Wanderling's Choice

by D C McLaughlin

  Many eyes took note of their departure.

  ***

  Rhi rode Falcon hard and fast all the day. When dusk came, she took him off the roads and into the woodlands. She rode for about an hour after sunset to find a well-hidden place to make camp. She left the bridle and saddle on Falcon but loosened the girth and removed her bags. She decided against a fire and ate a cold meal instead.

  She was just about to roll herself into her blankets when there came the snapping sound of something large stepping on brittle branches. Falcon started and his body language changed. He was no longer a horse relaxing after a hard day's ride. He was all tense and alert, his muscles twitching, ears poised forward in the direction of the sound.

  Rhi too came to life. Her heart started to race. Was it a wild animal or worse? Her eyes searched the dark underbrush. But she saw nothing.

  Then a small white pouch sailed out of the woods and hit Falcon on the flank. It immediately exploded into a white powder. Falcon jumped and reared in fright with a small squeal. In his excitement, he spun into the white cloud which was quickly rising from the ground. He suddenly staggered as if he was drunk and groaned.

  Rhi knew exactly what had happened. Her horse was being drugged!

  She lunged for her pack and grabbed for the short sword at her side in the same moment. But a rough hand clutched hers before she could reach it and whipped her around to face her attacker.

  Her frightened eyes stared into the night-darkened face of one of the horse traders she had run afoul of earlier in the day.

  He smiled widely at her. His breath had an awful stench and most of his front teeth were missing.

  Then his fist, hard as a brick, crashed into her face and the world went black.

  ***

  Rhi woke up to grass beneath her. Her whole face was swollen, hot and throbbing and she couldn't open her right eye. She tried to carefully assess her surroundings.

  A large fire had been built in the clearing. Falcon lay just beyond her on the ground. His hooves were bound tight and his sides were heaving so she knew he was still alive.

  There was a small huddle of rawboned, wormy looking horses tied to a picket line off in the shadows. They stood with their heads down and eyes closed, without grazing, as if they did not care what happened to them anymore. But their hooves flashed and glittered strangely in the dark of the night.

  Rhi tried to move her head without being seen and looked toward the campfire. Five large, man shapes were gathered across from her, on the other side of the flames. They were drinking and laughing and poking through her belongings in the saddlebags.

  "How did this broad get so much money?" one said in an alcohol slurred voice.

  "Must've stolen it," coughed another. "Nice haul though. We got ourselves a heavy pouch of gold, a fine sword and a good stallion to make a pretty penny off of. Bonuses all around. Drink up, boys!"

  Another man belched rudely.

  "But whadda we do wif her?"

  "Waddaya mean?"

  "I mean we came to steal a horse. She was never part of the bargain."

  Another one snorted and sputtered into his mug.

  "Didn't you hear the boss? Bonuses all around! She's a bonus!"

  The biggest man shape shrugged and waved as if it made no difference to him.

  "I don't care what you do with her! Sell her as a slave in the next town, tenderize her a bit, take turns having fun with her and then dump her body in the river, whatever. I'm sure you'll think of something."

  Rhi felt the breath in her throat turn icy.

  "She said she has no man. That means no one is looking for her."

  Another one guffawed as he slugged his drink, "She's not royalty and that's certain. So no good asking for a ransom."

  The smaller man coughed.

  "You ever heard of someone asking for a reward for a simple peasant lass? No one will miss her."

  They all laughed as one.

  "I guess that means we can all line up for a ride then!"

  Rhi's heart was pounding in terror by now.

  "Hey! She's moving! She's waking up."

  They all looked in her direction. Rhi tried not to whimper in fear.

  "I'll fix that!" grumbled the first one and before any of his drunken fellows could stop him, he stooped and threw a hot rock from the fire at Rhi. She rolled away but it clocked her across the top of her head, etching a long, bloody, gash into her scalp.

  She moaned in pain and fought the wave of unconsciousness which threatened to envelop her again. She tried to crawl away into the darkness.

  Running footsteps caught up with her and she was suddenly pinned to the ground by a hobnailed boot.

  "Don't kill her!" shouted one. "I like it when they scream."

  Rhi moaned in hopelessness. Without knowing how, the fingers of her right hand found the silver medallion which still dangled around her throat.

  "Shayne, help me," she whispered without even thinking.

  She prayed this nightmare would just go away.

  And then she got her wish.

  There was sudden flash of brilliant, white light.

  The hard boot seemed to be knocked off her back. The man above her shrieked in surprise and pain. Blood splashed Rhi in the face and fell like rain about her. And then with a hard thud, he was lying on the ground next to Rhi. His face was inches from hers, his wide, frightened eyes frozen open. There was a line of blood across his throat and Rhi could see his cut windpipe clearly exposed.

  He was dead.

  She squeaked in surprise and rolled onto her back.

  "Who's next?" Shayne dared them.

  Rhi didn't know who was more surprised, the robbers or her.

  Shayne stood between the thieves and her. He looked different. He was no taller but had adopted the warrior's stance, feet positioned in a lunge, short sword held out in front of him. His expression was hard and cold as ice. He looked quite fearsome.

  The robbers were startled but recovered fast. They exchanged looks among themselves and Rhi could tell they were going to rush him all at once and try to overwhelm him.

  Shayne just smiled and beckoned them to try and do so with his free hand.

  The thieves roared as one and charged him. Shayne sidestepped the first one easily, ducked and tripped the second, pushed the third one into the fire and kicked hot coals into the face of another. While two were busy screaming from the fire's effects, he spun smoothly on his heel and engaged the other two.

  The one thief danced easily about him and Rhi thought for a minute Shayne would be skewered. But his reactions were smoother and faster than the robber. He sidestepped the stab and slashed his sword across the robber's wrist making him drop the sword. Shayne caught it by the hilt before the weapon had a chance to revolve once in its plummet to earth and with his own sword, Shayne slashed the side of the robber's neck. A well-placed kick to the chest knocked the fatally wounded man out of the way and Shayne turned his attention to the next thief. The other man tried to dodge Shayne's attack but was too drunk with alcohol and stumbled. Shayne spun the hilt of the sword around in his fingers and stabbed him once in the chest, in and out.

  He then turned to the two burned robbers.

  The one who got hot coals in the face rushed at him, shouting and slashing in wild, blind motions. Shayne stabbed him in the side mortally wounding him as he went crashing by.

  The last one who got hot coals in the chest, grabbed a handful of them in his glove and threw the burning embers at Shayne. It was a desperate action meant to buy him time and Shayne knew it. He dodged the toss easily. But then the man crashed into him before he could bring his swords up to bear and with a grunt and a thud they fell tumbling to earth. Shayne dropped one of his swords. Each had hold of the other's hands and they rolled about, trying to out-grapple the other.

  Rhi crawled to her hands and knees as they rolled about and painfully scrambled to where they had emptied her saddlebags. She took back her sword and clutching it to her ches
t protectively, turned back to the fight. Shayne and the robber were still wrestling on the ground. They scrambled and fought to break each other's hold.

  Their kicking struggle rolled them close to Rhi. But both were so involved in the fight, they didn't see her. Rhi noticed the thief was a lot bigger than Shayne.

  Another twist and grunt and they bumped closer to her. Rhi saw an opening and dove in with her sword. She felt the blade cut smoothly through flesh, scrape bone and impale organs. There was a hideous scream and a shudder. Rhi felt the man scream through the sword in her hand. She jerked the sword free and dropped it.

  Both men stopped moving. A deathly silence now blanketed the clearing broken only by the cracks and pops from the fire.

  Rhi just tried to catch her breath for a moment. A horrible thought occurred to her. What if, in stabbing her captor, she had made a mistake and accidentally killed Shayne?

  "Shayne?" she called fearfully. "Shayne!"

  An arm flopped out from under the two men and its fingers reached for her. Shayne rolled his head over to look at her. He seemed very winded and struggled to catch his breath.

  "Still alive," he gasped.

  With a sob of relief, Rhi grabbed his one hand with both of hers and clung tight.

  Then she fainted.

  SHAYNE

  When she awoke, she was propped up in a sitting position against a rock and Shayne was stitching her scalp closed.

  "You had to wake up now! I'm almost done," he muttered.

  Rhi whimpered and tried to lie very still. It was a very strange feeling as the needle went through her skin and the jagged edges were pulled closed. Her scalp was pouring blood as he finished. Luckily he only had two more stitches to do. This done, he produced a bowl of warm water and some clean rags and began to carefully wash the blood from her face. His touch was very gentle. In spite of this she still gasped in pain.

  "I'm sorry," he consoled. "I'm doing my best not to hurt you. You've lost a lot of blood. It's the nature of head wounds."

  "How did they find me?" she finally managed to ask.

  "They had help, magical help," he told her. "Their horses had enchanted horseshoes that allowed them to travel faster than any normal horse. They also had a gem which allowed them to track anybody they wanted to. They were bound to find you. If I had known this at the horse fair, I would have never left your side."

  He finished cleaning her face and turned his inspection to her swollen eye.

  "Did they hurt you in any other way? I mean….like…"

  She didn't want to hear him say the word "rape" to her.

  "No," she answered quickly. "But they were about to."

  She dropped the gaze of her one good eye to the ground.

  "I feel stupid that you had to come and save me. I should have never gotten into this situation in the first place."

  Shayne had rescued her. This meant Rhi had been put into a predicament that made her helpless. And she hated being helpless!

  "Hush! The important thing is that I got there before anything really horrible happened to you. You were very lucky, my dear."

  He began to clean up the medical supplies.

  Rhi's face was beginning to throb and talking hurt because it pulled on her swollen mouth.

  "There's one thing I don't understand though," Shayne said thoughtfully.

  "Mmm. What?" Rhi hoped that it wouldn't be a long answer.

  Shayne went to the edge of the campsite and dumped out the bloody water.

  "You called for a hero to come and rescue you. You could have called for anyone…a knight in armor, a constable, your true love. Instead you called for me. Why me?"

  Rhi sighed. All right! That's the way he wanted it, a long answer.

  "I have no true love," she insisted.

  He looked her straight in the face.

  "I guess I figured if I ever needed rescuing….I'd want you to do it. Just you. No one else." She gave a big sigh.

  Shayne nodded. "Okay," he said slowly, "But why me?"

  "Because you're the only one in this crazy world I trust."

  He just looked at her for a long moment. "You trust a horse trader?" he said quietly.

  She sniffed and winced in pain at the motion.

  "You're not a horse trader!" she insisted with some heat. "You're not like any horse trader I've ever met before. There's a touch of magic about you, that much is obvious. Who or what you are I don't know. But not a horse trader!"

  Shayne was very quiet. He went to his bags and produced what looked like a wineskin. He returned to her side and handed it to her.

  "It's not water," he told her. "Take a couple swigs of this. It will help you heal and take care of some of the pain."

  She did as he bid. The liquid burned like hot fire going down her throat.

  "You're too hurt to travel much," he continued. "We'll stay here until you've healed up. It's safe enough here now."

  She almost laughed.

  "You're to be my nurse?"

  Shayne smiled. It was an easy, true smile. "I have the time. And I don't mind," he replied.

  She wondered if she had broken down enough defenses to get him to talk. "Shayne, will you ever tell me your story, your real story?"

  He had stood up and gone to replace the wineskin. "Maybe someday."

  Rhi shrugged. "We have plenty of time now."

  He kept his back turned to her, hiding his face. She felt he had left her somehow. His mind was someplace far, far away.

  "It is not a pleasant tale," he said quietly. For a moment she thought he would tell her.

  "And it pains me to relive it. So no, not now. But someday maybe."

  He replaced his gear and returned to sit beside her. His expression was lighter and more carefree than a moment ago.

  Rhi considered him for a long minute. The firelight flashed off the setting on the feather he wore about his neck.

  "The feather I gave you, why did you keep it?" she asked.

  He shrugged as if the answer should be obvious to her. "Because you gave it to me."

  She shook her head as much as she was able to. "No, that's not it. It's just a feather. It's not a ring or a jewel or a magic charm. Just a feather. What's so important about it?"

  He gave a small smile. "My dear, do you realize how many pretty, young, women give me nice things?"

  Again she shook her head.

  "No one. Just you. Therefore it is important to me. And yes, it is magic. To me, no one else. There's a lot of magic in little things."

  This only served to confuse her more.

  He gave her an even wider, more maddening smile. "Oh by the way, the potion I made you drink? It also makes you sleep."

  As he said this, her eyelids drooped, her head nodded and rolled to the side and she fell into a deep slumber.

  Shayne gently eased her off of the rock and laid her down flat on the ground. He arranged the goatskin saddle-pad for a pillow underneath her head and tucked in the blankets. Then he just sat there on the grass next to her and looked at her for a long while. Shayne picked up her hand and stroked it affectionately.

  "I wonder…are you the one?" he whispered.

  He stroked the uninjured side of her face once.

  "I want you to be the one."

  He toyed with the feather he wore about his neck. He then picked up the small, silver medallion she wore. He flipped it over and read the inscription. His expression was blank.

  "Why have you wormed your way into my heart, little lass, when no other woman has?"

  He heaved a heavy sigh, one full of memories and disappointments, dreams and despair. He released her hand and tucked the covers in about her.

  Then he peered closely into her sleeping face.

  "Save me, Rhiannon," he spoke softly to her.

  Shayne bent low and kissed her tenderly on the forehead.

  He then returned to his own bedroll across the campfire and closer to the horses.

  ***

  Rhi slept long and hard th
anks to the effects of the potion. She awoke late in the day when the sun had dipped low on the horizon. She saw no sign of Shayne.

  She sat up and looked about. Somehow it didn't feel like he had left her. The fire was blazing and an iron pot has been set to boil over it. Falcon had been released from his bonds and looked much better, if somewhat subdued in disposition. The robber's horses looked like they were coming back to life again. They were grazing contentedly on their picket line.

  Slowly, carefully, Rhi got to her feet. Her head throbbed a little but it was nothing like the day before. The swelling over her eye was going down and she could actually see some out of it. She bet it looked a sight! Rhi was glad she didn't have a mirror.

  Where HAS Shayne gone? she wondered.

  She wandered about the campsite a bit looking for him. She heard the trickle of a stream and followed the sound. And there she found Shayne.

  He was barefoot, stripped to his waist and standing knee deep in the stream. His upper half was covered in dirt.

  She knew she shouldn't have spied on him. But she watched anyway as he scrubbed the dirt from his arms and chest. He splashed himself liberally with the icy water then dunked his head and shook it through his hair. He flung back his hair and straightened up. She watched the water rain off of him and the sun glisten on his wet skin.

  He turned around and saw her.

  "How long have you been standing there?"

  She blushed, embarrassed and turned away. She didn't answer. She just made her way back to the camp. She heard him mutter behind her.

  "You're definitely a farm girl! Good thing I didn't come out of my breeches."

  Her face got hotter.

  Just then she stubbed her toe on something and stumbled.

  "Hey! Should you be walking around just yet?" he called out to her and she heard him come splashing out of the stream after her.

  But Rhi couldn't move. She could only stare at what was before her and tremble. Her body had suddenly gone ice cold.

  There were five mounds of newly turned earth before her…five graves.

  Rhi suddenly realized why Shayne was bathing in the stream--to wash off all the grave dirt.