“I don’t know that we can trust them.” Rowen paced between the horses. He kept glancing around at Elora and Azura, completely ignoring Cade who was still on the ground.
Elora tried to steady her heart beat but each time that the princess moved the tip of her sword swayed above Cade’s chest and she had this image in her head of it accidently falling and killing him. if that happened then all bets were off and she and Azura were going to cut both of these two into ribbons, no matter the danger.
“I mean look at her,” He gestured to Elora who didn’t waver under both their stares. “She looks like she wants to rip out our throats.” He brought a shaking hand up to the body part in question. His fingers got stuck there by the tree sap he had gotten on himself from the firewood collecting.
Rowen was trying to casually rip his fingers off his neck while Freya spoke. “They said they are poor.”
“We are all poor.” Rowen argued.
Freya’s brow creased. “You’re not. And I am not.”
Rowen finally got his hand to drop down and examined his palm. “You aren’t, of course. But your highness,”
Freya sighed and the point of the sword raised and fell with her breath. Elora felt her muscles seize up. Cade stopped breathing.
“I told you not to call me that.” Freya steadied her hand before the tip dropped any further. A gust of breath escaped Cade’s tightly clenched lips.
“Sorry, Freya,” Elora thought he struggled with the name. “But they look like bandits or something to me.”
Freya raised an eyebrow. “Bandits?” she looked at Cade then back at Rowen. “You think this guy is a bandit?”
Rowen considered Cade for a moment then rubbed his hands together. “Yes I suppose the baby face and the fact that he cant defend himself says otherwise.”
Cade grit his teeth and Elora knew he was on the edge of a retort.
“Not to mention he is terrified of Buddy.” The spider crawled onto the top of her head and waved a leg. “If you are a bandit then you have to live in the forest. Therefore, bandits couldn’t be afraid of spiders. Its not practical.”
“Whenever you two are done bashing my ego can I get up?” Cade’s tone was short and Elora
was afraid that the royal would take offense. Instead she laughed and withdrew the sword. Rowen squeaked in alarm as she helped Cade up.
once Cade was standing he was taller than Freya but not by much. Elora thought that the smartest thing to do would be to grab the princess now while he was close enough to take her by surprise and then get back to the original plan of stealing their map and food. She did her best to communicate this to her brother with a look but he was too busy watching Freya. Elora was about to apologize for him, better to stay on the good side of these people if they were going to remain at their mercy, but then she saw that the princess was watching him.
Cade’s body was angled towards the girl and she had her head tilted back as if he might just move closer and kiss her.
Elora cleared her throat.
Cade started and turned to her. “Oh yea. The food.”
He walked slowly and hesitantly away from Freya. His steps took so long that the leaves were cracking in slow motion under his feet.
“You could help us.” The words were spat out so suddenly by the princess that Elora was sure she had imagined them at first.
Rowen must had been feeling the same way because he gawked at Freya and then used a finger to clean out his ear.
“Come with us? Why?” Elora was tempted to laugh at how Rowen’s voice was so high-pitched.
“They need food.” Freya said. Her eyes never left Cade’s.
“And we could help you hunting and navigating.” Cade offered, rubbing the back of his neck.
Freya looked at Rowen who shook his head.
“Rowen, unless you know how to use the traps that my father gave us then we coulduse the help.”
“Are you forgetting that they just tried to rob you?”
“No. but they seemed to have had good reason. I mean look at them, they are just skin and bones.”
Elora was sure that while she and Cade weren’t as well fed as they should be they certainly looked better than some of the peasants she had seen in Solan. she watching Freya who watched Cade who had fixed his gaze onto the ground.
The princess was naïve if she was going to let them come along simply because she thought Cade was pretty. Surely her father didn’t keep her that sheltered?
Rowen glanced at each of them in turn then sighed in defeat. “Fine.”
Freya smiled and turned to the fire wood.
Cade rushed over to her. “I can help with that.” He put on his best smile. One Elora knew he reserved for the new girls who came to the circus.
Rowen got to the princess first and started to take the wood from her hands. “Its alright your highness I will do it.”
Freya put her hands on her hips. “okay but you need to teach me how to do it soon.”
“I will your highness.”
***
The night passed like a snail crawling over wet glue. Cade couldn’t stop himself from thinking about Freya but he couldn’t go over to her either. he had allowed himself some time talking to her earlier but he had to keep his mind on the mission now. Besides, he reasoned, she wouldn’t even consider him anyway. She’s a royal and he’s a clown. It was that simple.
Still he couldn’t help but picture the way she had smiled triumphantly when she had knocked him on his ass. Or how she had used the sword as if it was just an extension of herself and not a heavy weapon. Or how the sun made her hair almost white and it looked so smooth he could imagine his fingers tangled up in it and his other hand would…
No.
He had to snap out of it. He was sitting on the ground a bit away from the fire and listening to Freya chatting to that servant Rowen. Freya’s voice was like a clear bell but whenever Rowen spoke back he lowered his tone so much that even Freya was asking him to repeat himself.
Elora came from the fire with some meat on a stick. It smelt a bit like charcoal but enough like dinner to make his stomach growl.
She moved out of the fire light and over to him, Azura in tow.
“I thought you might like some of this.” She offered the cool end of the stick to him and he took it out of her hand.
“thanks.”
She folded onto the ground beside him and he wrinkled his nose at the smell of her sweat.
“You need to wash El.”
“You don’t exactly smell great either.”
“But I’m not a girl. People expect men on quests to smell.”
She punched him in the arm. It didn’t hurt but he still rubbed the area for effect and threw in an “ouch”.
They didn’t speak for a bit while Cade picked at the meat. It was still boiling and he struggled to get a piece of it off without losing his fingerprints.
“This wasn’t the plan.” Her voice didn’t sound accusing but Cade knew that underneath the calm she was annoyed.
“Plans change. This is better. We now have two other people to help us fight off monsters.”
“Yeah, and two other people who might take the dragon. One of those being the princess.” Cade heard her control slip slightly through her tone.
“The only other thing we could have done was give up there and then. would you want that?”
She didn’t answer and Cade took that as all the confirmation he needed.
“We are on our way to getting the dragon, that’s what matters. The rest is just obstacles.” He finally got a piece of the meat off and dropped it quickly onto his tongue. It burnt a bit but it tasted so good that he didn’t care. He moaned at it slid down his throat.
Elora shook her head and got up again. “Okay. New plan is to let them lead us to the dragon then swipe it right from under their noses. First, they need to trust us.” She didn’t wait for him to agree but walked to the fireside and started talking to Rowen and Freya. Rowen looked apprehensive and shuffled closer to Freya.
Cade watched his sister chat to them and saw Freya warm up to her by the second. He shouldn’t feel guilty, this is why then had come, but he couldn’t stop the pit that opened in his stomach. Shaking it off he got up to go and join them.
That was when he heard a rustling in the trees. He turned his head fast enough to hurt his neck. Which made him feel even stupider when all he saw there was a doe. The animal was lightly made up but tall. Her huge round eyes darted back and forth and Cade followed her gaze to the trees. He scanned the darkness but came up empty handed. What did she looked so frightened of?
While he wasn’t watching the animal had moved up closer to him. if he had taken a step he would have had to embrace her. Cade turned and was startled at her closeness. He expected her to flee when he jerked with fright but she stayed put. She flicked on ear at him and lifted her leg to take the final step.
Out of the darkness of the forest came a large man with a bald head and an axe in one hand. the doe fled and the man rushed at Cade with the axe up in the air. Cade reversed too quickly and lost his balance. The world whizzed past and then he was on his back and badly winded from the fall. He tried to call out to the others but his breath wouldn’t come.
The man, who Cade dubbed Baldy, was lifting his weapon for another swing. On instinct, Cade rolled to the side and onto his belly. Baldy brought his foot around at the last second and managed to get a kick into the side of Cade’s body. His lungs felt as if they were full of steam but he forced himself to breathe and pull his arms under his torso.
No sooner had he got himself propped up than another harsh kicked was delivered to his side. there was a snapping sound, but Cade couldn’t be sure if it was real or her had imagined it. There was no way to pinpoint where the pain was coming from just that it was all over the side of his body. If he could only get onto his feet he had no doubt that he could out run Baldy.
During all this thinking he had failed to keep an eye on the huge man who was now lining up his axe for a downward swing that would relieve Cade of his head. Being quite fond of his head, Cade kicked out and hit the man in the shin to throw him off his balance. Baldy yowled and dropped the axe in favour of nursing his shin.
The axe flew down and landed blade down in the ground beside Cade’s head with a whoosh.
Cade felt sure that the others must have heard the mans cry and would be coming to help. He pulled himself onto his knees and looked around at the fire.
He couldn’t see his sister anymore and both Freya and Rowen where standing surrounded by men dressed in brown leather and cotton.
He sprang to his feet to go and find his sister. Something large smashed into him from behind and he crashed face first back into the earth. This time he was sure that he heard a crack as a firework of pain exploded in his nose. The area around his nose varied from extreme pain to numbness. The man on top of him let up the pressure on his back and Cade used this chance to roll over. Big mistake. Baldy grinned and wrapped his massive hands around Cade’s throat. Cade clawed at him with both hands but he achieved nothing apart from causing his own shoulders to ache. However he soon forgot about this as the world began to darken and his heart beat was a marching band in his ears.
Cade closed his eyes and tried not to let any tears leak out.
Suddenly the vice around his neck was loosened and a huge weight fell on his chest. His ears were ringing so when he opened his eyes and saw Rowen standing over him with a bloody sword he wasn’t sure what the man was trying to say.
Rowen was speaking in a rushed manner and had one hand extended towards Cade. Cade took his hand and was almost sick when he hauled him up to standing.
When Cade moved, it was as if the world was on a merry-go-round. He blinked twice and rubbed his ears. Rowen voice was now muffled, as if he was speaking from the other side of a pane of glass.
Cade felt him tugging on his arm and heard the urgency in his voice. He tried looking around for Elora but he still couldn’t focus. Instead, he allowed himself to be pulled into the trees by Rowen.
Once they were under the cover of the branches, Rowen started to run. Cade had a hard time keeping up with him without falling but when he stumbled the servant came back to get him. The girls must have gotten quite far without us, Cade thought.
Freya was both proud of herself and terrified. When the men had attacked them they had all been watching Rowen. They kept an eye on his sword and ignored hers. Once again she had been underestimated.
This had given her the perfect opportunity to strike. She would wound one of them, thereby distracting them all, and giving Rowen and Elora a chance to escape. Elora was stood behind her and kept trying to find a way around the crowds to catch sight of her brother. Freya resisted the urge to yell at her to stop moving and drawing attention to herself. she needed all the men to focus on her if the other two were going to get away safely.
She worried that Rowen might not run. He may not want to leave her behind. But she had to take the chance. It was either that or surrender now.
The men chuckled at her and called her things like “Pretty girl” and “honey”. Or at least that’s what she thought they said. Their accents were thick and unrefined. Most of them left out syllables from the end of words.
She waited for Rowen to jerk his sword around as he was prone to doing when he panicked and then she struck out with her own blade. The man nearest her was a big and hairy one and, she found out, a loud one. When her blade drove into the flesh of his thigh he let out a high pitched screech. It was totally unlike the yell they had heard moments ago and sounded almost melodramatic. The other man around him immediately turned their attention to her and broke their circle around them. Freya started to yell for Rowen to run but found that he had already darted through the gap and was away. One of then men hollered about going after him but Freya distracted him by taking a chunk out of one of his arms with a skill swipe.
“Go Elora!” she yelled. Elora didn’t need to be told twice. She made a dash for the gap in their formation but when she looked over her shoulder and saw that Freya was not following, she hesitated.
During her moments hesitation a man came up to her and grabbed her arm. She tried to pull away but using her own momentum against her, he spun her in close to his body and held a small throwing knife against her throat.
“How heroic was that, princess.” He drawled. Then he nodded in the direction Rowen had run and two men went to look for him.
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