With a wild cry, Brachet flung herself into the clearing. Using the element of surprise, she caught the robbers off guard and managed to kill quite a few of them before she was grabbed by one burly robber. He forced her to drop her sword and held a knife to her throat. Looking wildly about, Brachet realized Rue'mynn was nowhere to be found. She groaned in despair, and the robbers laughed, misinterpreting it as surrender.
Oh, Rue! she cried in her mind, Why have you forsaken me?
Meanwhile, the robbers were discussing her. "A pretty little thing, isn't she?" the one who held her asked of his fellows. Brachet hissed at him and snapped at his fingers. He cursed and smacked her across the face.
"What should we do with her, boss?" asked one robber of Lothe. He grinned and rubbed his bushy orange beard with one hand.
"Who are you, m'lass of the pretty brown hair?" he asked. Brachet glared into his eyes and spat at his feet.
To hell with Rue if he's a coward, she willed herself to think. But in the back of her mind she was crying his name over and over.
"I am Lady Brachet of Cathair Utopian. You killed my father, and I have come to avenge his death," she said, quite calmly. Lothe stood up and circled her.
"I think I remember this father of yours... He spoke of you, my pretty," he said, leering suggestively. Brachet squirmed inwardly, but focused on her dignity.
"Of course, a plea for mercy only makes me like what I do even more," he continued, "so I did kill him, yes. But he was a spineless weakling. I saved you the unhappiness of finding that out for yourself."
"My father was a wonderful, brave, and gallant gentleman, which is more than I can say for you, scum!" Brachet screamed hoarsely. Lothe slapped her.
"Tie her up. She's of no use to me til daybreak, when I'll be able to break her." At this Brachet struggled. She would kill herself before Lothe touched her. His very eyes seemed to tear at her honor (and clothes).
They tied her to a tall pole, foot and hand, and gagged her as well. Her sword was placed on a mountain of stolen goods. Then the robbers went to sleep. Brachet slept too, her dreams all escape plans that she knew would never work.
When Brachet came to, it was not because the robbers were awake as well. In fact, the suns were not even above the horizon, and her muddled brain searched for an answer as to why she woke up. Ah, there it was. There was a kind of sawing noise, but not on wood...on...rope? Yes, that was it. Someone was cutting the bonds that held her. She tried to speak, and remembered that she was gagged...but no, the gag had been removed. And she could move her feet! Finally the ropes that had bound her hands snapped apart. Brachet rubbed her chafed wrists, and then turned to see her saviour.
Rue grinned back at her, his blue eyes startling even in the darkness.
"Thought I'd left you, huh? Don't you have any faith in me?" Brachet didn't speak. She simply flung her arms around Rue and hugged all the air out of him. Rue gently detached her, and went to fetch her sword.
"You'll be needing this..." he nodded toward Lothe. Brachet tensed, and then shook her head.
"I'd be as bad as him if I slew a main in his sleep," she whispered, and they walked off. Rue glanced back at the camp, and at Brachet, but he didn't question her decision.
On the way back to the camp, Brachet wondered at the strange feeling in her gut. It was different than any she had felt before. It was a delicious tugging, like a rope of silk was tied around her waist, and the rope was pulling her to Rue'mynn.
Am I in love? Brachet asked herself. She looked at Rue, who was saddling his paard and whistling softly. The tugging grew fiercer, insistent. She smiled fondly at him until he looked up, at which point she focused shyly on her feet, feeling her ears go hot and crimson. Rue grinned and mounted his paard.
She snuck another look at him, loved the way his golden hair fell adorably into his face.
Oh, yes. She was in it deep, now.
But somehow, that realization only made her smile bigger.
Better wait and see....
What happens Next?