The Battle Lord's Lady (16 page)

“She’s in her element now,” MaGrath
interjected into the conversation. “You won’t ever find her unless
she so wishes. Besides, if you piss her off, she just might put an
arrow through your eye or ear or mouth, or any other orifice you
show her.”

The room tittered with laughter until Mastin
spoke out unexpectedly. “I think the Battle Lord’s interest in the
maiden may have become more than a passing fancy,” he
commented.

Yulen shot him a look that would melt metal,
but the Second shrugged.

Batuset cleared his throat and chuckled.
“What would make you say that, Cole?”

Instead of turning to the leader of Foster
City, Mastin instead looked at his commander. “During the ride we
saw the girl shift her allegiance to him when she saved him from
the bull ferret.”

The room stilled to the point where the only
sound was the steady beating of the rain on the roof.

“A
bull
ferret?” Dardin Tabb repeated. He was Batuset’s Second in
command but had taken his seat near the head table, closer to
Mastin, so they could trade stories after the Battle Lords had
retired. “How large an animal was it?”

“A good ten feet from horn to spike,” Mastin
answered.

“How did she save him?” Batuset inquired, his
interest now very much heightened.

“She put an arrow through the creature’s
mouth so that it punctured one of its venom sacs and sent its own
poison into its brain,” the Second responded.

“
One
arrow?” a voice from the table echoed. It belonged to one of
Batuset’s men.

Mastin deferred to his leader. As the entire
room shifted their attention to Yulen, he grasped his mug of beer
even tighter.

“One arrow,” Yulen sighed.

“At what range?” Batuset asked.

Closing his eyes, Yulen could vividly
remember sensing the animal rising over his left shoulder, but his
eyes had been locked on the tip of the arrow. On the clear,
unworried look in her eye. On the tiny shivers in her hands and
arms as she held her one chance pulled all the way back on the
longbow. The strain, the pressure on her arms, had to have been
intense, he realized now.

“The thing was directly over my shoulder,
about to strike me. She was perhaps eight, maybe ten feet
away.”

Subconsciously he raised a hand to his face
and touched the line along his cheek where the arrow had marked
him. The ghost of a memory pressed soft, cool lips against the
bleeding scratch with passionate little kisses. He shook his
shoulders and rolled his neck to ease the tension.

Several men in the room made little sounds of
disbelief and amazement. Batuset whistled his appreciation at the
girl’s skill. “And you say you wanted her to teach your men how to
use their bows with the same degree of accuracy? Have you thought
about sharing her with your ally?”

“Rather a moot point now, don’t you think?”
Yulen reminded him and shoved his mug across the table.

“Well, if you do manage to get her back, how
do you think Collaunt’s going to react to this bit of news? You
having a Mutah bow master training your archers?” Batuset casually
draped a leg over the arm of his chair. “That man’s gotten to be a
much more dangerous enemy than you’re willing to admit, Yulen.
Three hard days’ ride or no, he’s your neighbor to your south, and
he’s close enough to have spies report every little thing to him to
where he could have his army back at your front gate in a week’s
time.” Adding a shake of his head, he said, “Mark my words. The man
is determined to add Alta Novis to his holdings. You know you have
my full support in case he tries, but don’t forget he’s gotten to
be a bigger tyrant since Rory’s death.”

Suddenly Yulen no longer felt hungry or
thirsty, just very, very tired. The older Battle Lord remembered
they had been traveling for many weeks, and were on their final leg
on their return home. Getting to his feet, Batuset once more gave
them welcome.

“Your quarters have been prepared. You may
stay until you feel the need to continue on.”

Yulen rose and bowed to the man. “Thank you,
but I only planned to stay the night. There are families at home I
know who are anxious to have their kin back at the compound...and
families not knowing they’ll have to prepare for a burial. The
sooner we get to Alta Novis, the better.”

Batuset nodded. “I understand. You’re welcome
for the night, then. My house will serve you and your men an
adequate breakfast to get you decently on the road. Is there
anything else you’ll need?”

Yulen managed a small but sincere smile.
“You’ve provided more than enough for us, Zane. Thank you.”

“Give Madigan my regards when you get home,”
Batuset told him.

Yulen assured him he would, then turned and
left the room, climbing the broad stairs of the lodge to where his
room was located at the far end of the building. He liked this
room, having stayed in it countless times in the past. It was large
and airy, and very easy to defend in case an enemy breached the
walls. The staircase was the only way in and out, although the
windows directly overlooked the surrounding forest and road leading
home.

At the speed they were traveling, they were
two days from Alta Novis—or one very long day if he pushed the men.
Yulen stared out the window and snorted softly. His men were
already chomping at the bit in their need to get home. To be this
close...

Hell with it. As soon as everyone was saddled
up in the morning, he’d set the pace at a brisk trot. That should
satisfy the troops and get them back not long after sunset.

A knock at the door drew his attention.
“Enter.”

A young maiden entered with his saddlebags,
laying them across the foot of the bed. “Your horses have been
stabled for the night,” she informed him.

“Thanks. That’ll be all.”

She smiled, and for a brief second he saw
another smile in the curl of her lip. He turned away from her to
gaze back out the window until she was gone.

The rain continued to pour from a sky the
color of dull lead, making it seem later than it really was. It
beat cold and hard, not quite ice, but close. Already the road was
spotted with growing puddles of water. Yulen wondered if the
weather would hold, or if there was a chance it would break up by
morning.

How was she doing in this weather? Regardless
of how good and experienced a hunter she was, she would be affected
by the dampness. Was she huddled someplace, keeping dry? Was she
able to have a fire? She didn’t have any more arrows. Was she
hungry, or had she managed to trap something for her supper? Was
she able to secure herself more ammunition? Surely part of her
training and experience included making more arrows, but what about
barbs?

Another thought came to him. What about her
injuries? He knew her wrists were doing okay, but what about her
cheek? That was the one that gave her the most pain, and MaGrath
wasn’t around to feed her any painkillers.

“Are you in pain, Atrilan?” he whispered
almost soundlessly. The rain gave no answer as he continued to
stare out the window, ignoring the fact that he was slowly getting
soaked from the raindrops ricocheting off the open sill.

Another knock at the door interrupted his
thoughts, and this time his irritation was evident in his response.
But instead of the young girl who had brought his saddlebags, it
was an older woman who opened the door.

“Excuse me, sir, but I was told you were
wanting a hot bath?”

“Yes. Thanks.”

The woman smiled. “Want me to have the tub
brought in here? Or would you rather use the bath at the end of the
hall?”

Yulen mulled over his choices, ending up with
preferring the more private one. “Bring in a tub, would you,
please?”

“Yes, sir,” she nodded. “It’ll be a few more
minutes while the water heats up. I’ll let you know when it’s
ready.”

“I appreciate it,” he told her, and turned
his back on her before she’d closed the door.

Despite it being the middle of the afternoon,
the sky was as dark as if it were dusk. Yulen felt every muscle
ache. He had been gone too long this time. Gone too long and seen
too much. An involuntary shudder went through him as the ghost of a
bull ferret breathed its venomous breath over his back, and Yulen
wondered if he would suffer any nightmares from the memory.

For the third time a knock barked on the
door. Yulen grimaced. Until he got his bath, he knew he wouldn’t
have a peaceful moment to himself.

“Yes! What is it this time?” he called out.
This time it was MaGrath who opened the door. The look on his face
made Yulen stare back wide-eyed. “What?”

“My tins are gone,” the physician said in a
tight voice.

“The painkillers? Will we need any more
before we get to the compound?”

“You don’t understand. The tins were with me
when we arrived. I know. I fed some powder to Karv right before we
were fed. But they’re gone now.”

“Were they in your kit?” Yulen asked.

MaGrath shook his head. “In my coat pocket.
Yulen...Atty’s nearby...and she has to be hurting.”

“Are you
sure?
” He had to know, with no amount of
uncertainty.

“No one but she would have known that’s where
I put the tins after I medicated Karv. It was just me and him
outside, and instead of replacing them in the kit like I normally
would, I just stuck them in my coat pocket.”

Yulen’s eyes raked over him. “Where’s your
coat now?”

“I took it off and draped it over the back of
my chair before I sat down to eat. It wasn’t until after I got to
my room that I realized I’d left it in the dining room, so I went
back to get it.”

“Was it still there?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I grabbed it, but
something didn’t feel right, so I stuck my hand in that pocket.
That’s when I discovered the tins were gone. Both of them.”

“How can you be certain Atty got them? How do
you know one of the help didn’t take them? Or one of the
soldiers?”

A look he couldn’t describe passed over the
physician’s face. MaGrath tossed something at him, which he caught
in mid-air. As his fingers closed over it, he felt it bite
painfully into his palm.

“Tell me one of the
help,
or that one of the
soldiers
would leave this behind,” he said
scathingly.

Yulen stared in shock at the small barb stuck
in the palm of his hand. A barb used to tip an arrow. He glanced
back at the physician, who was waiting for a sign of
understanding.

“She left it for me to find, knowing I would
bring it to you. She’s out there right now, Yulen. She’s calling
for help, calling for you. For God’s sake, Yulen, go get her.”

Without waiting for the man to make another
comment, Yulen rushed out the door and pounded down the stairs.

Mastin was still in the common room, along
with Dardin Tabb and several other soldiers from both his troops
and Batuset’s compound. Seeing his leader burst into the room, the
Second jumped to his feet, prepared to follow. Yulen raised a hand
to dismiss him as he hurried by.

“Not this time, Mastin. This is a private
matter.”

The Second nodded, but continued to stare
after the Battle Lord as the man threw open one of the outer doors
and slipped out into the drenching rain.

Yulen was completely soaked by the time he
reached the stables and ordered one of the help to saddle his
horse. While he waited just inside the tack room, his eyes scanned
the outer wall and whatever else he could see from where he
stood.

She had managed to slip inside a guarded
compound, into a heavily fortified Battle Lord’s lodge, exchange
the medicine tins for a barbed tip of an arrow, and had gotten out
without anyone seeing her. Despite the rain, despite everything,
she had followed them. And then she had risked being detected to
leave him a message. When she could just have easily taken the
tins, leaving MaGrath uncertain and scratching his head, she’d
deliberately made sure he would know who had taken them. If
Batuset’s men caught her, unless she could defend herself, they
would kill her. That meant he had to get to her first...if she
would let him.

Yulen frowned, his jaws clenched. She would
let him, he promised himself.

She left it for me to find, knowing I would
bring it to you. She’s out there right now, Yulen. She’s calling
for help, calling for you. For God’s sake, Yulen, go get her.

Dear God, let’s hope she
will,
he prayed.

Chapter Eighteen

Confrontation

The horse was reluctant to go back out into
the cold rain. By the time Yulen coaxed it into the yard to mount,
Mastin was awaiting him on his horse. MaGrath stood beside him.
Yulen gave both men an exasperated look.

“You know you have no business going out
there by yourself,” the physician stated the obvious. “At least
have another sword at your back, just to be on the safe side.”

Yulen nodded, too worried and too anxious to
be out there looking for her to argue an inarguable point. He swung
into the saddle as his horse was already heading for the gates.
Mastin reined in directly behind him. Once they passed through the
gates, his Second briefly pulled up next to him. “Where to,
Sir?”

“Do you know why we’re out here when the
weather’s not fit for man nor beast?” the Battle Lord questioned in
a hard voice.

“Yes, sir. To look for the escaped
prisoner.”

Rather than correct the man, Yulen nodded and
kneed the stallion, and they headed away from the compound, edging
along the road.