Ian looked at her. He had wanted this. His captain would banish her before she could do any more damage if he said nothing. She had fallen to her knees and Mikail was preparing for the strike. "Wait." The captain turned toward Ian.
"Is there more?"
"Yes...and no. She is telling the truth. It was before you took her on, so there would not have been any promise to keep. I have born the weight of this sin for quite some time."
The captain looked at Ian hard. He was trying to decide if Ian was reacting to her influence or if he was acting out of his own will. His answer would not come from Ian.
"Ian, you did nothing wrong."
"How can you say that? You know what happened better than I do m
Chapter 6 Retribution’s ContractFor another week, everything seemed to be going smoothly, then they had word that there had been sightings of a small band of enemy forces near the city of Nash. It was not far from where they were, but they had been headed in the other direction. Sylvia was just getting back from scouting to find Ian in the tent with the captain."Nash is closer anyway and we do need to restock our medical supplies." The captain was telling Ian as she slipped under the back of the tent. They were facing each other with one side to the opening and the other side in her direction. "We will not now have time to gather the herbs ourselves and then to dry them."
As they climbed into the coach, he took off his hood to reveal that he was indeed nobility. He was the lord in charge of this city. Sylvia relaxed a little. Then he started talking. "I cannot be seen in public with you, I apologize if I startled you.""There is not much that can startle me, but I am on a tight schedule at the moment.""Ah, yes. It is widely known here that you follow Captain Tane. But that means you do not have much time because his moves have become more secret of late. My problem is this: I am in charge of maintaining the peace in this city, but one of my top guards does not always want to follow the law. I have not been able to find anyone trustworthy who will tell me what goes on, but I have heard that he takes ruthless advantage of any female prisoner he comes in c
"I liked this dress. You have failed the test," she told him as she took his sword from its scabbard and sliced deeply into his stomach. She then took the blade from his hand (broken at the wrist in the process) and castrated him. He stood as well as he was able to strike her again, but she cut him from bottom to top – just as the guard he had taken the keys from walked in."Do not shout out," she told the trembling guard. She took the keys from the belt of the dead man. And saw the other guard back up as if to run for help. "Are you afraid of me?" she asked him sweetly."Yes," he replied as he shook."You need not fear me." she told him as she opened the door and left the keys in the lock, "So long as you let me pass, I will not harm you." She added her persuasive tongue to aid
Chapter 7 New StrategyThe next day while Victor was out with the men doing general chores, a message was delivered to the captain. He read it, reread it and still could not make any sense out of it so he called Victor in from his regular chores to look at it. Maybe he could understand and translate it; after all he had read the enemies’ journals."Victor, come in here for a moment," Ian called, "the captain wants to see you."Victor handed over some rope to the man next to him and walked into the captain’s tent."A f
"Oh," he said out loud. To himself it was another story altogether. So you have fallen for her. I have been wondering about that. The look on your face tells me that it is more than her value to this war that you are concerned about. Have you realized that she cares about you, too?It was when they started to return to their study of the maps that they realized the leaf was tied to a pebble with a single red hair. They could not know how long she had been gone. The leaf had been chosen because it was above the table that had been set up for the maps and the pebble was so that gravity would pull on the already weakened attachment. Neither of them were able to concentrate much on the maps for what felt like hours as they waited for her to return. When asked by one of the soldiers why they were so anxious, the
Victor was carrying a pack that seemed unusually full for a mission of such stealth, but no one questioned him and, in truth, the captain was the only one to notice. For the rest of the day they made their way quietly through the forest not daring even to speak to one another for fear of alerting someone to their presence. That night they were to make camp in a grove where there was much brush to give them cover. They found, upon their arrival, that a group of ten enemy soldiers had had the same idea.Victor smiled. The captain knew that he had planned this and that this group was the first they were to dispatch. They were far enough away from the main enemy encampment that the shouts of the men would not be heard and the captain could engage them his own way – where they could see him and know what was coming. Sylvia still didn’t understand why he insisted on being so visible instead of making
"What makes you think they will walk into our camp so recklessly?""They think we are at the closest a two day ride. They think they are in no danger here or the captain would have already struck their camp. It will work.""If you say so. Hurry up and get this plan into motion."Victor ran around the camp giving orders as quietly and quickly as was possible at the same time. The men were a little confused because it was unusual for the captain or Ian to set traps, but they did as they were told without question. They trusted Ian the same as they trusted the captain and in the captain’s absence, they would follow Ian anywhere.The enemy
Chapter 8 The Medicine ManIan arrived that night as they were taking their evening meal. "What is wrong with Victor? He seems tense tonight." Ian and the captain were walking the perimeter of the camp checking that everything was in order before going to sleep."I am not entirely sure. Sylvia told me last night that she was due for...You should know what I am talking about Ian, you are married."Ian laughed. "You sound uncomfortable, Mikail. Even you had a mother.""You laugh like you know exactly what is going o