Page 11 of Highlander's Escaped Prisoner
Bryce swung his leg over the horse’s back and stumbled as he almost fell onto the ground.
Nessa took hold of his arm and steered him toward the thickest pine tree she could see, then tied his feet together and wrapped another length of rope twice around his body, knotting it behind him.
“Why are you doing this?” he asked. “I have done nothing to harm you. Why are you treating me this way?”
Nessa moved to within a foot of him and glared into his eyes, touching the point of her dagger to his stomach. “Because youinsulted my family and I will not stand for it, so now you can wait here until I see fit to come back and untie you.”
“And how long will that be?” Bryce asked. “Are you going to leave me here to die? I thought we had an agreement. I made a vow—”
“Which you broke!” she reminded him angrily. “I have not decided yet,” she answered grimly as she mounted her horse again. “You will see me when you see me.” Then she turned Jo’s head toward the west and spurred him into a canter.
Bryce was afraid for his life. He was completely immobile and helpless, and he was beginning to think that perhaps it would have been better if he had simply settled for breaking rocks for the rest of his life. At least he would have had a roof over his head, enough to eat, and people to talk to. He knew that soon he would be hungry, and worse still, thirsty. How long could he last without water?
He began to writhe and struggle against his restraints, and incredibly, after a few minutes, he felt them loosening a little. Heartened by his progress, Bryce continued to wriggle, feeling the ropes beginning to give way. The pain was excruciating, but it would be worth it if he could free himself. If he could loosen them enough to reach his hands, he reasoned, then he could rub the rope against the tree until it broke, then free his feet. After that…
“Well, what dae we have here?” came a hoarse voice from behind him.
Bryce turned his head as far around as he could since the trunk of the tree was obstructing his view and saw the ugliest face he had ever seen. It was obviously human since it had two eyes,a nose, and a mouth. However, the crossed brown eyes were bloodshot and glazed with drunkenness, the nose broken and crooked, the mouth like a slit in the sallow skin of the face. It had broken yellow teeth, and the odor emanating from it was so foul that Bryce turned away, disgusted.
“What’s your name?” the man asked in his hissing croak of a voice.
“Neil,” Bryce lied. Some instinct told him to keep all information about himself away from this creature, whose intentions were obviously not good. “Can you untie me, please?” He had little hope that the man would help him, but he had to try.
Just then, another man, just as ugly but smaller, appeared from the other side of the tree. He had beady black eyes that looked like holes in his face, a hooked nose, and a long greasy beard. Those attributes, together with a pair of bent, bowed legs, made him look like pictures Bryce had seen of goblins.
The two men stood studying him for a while until, eventually, the goblin spoke. “How did ye happen tae find yerself in this pickle, stranger?”
“I was ambushed,” Bryce replied.
“Took yer horse an’ a’ yer money, did they?” the taller one asked.
“Yes, they did,” he answered. He was thinking frantically, trying to work out a means of escape, but when the goblin produced two stout tree branches, gave one to the other man, and began to whack it against his palm, Bryce sagged against the tree. There was no hope, and he resigned himself to his fate.
“Then ye are no use tae us,” the taller one told him.
Then, with an evil leer, he advanced toward Bryce and raised the branch in the air. The man laughed as he brought it down on his shoulder again and again, and despite gritting his teeth and trying not to show the bandits how much the blows hurt him, Bryce began to scream with pain.
7
Nessa had ridden about half a mile when the reality of what she had done slammed into her.Damn!she thought angrily as she brought Jo to a halt.Why did I do that? I am supposed to be on the side of good, not evil! Why did I leave a man to suffer like that?She was suddenly furious with herself as she turned Jo around and prepared to go back the way she had come.
She was cursing herself roundly with every one of Jo’s hoofbeats, but she doubted that much harm could have come to Bryce in the short time that she had been away. She soon found out how wrong she had been. As she drew nearer to the trees, she heard the sound of a man’s voice howling in agony. “Help me! Help me!” he screamed.
It was undoubtedly Bryce; the timbre was too deep to have been any other man she knew.
“I’m coming!” she shouted at the top of her voice. At once, she spurred Jo into a gallop and rushed into the woods, where she saw two ill-favored men beating Bryce with thick tree brancheswhile he was utterly defenseless. He could not even raise his hands to shield his face, and a wave of anger swept over Nessa. She had allowed this to happen, but she was going to put a stop to it.
“Take that, lad!” the goblin cried gleefully as he swiped Bryce’s thigh with as much force as he could muster.
Roy Guthrie had always insisted that Nessa be brought up like a lady but be able to defend herself like a man. Consequently, Nessa had become the best archer, swordswoman, knife thrower, and catapult wielder that most people knew. She could shoot an arrow, hit a target, and embed a knife in anyone’s back from the back of a galloping horse or scythe their heads from their bodies with a broadsword. However, she had never actually done any of these in real life, so she had settled for decapitating and stabbing scarecrows.
Now in one fluid, almost involuntary movement, Nessa plucked an arrow from her quiver and loosed it. It sang as it sped through the air, and a moment later, as if by magic, it was protruding from the back of the goblin man. A split second later, the other bandit found his upper arm pinned to the tree by a foot-long dagger.
Bryce had at first roared in agony as the hefty branches struck his arms, shoulders, and head. He twisted this way and that, trying fruitlessly to escape, but all he succeeded in doing was making his wrists and ankles bleed more.
“Aye, that’s it!” shouted the goblin man gleefully. “This is what ye get for havin’ nothin’ tae give us, friend! Are ye enjoyin’yerself?” He cackled at his friend, who began to sing a bawdy tavern in a cracked, off-tune voice. After a moment, the other one joined in, and their cacophony, mixed with their evil laughter, rang through the trees.
When Bryce’s cries became weaker, the two bandits became annoyed, for they were enjoying themselves too much to stop. Robbing and torturing helpless travelers was something they did for both gain and amusement. Bryce was in the hands of two men who were so evil that they could barely be called human.
