Chapter Seventeen
As William opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that he was blind, or at least partially. The very air around him was dark and swirling, the occasional burst of blurring light flashing in his peripheral vision. After a few moment's he noticed that he wasn't blind, the swirling darkness caused by the evening sky, and the swirling caused by hazy, indistinct figures moving around him.
He slowly blinked his eyes, the action taking a surprising amount of effort, but helping to clear his foggy vision, the hazy shapes soon taking on solid form.
He tried to sit up, but as soon he even tensed his muscles a pain worse than anything he had ever experienced sliced through his body, causing him wince sharply.
"William! You're awake! Thank god!"
William felt the wind knocked out of him as Abey flung herself onto him, her arms wrapping around her neck and her head burying into his shoulder. He tried to laugh but only managed a gasp before he winced again, the pain from his side refusing to be ignored.
"Oh, god, I'm so sorry!" Abey whispered in horror, flying back and covering her mouth with her hands.
William didn't say anything, but smiled, reaching out and taking on of her hands, bringing it to his lips before lacing his fingers with hers and laying it on his chest, sighing happily.
He turned to look at her properly, now that his vision was properly restored, taking in her face with a mixture of terror and awe.
Shadows played across her face as she was illuminated by the crackling fire behind her, but it did little to disguise the huge purple mark covering her right temple, the dark bruise reaching across to her eye, which luckily was no longer swelled and puffy, but still showed the telltale signs. Her chin was also badly bruised where she had been kicked, and her lips were still slightly swollen, a cut obvious on the bottom half.
William lifted up his spare hand and gently tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear, ignoring the painful complaints of his body. He looked at her in wonder, despite everything she was still the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, grinning at him as she leant her cheek into his hand, her eyes full of love as they bored into his own.
"Abey, I-"
"Oh, so I see he's awake then." The brisk voice of a woman cut through his words, and he lay back down to look up at the figure now stood next to Abey, who was kneeling next to him.
"Just now." She said, looking up at the woman, who nodded and smiled.
"Ah, sleeping beauty has arisen it seems." Another female voice interjected, as a young woman came and sat next to Abey, cocking her head to the side to study him better.
"How long...?" William began, frowning, his mind foggy and confused.
"Two days now." The older woman said, "Never left you're side had this one." She added with a smile, placing a hand on Abey's shoulders.
"But where...where am I?" He frowned deeper, only just taking in his surroundings properly. He was lying on a bench or log of some kind, next to a huge campfire, surrounded by people he didn't know.
He struggled to fight through his foggy mind, trying to find the last things he remembered. 'A fight...the arrow...Abey...Jameson...'
"Jameson!" He suddenly cried, wincing again as he tried to shoot up, Abey gently pushing him back down.
"It's alright, he's gone." She reassured him, his eyes still full of panic. "Those arrows that were being shot at us? Turns out it was Bandits. They'd already told him to leave the forest and they scared him off. He went running with his tail between his legs." She explained breathlessly, a huge smile on her face.
"But where...?"
"We're at the Bandit camp." William's eyes grew wide with fear and he opened his mouth to speak, Abey interrupting before he could say anything. "It's fine, though, don't panic!" She said hastily. "You were badly hurt and so they brought us back here so they could help you."
"We brought you back." A stocky man suddenly appeared behind the young woman, looking down at Abey, "We had no intention of helping him, you just wouldn't leave him, that's all." His voice was full of disdain as he threw William a dirty look, before walking past.
"I..." William began, but trailed off, unsure of what to say.
"You're from Angrokor. We don't usually help people from Angrokor." The young woman explained flatly. "But you're wife's one of us, and we couldn't exactly leave her in the state she was in either." She continued with a shrug.
"I've told you, I've had worse." Abey answered darkly, William knowing only too well what she was referring to.
"Do you feel strong enough to sit up? You look in need of something to eat." The older woman asked, crouching down next to William's head.
"Yes, I think so." He nodded, the shooting pains in his body and side now reduced to a simple dull ache, as the woman helped him into a sitting position, Abey sitting beside him as he leant his weight on her, thankful of her support, he was still quite weak and not recovered yet.
From his new position he was able to look around his surroundings in more detail, and saw he was indeed sat on a log, used a makeshift bench as others like it were placed around the large campfire. A few tents were set up around, and as well as the two women and the stocky man, he could see another four men sat around the fire, laughing and joking with each other.
He smiled his thanks as he was passed a bowl of steaming stew, the smell alone making his mouth water, as the young woman sat next to him, a little distance away, still studying him closely.
"Wow, you really are Angrokorian, aren't you?" She said, her brow creased. "A proper, full-bred Angrokorian. There aren't many of you left nowadays."
William simply shrugged in reply. It was true, Angrokor was a truly multicultural Kingdom, meaning it's people didn't tend to have the tell-tale characteristics anymore, unlike Tracoria.
Looking around at all the people gathered together, William found it amazing how similar they all looked, especially Abey, who almost blended in perfectly. She shared the same brown eyes as everyone else there, and the same thick curls as the young woman, only
her's were of a muddy brown, and not Abey's dark auburn.
The only other person who looked slightly different was the tall man who had now come to sit next to the woman, his arm draped over her shoulders as he roughly kissed her cheek, making her seem to almost melt. His hair was lighter, more of a sandy brown, and his eyes were a bright blue-green colour, obviously an outsider compared to the rest of the Bandits.
As they evening went on, William began to feel his strength returning to him, and though hostile at first, soon the Bandits began to relax around him - partly thanks to the copious amount of cider being passed around, and soon were laughing and joking along with him, as if they were old friends.
"So, how did you two meet?" Elise turned to Abey and William, having just told her own story of her and Sam. The rest of the Bandits all responded with cheers and words of encouragement. Abey sighed dramatically before beginning the tale, making them all laugh.
"Well, I was actually his slave-"
The change that came over the camp was almost immediate, as seven pairs of hateful eyes suddenly turned to William, at least five swords were drawn and the air filled with deadly silence.
"She was your what?" Thom, the older leader of the Bandits asked coolly, none of them taking their eyes off William.
"Get away from him, Abey." Elise said, her eyes blazing.
"Why?" Abey replied defiantly.
"He's the worst of them. It's people like HIM that make us despise Angrokor so much." She spat. "It's people like him, taking our people and turning them into slaves for their own disgusting wants and needs, treating them like nothing but dirt." She snarled.
"Whatever he's done to you-"
"He hasn't done anything! He's the one that saved me!" Abey shouted, anger to match the Bandits rising in her voice, her words making them falter slightly.
"Believe me, I have never forced anyone into doing something against their will, and I don't plan to start." William pleaded.
"Yet you still purchased yourself a slave. Is that any different?" Thom spat back.
"No, it wasn't like that." Abey protested, the swords still all pointed at William's chest.
"She was given to me, as a gift." William began to explain, feeling the atmosphere tighten as he realised he may have said the wrong thing. "I never wanted a slave but I couldn't send her back to the man she had come from. I treated her as a friend, and she did the same, and over the months I realised I had fallen in love with her." He slowed his panicked explanation to look at Abey, the adoration clear on his face, making Elise's sword drop, several of the others following suit as they listened to the story.
"When I found she felt the same, it was the best day of my life." He continued, never taking his eyes away from Abey's. "But my parents didn't exactly approve of my choice."
"So before they could separate us we ran away. That's why we're here in Tracoria, looking for a fresh start." Abey finished for him, looking back up at the Bandits, surprised to see Elise close to tears, Sam rubbing her back comfortingly.
Thom simply nodded, putting his sword back in his belt and sitting down, the rest taking his lead, Elise abruptly excusing herself and walking briskly into one of the tents, Sam following not long behind.
"Is Elise alright?" Abey asked quietly, still nervous the group would draw their swords again.
"She'll be fine. You're story may have just affected her a bit more than she would like us to know." Thom explained, gazing off in the direction the pair had gone.
"Why?" Abey frowned.
"Her Mother wasn't exactly supportive of Elise's choice of partner either." He said.
"Not surprising really." David, one of the other Bandits added, taking another swig of cider. "Let's just say that if we were to call Elise by her PROPER name, we'd all be on our knees addressing her as 'My Lady'." He said when he saw Abey and William's questioning looks.
"So she knows what it means to run away." Simon, a relatively silent man until now interjected, a strange, slightly choked tone to his voice.
The group fell into silence, all gazing into the fire, lost in their own thoughts. Eventually, Thom eased himself to standing, turning to address William and Abey.
"You should sleep." He told them. "Now you are more or less recovered, we cannot allow you to stay anymore. Besides, we need to be moving on ourselves, there have been rumours of Royal Soldiers coming into these parts and I don't wish to risk them finding us." He added to the rest of the Bandits, who all nodded and stood, making their separate ways to various tents, Susannah pointing one out to Abey and William before taking Thom's hand leaving the fire.
Abey sighed before standing as well, helping to slowly pull William to his feet. His limbs were aching from lying on the log for two days, but no-one had wanted to move him. He supported himself on Abey as they made their way over to the tent they were supposed to stay in, making the journey in silence, wondering what their next move was going to be.