Hello, all! As you can tell by the title of the post, I'm here to share a short story I wrote recently. This was my submission for
GiraffeCrafts' 2018 Indie e-Con writing contest. If you want to learn a little bit more about it, you can go to my new page, "Writing Projects". :)
For now, here's the story itself. (I made some very slight edits after sending it in to the contest.) This post will be pretty long, obviously, since I'm posting the whole story (it's a little less than 4790 words).
It was a lot of fun to write and I've gotten pretty invested in these characters, I gotta say.
I really hope you guys like it!! :)
/ / / / /
“It’s hot enough to cook
breakfast right here on these stones,” Alejandro grumbled.
“Feel
free,” Rhiannon replied, not moving her eyes from the track below their vantage
point. Unnecessary though it was, she
couldn’t disagree with her partner’s observation. Undulating heat – the kind that blurs sky and
land into a watery mirage – lay fine upon their isolated surroundings.
The
duo was nestled about ten feet above a narrow, little-used path cutting its way
determinedly between two slabs of mountain.
Alejandro, as per usual, had found the hiding place: a surprisingly
spacious hollow bordered by crags and outcroppings on three sides for a good
half-mile each, opportunely blocking them from the view of any traveler who
might wander into view. This was the
only monolith for miles, sloping gently down and spreading into far-reaching
plains.
“I’d
love to, if there was any food to cook,” came Alejandro’s answer.
Rhiannon
tossed some slightly withered apples and two cakes of meal over her shoulder in
his general direction. “Never say I
don’t provide for you.”
Alejandro’s only response
was something that sounded suspiciously like a snarl, but Rhiannon still didn’t
glance back. She had grown adept at
ignoring him in the months since they’d joined forces as roving
mercenaries.
“Why are we even here?” Alejandro truly whined this time.
“You sound like a child,
you know that?”
“I don’t care.”
He purposefully drew out the word.
Rhiannon sighed. “As I told you the last time you asked, we’re
waiting for this prince fellow. Ronald
or Roland or something.”
“I thought you said his
name was Ronan.”
“If you already know
that,” Rhiannon hissed, “why do I need to tell you again?” She had let her associate get under her skin
for about the twentieth time that day.
Her mistake. She knew better than
to be distracted by Alejandro’s antics.
He may have been infuriating, but he would snap into shape the moment
any real trouble raised its head, and that was all she really needed in a
partner. Ordinarily, nothing he could do
would even make it past her consciousness, but today she was tense. Jumpy, as Alejandro would say. She always got like this the day of a job.
“Okay, so we get this
Ronan. What do we do with him then?”
“That’s enough for now.” Rhiannon nibbled her lower lip and allowed
her fingers to drum her sword hilt.
“Kill him?”
Rhiannon didn’t have to
look back to know that Alejandro had cast her one of his sideways glances as he
asked this, but she did anyway, though she didn’t say anything.
Alejandro squirmed a
bit. “What? Isn’t it a reasonable assumption? Our line of work is generally not regarded as
the most spotless of occupations, you know.”
“Have we ever killed
anyone before?”
“No . . . well, not that
I remember. There are a few scuffles
that are a little hazy.”
“Well, then, you should
know that I’m not a common assassin.”
“Yes, but I also know you
well enough to know that you’re not a common thief, either. You like to have a reason. So what reason is there for waylaying some
unsuspecting royal? Are you an
anarchist? Do you have some ‘Down with
tyranny!’ cause you’re a part of?”
Rhiannon had to smile a
bit as she turned back around. “No.”
She heard him rise. “Well, can you blame a bloke for being curious? Perhaps I should have thought harder about
allying myself with a woman of whom I know next to nothing.”
“Perhaps you should,”
Rhiannon replied dryly. “As it is,
you’ll have to face the consequences now.”
She was sure Alejandro was opening his mouth to fire back, but a sound
from below silenced both of them in an instant.
Alejandro dropped flat next to Rhiannon, and they raised their heads to
look over the cliff edge. Horses’ hooves
were drawing nearer; soon the pair could see two riders approaching
slowly. They were men about the same age
(young), both clad in ordinary travel raiment, two poorly-concealed scabbards
the only deviation from the standard.
“There they are,”
Rhiannon whispered.
“How can you tell it’s
them?” Alejandro inquired. Rhiannon shot
him an irritated glance, but by now the men were seconds away from their hiding
place. Alejandro was none too happy that
Rhiannon hadn’t bothered to explain the plan to him. Were they going to jump down onto their unsuspecting
targets? Use the crossbow? Call out?
His puzzlement was quickly satisfied, in an unexpected and rather
unwelcome way.
The horses slowed as they
approached the overhang and came to a stop below the mercenaries. The taller of the two men dismounted and came
to stand in front of the camouflaged hideout.
Tilting his head up, he called boldly: “You didn’t really think I didn’t
know you were up there, did you?”
Alejandro glared a whole
casket-full of daggers at Rhiannon.
“This,” he hissed in a seething tone, “is certainly the most
poorly-planned surprise attack I have
ever been a part of. If they overpower
us, my reputation will be ruined, and I warn you,
Rhiannon-of-wherever-you-come-from, I shall hold you responsible if I lose my
credibility. This is humiliating.”
“Oh, shut up,” Rhiannon
muttered back. “I suppose my informant
wasn’t so well-informed himself.”
“Well, if that isn’t the –”
Alejandro began, but Rhiannon cut him off by raising her voice to address the
travelers below, taking care to stay hidden from view.
“We’re not looking for
any trouble,” she called.
“I seriously doubt that,”
came the reply. “Please don’t waste my
time. I know you’re trying to ambush me,
so we might as well get it over with, yes?”
The two mercenaries
looked at each other and shrugged. They
turned and scuttled, bent double, to the lowest part of the rock wall. Vaulting over it, they descended to the path,
trying to retain at least a modicum of dignity.
Their challenger was still standing beside his horse, hand on his sword
hilt, displaying tense but confident readiness.
His companion dismounted slowly.
He looked much more uneasy than the taller man, who spoke again as soon
as all four were facing each other.
“As I said, let’s get
this over with, shall we? I’ve got a
long distance to go yet.”
“I wonder if you’re going
our way,” Alejandro quipped. “Perhaps we
can ride together.” The stranger
grimaced and braced himself for combat, as did Rhiannon and Alejandro. But then his escort did something rather surprising:
he turned and fled, leaving his horse behind, and it truly sounded as though a
shriek was emanating from his mouth as he ran.
The taller man turned to watch his fellow’s speedy departure in shock,
leaving his back completely vulnerable, but he needn’t have worried. Alejandro was so flabbergasted by the
unexpected, unheroic and rather comic behavior that his mouth dropped open, and
even Rhiannon’s sword lowered a little in confusion. After the ninny’s figure became almost
invisible, the stranger turned very slowly to face his antagonists. There was silence for a moment.
“I don’t mean to be
critical,” Alejandro cleared his throat, “but what exactly is his plan with no
horse?”
“Indeed,” remarked their
quarry. “I must confess, I was not quite
prepared for my comrade’s lack of courage in such a situation . . . I suppose I
shall have to make the best of it on my own.
We all know you two will overpower me, but I, at least,” – this with a glance in the direction his companion
had taken – “can die making an honorable, albeit futile, stand.” He gripped his sword again and crouched,
ready to begin the fight. After a
moment, however, Rhiannon sheathed her sword decisively.
“I am not an advocate of
futility,” she replied crisply. “We have
no intention of killing you, so there’s no need for heroics.”
“Well, considering the
event, I feel like someone should at least try.”
“Two
against one,” Alejandro said cheerfully, following Rhiannon’s suit and
replacing his weapon. “I agree with
her.”
“What,
so you’re just going to let me go?” the man asked incredulously.
“Of
course not,” Rhiannon returned. “Your
name is Ronan. You are the prince and
heir to the throne of Adren. Our
employers have engaged us to bring you to them – they did not specify that we
bring you dead.”
“We’ll
leave all that to them,” Alejandro interjected with a grin.
The
prince bowed a little and gave a sardonic smile. “I appreciate the explanation. But I’m certainly not going to stand by and
allow you to take me prisoner without a fight, if that’s what you imply.”
Rhiannon
allowed a little sigh to escape her. She
was already tired, and they had many miles to cover before resting that
day. “If you insist,” she replied
wearily, brandishing her sword again.
Alejandro copied her. The
struggle was brief and ended as everyone had known it would. But Rhiannon had the strangest feeling,
watching Alejandro tie their prisoner’s arms behind his back, that he hadn’t
been trying his hardest to defeat them.
cd
Their
march was long, brisk, and uneventful.
Alejandro kicked up a tremendous fuss when Rhiannon told him they’d be
going on foot to spare their horses, but he soon contented himself with quiet
fuming, knowing better than to try to reason with Rhiannon once her mind was
made up. Their path led away from the
mountain into the sparse plains.
On the second day of their journey, Ronan took it upon
himself to make conversation, which struck Rhiannon as strange behavior for a
captive, but which delighted Alejandro, who, as he often vociferated, was subject
to frequent attacks of boredom.
“I suppose there’s no use in asking who these mysterious
employers are?” Ronan remarked. “I
assume you won’t be telling me to whom I will be handed over for dastardly
purposes?”
“You’re correct,” Rhiannon replied.
“Even mercenaries respect confidentiality,” Alejandro
explained.
“Ah, yes. ‘The
honor of outlaws’ and all that. I rather
thought that was a myth.”
“It’s quite real,” Rhiannon assured him. “Some of us even have standards. Boundaries.
Things we won’t do no matter the price.”
She glanced at Alejandro as she said this, but he pointedly ignored her
gaze.
“Really?” The skepticism and sarcasm in his tone
rankled.
“Really,” Rhiannon shot back more angrily than she had
intended. Ronan took the hint and
changed the subject ever so slightly.
“Well, in any case, I also doubt that you’re interested
in hearing my side of the story before delivering me over unto mine enemies?”
“I’ve no objection,” Rhiannon shrugged. “A little entertainment never hurt anything.”
Ronan frowned but began anyway. “I don’t really need you
to tell me who your employers are: it could only be my half-brother, Alastair –
he and his cronies. By right of age, he
should be heir to the throne, but his mother was my father’s first wife –”
“The Alladian baron’s daughter who came over to marry our
king close to two score years past,” Rhiannon supplied. Both Ronan and Alejandro stared at her, and
she turned away to hide her embarrassment at her inability to conceal her
interest in Adrenian history. Perfect.
She really wasn’t keeping up her ruthless criminal persona very well
today.
“Ye-es,” Ronan went on slowly. “And Adren’s laws state that the monarch must
be full-blooded Adrenian. So – though
his mother was of noble birth – right to the throne skipped over Alastair and
passed to the next son born to my father, yours truly.”
“What happened to Alastair’s mother?” Alejandro asked.
“She died when Alastair was about ten,” Rhiannon
answered, then bit her lip.
“Perhaps my lady should continue the tale; she seems to
know it as well as I, if not better,” Ronan suggested, with another of his
mocking half-bows.
“Carry on,” Rhiannon mumbled, and picked up her pace to
put a bit more distance between herself and the men, staring straight ahead and
trying not to listen to the conversation going on behind her. His
lady, indeed.
“She’s right,” Ronan continued to Alejandro. “My father’s first wife died a few years
before I was born, but she brought four daughters into the world before she did
so.”
“And now?” Alejandro queried.
“Now Alastair has decided to contest his right to
rule. I believe he did some
investigation into the laws that hinder him using a posse of privately-hired
lawmen, but, that failing, he has struck out with a fiercer tactic – namely
hiring you and your associate to turn me over to him. He left Adren about a year ago, giving very
cryptic explanations to my father’s inquiries about his purpose in so doing,
and hasn’t contacted the palace since, to my knowledge. I believe it worries my father, though he
doesn’t admit it.”
Hearing the change in Ronan’s tone, Rhiannon glanced
casually over her shoulder and saw that he was walking more slowly, with his
eyes cast down in thought. She shook
herself – she was having to do that a lot today – and returned her gaze to the
horizon. It was no concern of hers, and the
cardinal rule of mercenary work was never getting involved beyond simple logistics.
She heard Alejandro give an elaborate sigh to break the
silence. “Royals. No offense meant to you, my good sir, but
they are so unoriginal. Can’t one of them ever get angry about anything
other than their precious thrones? It
sometimes seems like every paid abduction is a part of some coup or other.”
“I suppose you would know,” Ronan rejoined, and the
conversation petered off.
cd
They made camp that night halfway between the mountain
path and the coastline glittering faintly at the horizon. Rhiannon nodded her assent to making a fire
and even deigned to volunteer for cooking duty while the other two looked after
the horses. She had to walk about a mile
to find water for the stew. Once back at
the campsite, she borrowed a judicious amount of meat, potatoes, and carrots
from the food supply she had hidden from Alejandro and set to work, vaguely
concerned that perhaps her stew-making skills had grown rusty. Evidently, she hadn’t lost too much of her
old knack: Alejandro and Ronan were not shy about voicing their enjoyment of
the meal.
“Where did you learn to cook like this?” Ronan asked her,
incredulity and not a little admiration in his tone.
“Did anyone ever tell you that prisoners typically aren’t
this chatty with their captors?” Rhiannon countered.
“Truly, where?” he persisted.
“I was not always a mercenary,” she replied simply.
Ronan studied her across the fire for a moment. “What were you?” he asked in a gentler tone.
“The same as many another. Daughter, sister.” She brushed some biscuit crumbs off her
breeches and stood. “I am a mercenary
now.” She turned and walked over to her
self-claimed space by the horses. Taking
a book from her haversack, she spread out on her side and began to read.
“A cook and a
reader?” Ronan whispered to Alejandro in disbelief. “What kind of assassin is she?”
“She’s no assassin,” Alejandro replied with a shake of
his head. “I don’t know what she is, but
she’s not an assassin.” The two men soon
retired to their bedrolls and quickly fell asleep, but Rhiannon rolled over
onto her back and lay gazing at the stars with her hands behind her head while
the flames of the fire dwindled into coals.
cd
The
trio reached the sea by early afternoon the following day, thanks to Rhiannon’s
decision to use the horses. They found
they had to scale another low, flat mountain before reaching its elevated path,
but all three privately felt that the climb had been more than worth it when
they were able to walk a wide, level track for miles afterward, with the muted
cacophony of the ocean tumbling and crashing hundreds of feet below them to the
left. There were even flowering bushes
and other vegetation along the mountain to their right. At one point, Rhiannon fell back and stood
looking out over the vista. The men rode
ahead, though Ronan glanced back, puzzled by her apparent interest in the
natural beauty. Neither dared to ask her
anything about it when she caught up to them a short time after, and she didn’t
explain. She did, however, inform the
men that they were close to twenty miles from the harbor town that marked the
boundary between Adren and neighboring Persicc.
“We’ll cover about half that distance today and the rest tomorrow,” she
announced.
“Let me guess,” Ronan remarked wryly. “The town is the meeting place? That’s where you’ll hand me over?”
Rhiannon said nothing, which was more than enough. Alejandro shook his head again. That Ronan fellow was alright, he had quickly
determined. There didn’t seem to be any
good reason to turn him over to his power-hungry brother, but he decided to
bide his time. Best to leave Rhiannon to
come to that conclusion on her own. And she
would, if he knew anything about her. But
then again, he reminded himself, he didn’t know very much.
cd
At camp, which they made a few miles after leaving the
coastal mountain path, Rhiannon opted to read her book a little closer to the
fire than the previous night. While
Alejandro tended the horses again, Ronan plunked himself down next to Rhiannon
and cheekily asked what she was reading.
Lowering the book, Rhiannon stared at him.
“Your last night before your vengeful brother gets hold
of you, and you want to know what book I’m reading? Isn't there something more important that should be occupying your time?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, prayers?
Escape attempts?”
Ronan shrugged. “I
can pray wherever I am. And somehow, I
don’t think an escape attempt would go over well. So, no: I much prefer asking my ruthless abductor
– who, by the by, is going to hand me over to be slaughtered on the morrow and
shows absolutely no remorse therefor – what she is reading.”
“You’re truly not even a little afraid?”
Ronan’s face fell a little. He bent his head and scuffed the dust and ash
around the fire with the toe of his boot.
“I never said I wasn’t afraid.” His voice was small.
Rhiannon turned her head in the direction of the sea,
which they could hear but not see because of the quick onset of darkness. “My employer didn’t tell me he was going to
kill you. I generally ask about that
kind of thing.”
“You really think he wants to talk it out instead?” Ronan
asked with a cynical little bark of a laugh.
“I don’t know.”
Rhiannon’s voice was suddenly as small as his had been a moment
before. “I hoped so.” She sensed that Ronan had turned to look at
her, and even though he surely couldn’t see much except her profile, she had to
keep herself from fidgeting. It was
several moments before Ronan spoke again.
“What happened to your family?”
Rhiannon inwardly debated whether she should tell
him. It was certainly no business of his
– but on the other hand, how could he possibly use it against her? She’d never see him again after the next day,
and it wasn’t as if, even supposing he lived long enough to tell the tale, it
contained information that others could use against her either.
“There was a fire.
Some of them were killed, some of them fled. I was left behind because a beam had fallen
in the room where I was, and everyone assumed I was already dead. I managed to drag my younger brother out with
me, but he died from the smoke a few days later. I don’t know where the others are.”
There was silence again between the two of them. Alejandro was sitting near the horses, and
the only sounds were their quiet snuffles and the heaving of the sea. After a time, Rhiannon heard Ronan scoot off
the log and lie down, using his cloak as a pillow against it. Suddenly worn out, she followed his example.
cd
She was testy the next morning. This was usual for her on delivery day. Alejandro expected it; Ronan did not. Following a rushed breakfast, the trio
mounted their horses again and set off, continuing their downward trail away
from the mountain. Ronan seemed eager to
dispel the awkwardness that had inevitably settled upon the group. Riding his horse closer to Rhiannon’s, he
leaned over and asked her how she and Alejandro had gotten acquainted.
“We’re
actually distantly related – cousins or something of that nature. But we’d never met until I decided I needed a
partner less than a year ago. Then I
sought him out and persuaded him to join me.”
“I
would’ve thought you were far too independent to admit to needing a partner,”
Ronan dug.
Rhiannon
rolled her eyes. “I have nothing against
the idea of being with a few other people.
As long as they’ll respect my boundaries, I’ll respect theirs.”
“What
did Alejandro do before you met?”
“Probably
much the same sort of thing,” she shrugged.
“I don’t really know. I found him
in a dusty town in the middle of Persicc, doing nothing in particular except
taunting the law officers and lolling around.”
“How
many unfortunates such as myself have the two of you delivered unto death?”
Rhiannon
squirmed imperceptibly in her saddle.
“Not many. We mainly steal things,
not people. Less messy.”
“Ah.”
cd
It
was mid-afternoon when the wharf of a coastal town came into view. Rhiannon glanced over to Ronan and
Alejandro. Ronan stiffened a little but
kept his eyes on the harbor. Alejandro
looked back at her questioningly, but she turned her head. They rode single file into the town, Rhiannon
in front and Alejandro bringing up the rear.
Making their way to a tavern-like structure close to the quay, Rhiannon
led them around to the back, which turned out to be a spacious courtyard. As the trio dismounted, a group of men
entered the space from the tavern. One
of them Rhiannon recognized as her contact, and one, judging by his clothing
and Ronan’s sudden tensing, she guessed to be Alastair.
Without
really thinking about it, Rhiannon dropped her hand to cradle the pommel of her
sword. Alejandro moved unnecessarily
close to her and nudged her with his arm.
Rhiannon tried to think. She had
been hired to turn Ronan in, not to question the legitimacy of her employer’s
motives. Still, as she had told
Alejandro, she liked to think that she was not an ordinary assassin, nor even that
pernicious of a mercenary – that she had some moral feeling left. Leaving Ronan in the hands of these men
certainly made her uneasy, but what ought she to do? Even if she’d take leave of her senses long
enough to attempt a double-cross, it was lunacy to think that the three of them
could successfully flee the wrath of a man as motivated as she knew a snubbed
royal could be, whether they had another royal’s backing or not. Vaguely, through her deliberation, she heard
Alastair asking why Ronan’s arms were not bound, and she was struggling to find
her way out of her thoughts and to an answer when Ronan stepped forward.
“There
was no need to bind my arms, Alastair. I
came willingly enough.”
Rhiannon
and Alejandro both turned to look at him.
“What do you mean you came willingly enough? You made us fight you,” Alejandro contested.
Ronan
shrugged. “That was for show. As I told you, I knew you were waiting for
me. Don’t you think I could have found
other roads than the mountain path if I wanted to avoid capture?”
Alastair
and Ronan looked at each other for a long moment while no one moved. Finally, Alastair spoke.
“Well,
be that however it may, you no longer need to worry about me – at least, not
for the present. I’ve changed my
mind. I’ve decided to travel to
Alladia. I have more family there than
here, in truth, and at least there they will not refuse me my birthright, nor
disrespect my mother.”
Rhiannon
and Alejandro shot each other puzzled glances.
Ronan seemed no less skeptical.
“Truly? Between the time you
engaged these two and the time we arrived, you changed your mind that much?”
It
was Alastair’s turn to shrug. “Disposing
of you would be messy, both literally and politically, and as I see it, there’s
no need to take the harder way just because it’s harder. Our father has agreed to pay my passage to
Alladia. Seems eager to get rid of
me.” It was evident that the note of
bitterness in his voice distressed Ronan, but Alastair gave him no time to
protest. He signaled one of his men to
come forward. “I’m off. Pay these hirelings half the agreed price,
since their service was apparently unnecessary to begin with and unwanted in
the end. I doubt they’ll quarrel with
you.” He turned glacial eyes towards
Rhiannon and Alejandro. Rhiannon stared
back. After another strange pause,
Alastair nodded to Ronan and strode back into the tavern, taking half the men
with him. The other half rushed up to
Ronan, wringing his hands, clapping his back, and all talking at once. It was difficult to decipher much of the
conversation, but Alejandro and Rhiannon gathered that they were a delegation
sent from Ronan’s father to reason with Alastair. Presently, one of the men broke away from the
party and approached the duo.
“Here’s
your payment,” he said a little roughly, holding out a leather pouch. Alejandro took it. Rhiannon was more interested in finding out
what had just happened.
“Why
would he have come willingly?” she asked the man, slightly perturbed.
“Well,
I’d wager that he knew Alastair was more than capable of embroiling Adren in a
war if pushed. Probably he found out
that Alastair had been in contact with his mother’s country and surmised that
he was petitioning for more men. Our
prince doesn’t value his throne so much that he’s not willing to give it up if
it means keeping the peace for his people.”
The man looked proudly toward Ronan, then shrugged. “Who knows?
Perhaps he thought Alastair would make as good a king or better than he
himself.”
“Ah,
yes,” Alejandro interjected. “People who
hire other people to kill their relatives typically make excellent monarchs, I
find.”
Rhiannon
elbowed him. “For the last time, we
weren’t hired to kill him.” The Adrenian
courtier shrugged again and went to rejoin his compatriots. Alejandro fingered the money pouch as he
turned to face Rhiannon. “I highly doubt
that that’s the last we’ll see of Alastair.
I saw his face as he walked off.
There’s rage in that man, and I warrant it’ll take more than a jaunt to
see his mother’s family to cool it.” He
tossed the pouch up and down. “Ah,
well. That tavern’s calling my
name. I’ll bet there’s food in there to
rival even your delicate concoctions.”
He winked at her and half-ran into the tavern.
Rhiannon stood with her
arms crossed, watching the group around Ronan.
Well, that was the end of that – at least, for the moment. Alejandro would hardly have believed it, but
she was glad everything had been resolved sans bloodshed, even if she agreed
with him in doubting it would really end there.
To her own surprise, she felt that she would have liked to have gotten
to know Ronan a little more – or at least a little longer – than she had.
She
shook herself. It was what it was, and
she’d be leaving now. Alejandro knew
where to meet up, and she herself had no interest in patronizing the town any
longer. She had half-turned when Ronan
broke away from the group and stepped toward her.
“Not
leaving so soon, I hope?” he asked.
“Job’s
done,” Rhiannon replied somewhat tersely.
“Well,
you see, I’ve been talking to members of our court, and they were hoping that
you might come to work for us. We’ve
been needing someone who could direct our rangers and our forestry team for a
while now, and I’ve the highest regard for your skills. What do you say? Could you bring yourself to try it? Payment would be handsome, of course.”
Rhiannon
studied him for a moment, then laughed a little in spite of herself. “Really?
That’s how it’s going to be? The
adversaries who become unlikely friends decide not to part ways just yet?”
“Who
said we were friends?”
“What?”
“Do
you want the job or not?”
“It’s
just so cliché.”
“People
try too hard to be original.”
“Fine,
you.”
The End
