Chapter 5

  The Coward

  Janak stood with her back against Taya's, his presence both a comfort and distraction. Flames crackled and spat all about them, devouring the garbage thrown into the road and beginning to lick at the nearby houses. The attack had come suddenly, at mid-morning, with no warning to speak of. One moment, Janak and Taya had been debating whether to stay in town long enough for at least some healing to progress, the next moment, a small group of curious characters had walked up the street. An archer had tried to put an arrow in Taya's throat, but he had proven himself more than merely a beast of burden, dodging it before using his momentum to sweep up a stone and send it humming through the air, back at his attacker.

  The panicked reaction that had driven Janak to so desperately use her flames in such a terrible location still had a grip on her shoulders. The flames danced and leaped higher, always accusing her of being capable of nothing but destruction.

  "Come, love," laughed a tall, lithe man with beautiful features and a cheerful disposition. "My little fox here was a tad eager in her attack. I have no quarrel with your slave. He may accompany you." Then he looked about, flicking black hair out of his eyes while his lips twisted with an attractive disdain. "How ever did you find yourself in a place like this? You do not belong here."

  "I ... I ...," Janak tried, but the indignation and rebellion were quenched by the abject fear she felt at being face to face with her betrothed.

  "The Mountain is open to all who would climb it," Taya said resolutely in her place. His spear was held low, ready to thrust at a moment's notice.

  "Princess Janak, does this creature speak for you?" drawled the man, mockery dripping from his lips.

  "M-My Lord Solikha, th-this isn't what ..."

  A slow, leering, grin spread villainously across his face, choking off Janak's excuses. "Is it not what it looks like?" he asked, accusation in his tone. "You mean to tell me that you do not in fact intend to pledge allegiance to The Great Archenemy?" His eyes narrowed into venomous slits as his accusation progressed.

  Janak froze beneath his stare, her shoulders hunched in self preservation while her hands - previously open and ready to weave her fiery art - trembled at her own temerity. What had she been thinking? She was no match for this man. Just another offering into his ever-growing collection of Oddities. Just a transaction in an alliance that her mother yearned for. A necessary payment for the delivery of a craved advancement in the hierarchy of her country.

  "Do you know these people?" Taya asked calmly, never taking his eyes off the red-headed girl who had another arrow on the string. The knuckles of her bow-hand were red and cut from his earlier reply to her arrow.

  "How rude of me," purred Solikha, flicking his fingers dismissively. The three young women accompanying him each bowed low and murmured a courteous, if generic, greeting. "My little fox with the bow there is Elak. The delightfully sad, yet composed, blonde is Ketten. And this is my resident savage, Tlahuele."

  Solikha went through his companions as a proud collector shows off his accumulated treasures, and Janak gritted her teeth as she met former companions again. Elak was the archer, and whether it was her red hair or the cunning glint in her eyes that gave her the nickname 'little fox', Janak could not be sure. Ketten looked miserable, and her hair flowed like liquid gold down to the small of her back. It was bound back from her face with a few simple ornaments and two braids that were joined behind her head. Her clear blue eyes contained a distraught apology for whatever she was ordered to do next. Tlahuele lurked in the shadow of a building, separate from the group, her caramel skin and thick, ebony hair making her appear very much at home in the shadows.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  None of them spoke, whether by command or personal preference, Janak did not know. Elak stared at Taya with a spitefully merry twist to her lips while Tlahuele seemed ambivalent about whether she was bid slay or spare her adversaries. Ketten's expression of downtrodden misery baited Janak's old cruelty rise and think something scathing and demeaning, but Janak knew her own fear of Solikha intimately. She could find no fault with someone being terrified of the evil man, and in this instance, it spoke more highly of Ketten that she was afraid and apologetic rather than leering in anticipation as Elak was.

  "Do you mean to do battle in the middle of the town?"came a creaking and feeble voice from one of the lanes.

  Janak searched for the source of the voice as much as she dared, for she knew she could not afford to take her attention from Solikha. She did not search long, for the speaker was not hiding, even now emerging from the gloom that inhabited the gaps between the buildings. An aging woman hobbled slowly into the open, a gnarled and blotchy hand grasping a cane that was just as withered and grey with age as its owner. She was clad in ash-coloured cloth that was tattered and dusty, and although her hair was pulled up in a bun, a great many tendrils of dull silver hair escaped from it and fell down around her face.

  Solikha's lip curled distastefully at the interruption.

  "It is not wise to involve yourself in the conflicts of others," he said with forced politeness.

  "It is even less wise to attempt to drag a traveller away from the very threshold of The King's domain," cackled the old woman.

  Solikha's eyes narrowed, as if he suddenly suspected the woman to be more than merely a complaining neighbour. He cast calculating glances at his followers, but whatever he saw seemed only to fill him with confidence.

  "You should not involve yourself," Janak said, reluctantly echoing Solikha's advice because she did not wish harm to befall yet another person because of her.

  "I cannot avoid becoming involved in an attack of The Enemy on a traveller on The King's Road." She stood straighter with each word, until her decaying wrap fell away.

  As if some sort of obscuring spell had also been dispelled, she suddenly stood there leaning on the polished and sturdy shaft of a heavy-bladed spear. Dirty white robes covered over a breastplate and suit of chainmail and she slowly slid a kite shield around from where it had been slung on her back.

  "I pray you will not disturb the travels of these two any further."

  "I tire of having my sport thwarted by you," Solikha hissed, a rageful recognition in his eyes.

  "I abide by the Old Law," smiled the woman thinly. "If I am thwarting your hunt, it is because you have trespassed onto lands given to me to protect."

  "I go where I will," boasted Solikha with a laugh. Elak giggled behind him, while Ketten winced. "How many of your disciples have I coaxed down off this hateful mountain?"

  "None," returned the woman, levelling her spear at Solikha's chest. "Those chosen by The King will always find their way home."

  Solikha's merry smile flickered at those words.

  "Shall we see which of us is stronger then?" he leered. "Shall I bring you into my fold?"

  "You both must flee," murmured the woman to Janak, her eyes remaining calmly fixed on Solikha. "Get to The Gate, at all cost. I will hold your pursuers here."

  "Do you know who you face?" hissed Janak in horror. "He is no mere bandit!"

  The woman smiled sadly but never looked away. "I know him far better than you," she said grimly. "Go."

  And then Taya had swooped Janak up into his arms once more and was running, his bare feet pounding the ground. Janak caught a glimpse of Tlahuele shifting form into a lithe, black panther and moving to give pursuit. The woman's spear shaft shot out and cracked the beast on the skull, and Tlahuele collapsed, shuddering back into her human form in unconsciousness.

  Elak then tried to send an arrow after them, but Taya rounded a corner and the pursuers were lost to view.

  "What are you doing, coward?" shrieked Janak without thinking, staring back behind them where a stranger was fighting on their behalf. "Take me back..."

  "I was instructed to bring you to The Gate," Taya said tonelessly. "And that I shall do."