Mercenary Little Death Bringer (17 page)

“What is that?” I asked, “Why does it hurt
me?”

He pushed the rope higher up my wrist,
wrapped the strap around my wrist and pressed the medallion into my
palm. “I don’t know. I just know it knocks you out and makes it
much easier to move you.”

I tried to fight it. I tried to at least let
go of the stupid medallion, but all I could do was faint again from
the pain and energy sapping power the medallion had over me. Why?
Why did it work against me and not these other men?

* * *

I woke up lying across the back of a horse,
with my hands tied to my feet so that if I flung myself backwards
off of the horse’s back I would just slide underneath its belly. If
it had been Fire whose back I was on, I would have done it and then
gotten the rope off of her butt, which she would have then stepped
over so I would be free. Sadly this was not Fire and I had no idea
if this horse would kick me or trample me if I tried it.

I lifted my head slightly so I could look at
my surroundings to try to figure out where I was, but nothing
looked familiar about this area. It was heavily wooded and the road
was dirt, but I didn’t believe I had ever traveled this way before.
When I managed to get free I would have to ride in the opposite
direction and hope I could find a familiar landmark. Unfortunately
I had no idea how long I’d been out or how far we’d traveled.

“You awake finally?” a new male voice
asked.

“I need to use the restroom,” I muttered
sleepily.

“Sure thing,” he said. I kept my head down
and pretended to still be weak as he untied me from the horse and
pulled me down to my feet. He held the rope which was still tied to
my hands and led me into the forest off the side of the road. I
stumbled forward like I was weak and leaned against the tree he was
tying the rope to. “Do your business and let’s go,” he said as he
walked backwards ten feet.

“Can I have some privacy?” I asked as I
started pushing my pants down.

He shook his head. “Nope.”

I groaned and walked around to the other side
of the tree so I was at least partially hidden from him as I went
pee. “Do you have any water or food?” I asked as I pulled my pants
up and walked around the tree to him.

“In my pack,” he said as he started untying
the rope from the tree. I waited until his back was completely
turned to me and then jumped up onto his back, looped my hands over
his head and started choking him with the rope between my wrists.
He grabbed at my wrists to pull them forward, but I planted my
elbows in his back and leaned back to keep the pressure on. He spun
around, hitting my side into the tree, but I held on, refusing to
be dislodged and lose my one chance at getting free.

He reached for his sword and I used my right
leg to hit his hand and then held his arm down with my leg wrapped
around it. He started slowing as the lack of oxygen took effect.
Seconds later he dropped to his knees and then fell on his face. I
didn’t want to kill him, but I had to hold the rope around his
throat a few seconds longer to ensure he wasn’t faking.

I released him, checked to ensure his pulse
was still beating, grabbed a dagger from his belt and cut the ropes
off of my hands. I couldn’t have him following me right away so I
tied his hands behind his back and then tied his feet to his hands
in a hog tie variation that was very difficult to free yourself
from. I took his belt with his sword and daggers and strapped it
onto myself and then mounted his horse and squeezed my legs. The
horse took off at a fast gallop and we headed back in the direction
he’d taken me.

I rode for an hour and still nothing in the
landscape changed and nothing looked familiar. Where was I? I
wanted to save the horse’s stamina, but at the same time I wanted
to be sure I rode far away from the people after me. I slowed the
horse to a trot and opened the saddle bags in search of food and
water, luckily finding both. I chewed on the dried meat like a
starving dog and guzzled the water down. I really wished I knew how
long I’d been out, but the only ones who knew that were the ones I
was trying to avoid.

I searched for the sun and finally figured
out I was currently heading South, but since I had no idea if we
had headed West first or East or Northeast I had no way of knowing
exactly which way to head. I growled in frustration and felt like
stabbing someone. Maybe I should have killed the man instead of
tying him up.

“You think Kristof will make it without any
problems from that girl?” someone asked from around the bend in the
road.

I jerked my horse off the road and hid as the
men came within view. There were three of them, the cloaked fencer,
the man with the scar and the large man all rode together down the
road, looking smug. I wanted to attack them, but I was too
outnumbered.

“He’d better not have any problems with her.
He has the medallion if she starts getting feisty,” the scar man
said.

“Does anyone know why the medallion works on
her and not us?” the large man asked.

“The fencer knows,” scar man said, “But since
he doesn’t talk it’s a mystery to me still.”

My horse must have felt lonely or known the
other horses because when they were almost out of sight he neighed
loudly. “You idiot,” I grumbled as I kicked him and we bounded out
of the forest and onto the road. I kicked him again, forcing him
into a gallop in the opposite direction of the men and hoped they
wouldn’t catch me.

“Get her!” scar man yelled.

I urged the horse to go faster, but their
horses were steadily catching up to us. “Dammit can’t you go any
faster?!” I screamed at the horse. The scarred man pulled up on my
left side and reached out for my horse’s reins, but I steered my
horse to the right, avoiding his hand and then pulled a dagger from
the belt. “Just let me go!” I yelled at him.

“Come on girl, this isn’t personal it’s just
business. We aren’t here to kill you,” he said as he steered his
horse closer to mine.

I held the dagger sideways in my left hand,
preparing to slice at him if he got too close, but he was the least
of my worries as the scarred man yelled, “Whoa,” and the horse I
was riding came to an abrupt halt.

“Thistles!” I screamed angrily as I hopped
off the horse and started running through the woods.

“You can’t run forever!” scarred man
yelled.

“I can run a lot longer than you!” I yelled
back as I turned left and headed South parallel to the road as I
tried to outrun them. Unfortunately the cloaked fencer had galloped
ahead and swerved off the road into the forest ahead of me and
leapt from his horse to pin me to the ground. I tried to get out
from under him and stab him, but he was incredibly strong for such
a thin man and held me down.

“Get the medallion,” he said in a loud, deep
voice.

His voice seemed familiar, but I couldn’t
place it. I tried to look at his face, but the cloak hung down so I
couldn’t see him. “Who are you?” I asked softly.

“Just a mercenary doing his job,” he
replied.

“Please let me go. Please. I haven’t done
anything wrong and I don’t deserve this.”

“Most do not deserve what happens to them,”
he said as he was handed the medallion by the scarred man. I
thrashed against him, but scar man held me down as the fencer
started wrapping the medallion’s strap around my wrist. He noticed
the sapphire bracelet and took it off.

“Leave it!” I yelled at him. “Do not take
that from me!” I yelled as I tried to strike him and get out of the
scarred man’s hold.

He ignored me, put it in his coin pouch and
then pressed the medallion against my wrist as he tied it. I
screamed in anger, but the medallion forced me into unconsciousness
again.

I woke up three more times and they let me
eat, drink and use the restroom, but then they were quick to use
the medallion again to keep me sedated. I didn’t know if hours,
days or weeks had passed since they’d taken me from Favian. All I
knew was I planned to kill them all as soon as I could and the
cloaked man was my first target since he had taken my bracelet from
me.

I tried to fight them every opportunity I
had, but they worked together and I was no match against three
skilled mercenaries. By the fourth time I woke up my fighting
spirit had dwindled and I had started to give in to my fate. I felt
like crying, but refused to do so in front of these men. I would
hold my female emotions in until I was alone.

The scenery changed from forest to mountains
to valleys of lush green grass. We stopped at several inns, but our
final stopping place was a giant castle owned by a human whose name
they kept hidden from me. Apparently the human had been run out by
rogue mercenaries years before and other mercenaries had come and
kicked them out. Now it served as a safe house and my prison.

“Finally we made it,” scar man said with
relief. “Let’s get her down to the dungeons and shackled
quickly.”

“I hope there’s food. I’m starving,” the
large man said.

“You’re always hungry,” scar man said with
disbelief.

I had one last burst of spirit and I kicked
scar man in the chest when he untied me from the horse and I tried
to run, but the cloaked man grabbed me and foiled my escape once
again.

“I’m going to kill you,” I said to him
seriously, “I don’t care if it’s three years or ten years from now,
but I will find you and kill you.”

He said nothing as usual and carried me into
the castle and then down the stairs to the dungeon which was
littered with bones. It hadn’t been used in years and I had to hope
they put me in a cell with rusty chains that I could break. Sadly
they searched through each until they found good chains and locked
me up in them.

“Food,” I whispered.

“Fetch her food,” scar man said to the large
man.

“Okay,” he said giddily as he went off in
search of the kitchen and storage.

“Now if you are real nice we will keep the
medallion off of you, but if you try to act up I’ll strap it to
your arm again without a second thought,” scar man warned me.

“Couldn’t you at least have had the decency
to kill me instead of dragging me here to my death? As a fellow
mercenary I would have given you that bit of respect,” I
grumbled.

“You are not a fellow mercenary. You are a
girl playing games and attempting to ruin what is a glorious line
of work,” he said angrily. “And if the fencer hadn’t grabbed you
when you tried to run the first time, you would have had an arrow
in your back.”

“I am not ruining anything. I have performed
well in various missions and proved myself worthy.”

“You have only performed well because you had
the elf at your side. Without him you are nothing.”

It couldn’t be true, but part of me felt that
he was right. With Favian at my side we had accomplished
everything, but what if I didn’t have him? Could I perform just as
well without him?

“Here,” the large man said as he entered the
dungeon and stepped inside my cell. “I had to go outside, but I
found fresh apples and some dried meat.”

“Thank you,” I said as he set them in my
outstretched hands. I knew most would think I was crazy for being
nice to them, but they were honestly just obeying orders on a job
and I couldn’t fault them for that. I ate my food and then relaxed
against the wall as the men went exploring. The cloaked man sat in
a chair outside my cell and never moved and always kept his face
hidden. “What are you?” I asked him. “Elf? Goblin? I know you
aren’t human.”

“He’s annoyingly quiet,” scar man said as he
came back down into the dungeon. “Though I too am curious as to
your origins.”

The cloaked man remained quiet and still as
though he couldn’t hear them.

“Out with it, what are you?” the large man
asked.

“He is not of your concern,” a new voice said
from somewhere in the dungeon. “I do not want my mercenaries
squabbling about nonsense. Is the girl here?”

“Yes, sir,” scar man said.

“Then you are dismissed. Meet me in the
dining room and I shall give you your payments.”

I was going to be alone with this new man?! I
didn’t want the cloaked man to go. I wanted him to stay so I could
get my bracelet back. “Wait!” I said angrily, “The cloaked man took
something of mine and I want it back!”

“Come gentlemen, let’s eat and have you on
your way back home,” the man said.

I jerked against the chains and tried to get
them free of the wall, but that seemed to upset the cloaked man who
opened the cell, strapped the medallion to me and pushed me down
against the wall as I passed out. “I hate you,” I whispered just
before I went unconscious yet again.

~~~~

CHAPTER TEN

I woke up with a pounding headache and a
grumbling stomach. “I am really tired of that damn medallion,” I
said angrily.

“If you cooperate then there will be no need
for its use anymore,” said the voice of the man who had hired the
mercenaries. I turned my head to the left and found him sitting
inside the cell on a wooden chair. He was handsome for a man in his
late forties, but his eyes were dark and filled with hatred. He was
an assassin, no doubt about it, not a mercenary.

“What do you want?” I asked as I sat up and
arranged the chains attached to my wrists comfortably.

“There are many things I want, Marin, but
currently I have what I want. You,” he said with a smug smile.

“Why? What do you want with me?” I asked as I
looked around at the escape exits, which was sadly only the cell
door behind his chair which was closed and probably locked.

“Sweetheart who do you think you’re talking
to? I’m not an idiotic bandit. I am a top rate mercenary.”

“You mean assassin,” I corrected him.