The Rogue Lady

Chapter Six

Sorry for the tardiness, I was in London last Tuesday and when I came back Cassandra Clare's City of Heavenly Fire had me glued to it and refused to let me put the book down before I finished. Am I glad I did! =)

Please point out any mistakes. And tell me what you think about Mathias and Christopher!

Map in the external link. Enjoy =)

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     I grumbled quietly to myself; just because I had gotten hurt didn’t mean I couldn’t still wield both my blades with deadly precision. I simply needed to push past the initial pain and everything would be fine. And just because I got cornered, so to say, didn’t mean I would let it happen again! I shot a sideways glance at Eric and William who were sitting on their horses a little way away. Eric still thought it was a bad idea to meet Mathias and Christopher, especially after I had gotten shot. It was ridiculous. My shoulder was wrapped in a bandage, as were my upper arm and my hand. It would take a while before they were healed properly, but I refused to let it stop me. I couldn’t afford to let it stop me. I think that was what worried them even more.

     Behind us a group of ten soldiers waited restlessly. I had tried to convince William it would be completely unnecessary to bring them, but he wouldn’t believe me. Now he had everybody nervous, which wasn’t the best situation to start out with. I sighed, deciding I couldn’t take it anymore; I had to move. I swung my foot over the mare’s back and slid onto the ground. I wandered through the grass for a while, but it wasn’t doing anything to ease the nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach.

     Dropping down, I sat in the grass and started picking the daisies that had started coming out already and wove them into a crown like my mother had taught me so long ago. I wasn’t very good at it then, and I wasn’t any better at it now, but it forced me to focus entirely on the task at hand. Curious looks burned through the back of my head, the soldiers most likely wondering what the double-balder was doing. I moved over a little once I had picked all the daisies within my reach and kept on making the crown. Weaving stems, over and under, through and around; I think I did that for about ten minutes.

     “Are you making a crown?” someone eventually asked. I glanced over my shoulder to see both Eric and William staring at me with disbelief painted all over their faces. I grinned and, without a word to confirm the obvious, went back to weaving flowers for another five minutes.

     “There they come,” Eric broke through the bubble I had been in while working the flowers.

     I looked up from my hands. Sure enough, I saw two horses heading in our direction. I stood up and kept my eyes on the riders as I weaved the last flowers into the crown. Eric and William came to stand next to me; somehow they managed to stand a little in front of me, as if they were trying to shield me from the two riders, which was crazy. For a very brief second, the possibility that if was nothing but a coincidence crossed my mind before I snorted mentally. But I did nothing and kept quiet, letting them believe they could protect me or keep me back.

     The flower crown was resting on my fingertips, waiting to be placed on someone’s head. The wind whipped through my hair, which I had voluntarily left hanging down my back, too lazy to actually braid it. The sun was half hidden behind clouds, as if it was waiting to see how our meeting was going to unfold. The soldiers had straightened up and were holding their weapons more tightly but discreetly so. The horses were oblivious to it all and ate the grass as if it was more interesting than what was about to go down in front of them.