Betrayal (4 page)

Nisero’s eyes lost focus and he stared beyond the blur of Arianne’s shape. “Money is power. Most anyone with wealth enough and any manner of title might potentially be behind this corruption.”

“If it was just anyone, they would not have let your picture be pasted up anywhere. They would have tried to hunt you down that night at all costs, to keep you from telling your story and potentially getting out of their reach. They must believe with confidence that they have the reach within the existing system of authority.”

Nisero nodded and walked away from the counter. “I had not pieced that together. You are truly your father’s daughter. Perhaps if you had been part of the Elite Guard we would have been wise enough to avoid our own demise.”

“If I had been, I suppose I would be dead too like all the rest… including my mother and brother.”

Nisero’s eyes stung and he bowed his head.

He heard the stool bark along the flagstones but he did not turn. When she touched his back, his body shook like her touch carried some powerful form of magic. He fought to remain still.

“I spoke too harshly,” she said softly. “My emotions are tied up in all of this. Even more so with the pregnancy.”

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Nisero stated. “Truth is truth no matter how harsh it may sound. Your father blames himself and his years in the Guard for the death of your mother and brother. Part of his effort to hide himself is to protect you as well, I know. It is a terrible thing I ask to expose him by letting him attach himself to my doomed mission, but this is bigger than saving my own skin. If it were just that, I would cast myself to the mercy of the King and let my enemies come at me. I think there is greater danger for all the kingdom and allowing myself, the only true witness, to be cut down would serve the purposes of our enemies. I need Berengar. The kingdom needs him just as you feared.”

Her hand pulled away from his back and he missed the touch. Nisero still did not turn.

When she spoke her voice came from a distance that told him she was a few steps farther away. “When my father found our village and our family burned, you joined his doomed mission and saw it through to success. In so doing, you saw that I was still alive and now my unborn child. If I had perished, my father would likely have never recovered, so you are responsible for his continued life as well. It would be a terrible disservice to not help you in seeking my father’s council in this. You have earned that much and more.”

“I thank you, Arianne.”

“I will map it out and give you detailed instructions on how to get a message to him where he resides,” she said. “He has made locating him complicated as you can imagine. But I will get you there, Nisero.”

Nisero turned and faced her where she leaned against the counter. “Thank you again.”

“You’ll stay the night and leave before light in the morning. You can be on the road before any workers or travelers would see you.”

“I should go now, Arianne. My presence here puts you in grave danger. I do not know if anyone that seeks me might know I would come to you to find him.”

“You will stay the night,” she insisted. “You will eat. You will be provisioned. You will take a horse. I will not give you the direction you need until all those points are met.”

Nisero tilted his head. “Then, I am a captive to your hospitality. I thank you for the prison of your generosity.”

Arianne rolled her eyes and turned away from him. “You are part of a high minded breed of warrior that is as sharp and deft with the tongue as you are with the blade.”

Nisero smiled. “I learned from the very best.”

“That you did.” Arianne lifted a hard loaf and a short-bladed cutlery knife. She slammed both down on the counter, raining crumbs off the crust of the bread with the resounding impact. She withdrew her hands and crossed the kitchen. “See how deft you can be slicing bread for us while I fetch wine for you and wine-laced water for myself.”

Nisero stepped forward taking the knife and the bread in hand as ordered. “Why not just drink the wine yourself?”

“Dreth wants me to drink more water. The wine makes the water healthier. That’s what his mother told him.”

“Seems like if the wine makes the water healthier then the wine alone would be that much better,” Nisero said.

Arianne approached the counter again with a bottle, a pitcher, and a wheel of cheese. Nisero stood and took the pitcher and wheel from her. They set the items out on the counter. She tapped the wheel with one knuckle. “Cut.”

Nisero took up the knife again to obey. She took out two tankards and brought them to the counter. Nisero set down the knife to fill one tankard with wine and the other with water. He set down the pitcher and lifted the wine again. “How healthy?”

Arianne took the bottle from him and poured in a drab. She set it back down. “I do not trust a soldier to not try to get me drunk.”

Nisero pushed a slice of bread and cheese toward her before taking up some for himself. “You were the one that offered wine. Perhaps I should be careful of your intentions.”

He took a bite and his stomach tightened. He had to focus to keep from devouring the slices whole. As he ate and drank, Arianne cut him more from the wheel and the loaf. “I have dried meat as well. There are dates and figs too.”

Nisero spoke over another bite. “Do I look that starved?”

“You have been on the run. I remember what that is like still.”

Nisero swallowed his mouthful before replying. “Without a doubt, I have accidentally survived more than my share of close calls.”

He remembered jumping off the side of a cliff to escape a bandit army and sliding down the rock face with Captain Berengar, Arianne’s father, by his side. After they reached the ground, the sword he had been holding but lost hold of, had speared into the ground.

Arianne said, “It was not haphazard survival.”

“What?” Nisero shook himself from his thoughts.

“You said earlier that you had survived the attack on the Elite Guard by happenstance – some form of chance. You implied just now that your survival when you came to rescue me was haphazard. But I don’t believe that. You survived for a reason.”

Nisero took another long drink of wine and poured himself some more before he answered. “You think destiny has seen myself and your father through until now.”

“I don’t know much about destiny, but I know you and my father have survived where others haven’t by more skill than accident. Accidents are when people get hurt. Survival and completed missions come from purpose. You act with purpose, Lieutenant Nisero, not happenstance.”

Nisero took another swallow of wine and looked away. “Some dates and figs would be good, if you are still offering.”

Arianne patted his hand, giving him the same shock through his body that he associated akin to magic. She turned and went to retrieve his request from the pantry.

After he had eaten his fill, she brought him blankets and he slept on the floor of the pantry, staring up past the shelves in the darkness. He was exhausted, but it took him longer to fall asleep that night as thoughts of conspiracy swirled through his head, along with deep emotion at the thought that Arianne slept only a few feet away across the cottage.

Abedding me with a bed, Daughter of Berengar
.

“Do not move.”

Nisero’s eyes flew open at the words. He was ready to come up from the floor to fight, expecting full well to be brought back down quickly and soundly. He saw that Arianne was the one standing above him and she had been the one that had spoken the words.

“Okay,” he whispered.

“The workers arrived early. I’m setting up supplies and a horse for you now and will get you out undetected.”

Nisero took hold of the shelves on both sides of him and pulled himself up.

“Stay where you are, I said.” Arianne rested her hands on her hips.

“I am, but what is your plan for getting me out unnoticed, if the property is occupied?”

“I’m going with you.”

Nisero sat bolt upright and struck his head on the underside of a shelf before turning around. “That’s out of the question.”

“I don’t recall asking you a question, lieutenant.”

Arianne pushed the pantry door toward closing, but Nisero threw a hand out and caught it.

“Arianne, wait.”

“You seem determined to be found out. Trust me.”

“I trust that your father will kill me himself if I ride into the mountains with his pregnant daughter. What will your husband say?”

Arianne spoke through the gap in the half closed door. “My husband is not here and my father decided to live in the mountains as a hermit. There is no way for you to find him without me. Even if I drew you a map, he will only reveal himself to my messages. It is his own fault for setting up his self-imposed exile this way.”

“If you knew this before,” Nisero gritted his teeth, “why didn’t you tell me last night?”

“I knew you would argue,” she said, “and you did not drink enough wine to make me think you were ready to hear the news then.”

“I didn’t think it wise to get drunk while the entire kingdom was searching for me. So, you did intend to get me drunk after all.”

“Well, now you know. I have a cloak and hood you will need to wear as we ride out.”

“I can’t let you,” he said determinedly. “I would rather turn myself in and spare you this ride and further involvement.”

“I’m not giving you that choice. If what you say is true, the fate of the kingdom is at risk and my father would want to know. Even if you allowed yourself to be sacrificed, I would still ride out to see him. Only then I will be a pregnant woman riding alone, so if you are truly concerned for my safety then you must ride with me.”

“You are as stubborn as your father, and more stubborn than when I first met you, if that is at all possible,” he grumbled.

“You are one to talk, lieutenant.”

“This is a terrible idea.” He rubbed his face.

Someone knocked at the front door.

“Just a moment,” Arianne called. She lowered her voice to speak to Nisero again. “They are searching for a man traveling alone, based on a terrible drawing. This far north they would not know an Elite Guardsman from a bandit. If you are traveling with a woman, and a pregnant woman at that, no one will place you as the man they seek.”

“That’s a good point,” Nisero agreed.

“Of course it is. This would have gone faster if you had just left it at my telling you not to move and trust me like I first said.”

She closed the pantry without waiting for a response. The door did not latch, so Nisero saw a sliver of light and heard her footfalls approaching the front door.

He could hear most of what she said, but the other half of the conversation was the low, muffled mutter of a man’s voice. He heard Arianne say, “Are they ready … My father is not well. I must go to him … No, I need you to stay here and see to the land. Keep the animals fed and keep us from being robbed in my absence … If I had wanted that, I certainly would have said so … He is a man my husband hired and trusts for the task. That is all you need to know … Yes, please, with haste. I am quite worried and want to be off…”

Nisero heard the door close and the footsteps approaching. The pantry door swung back open and he squinted against the light. She tossed a wad of material at him and he caught the cloth against his chest.

“Put on your cloak, Nisero, and hide your face. But do not look as if you are trying to hide your face.”

He unfurled the light blue cloak and swung it around behind him to clasp it at his neck. “How exactly do I do that?”

“You and my father played the part of bandits as you rode along western mountains in search of me,” she noted. “Employ those same acting skills.”

Nisero pulled up the hood and paused. “We did not act. We just rode until we found you.”

Arianne shrugged. “It probably would have been far easier if you had played the part, don’t you think?”

“Perhaps.”

Another knock at the door drew her eyes away. “That is my husband’s man with our horses and supplies. I’m going to task him with something away from the house so that we can ride off without eyes close to us. Again, let’s ride quickly to be clear the town where I am known, but don’t appear like we are riding away quickly. Got it?”

Nisero pulled his hood up just a little further. “Stay here until you call me. I understand the plan up to that point.”

Arianne smiled and left the kitchen. Once the muttering at the door began again, Nisero started to worry that she would call out his name and then he would be found out. He was relieved when she walked back to the kitchen to get him.

They exited together.

“You look like a man trying to hide his face,” Arianne said.

Nisero pulled the hood back slightly. “Better?”

Arianne shook her head as she rode on the horse next to his. “I didn’t say to uncover your face. It has to do with stature. Posture maybe. Just ride like you are confident that you are not a wanted criminal. Straight back and casual confidence.”

“I’m not a criminal.” Nisero pulled his hood to cover his face again, and continued to lean forward in the saddle. “I’m innocent. I just need everyone else to know it too.”

“You are, in fact, wanted though,” she pointed out. “That we can’t change at the moment. So we’ll need to deal with that on this ride. Sit up straight, like I said.”

“I don’t ride that way even when I’m not wanted,” Nisero protested. “That’s how men ride in parades and when they are flitting about lording over their land and people who work for them. I ride because I need to get somewhere or because someone else needs me to get somewhere.”

They clopped across a bridge over a shallow creek and continued north. Arianne held her belly and took deep breaths. Nisero took a moment to look her over before turning his attention back to the road. He did not like having her along for a journey in her condition, but she had very effectively given him no choice.

“My husband rides that way,” Arianne said with her lips drawn out stiff.

Nisero glanced at her within his hood. He sighed and sat up straight, but then felt exposed. He leaned back forward again.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I meant no insult to you or your husband. I am not adjusting well to my life as a wanted man.”

Arianne smiled at him. “I’m sure you’ll be very good at it in time.”

“I’ll need to find fur lined cloaks and metal crowns donned with animal heads so that I can be a proper bandit king.”

Arianne’s smile vanished and the color drained from her face. Nisero saw her jaws clench in tight lines along her cheeks and her eyes looked glassy with moisture. At first he was going to ask her if she felt alright physically or if she needed water. Perhaps they needed to stop more frequently with her riding pregnant.

Then, he realized what he had done. He remembered her held in a cage suspended above the grounds of a ruined castle. A dark and vengeful bandit king with a description much like the one he had just given had held her prisoner.

Nisero had dealt with dozens of bandits before and since those days. Most had been far easier to dispatch. Arianne only had experience with that one mad bandit king who had caused the death of her mother and brother, burned in front of her. It had nearly been the death of her father as well. Nisero had made a jest that was a part of her darkest, most haunted nightmares.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have jested that way. I wasn’t thinking.”

“You and my father pulled me safe from the grasp of such a person.” Her voice was strained and raspy. It had a shake to it that Nisero did not like to hear, especially since he evoked it. “You have earned the right to laugh in the face of it all. I should not have joked about you being a criminal. You were framed and lost all your men for the treachery. I should not jest about that.”

“The jesting does not change it. You are putting yourself out to save me, Arianne. You have nothing to apologize for in that or in anything else. I’m nothing but grateful.”

They rode in silence for some time. Two parties passed them looking like traveling merchants. They did not appear to recognize Nisero, but they were traveling southward and may have been too far north to yet receive the news. It was only a matter of time.

Their attention seemed most focused on Arianne and her belly. Both gave a common salute of mutual travelers and Nisero waved back. Her pregnant belly appeared to be the ideal cover and distraction.

Nisero considered that were the Elite Guard ever to be rebuilt and reformed, they might consider filling out the ranks with women.

“We need to have a story to tell anyone we might have to engage,” Arianne suggested.

“How is that?” Nisero blinked and brought his attention back toward her.

“We need to know who you are before someone asks.”

Nisero sniffed. “I know who I am.”

She chuckled. “That’s good, but we should agree on another identity for now, I think.”

Nisero chewed at the inside of his mouth. “Do you have a suggestion?”

“Traveling with me in this condition,” she said, “it might do to have you claim to be my husband. We can still say we are traveling to see my father who is not well.”

“That sounds like a good enough lie we can sell. What name should I take as your imaginary husband?”

Arianne shrugged. “Dreth will do. It will be easy for me to remember since that is my husband’s name.”

“Good enough then.”

They avoided the next village by riding around the outside along a trail that followed a shallow, dark creek. Nisero waited for Arianne to say that he was riding with too much suspicion on that trail, but she said nothing and they continued onward.

She took dried fruit from her saddle bag and began to eat and drink from one of the waterskins as they rode.

“Do you want us to stop and rest while you eat?”

Between bites, she said, “We will probably do better to keep riding as long as I am able. If you are feeling weary, old man, we can stop to rest your back and hips.”

Nisero frowned. “Have it your way. We will need to rest the horses eventually, even if you are somehow able to ride without end.”

“Of course, it is for the horses,” she said, amused. “Good of you to care so deeply for the horses.”

“I’m wishing more and more that you had just drawn me that map and let me go alone.”

Arianne laughed. “Then you could have taken all the rest breaks you liked with no one noticing. Is that it?”

“As you say.” Nisero turned away, but smiled to himself.

He ate and drank a little. Eventually, he patted the sides of the horse and motioned off to a clearing through the trees at a deeper section of creek off the road.

“Time for us to water and rest the horses as an excuse for this old man to rest his bones.”

Arianne grinned. “As you wish.”

They weaved between the trees and the horses began to drink before they dismounted. Nisero moved around to help her, but she was already off the horse and on her feet. Even in her dress and pregnant, she was managing to move with dexterity. Nisero pulled off the saddles with the heavy loads and dropped them on the ground beside the horses and creek. Arianne took up a brush and started brushing down the horse over his short, sweaty fur.

“I can do that so you can sit and rest,” Nisero offered.

“I’ve been sitting all day.”

“You know what I mean, Arianne. Just sit down and rest. If you insist on coming along on this adventure, take care of yourself so that I can tell Berengar I took care of you, at least.”

“If I sit down, I’ll have trouble standing back up,” she contended.

“I’ll help you up.”

She moved to the other side of the animal and began brushing down its haunches. “I’m almost done. If you are worried about my condition, stop engaging me in pointless arguments.”

“The gods help your husband through this time,” Nisero said, exasperated.

“You better watch your tongue. You might be delving into more than you are prepared to handle.”

He pulled out a brush and began working down his mount as well. “I’m almost certain that I am.”

“Maybe that is the real reason my husband is away on his mission,” she said, “to get away from his argumentative, pregnant wife. Do you think so, lieutenant?”

“I have no opinion on that subject.” He pulled down the hood from his cloak and continued brushing.

She finished with her horse and moved to the other side of Nisero’s to brush the animal with him. The horse snorted and went back to drinking as Arianne’s mount started pulling up grass and chewing.

Arianne dropped the brush and sat down against the saddle on the ground. Nisero saw her struggle to get back to a reclined position. Her face was red and splotchy by the time she achieved it.

He dropped his brush and reclined on the saddle next to hers. Arianne twisted to reach for something on the other side of the saddlebag. She gritted her teeth and let out a haggard breath. “Oh, I was more nimble in the saddle. Sitting on the ground is not ideal for women with child. Would you be so kind as to retrieve the waterskin.”

Nisero sat up and leaned over. “Of course.”

The short blade of the dagger hooked underneath Nisero’s chin and rested dangerously against his Adam’s apple. He could smell the sweat off the man’s hand and the bite of the sharp edge. Nisero froze in place at an awkward angle. He fought the urge to swallow with the blade flush to his throat the way it was.

He saw Arianne’s eyes go wide. “Nisero,” she breathed.

A harsh voice behind them growled out. “Don’t move. I know who you are.”

Arianna stammered out. “He… He is my husband Dreth. We are on a journey to see… to see my sick father.”

“Shut up or I will slice open your belly for your lies,” the man snarled. “He is coming with me back to the capital alive and bound or sliced and drained dry like a prize hog. Either way gets me paid. Alive pays more, so let’s plan on that for both our sakes. Move your hands behind your back and hold your wrists together, criminal.”

“You have us confused with someone else,” Arianne maintained. “Please.”

“Silence your mouth, you lying wench, or I will put a rag in it. Now put your hands behind your back, traitor, or I-.”

Nisero grabbed the wrist of the man with both his hands and held the blade in place instead of pulling it away. Trying to remove the blade would draw the sharp edge along his neck and do the work of the bounty hunter for him. Nisero pushed off with his feet and flipped over backward into the man’s arm and body.

As the man grunted in surprise, Nisero’s weight came down on the man’s back and head with the arm twisted up around Nisero’s side. He felt the shoulder socket of the man’s knife arm crack and shift unnaturally under him. The fingers folded open and the dagger fell away to the ground.

Nisero rolled and twisted around still holding the man’s arm, driving the break further. He let out a shrill scream and bucked up, giving Nisero his back.

“He’s going for the knife!” Arianne warned.

As Nisero clutched the man’s broken arm and shoulder at an impossible angle behind his back, the man clawed at the ground beyond Nisero’s saddle with his good hand to try to retrieve the hilt of his dagger.

Nisero wrapped his arm around under the man’s chin and bent his arm at the elbow, contracting the man’s airway and the arteries on both side of his neck. The man had a long, black beard that bunched up around Nisero’s arm as he choked the bounty hunter.

The man still fought and reached for the dagger. Nisero locked the hand of his choke arm over the bicep of his other arm. He then hooked his other hand around the back of the man’s skull and pushed his head down into the choke. Nisero constricted and flexed, tightening his grip.

The man brought his hand back from trying for the dagger and pulled at the triangle of Nisero’s arms trying to break the choke, but failed. Nisero leaned back, pulling the man to the ground on top of him as he squeezed tighter.

The man tried to claw at Nisero’s face, but the lieutenant turned his head to guard his eyes. The man then tried to drive his head back to headbutt Nisero’s nose, but Nisero held him around the head and throat controlling his movement and prevented the attack.

“Snap his neck and let’s away before someone finds us,” Arianne said in a panic.

The man squirmed in response to Arianne’s threat. He hissed and spittle spewed out over his lips, beard, and Nisero’s forearm. The fight began to drain out of him as he was robbed of air.

The man went limp in Nisero’s grip and he held tight for a few moments longer to be sure he was really out and it wasn’t a ploy.

“Finish him off, Nisero.”

Nisero rolled the bounty hunter’s unconscious body onto his belly in the grass before he got up. Nisero lumbered up to his feet as the horses raised their heads and stared.

Arianne looked at the man on the ground with fear. “Nisero, are you going to let him live?”

“He was following the law. We’ll be away before he awakes.”

“He was following the law threatening to cut open my belly and put something in my mouth to silence me?” she asked. “This does not seem to be a law worth defending.”

“Fair enough,” Nisero conceded. “Maybe he does deserve to die and I have broken his shoulder for his threats, but it will be far easier to defend my innocence for murder, if I actually refrain from murdering.”

Nisero hauled his saddle and bags up onto his horse and strapped it in place. The animal snorted and tugged against Nisero’s efforts, but he patted its side and calmed it.

He took Arianne’s hands and brought her up slowly to her feet again.

“Are you good to ride, Arianne?”

“I will be fine.” She brought her fingers up to his throat and touched two spots that stung, making him hiss. “You are cut.”