Майкл Салливан - Deep Magic. Fourth Collection

She sputtered for air as he pressed into her, pinning her arms more securely. She tried to turn her head away, but only managed to scrape the back of her skull against the rough bark of the tree. The corners of her vision began to go gray. How idiotic it would look for her to go to all that effort, only to die like this!

Something thunked down onto the man’s head and he fell away. Anna’s vision came back in stages to see Kai standing before her, wielding a large rock.

“Took you long enough,” she gasped. “Untie me.”

He nodded quickly and threw the rock aside, reaching for the dagger at his belt.

“Hey!” one of the men who’d just finished vomiting shouted. “One of the Forest Faie is making off with our girl!”

“Quick!” Anna hissed as he began to saw at the thick ropes binding her.

The men staggered toward them. If Kai could just undo the blasted ropes she could protect them, shackles or no. The mercenaries should not be difficult to defeat in their condition.

“Get ‘em!” a female voice shouted.

Just as the ropes released around Anna’s chest, the women all jumped up from the tree they’d been bound to, their freshly-cut ropes falling free from their bodies. She noticed a small, sharp object in the red-head’s hand before snapping into action.

Leaping away from the tree she’d been tied to and into the fray, she laced her hands together and swung her heavy shackles, smashing into the face of the older man with far too few scars to be a proper mercenary. He fell aside with a wail as the red-haired woman, still in her shackles, threw herself full force at another man staggering into the sudden chaos. He shrieked as he went down, then rolled around on the ground muttering about being attacked by a giant eagle.

The red-haired woman staggered to her feet, then grinned at Anna. “I’m Iona, by the way.”

She smirked. “Anna, and this idiot is Kai,” she gestured to her friend as he shoved another one of the men aside.

Kai took a second to nod to Iona in greeting, then punched one of the mercenaries in the face, knocking him flat on his back.

Anna grinned. He might not be much of a killer, but he wasn’t entirely useless either.

The mercenaries didn’t fight for long, and soon enough Anna, Kai, and Iona had them all tied around a tree with the remaining ropes, the shackles weighing them down now that Anna had obtained the key. Most of the men had passed out, or were groaning and muttering nonsense. The other women seemed to have snapped back into reality, having fought their captors and won.

“What should we do with them?” Iona questioned, standing at Anna’s side as she peered down at the men.

“I’d say we should kill them,” she began, “but someone might have a problem with it.” She rolled her eyes to Kai, standing on her other side.

He blushed, then cleared his throat. “Yes, I must apologize for last night. I hope I can begin to make up for my cowardice by returning your pack and bow. They’re hidden not far off.”

Anna smirked, glad to hear her belongings were safe. “No apologies necessary. If you were the one who left the mushrooms on the trail, you saved us all. Perhaps I should have listened to your original plan to begin with.”

“My original plan was far less clever,” he admitted, though he beamed at her compliment.

“Well,” Iona interrupted. “I’m all for leavin’ them here to rot. We can report them in the next burgh in case anyone wants to come gather the remains.”

Anna was liking Iona more and more. “Let us be off then,” she announced, glancing at the other women milling around them. “Hopefully we’ll come across a caravan to get everyone back to where they came from.”

Iona nodded. “Most of us haven’t got too far to go, though a few came all the way from the small villages bordering the marshlands.”

“Then let us be off,” Anna replied, sparing a final glance to the captured mercenaries. She still wanted to cut out the dark-haired man’s tongue, but she’d let it go for Kai’s sake.

Really, she should leave Kai at the next burgh with the women. He was beginning to make her go soft.

“I’ll kill you!” the dark-haired man suddenly groaned.

She laughed, then turned away. “Not if your stupidity kills you first!” she called out.

Kai, Iona, and the other five women all followed her as she led the way back toward the path. It was a strange feeling indeed, leaving her enemies alive, but one she found she didn’t mind. It was always such a pain washing blood from her clothes anyhow.

THEY REACHED THE burgh later the following day. With coin stolen from the mercenaries, Anna and Kai had bought themselves a fine meal at the burgh’s sole inn, where they now sat. The rest of the coin had gone to the women. They’d all been given enough to get themselves home after they reported the mercenaries to the men in the village.

Kai sighed, poking his fork into another boiled egg. His full cup of tea steamed beside his plate. Speaking with Iona and the other women about the simple, quiet lives they would return to made his heart ache. He missed his family, and though he did not miss the members of the Gray Guard who watched over those in debt to the city, he found he was reluctant to give up quiet mornings on a farm, watching the sun rise amongst golden fields.

Anna ate her meal like a ravenous animal, but he didn’t miss the way she occasionally flicked her gaze to him, waiting for him to announce his intentions.

If he chose to remain with her, to learn the skills of the blade, and perhaps thievery too, his life would change forever. She was cold to him more often than not, but he couldn’t forget the way she’d stayed behind to fight the mercenaries, urging him to run away. In the short time since they’d met, Anna had saved his life more than once, and he liked to believe he’d saved hers too, even if he’d been the one to endanger her to begin with. He liked to think it made them friends, though he knew Anna was likely never to admit it.

Still, life with her would at least be interesting, and he’d be his own man for once, indebted to no one.

“Well?” Anna questioned, scraping the last remnants of food from her plate. “Have you made up your mind?”

He took a deep breath. This one decision would likely decide his fate for years to come.

Slowly, a smile crept across his face. “When do we leave? I’d rather like to get started on my new life of adventure.”

She grinned, and he found he enjoyed the expression far more than her scowl. “First thing in the morning, but…are you sure? You’ll have to get your hands dirty from time to time, and I won’t have you looking down on me.”

He nodded as the reality of his choice sank in, realizing that he never could have truly considered the alternative. He'd had a taste of adventure. There was no going back. “Well,” he began with a wry grin, “ someone has to keep you from killing everyone.”

She snorted, then lifted her hand to call the barmaid over to refill her mug of tea. They finished their meals and relaxed for the rest of the day like nothing had happened, but Kai didn’t miss the way Anna smiled whenever she thought he wasn’t looking, and he was quite sure she didn’t miss him doing the same.

Sara C. Roethle is a Fantasy author and part-time unicorn. She enjoys writing character driven stories in various fantasy realms with elements of Celtic and Norse myth, humor, and metaphysical ponderings.