Rena awoke in the wild man’s subterranean camp. She was annoyed to find that she was bound with the steel-silk garrote she carried. It was a clever weapon, easily disguised and concealed as a scarf. Not one that she had ever used, but a standard part of the kit that she had been trained to carry. Six feet long with a weighted end, it made for an excellent ambush weapon when used properly. She had trained on dummies and live targets on the method of throwing the weighted end so that it wrapped around their neck, but never gone through with the next step.
Of course, in a pinch, it was also very effective at binding limbs. After a moment of struggle, she determined that the knots were done properly and there was little chance of her escaping. She was resting in a cave, deep enough that there was no sunlight, although there was the crackling heat and light of a small fire. Her headache and the stiffness of her limbs made her question how long she had been unconscious. The wild man had really rung her bell when he knocked her out. Fortunately, she wasn’t gagged.
“Hey! Wild man! Where are you! Come untie me, this is unnecessary.”
Her calls were met with silence. She struggled to get into a more comfortable position, but there was little she could do when she was hog-tied.
“Hey! I said HEY! Don’t just leave me here! I’ve done you no wrong, you can’t treat me this way!” she shouted. Only a slight echo from deeper in the cave answered her.
Time passed slowly. Despite the discomfort of her situation, she dozed off again into a natural sleep.
When she woke some time later, she was not alone. The fire had burned down and the cave was dark, but she was aware of the breath of someone’s presence.
“Are you there, wild man?” she asked.
“My name is Juri,” the voice answered. “And you are Anzabos. I don’t know your full name, but I know that. And I know that means that you are trying to kill a friend of mine.”
“Am I?” she asked. She sighed, shaking her head. “Maybe. Honestly I don’t even know anymore. Nothing in this world makes sense like it used to. Not since Jaz turned traitor.”
“The way she tells it, she turned patriot,” Juri argued. “The way she tells it, it was the clan that was traitors to the empire. Some of them, at least. Enough to warrant a purge.”
“That was not her decision to make,” Rena argued. “The clan should have been left to--”
“It was the Empire that made the decision to purge the Anzabos and unleash the chaos that followed,” Juri countered. “Jazirqe just provided the opportunity. And if the clan could have been trusted to purge itself of its own traitors, then it would not have fallen upon the law to hang so many of them.”
Rena wanted to argue with him, but she had been wandering the same threads of logic lately. The evidence against those who had been hanged wasn’t always known the the public, but the Clan knew. They remained outraged at the interference in their internal affairs, and more so at the breaking of their reputation, but the surviving elders had reluctantly admitted that most of the executed individuals had enough crimes in their past to justify hanging several times over.
“Where is my cousin? Is she close?” Rena demanded.
“If you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you,” Juri answered with a sigh. “She’s done me no wrong. Thought she was you for a second, you two look real alike. But you’re older, aren’t you?”
“Four years. We still grew up together, though,” Rena admitted. “Trained together as much as we could with the age difference.”
“Damn clans. Why can’t family just be family? Why do you have to mix in politics and bullshit?” Juri muttered. “First time I’d admit I was better off being dirt poor was when I heard Jaz tell her story. Thought I’d find a better path in the Orders, but turns out that I’m not such a great soldier.”
“You attacked me because I looked like Jaz, but you won’t tell me where she is because she’s done you no wrong?” Rena asked as the inconsistency struck her foggy mind. “And now you hold me prisoner? What exactly is going on here?”
“Damned if I know,” Juri chuckled. “One day everything was training like normal, the next I’m public enemy number one, and damned if I know why. But damned if I’m going to let them just hang me either. I’m not going down without a fight, even if that means living in a damn cave like a hermit for the rest of my life with only you for company.”
“How long have you been out here?” Rena inquired.
“Three weeks or so.”
“That’s an impressive beard for three weeks without a razor,” she commented.
“What makes you think I didn’t already have one?”
“You don’t seem like the type,” she admitted. “I bet you were very particular about your appearance before your, um, disappearance.”
Juri chuckled. “Good job establishing rapport. Unfortunately I can’t just let you go. You’re an Anzabos, which means you’d be perfectly willing to sell my secrets to anyone for the right price. Right now, this cave, the fact that I’m even in this forest, is the most precious secret I can think of. Perhaps after a few months--”
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“You’re going to keep me prisoner for months?” she asked.
“Would you prefer if I had simply broken your neck?” he asked. “Look, I’m not happy about it either. It means I have to gather twice as much food and water. It also means I’ll have to figure out some way of dealing with your nightsoil to avoid polluting the cave. It’s all very inconvenient.”
“You’re the one who took me prisoner, don’t go complaining to me about the inconvenience. You can always just let me go,” she insisted.
“In a few weeks, it will be safe for me to move. Safer, at least, once the search has died down. Even the Whisperers can’t keep up a search forever. In a few weeks, I’ll let you go. Until then, I’m sorry, but this is just the way it has to be. It’s just bad luck that we bumped into each other while I was out gathering food today.”
“What about the other girl?” she demanded.
“What other girl?” Juri asked.
“The one chasing me,” she asked. “The one I was running from. Why didn’t you take her prisoner too?”
“I didn’t see anyone else,” Juri said, frowning. “I was wondering what you were doing running like that. Damn surprised I didn’t hear you coming, but I never was much of a woodsman. I’ve eaten the wrong kind of mushrooms three times now. You’d think I’d learn my lesson. Probably the only reason I’m still alive is that I’m a cultivator.”
“I wasn’t running through the forest because I ate the wrong kind of mushrooms, dammit,” Rena cursed. “Let me go! Dammit let me go and tell me where my cousin is! If you do, I promise to keep your fucking cave a fucking secret! I don’t give a damn about whatever bounty is on your head, I just want my freedom, and to know where the hell Jazirqe went to ground.”
“I’m sorry. The best I can do is to untie your legs for a few minutes and allow you to use the latrine I’ve dug out front. I’ll have to help you with your clothes, because I’m not willing to let your arms go free, but it will be better than you making a mess where you are.”
Cursing, Rena answered him with silence. Then after a few minutes she realized that she had been unconscious for hours and a certain biological imperative was building. Reluctantly, she accepted that she had little choice but to take him up on his offer.
He rolled her onto her belly as he messed with the ropes for a moment, putting his weight on her back to keep her pinned during the process. While he freed her legs, he used the extra length as a sort of leash to keep her from running off. She flushed with anger at being treated like a disobedient mongrel, but followed after him in the darkness.
It was nighttime when they emerged from the cave. She reluctantly allowed the stranger to help her with her clothes so that she could make her water. And, when the process was complete and he had pulled her pants back up, she kneed him in the groin and ran off into the darkness.
She didn’t make it very far. The man was a stage above her, faster and stronger than she was, and although she hadn’t held back, he recovered quickly enough from her surprise assault to give chase. He tackled her from behind underneath the stars, then dragged her back underground while she kicked and screamed in useless fury.
~~~~~~~~~~
“There you are,” Baturya said when Ita stumbled back out of the forest to the campsite. “You were gone for hours, and Shaji kept shouting about some crazy lady emasculating him and you giving chase. What were you thinking, running off into the forest alone?”
“I was thinking that if I just headed south I would find the road again, and once I found the road I could find the crossroads where you were training when we parted,” Ita said, stepping forward closer to the small fire. It was just chilly enough to justify one. “I wasn’t worried about getting lost.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Baty nearly shouted. “What the hell happened?”
“I don’t know,” Ita admitted. “I was chasing the lady, and then I tripped and fell into a ravine. When I recovered, she was gone.”
“Why were you chasing her in the first place?” Baty challenged. “I’d rather have her kill Shaji than have you get hurt fighting her.”
“I do not think she was that strong,” Ita answered. “I think she is the type of person who is only dangerous when you do not see her coming. And it was because I had her in my sight that I wanted to keep her that way until I could be certain that she wouldn’t come back meaning violence in the future. Where is Gyre?”
“We’ve been looking for you for hours! He is still out there searching, although he should come back before dawn,” Baturya answered. “I wanted to keep looking too, but Gyre says that when he wants to, he can see as well during the night as he does during the day, where I would be stumbling around blindly in the forest. In the end we decided that I would return here to wait with Shaji. Who was the crazy lady, anyway?”
“I do not know. It seems that we have been following her, however.”
“We’ve been following the sword,” Baty argued.
“Then the sword has been following her.”
“Huh,” Baturya frowned in the darkness as he considered the implications. “I wonder what that means.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Gyre heard screaming. Silent and quick as an arrow in the dark, he followed it through the forest to its source, and found a man and woman. The woman was bound and noisy, while the man was silent and methodical as he tossed her over his shoulder. Frowning, Gyre wondered what exactly he had just discovered.
The woman was not Ita. It was, in truth, none of his business. He was not a Lawman. Yet he would not simply turn away, either. Hiding in the shadows, he followed the pair back to a cave. The couple disappeared inside, while Gyre listened at the entrance, ready to intervene should it appear that appearances were not as deceiving as he hoped.
After listening a few minutes, Gyre relaxed a little, as it seemed like he had not stumbled upon a rape after all. Still, he was troubled as he debated on what actions he was morally obligated to take. He had no doubt that the woman was the one who had attacked Shaji, and he needed to find out what had become of Ita. Beyond that, was he obligated to help?
Frowning, he decided that he didn’t have enough information and stepped into the cave to obtain what he was missing.
~~~~~~~~~