The Robber Knight's Love (The Robber Knight Saga #2)(43)

“Did you see what happened?” Conrad demanded to know. “What happened to fat Dirk and his men?”

Jos nodded.

“Well? What was it then?”

The squirrel wet his lips. “There was this man…this giant man…” he coughed, holding his bruised sides in pain, then began anew. “There was this giant, and…he was wearing red armor.”

He told them everything he had seen. Everything on the wall, and most of what happened beyond. When he had finished, absolute silence lay over the forest. Not even the animals seemed to want to disturb the eerie quiet with their nocturnal noises.

Finally, Conrad took the man by the shoulder. “Is that exactly what you saw? You didn't invent or dream up any of it?”

The empty gaze of the other man was unwavering. “It is the truth. I have told you everything as I witnessed it. I swear it on every tree I've ever climbed.”

Conrad nodded.

“W-what now, Sir?” asked the other man, unable to disguise the tremor in his voice.

Conrad swallowed, hard. “Send word to Sir Luca,” he heard himself say, though his voice sounded a bit strange in his own ears. “Tell him that the mission has failed. And…”

“Yes, Sir?”

“Tell him that we have a new enemy.”

~~*~~*

Reuben didn't look after the mercenary. It was a very long drop. Instead, he picked up his sword, which had fallen from the mercenary's hand, and turned towards the courtyard. All of them down there—the guards, the villagers, and a slender figure in white—were watching him with their eyes wide open. In shock? Fear?

Reuben couldn't blame them.

They continued to watch as he turned and re-entered the tower. Ayla's sapphire eyes were the largest, and the ones the expression of which haunted Reuben the most. Enraged at himself, he pounded the wall with his burning fist. With each of the stairs’ steps, he struck again. Bam! Bam! Bam!

Fool! He was an utter and complete fool! What had he done? How could he have let her see that?

Trepidation welled up inside him, and he hastened his steps. What was the expression in those lovely blue eyes?

Was it fear?

Of him?

Pain shot through his heart at that thought—pain that shouldn’t be there, couldn’t be there. His hand was aflame, and it was feeling perfectly fine. Yet his heart was writhing in pain, simply because of the expression in those sapphire eyes.

What did she think of him now? How would she react when he stood before her once again?

She has just seen you burn a man alive, he told himself grimly. How do you think she will react?

Well, it hadn't been an entire man. Just his pants, really. Did that count?

Before he could come to a decision on the matter, he had reached the bottom of the stairs. Taking a deep breath, he stepped out into the night.

Nobody had moved while they listened to him descend. They were still standing just as they had been, immobile as statues, staring at him with wide eyes. He did his best not to meet her blue eyes, afraid of what he would see there, yet all the time, the question kept burning in his mind: What now? Will she fear me? Will she hate me?

He approached the group waiting for him and then stopped, feeling suddenly awkward.

“Um…hello everybody.” He nodded to them and held up his still smoldering hand. “Does anybody have a pitcher of water I could extinguish this in?”





Reunion

His hand still raised, Reuben took a step towards them. All shrank away from him. All but one.

Ayla launched herself forward, dodging her guards’ attempts to grab her, and threw herself into Reuben's arms. She hit his chest with such force that it almost hurt. The metal of his chain mail bit through her thin gown, but she didn't care. He was safe, and she was in his arms.

A small, frightened part of her wondered whether she should really be doing this. The image of him standing up on the wall, the torch in his hand, tongues of flame caressing his fingers, had burned itself into her memory forever. This small part of her recoiled from the image, remembering tales of witchcraft and devilish evil that wandering preachers had sometimes told.

She remembered, too, what she had previously not let herself notice: how Reuben had never, even with the most grievous wounds, shown the slightest sign of pain. Not like he was able to resist it, but as though he actually didn't feel it. As though some devilish force had made him invulnerable.

Could Reuben be something inhuman? Could he be something demonic?

Well, if he was, he didn't do a very good job of disguising the fact.

Reuben pressed his cheek against hers, holding her close.

“Ayla,” he murmured. That was it. Just her name.

In that moment she realized: whether demon or man, she didn't care.

Yes, what she had just seen him do was unearthly and maybe even unnatural. Yes, he had just set fire to a man right in front of her. But it hadn't been a very nice man, and he would have been killed anyway. Was it so much more terrible to be set on fire than to be chopped to pieces with a blade? Ayla didn't know. She had never tried either. All that really mattered was that he was safe, and she was safe, and they were together.

She felt him raise one of his arms until he could stroke the wild tangles of hair hanging down over her shoulders. Sighing, she leaned into the touch—only when something singed the ends of her hair, did she remember.