Kethril (28 page)

Tathan came over and wrapped his arms around
her. She held onto him, letting his strength flow into her. There
were times when she wished she could climb into his skin and just
stay there with him. He lifted her chin with his finger and looked
her closely in the eyes. “Zub zub?”

“Oh, Tathan! You’re speaking gibberish. None
of the words you say are making any sense,” she said. “I think you
hit your head or something.”

He disagreed. “Gabble fom. Zabibble ho frr
ghl.” Tathan explained what happened. He stood up, wiggled his
fingers and made ominous gestures. “Ga zzii mu mu mu foooo az!” A
spin and a hop on his good leg was added for emphasis. Then he got
on his knees and began stuffing food in his mouth.

“The squirrel! Steve the squirrel, right?”
Anilyia guessed. He nodded and began making the gestures again.
Anilyia knew exactly who he was talking about. “Felina, the bounty
hunter! Is that it?”

“Mabibble honk to the wibble!” he mumbled
around the food.

“So, she did this to you? How?”

He thought for a moment before continuing
the charades. She watched him point at both of them and mimic
riding a horse. “We were both riding,” she guessed. He nodded and
pointed at her. Then he did the gestures again and thrust his arm
forward. “Felina cast a spell . . . as we were riding away.” Tathan
jumped up and clapped, pointing at her again. He mimicked riding
again and smacked himself in the back of the head.

Anilyia thought she knew what he meant, but
didn’t say anything. Tathan smacked himself in the back of the head
again. She tried to contain a smirk and covered her mouth with a
hand. He smacked himself in the back of the head a few times in
rapid succession before he saw the mirth in her eyes.

Tathan stopped hitting himself and put his
hands on his hips. “Gazee?” he asked. Anilyia burst into laughter,
but it only lasted long enough to relieve a little of the
stress.

“Felina hit you in the back of the head with
a spell, right?” she said. A thought occurred. “Wait . . . why
didn’t it affect me? Was it only aimed at you?” He shook his head,
tapped her necklace and then pointed at her head. It took her a
moment before she realized what he was communicating. “The necklace
protected my mind! I remember it getting hot briefly when we were
riding away, but I was too busy trying to escape.” That elicited
another nod from Tathan.

She wrapped him up in a desperate hug. “I
was so frightened.” They stayed like that for a minute before both
of their stomachs growled at the same time. They laughed and
separated. The food was still warm and they finished it off in no
time at all.

When they were done, she asked, “Can you
travel? We’re still in a lot of danger I think.”

He nodded. “Mabibble honk to the
wibble.”

“I’m guessing when you say ‘mabibble honk to
the wibble’, it means yes,” Anilyia said.

Tathan barked out a laugh. “Grr alsal woff?
La mmm zoy ouli.”

“Right. Whatever you said,” Anilyia replied.
“I didn’t take very good care of the horses by the way. I think
they were lathered and I left their saddles and stuff on.” She
didn’t care what the technical terms were at that moment.

Tathan nodded and then leaned over to kiss
her. It was heavenly and she felt her muscles relax. She liked it
when he kissed her. She also liked it when his hands found their
way underneath her clothes as he pushed her back onto the bedrolls.
Whatever the spell had done to his head didn’t affect his
lovemaking abilities and they spent the next hour relieving the
stress of the last couple of days.

They dozed off for a short time before
getting dressed. Tathan doused the fire with a bucket of water he
had brought in. When he was certain the fire was out, he rolled up
the top bedroll and pointed at the other one for her to take care
of. Anilyia smirked. “What’s that? I don’t understand you?” He
lowered his eyebrows in a playful glare. They both laughed and
Anilyia rolled up the other bedroll the best she could.

He led her into the main part of the church
and to the horses. At some point, he had taken care of them. The
saddles and gear were sitting on one of the pews. He had her help
put everything on. She did so reluctantly, but without
complaint.

A steady drizzle was falling through the
holes in the roof and trickling down her back. Worse than that, it
was dark outside with scant moonlight illuminating the clouds. It
gave the sky an eerie glow and made it hard to see anything.

When they were done, Tathan gave her another
long kiss that took her mind off the miserable conditions. They led
their horses outside and mounted. When they were on the road again,
Tathan turned east. Anilyia paused and asked, “Don’t we want to go
back to the highway?”

He stopped and answered, “Gif duul owie
rararara.” Realizing she couldn’t understand a word, he shook his
head no and pointed east. Anilyia opened her mouth to protest, then
realized he was better at this sort of thing and there were
probably more bounty hunters waiting in the direction they had come
anyway.

It didn’t take long for Anilyia to dislike
the journey. The woolen travel outfit kept a lot of the moisture
out after she put the hood up. Part of the problem was that the
clouds had come down to the ground and turned into fog. She had no
clue where they were or whether they were headed in the right
direction.

To make matters worse, the few times Tathan
did speak, it was unintelligible. Anilyia had felt very much alone
the previous evening when he was dazed. He was awake and . . . she
examined him through the haze . . . mostly alert, but she still
didn’t have anyone to talk to.

Anilyia sighed. It looked as though it would
be a long ride.

***

Morning was beginning to burn off some of
the fog and they could see for about a hundred feet in every
direction. Shapes appeared ahead, forming into three figures
sitting on horseback at an intersection.

Fear gripped Anilyia’s heart again. She was
certain there were no black-clothed figures or guards to save them
this time. “Tathan, bounty hunters were trying to get us last
night. I think that’s who these people are,” she whispered
hoarsely.

Tathan nodded at her and smiled. “Mabibble
honk to the wibble.” He gestured for her to stay back while he rode
ahead. Anilyia knew he was still weak and worried about whether or
not he could handle bounty hunters.

“Stay where you are, Tathan of the Shadows,”
the lead hunter said in voice powerful enough to pierce the fog
that muffled all other sound. “You and the princess are going to
fetch us a pretty price. Now drop your weapons and surrender. I
happen to know for a fact that you’re injured and weak. We don’t
want to make this difficult, now do we?” The other two chuckled
maliciously.

Anilyia got the impression he was lying. She
also got the impression that they wanted to make things especially
difficult for
her
. The fact that all three men were leering
at her instead of paying attention to Tathan drove that fact
home.

Tathan ignored the order to stay where he
was and continued riding slowly. “Hesh ury gu ury,” he responded to
them. They looked at him in confusion. Tathan pointed at the
princess and wiggled his fingers. “Eeky wolambangerdo.”

The men looked back at Anilyia, their leers
turning into looks of confusion. That’s when the three bounty
hunters and the princess learned how little an injury mattered to
Tathan when life was on the line.

He was almost at the lead rider when he
kicked the sides of his horse and drew his sword. All three of the
men reacted by drawing their weapons, but Tathan was already
leaping into the air from the back of his mount to the first bounty
hunter. He landed on the neck of the man’s horse and rammed
Lifedrinker down into the bounty hunter’s shoulder.

Tathan yanked his sword out and somersaulted
to the next bounty hunter who was dashing forward to help his
friend. Anilyia watched their swords meet in the air. Tathan’s
drove the hunter’s blade back as the momentum of spinning in the
air gave him extra force. He landed with one foot on the horse’s
neck and his other on the man’s shoulder, driving the bounty hunter
over the hindquarters. Lifedrinker slashed back across the hunter’s
neck causing blood to spray upward in a fan. The horse reared, and
Tathan tumbled as he hit the ground.

As the second bounty hunter’s horse ran
forward past Anilyia, its rider fell with a thud next to her. She
held onto her reins tightly as her horse pranced nervously away
from the body.

Tathan stumbled, his injured leg buckling
under him. Anilyia gasped in alarm.

The last bounty hunter eagerly sprang
forward with his sword in the air for a killing blow. The blade
missed Tathan, who leapt to grab the man and pull him down to the
ground. The horse jerked as the hunter’s foot caught in the
stirrup. Muffled snaps from his leg made Anilyia’s stomach
turn.

He screamed in agony, dropping the sword and
reaching for the leg with his free hand. Tathan had hold of the
other arm, keeping the hunter suspended in midair, though the horse
was dragging him forward. It was over when Lifedrinker stabbed in
and out of the man’s heart, drawing more blood with it. Tathan let
go and the horse ran off, dragging the dying bounty hunter with
it.

Anilyia then realized why her lover was so
feared. He had moved faster and more decisively than she had ever
seen anyone move. He killed without hesitation, but there was a
style to it, a gruesome style to be sure, but style
nonetheless.

She heard a gurgling sound. The first bounty
hunter was leaning in his saddle, with limp arms hanging at his
sides. Blood was flowing down the front of his shirt and pouring
from the side of his mouth. She looked at his eyes and saw the life
leave them. The body collapsed to the ground. His horse took a few
more steps then stopped.

“Jungy walla poo?” Tathan asked as he limped
back to her, leading his horse. Anilyia stared at him blankly.
“Jungy walla poo?” he asked again. He was covered in blood spatter
again and still held the dripping sword in his hand.

Anilyia had sat by her grandmother’s side
when the old woman died. She had also lost a few friends and
acquaintances to death, so she wasn’t a stranger to it. But this
chaotic business of slashing at things with swords was unpleasant
to say the least. The worst part was the number of ways blood came
out of a body. It disturbed her and she let Tathan know that by
screaming in horror at the top of her lungs.

Tathan took it well. He gave the reins of
his horse to her to hold. Then he went over to the bounty hunter
that had just fallen. His blade was the first thing Tathan tended
to, wiping it on the dead body in a gesture Anilyia hated. It
seemed disrespectful to the person he had just killed.

Then Tathan went to the man’s horse and
searched through the bags, further offending her. He took a shirt,
sniffed it and then proceeded to use it to wipe the blood off his
face and clothes after deciding it was clean enough. He dug through
the bags some more then bent over the body, grabbed the man’s money
pouch and began rifling through his things.

“Tathan! Don’t you dare!” Anilyia shrieked
in outrage. He looked up in surprise. She yelled at him, her voice
cracking. “I will not have you looting bodies! We have enough
money. We’re not poor! Get away from him and put that purse back
now
!”

He looked down at the body, then at her. It
was clear he wanted to continue the looting.

“Tathan, if you love me, you won’t loot
those bodies,” Anilyia threatened. She hated using those words and
hoped he loved her enough to stop.

Relief filled her heart when he dropped the
purse and immediately limped back to her. Tathan took the reins she
held out to him and mounted the horse.

They turned south at the new road. Anilyia
took off at a gallop to get away from the nightmare she had just
witnessed.

***

Tathan led them around the next two towns
they passed, miming that there might be more bounty hunters in
them. Anilyia agreed reluctantly. She wanted to take a bath and
rest in a real bed, but also wanted to avoid having to watch any
more killing.

Life had become much more precious in the
last few days. Her mortality was in question unlike it had ever
been before. Even in the Rojuun caverns, she hadn’t thought they
were going to kill her until the very end. That had been more like
a surreal nightmare.

Out of all the dangerous people who had
tried to kill or capture her, none were more frightening than the
man she was in love with. He had killed five men back at the
castle,
should
have killed Steve and Felina, and had killed
three more at the intersection. The people he killed weren’t
pushovers either. Each one was an extremely dangerous individual to
a greater or lesser degree.

She stared at him while they rode. He had
his hood up and stared ahead in thought. Rain continued to make the
ride miserable as the horses plodded through the mud. The good
thing was that it rinsed most of the blood off him.

The grey of the day had turned into darkness
when the sun set a few hours earlier. The moons weren’t doing a
very good job of creating light through the cloud cover and it was
hard to see. Anilyia had never realized how dark it could be when a
person was away from any trace of civilization.

Tathan’s horse shook its head and whinnied
in protest at having to keep walking. Tathan patted its neck in
encouragement. Both horses were tired as were their riders. Anilyia
sighed and continued on, lost in her thoughts.

A short while later they saw the lights of a
village through the rain. Anilyia stared at Tathan expectantly.
There was no way she was going to go around and was pretty sure she
could convince the horses to take her side. Thankfully, he nodded
and they rode toward it.