The Exodus Sagas: Book IV - Of Moons and Myth (8 page)

“
I will find out who you were
and I will kill you
again
!
Then when she sends you once more, we will see if you have improved on your communication.
Don’t think the horse will help you
either
, he is smarter than you,
he fears me
.
” Kendari stared his green eyes into the brown eyes of this irritating animal.

The deer ran off to the south, over a hill in the darkening sky. Kendari and the horse watched, then it was gone.

“Finally, some rest.” He sheathed his swords and went for the water
skins on the horse to fill them,
boots
sloshing as he walked.

“
Naahhahhyye
!”

Kendari drew his off hand blade halfway out and stared at the black steed, eye to eye. “Don’t
you
start now, I have had about
enough
.”

“If Seirena wished revenge upon me beyond this curse, she is well on her way. This little voyage to Vin Armon had better pay off, for your sakes, or my blades will be---“

H
e paused, the horse looked south
at the hill, they had both heard it. The sound of men shouting, laughing, yelling to one another. The sun fell fast to the east, then the deer stood atop the hill, beckoning in a silent pose for the horse and Kendari to see it.

“I am
not
going. I care not for any more signs, strange behaving animals, or even the climb up that hill. Tell your smaller
idiot friend
I am not going.” Kendari continued with the waterskins, shaking his own head now that he realize
d
he was conversing to a horse to pass on a message to a deer.

“Madness, madness shall be her revenge upon me, I can see it.
Soaking wet, tired, and talking to
horses and
four legged food. That is how Seirena will see m
e spend the last of my
days.
”

He heard it again, then the clash of steel caught his elven ears, he looked to the southern hill. The deer was still standing there, looking down at him as he stood halfway to the river. He grinned, hearing what could only be a fight or duel taking place beyond the deer. He set down the waterskins and strode south.

“
I am only going to watch the bloodshed, and there had better be some.”
He passed the young buck as he whispered, hearing the quiet hoofsteps behind him.

Kendari crouched low, crept closer to a dusty crossroad, and gazed out at the tents. Half were up and posted well, ten more were laid out and yet to be raised. The soft white glow of the sliver of Carice was contrasted greatly by the open sky holding a glowing half green Gimmor on the cloudless evening. He watched for motion, found it beyond the southern side of the tents, and he rushed in the darkness to behind the row of wagons.

“I say, she is quick indeed! Anyone else care to try?” A man’s voice spoke up over the mumbling crowd.

Kendari watched as a man, the one that
had
spoke
n
, walked close to the wagons and picked up his greatsword from the ground.

“I will see it done! Perhaps you men would be afraid to split a wandering whore, but I am not.
I have no bones about taking it to her while she is bandaged and cut
, live or not
.
” Another man, larger, a Shanadorian man for sure, drew a bastard sword and twirled it in one hand.

“I have told you, I am no whore. I am traveling west, alone. Leave me be.” A woman’s voice, calm, Kendari had heard it before.

“Lone woman on merchant roads in the night? Not a whore? Say what you would lass, say what you would. Twill be easier if you put the blade down, let us have our way
with what you do
, and then you get your coins.” Another man, one of dozens in the armed merchant caravan surrounding this woman, tried to ease her down before anyone got seriously injured.

Kendari strode out, deer behind him, and stood in the firelight not twenty feet behind the ring of men. He looked past them, seeing reddish blonde hair on the woman, green robes, and that
beautiful serious
face
,
he remembered now. It was the woman from the Temple of Golden Mercy in Chazzrynn, the one from the alley in Harlaheim,
Angeline
she had said her name was.
The woman that cou
ld fly,
she must be tracking me
again
he thought,
but why
,
Kendari could not figure.

“Then who is next? I have disarmed three of you, the next man may not be so lucky.” Angeline stared at their eyes, taking small steps in circles, waiting and feeling with
Charity
drawn for who would charge her.

“I say take her in a rush. Forget the honor and swordsmanship.” Kendari walked up to them, startling five or six close by, hands on his pommels.

“Mind your business traveler, we here are just having a midjourney foray with a wandering whore, tis none of your concern.”

“Ahh, but you see, it is. I owe this woman, from back in Harlaheim. So, my previous debt will take place over your current desires,
I insist
.”

“Girl does get around then, she will likely be excellent in our tents. You, my strange marked man with a deer, may have her after we are through.”

“A trade then. This deer for the whore.” Kendari smiled, hearing the growl from behind him.

“I am not
a whore
!” Angeline of Charity pulled her focus from the cursed elf that was obviously still hunting her, ignoring his wink, and raised her voice over the conversation.

“Every woman has it in her though, we will be happy to show you how. Merchant road is long indeed, and we are heading eas
t. We can drop you
back
in Harlaheim
after a few weeks of fun, lass.”

“I am sure she would enjoy it, no doubt. But, she will be coming with me. Now,
stand aside
.” Kendari slid Shiver and his other longblade out slowly as his smile went serious.

“If you think that a little pa
inted elf and his little deer
frighten twenty one Shanadorians, think again. You should be a bit wiser and---“

Clang
,
slice, thud

The men blinked. Just as the man was
stating their argument a moment earlier, he was now
disarmed and de
capitated by the black clad elf. Before they could react, t
he woman
disarmed the blade from another and the
deer slammed into a third merchant and knocked him to the ground.

“By the bloody wings of Alden!
Horthim,
he killed Horthim!” Another yelled, the merchant men drew
their
blades toward the elf
and the woman, many on a full angry run at the
m
in the night
.

Kendari took his low stance, looked down at the severed head and smiled. “
Watch and learn Horthim
.”

A wave of ten large blonde men rushed Kendari, then two hit the earth
as their legs lost appendage
below the knees from the rolling elf and his blades. Two more dropped in painful screams as a hot longsword slashed them across their backs, then another fell as the tip off the off hand blade plunged through his chest from the side. As they turned around s
earching for the dark swordsman
yet two more men met the ground and death as Kendari leapt off of a
kneeling
body and slashed Shiver though their necks
in midair
. Three men turned again as the cursed elf landed before them, the only three out of ten that could stand, and they stared as he twirled his blades and smiled.

Nine men swarmed Angeline, the tenth went tumbling from the impact of the young charging deer she had sensed and sent to get help. Charity spun in wide arcs, chopping the tips of blades off as she struck. Just as they lunged for her
en masse
, she asked the air to help and she dove upward into the sky nearly ten feet. Most of the men crashed into one another, some fell into the chipped blades of those opposite them, and some still watched as the woman they had harassed landed softly behind them as if the very air was beneath her feet and at her command. Four men charged her, then three as the deer took out the legs of one in passing. Charity swung low, deflecting a strike in the night from a greatsword, then Angeline cut across the mans chest. Another parry from Charity, and two more, as the men pressed her with strong cuts full of anger. Her sacred blade disarmed one as she cut out with a fast slash. Her sweeping follow through sliced both thighs of the other man, who fell in screams to the ground.

Still backing up, Angeline saw the cursed elf walking toward her as he pulled one of his blades from another merchant who fell dead behind him. The deer looked around, watching the
seven
injured men run off down the roadway into the night.
The other fourteen were not moving and would not be anytime soon.

“
You?!”
Angeline of Charity kept her guard up since the approaching wicked elf still had his bloody blades in his grip.

“We have unfinished business, remember? You tracked me to here,
bravo
. Now, my flying woman, it is time to end it.” Kendari lunged with Shiver, deflected by her feathered hand and a half blade. He crosscut with Cristoff’s blade, parried again. He started his circling, his cuts getting faster, pushing her back toward the road, his two blades barely being met with her steel.

“You
tracked me
, cursed one. I seek the west, not the likes of you.” Angeline countered every attack, barely sensing with his short cuts and elven speed where he would strike or feint next. Charity throbbed in her hands that she was concerned for her
wielders
safety.

“Lies. Too coincidental.” Kendari pushed faster, sparks flitting off of their steel blades as he wove his attacks closer to the woman.

“I do
not
lie.” Angeline summoned the winds at her feet, yet softened the dry earth below her feet through Charity. This swordsmans blades were inches from her now, getting closer with every parry she tried to match.

“Then I will err on the side of caution.” Kendari saw the dust swirling, let his blades and cuts go long, and waited until she tried to fly. She did, he saw her legs tense, and he leapt up with both blades slashing in a whirl of enchanted steel that would have cut through any defense. Yet, there was no one there. Kendari’s blades caught but air, and he landed and looked.

Angeline, smiling and en guard, rose through the earth, ten feet behind the deer. She shook the dry dusty dirt from her hair
and stared her blue eyes into this elf’s green wicked ones. “Over here.”

“
Damn it
. You fly and travel through the ground? Any other tricks?” Kendari strode toward Angeline, twirling both blades in his hands. He stepped over the dead and dying as if they did not exist. The deer, however, did not move. It growled as he approached it, and lowered its head.

“Plen
ty. I sent for help through the
deer. Why it brought
you
I have no
t the
answer for.” Angeline sidestepped, keeping her distance.

Kendari stopped. “You can communicate with this stupid thing?”

“Of course.”

“Then tell me what its name is.”

Angeline whispered to the deer as it approached her. She knelt down, it seemed to whisper back into her ear, yet no one besides the two of them would understand what was being said in such a manner. She looked to Kendari as if she were angry for a moment. The conversation continued, and then Angeline looked sad and petted the deer. After a few minutes of nodding and whispers between spirits, she stood and looked to the cursed elf.

“You
are wicked
indeed.”

“I already know I killed it,
previously
, if that is what you are getting at.”

“There is more
, he has told me
.”

“You won’t strike a moral chord here,
Angeline
, so save me the drivel and tell me the name.”

“No.”
She sheathed her sacred blade.

“
No
you will not tell me, or
no
you did not get the name.” Kendari thought of stepping up to kill her now, frustrated and tired
as he was
.

“I know his name. But I will not tell you, not until you complete
what Seirena has offered, marked
one.” Angeline had heard how this one died, and trusted this elf even less now knowing what he was and why from the deer.