The Battle Lord's Lady (12 page)

“Hitchy?”

“Not smooth. Does she have something in her
left hind hoof?”

MaGrath reined up. Raising an eyebrow at her,
he slid out of the saddle and walked around to the back of the
mare. Grabbing the fetlock, he lifted the leg and examined inside
the hard horn. The girl was right again. A clump of mud and rock,
most likely accumulated last night around the lake’s soft
shoreline, had hardened, creating an irritation. He used a twig to
pry it out. Remounting, he waited until she snaked her arms back
around his waist, underneath his jacket. The knuckles of one hand
tapped the canister inside the pocket.

“Can I have...just a little?”

It was then he realized this was as close as
she would ever come to admitting how much pain she was in. He
pulled out the tin and handed it back to her.

“Lick a finger and dip it in the powder. Put
all that’s on your finger onto your tongue, then chase it with
water. Want me to wake you when we stop?”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

A small smile came over him as she gave a
grunt and a shiver. The stuff did taste obnoxious, but it packed a
wallop. It wasn’t two minutes later when her lesser injured cheek
pressed against his shoulder. Gently, he retied her hands. She’d
been right again. The mare was walking a lot smoother. Shaking his
head, he nudged the horse forward to catch up with the Battle Lord
at the head of the line.

As he pulled even, he noticed the man’s eyes
linger over the figure draped against his back. “I just put her
back under,” he told him.

“She must’ve said something important or you
wouldn’t have come up here,” Yulen noted astutely.

“She asked about you, if that’s what you’re
insinuating.”

Yulen cast him a hooded look.

“She wanted to know how you got your
wound.”

“And you told her.” It was a statement.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

A few seconds passed, and Yulen gave his
friend another glance. “I guess I’m going to have to use a crowbar
to pry anything else out of you,” he wryly commented. MaGrath
laughed aloud.

“She also wanted to know if you meant what
you said.”

“About?” A ghost of alarm touched his face
for a split second. It was so quick, the physician wondered if he’d
seen it at all.

“About her weapons,” he clarified. “She wants
them back. She’ll feel more...safer. She’ll feel safer with
them.”

“I gave her my word,” Yulen admitted. “I just
hope my men can accept it.” He looked back at the physician.
“Anything else?”

“Yeah,” MaGrath grinned, and began to rein
back to the middle of the line. “She called you an asshole.”

Chapter Thirteen

Blue

As he’d promised, MaGrath woke the warrior
girl soon after they stopped for midday meal. She sat half-dazed in
front of the fire as he pulled some jerky from his saddlebags. When
he offered her some, however, she gave him a quizzical look.

“It’s all I have until one of the soldiers
brings in something fresh. Surely you’ve had jerky before.”

“You mean your soldiers can’t catch something
you can fix fast and easy?” She wrinkled her nose, an affectation
MaGrath found instantly endearing.

“Think you can do better?”

“Damn right...if I had my bow.”

The physician shrugged. “If you’re feeling up
to it, Yulen’s just down the road. Go get it.”

She looked up at him to make sure he wasn’t
teasing her. But when his face showed he was serious, she slowly
got to her feet and walked off in the direction he pointed.

The last thing the Battle Lord expected to
see coming up the road was the warrior girl walking toward him in
the bright sunlight. Casually, he glanced over her, noting she
still wore the bloodstained clothing they’d captured her in three
days ago—

Had it been just three?

—and made a mental note to see if MaGrath
couldn’t find her a clean shirt and pants. It took a second look
before the truth sank in, and he finally got the answer he’d been
seeking ever since that night he’d first seen her.

Her hair was a deep, rich indigo blue, nearly
black now because it needed a good shampooing.

Atty noticed where he was staring and stopped
directly in front of him, hands on hips, her legs slightly parted.
“Okay. So now you know. I came for my weapon.”

Yulen broke his gaze away, dropping his eyes
to where his hands were busy cleaning the blade of his sword. “It’s
tied to the saddle. Help yourself.”

“Thank you.”

She found the bow and quiver without any
problem and slung them over her shoulder to carry back to where
MaGrath was settled. She felt it would be safer roaming about
carrying them that way, than to wear them correctly. At least this
way she wouldn’t look as if she were about to plow a steel tip in
someone’s craw if one of the soldiers took offense to her being
re-armed.

On second thought, she put the quiver back
and grabbed one of the remaining two arrows. Yulen noticed the
exchange and raised an eyebrow. Atty half-shrugged.

“Only got time for a quick bite, so it can’t
be anything big,” she explained, and turned to cross the road,
entering the forest on the other side.

A moment later, the physician walked up to
him. “Are you gonna let her go in there alone?”

Yulen snorted softly. “She’s more capable of
taking care of herself in there than if I sent a man along to
protect her. Why is she hunting anyway?”

“Guess she doesn’t like the taste of jerky.”
MaGrath raised a hand to shield his eyes against the sun.
“Well?”

“Well what?”

“Did you finally satisfy your curiosity?”

It was several moments before the Battle Lord
answered. “It’s blue.”

“Yep. Does that bother you?”

“Why would it?”

MaGrath made a face. “I don’t know. Just
wondering, I guess, if it changed the way you looked at her.”

Yulen sheathed the sword and rose to his
feet. “Maybe I like the color blue.”

MaGrath nodded slowly, thoughtfully. “Same
here. Like the blue sky.”

“Blue flowers.”

“Yeah. And blue eyes, like hers. Except
they’re more blue-gray than pure blue. Much like yours.”

They were interrupted by the figure emerging
from the strand of trees. She carried the carcass of a squirrel
slung over one shoulder, its tail hanging down to her waist. The
animal had to weigh at least fifteen pounds. Both men stared as she
dropped it at their feet, an arrow piercing the beast’s chest,
directly in the heart.

“I can have it cleaned by the time you get a
fire started, but it’ll take more than an hour to cook. Sorry,” she
apologized. There was a definite twinkle in the one eye that wasn’t
covered by the huge bandage.

“That’s all right. We can have it for
supper,” MaGrath told her.

Atty glanced over at the Battle Lord. “You’re
welcome to join us,” she offered, “but on one condition. No more
nasty cracks about my people. If you do, I’ll swat you across that
pretty canyon on your face. Deal?”

Yulen managed a relatively painless grin.
“Deal.”

She nodded, picked up the squirrel, and
headed back to MaGrath’s fire. The physician looked to his friend.
“That couldn’t have taken more than five minutes, right?”

“And one arrow. Think she’s ready for her own
mount?”

“Yeah. I’ll have one of the corpses doubled
up on another horse. Yulen, I know you wanted to take it easy on
the way back, but those bodies aren’t getting any fresher.”

“I know,” the Battle Lord nodded. “We’ll pick
it up tomorrow. By then we should be nearing Foster City.” He
looked critically at the physician at that point. “We may have to
cover her hair before we get there, though.”

MaGrath agreed, then turned to leave.

“Liam?”

“Yeah?” He looked back.

“When you get her that horse, tell her I want
her to ride up here next to me,” Yulen told him.

The physician chose his next words
carefully. “
Next
to you?
Or
with
you?” To his utter
astonishment, the Battle Lord didn’t retreat.

“Either way will be fine with me,” the man
replied. “From this point on, I want her to be protected at all
times.”

“And you’re the best man for the job?”
MaGrath taunted, although he braced it with a smile.

Yulen answered him by not answering, but
instead began throwing dirt on his fire in preparation for
leaving.

The physician gave a half-hearted chuckle and
returned to where the warrior girl was cleaning up after preparing
her kill. Before he had the chance to say anything, Atty gave him a
small smile.

“What did he say?”

“He wants you to get your own mount and ride
up in front next to him.”

“Why? To keep an eye on me? What does he
think I’m gonna do? High-tail it back to my compound by
myself?”

For some reason her tart tongue had an
adverse effect on him, and MaGrath could feel his temper rising.
“Up to this point everything you’ve been allowed has been through
his generosity,” he reminded her.

Atty reached up to gingerly touch the stained
bandage covering one whole side of her face. “Yeah. Pity I haven’t
had the chance to thank him for that,” she said bitterly.

She got to her feet and finished wrapping the
prepared carcass in the same piece of fabric MaGrath had used to
hold his bread and cheese. He watched as she tied the bundle
underneath the water skin. “The coolness will help keep it cool
until we cook it tonight,” she explained. Looking up at the mounted
physician, she said, “I’m sorry. A lot has happened in so short a
time. First my mother and sister...” She bit her tongue as a vast
flood of memories suddenly overcame her, and Atty bowed her head,
still gripping the lacings under the saddle.

MaGrath paused. Her mother and sister? A
horrible thought came to him, and the physician blanched at the
possibility. Did they slaughter her mother and sister just prior to
her being captured? Was that the real reason why she’d begun to
pick them off one by one? Did the Battle Lord’s men kill her family
before her eyes?

Oh, dearest heavens!

Swallowing heavily, MaGrath excused himself
and hurried to the back of the line where the corpses of the men
were strung out, tied pony to pony. The sentry stationed there to
make sure no predatory animal tried to steal away with one was
thankful for the brief diversion. Quickly, the lead horse was
untied, its burden placed on the next one in line, and MaGrath led
the animal back to where the warrior girl was waiting.

“It stinks,” she told him, but swung up into
the saddle regardless. She tied her bow to the rear saddlebag, then
reached for the reins.

He saw her touch the bandage with her free
hand, and his concern grew. “Are you in pain?”

“It’s...it’s starting to itch.”

“That’s a good sign,” he smiled with relief.
He was also relieved to see that her momentary loss of control had
left her eyes red but without revealing any further signs of grief.
Yulen didn’t need to see her emotional suffering. Not now, anyway.
Their relationship was still too fresh and too rocky to withstand
the full impact of what she’d been put through.

“If it starts to hurt too much, come back
here and I’ll give you some more medicine,” he told her.

“But the medicine will knock me out.”

“Who’s the doctor around here?” he chided her
gently.

She graced him with another small smile, then
clicked her tongue as she dug her heels into the horse’s ribs. The
animal jumped forward in response. MaGrath slowly let out a deep
breath as he watched her move up to the head of the line that was
just beginning to pull back onto the road.

She had killed sixteen of the Battle Lord’s
men, but how many of her people suffered at their hands before she
began to fire? Yulen wouldn’t know, but somebody had to.

The Mutah had names, and families, and shops,
and homes and jobs and social skills, and all of those things which
proved the difference between a civilized compound from a barbaric
enclave. They had schools and castes, not to mention whatever else
MaGrath had yet to discover. Back down that road, their men were
weeping over close friends they’d watched being killed with no more
mercy than Atty had shown that squirrel she’d captured in the
woods. But back at her compound, men mourned lost wives, women
mourned lost husbands, children mourned lost parents and siblings,
lovers lost the other half of their soul...

First my mother and sister...

MaGrath prayed Yulen was not directly
responsible for her personal loss. The loss of her freedom she
could learn to overcome. Yet, for some reason he couldn’t quite put
his finger on, the physician was willing to bet the loss of freedom
she was going to have to adjust to had nothing to do with her being
taken from her compound.

It was going to be more personal. More
profound. And a lot more enriching.

Chapter Fourteen

Beast

Yulen glanced at the warrior girl for the
umpteenth time since she’d joined him at the head of the line,
riding to his right. The first thing he’d been aware of was the
fact that she sat a horse inexpertly. That could only mean either
she seldom rode, or that horses had never been a part of her life
while growing up. By tonight her thighs and bottom would be aching
from the unaccustomed riding. It was one thing to ride tandem
behind someone else holding the reins and guiding the animal. It
was a completely different game to be the one having to do the
controlling.

The thought of her thighs aching
unfortunately led his mind in a direction he hadn’t expected.

Is she a virgin?

Without a doubt.