The Battle Lord Saga 02 - Her Battle Lord's Desire (31 page)

secondary sentry guarding the narrow door in the compound wall fifty feet away. He waved three

fingers behind his back, and in less than a minute Paxton was shaking Mastin awake from a sound

sleep.

“Code three, sir.”

The Second was awake almost instantly. “Where?” he whispered.

“East wall. Near the hunters door.”

“Could it be one of theirs?”

“They don’t go out after dark,” Paxton reiterated what he’d heard Atty remark many

times in the past.

Getting to his feet, Mastin quickly buckled on his weapons belt. “Rouse the men. Have

the other lieutenants over by the tent in less than five, do you hear me?”

Like the Second’s, Paxton’s eyes slid to the edge of the courtyard where the majority of

soldiers were encamped, to the tent where the Battle Lord and Lady had retired for the night a

few hours ago. By his guess, it had to be nearly two in the morning. Mastin caught his glance

and nodded. This was one time he knew his summons fit the man’s criteria.

He paused only for a second as he stared at the scabbard embedded in the soft dirt in front

of the door flap. Drawing his own sword, he pulled out the Battle Lord’s weapon and gently

slapped his blade against the buried one. The resulting sound was clear, soft, and bell-like.

Dipping his head against the thin flap, he said in a low voice, “Yulen, code three.”

Without waiting for an answer, or to listen for any sound of movement, Mastin backed

away a few yards as Paxton and Sorcher came jogging up to join him. Behind them, Del Ray and

Fleismann were hurrying to obey. As they reached the small group, Yulen exited from the tent,

snatching the weapon from the ground as he strode toward them.

Mastin’s trained eye for detail caught the fact that the man was carrying his shirt and

weapons belt in his other hand. There were thin, bloody scratches from his shoulders to his

collarbones, and sweat glistened on the Battle Lord’s upper body, which was unusual for the

chilly night. There was still no sign of Atty.

“Cole?” he asked as he reached them.

“O’Casey called a code three over by the east wall near the hunters door,” Mastin

reported as he watched Yulen pull his shirt on over his head before buckling on his sword and

dagger.

“No chance of it being a Mutah?”

“They don’t go out after dark, not unless there’s a party of them,” Mastin replied.

“Any idea how many?” Yulen’s eyes darted back to the tent. At that moment Atty came

through the flap, her longbow in hand. She’d hastily tied her hair back, but little tendrils still

clung to her sweaty face and neck.

Without a doubt Mastin knew the couple had not been asleep when he’d summoned them.

“At the moment, no,” he answered.

Atty approached the small knot of men as they waited for orders. Her eyes were wide,

and she’d already nocked an arrow. Stopping a few feet away, she halted, legs slightly apart.

Her gaze locked onto Yulen. “Bloods.”

Her husband nodded in affirmation, knowing she would have sensed them by now. “By

the hunters door.” Turning to his men, Yulen instructed them to have the soldiers take defensive

positions. “Let’s see what they have planned. I need to know if this is going to be a full-scale

invasion, or if they’re testing us to see what we’ve got.”

Nodding, Mastin turned to give instructions to his subordinates as the Battle Lord quickly

scanned the compound. The inhabitants of Wallis were safely abed, leaving the protection of their

homes in Yulen’s capable hands. With the exception of Atty, none of the other hunters were

awake. Nor did they serve guard duty. All of that would have to change, however, once the

Battle Lord’s troops left to return to Alta Novis.

He felt rather than heard Atty leave his side as she began to advance stealthily toward the

compound wall. He followed her, keeping his eyes and ears open. The cool evening air sent

shivers down his back and chest as it chilled the sweat coating his skin. It was invigorating, and

helped to clear away the shreds of sleep that had started to overtake them after their long session

of lovemaking. He resisted sniffing his hands, knowing they still carried her musk.

Yulen watched her leading the way, searching, testing, almost sensing the air. His mind

inescapably shifted back to what had occurred between them in the tent.

Something had happened today. Something that had to do with what Atty had

experienced. Something he didn’t understand, but knew had affected her profoundly. All he

could be certain about was that it had started when she’d taken him to see her old home, and had

come to some sort of culmination when Tory had brought her into the courtyard carrying the

baby.

At supper Atty had told him about her visit to a childhood friend to see their new baby,

and about the long afternoon she’d spent with Tory talking about “women things”, as she’d called

it. He’d watched her face in amazement and noticed the softness around her eyes when she’d

spoken about the child. And he remembered the smug grin on Tory’s face when she had seen him

watching Atty cuddle the infant. The older woman had planned for him to notice. She had

planned for Atty to be exposed to the newborn. MaGrath’s words floated back to him.

She doesn’t know the first thing about being a mother. It’s because she’s never been

around that many.

Tory knew that as well. So whatever it was that the woman had said, or done, or planned,

it had made an impact on his wife. One that had also brought an extra surprise to their bed that

evening.

Atty lifted her head and froze. Behind her, Yulen gripped his sword and waited to take

his cue from her. Above them, lined along the parapet, his soldiers watched the forest and waited

to see where the attack would center, and from which direction.

Back when they had been on the road heading for Wallis, Fortune had explained to him

that Bloods were reliably disorganized. Their attacks could come from any direction, at any time,

with or without warning, and wholly without making any sense of purpose. Five may come at

you all at once, or they may attack one at a time altogether, or hours apart. Any man who tried to

use conventional methods to repel or even predict such attacks was a fool. Therefore the best line

of defense was often a watch and wait attitude. And have the ability to think fast on your feet.

He caught the look in her eye when she glanced back over her shoulder. Motioning with

her head, she indicated the tree. Atty’s tree. In the time it took for him to wonder what she was

implying, his wife dropped her bow over her head and made a run for the trunk. A leap, and she

grabbed one of the lower branches before swinging her body upward. Within seconds she was

scrambling up the tree, all sounds of her ascent masked by a strong wind rustling in the leaves.

There was a storm brewing, blotting out the stars with swollen clouds. Already a few fat drops of

rain had fallen onto the hard-packed earth.

Yulen ran for the wall and pressed himself against one of the support posts. Adrenalin

was surging through him like fresh water pouring into a dehydrated man. His grip tightened on

his sword.

There was the barest vibration against the wall. Eyes narrowed, Yulen raised his hand,

ready to signal the attack. Above him the sentry remained crouched, trying to peer into the

Stygian blackness.

An odor drifted to him. A stench that quickly grew stronger, until it was overpowering

and sickening. Like a body left to rot in the heat until it liquefied. Yulen took a step back, trying

to place its location, when a whining sound zipped past his shoulder. The thin, furred Blood

shrieked wetly as the arrow slit a vertical mouth through its lips and nose. The creature jerked

wildly as it tried to reach where Yulen had been standing.

Knowing it was already dead, the Battle Lord raised the cry. “
They’re in the compound!
”

At the same time he whirled around, catching the next creature that had managed to scale the

compound wall, and neatly slicing its head and one arm from the rest of its body with a downward

stroke of his sword.

More Bloods climbed over, but not before they were dealt with quick efficiency.

Overhead, Atty managed to down half a dozen of their numbers as they managed to evade the

soldiers but not her unerring accuracy.

The skirmish was over too soon. The bodies of the dead Bloods were dragged into a pile

in a clear area of barren earth where they could be cremated. As Yulen stood upwind, away from

the smoke and any possible contagion, Mastin tugged on his arm. “No injuries, sir, but we have a

survivor.”

“Where?” Yulen followed his Second to a spot a few yards away where Atty had one

booted foot firmly planted against the leathery neck of the Blood she’d pinned after she’d

descended from the tree. She held the large Ballock dagger less than an inch from the creature’s

eye, and Yulen was taken back to the memory of himself holding his own dagger to Atty’s eye in

the same manner, back when they had first met and she was his captive.

Leaning down to the spluttering Blood, Atty hissed, “Why did you attack us?”

“Die, Abnormal,” the thing growled through clenched teeth.

Atty pressed down on its throat until its face began to darken. Its arms were at its side,

not a wise move on Atty’s part, Yulen realized. At any time the Blood could reach up in an

attempt to either dislodge her or take away the dagger. Planting his own boot on one wrist,

Yulen watched the creature shift its attention away from his wife. “Are there more of you out

there?” he demanded.

“Die, Normal!”

“Well, at least he’s consistent,” Mastin dryly remarked.

“But still unaccommodating,” Yulen said. He bent down slightly, keeping one eye on the

other free hand lying next to Atty’s other boot. “Who is leading you? Who decides when to

attack, and where?”

The Blood squirmed until Atty applied the toe of her boot to the underside of its jaw.

With a flip of the dagger, she pressed the steel point into the creature’s jugular until a thin trickle

of white, pus-like ooze slipped down it skin. “Who is your leader? Tell us!”

Instead the creature glanced back at the scarred man standing on his arm. “You will die,

D’Jacques. You will die!”

Everyone froze in shock at the realization that the creature knew the Battle Lord’s name.

Up until that moment it had been assumed the Bloods attacked randomly and without any purpose

other than to acquire food or wreak havoc.

Knowing Yulen’s name could only mean one thing. The attack had not been random.

The Bloods were capable of knowledge and foresight, and that also meant they could have an

ulterior motive.

A huge gust of wind took them all by surprise. Rocked slightly off-balance, Atty teetered

a little before she could regain her balance. The Blood felt the pressure ease off his neck at that

moment. With a tremendously strong heave, he managed to slip out from underneath their boots

and began frantically scrabbling his way toward the compound wall.

Pushed away, Atty fell onto her side just as Yulen regained his footing, hefted his sword,

and aimed it like a javelin, launching it toward the Blood. Another force of wind whipped over

them, this time bringing with it a surge of rain that pelted them unmercifully with cold, icy drops.

The sword managed to nick the creature in the side before the Blood leaped upward, grabbed the

top of the compound wall, and somehow miraculously found enough strength to slip over to the

other side.

One of the lieutenants yelled, “It’s getting away!”

Yulen already knew that. He also knew that if it got back to wherever it had come from,

it would relay everything it knew. Grabbing Atty’s hand, Yulen jerked her to her feet and began

running for the nearest ladder leading up to the parapets.

The rain was like a curtain of wetness, blurring everything so that even the trees beyond

were nothing more than indistinct shapes. Amid the noise and cries from below, he strained to see

beyond the water pouring over them. Atty pointed to a nearly invisible shape moving a few yards

away. She pressed her mouth to his ear. “It’s getting on a horse!”

“You’ve got to stop it!” he yelled back at her. “Can you do it?”

Before he could ask her, she’d pulled back on an arrow and let fly it toward the escaping

Blood. There was a strangled cry, but the creature managed to keep going.

“Shit! I missed!” Atty fumed. Before he could say anything, she was descending the

ladder. Yulen kept his eyes on the slowly moving shape. He knew her frustration. Although

she’d managed to hit the Blood, she hadn’t succeeded in stopping it. Therefore, to Atty, she’d

missed.

Before he had a chance to wonder why she’d left his side, she was coming back up.

Another arrow was nocked on her longbow, but this one was spluttering with fat and flames.

Yulen’s eyes sought out the pile of burning bodies, knowing it was where she’d gotten her fire.

He didn’t dare wonder what she was using as fuel.

More of his men had reached the catwalk and were looking over the wall, peering through

the downpour, hoping to catch a glimpse of the escapee. One pointed into the distance and