Chronicles of Steele: Raven: The Complete Story

by Pauline Creeden

  A baby? The old woman truly was remarkable. Men like the guardsmen hardly knew which end to hold upright when handed a baby. They would do their best to avoid coming upstairs at all costs now. She smiled and backed into the small room with the tray. What would the old woman want in return for her help?

  She closed her eyes against the boy’s headlamp as she entered. The night vision goggles could damage her vision if she left them on in any sort of bright light. She set the tea tray on the foot of the bed across from the one the boy sat, and pulled the goggles from her head.

  “Hungry?” She asked Darius as she sat on the bed. “The guardsmen are downstairs, we need to be very quiet, understand?”

  “Understand?” The boy whispered in harsh tones, surprising Raven. “You keep asking me that as if I’m a baby. I’m nearly ten.”

  Raven nodded, her eyes widened. She took her headlamp and wound it to the end. “I’m sorry, Baron Darius. I don’t mean to be condescending to you. It’s just very important that we make no mistakes. One small error could cost us our lives.”

  “I know that. My life is at stake just as much as yours.” His eyes glistened in the light from the two small lamps. “I’m tired. I’m lonely. And I just want to go home.” The boy flung himself into the pillows and sobbed quietly as his shoulders rose and fell.

  Raven didn’t know what to do. Part of her wanted to smack the kid and tell him to get over it. Another, stronger part of her wanted to hug the poor boy and tell him that she was here for him. She frowned, kneeled on the floor beside his bed, and patted him on the back. After a moment, he sat up, threw his arms around her neck, and squeezed her. She held him, and rubbed his back as he sobbed on her shoulder.

  True strength is not found in muscles or size; it is entirely within the mind.

  Only from within can true strength be found.

  By one's wits, convince the opponent he is weaker.

  Use words wisely.

  JACK SENT BRADLEY, Harry, and Smith inside the house with Jasper. The reaper still lay unconscious in the arms of the three guardsmen. He stood at the bottom step of the porch with Rupert and Colton as the others went into the warmth of the house. The wind had a bite to it now, even though the snow had stopped falling. Pulling up his jacket around his neck, he patted one of the horses on the rump as he passed.

  They tied the horses loosely to the porch, filled feeder pans with oats, and broke ice from the top of the water trough. In case the sleet or snow should start up again, they unfolded the saddle blankets and tied the canvas tarps over to give the horses extra warmth and to keep them dry.

  Rupert patted Jack on the shoulder and handed him a bedroll. “Here you are, Captain.”

  Jack smiled and took the roll. “I think Smith was happy you didn’t accept the offer to stay inside with them.”

  “I doubt the company in that small house would be worth the heat. Who wants to listen to the bear snoring all night long again?”

  Colton shook his head and laughed. “Not me.”

  They trudged through the knee deep snow to the shed barn. Jack couldn’t wait to lie in his bedroll and get some rest. It seemed that the day would never end. The branches of the trees in the surrounding woods cracked and moaned in the wind. Snow fell from a nearby branch onto the roof of the shed and slid down the side. Disrupted icicles tinkled and fell to the ground.

  The barn smelled of chickens and goats. Jack left the door open and used the limited light from the moon to check the surroundings. The men made clear space to set up their bedrolls. Rupert and Colton moved a few bales of straw and pushed some chickens onto the other side of a stall door. A jingling sound came from one of the other stalls, and Jack wondered if they put tags on their goats. He peeked over the stall door just as the animal leapt at him.

  Jack’s heart jumped into his throat as he stumbled backwards. The camel-colored animal was larger than a goat and still came for him. Colton drew his gun and pointed it at the creature as it pounced on Jack again and licked his face.

  “Nikki,” he whispered as the realization hit him. “Colton, hold your fire.”

  Colton loosened the grip on his pistol and his eyes focused out the door of the barn. “They’re in the house.”

  Jack got the dog under control and stood. Nikki’s tail beat against his legs as he herded her back into the stall she’d been in. He looked both men in the eyes and tried to keep calm. “We’ll need to keep this quiet and form a plan of action.”

  They both nodded but went to stand in the doorway of the barn, and stare at the house. The cottage had no windows on the second story, and it seemed small. The woman and boy were trapped on the second floor if they could secure the lower story. “I think you both should stay here and keep an eye on the house from the outside. I don’t see a means of escape, but if she somehow makes it back to the first floor, there are exits to the front and to the back.”

  Colton shivered in the cold, his wide blue eyes fixed on the house.

  “Colton, stay here to the back—”

  “Sir, with all due respect, I don’t see how we’re going to do this by brute force. We attempted it once in the woods, to no avail. We cannot sneak up on her, nor can we defeat her in battle, no matter our number. The six of us were rendered useless in a short time.”

  Jack swallowed, and Rupert opened his mouth to protest, but Colton held up a finger.

  He twisted his lip as if he smelled something rancid as he continued. “The duke forced that other reaper upon us, and we put our hopes in him. Look where that has gotten us. We’re now carrying around his injured body and can only just barely keep him alive on this journey.”

  “I, for one, am not giving up—” Rupert started.

  Jack set a hand on his shoulder and gave him a sharp look to stay quiet. Rupert and Colton were his equals. The black skinned second-in-command had been like a brother to him, but he was more passion than calculation. Colton had been brought up as a noble, but because the line to any sort of title or hold was long for him, he’d joined the guard. The man’s sharp chin and soft handsome features expressed his nobility. Never once could he get any of the other guardsmen to accept a game of chess with him for he did not lose.

  “What do you suggest?”

  “Negotiation. Lay our cards down and see what she’d say. She must have some sort of motivation for what she’s doing. This woman is more than just a kidnapper, even if that is what the duke calls her.”

  It made perfect sense. Jack glanced at the house and nodded. The idea that one of these men watched each side of the house for the reaper’s escape was ridiculous. She could cut her way through every man faster than the rotating blade of a steam-powered cotton gin. His heart raced.

  Somehow the thought of speaking to this woman made him more nervous than fighting her. He admitted to himself what he’d known all along. He’d lose in a fight, and that’s why he no longer felt nervous about it. But talking to her, he had a chance at winning this thing. But he could mess it up if he said the wrong thing or asked the wrong question. “Should you talk to her, Colton?”

  “No, sir,” Colton shook his head. His eyes never left the snow-covered cottage thirty yards away. “She’ll want to talk to the one of us that has the most power. And she already knows you’re captain. I believe that’s why she took you out last…before, sir.” His eyes dropped for a moment and then looked back into Jack’s. “She wanted to negotiate with you then.”

  Jack tightened his jaw. He’d tried to negotiate with her then, but she didn’t seem interested. He could follow Colton’s line of logic, but not sure if this would deteriorate into the same sort of argument again. “All right. But I want you next to me the entire time, right?”

  Colton nodded and gathered his coat.

  “Just keep me from saying anything stupid.”

  A thought hit her, and Raven sucked in her breath. The dog. The guardsmen staying in the shed barn couldn’t miss the Great Dane. Could they possibly assume the dog belonged to the old woman
? No chance. She pushed the boy back gently.

  She scanned the dim light in the room. How could she be so stupid? The windowless walls mocked her. Trapped like rabbits in a cage. This room had never been a suitable hiding space.

  “What’s wrong?” Darius’s eyes still glistened in the pale light from the headlamps, but fear and surprise quickly replaced the sorrow.

  She shook her head and shot to her feet. What could she say? The walls of the room closed in on her and her throat tightened. They needed to go. Now.

  The tray on the bed rattled when she grabbed her carpet bag. She shoved the wet clothing inside and stepped to the door. The handle felt like a block of ice in her hand. She turned it and opened the door a crack. The pitch black hall gave her comfort, and the rumble of voices downstairs put her at ease. Perhaps they could sneak past them in the shadows. If she could get the old woman’s attention, maybe the woman could get the men into the kitchen. Raven could make her escape with Darius. They’d have to leave the dog behind, but maybe she could convince the young baron that they’d come back for her in a few days.

  Holding the headlamp in her hand, she shined the light into the hallway. Darius gripped her arm, his nails pinching the flesh under her canvas sleeve. His voice shook as he whispered again, “What’s going on?”

  His eyes had grown more fear-filled. She clenched her teeth, knowing she needed to dissolve his fear before he froze or worked himself into a fit. He’d be hard to move under those conditions, or he might make too much noise.

  “We need to get out of here. We can’t stay.” She barely stopped herself from asking if he understood. He didn’t want her to patronize him, and she needed to show him she respected him as an equal.

  He nodded. The expression on his face grew focused and lost its uncertainty.

  She nodded in return and pulled the door open. It creaked against the hinges. Raven twisted her arm in a motion to take hold of Darius’s hand. He gripped her fingers. The floorboards in the hallway creaked with every step they made. A cloud of her breath in the cold air contradicted the sweat which beaded on her forehead.

  At the top of the stairs, she released Darius’s hand and wound the key on her lamp backwards a tick. The light snuffed out. Without direction, the boy did the same. She smiled in the dark. He really was a smart, perceptive kid. The light from the fireplace danced on the wooden stairwell below them. She cringed at the memory of the noisy boards that complained with each step. Her heart fell as the impossibility of the task ahead dawned on her.

  “Raven Steele!” The deep, baritone voice of Captain Jack Grant echoed up the stairs.

  She gasped and clenched the railing. Blood rushed to her head, causing her vision to swim. It was too late. They’d already found her out. She took a step back and began to retreat down the hallway. The building had a thatched roof– maybe they could lift it. Would the snow be deep enough to break the fall from this height?

  “Raven, we know you’re up there. The building has no windows on the second floor. We also know that you could make your escape through our very midst, if you’re willing to use that sword to do so.” His voice grew softer. “We’re not interested in dying, Raven. We only want to talk.”

  The half laugh, half huff came out her nose without her conscious thought. Talk? Women talked. Men challenged each other through games or combat. So Raven wondered what kind of challenge this man had for her.

  “Please don’t bother my guests. You’ll wake the baby.” The old woman continued her ruse.

  Then a baby began to cry. Raven turned her head to the room across the hallway from her own. There had been a baby in the room the whole time? She’d been in the house for hours, and no one had gone upstairs to care for it and it had never made a sound? She stepped toward the teal door and turned the handle. Locked. It didn’t budge in her hand. They locked the room with the baby in it?

  Stairs whined under the weight of a person climbing the steps. The old woman grumbled incoherently as she made her way up. One of the other guardsmen protested. “Madam, I must ask that you remain down here. We know the woman you harbor up the steps. It’s not safe.”

  “You lot are disturbing our guests. I need to go see if the young woman needs help with her child.” She continued up the creaking stairs.

  When she reached the top, the old woman smiled at them and put a finger to her lips. Something in that smile seemed sinister, and Raven felt uneasy for the first time. Her fingers itched to grip her blade. The firelight from below lit the white-haired woman’s face in a ghastly way. She pointed to the door to the room where the wails continued. The cries slowly settled into silence. She never opened the door and didn’t take another step toward it.

  The hairs on Raven’s arms stood upright as understanding fell upon her. The Wood Witch. They’d reached her early.

  Neither underestimate nor overestimate one's opponent or his abilities.

  Do not work on assumptions. They are often wrong.

  JACK PACED TO the bottom of the steps. The baby’s cries had grown silent almost immediately after the stairs stopped groaning under the weight of the woman. The quarter hour had passed in an eternity. He gripped the bottom railing and fought the temptation to run up the steps after her.

  “What are you waiting for, Captain?” Colton stood at his shoulder, the fire light causing his blond hair to glow.

  Jack furrowed his brows. “What do you mean?”

  “I believe that if you go up the stairs alone, the reaper would not feel threatened. She’d take your attempt at negotiation more seriously than asking her to come down the steps.”

  “Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Jack rolled his eyes and dashed up the steps, two at a time.

  At the top of the stairs he froze. Raven Steele lay on the ground, choking. Darius cowered against the back wall, tears streaming down his face. The old woman’s cottony hair glowed in the teal light that emanated both from the doors and from her hands. Without a second thought, he yelled and rushed at the old woman, tackling her to the ground.

  The eerie teal glow immediately snuffed out. Raven Steele drew herself up slowly, but the dark made it difficult to see. He could only just make out her tan dress. “Raven, are you all right?”

  “Get off me, you ox.” The woman beneath him struggled, but he held her down. Her arms were pinned under her body.

  “Stay still, woman. The more you struggle, the more I feel it necessary to hold you down.”

  Behind them, the stairwell creaked with the weight of another rushing up. Colton called out, “Captain, is everything all right?”

  “All’s well, guardsmen. Hold your ground and come up no farther.” The last thing Jack needed was for Raven to fight her way through this.

  The sound of a key grinding through clockwork gears filled the small hallway. A small lamp in the reaper’s hand lit the circle surrounding the four of them. Her eyes were wide and questioning. “Why? Why did you stop her?”

  He furrowed his brow. “What do you mean? She was hurting you and scaring the young baron.”

  Her head tilted as she studied Jack. “But I was incapacitated. You could have helped the woman keep me that way.”

  Jack shook his head. It was strange. The thought hadn’t occurred to him. As he considered it now, it still didn’t make any sense. “I don’t know this woman. Why would I trust her?”

  Raven’s violet eyes danced in the small light, and she smiled. “You trust me more?”

  “I definitely don’t trust a woman using magic.” He lifted his eyebrows. “Unless you use magic to move as fast as you do?”

  She laughed and shook her head. “No. No magic involved.”

  Jack grinned. “I thought not.”

  The woman grumbled into the floorboards. “Great. I’m glad you both get along so well. I’m not struggling down here, you know. Could you get off me now?”

  “What do you think?” Jack tilted his head toward Raven and gestured toward the woman. “Should I let her go?”

&
nbsp; Raven handed the light to Darius and drew the sword from her back. She gripped it in both hands and spread her feet apart. Her eyes narrowed and her voice turned gruff. “Woman. Make one move with your hand like that again—one flicker of that greenish light from a finger, and you’ll lose it. Am I clear?”

  The woman beneath Jack grunted an affirmative. He stood slowly, keeping an eye on her. White hair shot out in all directions, and she attempted to pat it down as she stood. “You know that an old woman could break a bone in a fall like that, don’t you, young man?”

  Jack felt pressed to speak, but he kept his mouth shut. He didn’t need Colton there to tell him to let Raven handle this woman. It seemed an obvious part of the negotiation. He leaned against the railing of the stairs and peered down. Colton stood still, halfway up the steps. The firelight danced and showed Rupert at the bottom step as well. Jack nodded to them, and held a hand out, motioning for them to stay put.

  “What was the meaning of this, woman?” Raven’s voice lost its questioning tone and became commanding.

  The woman hunched over and looked suddenly older than she’d been earlier. “Forgive me, Reaper, I only wanted to help.”

  “Help?” Raven took a forceful step toward the woman. The point of the short sword leveled with the woman’s chin. “How do you contort your actions as help?”

  The woman straightened up, indignant. She put her hands on her hips. “You made a move I took as aggressive. You attacked me. Are you not here for my help, Reaper? Did you not bring the young baron to me?”