The Centurion's Woman

Chapter 31

CW - violence.

VICTORIA LEFT ALEX and Verus eating and walked to the stables, across the yard. She couldn't share their anger, and she didn't understand why the things they laughed at were funny. Through the open windows, she heard Verus and Alexandria laughing again over another cruel idea, and realized the joke was in the thought of acting on such terrible ideas. Strange humor.

        The stables were warm and dark, a welcome change from the cool and brightly lit house. At her step, Max's head appeared over the stall gate and he nickered quietly in welcome. She rubbed his face and stroked his neck, giggling when he nosed her face to beg for the kiss she then pecked onto the velvet between his nostrils.

        In a single swift motion, his teeth barred and his ears lay flat and he spun in place so that she was staring at his ass. A split-second later, Victoria felt the knowledge of certain death falling on her like a heavy cloak as Max's hindquarters lifted and his rear legs shot out over the top of the stall gate. She didn't even have time to duck. She heard the sickening crunch of bones and muscle breaking, and then the thick thud of a heavy object striking the stall door behind her.

        Max's rear legs pulled back from either side of her and disappeared beneath him as he spun, scrunching against the wall. Victoria crouched against the gate of his stall as he uncoiled in a leap that brought him over her and into the alley. He turned as he landed and, his momentum slamming his side into the stalls opposite where he had just been, he recovered and proceeded to stomp the hooded man she hadn't seen or heard coming up behind her. Victoria rose to her feet as she drew her jian, Max stepping protectively to her side.

        Two more men were in the alley between stalls, hesitating after what had just occurred. Victoria lunged, her small frame better suited to fighting in the narrow space than her larger attackers, and she quickly killed both of the hooded men. Max followed in her wake, stomping the bodies repeatedly as if killing snakes. Victoria heard voices from outside calling quietly to know what was happening. She shushed Max, working her hands in a calming gesture that she hoped would get him to stop making noise and drawing attention. The big horse whinnied as if injured and collapsed to his knees, then lay down flat on his side.

        Victoria stared down at him in shock, the voices outside getting closer, and then fell to lie beside him. With an effort in will, she let the hilt of her jian fall from her hand as a lot more men came into the stable. They jeered in whispers at the fallen horse and Max twitched a few times, making them laugh. One of the men kicked her, so she absorbed the hit and stared, glassy-eyed, in the direction her head was left facing. After that, nobody looked at her. They filtered out into the yard in ones and twos, leaving two men in the stable who were apparently posted as some kind of watch.

        Moving slowly enough not to be noticed, Victoria pulled her knife off her belt and rolled up to her knees. Max's ears perked forward to her and he lifted his head. She made the same shushing motion and he lay back down. Staying on her knees so that the hobnails in the soles of her caligae wouldn't click on the paving stones, she crept up behind the two men as she planned the attack in her mind: they stood close enough that a single sweep of her blade would cut the hamstrings on one of each of their legs. They would be unbalanced and, if she stayed low and fast, she could cut the big veins in their legs before they were able to counterattack. A few moments later, both men were dead as planned.

        Victoria cut strips off their clothing and hurriedly wrapped her caligae to silence her steps, as theirs were. Max rolled to his hooves and glared down at the bodies he hadn't stomped yet. Victoria put her finger to her lips and shushed him. He dropped his head immediately, ears pinned forward toward her, and she kissed him in the center of his forehead. She led him back to his stall, tail swishing when she tried to usher him inside. He refused to budge from standing in the alley. She looked at the stall gate, found and worked out the pin in the hinge, and took the gate off. Max walked in without hesitation as she set the gate inside his stall. Just as Alexandria did, Victoria looped the nearest rope over Max's neck and signaled for him to stay here. He didn't look happy, but he stayed.