The Dorston Fall [Book I in the Dorston Legacy]

Chapter 18 - Charade

Forgetting her pain, Katelyn reached for her sword only to have her hand snatched and held behind her. She cried, as the second man pulled her against him and restrained her. She looked back, finding Sammy gagged and tied; he was staring at her and struggling. She quickly assessed the situation. There was a dozen more men emerging from the wood, behind tree trunks or dropping down like apples from the canopy. They were, significantly, outnumbered and with only one weapon between them. Katelyn looked at their uniforms. She let out a silent breath of relief, they weren't member to the Justice. But they were bandits or bounty hunters and that was no better. They were dangerous, greedy and ruthless.

"Look what we have here lads!" cheered the dark-skinned man, obviously the leader in this band. "We've got ourselves a little princess.'

His men laughed and Sammy's guard secured a tighter hand on him, when he began to struggle again.

Katelyn, her arm sizing up and her stitches threatening to rip open, tilted up her head. She would not show fear at a time like this. She couldn't have her captors thinking they had power over her. That wasn't the Dorston way.

"What do you want?" she asked, spitting out every word. The leader looked at the faces of his men, amused, before answering her.

"What any one of our occupation wants? Riches!" he hissed, money lust shining in his eyes.

"Well, we have none so why don't you leave us be?"

"Now, that's not entirely true," the leader pointed out. He looked up and down Katelyn's body, examining her and stripping her of what made her human and herself. She fidgeted under his gaze, too, feeling Sammy watching her. "All our riches lay with you. Word has got out about you girlie. Do you know how much you are worth to the Justice? More than a pretty penny, I assure."

"I can pay you double," Katelyn spat, lying. Since her father's mission to Baldon, much of the treasury had been stripped bare to provide supplies and to heed to small ransoms. True, she was playing with fire, lying to a group of bandits, but what choice did she have when they held her and Sammy captive?

Another bandit, with a red bandana and a fresh cut at the corner of his eye, stepped forward and laughed. "Then obviously, you haven't heard the Justice's reward."

He walked past her and collected the reins of her mare. No, Katelyn thought. She struggled, as the mare struggled, against the person not her mistress. The red bandit grunted, trying to control her but she did not yield.

The leader rolled his eyes and drew his sword. "For God's sake, Dimitri, kill the beast if she doesn't play."

"No!" Katelyn protested. "No, she's worth more to you alive than dead. Please don't."

The leader regarded her carefully, his face lifting to one side. "You know what they say about attachments? They are easily broken."

Before she could retaliate, perhaps beg, the red bandana bandit drew out a dagger and stabbed it into the mare's neck. Her blood sprayed across his beige coloured shirt. The mare shrilled in agony, tumbling to her knees and shaking.

"No!" screamed Katelyn. From behind his gag, Sammy shouted; thrashing about and receiving a punch in the gut as a reward. Katelyn panted, tears squeezing themselves out of her, as she watched helpless as the mare, her faithful companion, bleed red on the green, green grass.

Her vision clearing, frustration replacing her sorrow, Katelyn glared at the leader and worked up a mouthful of spit. The bandit laughed, cruelly and walked over to Sammy, with a delightful spring in his step.

"Now, who would you be?" said the leader, teasing away the gag only to receive a face full of spit. Sammy breathed hoarsely.

"You'll pay for that," he snarled, struggling in his captors arms. "She was an innocent animal!"