King’s Wrath

‘Lost them,’ Blacktooth chimed in, chortling. That won a glare from their leader.

‘Lost them?’ Corbel repeated, using the time to take in his immediate surrounds.

The leader sighed. ‘An unwise gamble.’

Corbel gave a soft shrug as though he understood it was none of his business. ‘Well, we must continue. Come, my love.’

‘Is this your wife?’ the man asked.

‘Er, yes. We are newly wed.’

‘On our way to pay a tithe to the convent,’ Evie piped up, surprising everyone, most of all Corbel. ‘My father insisted,’ she added with a shy smile. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘nice to meet you. Safe travels.’ She took a step forward.

‘Now what is a pretty young thing like you doing marrying a rough-looking older man, I wonder?’

Corbel stepped between Evie and the stranger, all of his senses on high alert. The older man was reaching for his dagger and the younger one had only dopey amusement in his eyes, as though he’d witnessed similar scenes previously.

‘I thought you wanted no trouble,’ the stranger remarked, still appearing loose limbed and relaxed.

‘I still want no trouble,’ Corbel replied, a new hint of warning in his tone.

‘Then why this confrontation?’

‘Stranger, my wife and I just want to continue to the convent. We have no money worth stealing.’

‘Other than the tithe,’ the man corrected.

‘Other than the tithe,’ Corbel repeated, ‘which I fully intend to pay to the convent and not to bandits.’

The man and his elder companion feigned shock. ‘Did you hear that, Barro?’ the older man said. ‘He reckons we’re thieves.’

‘I heard it,’ the dangerous one drawled, and blinked slowly.

Corbel tensed and pushed Evie back. ‘Corbel!’ she murmured, anxious, as the ring of a sword being lifted from its scabbard sounded harshly in the peace of the countryside.

‘Hush, now, Evie,’ he said, keeping his voice low and calm. ‘These men intend us harm.’

‘It didn’t have to be like this,’ the stranger said. ‘I just want your money but Clem here will probably settle for a grope between your wife’s legs.’

Evie made a gagging sound of revulsion. ‘Go fu—’

‘Evie! Hush,’ Corbel cautioned, not once taking his eyes from the sword that was now being weighted in his opponent’s hand.

‘What a pity it had to come to this,’ the man remarked casually. His companions sniggered.

‘I have no time for thieves,’ Corbel warned.

‘Even when they are carrying weapons and you have none?’ the man asked, surprised.

‘Even then,’ Corbel replied.

‘Corb–’

‘I said quiet, Evie. There is no further need for us to be civil,’ he cautioned, silently measuring the distance between himself and the old fellow.

‘Actually, I prefer civility when I’m working. There’s really no need for harm,’ the leader assured. ‘I simply want your purse. What my companions require is their own business.’

The old man laughed and grabbed his crotch. This sent the youngest one into peals of shared laughter, his mouth wide open and showing more ruined teeth.

‘My wife is not for your companions’ sport and my purse is my own.’

The man sighed. ‘Don’t make me take it from you. It might cost you more than money.’

‘Don’t make me have to stop you,’ Corbel said, his voice very quiet. His calm made the stranger hesitate momentarily, but his companions hardly registered the change.

‘Let’s cut off his bollocks, Barro,’ Blacktooth said, saliva forming at the corners of his mouth. ‘Then he can’t fuck his wife again.’

‘We’ll have to do it for him,’ the older one tittered.

‘You’ll have to forgive my fellow travellers, sir. As you can tell, they have no refinement.’

‘I forgive them nothing,’ Corbel said, his voice so cold it was now brittle.

The man shifted his gaze back to Evie. ‘Your husband is courageous, madam. And he speaks like a noble. I think I understand your attraction to him.’

Corbel was glad to note that Evie remained silent. The man smiled, shifted his weight, and Corbel didn’t wait for him to make the first move. Instead, he bent sideways and kicked out suddenly with his leg, smashing his foot into the old man’s hip. The sound of a bone breaking in the old man’s skeleton was chilling and both Evie and the victim shrieked in tandem. But Corbel heeded neither. He had already regained his balance and crouched, spinning low and kicking Blacktooth’s legs out from under him. He was vaguely aware of the old fellow writhing on the ground and very aware of Barro raising his sword to strike.

In a fluid move that was already in motion while he was spinning, Corbel retrieved the hidden blades stored vertically along the sides of his ribs. One quickly found its way into Blacktooth’s throat, and the young man began gurgling helplessly as Corbel straightened and leapt away from Barro’s sword in the space of the blink of an eye.

Turning back, both he and Barro looked at the dying youngster and his companion, who was on the ground next to him, screaming and covered in Blacktooth’s blood.

‘That wasn’t very sporting of you,’ Barro remarked. ‘Although perhaps I should offer some gratitude. I was desperately tired of them both.’

‘I’ve simply made the fight a bit fairer,’ Corbel remarked.

They both smiled. And began circling each other.

Evie watched in horrified disbelief. There was a sense of the unreal — as though she were participating in a piece of medieval theatre. Except it was all sickeningly real. The screams were genuine, the blood was real, the knives and sword were not toys and this was not make believe. Corbel de Vis and the man known as Barro were engaged in what she sensed was going to be a fight to the death.

She stared at Corbel circling the man, a cold and calculating expression on his face that she had never seen before. She thought she had known Reg so well, but though the man who now accompanied her looked like Reg and talked like Reg that icy smile was chillingly unfamiliar. Reg meant to kill Barro, she was sure, because he had threatened her safety.

In fact, only now, as Barro began to laugh, did she realise she hadn’t taken a breath since the youth called Clem had fallen.

Clem! She looked again at the two figures on the ground. And finally her instincts kicked in and she moved into action.

‘You fight like a soldier. I’m impressed.’

‘Then engage me, or I’ll think you’re scared of me.’