Berach's Jewel

Chapter Nine

Daveth woke up suddenly, breathing heavily. He could hear footsteps rustling through the forest floor. It was dark inside the shelter leaning against one of the boundary stones, bracken covered the entrance to disguise it as a heavy bush of the plant, and Daveth wasn't taking any chances on being discovered.

"Are you really that jumpy, father?" Kjell laughed, placing the water pouches down just inside the entrance. "Aldred's out, foraging for anything edible," she explained, not that Daveth was overly worried about him at all. He only worried for her, especially since his wife had died. She let her face lose emotion, knowing that her father didn't appreciate jokes at his expense.

"You'll need to go and get some food, Kjell."

Her face grew puzzled, he always wanted her to be close to him, she couldn't leave the house often without him knowing. Why now was she allowed, instead of Aldred? "But we didn't take money with us."

Kneeling down, she then crawled into the lean-to to talk with him more easily. Slowly, her father took off his belt, Kjell was frozen to the spot, watching his every move. She hunched her shoulders forwards, drawing her head back towards her chest, to protect herself from any blows. Daveth didn't seem like he would be the sort of person to hit, but she couldn't trust that - he was hard to pin down. Reaching around to the middle, he slid an inconspicuous pouch off it and, jingling with coins, passed the pouch to her. He buckled his belt again, Kjell unfolding herself in relief.

"There's not much there, but enough for you to buy some bread and vegetables in the nearest village."

"But that's in Jalde Dunstan's lands," She protested, "I thought that's the exact opposite of where you want to go." She crawled backwards, through the bracken, to get up and leave the lean-to. Daveth followed

Giving her a light push between the shoulder blades in the right direction, he told her, "That is why you are going there, not me nor Aldred." Resigned to her duty, she trudged forwards, grabbing a water pouch and basket for the journey there. Daveth listened for any dry twigs that snapped underfoot, to begin collecting for the night's fire. It was still morning, Kjell would return before sunset and he would have his fire ready to set alight by then.

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Kjell kept stepping onwards, trying hard to stay on the path her father had set her. He hadn't given her a map, and no-one had thought to pack paper and charcoal to write with. The trees all looked the same so she had no way to know if she was just aimlessly walking around in circles. The wind kept playing with her hair, meaning she had to often turn around so the wind would blow her hair back. With one of these gusts she heard muffled hoofbeats and shouts from men, becoming clearer as they came closer into earshot. Looking around her, panicked, she could only find one hiding spot, down in the ravine that she was about to cross. She flicked her basket away with her wrist, hoping it would distract them from her real hiding place.

Sitting down on the edge, she carefully lowered herself into the narrow opening, although it was still deeper than she was tall. Holding her water-pouch tightly so it wouldn't crash against the rocks that jutted out, she began to pick her way between the slippery rocks towards the bottom of the hill. Above her head she could begin to hear shouts right over her head. She froze against one wall, hoping that they would not see her and go away.

"Well I think it's come from this way - you can see a skid mark towards that place - and then at the edge there's all this scuffing too."

A third man was still on his horse, having jumped over the ravine to the opposite side and halted, right in front of where Kjell was in plain view. As he shouted to his partners, he roughly dismounted his horse and jumped into the ravine, falling heavily onto his feet. Red stained the stone where he landed, as he had steadied himself with his hands. Kjell ran as fast she could, trying to avoid the slippery green moss on the stone sticking out, her eyes glued to the ground so she wouldn't fall. The other two men had joined the chase by now.

As she ran she suddenly saw the ground stopping, she had reached the steep side of the hill. She had no idea if she was in Dunstan's or Frode's hundert, the chase had confused her. The man with the bloody hands squeezed the air out of her as he grabbed her around the waist. Quickly she cupped her hands and yelled for her brother, cut off as her hands were forced behind her back and her mouth muffled with her screams and shouts.

Once they had hauled her out of the ravine, tied her hands properly, and washed their hands one of them asked her, "You ran for some reason, girl." Kjell stayed silent, undecided as what would be worse, her father's or a Jalde's wrath. The only noise in the otherwise silent forest was the water splashing against the men's hands as they were washed.

The silence grew until another voice called out their head poking out over the hill, looking down at them, "Kjell? Kjell!" Aldred ran down the hill, and hugged his sister, "Thank goodness you're safe." Feeling the bonds around her hands he grew confused, concern in his eyes for her bruises.

"Aldred, you really are an idiot."

As soon as she had said his name, he felt a sharp prick of a sword on his back and a gruff voice asking his name.

"Aldred Davethsson," he said as he turned around to face the man's angry face, the sword now pressed against his throat.

"Jalde Dunstan! He doesn't have the marks on either of his arms, he can't be the thief, unlike his father" shouted one of the soldiers that had chased Kjell. Behind the men, she saw her father, his head hanging. The Jalde sheathed his sword, and signalled for the six of them to leave, the two soldiers leading the horses that Aldred and Kjell now sat on.

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Thanks for reading! Remember to vote and add it to your library if you're enjoying it so far! I'm really sorry to say that the next installment is the last one. It'll be posted on the 1st July. As a general note I'm working a lot of hours as a Camp Leader for a international student camp for six weeks, so I won't be on much until then. (I will put this up as an announcement on my profile!) But you can always message me if you want to talk/whatever! :) 

Thanks for reading!