Betrayal (5 page)

He pulled away and felt the spots himself. “How bad is it?”

“They look like nicks.” She took a cloth from Nisero’s saddlebags and dabbed at the cuts. “It could have been much worse.”

“I’ll be fine.” He stepped away and took her saddle to prepare her horse to ride.

As he strapped the saddle in place, she said, “You need to let me put water on it to treat it.”

“I’ll be fine. We just need to get away.” He turned away from her horse and smiled. “But we need to not look like we are fleeing. We need to flee casually. You understand?”

“Nisero, please, let me take care of you.”

He felt a dry twinge in his throat that had nothing to do with the cuts. He swallowed several times. “If we are going to say I am your husband Dreth, you’ll need to stop calling me by my real name.”

Arianne sighed. “As you wish, husband.”

Nisero swallowed again. “Let me help you up.”

She mounted the horse without his assistance and he climbed on his horse next to her. He stole a glance back at the man on the ground before they retook the trail and rode away.

They passed other riders that gave nods or hails as they went. The other riders seemed to pay attention to Arianne’s condition still, but Nisero swore they were studying his face as they passed. It could have all been in his head or they might have been wondering what sort of man would be riding on any journey with a pregnant woman on horseback.

It occurred to Nisero that he might have taken her by wagon to spare her the roughness of the ride, although she seemed uncomfortable and uneasy while reclining. He did not know much about pregnant women and their needs. He supposed his paranoia over thinking the travelers were staring at him was from the heightened energy of having fought for his life, and less connected to the reality of any recognition on their part.

He drew the strings on the tie of his cloak tighter and up over his throat to hide the dark scars still caked with dried blood on his throat.

He thought about the travelers coming across the injured man in the clearing or on the road. He would be awake again unless Nisero had crushed the man’s throat, which was a risk. If common bandits came upon him while he was still down or struggling along with his broken shoulder, they might beat him further or finish killing him for his dagger and whatever coin he carried. It would essentially be the same as if Nisero had straight out killed the man himself.

If the bounty hunter claimed to be waylaid by the criminal, traitor, murderer, former Lieutenant Nisero, they might turn back to run him down with Arianne as good citizens would. They might alert the closest authorities and send them racing after Nisero with an accurate description and the correct route.

“Should we leave this road?” Arianne pulled Nisero up out of his thoughts.

“I do not know what roads we can and can’t take,” he said.

Arianne took a moment to consider their options. “We can move along the spur ahead of us here. It will take us wider and farther out from the main villages and travel arteries. It will be a bit longer, but we are less likely to be seen by anyone that will care who wants you or for what.”

Nisero stared at the fork ahead and the more narrow spur that Arianne was suggesting. “How likely are we to come across someone that wishes us harm regardless of who we might be?”

“That I can’t answer, but I know we have come across one such man on the main road, so there is that to consider… husband.”

Nisero chewed at his lip. He thought that a bounty hunter seeking out a warrant on a wanted criminal was not quite the same as a purposeless bandit. One man overestimating his ability to bring in a bounty was a bit different from a group of desperate killers and thieves looking to rape, murder, and steal. The army had not done a sufficient job of clearing the kingdom of such threats.

He decided not to address any of these issues with her as there was not much to be said on the subjects. He had two paths in the woods with unknown dangers ahead on each. He had to make a choice on what he did know from the poor choices at hand. That form of decision was not new to him by any stretch.

“Very well,” Nisero decided. “Let’s take the spur. Stay close to me and follow my instructions without delay. If I say it, I say it for a reason that I may not have time to fully explain. Do you understand?”

“I do,” Arianne acknowledged. “Now you speak like a right proper husband. We should find you a nice wife you could order around.”

“I thought…” He cut himself off as they approached the spur. He was going to mention that he had thought at one point that he had found a wife that could be a proper partner. That split in the road of his life had come some time ago and he had let her take a different path from him, without following. There was no riding back to that point now. He was not sure if he or she had been the one to take the dangerous spur, but that was the point where their lives diverged and he had let it happen.

“You thought what?” she asked.

“I thought wives were the ones that gave the orders.”

Arianne laughed. “We definitely need to marry you off, then, Niser… ugh, Dreth…”

They took the spur together and continued on their journey.

“I’m not sure I am up for that adventure any time soon, but I appreciate your concern, Arianne.”

“Of course,” she replied.

The trail proved rougher, but barren of other travelers. As far as Nisero could discern, bandits had no use waiting on a trail no one traveled. As sundown approached, there seemed to be no end to the trail.

“I’m going to need to find us a secure area to make camp, Arianne.”

“Let’s keep going. We’re getting close to the message drop.”

They rode on, but as darkness began to set in, he started to think about the ambush on the road to the eastern kingdom that had cost him all his brothers in the Guard. If there was another attack, it would just be him and a pregnant woman. He doubted his own ability to keep people around him safe more so than he ever had in all his life.

Motion drew his attention off to the left.

Nisero crouched in the saddle and stared into the shadows, but saw no one.

“Get ready to ride hard,” he instructed.

“In the darkness? On this trail?” she asked in surprise.

Nisero showed his teeth. “What did I say before we took this spur, woman?”

Nisero was jerked backward off the horse so hard that he thought he had run into a catch wire strung across the trail. It was a common tactic of bandits and his only thought as he fell was that he hoped it had missed Arianne.

But Nisero realized as he landed on his hip and the horse reared ahead of him that he had been seized and yanked down from behind. He felt the hands of his attacker close around his neck in the darkness.

“Ride, Arianne!” he shouted as he turned the bandit’s wrist and twisted around inside his grasp. He tried to spy others but could not make out other men in the darkness.

His own arm twisted up behind him and he took a knee to his gut driving out his air. Nisero flipped over and landed on his back with his arm extended above him and his wrist pressed back the wrong way. As he stared up into the treetops, he saw that Arianne was still on her horse and watching with eyes wide instead of riding away. He tried to yell at her to go, but he could not find his air. Nisero tried to sit up, but a boot pressed his throat and chin and drove his skull back against the ground.

Nisero blinked against purple stars in his vision and clawed for the hilt of his sword.

“Father!” Arianne exclaimed. “It’s Nisero. Let him up!”

Captain Berengar growled, “I know who he is.”

Nisero stopped with his hand on his sword, but did not draw it. “Berengar? Good to see you, old friend.”

Berengar kept his boot on Nisero’s throat and the lieutenant’s arm torqued and extended. “Why did you bring her with you?”

Nisero had to rasp out his reply. “She gave me no choice.” The strain caused by the former captain’s unforgiving hold on his airway and muscle joints was becoming painful.

Nisero saw that Berengar wore a broadsword with a black hilt in a plain leather sheath on his belt. It reminded Nisero of the swords of many bandits they had fought together in the past.

Captain Berengar spoke through his teeth down at him. “There is always a choice.”

“Father, let him up and listen to what he has to say,” Arianne pleaded.

“The Elite Guard is dead,” Nisero groaned from the ground.

“I know,” Berengar said, “and they are looking to you for it.”

“I didn’t do it.”

“I know you didn’t. But you brought my pregnant daughter with you and have involved her in the search. You should have insisted that she send you alone. You should have after all we did to rescue her and bring her back to safety. For the sake of my unborn grandchild, Nisero, why would you involve her in this after all I have lost?”

“I’m sorry,” Nisero whispered. “She is stubborn and I had to find you.”

“I insisted,” Arianne added. “You made yourself impossible to be found. I had to come to be sure he found you.”

“I’m not talking to you, Arianne.”

“Well, father, you better let him up and start talking to me, or I’m going to have my horse kick you in the head to get you off him. You had better believe that.”

Berengar glared at his daughter, who met his intense gaze as best she could. Eventually he released Nisero’s arm and took his boot off the lieutenant’s throat.

Nisero bent his arm back into his chest tentatively and coughed several times. Arianne dismounted and ran to Nisero’s side. Berengar reached for her, but she side-stepped him. She took Nisero’s shoulders and hoisted him up to a sitting position. Nisero stood on his own from there and stepped away from her.

He rubbed his throat and looked Berengar in the face. His former captain looked older and haggard. The lines over his skin and along his face were deeper and made him look far more elder than not that many years before. The scar along his cheek left by Berengar’s final battle with Solag looked like an ancient marking, as old as a rune upon the wall of a forgotten temple. Gray had set deeper into his hair.

Nisero had no doubt that Captain Berengar still possessed very near his full measure of strength and skill. His own inability to counter the captain’s attack gave him great assurance, through his pain, that Berengar was exactly who he needed. He just needed to direct the older man’s rage away from himself.

“If I could find you,” Berengar said, “then others will be able to as well.”

“I am deeply sorry, sir. I have to solicit your aid, no matter how angry you may be at how I went about it.”

“What is it that you expect we are going to do, Nisero?” Berengar took a few paces away, then abruptly turned and strode right up to him. “You, me, and my pregnant daughter are going to storm the capital and demand an audience with the King? We’re going to battle Captain Forseth and the last surviving members of the Guard to prove you didn’t betray them? We’re going to take on the entire army of two kingdoms ourselves. Is that it?”

Nisero held up his hands in a calming manner. “What are you talking about? Forseth is still alive?”

Berengar stared for a moment and narrowed his eyes in the darkness. “That is the report that has come north. Him and a few others… not many.”

Nisero staggered back and bent over clutching his knees. Arianne tried to steady him herself.

“I thought they had all died,” Nisero said, shocked. “We were separated before the ambush and everyone around me was cut down. I barely escaped from the attackers by the slightest of chances and the cover of darkness. The Eastern prince was cut down along with his men. I fled. I should have remained and tried to help Forseth. I did not think about it until later and by then, the attackers were searching for me.”

“Where was Forseth?”

“He went to the manor house where we were supposed to stay,” Nisero replied. “Forseth and some others went to announce our arrival. We stayed on the road awaiting his return.”

“With the prince?” Berengar asked.

“Yes.”

“In the dark?”

“Yes.”

Berengar furrowed his brow. “On the exact spot where the attackers ambushed you once Forseth and the others left.”

Nisero stood up straight again. “What are you getting at, sir?”

“Your orders were to stay on the road.”

Nisero licked his lips. “Yes.”

“Why did Forseth leave you all to go to the manor house where you were expected?”

Nisero rubbed at his face as he tried to pull up the exact memory from the haze of that night. “He said it was late and he did not want the lord’s men to fire on the prince by accident, if we surprised him.”

“But then you were fired upon on purpose.” Berengar scratched at a gristle of whiskers over his chin and then rubbed his fingers at the deep pits of the scars along his cheek. “Every man that was with you died? You are sure?”

Nisero stared at the ground for a few beats. “I am certain. I thought Forseth and the others were waylaid upon their return.”

“So, all the survivors, including Captain Forseth,” Berengar concluded, “had to be among those that left you on the road, where you were told to stay.” Berengar crossed his arms across his broad chest. “He knew that exact manor and that exact spot where he insisted on stopping for the night. There and no where else.”

Nisero nodded slowly. “He did.”

“So you suspect him, father?” Arianne injected. “You think Captain Forseth conspired with the attackers against his own Guard?”

“I can’t imagine it,” Nisero whispered.

“I’m surprised it didn’t cross your mind sooner.”

Nisero turned away. “I had no reason to think there had been any other survivors before now. I had considered that there had to be powerful men behind the assassination and the framing, but I never considered such a betrayal.”

“I don’t know how we go about refuting the kingdom wide call for your capture or death,” Berengar said in concern. “Those that want you dead, and thought you guilty, only want it more with every passing moment. Fear of war is spreading through the land. On my way here, I heard talk that handing you over to the grieving king in the east might buy forgiveness and avoid bloody conflict.”

“The people clearly have no understanding about how King’s operate or think,” Nisero remarked.

“They never have and never will.”

“How did you know to come down this way looking for us at all?” Arianne asked. “We took the spur and we are still some distance from the message drop.”

Berengar rubbed at his chin. “It is a wonder you two did not get yourselves captured or killed.”

“We came close with one bounty hunter,” Arianne confessed, “but Nisero choked him out and we escaped.”

Berengar stared at his daughter for a moment and then affixed Nisero in his glare. Nisero found himself wishing that Arianne had not mentioned the close call to her father.

Berengar took a deep breath and then said, “At any rate, word of the two of you traveled up the trail and reached the towns north. The fact that they continued to search farther north and you had not reached the message drop, led me to believe that you had been captured and was on your way back to the capital. Or, you had broken off on a side route that they had not searched. I came down this way first and then was going to track you back along the main roads until I found who had claimed your bounty.”

“By the gods,” Nisero uttered, “we avoided disaster again by mere chance.”

“You give yourself so little credit.” Arianne huffed in annoyance. “But more importantly, you give
me
so little credit.”

Berengar exhaled slowly, looking up into the trees. “I think he gives himself plenty enough credit, for the circumstances.”

“Father,” Arianne said, “we need to get off the trail. Can we reach your hidden cabin in the foothills?”

“There are already men searching and guarding there.”

“How did they even find it?” Arianne asked in surprise.

“You greatly underestimate the depth of trouble you two have waded out into.”

Nisero looked around him. “Were you possibly followed out this far?”

“No, I know how to avoid detection.”

“Then, I’m again reassured that coming to you was the right choice.”

Berengar huffed. “There is a place nearby that we can rest for one night at least. We’ll need to move on after that though. Where from there, I don’t yet know. We will be getting Arianne back to her husband and clear of this business as soon as possible too. Trying to swim against the tides of two kingdoms that want you dead is impossible enough without a pregnant woman in tow.”

“Easy, father, I got us this far well enough, did I not?”

Berengar smiled patiently at her. “My horse is off the trail ahead of us here. I’ll retrieve it and then we are traveling through the woods. It will be a difficult ride in the dark. We will be going slow. No one gets hurt even if it takes us all night to arrive.”

Berengar marched ahead of them. Arianne mounted her horse and Nisero walked along between, holding the reins of both horses from the ground.

“I have greatly angered and disappointed him,” Nisero said quietly.

Arianne sniffed. “I’ve done so plenty of times myself. Believe me. He will get past it.”

“You are his daughter.” Nisero stared at Captain Berengar’s back. “He would forgive you from necessity, if no other reason.”

“You underestimate what you mean to him, Nisero. He thinks of you much like a son. He will be angered and forgiving toward you in equal measure.”