The Hound's Prey (Revolution's Blade Book 1)

Chapter 3 - Siletto

When the lights came back on I discovered everything hurt, everything hurt like hell. I forced my eyes open but found my vision was dim and blurred. I was lying on the road almost outside the glow from the lanterns. My cloak buttons had ripped off, letting the wet mud in to further soak my already rain-drenched clothes. A groan of pain escaped my lips, and I closed my eyes again. It was as if my head was the bell in a tower being rung by zealot priests. At least I'd managed to not smash it off the stones in the road, so that was something. My shoulder felt like a battering ram had hit it and, through a chest racked with pain, my lungs fought to pull in each breath.

I was dimly aware of the sound of someone approaching, then hands were clutching at me! They slipped under my cloak and ran over my body. Panicked, I tried to fend them off, but the world was still a jumble to my brain and all I managed was a feeble attempt to push them away.

It took another moment before I realised it was the girl's hands and she was checking me for broken bones. If a touch can convey amazement then her fingers did just that; they found my skeleton was intact. She double-checked; I don't think she could believe I hadn't broken something.

Through all this, all I did was moan pathetically. The next thing I felt was her dragging me off the cold and soaking road, hauling my torso up so I was in a sitting position. She then opened her cloak and pulled me in against her body.

The warmth was intense; she wrapped her cloak around us both and the heat cut through my disorientation. For a minute, we sat there as the lessening rain drizzled down. Slowly, my world spun back to normality.

"You crazy fool," she said. Even though most of my body still hurt and the mud and rain had soaked down to my skin, her embrace was comforting. As my head stopped spinning, I half opened my eyes, and I focused on the surroundings.

We sat just outside the remaining lantern's light; it still hung from the pole attached to her soggy pony's saddle, the other one on the ground was faint. Around us the night was cold and dark, with nothing visible outside the tiny glow of light, but inside that glow the bandit leader lay on the road about two yards in front of me. He had landed on his head; he was bent in unnatural ways and was very, very still.

There was an arrow sticking out of his back!

So it had been a weapon the girl was searching for earlier, a short bow. As the bandit leader had raced past her, she'd shot him.

"Come on," she said. "Can you stand? Let's get off the ground."

I could have lain there for an hour, ignoring my wet clothes thanks to her body heat, but her words stirred in me some pride, and embarrassment. "I'm - fine," I said, but little more than a whisper. It was disappointing that my voice had been so weak; it can't have sounded very impressive to her. I tried to rise; she moved with me and helped support my weight.

There's no forgetting the painful desire to survive in this world. My body was filled with pain and as much as I'd liked being held next to her, the current situation required my attention. I'd just survived a near suicidal attack on three men and my brain demanded there should be a reward. I hoped there'd be time for more embracing with this girl later. Right then, transportation and money was getting away.

"Get - get the horses," I stammered, as I tried to push her away, intent on showing her I didn't need help. She stiffened, as if annoyed by my command, but then promptly let me go and climbed to her feet. I half fell back to the ground, but I adjusted and got into a sitting position with my knees up, arms resting on them and head resting on those. I re-checked all my bones, convinced somewhere she'd missed a broken one.

A few minutes later, I lifted my head up. She had retrieved one horse already and led it over to her pony, still stood where it always had been. There she tied the reins to a low branch of a small tree growing by the side of the road.