The brother, his smile now fully formed, thought he had dealt Rud a death blow. He stood straight up, short sword at his side, waiting for Rud to fall. The injury to Rud's side was severe, but it had not penetrated the chest cavity to any of Rud's vital organs. The stab wounds to his shoulder and leg were bleeding badly but were not incapacitating. The partially deflected sword strikes caused only minor injuries.
With the brother smiling at him, Rud had a few seconds of self-doubt. He knew the short sword gave the brother the advantage, and Rud knew he was losing this fight. Rud thought of Patience and his promise to return to her. His anger flared red hot at the thought of never holding Patience in his arms again or feeling her lips on his. Consumed now by rage, adrenaline shot through Rud's bloodstream like lightening bolts. The beast Bessie had spoken of was out of its cage. But there was more.
As Rud felt his strength surge, the darkness returned. Rud had felt the darkness return many times, always when he needed more than he thought he had to give. He knew the darkness was the worst in him coming out. It was ugly and vicious and evil. It was horror, and it was death. It had been part of him since that night in the cave, and he needed it now. Rud's grip on his knife and hatchet tightened as his eyes narrowed and grew darker.
The brother could fight but was not experienced. He had let his guard down. As the brother smiled at him, Rud, renewed, lunged at the brother catching him with the short sword at his side. Rud's razor-sharp knife cut the brother's arm to the bone. The brother had a shocked look on his face as he felt the pain and saw the blood spurting out of his arm. Rud slashed his knife back across the brother's chest, cutting as deeply as the ribs would allow. Rud then pushed back from the brother, slicing the hand holding the short sword. The sword fell to the floor at the brother's feet.
Defenseless now, in shock from his injuries and paralyzed with fear, the brother could only look at Rud in disbelief. A moment ago, the brother expected Rud to fall to the floor dead, but now it was he who was seconds away from death, or at least he thought. Slowly Rud brought up his big knife. Rud remembered the brother had raped Martha and would have done the same to Alice. The brother would not get a quick death. The darkness demanded to see the horror in the brother's eyes.
Rud hissed "this is for Martha" and pushed his knife very slowly into the brother's neck, pausing often to make sure the brother endured the maximum amount of pain. The brother's eyes widened with each short thrust of the large blade. Held in place against a wall, gasping for air with a knife in his throat, the brother could not even scream at the excruciating pain. It would take more than a few seconds for the brother to die this way, and Rud wanted every second.
When Rud's knife finally encountered bone at the back of the brother's neck, Rud twisted the blade, slicing the artery open, allowing hot blood to spurt out. The brother gasped for air as blood flowed freely from his wounds. The last thing the brother saw were the dark, rage-filled eyes of the beast that lived within a good man. The darkness got its horror.
When Rud saw no more life, he pulled his knife from the brother's neck and let him fall. Rud picked up his hatchet and bashed in the skull of the man from the porch he had sliced open. He pulled the shirt off the dead man and wrapped it tightly around his torso to hold the skin from the long gash together and help stem the flow of blood.
Rud stood in Bessie's main room with five dead men in his wake. He had no thought other than to kill the remaining three, even if he had to chase them back to the city. Rud stuffed his handkerchief into the stab wound to his thigh, which was bleeding the worst, then tied the loose ends around his thigh, putting pressure on the wound.
* * * * *
Rud suddenly became aware of Bessie on the floor a few feet away. She had seen through swollen eyes what Rud had done. Bessie would have killed the girl's half-brother herself, but the horror she had just seen shocked her. Now Bessie saw the raging beast in Rud's eyes, covered in blood and driven by anger. She had seen the beast before in her husband's eyes. Life, when they had first come to this place, was hard and danger was aplenty. Her husband had been pushed to violence many times. But never like this.
Like Bessie, and now Alice, many of the women in their bloodline had a special gift and could see things most could not. Bessie saw the darkness again just as she had seen it in Rud's eyes when she told him Martha had been raped. But this time, it was so much more. She saw a dark shadow enveloping Rud. She knew the shadow was death, and seeing it terrified her.
Bessie whispered, "Mad Hermit" to herself, seeing the legend alive in the man. Bessie hoped that Patience's love was strong enough, as Rud would need her when this fight was done.
Rud kneeled next to Bessie, took one of his small knives, cut her bindings, and pulled the rag from Bessie's mouth. In a weak voice, Bessie asked, "Alice?" Rud said, "Safe." Rud looked around the room. Martha was not there. Rud demanded, "Where is Martha?"
Bessie told Rud the father had taken her with him. Rud had not seen what the father had clutched in his arms when he fled was Martha. Bessie put her hand on Rud's bloody leg and said, "Go! Bring her back to me. It is your place now."
* * * * *
It was dawn outside, and with a quick look at the ground, Rud could see the back hoof prints of three horses that had been spurred to a full gallop. Knowing the direction they had gone, Rud swung into the saddle of the closest horse, dug his heels into the horse's sides, and headed after them.
Rud caught a glimpse of his mule and cart behind him, coming towards Bessie's. Rud said to himself, "I told them to get in the hideout," but his focus was on Martha and killing the father. He whipped the horse with the loose ends of the reins, insisting it go even faster.
As they got close to Bessie's house, Patience, Billy, and Alice saw a man ride out. Patience recognized the man's shape. It was Rud. As they pulled up to Bessie's house, they saw Bessie limp out on the porch. Bessie yelled, "They've got Martha, Rud has gone after them." Alice, who had jumped down and started towards Bessie, reversed and leaped back on the cart just as Billy flipped the reins hard and yelled for the mule to go.
Rud was moving as quickly as the horse would run. Three riders, one carrying something across his saddle, came into view. Thinking no one was following, they had slowed to save their horses. The three riders, seeing Rud coming after them, spurred their horses to a run.
The rider carrying something was yelling to another who stopped, wheeled his horse, pulled a short sword, and charged at Rud. When the man had closed the distance, he raised his sword to strike, but at the last second, Rud yanked his horse's head to the right, passing the man on his left, their horses nearly crashing into each other.
The man, trying to avoid a collision, could not swing his short sword back across his body fast enough to catch Rud, who by this time had already passed. The man stopped his horse, wheeled again, and gave chase after Rud.