A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind) (28 page)

I pulled up in the trees and left Flin tied to a tree in the dense thicket of the forest with a slip knot. I left the girl in the saddle. I pointed a stern finger up at her as I said, “You stay right there!”

Eyes wide with fear she nodded vigorously and I regretted my harsh tone of voice immediately. I hadn’t made it three steps towards the camp when I picked out the sounds of pain mixed in with the raucous celebration of the women’s high pitched squeals and cater wails.

I made it to the edge of the clearing without being spotted and stopped in my tracks unable to believe the savagery of the sight that met my eyes. My three companions were tied upright spread eagled between tall poles I hadn’t noticed before. They were completely naked and covered in blood from hundreds of nicks and cuts. Most appalling of all was the sight of the women and what they were doing to the men’s bodies.

They were literally licking the blood from the wounds moaning as they did so all the while making fresh cuts with small knives they kept in their hands. When the blood flow slowed in a spot they moved on. They were literally becom
ing drunk on the blood of the men!

I had never seen such a spirit of unholy debauchery before, not even in the arena. The two soldiers were already slumped in near death, not even moaning anymore against the pain, as their very life was sucked from them. Seth was still conscious and somehow his eyes found mine and I saw his bloody lips mouth the words, “Forgive me!”, and then more forcefully, “Run!”

The blond that he had taken a fancy to earlier stood up before him. An inhuman look of insanity gripped her jubilant face, as she grabbed his hair and pulled his head back and slit his throat wide open. She dropped the knife and thrust a goblet under his chin to catch the rest of his blood. Dropping his drained head she drank from the cup, spilling its contents down her naked body. Finishing she dropped the cup and with arms out stretched she screamed shouts of glee that were sickening to behold.

Unable to stop my body’s reaction to what I had seen I leaned against a tree and lost the contents of my stomach onto the ground as I vomited violently. Straightening again I
looked once more upon the scene. All three men were dead for sure now. I needed to get out of here! The savage need to stay and avenge my friend though made it hard for me to leave.

Just then a commotion broke loose among the women. Four women came hurrying in from the forest carrying Kana’s lifeless body. I started to move back into the forest, but one of the women spotted me and screamed an alarm to the others as she pointed at me. I turned tail and ran.

They would cut me off before I could reach Flin and the girl so I led them away from them hoping to be able to dou
ble back to them later. Running as stealthy as I could through the dense thicket I still must have sounded like a marsh buffalo crashing through the heavy underbrush to their trained ears.

They were everywhere with their flashing torches. I started to double back and managed to duck out of the way of several of them. I thought I was clear of them, until I heard the snap of a twig breaking behind me. I wheeled around to face the danger, and my quickness of movement saved me. The blond, who had killed Seth stood not twenty feet away with a blow gun to her mouth.

I felt the dart whiz past me nicking the top of my shoulder as it raced by. I drew my sword to charge her and cut her down before she could fire another dart at me, but instead I felt myself pitch forward onto my knees clumsily after just a few steps. Things got dizzy and I felt my back hit the ground hard, as the blond shoved me over backward with a foot to my shoulder. The hard hit helped me refocus my scattered thoughts some.

The blond confident of her supremacy placed one bare foot on my chest and craned her blood stained face back to give a jubilant whoop, as she had done with Seth. Anger pulsing through my sluggish senses spurred me to awareness and I reached up and grabbed a handful of the poison darts she had hung in a waist belt around her hips and rammed them into her muscular stomach.

Her whoop of victory came out more of a strangled gur
gle as she looked down at her stomach and then at me with a look of both horror and abject hatred. She fell onto her side on the ground, as her body went into convulsions and then went still.

I felt like I could breathe easier and I managed to get to my knees. I tried to get to my feet but that wasn’t happening. My head felt like it was separate from my body and my body responded to my head’s commands, as if from a long way away. I crashed through the underbrush half crawling half stumbling knowing only that I needed to get away as fast as I could so that I could recover from the poison rioting through my system. It was good to stay awake and moving. Must keep moving!

I felt wetness against my hands and arms. Was I bleeding? Was I in a trough of my own blood? No that couldn’t be and from some recess of my still functioning brain came the answer. Water. I was in a swamp. That was good they couldn’t track me here. There was a lot of water. It was so
tempting to lay my head down into the warm folds of the water and go to sleep. I was so tired. I’d rest for a moment. Just a moment though I thought sleepily to myself.

Rain pounded down on the swampy part of the forest I had crawled into. My head was propped up against a tree trunk above
the stagnate green slime of the water. I didn’t hear the horse approach or feel it tug me with its teeth as it gripped my tunic firmly at the shoulder as it began to drag me further into the swamp.

Pain threatened to steal the warm rest I had garnered for myself. ‘Go away pain I’m busy’, was my last thought before darkness overwhelmed me.

Flin kept pulling Roric along by keeping a hold of his tu
nic at the shoulder with his teeth for over two hours through the swamp. There was an upraised grassy knoll in the swamp, which was dominated by a large shade tree and it was to this that Flin drug Roric.

Flin pulled his master under the shelter of the tree away from the pounding rain and let go with his teeth. The little rider on his back slipped down off the saddle and in the pro
cess fell the last several feet to the ground. Flin reached around to snuffle her head once, as if to see if she was hurt, but she was alright.

Little hands went to work and soon there was a small fire going despite the rain. The little hands found the cut on Roric’s shoulder and paused there for a moment. She left the fire and ventured out into the storm. She came back minutes
later with a toad and a couple of leaves from a Catafy bush. Mercilessly smashing the toad and leaves together with a rock on top of a bigger rock, the girl added tree moss to the concoction.

Then she placed the concoction over the fire on a piece of bark. Pulling the bark off the fire before it was consumed in flame she quickly stirred the gooey paste with a small stick. Taking the stick she placed a bunch of the slimy green gunk onto the furrow mark across Roric’s shoulder. At the contact of the potion with his skin, Roric came half alert out of pain, but the little girl put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him back down as best as she could. The girl waited for a while and then leaned down to listen to Roric’s chest. Seeming satisfied the girl got up and approached the big black stallion. The object of her fascination being the saddle bags and the blanket role, which were so high up and out of her reach on the stallion’s back. The big black horse looked down at her and seemed to read her intentful gaze. He laboriously got down onto his knees and then rolled onto his side. The little girl quickly got the blanket role from behind the saddle and the saddle bags and then stood back, as the big stallion rolled back up to his feet. The girl reached into her pocket and pulled out a familiar treat and handed it up towards the big head, with no fear in her actions as Flin accepted the carrot from her. Leaving Flin she came back to Roric. Sweat was beading up on his brow, which she wiped away. She unfolded the blanket over Roric and then ducked under it too. The girl laid her head on the big muscled chest of her new guardian hoping that the strong beat of his heart wouldn’t stop.

I came awake to the feeling of being completely drained of the ability to do absolutely anything. I managed to turn my head slightly to the right and I caught sight of a slight movement in that direction. My eyes focused and met the beady sinister eyes of a swamp viper about to strike me.

So help me I couldn’t so much as muster a whimper to call out for help let alone move away from the snake. The snake was poised to strike, when a large hoof came out of nowhere, and repeatedly came down upon the snake crushing it into the ground.

I looked up to see Flin towering over me blowing through his nostrils loudly. Managing a rough whisper I said, “Thanks buddy I appreciate that! I’ve more than had my share of poison lately.”

Just then the girl came from somewhere with a cup of water in her hand. Her eyes widened when she saw the trampled snake, but she didn’t hesitate at its presence in bringing the cup to my parched lips.

She helped me raise my head and I drank the water slowly. After it was empty I let my head fall back down to the ground.

“Do you have a name?” I asked.

The little girl who sat down beside me on her knees re
plied, “Zarsha.”

“That’s a very pretty name for such a pretty little girl.” I said.

Zarsha beamed at the praise I had given her and I reached out my hand and covered her little one, “Thank you for saving my life Zarsha. When I’m better I’ll take good care of you like you’ve already done for me. I promise.”

The next day I pulled myself into the saddle. I paused a moment while the stars faded from my eyes and then I reached my hand down for Zarsha to take a hold of. I pulled her up in front of me and we were off.

I needed more rest, but I wanted to get away from this place before its accursed residents found us and I wanted to just get free of this forest in general. I had to find the book and destroy it at all costs.

I thought it was a safe guess that John wouldn’t head back towards the Valley Lands, which is why I headed that way suspecting that would be John’s way of trying to elude me.

This wasn’t the first time I had hunted someone and my gut instinct said that this was the most likely strategy for success.

We stopped as the shadows grew darker in the forest and I let Zarsha to the ground first and then I half fell my way down to the ground beside her. I sat down on a rock for a long moment as my head was pounding like somebody was trying to get out of it with a very large hammer.

I needed to get camp set up. I raised my head and prepared to get up, when I saw that it was already being taken care of. Zarsha was already blowing some simmering embers into a lively little fire, which she added sticks to steadily until she had a nice fire going. I watched in open admiration of the little girl’s skills, the pain in my head easing a little as I watched her.

“Who did you learn all of this from?” I asked gesturing to the fire and my shoulder wound.

“My mother.” She said simply without looking up.

I asked my next question very carefully already sensing what her answer would be, “Where is she now?”

She was quiet for a moment and then answered softly, “She’s dead.” She looked over at me and added, “You killed her.”

I nodded as my hunch was confirmed. It had been Zarsha’s dark colored skin and grace even as a girl that had reminded me of the woman I had killed called Kana.

“I’m sorry Zarsha! I’m sorry that I’ve caused you pain, but I had to do what I did. Do you understand that?”

She nodded and said, “She taught me much, but she was bad. She caused much suffering and she was a she devil. Manta says you are a good man and I think so too. I will serve you now.”

My heart cringed at the realization that a precious little girl could have such a grown up perspective concerning her own mother. I didn’t ask about her father as he was likely
only one more of a long line of victims her mother had incurred.

“Zarsha, I don’t need any more servants, but I would like, actually like isn’t a strong enough word, I would love to take over the role of a parent and guardian for you and raise you as my own. What do you think about that?”

She looked up at me with her big brown eyes, which I saw were wet from unshed tears and gave me a tremulous smile, “I would like that very much!”

And then her little body slammed into me as she hugged me fiercely. I held her tenderly to me, as she broke down and sobbed her heart out against my chest. Not how I had planned on becoming a parent, but anything that felt this right was the right thing to do.

“God help me protect and care for this little girl like a father should!” I whispered softly against her hair hoping that I was man enough for the task ahead of me, of raising this little girl right and replacing what she had lost or had never had as best as I could.

Chapter Fourteen

Out of the Past

It was Zarsha, who saw the horse first. I followed her out stretched finger and then I saw it for myself. It was John’s horse. We were in an area of the forest where two rivers converged, which had caused a swampy clearing of sorts.

Dismounting I left Zarsha on Flin’s back, as I pulled my long sword from its saddle sheath out. I approached the horse we had seen on foot using the tall swamp grasses in the clearing for cover. The horse was tied to an old log beside the river and from the looks of it the horse had been tied up for some time there.

The horse had eaten all of the vegetation it could reach and it looked hungry for more. Further down the stream bank I saw a leg protruding out from behind a clump of swamp grass. I approached with my sword in hand ready to strike.

Rounding the grass clump I saw that it was John. He was dead, his eyes cold and lifelessly open as he lay on the sand. It appeared he had been reaching out for something with his right hand.