Hunted Queen

Chapter Forty Seven • A Tainted Soul

-Jade- 

Her knife missed its mark. She watched as it sliced through the air, looked on in despair as Ulf leaned back just in time to avoid the sharp and honed metal in her hand. Her eyes widened as it dawned on her that she had missed him! Had not even nicked his skin or armor.

FUCK! She thought, an ice cold sensation blooming in the back of her head and shooting down her spine. She clenched her jaws in panic and inhaled swiftly through her nose. What was she supposed to do now? How fast would he retaliate? Her eyes shot back and  forth between her knife, Ulf and where his dagger was located. 

A gurgling sound appeared to her right, interrupting her train of thought. After the gurgling came a light cough, and then the gurgling returned. Sounding wet and uncomfortable. It grew more intense and increasingly hard to miss as the seconds went by. 

Jade's eyes darted to where the gurgling came from and noticed that her knife might have missed its main target, but it had found the second best thing. She had managed to hurt Ulf's companion. She looked at her hand. Her fingers cramping around the knife's handle were wet and warm. Blood staining the entire hand. 

A red line across the side of his neck gaped furiously at her, leaking an amount of blood there was no coming back from. Unable to move in time, she suddenly caught a spray of blood as the man turned to see who had done this to him. The dark red liquid painted her face with one single spray. 

At least one of them will die here. She thought and watched the man sink from his horse and land on to the ground with a dull thud. Blinking away his blood from her eyes while she waited for him to cry or scream. Nothing. There came no scream or groans, only wet gurgles. 

When Jade turned to look at Ulf again, she could see the shock in his eyes. How he took in the image of her drenched in his companion's blood. But he only allowed himself to freeze up like this for a split second. Then the shock was quickly replaced with a fury she had never witnessed or seen before. 

"Fucking cunt!" He hissed before lunging himself towards her, dagger first. Jade lunged herself backwards and stumbled into Brother Richard with such force that it knocked the two of them over. Almost causing them to tumble over the edge of the other side of the cart. "This is where you die. I do not care if it will cost me my life." He growled and jump off his horse, down on the ground and set off to the back of the cart. "They can have my head. After I have taken yours off your shoulders, I can die content." He growled, his eyes attempting to find the easiest way to her.

There was no easy way to get to her she quickly noticed when Ulf started pushing on the cows. Trying to make his way to the back of the cart. 

Jade dived forward to the middle of the cart where a metal loop held the ropes tied to the cows. With speedy and desperate slicing movements, she started cutting the thick ropes. Blood staining them as well as she worked. In hope that she would succeed faster than Ulf could make it up on the cart, she tried to work as fast as she possibly could. Perhaps it was in vain, but it was her last and only idea. 

"Ove!" Brother Richard called out as soon as he realized what she was doing. "Ride!" 

 The butcher muttered something but did not waste a second to look back or object. He had had enough of the strangers that had jumped their small travelling party. "Threatening me with a dagger just to get to the two of yous... We will not move any faster since Muma and the rest will not run. If anything they will pull the cart in different directions if spooked!" 

"JUST GO!" Jade shouted in desperation. "Do not think of how, just go!" She shouted and kept cutting for the ropes with renewed energy surging through her. Regaining the will to live after having killed a man and getting a taste of freedom when seeing her brutal stalker struggle in getting closer to her.