Chapter 7
Theo
Theo watched as she toppled down the hill, knowing better than to chase after her and risk following in her tragic pursuit. She collided with a fallen tree and collapsed on her back, heaving to collect her breath.
It was important to play everything carefully.
As he approached her, he eyed her legs and waist but found no traces of weapons.
That was strange, considering she’d come from a murder scene, but the real oddity was her appearance.
The woman looked absolutely terrible. The sleeves of her entirely too-thin shirt were ripped off, and her odd trousers were cut to her rump. He’d never seen clothes like hers.
Theo squatted down, his knee hovering over her chest. Her blue eyes grew wide, but her attempt to speak caused a cough to ripple through her.
He leaned in, lightly pressing his knee onto her chest to keep her pinned as he bent his head and whispered in her ear, “In a moment, I’m going to remove my knee, and you’re going to get up and follow me.”
If she continued to run, she would only further incriminate herself, and Bennet or Alan wouldn’t be far behind them. Theo studied her hand as she grabbed her head, and her eyes crinkled together. Blood caked every part of her body, but her hand appeared to have more than traces of the man’s blood.
He took hold of it, and she let out a muffled cry. Her knuckles were smashed and puffy, but when he went to set her hand back on her chest, something sparkled, reflecting the waning hours of moonlight.
“Is that glass?”
“Mirror.” She groaned and tried to pull it back, but Theo refused to relinquish his grip.
“What did you do? Punch it?”
The subtle twitch of her eye gave her away. There wasn’t a village for miles. How could she have punched a mirror? He pinched a shard between his fingers and pried it from her flesh. Sure enough, it reflected what little he could see. She bit her bottom lip and squirmed beneath him.
“When?” he whispered more harshly than he intended as he dug another piece from her hand.
She winced as he prodded at a piece of glass between her first two knuckles. “Maybe thirty minutes ago,” she squeaked. “Stop touching it.”
He allowed her to pull her hand from his grasp. He would’ve expected her injury to be from a punch to a jaw, not a mirror. There was no pus or signs of inflammation. She was telling the truth.
As Theo contemplated the situation, an irksome thought occurred to him.
Would she have been able to take a man of Lord Freville’s size?
He may have been older, but Freville had been a decently sized man, and where they were camped, they should’ve heard the fight.
She appeared strong, but Theo doubted she would’ve had the strength with her fingers in that state.
Lord Freville’s body was cut beyond recognition, and their fight would’ve been loud and brutal.
It wasn’t possible she killed him in the last several hours.
“Are you going to get off me?” She eyed his knee still pressed to her chest.
Theo hesitated for another moment as all the information jumbled in his head. Something wasn’t adding up.
He lifted his knee and stood. “Are you—”
Cutting him off, she rolled and kicked his legs out from under him.
She tried to jump and make a run for it, but Theo grabbed hold of her ankle and brought her to the ground.
She was strong as she kicked and fought him.
Her nails scratched at his arms, and she attempted to knee him several times in the groin.
He grappled with her, finding one wrist and then the other.
He pinned them above her head and settled on top of her as she screamed and raged against him, but he restrained himself from an overbearing grip.
He couldn’t allow the monster within him to escape, the man he was during the war.
He had no idea who she was. She could be running from a slaver or caught up in something entirely unrelated for all he knew.
“Let me go, you prick!” She spat in his face, but he kept her arms pinned.
He leaned closer and allowed his voice to deepen. “I don’t think you quite understand your situation. We found you at the scene of a brutal murder.”
“I didn’t do it!”
“Then quit fighting me.”
“You’re the one trying to kidnap me!” She bit back the choking in her throat.
Kidnap her? Did she not recognize their uniforms?
“I’m Captain Theodoric Fastrada. I’m not kidnapping you. I’m arresting you.”
She blinked, and her heavy panting slowed. Theo let go of her hands.
“You’re what?” Her shoulders released their tension, but it was only a diversion. Her fist collided with Theo’s mouth, and he rolled over, grasping his jaw.
Her hand slid along his belt. Before he could draw a weapon, she was standing over him with his dagger pointed at his chest. He couldn’t reach for his sword. She would attack before he had the chance to draw it. Theo raised his hands in surrender.
“What do you mean arrest me? Are you some private militia?” Her voice cracked as she stumbled over her words.
Theo’s dagger shook in her hands, but he focused on her rose-tinted lips and the accent escaping them. It was an interesting drawl he couldn’t place. He could easily take her down, kick her legs out from under her. But he wanted to see what she would do, what she was capable of.
“We’re no militia. We’re soldiers in the king’s army, Luana’s forces.”
She sputtered incomprehensibly, but he made out “king” and “shit.”
“Are you a tenant of Luana?”
Her chest heaved, and her hand wrapped tighter around his dagger. She shook her head.
“A subject of Godwin?”
“Godwin?” Her muscles stiffened as Theo sat up. “Don’t come any closer.”
“What’s your name?”
“What’s my name? You’re fucking crazy.”
“I’m not the one covered in a lord’s blood and holding a weapon against a soldier.
” Theo had enough of her stammering and swept her legs out from under her.
His dagger slipped from her fingers, and he caught it, brandishing it across her neck as he straddled her.
“If you’re not from Godwin, where are you from?
I hear your accent. Do you reside under the Deavonian Accords? ”
Tears leaked from her eyes. “I’m from Gainesville. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
An uneasiness fell over him at the sight of the tears rolling down the sides of her face and the strange town name she’d uttered. What if she truly wasn’t from Godwin or Deavopan or even Bazrath? What if she was running from a slaver?
“Who were you running from?”
She sucked in a gulp of air, but before she could speak, Alan came jogging down the steep slope with Gris in tow behind him.
“Did you catch her?”
The woman’s gaze shifted to Gris and Alan. “This isn’t real,” she muttered.
Theo lifted himself off her and grabbed her by the arm, hauling her to her feet.
Her muscles were rigid, but she didn’t meet his gaze.
In fact, he couldn’t see where her eyes focused.
He tugged her onward, and it was as if a trance had fallen over her as her feet fell in line beside him.
He waited for the second she’d snap out of it and pull some stunt to rip her arm free, but she stared forward and didn’t utter a single word until he got her to Gris’s horse.
Theo removed the hold on her arm and slid his hands to her waist to assist her up, but she froze and clutched his hands.
“Don’t touch me!” she shouted, and Theo released her instantly.
Gris flashed expansive eyes between him and the strange woman who wrapped her arms around herself.
“I can get on by myself.”
Theo allowed her to seat herself in the saddle. As Gris pulled her reins, kicking her horse to get them moving, he watched as the woman’s hand hovered over the small cut along her cheek.
“What do you think?” Bennet’s voice startled Theo and had him whirling around to meet his menacing scowl.
Theo didn’t know what he thought. Only moments ago, he was bent on capturing her and hauling her to the dungeons beneath Fastrada Manor, but now, as he watched her and Gris disappear down the trail, a question filled his head. What if she’s innocent?
“Something doesn’t feel right about this,” he said.
“We’ll see if she’s willing to confess to your father. Stay back with Gris and keep an eye on her.”
Bennet mounted his horse and trotted to lead their party. Theo found his hand trailing to his swollen lip where her fist had collided. She had a strong punch.
“Daydreaming?” Esaias mused behind him. He had the misfortune of carrying Lord Freville’s body wrapped in a blanket.
Theo could already begin to smell the rotting reek of decay.
“Only thinking.” He mounted Bear and rubbed his horse’s mane.
Thankfully, they had a long enough journey that he could begin deciphering the chaotic situation and maybe get the mysterious woman to explain herself before they reached Luana Bay.
Esaias pulled ahead and found a spot beside Alan, most likely to pester him with the wretched smell. Theo pulled behind Gris, keeping one hand on the reins and the other wrapped around his dagger as his eyes trailed through the shadows under the trees.
The first few hours of their journey were silent, but as the sun began poking over the trees to their backs, it was like a new breath had been released with the morning breeze.
“What’s your name?” Gris’s voice finally cut through the silence, but only the three of them were around to hear it as they trotted down the river path. The others had gained distance and pulled ahead, leaving them alone with the rush of the river beside them.
The woman blinked as if woken from her stupor. “Who are you people?”
Theo raised an inquisitive brow.
“I asked you first,” Gris threw at her.
“Amaris,” she said with a small sigh.
“Griselda, but you can call me Gris.”
Amaris pinned her gaze to Theo, narrowing her eyes. “Alright, Gris and Captain Theodoric Fastrada—”
“Theodoric is fine,” he grumbled, his blood heating from her mocking tone.
Amaris straightened up. “Who are you people, and why are you kidnapping me? I’m not buying into the kingdom, soldiers, and arresting crap. Are you some kind of cult, or are you planning to ransom me?”
Theo gaped in confusion. It was as if she were plucked from a small island in the sea and thrown into their path. She had to be acting. No one was this oblivious of the realm.
“Excuse me?” Gris snapped.
“Theodoric here claims to be a soldier in this mighty king’s army. I call bullshit. You’re the ones who attacked, chased, and kidnapped me.”
“We’re not the ones who killed a man.”
“I’m a paramedic. I save lives, not take them.”
What in the realm is a paramedic? Theo questioned. She saves lives?
“Look, I stumbled on that body a few moments before you all did,” Amaris said. “I hid because I thought you were an animal or something.”
“Why are you covered in his blood?” Gris asked.
Amaris had the audacity to roll her eyes. “I fell on top of him. Besides, I couldn’t have killed him. He was dead long before I found him.” Gone was the frightened demeanor, replaced by a sharp tongue that sent Theo’s blood curdling. It was going to be a long ride. “Did you not see the maggots?”
Theo sharpened his gaze. Maggots?
“If you’re not some cult or group looking for money, then what are you playing at? Are you overly dramatic role-players? Or a traveling reenactment group getting off on kidnapping people?”
Theo’s cheeks reddened to her offensive language. Amaris continued her tirade at a faster cadence than a trotting horse, but he questioned everything. She was either playing them and was deadly or she was the key to understanding what was happening in Luana.
“If you didn’t kill him, then why were you in the woods?” Theo asked. “There isn’t a town for miles, and we found nothing to suggest you had provisions or a camp.”
“I…I was…”
What was she hiding? Theo narrowed his gaze on her, but Bear jerked under him.
“Easy, Bear!”
His eyes darted around them. Maybe a silverling had spooked him.
Bear whinnied and stood on his hind legs.
Theo’s thighs squeezed, keeping him in the saddle.
He pulled at the reins, the leather digging into his fingers.
Bear slammed his hooves into the dirt, and a jaded gecko skittered back into the brush, its navy scales reflecting the sun.
“Theo, are you—”
“I’m fine, Gris,” Theo said through gritted teeth, keeping from shouting to further spook him, but Bear continued to buck.
Theo’s right foot slipped from the stirrup, and he braced harder to keep his seat.
Theo’s left foot slipped. He gripped lower on the reins, but Bear edged toward the river.
The roaring current no longer had a calming effect as it loomed closer.
Bear screamed and bucked. Theo couldn’t hold on any longer and flipped over his head. He landed against the steep edge of the riverbank, smacking his forehead as he rolled off into the stream.