Page 64 of Bride of Mist
But that was only one man. There were still two behind her. One of them intent on having his way with her before they tossed her in the river. Both of them too close for comfort.
“Feiyan!” Dougal barked.
He clouted his captive hard in the chin with the pommel of theshoudao,rendering him senseless, and then tossed the sword to her.
In one smooth move, she caught the blade by its grip and swung it around just as the red-bearded outlaw was advancing.
At that instant, all motion seemed to halt while calculations coursed through her head at lightning speed.
She could kill the red-beard. There was enough force and momentum behind the arc of the blade to do it. Theshoudaowas capable of slicing through a gambeson like a knife through cheese. If it didn’t cut him in half, it was certain to deal out lethal damage.
And there was no question. The red-beard deserved death. He’d threatened to rape her. Rape her and drown her.
But there was something else. Dougal had said it.Killing is in your blood.
That wasn’t true. And the fact that he thought itwasbothered her. She might be a warrior maid. But she didn’t enjoy slaughter. Not when it was unnecessary.
Perhaps it should have troubled her that she cared what mac Darragh—a Westlander she’d likely never see again—thought of her. But there wasn’t enough time to consider the implications of that.
Instead, in that brief moment, gauging the speed of his advance and the range of her swing, she pulled back her reach by several inches. The tip of theshoudaoslashed through just the front of the red-beard’s gambeson, deep enough to penetrate the skin and scrape along his ribs. No deeper.
A line of crimson bloomed on the muddy linen. He shrieked, stumbling backwards in shock.
On the back stroke, as the second oncoming thief lunged forward, she shifted her angle to clap him on the side of his head with the flat of the blade, near the grip, where it was strongest. She struck him with enough force to knock him to the ground, leaving him groveling in the leaves for a stunned moment.
The third man, the one she’d disarmed, had scooped up his eating dagger again. After the good twist she’d given his shoulder, his right arm was worthless, so he raised the weapon in his left hand.
But while he sneered at her in challenge, the men she’d struck with theshoudaodecided they’d had enough. They limped off into the forest to lick their wounds.
The man with the dagger ground his teeth. “Come back here, cowards!” he yelled.
While the man continued berating his fleeing companions, Dougal came up behind him and easily wrenched the dagger out of his hand. Defenseless, caught between the Westlander’s weapon and her lethalshoudao,he opted to follow his fellow thieves. They didn’t bother pursuing him. He’d likely never tangle with the likes of them again.
That left just two outlaws. The one willingly sacrificed by his friends and the one who was still unconscious.
“What about me?” the dazed fellow asked. “You won’t kill me, will you?”
“Ye’re free to go,” Dougal said, “though if I were ye, I’d find new bedfellows.”
“Thank you, sir. Thank you.”
Dougal gave Feiyan a wink that made her glow as he added, “Be sure to warn everyone about the dangerous swordswoman who roams the wood.”
“Oh…aye,” the man stammered as he stumbled to his feet. “I’m much obliged. I won’t forget your mercy.”
Dougal smirked. “And I won’t forget your face.”
Once the man scuttled off through the woods in the opposite direction of his associates, Dougal turned back to her. He frowned at the injury to her forearm.
“That needs bindin’.”
“’Tisn’t as bad as it looks,” she said.
“’Tis bad enough.”
He picked up the deserted dagger and hunkered down by the last outlaw, who was still dozing. He cut the last foot of linen from the bottom of the man’s shirt and tore it into two pieces. The larger one he used to bind her wound, pushing her sleeve back gently to wind the linen around her forearm. With the smaller piece, he dabbed lightly at the cut beneath her eye.
Despite the fact they were out of danger, her heart raced, and she wasn’t sure it had anything to do with the violent encounter.
