The Robber Knight's Love (The Robber Knight Saga #2)(63)

When she stumbled like that out of the darkness and into the field of vision of the gate guards, their mouths dropped open and they raised their spears, at first not recognizing their mistress.

“Milady!” Dropping his spear, one of them jumped forward. “Lady Ayla! Are you all right? What has happened? Is the castle under attack?”

“Yes…no…yes,” she wailed. “I don't know what… It's just…it's just…” She stopped the garbled words coming out of her mouth, forcing herself to breathe slowly. “The…the castle is in no immediate danger. Open the inner gates, please.”

The guard examined her ragged appearance more closely, then exchanged a hesitant look with his comrades.

“Milady, I don't think that…”

“Open the gates!” Ayla didn't know how long she could keep this up. She could already hear her voice cracking again. Soon she would collapse and nothing would stop the tears. But she couldn't cry. Not here. Not in front of the men she had to lead through this darkness. ”Open—the—gates—now!” She said, very slowly, very clearly.

The guards exchanged another look—then proceeded to follow her orders. As soon as the gates were opened wide enough, Ayla slipped through and ran farther up the hill. It was easier here, on the smooth cobblestones of the inner yard. They didn't cut into her feet.

And, oh yes, what else? There weren't any rotting heads lying around here. That probably helped.

However, that didn't mean that she couldn't still hear them. Behind her, beyond the wall, she again and again heard the soft, revolting thud of another piece of rotting flesh hitting the ground. In her mind’s eye, there were rivers of blood now running down the mountainside, staining the ground again with blood that had once already been spilled for her sake.





A Nice Fork in the Ass

Ayla ran as fast as she could, and still it seemed an eternity until she reached the doors of the keep. Just as she was hastening up the stairs, Dilli stepped out, dressed in a beige nightgown and an adorable little bedcap. Part of Ayla's mind wondered how she could notice such a thing at a time like this.

“Milady!” Dilli breathed as she saw the tearstained face of her mistress. “What is the matter? Can I…”

Ayla rushed past her startled maid without even attempting a reply. Her voice was still lost somewhere in a distant scream.

She ran into the keep, up the stairs, and into the first empty room she passed. Darkness and the tears in her eyes concealed everything so well, she didn't even know where she was. She just flung herself into a corner and rolled herself up into a ball there, weeping into her gore-spattered gown.

A thousand questions whirled around in her head, a thousand images. She didn't have the strength to face any of them.

She just wanted to sit there forever and despair of a world that was capable of such atrocities. She had always known that there was war and wickedness in the world. But she had believed that, at least in death, all people would be allowed to rest and find their peace. Now, she didn't know what to believe. She only wanted to be alone.

Just then, the door opened with a squeak.

No! Isenbard had come to find her!

She couldn't face him now. She couldn't bear it! Please let him go again, she prayed. Please!

But then a voice spoke softly, gently—and it wasn't Isenbard's.

“I thought I might find you here.”

Ayla knew that voice, knew it very well. She had memorized its every tone and cadence almost as well as she had memorized the gray of his eyes or the devilish allure of his smile. Slowly, with strength she didn't know she possessed, she raised her head a few inches and saw him standing in the doorway.

He was only a dark shadow, but she'd recognize that shape anywhere. The only man to whom she could open her heart at this moment. The only man who could ease her pain. The only man she loved.

“Find me here?” she croaked. Only then did she properly look around and noticed that she was not in her chambers, nor in any random room, but in Reuben's sickroom, where she had nursed him back to health and afterwards held him captive. Was it just coincidence? Or had some instinct led her here?

It was only a moment of blessed distraction, then the questions disappeared and the images from the courtyard returned in full force. The gore, the staring eye sockets…

Ayla shivered, staring up at the immovable, dark figure of Reuben above her.

“Why did they do that?” she wailed. “Why would they do that to people who were already dead?”

She hadn't actually expected an answer to her words. They were not really a question. They were a cry to the sky, to the wicked world.

So, when an answer came, it quite surprised her.

“To vent their rage, since they could not reach living people,” Reuben said, his voice still gentle, but with an edge of steel in it. “And, most of all, to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies.”

So that was it? Well, the latter part had certainly worked.

“H-how do you know this?” she sniffled. “Have you seen this kind of thing before?”

“Yes. From quite up close, in fact.”

And from the way he said it, she knew. He hadn't just seen it. He had done it himself. Or rather, ordered it to be done. For a moment, her heart shrank away from its own feelings. How could she ever let herself feel like this for such a man?