The Bounty Hunter

Chapter Thirty Five

Chapter Thirty Five

Safita woke up with a pounding headache which blurred the corners of her world as it swam in and out of focus. The spinning only got worse when she tried to sit up and winced, feeling her temple gingerly, before she was shoved back down again.

“What do you think you’re doing you idiot?” a disembodied voice snapped at her. “Stay down, you need to come round slowly.”

She shut her eyes again and rested her head against the rock which she was lying on. “Who are you?” she asked into the darkness.

“I know you’ve had a blow to the head,” the voice replied, “but can’t you recognise the man who practically raised you?”

“Hergun?” she exclaimed incredulously, opening her eyes and looking around for him.

“That’s right,” he said with a grin.

“What are you doing here? I thought you were back in the Outlands; I thought you were attacked by Lassirus’ men. Where are we?” Suddenly she remembered what happened before she woke up and she started to panic. “Am I dead?” she asked, her voice rising higher than she wanted to let it.

“No.”

“But they were going to behead me,” she replied.

“But they didn’t.”

“Why not? I don’t understand. Lassirus would never let anyone get away unless he had some kind of plan for them. You’re not working with him are you?” Her words tumbled over one another, slurred by the speed with which she blurted them out and the injury to her head.

Hergun laughed and patted her on the shoulder. “No, I promise I’m not working with Lassirus; I don’t even know who he is. He didn’t kill you because he wasn’t able to stop you - I took care of that.”

“Why didn’t they behead me though?” she asked.

“Like I would ever behead you,” he scoffed. “It’s a funny thing, you know, that all the guards wear the same outfits and helmets. Makes it very difficult to tell them apart I find.”

Safita smiled wryly and shook her head at him with a small chuckle. “You clever bastard,” she sighed. “So what happened?”

“Wasn’t too hard really,” he shrugged, “after Lassirus’ men came looking for information… well I had to recover but I knew that you needed help; knew, of course, that you were headed over the Wall. Anyway once I could walk again I set out for Coraina, crossed over and made my way towards the palace. It wasn’t hard to sneak into the barracks and all I had to do then was pinch someone’s kit and volunteer to execute you; I find that they never suspect the fanatics. Once we were both in there I swung my sword, kicked your knees and knocked you over - you were knocked out cold by the floor and went scarily pale - then I smacked Lassirus and knocked him out too before grabbing you and running away. The guards nearly caught up to me but luckily Lassirus refused to let them have bows inside the castle and I had a head start. Most of them were clearly hired for their size rather than their intelligence - half of them just stood around for a minute or two before they realised what was happening.”

“You just ran out of the castle?” she questioned.

“Of course not, I’m not stupid!” he cried. “No I ran out of the room and slammed the doors behind me, blocked them with my sword and strode away carrying you under the arms, pretending that I was taking you back to your cell. Course actually leaving the castle was harder because we weren’t far in front of the other guards and you were an utterly dead weight so I jumped out of a window and into a cart which was stopped underneath it… Luckily I made a couple of friends while I was there or we would probably be dead by now.”