Mercenary Little Death Bringer

by Banks, Catherine

  “I followed you here when we were second years after you had that fight with Brock and he’d upset you,” Favian said as he sat down beside me.

  “Have you come to take me to Mother so that she can lock me up in the castle’s dungeon?” I asked.

  “No,” Favian said with a laugh, “Though I have thought of doing that a few times.”

  “Everything I said was the truth,” I told him softly, “She cannot keep me from being who I really am. I am not a lady to stay at the castle while you go off and fight battles.”

  “I know,” he said, “And she knows that as well. She is simply worried for your safety as I was.”

  “Is that why you got so mad? Because you are worried for me? Or was it because I’m your partner and wouldn’t listen to you?” I asked as I opened my eyes to look at him.

  He nodded his head. “All of that. You are very stubborn,” he said with a smile.

  “As if you aren’t,” I teased.

  He laughed and then went silent and still. I saw his face change from happy to serious as he listened to something in the distance. The tree leaves rustled in the wind and Favian’s silver hair swayed with the breeze. I wanted to run my fingers through it to see if it was as soft as it looked, but I kept my hands where they were. The horses were also turning their ears in search of whatever they were hearing. I wanted to ask what it was, but he would just shush me so I waited for him to tell me.

  My patience was growing thin when Favian suddenly jumped on top of me, shielding my body with his. I heard the sound of arrows striking the ground near us and tried to throw him off of me so that he could protect himself. Arrows whizzed past our bodies and their metal heads buried into the ground just past our feet. There had to be at least four shooters to release this many arrows at once. “Favian get off of me! Run to the trees!” I told him. If we didn’t move soon the shooters would correct their aim and then his back would look like a porcupine’s.

  He stared down into my eyes and shook his head. “You won’t make it to the trees without getting hit.”

  “You’re going to get hit if you don’t get off of me. Now get off and we’ll run.”

  The arrows slowed and Favian’s jaw clenched. “You run as fast as you can. Understand?” As if I needed to be told that!

  I nodded my head and he jumped off of me and grabbed my hand, pulling me to my feet and we started running. The arrows increased in number and this time they were aimed directly at us and I could see they were coming from the road. Favian and I dodged the arrows right and left as we ran for cover, the sound of them whizzing past our ears like angry wasps. We made it to the trees and I pressed my body against the trunk of a tree, folding my arms against the front of my body so they wouldn’t get hit by arrows.

  “Who is it?” I asked, “Is this a test?”

  “I don’t know,” Favian said angrily, “They aren’t talking and I can’t see them through the woods.”

  Fire neighed from off to my right and I turned to find her looking around for me. She spotted me and screamed a horse scream of fear and worry and then started to run towards me. I yelled at her to stop, but she didn’t listen. She ran to me and I did the only thing I could do, I grabbed onto her saddle and let her take me away from Favian and the arrows. I didn’t want to leave him, but if I had let Fire stand near me she would have been hit by the arrows. I couldn’t let her get injured because of me.

  Favian whistled and I heard Ice whinny in response and knew he would be after me soon. Fire took a side path which was dangerously steep and led down to the lake. Unfortunately it was the only path besides the one we’d taken to get there and despite it’s dangerousness it was the only way for us to get out alive. Fire grunted with effort as she made her way down the path, trying to keep me alive. I could hear Favian and Ice behind us, but didn’t dare turn around for fear or throwing Fire off balance. We were almost to the bottom when arrows began flying over our heads. Fire blew loudly out of her nose in frustration and then finally jumped down the last five feet to the flat wide trail around the lake. Her muscles bunched as she prepared to gallop around the trail, but I pulled on her reins, making her wait for Favian and Ice. They finally made it down and Favian yelled, “What are you waiting for? Run!”

  I loosened Fire’s reins and she took off at a full gallop, turning right so that we were protected by the mountain from the arrows and our attackers. “How are we going to get back? They’re on the only road that leads to the school?” I asked Favian as the horses carried us farther from our attackers.

  “There is another path we can take,” he said, “But I don’t know if they’ll have that blocked as well.”

  “It’s our only choice,” I told him, “We don’t have any real weapons except our throwing knives.” I desperately wished for my sword underneath my bed. “How did they get inside the grounds?” This was not a test, Macon wouldn’t allow us to be put in so much danger. How had they gotten passed everyone without being noticed? Had they slipped in the back way and gone unseen by the guard there?

  “I don’t know,” Favian said angrily, “But we need to find out.” We slowed the horses since we were out of immediate danger and didn’t want to use up all of their energy yet. “Follow me,” Favian said as he steered Ice off of the path and into the trees, “And watch your back,” he reminded me.

  I followed him silently, listening for any sound out of place or any sight to indicate that we might be walking into a trap. We had been through several tests similar to this, but this was the first real problem we had experienced. This was the first time our lives were on the line. Surprisingly I felt very calm and not even a little bit scared as we made our way through the forest as silently as we could.

  Favian stopped Ice and Fire stopped behind him. I heard the noise too, which meant it was close so I went on high alert, looking everywhere for a potential threat. Unfortunately we weren’t prepared for the attackers to be right above us, having been camouflaged so well that the horses and Favian didn’t pick up their scents or bodies.

  Two attackers dropped down from the trees onto Favian, pulling him from Ice’s saddle, but Favian saw them move just before they dropped and had pulled his knives to fight them. Both attackers had dark masks on so I couldn’t see what type of being they were or who they were.

  I didn’t have long to watch because another attacker dropped from the tree above me and landed on Fire’s back right behind me. I tried to turn to fight my attacker, but they wrapped their arms around my waist, grabbed the reins and dug their heels into Fire, making her spin around and run in the opposite direction.

  I slowly reached down and grabbed the top of my throwing knife and stabbed the person in their arm, making them cry out in pain. “Whoa!” I yelled to Fire who instantly stopped and made my attacker slam their face into the back of my head. I stabbed their leg with my other knife and then swung my right leg up and around in a dismounting move that also knocked them from Fire’s back. It was a technique Kato had taught me and the trick almost worked. I would have stayed in Fire’s saddle, but they grabbed my left leg and jerked it out of the stirrup, throwing me off balance and pulling me off of her. Fire moved around me and started stomping her hooves, trying to kill my attacker as I stood up and prepared to attack.

  I clucked to Fire to tell her to back off and pinned my attacker to the ground and stabbed my blade through their shoulder. “Who are you?!” I asked angrily.

  “Screw you,” they said venomously.

  I ripped the mask off and stared at the human man’s face. I had no idea who he was. “Who sent you?” I asked.

  “I came on my own,” he said as he tried to buck me off of his body. I stabbed him in the stomach and twisted the knife as hard as I could, making him scream out in pain. “You can kill me, but more will come,” he growled.

  “Why do you want me dead?” I asked.

  “He doesn’t want you dead,” he said, “He wants to see you in person.”

  “Who?! Who is ‘he’?!�
� I screamed and then put the knife against the man’s throat.

  “You’ll find out soon enough,” he said with a sneer.

  I didn’t have time to tie him up for questioning later and I needed to check on Favian so I slit his throat and hopped back up onto Fire’s back, squeezing my legs and kissing to her to make her run back to Favian and Ice. We arrived to find Favian pinning a goblin to the ground and questioning him.

  “I’m alive,” I told Favian as I dismounted Fire and walked up to him. The other attacker was dead and another human.

  “More will come. They will come until she is taken to him,” The goblin said.

  “Who is he?” I asked, “What does he want with me?”

  “You’ll meet him soon enough,” the goblin said, “And we only know the reason we don’t want you here.”

  “Why don’t you want her here?” Favian asked, “What has she done to deserve your hatred?”

  “She is here,” the goblin said, “that is why.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” I said angrily, “What does me being alive have to do with anything?”

  “If he does not rectify the problem, someone else will,” the goblin said, “you cannot be allowed to finish.”

  “Finish?” Favian asked, “Finish what? The Academy?”

  The goblin bucked his body upwards as he tried to reach for a knife, but Favian stabbed his knife into the goblin’s throat before he could finish the movement, killing him. “We have to go,” I said seriously, “There might be more.” Favian cleaned his knives on the goblin’s shirt and put them away before he hopped up onto Ice. I remounted Fire and made sure my daggers were in place. “How did they get in here?” I asked him angrily.

  He pointed to the brand on the human’s right arm, the brand one received once they completed the Academy. “They attended here when they were younger,” he said.

  “So other mercenaries and guards are after me?” I asked in shock, now starting to feel fear.

  “It seems so,” Favian said. We walked the horses in silence a moment as he thought and then he said, “We need to get to Macon quickly.”

  I nodded my head and we asked the horses to trot, weaving through the trees and looking for potential threats. I didn’t understand why mercenaries would be after me. I hadn’t done anything on my missions that could have upset anyone. Favian and I had only done three missions so far. The first was a simple guard mission where we had protected a young prince as he traveled from one city to the next and we didn’t even encounter any problems then. Our second mission had been to thwart a group of bandits that had been terrorizing a small farming village and we’d only killed three of the bandits before the other six ran off, never to be heard from again. I had gotten a severe cut on my leg and had had to be rushed to a healer before I bled out, but nothing else had gone wrong. The third mission was to track down and kill three rogue ogres which had started eating humans. That was our most difficult mission and one that had almost killed Favian as he had tried to protect me and not paid attention to his back.

  All of those had gone well in mercenary standards so I didn’t understand how I could have gotten enemies if I’d done everything right.

  We finally made it back to the main grounds to find the students in chaos. As we approached Master Sean ran to us. “Favian! Marin! Are you both alright?”

  I nodded my head. “Yes, sir.”

  “Cesar heard Fire scream and we tried to find you two, but we didn’t know where you had gone.”

  “We were attacked by archers initially, but managed to get away from them only to run into a trap with three others,” Favian said, “We must speak to Macon immediately.”

  Master Sean nodded his head and held his hands out for our horse’s reins. “Go, I’ll tend to your mounts.”

  We dismounted and ran to the building to find Father and Mother arguing with Master Martin and Macon. “Father!” I yelled.

  Father and Mother turned and then something hard hit the back of my head. I tried to see who had hit me, but the hit was perfectly executed and it knocked me unconscious.

  ~~~~

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Let me out!” I yelled angrily from where I was chained to a stone wall in the darkest dungeon cell in the Elves’ kingdom.

  I’d woken up an hour earlier to find myself chained and alone in the dungeon. Having played here a lot as a child it hadn’t taken me long to figure out where I was. The dirt beneath me was cool and clean and the chains on my wrists and ankles were warm against my skin. I didn’t know how they had gotten me from the Academy to the dungeon without me waking up, but no matter how it was done, I was thoroughly pissed off.

  “I demand that you let me out!” I yelled again. I jerked against the chains, hoping they might be old and the bolts would be loose, but no such luck. These chains were enchanted and I had no chance of breaking them. Luckily there weren’t any rats at the moment to pester me.

  I looked around the cell and spotted the bucket that I was to use as a restroom and sighed loudly. “Couldn’t you have at least given me a bigger bucket?” I asked no one.

  The chains were long enough that I could walk around, but since I couldn’t walk out of the cell I simply used the bucket and then sat back down against the wall. It wasn’t embarrassing like some would have thought since I had been in worse situations and had had to use worse areas as restrooms.

  A reflection of light appeared against the outside of the cell, which meant that someone was coming with a torch in my direction. I listened for footsteps, but of course the elves had silent footsteps and so I couldn’t hear anything.

  “Are you done yelling?” Kato asked from the doorway.

  “No!” I screamed at him, “Not you too! Please Kato, let me out of here. How can you let them torture me so?”

  “They are protecting you Marin. You would see that if you weren’t so busy being angry that they knocked you out and brought you here,” he said as he opened my cell and stepped inside. One of the maids was with him, holding the torch while Kato held a long silver tray which had food and drink on it.

  “Is this my last meal?” I asked crossly.

  “Calm your anger. It’s not becoming of a lady,” Mother said as she stepped inside the cell behind Kato.

  I stood up and jerked at the end of the length of the chains. “I’m not a lady!” I screamed at her. “I’m a fighter! I’m a mercenary!”

  “You are in no shape to yell at me,” she said with a straight face. “I’m sorry that you are upset, but yelling will not change your current situation.”

  “What will?” I asked her.

  “You agreeing to drop out of the Academy and not pursue the life of a mercenary,” she said straight-faced.

  “No,” I told her adamantly, “Never.”

  “You have proven that females can attend the Academy as well. You have proven that women can be mercenaries. You have proved your point,” she said angrily.

  “I never wanted to prove a point. That is not the reason I joined at all,” I told her honestly, “I only wanted to live my life. I am not a lady. I am not made to wear dresses and prance around the castle. I am made to fight and kill and maim. I am a killer,” I told her, “and chaining me up down here won’t change that. Nothing you do will change that.”

  “You choose your life,” she said, “You can choose to be a lady if you want.” She had an incredibly sad look on her face and I felt awful, but I would not back down from this.

  “Why do you want me to be something that I’m not?” I asked her painfully. “I thought you loved me for who I am?”

  A single tear slipped down her cheek and she said, “I love you for who you are, but who you are is getting you attacked. I will not let you continue to put your life in jeopardy.”

  “Listen to her, Marin. She is only looking out for your well being,” Kato said.

  I glared at him. “If she told you that you couldn’t be a guard anymore, that you had to sit around the castle and do not
hing, would you?”

  “I would,” he said honestly.

  I rolled my eyes. “Not if she ordered you to, but if she asked you to.”

  Kato smiled. “I have been alive a lot longer than you. You are not going to catch me in a question like this.”

  “Please, Mother. If you do love me then let me out.”

  “No, not until you understand,” she said angrily. “Leave her the food and let us make our exit,” she ordered in her Queenly tone.

  Kato handed me the tray of food and I let it drop upside down on the ground. “If you will not let me go then I will not eat,” I said as I sat down against the wall and crossed my arms over my chest.

  “You must eat,” Kato said.

  “You must let me go.”

  “Leave her be, Kato. She will change her mind in a couple of days when the hunger is gnawing at her innards,” Mother said as she turned away.

  They left me and my stupid female emotions took over, making me cry again. I sobbed loudly as I sat, chained in the underground of my home. How was it possible to have so many tears in one’s body?

  I couldn’t believe that she was actually keeping me prisoner. My heart was twisted with a mixture of anger and sadness that left me feeling completely betrayed.

  I waited until I heard them shut the door at the other end of the tunnel which led out of the cells and up to the castle. I waited a moment longer to be sure and then stood up. A benefit to playing in these cells was being able to hide things here and find escapes while no one was watching me. I crawled along the wall, running my hands along the stones in search of a particular one that wasn’t actually secured. A rat squeaked in protest when I got too close to it and I hit it with the back of my head, pushing it away. I did not feel like getting bitten today.

  I finally felt a stone move and smiled. Bingo. I started to tug on the stone, but then I heard the door open to the dungeon and crawled back to the center of my chains and sat with my head bowed trying to look miserable. It wasn’t very hard to do.