Thrown Through Time

Chapter 21

Dhurial finally shook off his surprise. "You could be a chief's wife if you marry me!"

"Yes, but then I'd have to live here in this dark, damp, moldy, depressing keep, and then there's the issue of you probably wanting your marital rights," she made a face and several of the men standing around began whispering, surprised that he had allowed her to insult him, yet again. "I mean, odds are you're too old to be able to do much demanding in that area, but I just don't think I could stomach it at all."

"Very well," Dhurial took a deep breath and turned around, returning to his seat. "Then I have no choice but to have you sentenced to death."

"Oh, thank goodness!" she breathed a sigh of relief. "That sounds so much better than having to sleep with you."

Enraged, he leaped from his chair with a growl and backhanded her, sending her sprawling backwards across the floor. "Take her back to the dungeon!" he roared.

"Actually," Eirik calmly stepped out of the shadows, an axe in one hand and a sword in the other. "I'd like to take my love back home with me, if you don't mind."

The men in the room all scurried to draw their weapons and Dhurial stared, wondering just how Eirik of Svangard had managed to be inside his keep without anyone detecting him.

Sophie was too weak to get to her feet, but she smiled when Eirik knelt beside her. "I knew you'd come," she whispered.

"Stay down and let me rescue you," he smiled.

"I'm still strong enough to lift a sword. At least a light one,"

"I know," he shrugged. "But just let me have this one, okay?"

She nodded, crawling out of the way as he stood and moved towards the men who had lined up across the width of the room in an attempt to protect Dhurial.

The rage with which he slaughtered everyone in the room, including Dhurial, was breathtaking and Sophie had to look away. When there was finally silence in the room, she faced him again and saw Eirik standing over Dhurial's body. His shoulders were heaving but he reached down and snatched the keys to her chains from his corpse.

Throwing the chains aside, he lifted her in his arms. As he did, one of the men he'd fought managed to crawl from the room and sounded an alarm.

Reaching up to take his face in her hands, Sophie kissed him. "I knew you'd come for me,"

He smiled and kissed her again, as if he enjoyed it. "Leaving your shoes behind was brilliant,"

"I suppose your father assumed I left on my own,"

"Of course he did," he chuckled softly, brushing her hair away from her cheek. They could hear more soldiers coming, having been alerted by the man who'd escaped, and he lifted her in his arms, carrying her out the back way where his men were waiting.

The mercenaries met them just outside the small gate and led them away without being detected. The soldiers inside found their chief and many of the elders dead inside the keep but they were unaware of any prisoner so they had no idea who might have been responsible. They began talking amongst themselves about ghosts.

When Eirik and the others were far enough from the gates that they wouldn't be seen, they stopped to give Sophie water. Eirik would have checked her for injuries if it hadn't been so dark, but he'd have to wait until morning light. Once she'd drank her fill, they continued on and even though she insisted she was strong enough to walk, he insisted on carrying her until they made camp for the night.

She slept in his arms, both of them wrapped in his cloak. Neither of them were comfortable being separated that soon after her ordeal and he wasn't about to let her out of his sight for a second.