Freya knelt on the mans chest with the knife in her hand. she was breathing hard and put all her weight on her knee over his chest. He brought his left hand up to try and grab her. She slashed to the side and cut a long gash into it. His other hand already had a hole through the middle of it. She wasn’t looking at any of the other men but she heard them hold their breath. They didn’t know if she would decide to kill the man she had bested, but she did. Growling, she pushed herself off him and into a standing position.
He blinked twice, then staggered to his feet.
She dragged in a heavy breath and turned in a slow circle to look at the other men. It felt like there was too much saliva in her mouth and she fought the urge to press her palm to the area under her rib cage where a dull ache was starting to grow.
By the looks on their faces her plan was working. They didn’t meet her eyes and one of them even moved to the back of the crowd when she looked at him. Freya wanted them to be scared of her so that when she did try to escape, they would be less inclined to chase after her. It helped that their fearless leader seemed to have wandered off somewhere with Elora and so wasn’t there to harass them into manning up or tell them not to be scared.
Her hand started to shake and she had to clench her fist around the handle of the knife to hide it.
“Who is next?” She tried to sound impressive but it came out breathless. The five men she had already defeated stood in a group at one side of the circle and looked expectantly at the other bandits when she spoke.
A brute of a man with hair that was long on one side but burnt off on the other cleared his throat and lumbered forward. She scanned him quickly. He had a large war axe in his hands and his bulging muscles promised her that one hit and she was out. But his walk showed his weakness. He didn’t walk so much as waddle and while each step was loud and powerful, they were slow and unsteady.
“Come on little girl!” He shouted. The raising of his voice gave the other men some confidence and they cheered for him.
She took a breath and crouched into her combat stance. She was willing to bet that this guy was one of the largest and toughest of the gang. If she could beat him then the others would be terrified to go up against her. If she had learnt anything from having a spider as a spirit animal it was that fear was a powerful thing. Most people wouldn’t go near Buddy despite his small size. They were too scared of the idea of a spider to even approach the real thing.
“I am Tren.” He said. “And I crush everything that is in Axel’s way.”
Freya tilted her head at the note adoration in the mans voice but didn’t have time to think about it. He came stomping towards her with the war axe raised above his head.
She skipped to the side, expecting to evade her opponent entirely, but she had relied too much on how slow he was and she surprised her by last minute throwing his weight to the side and against her.
She felt a dull pain all along her side, as is she had fallen off a low wall and onto the courtyard stone. She tipped sideways, feet staggering over each other, and hit the ground with a thud. Her heart was pumping so loudly that the jeering of the man around her was a faint hum.
Tren looked down on her and lifted the war axe again. She could picture it coming down on her head and splitting her skull in two. She knew that, fast as she could be, she would never get up in time to strike a lethal blow, so she stabbed at the closet thing to her. That just so happened to be his leg. The knife slid in and Tren wailed. He reared back on instinct and Freya kept a tight grip on the knife so that it wouldn’t be taken with him. the sticky sound of the knife leaving his leg would be something that Freya would remember for a long time. Blood from the wound splashed onto her face and she clamped her mouth shut.
Without stopping to think she rolled to the side and got to her feet. Her legs trembled but she ignored that and sprung at Tren. He was still nursing the wound on his leg with one hand and he threw up the other to try and shield his face from her. She sliced into his hand not unlike she had done to the man before him.
His face bent into a scowl and he opened his mouth to spit insults at her. She never heard what he said. His voice was drowned out by a sharp roar and a furious hiss that cut through the forest and hurt her ears.
Elora had paced up and down the cabin. She had been tempted to jump out the window or try to break through the door but each time she did she got an image in her head of them hurting Aurora for her escape attempt. She chewed on her thumb nail and started to explore the room. there were a few treasurers, gold coins and broaches, lying on top of the desk. If she had been so inclined she could have stolen one of them. After all Axel had left her in what she assumed was his cabin all alone. He must have been pretty sure that she wouldn’t take anything.
Ignoring the riches she started to root around in the chest. There was no lock on it and the hinges didn’t creek when she opened it. The wood was a little worn in places but the latch that held the lid down looked new. The first things she saw inside unnerved her. There was a handkerchief with pink trim and the kind of texture that noble ladies dresses were made of. It was filthy and one marron stain in the middle caught her attention longer than the others. Next was a small wooden rocking horse. one of its ears was broken in half but other than that the toy was in perfect condition. She put in on the palm of her hand and let it rock for a moment. She remembered trying to steal one of these from a traveling merchant for Cade’s birthday.
Beneath these items was more jewellery and coins. At the bottom of the chest was two jackets, a shirt and a pair of trousers. They were neatly folded and Elora felt a kind of petty joy by pulling them out and throwing them on the floor. She tossed them out around the table in the most haphazard way she could. When she lifted out the final jacket, she noticed that there was a tear in the torso of it and she wondered if Axel might still have pain where this injury had been inflicted. If he did she might be able to immobilise him in some way with it.
Standing, she surveyed the mess of clothes she had littered about and smiled. It was silly but she wanted to get back at him in some small way at least. It did occur to her that he was going to be annoyed, but all she could think about that was a firm good.
She was about to explore a bit more when a horrible sound resounded around her. It was like an animal cry but more human. She went to the window and leaned out. Emerging from the trees was a creature with a large scorpion tail and a hideous face. Elora knew it immediately from stories she had been told. It was a manticore.
“You pretty boys may want to close your eyes.” The gorgon said as she reached back to untie her blindfold. Cade snapped his eyes shut and waited until he heard her broken strides disappear into the camp. He was certain she had reached the bandits when he started to hear screaming that came to a very sudden halt.
The manticore bounded past him like a gale of wind and he opened his eyes just in time to see it trample one of the bandits under foot.
Rowen gulped. “This was a bad idea.”
Cade shook his head. “We would never have gotten into the camp without them. Besides, now that the bandits are busy we can look for the girls.”
“Yea, if the bloody gorgon doesn’t turn them to stone first.”
Cade hadn’t really considered that that was a risk. Now that he thought about it, it would only take for one of the girls to be curious and decide to take a peek. He had to find them fast.
“You find Freya. I am going to look for my sister.”
“Perhaps we will head in different directions and collect which ever one we happen to find.” Rowen ran to the left of the direction which the gorgon had gone. He held one hand up to the side of his face, shielding his view of her all together. Cade thought that was a good idea until one of the bandits decided that you looked like an easy target.
He started to run, looking around as he went. There were a couple of huts but he didn’t see one that looked like a jail. In fact, it was hard to see much past the rushing crowds of terrified bandits. Behind him the manticore snarled and a man shrieked.
He had to think. Where would his sister be? He surveyed the camp again. There was one hut that was larger than the rest. While he didn’t think he would find Elora there it looked like the place that they would keep the princess. He toyed with the idea of simply moving on, continuing to look for his sister first, but he found that he was jogging towards the hut before he was even sure that he had made up his mind. His strides were so large that the muscles in his legs complained. He got to the door and found that there was a lock slid across it. That made him sure that Freya must be inside. he yanked back the lock and opened the door.
Freya made up her mind in just a few seconds. When she spotted the manticore running towards her, she knew that she was in the worst area ever for an attack like this. She was in the middle of the largest group of the bandits. The other thing she quickly assed was that she should run to the left, not the right. The reason for this was that to the right of her she could see a lot of the men turning into stone. She couldn’t yet spot the gorgon but she was willing to bet there was one.
She found that she was tempted to try and spot the creature. It wasn’t every day that you got to see one. But then she swiftly reminded herself that there was a reason for that. most people who saw one became the next must have sculpture.
The men around her were sheet white and rooted to the spot. It was almost funny that even in the face of certain death, Tren was still cursing about the pain in his leg. Freya giggled and then wondered if she might be mad for laughing at a time like this. Slipping through the frozen men she kept the knife closed in her fist.
“Stop her! Axel will string us all up if she gets away.”
The voice followed Freya as she left the group. While this one man seemed intent on catching her, the others didn’t react to his plea and instead drew their weapons and looked to one another, waiting for someone to come up with a plan.
While she ran, Freya made a mental checklist of all the things she needed to leave the camp. She had to find Buddy, Elora and Azura of course, but she also wanted her sword. If the past day had proven anything it was that having a sword was a great help.
She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn’t see anyone in front of her until she smacked into them. She didn’t fall, although the person she hit did, so she took a step back and raised her knife.
Laying on the forest floor before her was Rowen, hands raised and a robin standing on its twig legs next to his head.
“Rowen?” it was odd, seeing him here in the midst of everything.
“Your highness,” He huffed. “I would like to suggest that we made a hasty departure before Cade’s friends turn their fury on us.” He still hadn’t stood up and Freya took a moment to realise it was because she was still holding the knife over him.
She lowered the weapon and he started to stand. Cade’s friends? Freya wasn’t sure how anyone could be friends with the monsters who were laying waste to the bandit home. She had only met Cade once but she was sure that even he would struggle to convince the gorgon to help them. There must be something in it for her.
“Hey.”
The voice interrupted her musings and she turned to face it. It was the bandit who had been chasing her. His face was flushed and his breathing sounded like a steam engine. He glared at her and held a sword in his hands. It didn’t take long for Freya to notice that the bandit was threatening her with her own sword.
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