THE NEXT TWO days and two nights passed the same way, with Hludwolf getting more and more irate and the boy getting sneakier. A couple of times the first morning after the boy had visited, Alex could hear Helena talking to Max, testing the theory that maybe the brute simply carried a preference for women as some animals did. Helena screamed in terror the third time she attempted to approach the stallion, and Alex heard a plank break instead of just the usual kick landing. After that, Helena hadn't returned.
The late morning after the boy's third visit, Hludwolf had nearly ripped the door off her hut and stormed in with his sword drawn. He slammed it into the post above her head, severing the rope. Then, with surprising speed – in spite of his bad leg – grabbed her arm hard and dragged her out of the hut into the fresh air. Alex breathed deeply, grateful to be away from the now bloating corpse, and blinked at the snowy, winter daylight as he pulled her along. She made no attempt to gain her feet, forcing him to drag her extra weight as he limped.
They passed through the village and into the trees a ways, Hades gliding along behind them, and finally coming to a large, wooden structure. As they went into the building, two bodies were dragged out that immediately explained why Alex had heard Mandarin being spoken the other day. From the rags they wore and what she could see of their skin, the past few years hadn't been kind. The remains of their clothes left Alex to guess them as having been a lady of some status and her bodyguard at some long ago point in their lives. From the wounds, she could clearly see that they hadn't chosen these deaths. For the first time since being stolen, Alex felt instinctive fear crawl up her spine.
Hludwolf dumped her onto the hard earth floor beside another figure bound in ropes. Her gigno's friend turned his head and looked at her. He was bloodied, as she was, but the blood on his face was fresh from this morning and his eyes were clear.
"You brought the horse to visit me?" she asked quietly, working her mouth around the gag and earning a kick from the nearest man. The 'man above' smiled at her, his grin turning wicked as he stared up at the man who'd kicked her. The familiar caw sounded – with perfect timing – before the man who'd kicked her could say anything, causing many of the men standing around the room to frown deeper as Hades settled at one of the high windows.
Alex looked around at the rest of the space. There were about twenty men lining the room, one of them roughly holding the boy her gigno's friend had been sending to her with food, a knife at his young throat. The boy's hands were also tied, but his feet were loose, showing they thought of him as being as little of a threat as a woman... Alex could see from here that he was holding the ropes at his wrists the same way she was. Ten points to the kid on learning fast, she thought. Hludwolf was standing, bristling with anger, between Helena and a seated fellow who simply appeared bored. There was a sudden commotion at the door, and four men dragged in two chained figures.
Alex felt her lip curl as she recognized Ixillius and Brasus under the fresh blood and bruises as the men holding their arms dropped the two Legionnaires to the floor. She was immediately furious with Verus for letting them come. She was expendable, her father would get over it; he'd been here thirteen years without a backwards glance to the daughter he'd left behind. Ixillius was a Centurion with men under his command. And – if she lived through this – was her only true protection from assholes like Naevius who knew all the laws and how to manipulate them to their favor. If they all lived through this, she was going to kill him.
"And now we are all here," the bored man announced, holding out his arm to encompass the four bound figures and the boy. "The two forces that you swore would be easy defeats, in total, apparently consist of two Legion deserters, a farmer scout and his son, a stallion that kills men and won't breed, a woman that kills men and won't breed, a mare that's pure evil, and a lame kite." The bored man dropped his arm and looked up at Hludwolf. "You swore by this time today I would be expanding my holdings, and humiliating Rome. I feel as though I was lied to."
Alex looked between her gigno's friend and her men, seeing the same small grins on all their faces, confirming for her that they were in cahoots, and each of them made some kind of shushing motion to her. She buried her anger deep and turned back to look at Hludwolf, his fury heightening further as his mind slowly processed what the seated man had just said. Her own thoughts started spinning faster as she tried to guess at what the plan might be – or have been – that her men and her gigno's friend and his son were here.
While waiting for Hludwolf to reply, the seated man absently started to fiddle with a very ornate stick leaning against what she decided to call his throne, but only because it was the only chair in the room. He seemed to be simply amused by the stick, with no idea what actually was hidden inside. That must have belonged to the dead bodyguard that had been dragged out as she was being dragged in, Alex realized, and she suddenly, desperately, wanted to get close enough to show the bored fellow how amusing that lovely weapon could be when in the hands of someone who knew how to use it. Specifically: hers.
"I also," the seated man stood and interrupted before Hludwolf could say the words he'd managed to dredge up in this thoughts, "have no personal quarrel with Avilius Tacito Severus, nor do I currently want one as the man is in possession of both of my eldest sons." Alex could clearly see the trembling in his shoulders as the man squared off with Hludwolf, his voice getting louder the longer he spoke. "So imagine my alarm this morning when I learned the esteemed patrician's lost blood daughter is the woman you stole and are keeping in my village and are trying to rape!"
Helena paled, looking sick at the man's accusation and turning to Alex as if for confirmation of her husband's attempted infidelity. Hludwolf stepped away from the man's enraged yell, momentarily taken aback. Then he straightened and sneered.
"You asked for a war with Rome, yet fear one Roman?"
The bigger man was about to say more, but the ornate hilt of what could only be a jian was slammed into his mouth by the fellow who Alex now assumed was in charge of this territory.
"Fool!" the fellow roared. Swords were unsheathed around the room as supporters to both men prepared for the fight.
With the attention of the warriors and soldiers focused on the bristling leaders at the head of the room, Alex noticed the small movements being made by her gigno's friend as he flexed against the ropes tightly holding his wrists and ankles, a small knife appearing in his hand from wherever he'd had one hidden. Not being bound at her feet, Alex decided to completely ignore the plan that was, or might have been, and instead make a calculated try for the jian. It would be a better weapon than anything else in the room, and she wanted it badly. Playing a huge gamble, she started to laugh.
A few of the nearby warriors shifted their swords to her as she rose to her hands and knees, suddenly looking unsure if they should step closer or further back as she deliberately came to her feet. Ixillius ground his teeth as Alex stared to laugh. He didn't know what she was trying to do, but he was going to beat her once they were all safely away from here. Chlodochar, who'd schemed at the fire with them four days ago, invited them to his nearest village to continue planning, until they'd arrived at the simplest decision of turning the two factions against each other – something that had been working well up until a moment ago when Alex started laughing – continued working at his ropes with his tiny knife after pausing to watch Alex stand up.
Alex made sure to have Hludwolf as the target of her pretended mirth as all eyes in the room were pulled to her by the laughter. The silence that followed as she chuckled to a stop, shaking her head, was nearly perfect. While she had the moment, she relaxed her arms and let the ropes drop, making the nearest warriors choose the second option of backing up – quickly – without their conscious knowledge of picking. She shook her head as if the whole situation was silly and reached up to untie the gag. Chlodochar wore the same dark expression that Verus had for the entire first week of dealing with Alex, and gave Ixillius the same exasperated look Verus often did as her ropes simply fell off.
Once her mouth was clear of the foul rag, Alex bared her teeth at Hludwolf and Helena in a cruel smile. Hludwolf bristled, confused, and angry about being confused, squaring off with his sword toward her. Helena folded like a card house in a thunderstorm, crumpling to her knees and praying for protection, terrified. More swords turned Alex's way, and she saw the man who'd just kicked her take a step toward her. She cocked a single eyebrow at him, turning her head slightly in his direction and glancing at the blade he trained on her before locking eyes with him.
"Nice sword," she stated.
Hades cawed happily at the sound of her voice and Alex forced an amused grin onto her face. The man backed up two steps, his color paling as he nervously glanced up at the bird.
The man holding the jian said something in German and less than half the men in the room reluctantly relaxed their stances. The ones in the group who had just relaxed swords pointed towards Alex now turned away and faced back towards Hludwolf and his cowering wife, or towards any of his loyal men scattered around the room. Alex looked at the boy and saw him standing the same way her gigno would have, the same way her gigno had trained Alex to stand, when a knife was at her throat.
...the man is in possession of both of my eldest sons, the man with the jian had said. ...the Romans often took the children of their conquered provinces to raise them under Roman culture in an attempt to limit any perpetuation of resistance... one of her history professors droned inside her memories. You give this back to your father. You tell him the debt is repaid, the tied man beside her had told her when he gave her back her mother's pendant. All these thoughts passed through her mind in less than a second and her gaze flicked to the man holding the jian. After holding his worried stare for a moment, she dropped her eyes and inclined her head in a respectful greeting.
"Apologies," she said, straightening, "we have not met and I do not know your name."
He rattled off a long string of German that she didn't have a hope of repeating. He fidgeted with the jian for a second under her steady stare.
"Poldi." The short name was comprised of the first two syllables he'd said, so she assumed it was his given name. He nodded back to her, "Lady Avilia," he greeted. Alex shook her head, smiling as if she were friendly.
"No. If you are 'Poldi', then I am to you 'Alex'." She flicked her hand as if brushing away the formal title. "No 'Lady', no 'Avilia'."
He looked slightly surprised – but that disappeared quickly as he turned completely professional. He barked orders at his men and they all sheathed their swords. Two men stepped forward into the empty space between Alex and the leaders.
"These men will return you to your Legion... Alex," he hesitated. (Good! Ixillius thought, bristling inside and out at the bastard speaking to her as if she was his family.) "They will take an hour to prepare the horses and provisions and—"
"She is not your prisoner!" Hludwolf snarled, interrupting Poldi.
"My escort is here," Alex interrupted the argument quietly, pulling everyone's attention back and nodding first at the chained Legionnaires, then at the tied man and boy. "And my horse is ready to me all the time, I only have to call," she added. "You need to be more careful with the man you pick to be a friend, I think," she looked at Hludwolf meaningfully, and then faced Poldi.
Alex took a few steps toward Poldi, now outwardly looking like she was ignoring Hludwolf, knowing this would make the fool who'd stolen her that much angrier. Ixillius wanted to shout at her to watch the twitchier, larger man, but couldn't afford to draw any attention as Chlodochar was cutting through the ropes holding his wrists. She stopped just out of arm's reach and held out her hand, looking obviously at the bauble the king of this territory was holding.
"You are to value on blood, Poldi. I am to value on pretty."