Dark Wood: Legends of the Guardians (15 page)

“You
understand that almost every guard of the Church will be present for this
execution? To get the fires high enough the pyres must be massive.”

“I
understand that I cannot allow this woman to die. I understand that I will do
whatever it takes to save her.”

“And
you claimed I was insane,” he commented under his breath. “Shhh,” he whispered,
leaning back to lay his hand on Sita’s hind quarter. He cooed the soothing
sound, urging Sita to slow to a stop. Aryaunna heard it, too. The creaking
rumble of wagon wheels. Aryaunna guided the horse slowly to stride quietly
towards the path ahead.

The
soft clomp of horse hooves padded along with the wagon wheels. Two guards drove
a cart along the trail, loaded with tree trunks, stripped of their limbs. They
needed a lot of wood for the fire, as Allos had said. Aryaunna looked back over
her shoulder at Allos with a brow cocked high. Could it be so easy, she
wondered? He shrugged. Only one way to find out.

Allos
pointed up to the trees. She looked hesitant but he smiled and held out his
hands for her. Aryaunna tugged gently on Sita’s mane, urging her to stop under
a large limb. Allos held his hands on Aryaunna’s waist as she stood up slowly.
Gingerly standing on Sita’s back. The limb shuffled a little as Aryaunna pulled
herself up onto the branch, Allos pushing her knees up while trying to keep her
steady.

Once
she was up, he bid Sita forward to another tree and then did the same. Quietly
snapping off a small limb, he tossed it against Sita’s butt which startled the
horse enough to get her to trot on towards the cart. The Guards called for Sita
to stop as she was exciting their gelding. Showing off, she skittered back and
forth across the trail in front of their cart.

Aryaunna
was careful as she walked across the limbs to get closer to the back of the
cart. Allos had disappeared. He was much quieter, and faster than her. The
guards were so focused on the startled horse they never even noticed the
wobbling limb above them. She probably never would have been found out if her
foot hadn’t hit the patch of ice on the limb. With a sharp gasp she fell from
the limb and fell loudly onto the cart loaded down with logs below.

The
guards jumped up in surprise. By the time they were turning around to see what
the noise was they were drawing their swords. Aryaunna had landed clumsily but
she was already climbing back to her feet despite the blossoming pain
throughout her back, hips, and head. “Hello, gentlemen. Pleasant evening, isn’t
it?” She smiled sweetly as she pulled her hood back trying to feign sweetness.

They
looked confused. Unsure if they should run her through or enjoy her company.
Quiet as a mouse, Allos dropped down behind them, standing on the base of the
harness. His sword drew from his side so quietly that Aryaunna wouldn’t have
known if not for the glint of his blade.

The
guard in front of him began to draw his sword. Woman or not, Aryaunna had come
across them too strangely and he suspected her for it. “Fancy long sword you’ve
got there. Is it sharp?” she asked with a sly smile on her lips as she rocked
back and forth on a log to maintain her balance.

“Don’t
worry, love, you’ll find out.” His foot braced against the bed of the cart as
he stepped up.

“Careful
with that. You don’t wanna drop it,” she warned him. He sneered at her as he
stepped atop a large log as he gathered his balance. “Best watch your step.
That next one is a little loose.” The guards glanced at each other as the armed
one took a step closer to Aryaunna. “Now!” The log rolled under his foot,
causing him to take two quick side steps before he fell down to his knees,
twisting his ankle under foot.

Simultaneously
as the guard lost his footing Allos jumped up to the platform, taking the
fallen guard’s place. His sword moved so quickly that the second guard didn’t
have time to make a sound before the blade tore through his throat. Aryaunna
kicked a foot out and pegged the guard’s knuckles. Crushing his fingers between
the metal hilt and her leather bound foot. He winced-instinctively he dropped
the sword. As the metal clinked, landing against the logs, Allos fell over on
him. His blade was swift as it came down in front of the guard’s neck and drug
across his throat.

“Told
you not to drop your sword,” Aryaunna lectured to the dying man as she walked
across the logs and jumped down into the seat. One careful step at a time she
climbed out onto the harness. “Sita,” she called. The mare came to a stop out
in front of the cart and the excited horse who was snorting between half
whinnies.

She
jumped down as the horse slowed and grabbed up the reins, ensuring the horse
came to a stop. “Whoa, good boy. Easy,” she cooed, rubbing his neck in long
slow strokes.

“How’s
your ankle,” Allos inquired as he jumped down next to her.

“Good
enough for jumping down onto a pile of logs,” she argued.

“You’ll
get better with the trees eventually.” Her eyes rolled at his lecturing. “Come
help me pull these tunics off of them”

They
had the guards stripped of their insignia and donned them in their stead. She
hung her cloak in a tree. Allos had to wear his to hide his markings. Together
they hid the guards off the road. Roughing up her hair, Aryaunna let it hang
down over her face in places. At first glance, she could pass for a guard. As
long as no one looked closely. Or at all.

Running
her hand up and down Sita’s nose, she kissed the soft grey of her nose before
bidding her to stay hidden, and stay close.

Allos
held his hand out to Aryaunna, and helped her climb back up into the cart. “You
should know,” she started with a heavy sigh. “it wasn’t my intention to leave
you. I’d fallen asleep. When I woke, Sita had brought me to these woods.”

“You
must always trust your instincts, Aryaunna. If you’d not rode ahead to Kenan,
we’d not have known in time that the prophet was to be executed at the Church.
Dusk has fallen. Within hours the moon will reach its peak in the sky, and the
fires will be lit. Tell me, Ary, do you have any plans about how we get the
Wood Nymph out alive?”

“Of
course I do. We are going to find the Nymph’s feathers.” Aryaunna flicked her
wrist, hitting the reins lightly against the horse’s back to signal him to move
on.

In
the dark of night the only thing people bothered looking at was the gleaming
thread of the crest embroidered on the tunics that covered them. They rode
through the vast entry way into the great stone walls that surrounded the
Church.

In
the center of the courtyard were three great tree trunks, braced up with
supporting wooden beams. A small plank was hammered in place on each one. Upon
each plank balanced two bare feet. The Owl Maiden, and her two consorts were
tied to the trunks. Thick rope tied their ankles, bound their wrists behind the
trunks though their hands couldn’t touch. Sacks hung over the faces of her
companions while a rope was pulled tight through her open mouth and tied behind
her head. She wouldn’t be able to speak, but they would still hear the screams
when the pyres were lit.

People
were gathering in the courtyard to watch the show. Some worked in the Church
while many had walked here from Kenan. “You need to relax,” Allos warned under
his breath. The hatred that boiled inside of her stomach made her sick. Bile
rose to the back of her throat when she saw a group of children spitting at the
ground before the three set to die within hours.

They
brought the cart to a stop next to the pillars. What dry wood that could be
spared was already stacked carefully around each pillar. Aryaunna had never
seen such large stacks for burnings. They were so large, each pyre had a small
wooden ladder leaned against it to get the platforms where the intended victims
stood. Indeed, the Magistrate wanted those far and wide able to see the glow of
death.

Guards
jumped to work unloading the wood from their cart. A robed priest had to stop
and cough between swearing over the Owl Maiden’s blasphemous ways. If they knew
what she was, no one was calling attention to it, calling her only a heretic
witch. Aryaunna was listening but not closely. She was too busy looking around
them, counting the number of guards, present clergy, and congregation. “Do you
see the Magistrate?” she asked quietly. Even if she could pass as a guard at
first glance, her voice could not.

“Not
yet. Close by though, no doubt. Why?” His eyes narrowed as he looked over at
Aryaunna. A heavy thump sounded from the back of the cart twice, signaling them
to draw the cart around to the next pillar. A light flick of her wrists got the
horse walking on to the next pyre.

“Seems
to me if someone is keeping her here by holding her feathers, it would have to
be him.” Allos looked doubtful. Was it possible? Certainly. His opinion
differed for one reason.

If
the Magistrate held her feathers, he held her power. To Allos it seemed more
likely he would hold onto that power and use it rather than snuff it out. He
explained as much. “Now is not the time to make a move against the Magistrate
without a sound platform to stand on. Our one goal here is to free the Wood Nymph,
and if possible, her companions. Nothing more. We don’t have the manpower to
take on all of these guards.”

Her
teeth grit as she thought about it. “What do you think about this horse?” She
nodded at the black gelding who had obeyed her every silent command with the
reins. He had gotten excited with Sita, but never over reacted. He seemed calm
enough when Aryaunna had been climbing around on the harness as well.

“He’s
not too old, not a yearling either though. Well trained. A good horse by any
standard.” Allos looked at her with question. About that time a hand thumped
the side of the cart twice to signal they could move on to the next pillar. “I
think he’s in for a bit of exercise, but he should be able to handle it.”

“Got
any ideas?” She was down to one, and it wasn’t her most brilliant. Three men
were working behind them to unload the rest of the wood. It wasn’t taking as
long as they’d hoped.

“This
is your run, my friend.” He smirked bitterly when he caught her scowl. There
was no smooth way to do this. She wondered if this was some sort of test, or
perhaps a lesson to prove that she should rely more on her friends than she’d
been willing to. It was easy to see that having a third would have been a great
help.

Her
eyes darted between the three pillars, not hiding her determined expression.
Allos grabbed her forearm and pulled her tight against him. “I know your heart
begs to save them all but you must be realistic about this, Aryaunna. Getting
the Nymph out is going to be hard enough.” Aryaunna looked up at Nymph. She was
silent.

“Allos…
be ready to draw your sword. Try to keep the cart close.” Jerking herself free
of his grasp she stood up. In the roughest voice she could muster she called at
one of the guards. “Her bloody ropes are loose! Who tied these?”

Aryaunna
jumped out of the cart on the left side closest to the pillar. She’d had to
step over Allos to do so. Carefully she climbed the wobbling ladder, watching
her footing as she did so. The wood was as stable as she’d hoped. The dry wood
had been well stacked to ensure the hottest flames to ignite the damp wood of
the forest.

Three
guards were surrounding the cart curiously, but one soon moved on. Shame washed
over his face. It must have been him to tie the ropes, Allos suspected. “The
ropes have to be tight! They’re not just gonna stand there to be burned if
their ropes won’t hold them! Bloody moron.” Aryaunna scoffed as she went about
to apparently fix the rope. Allos bellowed a laugh as he looked at the guard
who was swiftly finding work to be done somewhere else. To draw some attention
away from Aryaunna he stood and shouted mockery at the guard who’d run off.

“You
don’t move until I tell you, or we’re all dead,” she warned in a whisper to the
Wood Nymph. She placed the end of the rope into the woman’s hand, turning her
hands so they looked pinned back properly. She’d wrapped the rope around her
wrists so they looked tightly bound, but the knots were slipknots, easily
pulled loose. With fingers. She couldn’t do the same to the rope at her feet.

“’Ey!
While you’s at it, get their shoes off. Shouldn’t be wearin’ them shoes
either,” Allos called to her. A sigh of relief escaped her lips as she knelt
down. The Nymph sobbed, feigning struggle against Aryaunna.

Rising
up suddenly, Aryaunna back handed the Wood Nymph across the face. It wasn’t
hard, but enough to get her to react properly. Aryaunna had to hold onto the
pillar to keep from falling backward as she maneuvered the rope loose, and
unlaced her shoes. Not knowing what else to do she tossed them into the back of
the cart. The woman’s dress now hid how loose the rope was around her ankles,
though she was cautious enough to make a show of tightening it properly.

One
of the two guards had gone about adding kindling into any empty space he could
at one of the other stakes. The remaining guard was still watching Aryaunna and
Allos closely.

Aryaunna
jumped down from the wood stack and turned for the next. “You there! What’s
your name?” the guard called to Aryaunna as he approached her from behind.

“Thas
Henrick. I’m Robert,” Allos spoke up for her.