What Warriors Do
Page 5
“What should we do?”
She came to where he stood, beside Brenna who still sat, struggling to breathe.
“We get to the village, quick as we can. With the others up at the fields, there’ll be only a handful of lads and graybeards down here, but if we barricade ourselves in one of the lodges, we can hold out long enough for the others to come back—“ She stopped suddenly, and looked off towards the forest. There, at the wood’s edge, movement was visible. Moving now with haste, she went to snatch up the fallen man’s sword. “Quickly, we must go!”
Thad pulled Brenna to her feet as gently as he could, and stared down the long, grassy slope that lay between them and the village. A half-mile and more, and no wagon to carry his pregnant wife.
Desperately, he searched for some answer.
“We can lock ourselves in the mill!” Rain shook her head, shoving the hilt of the sword into his hands as she moved past him.
“Too many ways in, and it’s not built solidly to begin with.” The brigands were emerging from the forest now, a full dozen of them, though one limped badly as testament to his encounter with the woman earlier that morning. “Besides, if we tarry here, they’ll be in among the folk in the village with no warning; do you want that?” He shook his head, picturing those beasts in human form as they had their way with the women there. “All right then, move!”
They moved. The children ran as quickly as they could, and when the smallest of them stumbled, Rain scooped her up and carried her. Thad himself could run as fast as any man, especially when his life depended on it. It was, of course, Brenna who slowed them. She did her best to keep up with the pace Rain set, though it was soon plain to see that even with Thad supporting her, she simply couldn’t manage more than an quick, awkward walk. He threw a look over his shoulder, and saw the band of men following them at a ground-devouring lope. Looking ahead, to the still-distant village, he felt his heart sink. There was no chance they would reach its safety; the bandits would catch them before they were even halfway there. Three paces ahead of him, Rain looked back also. He saw the realization in her face; she could reach the village ahead of them all, even while carrying the child, and so could Thad. The other children could not, and neither could the pregnant Brenna.
She drew to a stop, and so did he. The men were perhaps two hundred and fifty paces behind them, and still coming, but she turned from them, and looked instead at the villagers. She bent down, and studied each of the children’s faces, as if to etch them in her memory. She looked at Brenna, and reached out to lay a gentle hand upon the woman’s belly. A faint smile touched her lips then.
“I’ve missed you, Brenna, cousin. I wish you and your child well.”
The woman flushed then, even as she panted, for she had shunned Rain just as had everyone else.
Thad, confused, looked behind them. Two hundred paces, if that, now separated them from the pursuing bandits.
“Rain, what--?”
Her fingertips touched his lips, stilling his words, and then she stepped close, and leaned her head down those few, annoying inches, and kissed him upon the lips. Briefly, and chastely, as his wife was looking on, and yet it still spun him back through the years, to a spring, and a meadow, and his first taste of his true love’s lips. She pulled away, and beyond her he could see death coming for them all, just a hundred and fifty paces away.
Rain turned to face them too, and with smooth precision she drew an arrow from her quiver and set it to her bow.
“Go now, Thad. Hurry!” She loosed the arrow, and it sped fast and true to strike the nearest of them in the belly, pitching him headlong into the grass. The others slowed, and she nocked another arrow. Thad shook his head; there were too many, still too many of them. He raised the sword she’d handed him and stepped to her side, resolved that she would not meet them alone, that she would not have to… that she would not be alone. She looked away from the still-advancing men, and regarded him with those bottomless, emerald eyes.
“It’s all right,” she said softly. “This is why I’m here. It’s why I learned, why I stayed… and I’m not afraid.” Her face was calm, at peace. She smiled at him one last time, then turned back to face her enemies. “Go.”
He went. He, and Brenna, and the children, as fast as they could go.
With many quick glances behind, he saw when the quickest of the men tried to circle wide around the warrior, and reach the fleeing group, and he saw when Rain coolly put an arrow through his side. Two of the bandits had bows of their own, though they were smaller, poorer weapons than the one she bore. Once she skipped aside as an arrow flew at her, twice the small, broad-headed projectiles struck, and failed to penetrate the mail shirt she wore. Her own shafts found their marks, and both of the archers fell. Her quiver empty, she cast her bow aside.
Not once had she missed.
The men were close now, brandishing weapons and shouting enraged taunts at the lone woman who faced them. Even then, she could have fled; her legs were long, and as a girl she had been able to outrun any lad in the village. She could have run, but then there would have been no one between the bandits and the village, and they still might have been able to catch Thad, and Brenna, and the children.
He saw her draw her sword, and move to meet them as they came. Beside him, Brenna too looked back and gasped.
“There are so many; can she really win against them all?”
Thad looked away and shook his head.
“No,” he said, concentrating on covering the last stretch. They reached the outermost of the lodges, the children running ahead, rousing everyone with their screaming.
“No, she can’t.
His young wife stared back at the battle taking place on the open ground behind them, near to collapsing from exhaustion yet still unable to look away.
“Then why--?”
He turned her, so that she wouldn’t see the end. He, however, didn’t look away. He made himself watch, watch as their warrior darted, and danced, and fought with extraordinary skill, and determination, and courage… and fell. His jaw tightened, and tears streamed down his face as he turned at last, to see every able-bodied man and woman of the village gathering makeshift weapons and move towards the most secure of the lodges. They would have little trouble holding off the four or five of the bandits who were still alive, and able to walk and fight. Looking down at his wife, he could only shake his head.
“Because that’s what warriors do.”
* * * * *
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