The Chosen (17 page)

The wide range in temperatures during the fall months seemed to be the only exciting occurrence happening in Rima. As he had wandered through Leneal, David had learned that Rima was a relatively quiet province with only small thefts and nothing serious to investigate—

something that both relieved and disappointed him. Relief because he wasn’t ready to lead his family into a huge manhunt or investigation, disappointment because he was already getting a little tired of listening to gossip.

He shared his thoughts with Kathryn as they sat down for lunch. Of course, she had a completely different opinion.              

She gave him a long look. “Not only is your logic flawed because you’re basing this off of one morning in one village,” she said coolly. “But we do have a manhunt ahead of us.” She bit into a piece of fruit Cass had packed. “We have to locate the minstrel.”

“Today?”

“Why not?”

“Because we have other villages and farms to visit.” The Guardians were not local sheriffs, responsible for the safety and security of each and every villager and farmer in their assigned region. Each town had its own sheriff who paid visits to the local farms, dealing with small disputes that arose within their assigned villages and farms.

The Guardians took up what the local sheriffs could not. Serving as a justice force higher than the sheriffs, the Guardians were responsible for the farms and villages as a whole. If any disputes between farms or towns erupted the Guardians were called in as impartial negotiators and judges. In cases of multiple thefts, murders, or arsons, the Guardians acted as the investigating body and issued sentences that every village and farm must abide by.

Kathryn shrugged, “We should visit the villages and farms that are on the path a minstrel would take, if we find more evidence of thefts along the way we can be pretty sure we’re on the right track.”  She stood and ambled over to Lerina and ran her hand along the muzzle and rubbed her mount’s cheek.  She reached into her pack and pulled out a sweet red amere which the horse accepted greedily.  She quickly mounted and announced, “let’s go.”

Knowing her logic was sound, David acquiesced. By late afternoon they had visited two more villages, both of which reported thefts and a traveling minstrel.

“You were right,” David acknowledged as they rode on to the next village. “Perhaps the minstrel is in on the thefts.”

“Perhaps,” Kathryn echoed.

David looked at her. “You don’t sound too sure.”

“There’s always the possibility that another traveler is using the minstrel as cover for his thefts.”

“True,” David agreed.

“…Although only one of the villages reported having other travelers on the day of the thefts.”

“The thief could always be a native of one of the villages who steals when a traveler comes through,” he added.

“But then he has the added problem of stealing horses from his own village and runs the risk of the owner recognizing his lost property,” she countered.

They rode in silence for a few more minutes before reaching the third village on their route. David was noticing that the deeper they fell into the task they had chosen to dedicate themselves to, the less tense his companion became. She’d graduated from single word to single sentence replies.

They could smell smoke before they rounded the curve that led to their next stop. The village was in an uproar. Streets were choked with people, carts, and animals. All were shouting and screaming at the top of their lungs. When they noticed Guardians amongst them they swarmed Kathryn and David.

“You must help us!”

“Justice cannot be perverted!”

“Catch the thieves!”

“We’ve been robbed!”

David raised his hands, calling for quiet
.
Perhaps Rima isn’t so quiet after al
l
, he thought as he waited for the noise to drop. “Who is an authority here I can speak to?”

An elderly woman slowly made her way forward until she stood before the two horses. “Our treasury and storehouses have been emptied,” her voice was calm and steady despite the roiling emotions of the crowd surrounding her. “We trusted a traveling minstrel and his companions and they stole our livelihood.”

Kathryn forcefully restrained herself from shaking her head in disgust
.
Who trusts traveling minstrels and would allow one to get anywhere near a village treasury
?
David was still talking and she forced herself to pay attention.

“In which direction did they head?”

The old woman pointed towards a series of hills that led to the mountains. “When we rose this morning we saw them riding hard towards those mountains.”

“And you didn’t send anyone after them?”

The old woman shrugged. “By the time our fastest riders could catch up with them, they had disappeared. We’re farmers, not trackers.”

David nodded and turned his horse towards the hills and let Rumer run. He had chosen Rumer as his horse for his endurance and his speed, now both would be put to the test.

In a radian they had reached the hills, David reined Rumer in and stifled a curse. Tracking was not his strong suit. Kathryn rode up beside him. “They turned east,” she said, already driving her horse back into a gallop.

 
Perhaps Kathryn is a good person to have alon
g
, David thought as he rode behind her
,
I can’t track nearly so well, and neither can Luk
e
.

As they traveled further, David had to admit that he had never seen anyone track so quickly, not even his professor. No wonder Jasse had spoken so highly of her. Only twice did Kathryn need to dismount to study the ground for tracks, and even then it had taken her less than a minute to find them. They reached the forest where the thieves had camped by mid-afternoon, or at least according to Kathryn’s tracking they had.

Dismounting they left their horses near the edge of the forest and quietly moved in. David moved to the south while Kathryn moved to the north. None of the villages had been able to give them an accurate count of how many thieves there were so David wanted to catch them between himself and Kathryn.

The call of an eagle broke the silence of the forest and David could hear startled movement ahead of him.

Loud guffaws reached his ears and he could only imagine the thieves laughing at a few of their companions for jumping at nothing.

As he drew closer he slowed his advance, rounding a large boulder he spotted a clearing directly ahead, the thieves were camped inside, laughing, drinking, and having a good time.

A good time which was just about to come to an end. He spotted the stolen horses and other goods lying about fifty paces from where the men sat around a fire, looking for all appearances to be slightly drunk. However appearances were deceiving and he was willing to bet that the men weren’t intoxicated enough to prevent them from being able to hold their own in a fight.

There were five of them, all big men with shaved heads and extremely foul mouths. David watched as one of them put on a blond wig and began to play a lyre and sing in a ridiculously high pitched tone.

Oh what merry men we are

We come from so afar

The people feed and bed us

They don’t even suspect us

His companions encouraged him on with loud catcalls and cheers. They joined him for the second verse:

We plunder their horses, money, and grain

Those poor peasants shall experience pain

When in the morning they wake and see

That all their riches with us did flee

David didn’t wait to hear what the third verse was. He stepped from the shadows and pointed his sword at the back of the biggest thief’s head. The singer, already beginning the third felt the tip of the sword and his voice broke out of his jolly tune with a strangled cry.

“So sorry to interrupt this party,” David said his voice cold. “But your winning streak has just ended.

He didn’t see Kathryn yet and wondered what she was doing, but he did notice the slight movement of a rather ugly man, one with a huge earring in his right ear. He was sitting on a moss covered boulder next to the thief David’ssword was holding motionless. Quickly he brought his sword up to parry and blocked the thrust of the thief’s sword. Sparks jumped from the collision point, startling David
.
That block should have cleaved his sword in two!

In that instant the entire camp erupted into motion. All five thieves were on their feet, weapons in hand. David had no doubts that he would have no trouble disarming the two bearing swords, it was the mace and two bows pointed at him that gave him second thoughts.

“He’s mine,” The earring thief shouted to the rest of group as he lunged at David. The power behind his blow was staggering. Even drunk the man could manage to win this fight if David wasn’t careful. Blast it all, where was Kathryn! He couldn’t fight five alone.

Interestingly enough the thief didn’t aim his thrusts anywhere near David’s head, a typical style preferred by bandits. Instead he worked to get David’s defenses into a low position that would take to long for him to bring his sword back up to protect his head. David leaped over the fire and quickly exchanged his sword for his fighting knives briefly wondering if Kathryn would give him grief for abandoning his sword after he so blatantly put down her preference for knives. The bandit was stronger than he was and David knew that his best defense would be to attack with rapid strikes and in more than one place, something he couldn’t achieve with his sword, the second knife would also double as an added guard against an attack at his head that the first couldn’t block. As he blocked, parried, and jabbed David was aware of squeals and shouts from the rest of the thieves
,
no doubt urging their leader o
n
,
David thought as he ducked beneath a swing that could have easily taken his head off.

As he fought, David realized something that was enough to shake his confidence even more. Normal bandits used old, beat up swords that a Guardian sword could tear through in a few strokes. This thief’s sword was unlike any sword he had come into contact with—it refused to be destroyed under David’s own blade. Only a Guardian’s blade could remain pure and unspoiled under the attack of a sister blade.

After giving ground for several minutes, David decided that he had had enough. Sword or no sword, he was going to win this fight. Switching from defense to offense he attacked with a series of sudden thrusts that, with carefully timed flicks of the wrist, changed direction at the last minute or added a second strike immediately behind the first. His first swing headed for the thief’s head and was deflected downward at the last second towards his shoulder. The thief managed to deflect most of the blow, but not before David drew blood.

His second thrust aimed for the legs, but changed directions to attack his opponent’s midsection. The third thrust aimed for the shoulder, but moved upwards to aim for the head. By the fourth maneuver David had to admit his opponent was skilled, or at least skilled enough to deflect or block his blows. He could still hear the calls of his opponent’s companions but paid them no heed, his concentration needed to be focused on the thief in front of him.

The man suddenly lunged for David, who dropped to the ground and rolled away, quickly jumping to his feet. His opponent wasn’t quite as quick and David brought his right hand around and down for a resounding blow to the man’s sword hand. Reflex opened the man’s grasp and he dropped his weapon.

Before he could retrieve it, David quickly brought his knives in front of him, crossing below the thief’s neck. Then, before the thief could do anything but glare at him, David brought his right hand up and brought the hilt of his knife down on the back of the thief’s skull. The man’s eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed on the ground.

Quickly David turned to face the other thieves—only to find them all sitting quietly subdued, their hands tied behind their backs, grimaces of pain visible on their faces and in the stiffness of their limbs.

Now that he looked closer, David could see spots of blood in various places on each of the prisoners.

Kathryn stepped forward, a length of rope in her hands and began tying up the unconscious thief.

“And here I thought you’d abandoned me,” David commented as she finished tying the last knot.

She let out an un-ladylike snort. “Hardly. That one there,” she nodded to the man who David had originally held at sword point, “aimed to put an arrow in your back, unfortunately for him I couldn’t let that happen.”

“So you shot him?”

She looked at him, something akin to amusement in her eyes. “I shot them all.”

“All of them?”

“Just in their shoulders or legs,” Kathryn said matter-of-factly. “I didn’t hit anything vital—besides, I couldn’t very well come to your aid if I had to deal with the rest of them now could I?”

Somewhat baffled by the turn of events, David went on, “Now what are we going to do with them?”