Jena cried louder and buried her face in her hands. After a moment she looked up at Tarius. "What's wrong with me? I should hate you! I want to hate you! But . . . I don't know what to feel, Tarius. I trusted you. I trusted you completely, and look what you have done to me. You have disgraced me and my house. I'm carrying the child of a man I hate . . ."
"I thought you
liked
Tragon," Tarius said.
"Like that would somehow make it all right." Jena laughed bitterly and shook her head. "See now—this just gets worse and worse—because that was because of
my
deceit. Had I told you how I truly felt about him. When you were away, Tarius . . . While you were at war he tried to rape me. I didn't tell you because he was your friend. I didn't want to make trouble. Now you've helped him to violate me."
"I'll kill him!" Tarius cursed. She started to change, as the Katabull there was a good chance she could get free. Jena was right there. She could grab her, get to Harris and Arvon and they could get away.
But Darian walked in then.
Tarius stopped the transformation. Darian glared at her with such hate she inwardly cringed.
"You won't be doing anything. The king has ordered your execution at dawn," Darian spat. "As for Tragon, he has offered to marry Jena and clean up the mess you have made."
"I'll never marry him!" Jena cried. "Never!"
"You will," Darian ordered. "The king is ordering a silence on the matter." He glared at Tarius again. "In the morning you'll be killed. They will say you died in a riding accident. No one will know that you have violated my daughter and made fools of us all. Tragon will marry Jena and wipe away the filth you have put upon her."
"I won't marry him. I hate him," Jena said.
"You will marry him. He's your child's father, and the only one that would have you after this." Darian looked at his daughter with almost as much contempt as he had for Tarius.
"You want to punish me, Darian?" Tarius screamed savagely. "Fine, then you punish me, but why are you punishing Jena? She did nothing wrong."
"Go!" Darian ordered Jena. "Get some sleep."
Jena cried harder and took hold of her father's arm. "Father, please. Who has he . . . she hurt more than me? I don't want her dead. Please, talk to the king, he'll listen to you. Send her away, but don't kill her."
"The king
has
listened to me, that's why she's being executed. Now come on," Darian dragged her up the stairs and out of the dungeon.
Tarius hung on the bars watching her go. At the top of the stairs Jena turned and looked at her, then she was gone.
The crowd assembled was small. Persius had Tarius's head and hands placed in wooden stocks. There was a small crowd gathered on the edge of the woods on the outskirts of town. Persius, Hellibolt, five of the king's personal guards, Tragon and Darian who had forced his daughter to come, thinking it would do her good to see Tarius punished for her crimes against her.
"Don't do this thing," Hellibolt whispered to the king. "Had Tarius not saved Tragon, had she not saved you, she would have lived a long life. Why make her regret these acts of selflessness?"
Persius wasn't listening. "Tie her to the horse," he ordered.
The guards tied Tarius to ropes already connected to an unbroken stallion.
Persius took the bow and an arrow from one of the men.
"No!" Jena cried. "Exile him, but don't hurt him!"
"Darian, quiet your daughter," Persius ordered.
Darian pulled Jena to him and put a hand over her mouth.
"So, Tarius, have you any last words?"
Tarius didn't hesitate. "Tragon, your own treachery shall bring about your death. You are a liar and a coward. I hope you die a slow and painful death at the hands of one you trust as much as I trusted in you. Jena. I'm sorry, Jena, for everything. I love you and only hope that someday you will find it in your heart to forgive me. That one day you will think of me without hate."
Persius waited to make sure she was done and then he knocked the arrow. "Heed my warning, Persius," Tarius said with venom as her eyes met his. "I am not afraid to die, but if you mean to kill me, make it quick and clean. You have returned evil for good, and your punishment for that will come at the end of days. But if you shoot me with that arrow, make sure you kill me outright. Shoot me in the head or in the heart, because if you do not I will find a way to live. And if I live, I will make you pay for my pain a thousand times over. You will not get a decent night's sleep, nor shall you have even one moment's peace. Believe me, Persius, I shall see to it."
Persius smiled and let the arrow fly into Tarius's stomach. Jena screamed and hid her face in her father's chest.
"You mean like that, Tarius?" Persius laughed.
Tarius looked up at him with pain in her eyes. "Yes, precisely like that," Tarius said.
Persius nodded his head, and the man holding the horse released it as another beat a whip against the horse's rump. The horse took off at a high speed, dragging Tarius behind him.
"She'll only become the Katabull," Tragon protested with fear. "She'll get loose, and she'll come back for us."
"Interesting thing about the Katabull. If you pierce them with any wooden weapon they can't change form," Persius said. "Wood is toxic to their systems."
Tragon smiled.
Hellibolt watched the horse go and muttered an incantation under his breath. "Little horse thin and mean, make tracks that can not be seen." It was the best he could do on short notice.
Hellibolt walked over to Darian slowly and he held out his arms. "Let me see the girl, she's had quite a shock. I'll bring her to the surgeon."
Darian nodded and Hellibolt took Jena from him. She was like a lifeless doll. He helped her towards the castle. "They didn't kill her, you know."
"They want her to suffer," Jena cried.
"Yes, and because of their cruelty, Tarius will live," Hellibolt said. "I have foreseen it." It wasn't exactly true, but who cared about the truth when a lie might help the girl cope? Besides, with Tarius there was a very real chance that the desire to get even would give her the will to live.
"Tarius has told me that you are very wise. What should I do?"
"You should follow your heart, Jena," Hellibolt said quietly. "Go were it begs you to go, and do what it begs you to do. That was Tarius's only real crime."
Jena nodded. "I said terrible things to her. Terrible!" Jena said.
"Yes, well, that's the great thing about love. It allows one to forgive anything."
"Not anything," Jena said sadly.
"Yes, anything," Hellibolt insisted. "You'll see what I mean in time. Ah! Here we go."
Robert looked Jena over in silence. He suggested she lie down to rest for a while.
Hellibolt pulled him aside. "How is she?"
"In shock. The baby seems fine. I gave her some powders to calm her nerves . . . Is Tarius . . ."
"The king shot her through the stomach with an arrow, and is currently having her dragged around the countryside by an enthusiastic young stallion. If she lives, it will be a miracle," Hellibolt said quietly. "Of course, as we both know, miracles are Tarius's strong suit."
The surgeon nodded. "May I say something in the strictest of confidence?"
"Yes, you may."
"The king is an idiot," Robert said. "Man or woman, Tarius is a good person, wise beyond his . . . her years."
Hellibolt had a thought. "I put a spell on the horse so that it left no tracks. However, I could put another spell on a certain surgeon so that he could follow Tarius's exact route. With medical help, she just might have a chance."
Robert thought about it only a moment. "If you can make up an excuse for my absence from the castle for a few days, I will go. If I find her still alive, I will do all I can."
* * *
Harris had followed the activities at the castle carefully, always keeping himself and the horses in the shadows. He would obey Tarius's wishes to a point, however if he got a chance to save her he would take it. When he saw the horse run off with Tarius he took his cue and went after her.
He followed as closely as he could without being seen, but never losing sight of Tarius. When he was sure the others could no longer see either of them, he closed in. He rode up hard and fast drawing his sword, and after several tries he was able to cut Tarius loose. She rolled for several feet and landed against a tree. The horse took off in the other direction.
Harris immediately jumped from his mount and went to his friend's side. He rolled her over, took the stocks off her head and arms and cradled her head and shoulders against his chest. She was almost unconscious and so badly beaten and dirty that she was hardly recognizable. The arrow had been shorn off on both sides and only a splinter of it stuck out. Her breathing was raspy, but she was alive. He quickly got to his feet and picked her up. Reluctantly, he lay her over her horse's saddle and tied her on. It was the best he could do for now. The king's men would come hunting the body soon, and he had to get her out of there before they came. He rode on as quickly as he dared guiding her horse behind him.
At midday he decided he had put enough space between him and the king's men. He smiled when he thought how surprised they'd be to find the horse but not the king's prize. Gently, he took Tarius from the saddle. She was still alive, but barely, and the blood was dripping from her saddle. He carried her over and lay her on a stack of leaves. Then he carefully dribbled some water into her mouth. Just when he thought he'd failed, she swallowed it and then coughed. Harris tried to wash the wound, hoping to find the arrow shaft, but as soon as he was sure he had seen it the blood covered it again. At one point he got hold of it, but it slipped from his fingers.
"Why?" Tarius choked out.
Harris looked at her and smiled glad to see she was conscious. "Why what?" he asked.
"Why didn't you desert me?" she asked.
"Why would I desert you? Man or woman, you are my kin. You believed in me when no one else did. You showed me a kindness I had never known, and made me all that I am. So you're a woman. Does that make everything you did for me nothing? So you're the Katabull. Does that mean everything you have taught me is wrong? You are the best person I have ever known, Tarius. I know what it's like to be cast out because you are different, and if I could have hidden my difference, I would have, just as you did," Harris said.
"My one true friend," Tarius choked out. "I don't deserve your loyalty."
"You have many true friends, Tarius. And do you know why? Because you have helped everyone you ever touched. Even Jena. She'll see that in time. You taught her to be all that she wanted to be. You let her be herself when no one else would. Now be quiet. You're wasting your strength, and I'm having trouble getting hold of the shaft."
"Perhaps I could be of some help."
Harris swung around quickly, sword in hand. He looked up at the king's surgeon. "You . . . But how?"
"Hellibolt helped me," the surgeon said. "As you said, Tarius has many true friends. Now let's see what I can do. Why don't you go ahead and set up camp? We'll need a good fire and a tent for sure."
Harris nodded and went to work.
"Robert?" Tarius asked in disbelief.
"Yes." He knelt and started tending to her wound. "The king is a proud fool, Tarius. However, he is my king, and before I work on you I must ask you to make a promise."
Tarius nodded.
"Leave the kingdom; go back to the Kartik."
Tarius nodded. "There is nothing for me here now."
Robert had Harris lay out a blanket in the sun where he had the best light. He stripped Tarius of her clothes and covered her lower body with a blanket. He wondered fleetingly how much different Katabull anatomy was from that of humans.
A bit late to worry about that now.
He pursed his lips in determination and went to work. With a scalpel he cut the skin over the arrow shaft to give him enough room to work in, and then he gently took hold of the shaft with some pullers and teased it out. There was a nick in the bowel, which he cauterized. He'd never had much luck with the procedure before, but this time it seemed to work. He sewed up the entrance and exit wounds, then made a poultice and wrapped it to her body with gauze. Finally, he attended to the multitude of scratches and bumps she had all over her body, fortunately he found no broken bones, just deep bruises and shallow scratches. At some point in the procedure she'd passed out, and she was still out cold. Together, Harris and Robert picked up the corners of the blanket and carried her into the tent. Then they walked back outside and Harris handed Robert a cup of tea.
"Will she be all right?" Harris asked solemnly.
Robert shrugged. "I don't know. If she makes it through the night, that will be a good sign. I'll stay with you for a couple of days, and then I'll have to get back. Problem is that Hellibolt says that wood is almost like poison to the Katabull. No telling what effects it's going to have on her."
Harris nodded. "How long before she can travel?"
"She shouldn't travel for weeks, but that's not very logical. You'd better leave when I do. Persius isn't going to rest until he finds her body, and it will be obvious that someone cut her loose when they find the horse and the stocks," Robert said.
Harris nodded silently.
Robert laughed. "Really chaps their butts that a woman is a better fighter than all of them. That's really what this is all about, you know. That a woman outsmarted them. That she could out-think them. If she had just been Katabull, I think they would have seen that as forgivable, might even have just ignored it. It's the fact that she's a woman that pushed Persius and the others to do this to her. They want to establish that they can beat her. If she lives, I for one will be happy to have helped to prove them wrong."
* * *
Jena glared at Tragon where he sat at their dinner table—in Tarius's seat. They had been legally married, and he seemed to think that gave him a license to touch her whenever he liked. She made sure he knew it didn't.