The Rapier

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

The dawn was dim and cold, a slow fog from the ocean rolling over us in a short time. Elena was the first to wake up, already shivering cold and mostly miserable. We had a few miles walk to any city, and although I knew that our closest option was Tarsus, that was a place neither of us wanted to go. Elena gathered her damp clothes and slid into them with a disgusted look on her face. She was used to being relatively clean.

"Goodmorning, darling," I said to her, sitting up to stoke the fire back to life. She only huffed her response, shivering and cross. "We should leave as soon as we can."

"And go where?" she responded sharply. "In case you've forgotten, you've destroyed my home."

I watched her watch me out the corner of my eyes, trying to hide the pang of guilt that rolled across my chest at her words. She was right about that, at least, but I continued to tell myself that I was a pirate, and pirate lords never apologize, however sorry they are.

"Come," I instructed her after we were fully clothed. "The next port is only a few hours walk from here. There we can commandeer a ship and be well on our way, my dear."

"If by commandeer you mean steal-" she started, and I whirled around to face her, placing my one good hand on her shoulder. Her self righteousness was already getting old.

"You know very well that I do," I interrupted her with half a smile, brushing a wayward strand of hair out of her face. "Now, come along, darling. We musn't be late."

If Elena had anything to say, she held her tongue, which was a rare occurrence, and followed me up the beach and into the brush, where we fought against mostly untamed undergrowth to find a path or trail that lead to the main road between Tarsus and Oporto, the next city.

After a few minutes she broke her silence. "How is your arm?" she asked me, watching as I snapped branches to clear a path behind me with one arm. No gentleman would let a lady be bushwhacked.

"It hurts," I admitted truthfully, not turning to see her response. She'd already made her lack of remorse quite obvious. "It's smarting."

"It needs to be redressed," she responded, a fact I already knew well. "At least let me lead us, I can make a way just as well as you can, and I have both arms."

I grimaced, wondering if my pain had been that obvious, and ignored her offer to help. Even if we had just slept together again, my pride was much too important to let her lead, not when I was pretending to have the perfect plan at hand. "It's alright," I finally replied. "I'm fine."

We continued on in silence for more than a mile, until Elena stopped to take a rest, complaining that we had no water and the morning sun had begun to rise. It was going to be another sweltering day on the coast.

We were close enough to Oporto to smell the fish of the town's world renowned market. The stench hung in the air downwind like a low fog. "We're close to town," I offered in answer to her complaints.

"We are?" she frowned, desperately out of shape despite how fit her body was in other ways.

"Can't you smell the fish?" I asked and she nodded after breathing in for a moment. "Come on, we're nearly there and you can rest when we are on the sea."

She sighed and we continued on, finally coming to the main road, blending in with the considerable foot and horse traffic there, as travelers poured into the port city of Oporto to sell their goods and buy others, the bustle of progress bearing the stench of dead fish and the sea.

The gates of the city stood wide open, guarded by soldiers who checked each cart and turned away beggars and thieves. Elena's clout as the countess of a neighboring town would have been enough to pass through under normal circumstances, but surely word had come that she was missing or deserted, and I had destroyed her home. If we were recognized it would be the end of our journey.