by S E Zbasnik
“Why?” Far as Hayley saw Ania could…okay, she couldn’t kick Larissa’s ass, not yet. But given time and training, probably. Hopefully. At least she was a lot nicer than that pain.
“I am already sixteen,” Ania tried to smile through the strain, “and I would be over the age of twenty before I am free of my contract with the Lady.”
Contract. Hayley’s mouth thinned at the thought. All that serving for a couple decades of your life with nothing more than an employer’s promise to let you go at the end. Their word. And even then you’re left with nothing but the clothes on your back.
Still better than…
She dug her nails into the top of her thigh to stop that thought instantly.
Either unaware of Hayley attempting to cut herself as a distraction, or because she really wanted to change the subject, Ania laughed. “It is a silly thought, a daydream. None would take a squire who is so old. And none could become knighted without putting in the work, or forming such a bond in squirehood.”
Putting on a jolly smile to mask the pain, Ania thumbed one of the arrows, her eyes drifting up and down the shaft while her face rolled through every emotion in her heart. Hayley wanted to tell her she could be a knight, she could be whatever she wanted. But Hayley doubted she’d ever be anything more than gutter trash. With Gavin’s ultimatum hanging over her head, knowing there were tests always on the horizon, one day she’d fail and be kicked back to where she belonged.
“Hey,” Hayley placed her fingers to Ania’s shoulder to get her attention. When the girl looked up, Hayley thrust out her bow. “You wanna give it a go for a while?”
The two traded turns, Ania letting Hayley futz around with her attempts while she made it almost look easy. By the time they both grew tired of the sun and famished in the gut region, they wandered off the hill to find Gavin coming to meet them. Well, meet Hayley.
He bowed his head to Ania, the girl cinching her headscarf tighter before she looked anywhere but at him. “I take it you have finished for the day.”
Hayley shrugged. “Pretty much.”
“How many?” He splayed his palm out revealing the cracked flesh mottled in bruises. What had he been up to?
Before Hayley could think to ask, she placed all of her remaining arrows into it and answered, “Two.”
Gavin tipped his head. “Better than last time when you lost nearly seven.”
“The woods were dark, and one got stuck on a squirrel, I swear,” Hayley insisted, the bow bobbing around her scrawny arm as the trio headed towards the road. It was a straighter line to the estate if they took the woods, but a lot fewer burrs to rip off of trousers and bare flesh if they used the road.
“A squirrel?” Ania asked. She was hanging back, clearly trying to whisper to Hayley, but her voice easily carried to Gavin who turned around to face the girl.
“That is what my squire so claims, however…”
“There was this fat, like the size of a barn-cat squirrel. With grey fur and a tail like…big as my arm!” She flapped her forearm about at the elbow as if it belonged on the ass of a tree rat. Ania and Gavin shared a look, but that only caused Hayley to sneer. “It’s true! I was —”
A drumbeat of hooves rattled through her mind, thundering from behind her and down the dirt path. But more than the iron feet of horses churning apart the mud and gravel, it was a jangle that stopped her dead. It was a plink and twist of metal upon metal that grated over every single tooth in her gawping mouth. If the devil himself walked the earth, he’d carry the exact same chains upon his belt.
“You were what?” Ania prompted, but Hayley’s mouth dried to cotton.
It couldn’t be. She was imagining it. Her brain would do that sometimes. Middle of the day just throw out old thoughts, memories, as if she was trapped inside of her brain and couldn’t get out. That had to be it, there was no way there’d be…
Darkness rose over the horizon its silhouette blacker than the deepest pit. Streamlined from smoking nose to whipping tail, the creature was both horse and rider — merged as one to unleash terror upon the world. The jangles of death grew louder, clanging back and forth against each other. Each clink was dirt chucked onto an open grave.
Hayley drew her hands up to her ears, her entire body sinking. The others weren’t reacting. Could they not see it? Did they not hear the chains of damnation? Gavin reached for her, a hand trying to pluck her up to her feet, when the monster of darkness pulled upon the leash of its hell-beast.
“Ho there,” a voice shouted from above as if God himself were speaking to them. Hayley’s eyes darted over the brown-black hide of the horse and straight to the saddle. A leg in dark blue dangled off the saddle. She didn’t need to see closer to know that there was a skull with two crossed swords embroidered on the side. It was always there.
“Yes?” Gavin turned to the monster, a hand draping over the top of his eyes to see against the sun. Neither he nor Ania was shrinking to the ground. Hayley wanted to run, Hayley needed to run, but she couldn’t. She knew the truth — if she was close enough to see the crossed swords, she was already dead.
“Steady there,” the monster in the saddle called to the one below him. Both were one and the same. Bred the same. Taught the same.
Iron hoof smashing through a pile of entrails, digested gruel and shit scattering through the air to splat on her face as the horse stomped over the body. Neither rider nor man caring.
Damn it! Hayley pinched into her forehead, trying to shake away that old memory. All the old memories. It was her only hope.
The monster’s beady eyes peeled over the two girls. Even Ania wouldn’t meet his gaze, a protective hand sliding around Hayley who could offer up none. When he turned to Gavin, his lizard-like lips asked, “Who are you?”
“I am Knight-Captain Gavin, and these are Duchess Bernadine’s lands you are upon. Who, may I ask, are you?” Unafraid of anything, Gavin’s amber eyes burned right up into the impenetrable darkness.
The man thudded a hand to his chest, causing the manacles chained to his belt to jangle. Hayley didn’t moan in terror because she had her jaws locked tight enough a tooth might pop out. “Officer Percy and I’m hunting for a runaway. Any of you seen a slave about these parts?”
Gavin’s eyes narrowed and his entire body locked in tight. His fingers jammed deep into the padding of the saddle as if he could wrench both horse and rider to the ground should the need arise. Hayley tried to imagine such a thing were possible to keep her brain occupied.
“No,” her knight said, “we have not.”
The monster flexed his face. He wasn’t scarred or mottled the way demons should be, nothing marring him save a lob of mud and a day’s worth of scruff. His was a look you’d expect to find clogging up any noble’s ballroom floor or parlor.
“Really?” Percy tipped his head. “Didn’t even have to describe ‘em and you know you ain’t seen ‘em. Interesting.”
“I have seen no new persons in over a fortnight,” Gavin sighed. “Assuming you have not been searching that long, I’d say it’s rather easy to ascertain I do not know for whom you look.”
The creature clacked its jaws and tugged on the horse. Both danced to the side, weaving closer to Hayley and Ania. Lecherous, mercenary eyes cut over them both — the pair trying to not shiver at the bold hunger. “What about them?”
Gavin whipped to the girls with bowed heads, then glared up at the man, “What of them?”
“Who’s got possession of ‘em?”
“No one —” Gavin thundered when Ania, meek as a mouse, stepped forward.
In a voice as empty as a church by midday, she said, “I am contracted to Duchess Bernadine until my twentieth year.”
“That so?” the hunter asked, sliding about in his saddle as if it were a throne. It was; a throne of suffering. “Show me your arm.”
“That is—!” the goodly knight tried to come to her rescue, but Ania obediently rolled up the sleeve and twisted her arm around to reveal a pristine
wrist.
Percy nodded his head at that, a smile creeping up his disgusting face. “What about that one?”
Hayley didn’t look up, but she knew he loomed over her the same way death was inevitable. Her lips parted but only a squeaking whimper fell out. Why was he here? Why was she here?
A hand bonked into her nose and she lifted her eyes to fall into the eclipse of her knight. Gavin shielded her from the hunter’s gaze as he said, “She is my squire.”
“That so?” Percy muttered. “Now, not saying you ain’t some fancy britches knight no how…”
“Do you wish to duel to prove it?” Gavin hissed, his head whipping to the side.
“Nah, nah,” the monster raised his free hand, the other remained lashed to the reins…which were sometimes used as lashes in a pinch. Oh god. He leaned tighter towards Gavin, reminding the man that the devil had the higher ground. “But ain’t no law that says I can’t collect what’s owed to the Lords, squire or no. Show me her arm, or we gonna have a problem.”
“This is not your jurisdiction,” Gavin thundered, a hand clearly dipping towards the sword upon his hip. “Nor do you have any right to insinuate yourself against the inner workings of the knight’s order, be it…”
“Here!” Hayley shouted, leaping to the side of Gavin. She yanked her livery so far down the seams on the cuff ripped. “See, it’s blank. Okay. We’re not…we’re not what you want.” Both Gavin’s trusting eyes and the monster’s ravenous ones drew over her pasty flesh. She had to bite into her lip to keep from yanking her arm back as if it burned and running to the hills.
Tipping back into his saddle, the man shrugged. “Was that so hard? ’Til we find this runaway, patrols will get pretty tight up and down that Duchess’ road.”
“I shall inform my Lady of this eventuality,” Gavin said, his nostrils flaring to add emphasis to all his unspoken words.
“Glad we had his conversation, Knight-Captain.” The monster tipped back onto its hell-beast, and with a bang of his heels, drove both to a gallop towards the horizon. Gavin remained in place, watching with slits for eyes until the man truly vanished from their sight around a bend.
“Blessed saints of our fathers,” he whispered to himself before turning to the girls. “Are you both well?”
“Yes, sir,” Ania said, her big eyes fully upon him.
Hayley clacked her teeth as if she was frozen inside the heart of an iceberg. It’d been close, so close, and… A warmth radiated off the top of her skin, breaking through the protective canvas of her cap, and she looked right up into Gavin’s concerned eyes. No words could come, but she nodded furiously that she was fine. It was no bother at all. No reason for her to even notice. No reason for him to wonder why she locked up.
“Let us return to the manor,” Gavin said with an extension of his arm. He took the first step, Ania quick to follow. Hayley remained frozen in place, her sight staring hard at the horizon. She could still see it, the silhouette of man and rider, chains stretched from his hands back to the lost souls stumbling behind.
“Squire?” her knight prompted and Hayley shook it away.
She was safe as long as she was careful and remained close to him. Taking a step forward, Hayley cringed as she realized she drove her nails so deep into her right thigh pinpricks of blood rose up through her pants. Shaking it off, shaking everything off, she trailed after her knight and Ania talking about supper.
The rattle of chains followed her ears the entire way home.
CHAPTER TWENTY
They invaded everywhere. Giant warhorses dressed in chains stomped back and forth over the road. Men’s shouts of clipped code would break from one end of the vast estate grounds to the other. And even in the little house, even with her head jammed underwater for a bath, even in sleep — they wouldn’t let Hayley be.
She did her best to avoid the slave hunters by being very busy with her knight’s requests. Gavin acted as if nothing were different, as if their sacred ground hadn’t been invaded…until the filthy men started standing around the training arena and took to watching. They watched a lot, beady eyes burning into every scrap of Hayley’s meager body while she whipped her sword around.
When her blade was ripped from her fingers and she bent to retrieve it, a howl-whistle broke from the men. Her knight glared at them but said no words as he quickly ushered Hayley away. Her entire body was on fire, shame and fear jousting each other for supremacy while the armed men with chains clinging to their belts slurped their tongues at her exit.
It had to break. No one at the estate was happy about their existence. Practically everyone dashed fast from one chore to the next, refusing to be caught anywhere near the loitering hunters. But they couldn’t get rid of them either. Royal decree, or some shit they kept waving about.
They had the right to harass whoever they wanted, and no one could say a damn thing about it.
After nearly an entire day stuck inside while the grass turned green and sunshine warmed the bones of the earth, Hayley yanked on the door. Gavin glanced up from his book, one he seemed to think she should be able to read despite the words being longer than a sausage. “Where are you going?”
“To…” She didn’t have an answer. Away. Anywhere. Being cooped up was driving her mad. She kept drawing her body tighter to the walls, eyeing up the stones as if she’d have to shove them away should someone beat down the door for her. There was little chance of her frame fitting through the barred window.
Her dodging drew Gavin’s full attention, the man sliding the barely thumbed book to his lap. “Squire?”
“I just need to get some air. Get out and do…things.”
“Ah,” he nodded, his eyes darting towards the silent courtyard outside the window, “I understand. Be careful.”
Hayley tipped her head to acknowledge she heard him, though she couldn’t really promise she would do as said. With her legs coiled tighter than a ravenous snake, Hayley launched out into the world. The scent of wet mud, churned up earthworms, and green vegetation struck her. She greedily filled her nose, grateful for anything other than musky sweat trapped inside of iron that made up her life trapped inside the little house.
While her bounding feet took her out towards the well, she realized she didn’t have anywhere in particular to go. Out was as far as her brain got, often while pounding its fists into her skull. She thought of taking the road, but…they were all over it. Like ants swarming a dead bird, their black silhouettes plagued the area. Vanishing into the woods was a possibility, maybe take Ania with her to try and scale the trees.
They’d rip you from your shoes. Lash your hands to the saddle and chain your ankles together. There’d be no knight to stop them, no voice to speak for her. It’d end before anyone even realized she was gone.
“Damn it!” Hayley bashed her knuckles into her stewing brain trying to get it to shut up when she felt eyes drifting towards her. There weren’t any people outside but they could be within. Sitting beside windows, hunting through rooms to try and suss out any slaves hidden under floorboards or behind cabinets. Goosebumps rose high off her skin, a shiver crawling from her ankles up to her butt. It felt as if she jumped into waist-high frozen water, her entire lower half falling numb.
“Oi! Get yer fat arse out of the way, Trevor!” Finn’s voice cut through her panic and, as if she were a moth seeking succor, Hayley dashed towards the flame.
She found the boy swatting at the backend of Trevor, the horse seeming to have decided to stop in the middle of the stable and begin chewing on a post. “You are the dumbest horse I have ever met,” he shouted at Trevor.
For his part, the horse stopped gnawing on the structural support long enough to cast a long eye at the boy, before returning to its favorite pastime. “Gah!” Finn cried, dipping his shoulder down and trying to shove Trevor back towards his stall. As if the horse just realized what it was the tiny human at its butt wanted, Trevor took a steady foot forward.
Hayley winced at the sound of hoof thudding i
nto dirt, but she clung to the laugh as Finn continued to cajole, threaten, and beg Trevor into his bedding. Sweat poured off of Finn’s face when he finally slammed the stall door shut. Acting as if he did nothing wrong, Trevor twisted around until he nosed right against Finn. “Oh no, ya don’t. You’re in deep, you straw for brains…”
Like watching a clam ooze out of its shell, Trevor’s tongue lolled from between the lips and lapped straight over Finn’s forehead. The boy cried out, slapping a wet palm to where the horse licked him. “What in the nine circles of hell is wrong with you?” he shouted at the horse, who didn’t seem perturbed by the whole thing.
“Maybe it just means he likes you,” Hayley popped up.
Finn flinched, barely for a second, but it was enough for her to know she caught him. Yanking down the shirt that rode up while he was body rushing Trevor, the boy turned to eye her up. “Hayseed. Just the person I was looking for.”
“You were looking for me in Trevor’s mouth?” she asked
“Ha, so funny. Cop needs exercise badly, and I thought you might like another lesson.” The wearied stablehand drifted his fingers towards the mighty mare who stood primly in place. She was already saddled as if Finn didn’t expect Hayley to turn him down.
But she did.
“No,” she shook her head hard. “No, no, I’m…I have things to do. Important knight things.”
Finn’s arms crossed. “Important knight things like watching me squabble with the horse what acts like a brain dead toad. You heard me! You’re more sheep than steed, ya balmy nutter.” For his part, Trevor seemed unmoored by the cruel names, already back to gnawing on a new post as if it was the best thing in the world.
“Swear to god…” Finn whispered to himself before turning back to her. “Come on, don’t get all knight fancy on me. I ain’t kidding, Cop needs a ride. Been awhile for her, been awhile for you. Got to get your feet wet…so to speak.”
Her eyes drifted to the red-blonde bay standing at attention. While Copper was a glistening angel compared to the devil horses stampeding up and down the road when her entire backside shifted Hayley winced. Finn must have caught it as he sighed. “Don’t tell me yer scared of ‘em again.”
