Aela (17 page)

‘You can leave my clothes at the edge of the stream and go away,' yelled Rom.

‘What is it worth?' teasingly retorted Aela, thoroughly enjoying Rom's embarrassment and general discomfit at his absurd situation.

Then Rom had an inspiration, ‘If you give me my clothes, I will kiss you.'

At this suggestion Aela broke out into uncontrollable laughter, ‘Not good enough Rom, I think I will keep your clothes for ever.'

Then Aela inexplicably changed her mind and dropped his clothes on the ground and quickly walked away. In a flash Rom, rushed out of the water, scooping up his clothes and ran towards the nearest clump of bushes. Quickly putting on his clothes straight over his wet body, muttering darkly under his breath all the time.

Then, there was a sudden loud noise, of a number of moving feet situated behind him and a rough hand was clamped over his mouth and a dagger was held at his throat.

A low guttural voice yelled in his ear, ‘Don't move, or you will be killed.'

Rom tried to use his full strength in his body to resist, but he was soon overpowered, his hands tied behind him and a gag thrust very tightly across his mouth. At the same time he was thrown on the ground and one of his assailants then lay across his back, in order to hold him down even more securely. Then all went black for Rom as he lost consciousness and he lay very still.

‘Don't kill him you fool,' growled the Head Soldier, ‘We have to take him back to Brude alive, otherwise we are dead men ourselves. Fetch some water from the stream to throw over his head to revive him. Make haste, roll him over on his side as I do not want him to suffocate.'

Two of the men ran towards the stream eager to carry out the Head Soldier's orders, to collect water in a container that one of them had strapped to his waist. Once the water was thrown over Rom, he started to groan and tried to move his arms but they were that were securely tied behind his back.

‘Cut the ropes you idiots and let him catch his breath and take off the gag from his mouth,' yelled the Head Soldier in rage. ‘Haul him up, give him air and pound him on his chest.'

Immediately Rom responded to this rough treatment with much coughing and fighting for breath. He opened his eyes to see the Head Soldier's face very close to his face.

‘Excellent! You are alive after all. I'm sure the time has not come yet for your spirit to cross the sacred waters to meet your goddess Athunor.'

‘Do not mock my goddess in vain as she may strike you down dead instantly, right before my eyes,' Rom, growled back at the Head Soldier.

Both men glared at each other, eyeball to eyeball for a few seconds and then the Head Soldier dropped his eyes and moved back a few steps.

‘Enough of this chatter,' exclaimed the Head Soldier, ‘bind his hands in front of his chest and let's start marching forwards, to meet Brude and his army.'

The men then formed up in line, with Rom placed in the centre and the party proceeded to walk quickly through the forest.

Oblivious to the capture of Rom, Aela merrily skipped along the pathway back to the cave. ‘I must make haste so that Rom cannot catch up to me,' she added gleefully.

Very soon she was at the entrance of the cave and paused to catch her breath. She looked back towards the pathway and strained her ears to hear the footsteps of Rom, but there was absolutely nothing, just eerie silence.

‘Rom is playing tricks on me. He is hidden somewhere along the pathway,' Aela muttered to herself. ‘I'd better go back and see where he is.'

As she was walking along the pathway Aela started calling out, ‘Rom, Rom. Where are you? I know you are hiding somewhere. Come out and let us call a truce. I am no longer angry towards you. Let's be friends again.'

Soon Aela was standing at the edge of the stream and she was looking up and down the water, as well as pivoting herself around, so that she had a view of the forest and surrounding undergrowth. Even though she called Rom a number of times, her voice was lost in the air and there was a complete, gloomy silence.

Then Aela saw a piece of material lying on the ground and she realised that it was from Rom's outer tunic and she ran over to pick it up. It was then that she could see that the undergrowth had been trampled, as though there had been a number of people milling around.

Suddenly, a vision came to her mind and she could see Rom situated in the middle of a group of men walking through the forest. Her instinct told her that these were Brude's men and they had taken Rom prisoner. With a quick step, she turned and ran back down the pathway to the Sacred Cave yelling out, ‘They have taken Rom. They have taken Rom a prisoner!'

By the time she reached the Cave she was completely hysterical. People came running out of the cave, including the Head Priest to find out what all the commotion was about.

Aela fell at the Head Priest's feet and grabbed the hem of his robe, crying uncontrollably, ‘They have taken Rom prisoner and are walking him back to Brude's camp. You have to do something to rescue and save him.'

The High Priest gently took Aela by her shoulders and helped her onto her feet. ‘My child, I will send a message to my warriors immediately and we will certainly get him back alive.'

With these soothing words Aela quietened down but continued to cry saying, ‘I love him. I love him. I know that now and I will die if he does. I must see him to tell him I love him with all my heart and body.'

The Head Priest gave out instructions, for two scouts to deliver the message with orders, for his warriors, to rescue Rom.

‘Come Aela, you and I must go back into the sanctuary as we must meditate to send a message of hope and cheer to Rom.'

Instantly Aela realised what the Head Priest meant and she followed him quietly, through the entrance of the sacred cave to the sanctuary. Once inside the two figures walked quickly to the inner sanctum and knelt before the high altar with their heads bowed in prayer. Then the Head Priest rose, lifting his arms above his head and began to chant melodiously in a deep masculine voice.

Closing his eyes he placed himself into a deep trance, ‘Where are you Rom, where are you? Link into my mind now and show me where you are.'

Images began to flit across his consciousness, of dark forest trees, thick undergrowth and a group of soldiers with Rom thrust in the middle. In an instant the Head Priest recognised that this small party was very close to the road of the old sacred way, leading towards the Temple of the Sun. ‘What was Brude up to?' the Head Priest thought.

Then another picture came into his mind. There was Brude riding on a horse resplendent in his gold armour at the head of a vast army. Also on horseback was Eena leaning towards Brude engaged in an intense conversation, as the horses trotted side by side. What was Eena up to thought the Head Priest, Eena had not consulted him as to her own personal plans.

Then the image began to fade into a murky mist and the Head Priest heard a voice saying, ‘Can you see Rom? Is he still alive?' as something was tugging his long robe.

The Head Priest glanced down at Aela, ‘Yes Aela, he is a prisoner and the soldiers are taking him to Brude, whose army is marching along the old sacred way. I also saw Eena riding on a horse talking to Brude. What is she doing there?'

‘I don't know,' exclaimed Aela. ‘All I want is Rom safely in my arms, I love him so much.'

At that moment a soldier came running into the inner sanctuary shouting, ‘The scouts have found Rom and the soldiers on the sacred way and are awaiting your orders.'

There was a momentary pause before the Head Priest spoke. ‘The scouts are to shadow the party and report back to me regularly their movements along the sacred pathway. Send the orders out that my army is to be at the ready now for combat.'

‘What about Rom? They may kill him at any moment.' yelled Aela.

‘That is the risk we may have to take, but Brude must not be alerted we are on to him at this stage. My army is much smaller than his and I do not want him to turn on us,' coolly replied the Head Priest.

‘You are all the same, thinking of strategies of how to outwit your enemy and not caring about the danger Rom is in,' retorted Aela. She quickly picked herself up from the floor and stormed out of the sanctuary. muttering to herself, ‘Nobody cares about Rom, I will go and rescue him myself.'

Aela walked straight to her chamber, dressed herself in serviceable clothes that would give her some protection from the prickles and thorns, as well as providing warmth when she would be sleeping at night in the forest. She also took food and a water container, as well as some herbs and medicines to attend to any wounds that Rom may have acquired from his imprisonment with Brude's men. As an afterthought she slipped a small dagger in a special holster strapped to her right leg and buckled a light sword around her waist, that she had stolen from Eena's chambers a couple of nights ago.

Peeping around the curtain she could see nobody was in sight, so she quietly slipped out of the cave and disappeared into the forest Her first thoughts were to find the road of the old sacred route and then make her way to catch up with Brude's guards who were holding Rom prisoner. Other than this initial plan, she would play it by ear, of how to rescue Rom from the clutches of Brude's men.

Rom and the guards continued walking along the sacred way at a steady pace, only stopping every now and again to rest for awhile, sip water out of a flask, before moving on. Rom was desperately trying to think how to trick his captors in some way, so he could escape into the forest.

As he was sitting under an ancient oak tree with his hands trussed up in front of his chest, during one of their quick breaks, dark thoughts of revenge flitted across his mind of what he would do to these men who had captured him so easily.

One of the soldiers walked over with a flask of water in his hand. ‘Here have a drink, you must be thirsty, Rom.' But as Rom lifted his hands to take the flask, the soldier swiftly took the lid off the flask and tipped the water over Rom's head, laughing loudly all the time.

At this indignity Rom lost his temper completely, he leapt up, using his head as a battering ram and lunged at the guard with all his strength, hitting the man in the chest. The man fell to the ground completely winded, gasping for breath, with Rom lying on top of him. With a quick lighting move, Rom grabbed for the soldier's sword which was situated around his waist.

Unsheathed the weapon with his bound hands, leapt up onto his feet and began running into the thick forest, with the other men in hot pursuit close behind him. As Rom was blindly striding through the trees, he failed to see a ditch in front of him, he suddenly fell headlong into the chasm and disappeared from sight.

Immediately following behind him, he could hear crashing sound of feet from a number of men running through the forest. They began calling to each other, ‘Have you found the bastard yet?'

‘I will kill him when I get my hands on him,' shouted one of the soldiers.

Very soon the sound of the soldiers threshing through the thick undergrowth became quieter and fainter.

It was a very long time before Rom opened his eyes slowly, then he carefully moved his head from side to side. He realised in a flash that he was in danger, but where were the men who were pursuing him? He strained his ears for any sounds of running feet or bodies pushing their way through the undergrowth.

But there was a heavy silence around him and Rom could hear the rapid beating of his heart as he lay face down on the earth. He groaned quietly to himself and started to gingerly move his arms and legs and then rolled over onto his back.

He could see the blue sky peeping through the branches and leaves of the overhanging trees. He must get up now, he thought and hide somewhere before the men returned and discovered where he was lying in the ditch.

He lifted his head, looking around, to see whether he could find a way of climbing out of the ditch. Much to his relief he discovered the embankment was not very steep, but his hands were still tied by ropes in front of his chest. Where was the sword he managed to take from the soldier? With all his strength he sat up moving his head from side to side, to see if he could see the gleam of the blade of the sword on the ground.

A short distance from his feet he could just make out the metal object. Rom began to crawl on his elbows and knees towards the sword, little by little he moved forwards until he was able to grasp the hilt of the sword in both hands. By placing the blade between his hands, he began to saw away the rope binding his wrists.

Every now and again he stopped to catch his breath, then continued the up and down movement again and again. With a quick final thrust the rope gave way and Rom's hands were free again.

He gingerly staggered to his feet and walked towards the embankment. Rom crawled up the side of the ditch, reaching the top and lay down on his side panting for breath, but all the time clutching very firmly in his right hand the sword.

After resting for awhile, Rom staggered onto his feet and cautiously stood upright listening to his heart beating rapidly in his chest. Gradually his heart started beating at a slower pace and then he could feel a surge of energy passing through his body.

Whilst standing, Rom scrutinized his immediate surroundings and his ears were alerted to any unusual sound of human movement, such as feet being placed on the ground, someone talking or the occasional sound of metal hitting leather. He could not hear anything, so he gave a little sigh of relief in his throat as he placed the sword back into his leather belt which encircled his waist.

Which way to go? Rom pondered the problem for a moment and looked upward, trying to catch the rays of the sun that were peeping through the thick upper branches of the nearby trees.

Then giving up, he decided to take off his pendant around his neck and threw it on the ground. He muttered a quick prayer to Athunor the Goddess of the Moon, for guidance as to which direction to start his journey, hopefully back on the track to the sacred cave and into the arms of Aela.