The Herald of Death

Chapter 6

Chapter Six :

Big shapes were entering the camp. They were surprisingly stealthy as they made their way through, their blades already stained with the blood of the men caught unawares. Their whispers to one another had awoken me along with the sense I get when something isn’t right. Intuition had never betrayed me.

Though I had jumped to my feet they hadn’t seen me. A quick glance around told me that the men were either asleep or already dead. Most were only asleep but I could see the slit across a few of the men’s throats.

Where was the soldier on watch? He should have raised the alarm. I saw him sitting against a rock, the red gash across his throat telling me all I needed to know. He had dozed off and been killed before he awoke. I would have heard a struggle.

I now faced a dilemma. If I raised the alarm, the remaining men would be outnumbered and could lose. Better to die in your sleep. I could just slip off into the night, by the time these thugs saw me it would be too late to catch me. But I was supposed to protect Dryden and if anyone was to kill him it had to be me. I wanted to play with him.

Each second that passed left us even more outnumbered as they continued with their bloody task. If I had to act, the sooner the better. And each second also increased the risk of being discovered. I didn’t have anymore time to hesitate.

So I spun on my heels and headed towards the horses shouting : “To your weapons ! The camp is under attack !”

That did the trick. The soldiers were quick to awaken and react while the bandits were caught by surprise by my shout. The bandits abandoned any thoughts of stealth and pitted themselves against the soldiers with savage cries.

I cut a couple down on my way towards the horses. Nymeria was prancing with frustration and excitement. I cut her loose and allowed her to go wreak havoc on the bandits. They wouldn’t know what hit them. I figured that I might as well even the odds since we were outnumbered and all. Zephir seemed as anxious to go as Nymeria had been so I cut him loose as well. He may be useful, at worse Dryden would lose his horse. It really didn’t matter to me.

The bandits hadn’t anticipated a real fight and were quickly run off. They’d expected to kill us all in our sleep and then go through our belongings but they must have known these were soldiers and were quick to give up when faced with conscious men and two very angry horses.

Once we were sure they were gone, the soldiers started seeing to their fallen comrades. I was just watching them. I didn’t feel at all inclined to help, they were all indebted to me anyways. If it wasn’t for me they’d all be dead so…

“Thank you. You raised the alarm.” Unsurprisingly it was Dryden who had walked up to me again. Why does this man keep on trying? The others have learned not to bother me.

“Yes. You wouldn’t have stood a chance without me. May I use this to point out that you nearly ended up worse then that peasant today while I did not ? That’s where your kindness got you. And when I stated that that would never happen to me because I wasn’t weak, I was right and proved it tonight.”

“I was merely trying to express my gratitude. But allow ME to point out that it was your own kindness that saved us. You could have left us to die but you didn’t. So I spread kindness and received some in return.”

“Well don’t expect any more from me. That was the last time I helped you, and don’t think you don’t all owe me your lives. So it wasn’t really kindness but an investment. Because you’re in my debt and I will collect.”  I hated that Dryden was technically right. As useful as it could be to have the Captain of Estersea’s army in my debt, that wasn’t what made me alert them.