Warrior

"As yet there is no outcome, Lady. You cannot leave without a decision being made. Perhaps an additional challenge is to show how skilled we are?" he suggested.

"What did you have in mind?" she asked. She had enjoyed shooting against someone of her own skill.

"We turn our backs to the targets, a bird is placed somewhere in the field, we turn and shoot together," Sieben offered. "The skill will be locating and then shooting the correct target."

"Alright," Mirabel agreed. "I require a small drink first please; we have been shooting for over an hour now."

"Of course, my lady," Sieben said magnanimously bowing and stepping back to turn to his men and ask for water.

"Look low to the left when you turn. Trust me on this," Alaina murmured as she handed Mirabel a cup of water. "Odell sent me to bring you the water for this reason."

"Thank you," Mirabel murmured back. She didn't like the thought of cheating, but as she looked to where Sieben spoke quietly with his friends, she wondered if he had a similar advantage. "When you are ready Sir Sieben," Mirabel invited. "As this is your challenge you may choose the person to place the bird," she said.

"As you wish," he agreed. He stooped and picked up a straw bird throwing it to one of his companions. "Here put this somewhere on the field." The man trotted passed them. "You are very good," Sieben said appreciatively as they turned away from the field. "It has been some time since I have been so evenly matched. "Can you outshoot the men of your village or do they all shoot this well?"

"Archery is a favourite pastime in this village," she said without answering his question.

The man jogged back passed them, and Sieben grinned. "Ready?" he waited for her to nod. "Go!" he said loudly and as if in slow motion Mirabel swung her bow up toward the left as she pulled back on the arrow her eyes scanning low on the left side. She loosed the shaft the moment she saw the straw bird nestled next to the trestle of the second target and breathed out in a whoosh of air. She saw Sieben's arrow hit a second later, and a cheer went up from the crowd.

"It seems we have a winner," Sieben said not hiding the surprise from his voice. He'd never been bested in a contest before not by anyone, and the fact that a woman had matched him so skilfully had stunned him. Had he won he would have considered pursuing the handsome young woman, but now he knew he would only be reminded of his defeat at her hand each time he saw her. "We will keep our bargain and wait for Goren outside the village limits. Could you at least tell me which trail he took?" Sieben addressed Odell who had made the bargain with him.

"Cale will show you to the northern path," Odell said. "Goren will not be too far away, Cale can continue up the path to warn the Axeman an ambush is waiting for him." She cackled and turned away walking with Mirabel and Alaina back to the home of Goren.

*****

Cale had met Goren as he journeyed down the mountain with Tevin and filled him in on the events of the afternoon. The old man was not impressed that his daughter had been used by Odell in such a way but was relieved that Sieben didn't seem to know that Mirabel was his daughter.

"Sieben," Goren grumbled as he saw the archer standing in his path. "What are you doing here?"

"Not much of a greeting for a friend, old boy," Sieben spoke lightly as if he was used to the grumbling of Goren and knew to ignore it. "I came to see you, of course, and bring news from the castle."

"I care nothing for news from the castle. I told you all that I just wanted to be left alone on my mountain. First, I have the boy here follow me home like a puppy, and now you and your toadies are here. What next the Duke himself?"

"Maybe, but I'm a little parched do you think we could talk about it over a tankard of the ale you were always telling us was better than the swill we had in the battlefront towns?" Sieben asked with a smile. The three men he had ridden in with stood from their places in the shade and came forward into the path so Goren and Tevin could see them and recognise them from the army in which they had served on the central plains.

"Aye," Goren grunted grudgingly. He hoped that Mirabel was sensible enough not to be there when they returned. They trudged the short distance to his small cabin. It seemed secure with the doors and windows closed as he approached. He nodded to Tevin who trotted ahead stowing his axe just inside the door as he walked in.

"Better wash up. A feast has been left for us and a barrel tapped," he said returning to the yard as the other men drew closer.

Sieben raised an eyebrow as Goren grunted and nodded heading to the rainwater barrel to scrub his hands and face. The others followed his lead and went inside the small but cosy cabin. It was well cared for Sieben noted. He'd seen other cabins in the small village that weren't as well maintained, and he was curious about not only the woman's touch he discerned but the fact that they had such a feast awaiting their return with no sign of another person in the house.

"You have a woman?" Sieben asked curiously knowing the man venerated his deceased wife.

"No," Goren grunted.

"You want me to believe your squire cooks and cleans so well?" Sieben asked.

"I don't care what you believe," Goren sat back with his tankard of ale as if daring his friend to challenge him. "Why are you on my mountain? What news is so important that you would risk your comforts to travel here?"

"There is a price on your head, my friend, and many more than me will be coming to your mountain to seek you out," Sieben said without preamble pulling a warrant from his pocket. "Were I a materialistic man I would consider putting an arrow into myself for the sum being offered," he chuckled.

"Many have tried laddie, and none have laid me low yet," Goren gave a rumbling chuckle of bravado.

"Duke Dorian offers you the sanctuary of his castle so that neither you nor the ones you care for come to harm," Sieben relayed the main thrust of his message.

"He would have me cower behind stone walls and become a court fool for his own enjoyment? I think not. I will face my enemies where I stand, here on my mountain," Goren said implacably.

"Would you have mm... me, face them with you? What if we die alongside you? Would you put that on us as well, condemn us to fight to the death?" Tevin challenged the old man, his thoughts on Mirabel. He caught a look from Sieben who raised his eyebrow at Tevin. "Kill me if you must, but she deserves better," he spat uncaring of the consequences and kicked out his chair, walking out to the front porch hating that he mentioned the woman in front of Sieben and the other men.

"He seems a bit overwrought. Go have a drink with him men. It seems my old friend and I need to talk about the reality of him surviving out here alone," Sieben said with the same jovial lilt he had maintained during the whole long and frustrating day. Once they had gone, however, he dropped the affected accent and steady cheerfulness.

"There is no shame in seeking the comfort of a warm woman," Sieben said carefully. "The house has a woman's touch, and this food is heavenly. You should be proud to have her affections. No one will think you loved your wife less."

"You know nothing!" Goran grunted with anger in his eyes as he looked at his long-time friend.

"Then tell me! The King himself has signed the death warrant. He is scared you will make good on your threat to change the line of succession," Sieben kept his voice low. "You cannot threaten a king and expect to walk free once he is safe and sound in his palace with his personal guard. He is offering enough gold to bring every assassin in the country plus more from beyond our borders to your mountain. What do you think they will do to your woman if they find her here with you?"

"She's my daughter," Goran sighed and was pleased that his friend seemed speechless for the first time in his life.

"She was here alone while you went to war?" Sieben eventually asked into the silence.

"She's a good girl who can look after herself better than any other in this village, man or woman. She laid Tevin unconscious when he showed up here ahead of me, and she beat you today with your favoured weapon," Goren let a rare smile show. He was proud of her for that. Sieben was a hard man to best with a bow.

"The girl today? That's your daughter?" Sieben was seriously gobsmacked though he should have realised she had the training of a true warrior behind her.

"Aye, Mirabel," Goren nodded.

"If you fall she won't survive either my friend," Sieben said gently. "You endanger everyone on this mountain by staying where you are."

"I would endanger Dorian and start a new war by hiding behind his walls. I won't do that. I will not run and hide like a coward," he said grimly.

"Then we take the fight to its source and rid the land of one more evil soul," Sieben took a long draft of his ale.

"You have done what you came to do and warned me. I will go alone," Goren said with the assurance of a man who was rarely argued with.

"They will still come looking. You cannot leave her here alone and defenceless against assassins. At least take her to the castle and ask Dorian to make her his ward. He will protect her until we return," Sieben said gently. He knew his friend did not wish to drag anyone else into his troubles but like it or not Sieben would travel with him and so would the men who had followed him here to this town. He was sure of that.

It was they who had brought the news of the warrant to the castle as Sieben planned to travel to see the mountain he had heard so much of. He had been there as they told the Duke of the warrant and their need to warn Goren. Each of them owed their lives, and in one case the lives of his family, to Goren. Sieben knew that if Goren chose to go and meet the threat against him head-on, each of the men here in the cabin tonight would walk into that hell with him.

*****

Mirabel had woken slowly in the home of the wise woman Odell. A candle was lit, and the sky was still dark outside the window.

"Dress quickly," Odell said. "Your father is here."

Mirabel came instantly awake and threw her covers off. She went to the basin and scrubbed her face with the icy water and turned to find Alaina holding a dress for her to step into. The dress seemed new and heavy in its fabric. It was hard to see in the dim light, but she wondered about where it had come from. Odell had told her not to question anything that happened when they had spoken after her contest of skill yesterday. She had been told that great changes were about to beset her and that she must accept them all or else anger the mountain Gods and place herself and her father in peril. Still, as much as she had faith in the Mountain Gods and the wise woman who had been a surrogate mother to her, she was afraid of the changes that awaited her and that they would take her from her home.

The sweet Alaina helped Mirabel dress silently and followed her out into the comfortable main room of the wise woman's house to where her father stood looking troubled. Odell still wore the clothes of the day before, and Mirabel wondered how long her father had been there talking with the old woman. It was then that she noticed that Alaina was dressed in a heavy newly made dress as well looking pale and beautiful in the dwindling firelight of the hearth.

"Come, girl, we must go swiftly," Goren said turning toward the door and stepping through to the street beyond.

Mirabel followed her father dutifully and was surprised to see the men who had arrived yesterday upon their horses surrounding a wagon driven by Tevin. Torches burned brightly against the predawn sky that lightened along the horizon. Sieben dropped from his saddle and helped Alaina to the seat beside Tevin while Goren lifted his daughter to the seat on the other side of him.

"I can walk," Mirabel protested.

"We will be travelling too fast for that, lassie," Goren smiled at her as he placed her gently on the seat. "Do as I bid for now and I will explain when there is time," he said in a strangely gentle voice that made her narrow her eyes at him.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"To the castle of the Duke," he confessed, shocking her before moving away to his own horse and climbing awkwardly into the saddle before she could ask another question.

Mirabel reeled at the idea of visiting a place her father had always made her promise not to go regardless of any news that he might be there. Images of wicked men and women who played games of intrigue assailed her. The people of the city were different to mountain folk in many ways, and she felt her fear increase as she looked at the grim faces of the men surrounding the wagon.

"Tevin," she said softly. "Why are we going to the castle when my father hates it there?"

"He will tell you when the time is right," Tevin replied equally softly. "Do not ask me any more than that Miri, I have no answers for you."

Alaina was determinedly facing the horizon away from Mirabel so that her friend would not read the anxiety in her face. She too was scared even though she knew without a doubt that she would be safe and well cared for. Her anxiety was for her friend and the men who rode with them.

The party rode on through the morning, the torches being doused in a bucket of sand to maintain the integrity of their bases. When they stopped briefly as the sun reached its zenith to rest the horses Mirabel was able to get down from the wagon. She believed her teeth must have rattled after enduring the rough country roads while riding in the old wagon. She walked in circles trying to relax the stiff muscles of her legs and back born from having to sit for so long in one place while being buffeted by the uncomfortable perch she sat on.

"Tell me," Sieben said approaching her to offer her a water skin. "Are you as good with a sword as you are with a bow?"

"No," she answered honestly. The bow was her weapon of choice, and she was far more skilled with it than she was with any other weapon her father had made her practice with although she could throw a knife with similar accuracy if no bow were to hand.

"But you could use one if backed into a corner?" he persisted.

"Yes, if no other weapon was at hand," she said surprising him.

"Such as?" he asked.

"By all means back me into a corner and find out," she said waspishly annoyed by his questions.

"Perhaps another day when we aren't so pressed for time," Sieben turned his head at Goren's snort of laughter and eyed him before turning back to Mirabel and taking the water skin she handed back to him.

"Sieben is a man who likes to live dangerously," Goren chuckled.

"I wouldn't kill your friend, father, just alter his singing voice," she said sweetly and began to walk in a circle again as the men including Sieben all laughed at her quip.

"I think I could have fallen in love with that woman if she hadn't bested me with the bow," Sieben said sadly. "That will always stand between us now," he sighed.

"It would be a brave man who tried to tame the daughter of Goren the Axeman," Balder, one of the three companions predicted quietly to his friends.

"The prospect of asking Goren for his blessing would indeed require a rare show of that bravery," Ciaran murmured nodding his head with a small smile.

"It's a shame for she is a handsome woman as well as skilled," the third of the companions, Ulan, lamented. "Still fortune favours the brave, and she will have no shortage of suitors," he said thoughtfully.

Mirabel had overheard them. They sat at the opposite side of the small stand of trees from her father, but her circular walk had brought her close enough to them to eavesdrop. The prospect of marriage was one she had let go of a long time ago. She was not like the soft and curvaceous girls that the men of the mountains seem to prefer in their partners. She was almost as tall as a man, she was strong and skilled with weapons. She could out shoot, out throw, and out fight most of the boys of her village by the age of thirteen and after that, they had not wanted to compete with her in the same way. It hadn't occurred to her that anyone would be frightened to approach her because of her father.

The word handsome settled on her. She knew she wasn't what was considered pretty or beautiful but handsome, and she considered it during her next lap around the small clearing. She liked handsome. It took into account her strength and skill and also said she was pleasant to look at, not ugly as she had always believed others considered her. She felt a small smile cross her face and she looked at the hulking warrior who had called her handsome. He had kind eyes as he caught her glance and smiled in a friendly way. She smiled back, and when she next passed them, she stopped.

"I hate to admit that I still don't know your names," she said conversationally. "I only spoke to Sir Sieben yesterday, and now we are travelling companions, perhaps names would be useful in case we are set upon by bandits or some such?"

"In case we are set upon by bandits? Why would you need our names then?" Ciaran asked genuinely confused by the question.

"So, I can identify the bodies to the authorities and send word to your families," she smiled sweetly. "I would hate for you to be lumped in with the bandits."

"I am Ciaran," the man laughed, "But there is no one left to mourn my passing so you will not have to go to such trouble for me."

"Oh, I am truly sorry," Mirabel took a seat on a nearby fallen log. "I am grateful every day that the war never came to the mountains of the Kayode."

"Don't concern yourself, Lady. I have had my vengeance with the help of your father, and I sleep well at night," he smiled softly.

"I am Balder," the next man introduced himself. "My story is similar to that of my friend except that I, like your father, have a daughter. She is married and happy and has no need of my friends and me. You need not worry about me either."

"Would she not want news if you fell?" Mirabel asked frowning.

"She will be happier with her current belief that I fell in the war and that is why I have not returned home rather than knowing I could not go back to the house I built for my wife without her." Balder looked sad for a moment but brightened again. "I have a new purpose now, and once that task is complete I may go back and surprise my daughter, but I will see this purpose through to the end even if it kills me," his voice was strong, and Mirabel could hear his commitment.

"Ignore him, we do," Ulan chuckled. "His sentiment is admirable if not his fervour. I am Ulan, and my family live and will mourn my passing. It is a unique trait of my people that we are linked to familial bonds. If I should ever fall, they will feel it and know it. So, you see, there is no reason to concern yourself with maudlin things. All you need to know is we are honourable and loyal men who will ensure your safety for all time."

This revelation surprised Mirabel, and she got a sinking feeling about why they were travelling to the castle. She looked around and saw Alaina talking softly with Tevin as they prepared a lunch of leftovers from last night's feast, and it hit her like a brick. Her father planned to leave her there and go back to the war. Except the war was over, but he was obviously leaving her with Alaina for the company and travelling on with these men to somewhere else. It confused her. Why couldn't she have stayed at home in the village on her own? Why take her to the castle which he hated?

"Excuse me, gentlemen, this has been very enlightening," she smiled genuinely at them and stood, grimacing at the ache in her back. She marched over to her father and stood in front of him with her hands planted on her hips.