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Chapter 02

No journey could be completely safe, and the Trotting Road was a common enough route for travelers in these parts. If a bandit wanted to find prey, all they would need to do was lay in wait until something rich and looking vulnerable came along. Captain William had survived more than one trip through these woods by making certain they did not appear vulnerable, but there was little he could do about the richness of the caravan.

Twenty men made an impressive deterrent, but a coach with gold engravings, flowing silks, giggling maidens, and well-bred horses made a tempting target. If an aggressor could take them, there was a fine bounty in loot to be had. Crafty kidnappers could ransom the princess back to her father for a heavy purse and the knights all had a ransom price as well. Of course, the knight's price would only be paid if the princess escaped her captors.

All of these facts had been stacked neatly in Captain William's mind as he did everything in his power to appear formidable. As a rule, most bandits were cowards. If they saw an opportunity for an easy victim, they would now hesitate. If wily bandits saw a hard target which would fight back and kill too many of them, they might go after easier prey.

There was safety in numbers, safety behind stone walls, and safety within steel armor ... but all of those things could still be breached. Captain William had seen a great many defenses penetrated in his day. Whether arrow, blade, or battering ram, all one needed was time, expertise, and the correct tools for the job.

The mount between the knight's legs moved expertly through the greenwood. It was not a warhorse and could not charge into battle with the fearless resolve of some of the greater beasts, but the animal could carry him and his armor a long distance before it grew tired. Three warhorses had also been brought with the caravan, but they would be useless in an ambush.

If anything, Captain William reasoned, they make us even more of a tempting target. Another flutter of girly laughter called from the carriage, carrying the telltale sounds of vulnerable women out to potential predators. The princess and her ladies in waiting would draw the wolves and jackals right to them. One might think the king was using us all as bait so that he could move Princess Sera to another location.

The idea chilled him. It was not beyond his king to make such a maneuver. The man had played too much chess in his days to see the people around him as much more than pieces on a board. If sacrificing a tiresome and disobedient princess granted him an advantage for his better behaved one, he would take the risk. Then again ... why stop there? The Lion's Heart rarely has only one objective or even one plan in progress at a time. There has to be more to this.

"Rider," Lieutenant Kendal signaled in a calm tone. The sound of incoming hooves soon drew closer and the captain signaled his men. The gesture brought the caravan to a halt and several additional hand signals formed them up into a defensive formation. Shields were brought to bear and several of the foot soldiers fanned out to look for archers.

The captain took in the situation with an experienced glance and then focused for a moment longer on the incoming rider. "Scout," he observed out loud. "Bring him in, Lieutenant."

"Sir," Kendal replied and he urged his mount forward to escort the scout in the rest of the distance. The subordinate was not rushing as he approached and he had no visor to raise. When he saluted, it was with the slight swagger most of the scouts got during their time away from the unit.

"Report."

"It's clear for now, sir," the skinny scout told them as his horse breathed deeply from the vigor of its patrol. "There's a bunch of miles between here and anything that looks like civilization, but the brook's running clear, and I spotted some game along the road."

"How much game?" the captain asked, and the others blinked at him.

"Sir?" the lieutenant asked with a furrowed brow.

"Game animals generally know better than to come near humans," the captain told his men. "If they are willing to wander right up to you then they are either someone's pet or some enchanted creature."

"Only people out here be the wild folk," the scout offered as he fiddled restlessly with the short blade at his belt. "You think they'd hit soldiers and knights?"

"I think we should press forward," Captain William told his men. "Prince Aether's men plan on meeting us at the river and I do not want to be stumbling around here in the dark without a knowing guide."

"Captain," whined the sweetly poisonous voice that William had hoped would not try to interfere with his duties.

"Yes, Highness?" he answered after a glance to his subordinate to take over. He motioned his riding horse over to the carriage and was careful not to look too hard into the face of nobility.

"I'm tired," Princess Alessa pouted in the petulant tone which signaled the beginning of many of her schemes. "We should stop and rest, here."

"With all due respect, Highness," Sir William said as he skillfully removed the tension from his voice, "this place is dangerous, and we are in an exposed position. If we press onward for a few more hours we shall meet up with more knights and you will be safer there."

"Safe is so boring," the princess said as her voice grew more firm. "I want to stop now."

So it begins, Sir William lamented, but he nodded to his princess. "Of course, Highness." A short moment later the captain's voice organized his men into escorts. The ladies stepped out of their carriage and began stretching their bodies before moving off into the wood line to answer nature's call. Knights moved to cover their ladies and Captain William attended the princess as she squatted behind some growth.

"Now, no peaking, sir," she teased him as she made water. The sound of it was only one of the details which the knight noticed as he scanned the greenwood around him. Every bird call and the hum of every animal told him something, and right now they were telling him that no one else was out there disturbing them with their presence. This did not mean there was no one out there ... it just meant there were no clumsy armatures stumbling around them.

Easy, sir, the knight told himself as he gripped his sword and raised his shield comfortably along the length of his body. Paranoia will make martyrs of us all.

"Oh dear," the princess said in a tone of mischief, "I believe I will need your assistance, good sir." The muscles all along the captain's core tightened, but he still moved around to where his charge was squatting. A look of pure delight tugged at her features as she raised one hand toward him. The knight slid his sword into its sheath and took his princess's hand, drawing her to her feet.

It was a simple enough way for her to influence her power over him. If he had been a younger man then his eyes might have lingered too long on the way her dress was pulled up to rest upon her lap. Other details could have followed such an observation, but the captain knew all too well how his lady delighted in the death of those who desired her.

The princess appeared to be slightly disappointed by her knight's lack of reaction and her face firmed. William drew his sword once more and as they began to move back towards the caravan, his senses stretched out to cover the hidden places around him.

A high pitched shriek pierced through Captain William's body and activated his fighting instincts. On reflex, the knight wrapped his shield part way around the princess's body and then shepherded her along until she was pressed against the wood of a tree. He then put his back to her and faced out to meet any intruders who might do her harm.

In the silence, he could hear the lack of animal calls. They were normal up until the scream, so whatever is out there is good at blending in. The breath of the princess was the only sound he heard. She was excited ... scared ... exhilarated. Then, a bit of leather creaked over his left shoulder.

William whipped his shield up into a guard. Had he been catching a sword, the maneuver would have overpowered the swing and knocked the attacker back ... but it was an axe. Pain lanced through his arm as the weighty metal bit into the wood. Fighting instincts took over, shrugging off his body's reaction to the trauma and ignoring the wounds which he would be feeling for days. The knight's blade thrust into the attacker's belly and he followed it with a sharp movement which pushed the man back.

The sword came free and was then quickly brought around to strike at another who had been approaching. Steel struck wood and a cudgel split off at an odd angle. The man holding it stumbled back a step, and his eyes went over William's shoulder. Another man is behind me, he realized, but he could not turn and allow this one to strike at his back.

William lunged forward. The edge of the knight's shield slammed into already jagged teeth, sending the ruffian sprawling to the ground. The momentum of his maneuver turned him to one side and he moved full circle to face whoever was sneaking up behind him. In those seconds he had stepped out of his protective stance. In those few seconds, his opponent moved his weapons to a much more vulnerable place.

"Hold it right there!" the man spat, and the knight froze at the ready. A brutish man was holding the princess along the front of his body with a thick dagger pressed flatly along her delicate throat. The stalemate lasted for a dozen heartbeats as the other two additional bandits moved around to flank the knight. "Not too bright," the man growled. "Stopped right in our net ... then you left the path like the stupid girl in that story. Well ... the Big Bad Wolf got your girl, woodsman, and ... you ... you ... uh-"

The brute's voice faltered and both of his companions turned toward him to discover why. A skillful hand was drawing itself along the length of his trousers and coaxing the beast within. The bandit's breathing grew harsher as his face screwed up with confusion. Then the princess leaned herself back into him and let out a languid groan of pure desire.

"Ooohhh," she purred, "you really are big and bad ... so very ... very ... bad." She breathed the last word as if it were made of pure sex, and it had the desired effect.

"What ... what are you doing?" the big man tried to protest but the princess let out an excited moan and pressed harder against him.

"Oh ... you big bad wolf," she continued in a seductive tone, "won't you huff ... and puff ... and blow-"

The words cut off abruptly, as the Captain's sword came down on the wrist that was connected to the hand which held the dagger. A squirt of rich blood splashed along the princess's pearly skin, and then the sword's hilt drove into the rough man's face. Both bandit and knight sailed away from where the princess stood and blades flashed as the pair of them grappled. A mortal wound was been dealt and more blood sprayed the grass with crimson warmth.

The other two brigands moved in from the sides, but their short blades stood no chance against honed steel. William disarmed one of the pair and then returned the captured weapon deeply into a throaty sheath. The second bandit drew another blade and the pair of them struggled for several skillful seconds before the knight's superior training won him the day.

The man who had lost his teeth let out a gurgling battle cry as he flung himself onto the knight, and the pair of them tumbled along the ground. A mailed fist came around to stun the brawler and then another dagger was drawn. Its tip thrust viciously. Plunging again and again until the man ceased his desperate struggle. Then, there were only two people left alive ... and both of them were breathing heavily.

Gore dripped from noble steel while his princess touched the speckles on her sweet face. Delight lit her eyes and her chest heaved in a manner the any man could recognize. Lust dripped from her vulpine expression, and her desire for him was a force unto itself.

"Highness," the knight spoke sharply, but she did not submit to his authority, "we need to get back to the others."

"Oh ... do we?" she asked as she stepped closer toward him. "Can't we just ..." her voice trailed off as she extended one hand toward her knight. The battered shield thunked to the ground and his mailed fist gripped her wrist tightly. She gasped, and for a moment she was both excited and afraid.

The plea in her face called out to the beast that lurked within every man. William's blood was already hot from battle and his teeth clenched together in the beginnings of a snarl. There was nothing she could do to stop him from conquering her and she ached for him to proceed. In the empty space of the greenwood, he could sow his seeds in her soil and then marry her off to a dandy who would never plow her lands. When her belly grew round, the knight could declare the union consummated and then he could leave.

She wanted him to conquer her and his desire pressed firmly forward against the inside of his armor. Taking her would be an insult to her station. Every thrust and violation would demean her in ways the darker corners of his soul had often wished to do. Anger and lust struggled for dominance as excitement tightened his trembling grip. Rage poured through his veins and he allowed his lips pull back and show his teeth.

"Yes," she pleaded with breathy gasps. "Now ... take me! Do it!"

"Princess Alessa," he snarled with absolute authority. "Back to the others! Now!"

A whimper of pain slipped out of the princess when he released her but then she recovered her imperial bearing. Malice flickered in her eyes and her mouth firmed into something hard and unyielding. Her disdain lingered in her expression a few moments longer before she hid it behind a haughty mask. Well-practiced adjustments put her dress back in order and then the princess obeyed the captain's instructions. The knight took up his shield before he followed her and he kept his guard was up.

Now she will do something terrible just to spite me, he knew without any doubt. I must get her to her groom before she can weave her plan ... only then can I distract her with things more pressing than her revenge.

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