Risk

Chapter XI

The knife glinted in the sun as if the blade itself was excited to draw blood. She could barely see now that Rowan had moved in front of her, but she saw enough to know that this man wasn't very happy.

"I don't want any trouble. I just want to leave peacefully." Rowan said. She couldn't see his face but she imagined that he was frowning, perhaps even scowling.

"If you leave, then you have to give the girl to me." The man said, his brown eyes flickering to her before resting once again on Rowan. An evil smirk twisted his expression.

"No." was all that Rowan said, but the simple word was quite enough, as it was heady with finality. He wasn't going to give her up.

There was a second of tense silence, and then the man lunged forward. His knife was aimed squarely at Rowan, and there seemed almost no way that he could ever miss, but then at the very last second, Rowan sidestepped, at the same time grabbing the outstretched arm and twisting it back.

The fluid motion brought forth a painfully loud pop from the man's arm. It through him badly off balance and he sprawled to the floor.

But he'd somehow managed to keep his knife in hand, and he stumbled to his feet to lunge again, this time at her. She let out a yelp and covered her face with her arm, trying to protect her vitals against the vicious arc of the blade. She couldn't doge, due to her leg being in the state it was, but at least she could prevent any serious damage. She braced herself to add another wound to her collection, but the stinging slash of the knife never came.

When she lowered her arm again, she could only see the back of Rowan's dark shirt. Then Rowan shifted, once again giving her a clear view of the fight.

Rowan didn't attack to counter the blows of his attacker. In fact, most of what he did seemed to be elaborate dodging, and he certainly wasn't fighting to injure.

She felt herself go rigid when an upward slice of the man's knife came dangerously close to Rowan's chest, but he spun away. It seemed impossible, but he also managed to fight back as he did so, and Jasta wasn't at all sure what had happened, but then the man was launched against the far wall, where he slid to the floor, eyes rolling back and fluttering closed.

The hand holding the knife went slack, and Rowan immediately swooped down and snatched it up, but not before she could spy a dark splash against the otherwise clean blade. He threw the knife into a nearby pile of soiled hay, kicking dust and debris over it until the shiny blade was no longer visible. It would be a nasty surprise for the stable hand later, but at least the black-clad man could no longer make use of it.

After he was satisfied with the way the knife was covered, he moved his hand to his side, pressing it there.

He turned around, still clutching his side. She knew now that the man's blade had indeed struck Rowan, but not nearly as badly as had been intended.

"Come on. We better leave before he wakes up." Rowan said as he walked over to her. She nodded and allowed herself to be picked up, too shocked from the sudden fight to protest.

She saw yet another dark glint of blood, this time on Rowan's fingers, and she started to get worried. Maybe it wasn't just a little cut. She hoped he wasn't seriously injured, because having both of them injured beyond help would slow them down too much.

She was lifted up onto the horse, once again sitting awkwardly sideways in the saddle to spare her injured leg. She held on to the saddle as Rowan untied the horse before getting on behind her.

She settled into her position as Rowan kicked the horse into a trot. The horse made its way through the small village and they were soon back in the dense forest.