Page 73 of The Tempest
“As Ming Tang has pointed out, and as we all know, we canna go charging intae the village,” he said. “Right now, my mother and wife are inside the Black Cock and my brother has decided tae return. I suspect they are in enough danger at the moment, so I dunna want—”
He was cut off when one of the sentries high on the gatehouse called down to them. “There’s a fight at the Black Cock!” he shouted. “Men came from the woods and swarmed the men who were in front of the tavern!”
A moment of confusion was replaced by a moment of terror. It took Payne that short a time to realize what had happened. Immediately, he turned to Tay and Fox, the men standing closest to him.
“My God,” he breathed. “Medusa’s Disciples.”
Tay grunted with the awareness. “They must have seen them and come out of their encampment,” he said. “Go. We mustgo!”
Leaving Athdara and the gatehouse sentries behind, the Blackchurch trainers and almost three hundred soldiers started running for the village.
It was an explosion of epic proportions.
And the ancillary damage could be deadly.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Greetings, Maudie,” Declansaid. “I’d hoped tae find ye here.”
Maude had just watched her son and a man she didn’t know enter the Black Cock and head straight for her. Astria, however, recognized both men, but she didn’t run. She simply sat there as they entered the tavern with about twenty men behind them, all of them armed.
Patrons, and servants, scattered.
“Declan,” Maude said evenly. “Where have ye been? We’ve been looking for ye.”
“And you, my dearest mother,” Arnaldo said, overlapping Maude as he focused on Astria with glittering eyes. “I’ve been so worried about you. Are you well? You’ve not been injured, have you?”
He was practically standing over her, and Astria didn’t like the position she found herself in. Without answering him, she stood up and moved to the side of the table where Maude was sitting. At least there was a table between them now, so she felt a little better, but not much.
Frankly, seeing Arnaldo come in through the entry door had sent bolts of fear coursing through her body. That was not a sight she had wanted to see anytime soon, if ever, and the fact thathe was with Declan made no sense at all, but she could tell just by looking at them that they had colluded. Somehow, someway, the pair had found one another and undoubtedly discussed their mutual troubles.
Something very bad was about to happen.
“You are far from home, Arnaldo,” she said steadily. “And if you’ve come to rescue me from Bloody Maude, I’m afraid you are too late. My circumstances have changed and I no longer require your assistance.”
Arnaldo grinned, a handsome gesture had the man not had such a black soul. “It is not assistance I’ve come to offer,” he said. “You’ve been very naughty and it is time you face your punishment.”
Astria snorted. “And who is to deal out the punishment?” she said. “You? I do not think you will survive such an attempt, so for your own sake, it would be better if you left. I do not need you and, quite honestly, I do not want to see you, so go back where you came from. This is no place for you.”
Arnaldo started to move around the table in a clear attempt to get to her, but Declan grasped him by the arm. “Nay,” he said, his eyes on his mother. “Dunna do it. That’s Bloody Maude sitting next tae her and she’ll not let ye take her prize. Ye’ll lose what ye treasure most dearly if ye try.”
He meant the man’s privates, and he even looked at his crotch, gesturing. That threat alone cooled Arnaldo, but only slightly. He was still edgy, still wanting to move. But Maude stood up, unsheathing a wicked-looking dagger from her belt, and that took the conversation to a different level when she handed the blade over to Astria.
“The lass knows how tae use it,” she told Declan and Arnaldo. Then she reached behind her and unsheathed another dirk, bigger and broader than the one she’d handed to Astria. “And Iknow how tae use this. If ye think tae take us, ye can try. But know that they dunna call me Bloody Maude without reason.”
Arnaldo wouldn’t be called off. Even the threat of castration couldn’t hold him back now. Furious, he motioned to his men, who began to walk around both sides of the table. The intention was clear. One man came close to Maude and she kicked him in the kneecap. When he faltered, she used her dirk and stabbed him straight in the crotch, cutting through his manhood and into his bowels.
Screaming, the man fell away.
Meanwhile, the man who came at Astria had a longer way around the table, but she was ready for him. He reached out to grab her but she fell to her knees, underneath his grasp, and then used the dirk to stab the man in the lower belly. When he fell over onto the table, she leapt to her feet and stabbed him in the back, where both lungs were.
He collapsed on the floor, unable to breathe.
Two men down in as many seconds, both of them more than likely mortally wounded. The tense meeting between family members had just turned deadly.
And it was only going to get worse.
“Now,” Astria said, feeling the thrill of battle pulse through her veins, “if you think you can take me, go ahead, but I’ll not make it easy.”
