“Liar,” said another. “You’re a slave attempting to escape the city to join the insurgents.”
“I am not a slave,” I said. “I am a free male and the son of Laena, the Anax of Thiva.”
The guard who had arrested me looked less certain.
“You may plead your case to the watch officer,” she said.
Two of the guards marched me from the stables to a nearby stone building. They took me inside where we stopped before a wooden door. One guard knocked.
“Enter,” said a voice beyond the door.
One warrior opened the door, and they escorted me inside, where a woman wearing the uniform of a warrior officer sat behind a wooden desk. She glanced up at me and smiled. My heart sank. The woman was Tiaaira, the surly cavalry commander I’d met previously on the road to Thiva.
“Praise to the Goddess Queens,” Tiaaira chortled. “If it isn’t the arrogant slave from the road. What mischief have we caught you doing now?”
“We found him in the stables saddling a baacaas,” a guard said.
“My guards caught you stealing a military baacaas?” Tiaaira said. “My, that’s a serious charge, slave.”
Tiaaira got up and walked around the desk, stopping before me. In her right hand, she held a dressage whip, which is similar to a riding crop, but longer. The whip was about thirty inches long, with short leather lashes at the end.
“Kneel and show some respect, slave,” Tiaaira said, kicking my feet from under me.
I collapsed to the floor on my knees.
“As I’ve told you before, I am not a slave but a free male,” I said. “I stole nothing. I only intended to borrow again the baacaas Idril allowed me to use in the past.”
“We do not lend baacaases to slaves,” Tiaaira said. “I will charge you with attempted theft.”
“Fine, turn me over to the civil authorities,” I said.
“You would like that, wouldn’t you?” Tiaaira said. “Then your mother could have you released. No, slave. This is a military matter. I will not turn you over to the civil authorities.”
My angry stare told her I did not consider myself a slave.
“Confess that you attempted to steal the baacaas,” Tiaaira said.
“I attempted to steal nothing,” I said. “Release me.”
Tiaaira laughed contemptuously. “I advise you,” she said, “to confess.”
“I was not stealing the baacaas,” I said. “I confess to nothing.”
Tiaaira stiffened, her body trembling with fury. Then, beside herself with rage, she lashed me madly with the dressage whip.
“You dare to disrespect me, a female?” she cried.
Again and again, she struck me. My senses reeled. My back and shoulders tortured by the whip, felt as though they were aflame. She left my tunic and bloodied back in tatters. When she had exhausted herself, Tiaaira again stood before me, now spattered with my blood.
“Lock the beast in a cell,” she said. “We will impale him at dawn.”
The guards lifted me to my feet and dragged me from the room. We entered a corridor and then descended a long flight of stone stairs before passing through a dank, foul-smelling underground passageway lit by small oil lamps. The floors and walls were of limestone, quarried in massive blocks. There was a feeling of dampness and the smell of mold. At last, we came to a cell with iron bars. The guards thrust me inside through the open door, which they slammed shut behind me. Exhausted, my body aching from the sting of the whip, I lay on the straw-covered floor and slept.
How long I slept, I don’t know. When I woke up, my entire body ached. My painful back tortured me. I struggled up into a cross-legged sitting position. I regretted slipping out of my mother’s house, telling no one. It seemed Tiaaira would have her revenge. She would execute me and dispose of my body. My mother would never be the wiser. I would have a few more hours of life. Locked in a cell, unable to go to Idril, the woman I loved who was hurt, I no longer cared whether I lived or died. My hands were numb because of the tightness of the shackles. I opened and closed my hands, trying to restore some semblance of feeling. Strangely, I felt almost reconciled to the fate I knew awaited me.
But suddenly, I heard footsteps on the stone floor of the passageway. Had Tiaaira changed her mind, I wondered? Perhaps she was too impatient to wait until dawn for her revenge. Through the bars, I saw her appear in the shadows of the dimly lit corridor, a warrior following behind. Yes, it seemed my impalement would come early.
I continued watching Tiaaira approach, but my despair turned to bewilderment. Her hands were bound at the wrists. There was blood dripping from her mouth and nose and running down the side of her face from a cut above her eye. There was a loop of cord around her neck, and the warrior walking behind Tiaaira had the other end of the rope wound tightly around her fist.
They paused at the cell door. Tiaaira inserted the large key she held in her bound hands into the lock, turned it, and then swung open the door. Unconsciously, I had already stood up. The warrior followed Tiaaira into the cell, and using a smaller key on the ring with the large one for the cell door, Tiaaira unlocked the shackles, which fell from my wrists to the hay-strewn stone floor.
With a jerk on the rope tied to Tiaaira’s neck, the warrior pulled her off balance and then, with her left hand over Tiaaira’s mouth, shoved her hard against the stone wall. A blade flashed, and then the warrior plunged a short sword into Tiaaira’s chest. Tiaaira’s body shuddered. She slid down the wall and crumpled to the floor without a sound. After wiping the blade on Tiaaira’s tunic, the warrior turned to face me and sheathed her sword. Reaching up, she removed her helmet.
“Emer?” I gasped.
“Hail, Tobias Hart.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Searching for you.”
“How did you know I was here?”
“I knew you would not heed Laena’s words,” Emer said, “nothing would stop you from going to Idril. It was a simple assumption you would need a baacaas. When I went to your room, and you were not there, I knew you had come here to the stables.”
“But how did you know to look here?”
“When I arrived, I concealed myself. I overheard two guards talking about your arrest, and Tiaaira’s intention to execute you. When they parted, I accosted one of them. I forced her to tell me where they had imprisoned you. She told me the location of this cell and that the key was in the watch commander’s office.”
“That explains why you brought Tiaaira here.”
“Yes, she was awake when I went to her office to get the key. I had to subdue her. I could not leave her there because the guards might have discovered her before I freed you.”
I glanced at Tiaaira’s corpse.
“The authorities will believe I killed Tiaaira when they find her body here and see I have escaped. I’ll be a wanted man. Many saw you defend me against Tiaaira on the road. They may also suspect your involvement in this.”
“Yes, and we must go before they find the body of the dead guard at the stables,” Emer said. “I have already saddled baacaases.”
“You killed a guard too!”
“I could not risk another discovering her and learning what she knew. They would have raised the alarm. Come, we must go.”
I followed Emer through the passageway and then up the stone staircase. At the top of the stairway, she retrieved and handed me my sword belt and the katana.
“Tiaaira denied taking your prisoner when I confronted her,” Emer remarked. “But, I saw your sword belt in her office.”
We slipped out the rear entrance of the building and made our way through the shadows to the stables. Emer opened a gate. We went inside and mounted the baacaases she had saddled earlier and rode away from the stables.
18
On The Run
We rode south with haste for three hours to put distance between Thiva and us before stopping to rest and water the baacaases. To her credit, Emer had thought to bring rations with her to stabl
es when she came looking for me. We enjoyed a late breakfast of dried meat and brown bread beside a babbling brook. Fearful that the garrison commander at Thiva would send warriors to pursue us once someone discovered the bodies of Tiaaira and the other warrior, we had avoided the road and traveled overland.
“Once they discover Tiaaira’s corpse and that I’m missing from the cell, they will assume I am responsible for the murders,” I said. “They will probably first search for me at my mother’s house. When they find I’m not there, they will send a party of warriors after us.”
“Yes,” Emer said. “For that reason, commander, I advise that we should travel east rather than south. Your mother will know you will head south to reach Idril’s side.”
“You believe my mother will betray us?” I said.
Emer nodded. “She is your mother, but first she is Anax of Thiva,” she said. “Laena will not, under the circumstances, ignore her duty. We can only hope she might order the detachment commander to arrest you and return you to the city for trial rather than execute you on sight.”
“I wish you hadn’t killed them,” I said. “It severely limits our options. Also, I’ll now be a hunted man from this day forward as long as I remain on this infernal planet.”
“What else could I have done, commander?” Emer said. “Asked them nicely not to tell anyone I freed you and that we stole these baacaases? Perhaps instead of complaining about my methods, you might show a little appreciation that I saved you from impalement.”
“I appreciate you for freeing me, Emer,” I said. “Only now it will be much harder for me to reach Idril. Nevertheless, that’s what I intend to do, so we must continue south.”
“To what purpose will you risk our lives going to Idril?” Emer shouted. “Are you a physician? Even if you were to reach her side, what can you do for her? Idril will recover, or she will not!”
Emer’s outburst surprised me. Then I recalled what my mother had said the day Idril and Emer dined with us at my mother’s home.
“You’re right, Emer,” I said. “We must separate. Perhaps they will not suspect your involvement. Especially if they don’t capture us together.”
“Separate?” Emer said. “And where is it you think I should go, commander? I cannot return to Thiva. I’m now at best considered a deserter as far as the Thivans are concerned. Absent authorization from the garrison commander at Thiva, I can’t very well join the army in the field.”
“From the last report, it seems the Thivan warriors will probably defeat the rebels within another day or two at most,” I said. “Then, they will surely recapture Nisa, and you can return to your city.”
“Commander, let us not beat a dead baacaas,” Emer said. “We’ve had this same discussion before. I will not leave your side.”
“Can’t you be reasonable for once, Emer?” I fumed.
“Can’t you?” Emer retorted. “You must forget Idril for a time. Perhaps, if she survives, you can go to her once they have crushed the rebellion and restored order.”
“Emer, I won’t abandon her,” I said. “I can’t. I must at least learn of her condition. Until I do, I can’t think about anything else.”
“Fine,” Emer said. “Then let us mount the baacaases and continue your foolish quest.”
We mounted and continued riding south, giving the paved road to our west a wide berth. After some hours, we were riding upwards toward the crest of a ridge line when we heard trumpet blasts and the sounds of battle. Dismounting the animals, we lead them uphill to near the crest. I handed the reins of my baacaas to Emer and retrieved the small telescope from my saddlebags. Leaving Emer with our mounts, I walked to the crest. Lying down on the ground, I looked out at the valley below through the glass.
Several hundred rebels were near the center of the valley with their backs to a small range of steep hills. It appeared the insurgents had been retreating under pressure before the combined forces of the Port Abrago warriors and the Thivans but could retreat no further because of the cliffs behind them.
The warriors of the two cities were engaged in a double envelopment maneuver, simultaneously attacking both of the rebel flanks. The archers were pouring arrows into the insurgents, who huddled in a circular defensive position with their shields raised. I could see that the arrows were having a devastating effect. The scene before me brought to mind a story I’d once read about the great Battle of Thermopylae on Earth in 480 BC, where the Persians had slaughtered a courageous band of Spartans led by King Leonidas.
As the Vulvarian sun sank in the sky, it seemed the rebels had no desire to die to the last man as the Spartans had done. At different points along the weak circular defense, men waved white cloths of surrender from their spears. I got up and walked downhill to rejoin Emer.
“What did you see?” Emer said.
“The Port Abrago warriors and the Thivans have crushed a large body of insurgents in the valley on the other side of this ridge,” I said. “It looks like they are now capturing the survivors of the rebel force.”
“It’s not much over twelve legas to Nisa from here,” Emer said. “It seems you were correct when you said the rebels were near defeat.”
“Yes,” I said. “I can’t imagine that there are many groups of insurgents as large as the one I just observed left since the Port Abrago warriors and Thivans have now combined forces.”
“So, what is your plan, commander?” Emer said.
“With only a few hours of daylight left, I expect the army will encamp in the valley tonight,” I said. “They won’t attempt moving so many prisoners from this distance to the road in darkness. We’ll wait here until nightfall, and then I’ll go down to the camp and see what I can learn of Idril’s whereabouts and condition.”
“If someone must go to the camp, I’ll go,” Emer said. “They would assume you’re a rebel slave and either kill or capture you.”
“I can’t ask you to do that,” I said.
“You didn’t ask me to,” Emer said. “I volunteered, and it is the only sensible option for accomplishing your insensible plan. You can find a position close to the camp where you can cover me with your bow in the event they try to detain me.”
I nodded. “Yes, the Thivans may have received word by now from the city about us,” I said. “I’m sorry for putting you at risk, Emer. But I’ll go mad unless I find out Idril’s condition and where she is.”
“I know,” Emer said. “You need not continue reminding me.”
We mounted the baacaases and rode back down to the base of the ridge line, where we had passed a small stream to water the animals and to allow them to graze. After removing the saddles, we hobbled the animals and then ate our evening rations while waiting for nightfall. We passed the time quietly. Emer didn’t seem in the mood for conversation, and concerns for Idril consumed my own thoughts.”
19
End of the Quest
We crossed over the ridge line, and after we had ridden for perhaps some twenty minutes through the narrow valley, we came upon several bodies. We saw them clearly by the light of Vulvar’s larger moon, which was in its waxing gibbous phase, and because they were lying across our line of travel. I dismounted to examine them. There were four dead men, all of whom had multiple arrows sticking out of their yellow tunic clad bodies. I assumed they had fallen during the retreat under the merciless hail of arrows loosed by the warriors of Port Abrago and Thiva. It seemed apparent the victors had quickly passed by these fallen rebels since their weapons lay scattered on the ground beside them. I picked up a fine Vulvarian curved bow and relieved one of the dead of his arrow quiver. Since I already had one, I passed the recovered bow and quiver to Emer, who still sat astride her baacaas.
“The bow might come in handy when you approach the camp,” I said. “Both the Port Abrago cohort and the Thivans here are mostly archers. It would probably arouse their suspicions if you approached the camp without a bow.”
“I thought of that earlier,” Emer said. “But I couldn’t have v
ery well taken yours since you will have need of it if I get into trouble.”
I checked the rest of the bodies and found two leather money bags with coins inside them, and a metal flask the owner had filled with scrog. Scrog is a potent Vulvarian liquor similar to whisky on Earth. Also, on one body, I found a runic, a jeweled dagger favored by assassins. I stuck the knife inside my sword belt.
After I remounted, we rode as near the camp as we dared, seeing numerous cooking fires twinkling in the darkness inside the camp. A copse of small trees and shrubs seemed a good place to tie our baacaases where those in the camp could not observe them. Then Emer and I crept closer on foot until we came to a thicket of bushes and brush where I might conceal myself and watch the camp while she went inside.
Without speaking a word, Emer departed. She stealthily closed the distance between my position and the perimeter of the camp. Since we had arrived while the warriors were preparing and eating their evening rations, the officers had not yet set the night watch. Once she had gained the perimeter, Emer strode boldly into the camp as though she belonged there. She joined a group of Thivan warriors seated cross-legged on the ground, eating from their tin bowls. I heard the hum of conversation coming from the group. Emer had joined the discussion but was too distant for me to overhear the conversation.
After about a half-hour had passed, an officer approached Emer’s group. Emer swiftly sprung to her feet and saluted the officer in the way of Vulvarian warriors, striking her breast with her right fist. The officer engaged Emer in conversation. I feared the officer was interrogating Emer when she pointed at the bow slung over Emer’s shoulder and then began gesticulating wildly with her hands while speaking. Emer spoke in reply and then nodded. Fearful that the officer would arrest my friend, I got to my feet and slotted an arrow in my bowstring. I drew back the arrow and aimed at the officer. Suddenly, the officer whirled around and walked toward the center of the camp with Emer following.
I relaxed the tension on the bowstring. The officer had not disarmed Emer, which suggested she had not arrested my friend. It seemed unwise for me to attack when I couldn’t be sure of what I’d observed. I sat back down on the ground with my back against the trunk of a small tree. It seemed best to wait a while to see whether Emer returned. If she did not, I knew I’d have to make my way past the night watch into the camp once the warriors extinguished their fires and rolled up in their cloaks to sleep.
Rebels of Vulvar (Vulvarian Saga Book 2) Page 11
