A Lord's Bane Chapter 2 Part 1

Kaynen woke with a cry that was quickly muffled by a rough hand as Eira dragged him into one of the copses of trees scattered along the foothills. He stopped squirming when her staff fell hard against his leg. Eira breathing hard into his ear as she held him against her torso, he listened to the throbbing silence in the still trees. There was no wind, and no birds, but the sweltering heat of late summer had already descended. Eira's skin was slick with sweat where it touched his bare forearm, and he could feel her chest rising and falling rapidly against his back. He listened closer.

A faint 'Halloo' could be heard in the distance, and a few minutes later the steady thrum of galloping horses.

Kaynen bucked against her, recognizing this as his chance to be free of Eira. He threw his head back, trying to catch her chin, and flailed his legs wildly as the horses drew closer. Her hand tightened around his mouth as her arm squeezed his middle with suffocating force. He relished in the thrill when he felt an impact go up his leg and heard the soft yelp before she could cut it off. He shook his head side to side, almost breaking loose. He could already hear the cry leaving his throat, leading the horsemen to them.

She jerked him to the side, ramming his head into a tree.

He blinked, dazed, and realized as Eira leaned against a tree behind them that he was listening to fading hoof beats. He redoubled his efforts, but she held him tight, until nothing could be heard at all. He surrendered, tears pricking at his eyes. He stumbled and fell when she dropped him.

"You idiot!" She slapped him as he looked up in bewilderment. "Do you have a death wish?" She kicked him as he tried to scramble away. The cloth kept him from getting too far. She kicked him again as he bent over gasping. She grabbed him by the collar and jerked him to her, bending so she loomed over him. "I should kill you. I won't because they would find your body here." She slammed him against a tree and began to walk.

He sat dazedly, crying, unable to respond to the tug on the cloth until she came back to yank him to his feet.

"We don't have all day, and I'm obviously going to have to get you as far away from people as I can." She started off at a fast walk, muttering to herself, and dragged Kaynen behind her until he was trotting beside her.

...

She didn’t know where she was going. She didn’t know he knew that, nor did he think she would care much if he made it known. If anything, it would earn him another beating. He wasn’t stupid though. He had never thought he was stupid even when he had been told so every day, and he wasn’t blind.

She was nervous, almost dangerously so, and she would randomly change directions. Seeming to have only to markers, where they were coming from, and the white swath that cut through the hills, the road. She would head towards the sun as it rose and then away from it as it set, getting farther away from the road, and after a few minutes, she would turn so they were running toward the dark shadow on the horizon that was the forest that marked the end of Eishceal land. She would glance back every now and then, shaking her head as she muttered to herself.

Kaynen wondered if she was afraid of the horsemen.

As the sun climbed, so did the temperature, and the harder it was for Kaynen to keep up. The later it got, the more desperate Eira seemed to get as well. She jerked hard on the strip of cloth connecting them when he stumbled or fell, yanking him forward so it was hard for him to regain his feet. Soon, his hands were scraped and the knees of his trousers were holes.

He tripped over a stone, stumbling, and just before he regained his balance, she pulled at him. He tumbled to the ground and tried to ignore the sting of tears against his lids. He didn’t want to cry in front of her anymore. He clambered to his feet, a sob clogging his throat when he saw an ugly gash across one of his knees. It stung angrily, and blood oozed from it. He continued to walk at the rough tug of the strip, scrubbing his cheek with his left hand in frustration as a tear fell. “I-i-I’m thirsty.”

She glared back at him, and he was struck with how bad she looked. Her face was red, and sweat dripped from her black hair onto her tunic which was already dark with damp. Her eyes flicked around his face in what could have been nervous if there hadn’t been such fire behind them.

He flinched away from the wild gaze.

“Do I look like I have a fountain in my pocket, huh?” She turned her trouser pockets inside out. “Want me to give you my piss? I can do that for you.”

He staggered away as she took a threatening step towards him. “I-i-i’m s-s-sorry.” Another burning tear fell. He started to wail as she came forward another step. “P-p-p-p-please d-don’t.”

They both froze, her hand closing around the collar of his shirt, at a familiar sound.

Kanyen wasted no time, he jerked away and screamed as loud as he could. “Help!”