The Damsel and her Knight

4th ☾ A Vow of Revenge

Bryce opened the door of my tent. "What do you need today? More sleep? You will grow taller than most of us here if you'd continue sleeping all day."

"I'll try not to," I said back, uninterested.

"Wilson! She's driving me nuts. Get her to do something other than sleeping," Bryce said, giving up and letting a humongous man take over the situation.

Bryce surely knew how to brag. In truth, the greatest group of bandits was composed of five people: the most wanted thief of Incantasi, the leader himself; a massive guy, who was no shorter than six feet; a snob sorcerer with long and slick black hair; a boy around my age, who got a flaming hair color; and a man in his mid-twenties who dropped out from The Healer's Academy a few months ago. But I must say that Bryce's choices were vast and handy.

I looked up, facing a man mostly composed of thick muscles and colossal bone structure. Trying to get on my good side, he flashed a crooked smile, showing his uneven set of teeth. In turn, I wanted to crawl back to the farthest corner of the tent.

"Wilson, you only scared the child!" Bryce complained.

"I try, boss," Wilson replied, shrugging his shoulders. Turning his gaze to me again, he added, "Maybe you want to come out and meet everyone?"

"It's finally time. Don't you agree?" Bryce said, snapping his fingers.

It was the first time they'd seriously decided to bring me out like this. I hesitated at first, but I came out of my tent. I could tell that they wouldn't leave me alone if I wouldn't cooperate.

"It's good to be out, isn't it?" The one called Wilson fondly looked at me as I cautiously stepped forward. His eyes were tender and it deeply contradicted his intimidating look. Spending a few weeks with them, Wilson kept on treating me like I was his long-lost daughter.

"I think," I said, unsure. In front of me, the greatest group of bandits stood in a circle. This not only made me feel substantially small, but powerless as well. I was an odd piece in their chess game.

"Oh, look who we have here. So this is who I wanted all of you to meet. Err... what is your name again?" Bryce gave me a feeble glance.

"Cassandra," I murmured in a low voice.

"Right, Cassandra," Bryce said. "And she has a surname! She told me when we first met. Wouldn't you believe that? Only Janshai here has one, right? Oh, and Anthony. Precious creatures. All right, I'm boring you already. We have no need for her surname anyway."

"And?" I heard one of them say disagreeably.

I glanced up, stealing a glance from the man with slick black hair. He was not as huge as the one called Wilson, but he was tall. And from his stance, you could say that he was more knowledgeable, if not further arrogant, than the others.

"We have to take her in for a while," continued Bryce.

"When did we start to be an orphanage?" the tall man pointed out, evidently peeved.

"You are too loud, Anthony. The child could hear you loud and clear," Bryce reprimanded him.

"That's the point. I wanted her to hear," said the one called Anthony.

"I'm sorry, he doesn't have half emotions as normal people do," Bryce said to me, apologetic.

"Coincidentally, I could also hear you loud and clear, Bryce," said Anthony, throwing me a meaningful look. As our eyes met, his cold stare penetrated me like frost dug into my skin. "Just make sure that it will only be for a while. We've been keeping her for days. I could smell danger in her. We all know that the palace continued their search for her, whoever this child might be."