The night passes in silence for the trio. They make their way through the woods, Lady Rosalee choosing the path with the fewest obstacles while the other two follow on either side of her. The longer they walk, the less painful but more stiff Max’s leg becomes, making them have to go around certain things blocking their path.

  Lady Elizabeth keeps quiet, no longer holding Lady Rosalee’s hand but wrapping her arms around herself. It isn’t long before the first rays of light begin to peak over the horizon, and the group can begin to make out the shape of the town not too far ahead.

  “We are almost there.” Lady Rosalee smiles brightly for the first time in quite some time and picks up the pace, moving ahead of the others.

  “Is. Is it real?” Lady Elizabeth hesitates, looking at the town ahead of them.

  “It is real, this nightmare is almost over,” Max says. He is exhausted and in a lot of pain. At this point, he no longer even cares about getting home; he just wants to find someplace he can throw himself down and sleep for like a month.

  Hearing Max’s words, Lady Elizabeth turns and looks at him before turning back and running at full speed toward the town. Lady Rosalee jumps in surprise as the young blonde girl runs past her.

  She was exhausted and could barely carry on, but now she can run? Lady Rosalee can’t help but think as she shakes her head. Her opinion of Lady Elizabeth was forever changed by this experience. She glances back at Max, still limping along, falling behind the two of them.

  “Hey, go on ahead, this is as fast as I can go. It is okay, I am right behind you.” Lady Rosalee pauses, waiting for Max to catch up.

  Phreeeet! A whistling sound breaks the otherwise quiet woods, followed by a dull Thwump. Max lets out a startled cry of agony and falls forward into a nearby tree.

  “MAX!” Lady Rosalee screams, but before she can run toward him, Max shouts back first.

  “RUN! There is an archer! It is the Heathens!” An arrow is stuck deep in Max’s shoulder blade. He drops the torch he is using as a walking stick, pain making him unable to use his remaining good arm.

  “But-”

  “GET OUT OF HERE. RUN. Get the guards or something.” Max screams at Lady Rosalee, begging her to run. He doesn’t know for sure if it is truly the same people who kidnapped the two girls, but fears that it is.

  Lady Rosalee lingers for a second longer before turning tail and running toward the town as fast as she can. Tears stream down her face as she sprints forward with all her might. Don’t die, you can’t die. Just wait, I'll bring help. Just don’t die!

  Fear brings her adrenaline fully to the front, and she quickly passes Lady Elizabeth. She had stopped when she heard the scream like a deer in the headlights. Lady Rosalee shoves her as she runs past. “Run, you fool!”

  As she is struck, Lady Elizabeth turns and runs along with Rosalee, slowly starting to fall behind. She screams the entire time she is running. Tears cloud her vision; she struggles, tripping over rocks and roots, but keeps running for all she is worth. Lady Rosalee’s form grows further and further distant as she gasps for air, but she dares not stop.

  ? ? ?

  Max turns and leans against the tree he crashed into. He would run if he could, but without the torch to help support himself, he can barely walk, let alone outpace someone chasing him. He scans the tree line, trying to see if he can spot the archer.

  Seconds feel like minutes, and he expects another arrow to rip into his chest, but it never comes. After a moment or so, he catches a glimpse of a shadowed figure fleeting by after the girls. He grits his teeth, about to try and do something, anything, to hinder it, when he hears leaves and sticks snapping from in front of him.

  He looks forward and spots a black-haired man with an angular face holding a bow approaching. The man is of average size and build; nothing much to note about him. He is wearing a leather jerkin with a cloak and pants with a dagger on one hip and a sword on the other. He slings the bow over his shoulder and draws his sword, using his free hand to brush his hair back.

  “Well, well, well. I presume you're the one who killed my men.” William Sinclair's voice is cold and hard as he stares at the young man before him.

  “Killed your men? I have no idea what you are talking about.” Max shouts, glaring at the stranger in front of him.

  “Oh? You don’t remember?” Sinclair casually pokes his sword into Max’s wounded arm’s shoulder, making him cry out. “Now, do you remember my men? Those girls belong to me. You had no right to take them.”

  Tears stream down Max’s face. He tries to reach out to the sword, but the arrow keeps him from raising his arm that high. He glares at the man before him before spitting at him. “Those sleeping heathens who took the girls? Yea, I killed them, so what?” Max wasn’t going to beg for his life. He prays the girls will make it to town before the other man catches up to them, but there isn’t anything he can do about it now.

  “You have some stones on you, don’t you, boy?” Sinclair laughs and pulls his sword out of Max’s shoulder. “A pity, you might have made something of yourself one day if you hadn’t crossed me. I saw what you did to those needleleafs and my men. It was crude, but you made it work. Especially with nothing but a torch, and then to work a corpse lurker into such a state? At your age?”

  “With a little training and work, you’d definitely have made a name for yourself. Those trash wouldn’t have lived much longer anyway; they had served their purpose, but you? Oh, the things we could have accomplished, but alas, your fate is cut short.” Sinclair raises his sword, looking apathetically at Max.

  “What, are you just going to talk me to death? Go on, do it, but make sure you finish me. If you don’t, I will find you, and I will kill you.” Max glares at the man and raises his head. He wishes he could say he isn’t afraid, but he is terrified; he just isn’t going to show it, not to this man.

  Sinclair laughs again and smiles. “Those are some stones you have. Well then, let me introduce myself. I am William Sinclair. Come and kill me if you can.” Sinclair’s smile turns into a snarl as he slashes his sword down across Max’s face as hard as he can, and Max closes his eyes.

  ? ? ?

  Kieran dashes through the woods as fast as he can. The boy, struck with an arrow, leans against a tree to his right. I can’t believe he was right. It wasn’t the Ridge or some bandits but some damned brat. Kieran can see one of the girls running in the distance, the blonde one. She is screaming at the top of her lungs and stumbling into everything in her path.

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  Noisy little brat, aren’t you? He carefully picks his path, not running behind her but off to the side. The more she stumbles into things, the quicker he gains on her. Kieran can’t help but glance at the town up ahead. With all this noise, they have to have been alerted. I have to get her soon.

  As the distance between the two shortens, Kieran gets ready. He doesn’t draw his sword or his borrowed dagger; he pulls the pack off his back and suddenly hurls it forward at the young blonde girl. The pack crashes into her, and she falls to the ground hard. Kieran arrives beside her without delay and kicks her as hard as he can in the stomach as she tries to stand.

  Filthy fucking brat. Couldn’t just stay in the cage like a good girl and wait to be sold. No, you had to go and get Mikael, Marcus, and Joseph killed. Kieran snarled and kicked her again. Then you just had to make us chase you all day through the damned dark! We could have been killed. Oh, but you just had to escape.

  Lady Elizabeth's eyes bulge as she is kicked. She has never felt such pain in her entire life. It feels as though she can’t breathe. She doesn’t have any idea where that pack came from that hit her, and she was just trying to get up and follow Lady Rosalee.

  She can’t believe this is happening to her! The daughter of a Duke! How dare this man do this to her! The second kick connects, and she vomits down herself. Her eyes lose focus, and everything goes black as the agonizing pain wracks her body.

  Kieran’s face twists in disgust. He pulls his pack over to him and undoes the top. He pulls out a short length of rope. Using his foot, he rolls Lady Elizabeth onto her stomach and roughly ties her hands behind her back.

  Couldn’t just behave yourself. It all would have been over in a few days, and none of us would have had to do any of this. I don’t even know where that other one got off to. If I'm not mistaken, this is the more valuable one anyway. At least we recovered one of them. It could be worse.

  Kieran hefts Lady Elizabeth unceremoniously onto his shoulder and turns to leave. Before he can take a step, Kieran feels a sharp pain in his back and then his chest. He glances down as a coppery taste fills his mouth. “What the fuc-” Touching the spear sticking out of his chest, Kieran falls to his knees, then face-first into the dirt.

  In the distance, Sinclair watches as the soldier's spear pierces Kieran's back. So close. That damned fool, I can't count on anyone, can I? Sinclair pounds his fist against the tree he is hiding behind before turning and leaving. The soldiers never even notice his presence.

  ? ? ?

  The sound of screams fills the morning air. The guards of Briargate are unsettled and send word up to their superiors. A group of five leaves the town's gate and runs toward the sound of the screaming, leaving the two remaining guards to watch the gate. The five wear leather armor over chainmail. Two of them carry spears with a buckler and a short sword on their waist, while the other two carry swords and shields.

  They make good time and try to pinpoint the cries coming from the nearby woods. Soon, a lone child in a badly torn dress, covered in small wounds and bruises, burst from the brush. She notices the guards and collapses at their feet.

  “Duke Grey’s daughter is behind me just there.” Lady Rosalee barely gets out between gasping breaths. “The men who kidnapped us. They are here. You have to save Max.” Lady Rosalee has held on as long as she can and loses consciousness, lying there at their feet.

  “Is that the Baron’s daughter? Lady Rosalee Braye?” One of the guards can’t help but ask. Her current condition, far from what it should be, makes it hard to tell.

  “It doesn’t matter, take her back to the town. You go with him if she is right there, there are brigands about, and we can’t let her fall into their hands, whoever she is. You two, on me.”

  The guard follows the captain's orders. One of the soldiers puts his sword and shield on his back and takes Lady Rosalee in his arms before hurrying back to the town with one of the guards with a spear accompanying him.

  Following the screams, they are easily able to locate the area Lady Elizabeth is in. The screams suddenly stop, and the guards pick up the pace, fearful of what might have happened. As they come around some trees, they see a man in a cloak rudely tossing an unconscious blonde girl over his shoulder before turning to leave. The only remaining spearman hefts his spear and throws it at the man.

  “You fool, what if you hit the girl?” The captain rounds on the man, but it is too late; the spear is in the air.

  Be it skill or luck, the spear strikes true, killing the man near instantly. The guards run over to the girl lying next to the dead man. The Spearman retrieves his spear as the other guard sheathes his sword and unties the ropes from her wrist. He then lifts her in his arms.

  “I believe it is Lady Elizabeth Margaret Grey,” the Guard says.

  The captain nodded and turned to leave. “Let us take her back to Briargate. We know not if more brigands lurk in these woods.”

  “Lady Braye mentioned another. Someone named Max.” The Spearman reminds the captain.

  “Lady Grey is more important; we will bring her back first.”

  The guards make their way back at a far slower pace now that the two girls have been rescued. Upon entering the gate of the town, they hand Lady Grey to the Mayor and his attendants.

  “We found her after one of the brigands had caught up to her. She is unconscious, her wounds look no more serious than those of Lady Braye’s.” The captain of the guard informs the mayor.

  Before the Mayor can reply, Lady Rosalee Braye speaks up from beside him. “And what of Max? Did you find him?” She had only just been woken from passing out earlier.

  The captain shakes his head. “We only found Lady Grey and a man who had bound her and was moving away from the town with her. Given her state, bringing her here was the priority.”

  “Then Max is still out there! He saved Lady Grey and myself. He was wounded saving us. Once the men who took us attacked us in the woods, he took an arrow to his shoulder. With that and his other wounds, he couldn’t keep up and urged us to go on without him. You must find him!”

  The captain looks from Lady Braye to the Mayor. The mayor nods; the captain nods back, looking again to Lady Braye. “I will take my men and personally go search for him, so do not worry.”

  Lady Rosalee Braye refuses to leave the gate without hearing of what befell Max. With how agitated she is, the mayor does not wish to upset her or her family further and stays with her with his personal guards. Lady Rosalee keeps trying to stay awake, but eventually she drifts off to sleep.

  She is haunted by a nightmare of their adventure when she hears someone speak. It takes her a moment, but she realizes she must have fallen asleep and opens her eyes. The captain of the guard stands before her.

  “Max? Did you find him?”

  “No, Lady Braye, we did not,” the captain replies, shaking his head.

  “But he was hurt! He couldn’t have gotten far. I can show you where he was.” Lady Rosalee tries to stand, but the captain reaches out and stops her.

  “We followed the tracks of both you and Lady Elizabeth, as well as those of at least one brigand, all the way to a cave. We believe we found the place he was wounded at. There was a small blood trail leading to a tree where we found these.” The captain lays three items on the table next to Lady Rosalee Braye.

  Lady Rosalee's hand gingerly reaches out and touches a blood-stained bandage. It moves slowly across to a bloodied arrow and finally rests on a damaged torch. Her voice is almost a whisper, “His name was Max McIver.”

  “A needleleaf bit his arm when he came to rescue us. After we climbed down from the cave thanks to Lady Elizabeth, he hurt his leg and could barely stand; he was using this torch as a crutch. We thought we were safe; the town was in our sights when the arrow hit him in his shoulder.”

  “The tracks were strange. It appears a second brigand might have been present. The one we slayed did not have a bow, and we did not find one anywhere along the tracks. A few feet from where we found these items, there were a couple footprints belonging to someone we have not accounted for. We could not make out from whence they came or went. Maybe the brigand took this Max, but we could not find a trail, nor did we find a body. I am sorry, Lady Braye.”

  The captain bows before turning and leaving. Lady Rosalee’s fingers grasp the bloodied bandage, pulling it to her. “Max, where are you? Please be safe.”