew, it must be done as a Challenge!” He pointed at the men, continuing to walk forward. “You can’t just attack him in a group like this! The Council of All Councils has decreed that we may go in peace, and you are breaking their judgement.”
“Oh, now you’re interested in following the rules, is that it!?!” One of the Coastal People gasped. “Fuck you, old man. We’ve stopped listening to your lies and your false god.”
One of the warriors stepped closer, and Tzadok grabbed him by the straps which crisscrossed his bare chest, pulled him forward, directly into a head-butt which pulverized the man’s nose. The man fell backwards in a heap and Tzadok calmly stomped forward onto the man’s head, crushing his skull beneath his boot without even bothering to look down.
“This is a really bad fucking idea.” Tzadok warned the crowd, his temper obviously building. “I am not a man you attack on the road.” He pointed at the warriors. “If you walk away now, I will allow two of you to live. Just to spread the tale of what happens when you fuck with me.”
Another warrior pushed to the front towards Tzadok, a sneer on his face. “Your self-confidence…”
Tzadok kicked him in the stomach, causing the man to double over, then he grabbed the Coastal warrior’s head in a headlock and snapped his neck with practiced efficiency. He let the body drop unceremoniously to the ground, next to its companion. “Good.” He nodded. “Because I was lying anyway.” He braced his feet. “You’re all going to die today, whether you walk away or not. I will stretch each and every one of you out in your gore. I am The Lord of fucking Salt! And I HAVE SPOKEN!”
The crowd of men drew their swords.
Kobb reached down to his belt and grabbed his religious statue, holding it up to the sky in prayer. “Forgive them, Culler of Men…”
The men circled around Tzadok.
“…they do not listen when you speak. They have been led astray by The One Who Wears Shadows and his d
ark acolytes. They no longer respect your wrathful Word.” Kobb continued with religious fervor, his voice a thin anguished wail. He walked up behind the men, who were entirely focused on Tzadok. “But they can yet be shown the way. I swear to you, Culler of Men, they can yet be saved…” Kobb grabbed hold of his religious icon’s legs and yanked, revealing a push-dagger hidden inside, the blade extending from between the fingers of his clenched fist. He jammed the short wide-bladed knife directly into the man in front of him, rotated his wrist and the weapon’s T-shaped handle, then pulled it out again, taking a large chunk of the man’s vital organs with it. “I will teach them fear…” He promised darkly, holding up the dagger so that the man’s companions could see the gruesome fleshy tissue clinging to it. “…And you will open their fucking hearts, Culler of Men.”
Pandemonium erupted as a dozen men moved at once, all trying to kill the Saltmen.
Tzadok swung his war hammer, smashing it into several men and sending them toppling down the incline. One of the large ringers grabbed Tzadok from behind in a bear hug, trying to lift him off the ground so that he was helpless. The other large men prepared to swing their swords, but Tzadok jumped to kick at them, sending them over the edge. The motion caused the man holding him to stumble as well, from the force of the blow. He lost his balance, falling down the incline, his arms still locked around Tzadok. Half of the remaining men quickly followed them, disappearing into the darkness below the trail in order to finish Tzadok off.
Kobb glanced at Tandy again. “Run!” He yelled again, then refocused on the half dozen men still assembled on the road, who were there to abduct Tandy and the dark-haired woman.
“I am Kobb, The Thirty-Two Hundred…” he dropped the man’s dead body to the ground, “and One.” He shook his head. “And no man takes what is mine.”
The warriors started to rush forward towards him and he swung his wooden idol of Chox around on its chain like a mace, then flicked his wrist so that it was propelled forward to smash into the leader’s face. The heavy object caved in the man’s skull and sent him tumbling backward into his companions.
Captive of a Fairytale Barbarian Page 33
