The Squire Read online

  Rain stood beside the canoe and looked at him. “You really think that, don’t you?”

  Col met her gaze; saw the pain in her eyes. She seemed genuinely upset. It seemed no one had ever told her servants had feelings. He knew he should let it go. They still had a lot of miles to cover together. He couldn’t though. “Did you ever speak a kind word to me before I saved your life? Did you ever thank Jack or Joey for their hard work? Did you know little Melissa spent hours searching the fields near the castle for Blue Bells because she knew they were your favorite flowers?”

  She stared at him, not understanding. Col shoved his anger away. Of course she didn’t understand. What did he expect?

  “Forget it, Princess, let’s go.”

  “Who are they? Please, I’d like to know.”

  “Jack and Joey were the stable boys and my best friends. Melissa and her mother tended your chambers. Melissa was a sweet little girl that worshiped you, despite the fact that you had no idea she existed. They’re dead now, them and hundreds more like them. People you wouldn’t see if they walked past you. They’re not your kind, Princess, and neither am I.”

  He gestured to the canoe and saw the tears on her cheeks when she climbed in. He winced then sighed. “It’s all right, Princess. You can’t help who you are. I didn’t mean to upset you.” He gave her shoulder a squeeze.

  Col pushed the canoe out into the river then climbed in. Rain wiped the tears away. “Would you tell me about them? The servants— people—you knew.”

  Her interest seemed sincere. Col couldn’t imagine why, but he’d indulge her. It would help pass the time and perhaps she’d learn to appreciate the people around her. Maybe pigs would sprout wings and fly.

  Chapter Ten

  “That doesn’t look good.”

  “What?” Rain twisted around so she could see what he was seeing: great, billowing columns of smoke. “Something’s on fire.”

  “The city’s burning. How the hell did they get ahead of us? There’s no way an army marched from the capital to Rel faster than we traveled down the river.”

  “Perhaps their darkcaster can do more than blow holes in castle walls.”

  “Apparently. So much for hiring a ship.” Col scanned the opposite bank. They needed to find a safe place to beach the canoe. The bank was steep and rocky, no good for them.

  Ten minutes later he spotted a sandy spot that looked like it would work. Col paddled hard to reach the beach before the current carried them past. When the front of the canoe hit the sand Col leapt out and pulled the little boat further up the bank. He helped Rain out, grabbed the satchel with their meager supplies, and slung it over his shoulder.

  He hated to do it, but the last thing they needed was for an empty canoe to be found and give the beastmen a point to start looking for them. The oar seemed sturdy enough and a few hard blows stove in the bottom of the canoe. Col shoved it out into the current and watched until it sank out of sight. He sighed; time for more hiking.

  “What now?” Rain asked.

  “We need to find the road.”

  “You said we needed to avoid the road when I suggested it.”

  “We needed to avoid the road when you suggested it. We had wolfmen hard on our heels and we would’ve been the only ones on the road. Now there’ll be hundreds fleeing Rel. We’ll find a group and blend in, just two more refugees. A good-sized group will hide our scent and make it impossible to pick out our specific tracks.”

  Rain shook her head. “Did they really teach you all this stuff in squire training?”

  “I learned the theory.” Col stomped down a path through the thick brush that grew on the river bank so Rain wouldn’t get scratched up following him. “The application is more complicated than I expected.”

  Luckily for them the brush thinned out a few feet from the river and opened into a hardwood forest. Minimal undergrowth let them walk along at a good clip. There had to be a road somewhere nearby.

  “What if someone recognizes me?” Rain asked.

  “How many people do you think have ever seen you up close? To most people Princess Rain is more an idea than an actual person. I guarantee you look nothing like their idea of what you look like.”

  “That bad, huh?”

  Col sighed. Even hungry, dirty, and dressed in a shredded dress Rain looked stunning, just not like a princess. “You look fine, Princess.”

  An hour of hiking brought them to a dirt road covered with fresh tracks. Col bent down and found a few drops of blood mixed in with the tracks. The group had at least one injured person with them. They turned down the road, following in the refugees’ path.

  “Is this road even taking us in the direction we want to go?” Rain asked after half an hour of walking.

  “It’s taking us away from the beastmen attacking the city so I’d call that a big yes. Right now any direction that gets us away from that army is the way we want to go.”

  They walked for another fifteen minutes in silence before the thump of wings and raucous cries of ravens brought them up short. Col held a finger up to his lips before Rain asked any questions and motioned for her to stay put. He eased forward and scared half a dozen ravens off the body they’d been picking at, a fat, bald man with a gash in his gut. Col shuddered. That had to have been a horrible way to die.

  A gasp from behind him announced that Rain had ignored him and come to take a peek for herself. He turned toward her. “Don’t come any closer. You really don’t want too close a look at this.”

  She nodded and looked away. Col knelt beside the body and patted it down. He found four silver pennies and a decent knife hidden in the dead man’s boot. It looked like he’d died a day or so ago. That meant the attack happened at least a day ago, perhaps two.

  Col stepped away from the body, slipped the knife in his own boot, and he and Rain walked on up the road. They hadn’t gone far when Rain said, “You robbed that man’s body.”

  “True.”

  “How could you? What about your honor as a knight?”

  “Honor’s a fine thing. At the castle we can talk about it, say how much better we are for following the honorable path. Out here, honor falls far behind survival. That corpse had no need of coin or a knife, but we might. If there’s a fight and I lose my sword, that little knife might be the difference between us living and dying.”

  “It still feels wrong.”

  “Good. It is wrong. In a perfect world we’d spend the couple hours it would take to bury him, say a nice prayer commending his soul to the Light, and move on. This isn’t a perfect world so we take what we need and leave him for the ravens.”

  They trudged along until dusk, when the smell of food and campfires reached them. The refugees they’d been trailing all day must have set up camp for the night. Any beastmen within a couple of miles would smell those fires. This group either didn’t know what the hell they were doing, or they thought they could fight off anything that attacked their camp. Hopefully the beastmen were still too busy sacking Rel to have started hunting down survivors.

  “What now?” Rain asked.

  “Now we go introduce ourselves.”

  They hadn’t gone more than a hundred yards when three men with boar spears stepped out from behind a clump of trees and blocked their path. They looked like farmers in homespun clothes, and they carried their spears like farmers gripping hoes. He suspected he could kill all three of them if he had to. Col stepped in front of the princess and raised his sword.

  “What do we have here then?” the center man asked.

  “We aren’t looking for trouble,” Col said. “My sister and I cut your trail this morning and followed. I figured it’d be safer to join a group than to travel on our own.”

  “Can’t fault your logic. You two have names?”

  “I’m Col, this is my sister, Rain.”

  “Rain, huh? Like the princess?”

  Before she could say anything to screw up his story Col said, “Named in her honor. I don’t suppose we can
get something to eat? We’ve been walking all day without a bite.”

  The man in the center, a broad-shouldered fellow with short, sandy hair, motioned for the others to lower their spears. “You don’t look like beastmen. Come on, we’ll get you some stew. You know how to use that sword, boy?”

  Better than you know how to use that spear. “I’ve had some training. I know a bit of healing too if you have wounded.”

  “We saw to our wounded the best we could, but we’re used to handling stock not people. Your sister don’t say much, does she?”

  “I think she’s still in shock from the attack.”

  Rain shot Col a glare, but no one else seemed to notice. At least she kept her peace, for which he felt grateful. They entered the camp and found half a dozen fires burning. The refugees had set up crude tents made from tarps and propped up with branches. The scent of cooking food reached Col and his mouth watered. How long since he’d eaten a cooked meal, three, four days?

  The spokesman said something to the other two men and they left, returning, Col assumed, to their watch posts. “I’m Ged, by the way. Sorry I didn’t introduce myself earlier.”

  Col waved his hand. “No worries. I imagine you had more pressing things on your mind.”

  Ged led them to a fire with a large pot bubbling over it. A stout, brown-haired woman with a kind face stirred the delicious-smelling contents. “This is Mara, my wife. She’s in charge of the food.” Ged smiled at his wife. “Two new faces for you, dear.”

  Mara looked them over and shook her head. “You two look terrible. Let’s get some food in you and find you a place to sleep.”

  Mara fished a pair of bowls out of the tent behind her, filled one, and handed it to Rain. “Thank you, you’re very kind.” Mara patted her hand and Rain looked on the verge of tears.

  She filled a second bowl, but before Col could take it a scream tore through the night. He tightened his grip on his sword and scanned the camp for trouble. He didn’t see anything or hear any sounds of battle.

  “I guess they decided to try to get that arrow out of Colt’s leg,” Ged said.

  “A beastman arrow?”

  Ged nodded. “Got him in the thigh. We didn’t have time to get it out on the trail.”

  “Show me, before they tear his leg up bad enough that he’ll never walk again.”

  Ged’s eyes widened in the firelight. “Follow me.”

  Col turned to Rain. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  He followed Ged deeper into the camp. A second shout set Col’s teeth on edge. If they were trying to yank it out he couldn’t imagine how much damage they would do. They reached a fire and beside it two skinny men tried to hold down a third fellow twice their size while a big bearded man took a grip on the shaft of an arrow jutting out of wounded man’s leg.

  “Stop!” Col said before the would-be healer could give the arrow a third tug.

  The bearded man looked up and Ged nodded. He moved away from the injured man so Col could look. The arrow had struck the meaty part of the thigh, missing the big artery and the bone. If Col had been a little faster he could have saved the poor man a lot of pain.

  Col turned to face the others. “Beastmen use barbed arrows so they won’t come out during battle. If you try to pull them it only tears the flesh worse. You must have awful luck, they don’t have many archers in their army.”

  Col set his short sword down, took the knife out of his boot and cut the shaft off six inches above the skin. He centered his palm over the wound, took a breath, and pushed the arrow through with one smooth blow. The man groaned but didn’t scream like before.

  “Do you have any alcohol?” Col asked.

  People muttered and soon someone brought out a bottle of whisky. Col took it and doused the wound on both sides, trying to get as much as he could inside the gash. The unfortunate man went rigid as the whisky ran down his leg. Col handed him the remains of the bottle and he drank deeply.

  “I need a needle and thread. We’ll also need clean bandages,” Col said.

  Again there was muttering followed by the arrival of the requested items. He didn’t know if they resented a stranger ordering them around or if they didn’t know where to find the items he needed. Either way it didn’t matter. Col held the needle in the fire for a few seconds to purify it, then sewed up both sides of the wound and wrapped a bandage around it. Colt had passed out sometime during the process of tending his wound.

  At last Col stood up. He turned back toward the cook fire when a heavy hand fell on his shoulder.

  Col turned back, ready for a fight. He found the bearded man that had tried to pull the arrow out of Colt’s leg looking at him. The big man held out his hand. “Much obliged for what you done for my brother. I’m Hal, and I owe you.”

  Col shook his hand. “Col, and it was my pleasure. You’ll need to check that bandage regularly and douse it with alcohol. If you see any pus, come find me. I may need to drain the wound.”

  Ged led him back toward the fire where they’d left Rain. He hoped the princess hadn’t done anything noble. He also hoped she hadn’t eaten his stew.

  “You weren’t kidding about having some training as a healer. How’d you know about the arrow?”

  “I’ve pulled a few of them out of comrades over the years.”

  Ged chuckled. “Boy, if you’re a day over eighteen I’ll eat my tent. You talk like a veteran, but you don’t look it.”

  Col shrugged. “Looks can deceive. I’ve seen my share of action.”

  “You think Colt will make it?”

  Col shook his head. “If we were in town, had a lightcaster to purge the wound, and he had a month to rest in bed I’d say he had a good chance.” He looked around the rough camp. “As it is if he lives another day I’ll be impressed.”

  “I appreciate you not saying anything to his brother.” They reached Ged’s campsite and found Rain and Mara sitting together by the fire. “I need to check the sentries. I’ll leave you to your meal.”

  Col slumped down beside the fire. Mara handed him a bowl without comment. He devoured the hot meal in short order.

  He sighed and handed the bowl back. “That was delicious, ma’am, thank you.”

  “Will Colt be all right?” Mara took the bowl back and set it in a pile beside her.

  “I did what I could. It’s out of my hands now.” Col yawned so wide his jaw cracked. “Where should we bed down?”

  “We’ve got a small spare tent.” Mara looked away. “We lost one of our people on the trail. I’ll set it up for you.”

  Col put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, I can get it. I’m sorry about your friend.”

  “Thank you. Set up anywhere you like.” Mara pointed out a tarp and some wooden stakes.

  He collected the tent and moved a little ways away from the fire. It took only a few minutes for him to get the tent set up; they used something similar on wilderness training missions. When he had it ready Rain crawled in and moved as far to one side as she could before Col crawled in beside her.

  “So what should I do, not talk at all until we leave?” Rain spoke in a low voice so no one would overhear. “Do you even have a plan or are we playing it by ear?”

  “Until I figure out what these people intend to do I can’t make any real plan. I hope we can stay with them for a while. That will make it much harder for the beastmen to track us, and if I need to fight I’d prefer to have help, even untrained farmers. We’ll need to leave them at some point, but I don’t know when. As for you, you should talk a little more each day, let them think they’re drawing you out. Do what you can to help and pay attention to what they say. We can compare notes at night.”

  “I can do that, I guess. What if they ask me what I do?”

  “I’ve been thinking about that. If they ask tell them you worked as a dressmaker’s model. You’ve got the body for it and I assume you can sew which would be a skill appropriate to someone in that line of work. It would also explain your dress. I’l
l claim to work as a caravan guard. Beyond that you’ll need to use your own judgment.” Col rolled over on his side facing away from her. “Get some sleep. I suspect we’ll head out at first light.”

  “Why did you say I was your sister?”

  Col sighed. “It explains why I stay close to you. I could have said you were my wife, but I figured you wouldn’t appreciate that.”

  She slapped him on the shoulder prompting him to grin in the dark. Maybe she wasn’t so bad after all.

  Chapter Eleven

  Col crawled out of the tent he shared with Rain, who never flinched, just as the sun colored the horizon. It seemed no matter how tired he was he couldn’t sleep past sunup. He walked the short distance from their tent to the cook fire. A little ways away a handful of the younger kids ran around playing. Mara had what looked like a pot of oatmeal simmering. Ged sat beside her eating a bowl.

  “How’s your sister this morning?” Ged asked when he got close enough.

  “Still sleeping. I’ll take her a bowl and wake her in a few minutes.”

  “You really love her, don’t you?” Mara said.

  Col hesitated at the comment. He certainly didn’t love Rain. He felt sorry for her; she was a long ways from anything she knew. “I mean to keep her safe. How’s Colt?”

  “He made it through the night. No sign of infection.”

  Col took two bowls. “Good, maybe he’ll beat the odds.”

  He left Mara and Ged and returned to the tent. Rain showed no sign of stirring. He looked down at her; a little trickle of drool ran down her cheek. Col smiled. Asleep she had a sweet, vulnerable look about her. He hated to wake her and spoil the warm feeling he was enjoying.

  Col set one bowl down and gave her foot a shake. She groaned, but didn’t wake up. He sighed. More aggressive tactics appeared necessary. He tickled the bottom of her foot until she sat up and ran into the top of the tent. Rain rolled over and glared at him. That looked more like the princess he knew.