The Reformation Wars: Countdown to Catastrophe

Chapter 7

For the first few minutes of watching the vanquished and bound assassin, Nathan endlessly paced. With his heart having refused to calm down from the excitement of combat, staying still was agony. Though to be fair, anything was agony with the throbbing mass of torn muscle comprising his shoulder. Itching, stinging, burning, and deadening sensations all took their turn on the injury site to make for a varied experience of torment.

By and by, however, his heart calmed down, and Nathan found himself with a sudden urge to sit. Deciding there was little harm in doing so, he settled down against a tree a few paces across from Black Crow. He laid his shield down on the ground by his right hand and dropped his sword down atop that. Then, with a sigh, he leaned back and glanced up at his blonde charge.

She stared back silently with what seemed to be sorrow in her eyes. Though Nathan didn't trust it to be genuine, he inwardly shrugged. There was no harm in questioning her, after all.

"So," he began, "seventeen's a pretty impressive number. You must be experienced in the art of killing people."

Black Crow hung her head and nodded. "I'm not sure how impressive it is if all it ends in is me tied up against a tree. I shouldn't have bothered."

"Bothered with what?"

"I was only supposed to be here as shortly as I could make it. Simply refill my quiver and hurry back to Monterayne. But then I spotted you two...thought I could make a pair of easy marks."

Nathan chuckled ruefully. "Oh how wrong you were."

"I know..." she trailed off with a somber downturn that made Nathan regret laughing at her, "What will they do to me?"

"Well...best case scenario, they'll lock you up. Murder's taken pretty seriously in Monterayne."

"You and I both know the best case scenario never actually happens. What's likely to happen?"

Nathan gulped, not able to answer while maintaining eye contact. "What's likely? They...what's likely is they'll do 'eye for an eye'."

"They'll kill me."

The dark-skinned knight sucked in a deep breath. "Yes."

"Please, you can't let that happen!" Black Crow begged, leaning forward as much as she could against her restraints, "I...I don't want to die! I know what I did was wrong, and I promise I won't repeat it!"

Nathan sighed. His gaze dropped down to his feet. "What's your name, anyway?"

"Kelly. And yours?"

"Nathan. You have a pretty name. It fits your face."

He glanced up to see Kelly was shooting him a subtle glare. "I'm likely to die, and all you can say is that?"

"I didn't mean it like that, just...if I didn't know any better...if I'd just been randomly walking through this area and spotted you, I'd have the assumption you were just an innocent woman who'd been tied up and harassed. You truly don't look the part of a cold-blooded killer."

"I'm not a cold-blooded killer! I...I never wanted this!"

Nathan winced. His shoulder had just emerged from a nap of numbness and now bit him with twice the fierceness. "What do you mean by that?"

"Do you really think I simply woke up one morning and told myself eliminating people was a good profession to go into?"

"That does sound unlikely, but neither can I think of any way to rationalize that decision."