Elora had met bandits before. After she and Cade had run away they had been wandering the streets and seen many hordes of the thieves come and go, selling all things from people to gold. Cade had thought that they were cool and she had even caught him talking to one before. Elora knew better. A bandit was only nice to you if you seemed worthless. Otherwise, you could be more useful to them as a belonging rather than a friend. She and Cade had always been scrawny, unskilled and weak children. It was the only bonus to being so poor. They were too frail to be good slaves.
This was no longer the case.
The men who had captured them had around twenty five horses and fifty men. This should have meant two men per horse but it seemed that the man who had caught Elora got a horse all of his own. He had hauled her over to the animal and taken a rope out of the saddlebag. He took her wrists in his hands and started to tie one end of the rope around them.
The other men where busy looting the princess’ stuff and disarming her. Elora could hear them cackling about it but on occasion one of them would scream as Freya got a hit in. it made her smile.
“Your lady would be better just giving us the sword.” The man had an accent that Elora couldn’t place and his voice was deeper than her brothers. She turned her full attention to him. In the darkness she could hardly make out the stubble on his jaw and his eyes looked black.
“She isn’t my lady.” Elora looked around at Freya again. She had to admire the girls determination. She was still twirling that sword around and keeping the men at bay.
“Oh?” He pulled the knot tight. Elora winced at the pain in her wrists. He slid the rope through his hands until he was holding the other end. “You don’t work for her then?” He raised one heavy eyebrow.
Elora resisted the urge to glare at him. the last thing she wanted to do was annoy him and make him want to kill her. “No I don’t. my brother and I are just passing through.”
He gave a short laugh. “I wish I could say I am sorry then but your brother and that other guy killed one of my men.”
Elora kept her face neutral. She didn’t want to get her hopes up too high that Cade might have escaped.
The guy looked at her and smirked. One side of his mouth tipped up noticeably more than the other. “They managed to get away. Good thing for them its dark.”
The smile that Elora had been trying to hold back broke through.
“Not such a good thing for you though.” She noticed then that he had finished tying the other end of the rope to the saddle of his horse. “because someone is going to be paying for the death of that man.”
He smirked at her again and then regarded Azura. The leopard had compacted herself into a stalking stance and vibrated from growling so much.
“She looks about a medium size.” He went to another bag hanging off the horse and took out a steel choke chain. “I’d say this one will hold her.”
“Don’t you dare put that on her.” Elora stormed towards him. she got close enough that his back was against the horse and she was in his face.
He smelt like trees and ashes. His breath huffed into her face and she ignored the heat coming off his body.
They stayed like that for a while before he gave her that annoying smirk again.
“Don’t worry. It wont hurt her as long as she doesn’t pull.”
Elora did glare at him this time. “And where is your spirit animal? Testing out the other models at home?”
“He is about the place.” He started to glance around himself when a small furry thing came and cuddled up to his leg. It had a white back but a black body. It looked as if someone had draped a blanket on its back. it looked up at Elora and bared its teeth. They appeared quite sharp and Elora shuffled back a step.
“This is Ares.” The guy stooped and rubbed the animals head.
“What on earth is that thing?” Elora turned to see the speaker. It was Freya who had finally been captured by the other men, a few of which were limping.
“He is a honey badger.” The guy told her as he went to Azura and put the choke chain on her. He nodded at the leopard and one of the men went and took hold of the chain.
The guy came back over to Elora and slipped his throwing knife out of his sleeve. He pressed the tip of it to the side of her neck. Elora held her breath.
“I am sure I don’t need to tell you this pussy cat but any funny business and I will cut her throat.” Azura growled but didn’t move.
“Good.” He went and got onto his horse. the saddle creaked under the new weight.
The other men started to tie Freya in the same way as Elora when she shouted “I demand to know who you are that thinks you can treat the future queen in this way.”
Elora cringed. Why did she have to say that? the bandits all started to laugh. The guy on the horse turned his head towards her.
“My name is Axel and I am the bandit king.”
“You do realise that that was my sister you made me leave behind.” Cade was stomping through the undergrowth trying to keep up with Rowen.
The sun was rising and he had to hold up his hand to shield his eyes.
“You also realise that I left Freya behind. My queen. The future ruler of this land.” Rowen took a large step, lifting his leg up higher than his waist.
Cade was wondering why until he got there and fell over a branch. He hit the forest floor and swore. His side was pulsing out pain like a demented form of torture and his neck and nose took turns being more painful than any of it. He managed to put his hands out and catch himself as he fell, so his face didn’t get another smack, but his ribs didn’t appreciate the vibrations from the impact.
He heard Rowen’s fast approaching steps and tried to stand before he reached him. He was half way to vertical when Rowen looped his arm under his shoulder and started to help.
Cade pushed him off. “We need to go and find my sister.”
Rowen rolled his eyes and started to move forward again. “What do you think I am trying to do.”
“Get us lost. Oh wait, you already succeeded in doing that!” Cade slowly followed him.
“If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t be here to complain.”
“Don’t worry I am sure the next part of your plan is to get us killed. Somewhere nice where the bodies won’t be found.”
“I am sorry but when I was saving your behind I wasn’t thinking about where we were running!”
Cade took in a big breath to yell back at him but was cut short by the sharp pain in his ribs. He placed his hand against it only to hiss and withdraw it again when that made the pain worse.
Rowen clearly heard him and stopped walking. He looked over his shoulder.
“Do you need to stop?”
“I am fine. Keep moving. We need to find something distinctive in this hell hole.”
Rowen glanced between Cade and the forest ahead. He started to chew on his thumb nail but didn’t move.
“I’m fine. Just pick a direction and start walking.”
Reluctantly, Rowen started to move. Cade took a few shallow breaths before he began walking. Each step was a challenge and he was sure that he looked as bad as he felt. There were bruises on his neck and he was bent slightly around the injured ribs so as not to strain the area too much.
They walked for a while longer and the only thing which Cade was grateful for was that the sun was warming him up from the chilly night.
The lack of conversation started to grate on Cade so he decided he would try to stop being mad and actually talk to Rowen.
“So, you work for the royals then?”
“Yes. It’s a nice job.” Rowen’s tone was surprisingly light considering they had done nothing but argue.
“Why? What do they give you?” Cade knew that the servants in the royal house didn’t get very much money. It was widely known that they would be the poorest of the poor if they didn’t also get to live in the palace.
“I have a roof over my head, a modest bit of pay and I get to see my friend every day.”
“Your friend?” Cade thought he meant Freya but he wanted to be sure.
“Yes, Freya.”
“But she is the future queen. She cant be friends with the likes of us.” Cade hated how the words felt coming out of his mouth. The truth hurts, he told himself.
“Freya is not like that.”
“Really?” At the challenging tone of Cade’s voice, Rowen peeked around at him.
“Yes.” He looked away when he spoke.
Cade smiled. “does she share all her wealth with you then?”
“That wouldn’t be proper.”
“What about her food? Do you eat better than the rest of us peasants?”
“I don’t ask for the food off her plate.”
“Do you scrub her swords and wash her clothes and things?” Cade saw Rowen tense up and he snickered.
“That’s my job.”
“I suppose she thanks you every time.”
“I am happy to do it. She doesn’t need to…”
“And I assume that because you were raised in a royal house you can read.”
“I…I…” Rowen stammered. He had slowed his pace and had his head dropped to look at his hands.
Cade caught up with him and clapped him on the shoulder. “Its okay. I just wanted to be sure you weren’t some spoilt royal suck up. turns out, you are just like us.”
Rowen managed a small smile that grew when Cade grinned at him.
“I suppose I am.”
Cade nodded. “Bloody royals man.”
“Bloody royals indeed.”
Cade moved on and Rowen started to walk beside him.
Now that Rowen seemed to have warmed to him, Cade hoped that they could find the girls and get back to the plan. But more than that, he just hoped that Elora was still alive and okay.
They eventually came to a break in the trees. In front of them was a mountain that reached into the clouds above. Cade hung his head back but still couldn’t see the top of the damn thing.
“Where the hell are we?”
Rowen advanced on the mountain a bit before he answered. “I think this might be the border mountains.”
That meant that they were almost in Snawcar. Beyond those mountains was another kingdom that Cade had never set foot in before. He was almost tempted to keep going, just to see what was on the other side. he wanted to know how different it looked or if the people sounded different there.
“We should turn back.” Rowen said.
“If we do that then we are just going to end up lost in those trees again. At least out here we can see more than two feet ahead of us.” Cade moved closer to the mountain. He had noticed a dark spot on the grey surface and now that he was near enough he could see that it was an opening. There was a cave there.
“Do you think that this goes all the way through to Snawcar?” Cade pointed at the cave.
Rowen came up beside him and squinted. “I doubt it. The king wouldn’t want a cave like that left open. In case invaders used it to come through.”
Now that Cade thought about it he had heard something about there being only one way into Brecastell from Snawcar and that was a pass between the mountains.
“Where do you think this goes?” Cade shuffled another step forward. His shoes shredded the leaves underfoot.
“We are not going to find out.” Rowen grabbed Cade’s arm. “Come on. We need to look for the princess.”
Cade waved him off while peering into the darkness. It was so black in there that he could only imagine how big or small the inside could be. He tried to block out Rowen’s voice and listened to the gaping mouth in the mountain. He could hear a hissing sound and the scraping of something sharp against stone. When he inhaled through his nose, a stale smell came from the cave and he found himself wanting to go and find out what it was.
“Cade! This feels like a bad place to me. lets just continue on our way and forget…”
Rowen didn’t get to finish because a new voice interrupted him.
“Are you pretty boys lost?”
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