The Centurion's Woman

Chapter 19

THE NEXT TWO days and two nights passed the same way, with Hludwolf getting more and more irate and the boy getting sneakier. A couple of times the first morning after the boy had visited, Alex could hear Helena talking to Max, testing the theory that maybe the brute simply carried a preference for women as some animals did. Helena screamed in terror the third time she attempted to approach the stallion, and Alex heard a plank break instead of just the usual kick landing. After that, Helena hadn't returned.

        The late morning after the boy's third visit, Hludwolf had nearly ripped the door off her hut and stormed in with his sword drawn. He slammed it into the post above her head, severing the rope. Then, with surprising speed – in spite of his bad leg – grabbed her arm hard and dragged her out of the hut into the fresh air. Alex breathed deeply, grateful to be away from the now bloating corpse, and blinked at the snowy, winter daylight as he pulled her along. She made no attempt to gain her feet, forcing him to drag her extra weight as he limped.

        They passed through the village and into the trees a ways, Hades gliding along behind them, and finally coming to a large, wooden structure. As they went into the building, two bodies were dragged out that immediately explained why Alex had heard Mandarin being spoken the other day. From the rags they wore and what she could see of their skin, the past few years hadn't been kind. The remains of their clothes left Alex to guess them as having been a lady of some status and her bodyguard at some long ago point in their lives. From the wounds, she could clearly see that they hadn't chosen these deaths. For the first time since being stolen, Alex felt instinctive fear crawl up her spine.

        Hludwolf dumped her onto the hard earth floor beside another figure bound in ropes. Her gigno's friend turned his head and looked at her. He was bloodied, as she was, but the blood on his face was fresh from this morning and his eyes were clear.

        "You brought the horse to visit me?" she asked quietly, working her mouth around the gag and earning a kick from the nearest man. The 'man above' smiled at her, his grin turning wicked as he stared up at the man who'd kicked her. The familiar caw sounded – with perfect timing – before the man who'd kicked her could say anything, causing many of the men standing around the room to frown deeper as Hades settled at one of the high windows.

        Alex looked around at the rest of the space. There were about twenty men lining the room, one of them roughly holding the boy her gigno's friend had been sending to her with food, a knife at his young throat. The boy's hands were also tied, but his feet were loose, showing they thought of him as being as little of a threat as a woman... Alex could see from here that he was holding the ropes at his wrists the same way she was. Ten points to the kid on learning fast, she thought. Hludwolf was standing, bristling with anger, between Helena and a seated fellow who simply appeared bored. There was a sudden commotion at the door, and four men dragged in two chained figures.

        Alex felt her lip curl as she recognized Ixillius and Brasus under the fresh blood and bruises as the men holding their arms dropped the two Legionnaires to the floor. She was immediately furious with Verus for letting them come. She was expendable, her father would get over it; he'd been here thirteen years without a backwards glance to the daughter he'd left behind. Ixillius was a Centurion with men under his command. And – if she lived through this – was her only true protection from assholes like Naevius who knew all the laws and how to manipulate them to their favor. If they all lived through this, she was going to kill him.

        "And now we are all here," the bored man announced, holding out his arm to encompass the four bound figures and the boy. "The two forces that you swore would be easy defeats, in total, apparently consist of two Legion deserters, a farmer scout and his son, a stallion that kills men and won't breed, a woman that kills men and won't breed, a mare that's pure evil, and a lame kite." The bored man dropped his arm and looked up at Hludwolf. "You swore by this time today I would be expanding my holdings, and humiliating Rome. I feel as though I was lied to."