Mabel crossed her arms over her chest. "Are you not going to ask me if I am available to come with you?"
"Come on, we both know you made the decision to help Navon when you came here to meet me, Mabel. Don't play hard to get right now." He turned to her reluctant. "Is there anyone you'd like to warn about you leaving town?"
"Nobody," She answered. "I just need to go get some things in my house." The sword of her father, actually. Mabel would never go anywhere and left the sword behind.
Shai shook his head. "Don't take too long."
Shai saw Mabel leave in her everyday dress, and come back majestically in her set of trousers and vest that cost her a fortune, much more than an average dress would cost. She had sacrificed all her salary, feeling compensated when she changed the dress for trousers. She felt comfortable under that second skin, as if she was a different Mabel, more confident and lethal.
Attached to the saddle of Mabel's horse, there were two full saddlebags, and stuck on her back, her father's sword. It didn't matter if Shai said the trip would take less than five days; provisions were never enough: blanket, food for the road, any supply for an emergency situation. Unlike Shai, who went all the way there and didn't think about it. When she traveled with Navi and his men to Turilessa she was a stowaway, and she was unable take anything, but now everything was different.
Shai pointed at Mabel's load. "Why is all these for?"
"It's just a precaution."
Shai looked at Mabel while she avoided looking at him, pressing the horse's rein. He prevented her from taking another step, intercepting her horse by the bridle, facing each other.
He looked at her like he was sure of something. "We won't be long, and I'll bring you back."
"I know, you said that."
"So why does it look like you're running away?"
Maybe, just maybe, she wondered if out there would be better than Navon. Out there, certainly there wouldn't be generals who broke their promises and soldiers who made fun of her. She had nothing holding her back anymore. Her parents were gone. The army was gone. But before leaving Navon with Shai, Mabel looked at the castle over her shoulder. When that was all over, she hoped she could think of going back home.
XIX
"From the storms of the North,
in the punishing cold,
the guard's bell echoes."
The Ballad of Mulan
◊
Shai's gang waited for them in the middle of the road, two small groups that joined into a great group. Making their way down the road, they were a team. However, it doesn't mean they welcomed Mabel easily, at first. When they saw her next to Shai, some of them whispered, wondering what she was doing there. Women had never followed them in their expeditions before, and roads were too dangerous for them.
"Instead of you guys whispering to each other," Shai said, without turning to them. "Why don't you ask what you want to ask?"
An active man, because there's always one, approached her, leaning over her shoulder. "We were curious. Are you here because you're a healer?"
"No."
"Are you a cook?"
Let alone a cook. "No."
"Then what the hell are you doing here?"
"I'm going to Tenerife," She was too serene for someone who was being interrogated by a member of a mercenaries' band. "Just like you."
"Shai has lost his mind. Tenerife isn't a place for you."
Mabel smiled compassionately at him. "I don't mind."
Taking advantage of his mouth open in amazement, Mabel trotted the horse, taking steps forward, making sure she was always next to Shai. At no time she felt like she needed it, but even though she didn't want to think about it, she could always hear her father's voice telling her to never trust a man, that we never know when they're going to lose control. He must have known what he was talking about; he was a man after all.
Shai looked at Mabel, and then he turned his eyes back on the road. He seemed to be having fun. "Is my band bothering you?"
"They just are annoyed that a woman is in the band, or they're worried you're taking me to a lair. I'm not sure."
"They are being dramatic, whatever it is."
Mabel subtly diverted her eyes away from Shai's protruding jaw line. "I was wondering about these men we are going to see. They had preferred to be exiled than joining the King's Army. Why would they do it now?"
"It's all different now. Their world is threatened. They", He corrected himself: "We have our traditions, and when we were exiled it wasn't the end. There are tribes out there…"
"Bands, you mean."
"No, there are rules. In the normal world, what you know as tax collectors, here are considered thieves. Whatever they are, there is just another name for it here."
"And what exactly are you and your band here?"
Shai's face burned with pride. "We are the guards, and we maintain the order. If something is stolen, we bring it back. If someone commits a crime, we punish them."
"It's not very different from bounty hunters."
He looked at Mabel riding on his side, and he gave her a bright smile as bright as silver recently forged. "It's just another name."
Mabel had never left her village until three months ago, and now she was involved in the revolutionary plans with bounty hunters. It's a strange world.
She wasn't surprised when the horses stopped in front of the tavern in the middle of the forest. It seemed like anywhere in every civilization, men would choose taverns for meetings, and Mabel thought that being in one for the third time in less than three months was a very high number.
Mabel and the others had to climb the hill's peak on their horses with its fluttering paws as they passed in a narrow canyon to get to the place where the outlaws were hiding. A convenient place for criminals to hide away from the king's eyes, a place high enough to serve as a house of gods.
"Don't be afraid." Shai said to Mabel as they stopped by the door. "They won't mess with you. You will get in and get out and nothing will happen to you. No one is crazy enough to mess with someone sent by the prince."
"I wasn't sent by the prince."
"They don't know that. Besides, if this fails, at least we can hope they won't mess with someone who is a friend of mine."
Unlike the tavern that Mabel visited on the road to Turilessa, which somehow was sophisticated with women serving tables and two floors, this tavern had one division only, no sign of rooms and women. It wasn't an official establishment; they took a random house in the middle of the forest and adapted it, filling it with tables and with an abundant stock of drinks. It wasn't exactly a tavern, but a spacious house, although its vastness wasn't initially noticed; it was made of wood from top to bottom. There was fire burning in the fireplace, candles on the tables and chandeliers over their heads. That refuge was comfortable as a nest found at the top of a tree.
Mabel stopped one-step before Shai, noticing the full place. Previously the men were laughing and talking with bottles in their hands and glasses on their lips, and now that they realized the newcomers, they stopped telling jokes and laughing. They weren't looking at Shai, or his men, but at Mabel.
There was a man leaning over the table surrounded by some friends, and then he lifted his head to see Mabel and her friends. His appearance was rustic with shoulders covered in a type of bearskin; he had a long beard and long hair. He was exotic, as well as every person in that place.
"What's she doing here?" A voice cried out from far.
Mabel widened her eyes at Shai, outraged. "They didn't know I was coming?"
"I wanted to surprise them." He said, sinking his shoulders indifferently.
"What is a girl doing here?" The leader asked, coming up to them. Depending on the response, Shai and the others wouldn't take the next step.
"She is from Navon, Alastair."
"So?"
"She can intercede to the king and help us with what we are trying to do here." Shai continued, even though the criminals were laughi
ng around him. "You never thought of going back home?"
"Yes, we always think about running back to the man who exiled us." Alastair said, ironically. "Of course we wouldn't! We will defend our land, and Navon defends their own."
"You don't care about your family that still lives there?"
Alastair broke into a wild smile. "Look who's talking about family, a guy who was exiled. Tell me, Shai, in all those years did your family make you a visit to find out how you were doing, or if you were in need of new clothes?"
Shai didn't make any sound, and his eyes were shining like a storm, reflecting how he suffered with that more than anyone there. With a trace of pity, Mabel felt him stiffen beside her. She stepped forward with a pitying stroke, passing in front of him a few centimeters as if she tried to protect him from pain. "I'm coming from there…"
"Shai mentioned that."
"And I saw things my eyes should never have seen. I have seen women taken away from their home, pulled by their hair; I have seen old people being thrown to the ground and kicked without any mercy. Before my father died... he said horrible things about Balthasar." Behind her, Shai shuddered with the mention of the king's name. "We're going to be slaughtered before we turn into their slaves. Navon will be over. It will all be over."
"It's not our problem."
Mabel looked at the outlaw, hoping that maybe not all of them shared the same opinion, but she didn't get the answer she wanted. "What kind of criminal are you?"
"In fact, most men here aren't necessarily criminals. I think that prejudice should stop." Alastair's voice was a masked offense. "Most of us indeed are deserters and exiles from Navon, expatriates, if you want to call us that way, but it's unfair to call us criminals just because we didn't want to fight battles that weren't ours."
"But this time the battles are to protect your home. Don't you care?"
"No, especially about this. We don't have these kind of feelings here. Luckily, we don't feel anything. If all men knew what it's like to be exiled, they would all want to live here. We have no taxes or obligations. Here, we don't owe anyone anything."
"Do you really believe that?"
"I have to believe in something, don't I?"
"I don't understand why someone would leave their family helpless as you have done."
"Just like your brother did?" Alastair's voice was like steel, cutting through her flesh.
Shai's eyes stared at her to hear Mabel's reply.
"How do you know about my brother? Do you know him?"
The leader started laughing, as well as several others, even those who were unrelated to the conversation; all of them have laughed without knowing the reason.
"Your brother, girl…" Alastair's eyes went playfully to Shai, but he didn't finish what he would say. In an instant, Shai went up to him and grabbed him by the shirt, a wild and precise leap like a leopard, so angry that the tension dominated the whole tavern, and all those smiling drunk faces disappeared.
"Don't you dare," Shai threatened him, gritting his teeth between a word and another. "Thief."
Gaspar left from where he has been to put Shai away from Alastair. "Calm down, you two. Shai," Gaspar whispered to him. "You're not cooperating. Do we want him to help us or not?"
"He was going…"
"I know that. But hitting someone isn't always the solution, at least not in this case." So, Shai took his hands off Alastair's neck.
"Well," Alastair responded to Mabel, undoing the wrinkles in his shirt. "I was in the tavern when I heard you asking questions about your brother. By the way, who the hell are you?"
Mabel lifted her chin. "I'm Mabel. And I'm in the King's Army." She was about to add that at least in that context she was, but they all started laughing.
Men are somewhat funny, at one point they are drinking and having fun, next minute they're fighting, and all of a sudden they're having fun again. Anyway, the ambiance was a bit cloudy so it might have been good for those guys to relax a little. Even Gaspar was laughing, which a few minutes ago he had stopped two representatives of two powerful tribes from rolling around on the floor and beating up each other.
Alastair opened his arms and swirled around the tavern. "Is Navon that desperate to be getting women to join their army now?"
"It shouldn't be a joke, right?" The muscles in Mabel's neck jumped out. "Because a woman had to occupy the place that all of you left empty."
Now who was about to attack someone was Alastair. But he didn't have time to do anything.
XX
"The cold and blue light from
the ice illuminates her armor."
The Ballad of Mulan
◊
"Balthasar's men are rising!" The door suddenly opened and a boy came in screaming. "Balthasar's men are coming!"
Alastair turned around to face everyone. "What's going on? Correct me if I am wrong, but these are still Navon's land, isn't it? So what the hell are Balthasar's men doing here?" He walked in Shai's direction. "It was you and your men that attracted them here. We've been here for months and we have never been found before, and suddenly you show up here and Balthasar's men decide to show up as well."
"We didn't attract anyone." Shai seemed offended at the idea. "It was a fucking coincidence."
"So someone here let the king angry." Alastair opened his arms, talking loud for everyone to hear. "He must have followed someone to have found us here, so it is better that you all start opening your damn mouth."
"Maybe," A voice came out weak from the back. "We may have stolen something in Tzara, but I don't think that Balthasar's men would have come here because of a bag."
"Hide," The boy said, screaming. "All of you!"
"Hide my ass!" Alastair shouted at the others. "Get your guns. Get a gun, all of you, and send those bastards to hell! We are the Expatriates' Order, we don't hide!" Alastair pointed the finger at Mabel who was across the room. "But you can," He narrowed his eyes, smiling at her. "Soldier."
They decided to shoot the soldiers while they were climbing the mountain, so Balthasar's men wouldn't even manage to get up there. After the filter, of course, some soldiers wouldn't give up and they would manage to reach the mountain top. The archers were still hidden among the rocks and on the roof, hitting targets, while on land, the others were facing Balthasar's men. Mabel couldn't just stand there and let that happen. It didn't seem the right thing to do.
"Can I use one of those?" Mabel asked the man responsible for the arsenal.
"No," He ignored her, separating bows and arrows. "You're going to waste our arrows."
"And what if I said that I can hit something?"
In between the rocks no one could see Mabel, and she was hitting targets and they didn't know from where all those arrows were coming from. However, at some point, Balthasar's men got out of reach, and she thought she was being a little selfish for hiding behind the rocks while Shai's men and the expatriates risked their lives on the battlefield. Isn't that what she always wanted? So why was she hesitating?
The first target that Mabel hit was a soldier who was beating up the young messenger without any chance to stand up for himself: it looked like Balthasar's men loved that sort of victim. As she kept walking, she saw more cowardice. She thought about what they did to her parents, so she threw the bow and arrow to the ground and pulled out her sword, swapping a gun for another, more efficient and deadly.
Shai's men and Alastair's entourage looked at the girl with a sword in her hand thinking, "what the hell is that?" But it was only for a moment. When they saw her in combat, they did what they could, each of them armed with axes and spears.
A combatant stood out from the others, the way he moved somehow reminding Mabel of her father. He fought like a beast and hit more people than a boomerang, attacking what was behind and ahead of him with his knives. Shai was a destroyer. Gaspar might not have the same grace, but he could bring down a good count of soldiers. Alastair was ferocious. Very, very ferocious, and maybe Mabel should not unde
restimate him anymore.
Tzara's men were not enough. After all, they didn't expect that. The king's general sent an insignificant number of soldiers, and he thought it was enough to take them down. Tzara's vast army were no match for Shai's men or Alastair's entourage. Maybe Navon' soldiers might be able to do it. Maybe they could get rid of Tzara forever if they stayed together from now on.
Mabel was excited, just like everybody else, celebrating that they are winning the fight, but she didn't notice when a Tzara' soldier who wasn't running away as the others, threw her to the ground. He immobilized her, his heavy body upon Mabel's legs paralyzed her, and his hand beating up her face repeated times. She felt his fingers on her face as rocks, never taking a break. If he kept doing that, her skin would come out of her face and maybe she wouldn't be able to get up ever again.
The fight was over and the soldiers were gone, and when Shai let a soldier dead on the ground, he watched Mabel fighting with a man. He moved forward, but Alastair opened his arms to stop him.
"Leave the girl. Sooner or later it will happen, and you may not be around to help her." Alastair took his arms out of Shai's chest. "What do you prefer?"
"I prefer that she doesn't get killed."
"Come on, Shai." He inclined back, watching her with his arms crossed on his chest. "Don't underestimate the girl."
While the soldier was busy hitting her, Mabel touched his waist feeling his sword on her hand, pulling it back. And if she knew that she would be able to do that, she would have never unsheathed the sword. The man's eyes were bulging out of disbelief that this girl who stole his life. She didn't plan to kill anyone when she left Navon with Shai days ago. But what could she expect? They were at war, that's what happens. He wasn't a victim of her and she wasn't a victim of him. Nobody was anybody's victim. Balthasar was the only one to blame, just him, and he must be stopped.
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