Fear mingled with courage at the possible thought. Strangely, it was not the thought of blood that worried her, it was what could possibly happen to Brogan.
The words shot from her mouth. “I will not leave you.”
“Aye, you will,” he ordered sternly. “I will survive, and I will see that you do as well, but if you faint while I am fighting, I cannot come to your rescue. And I will not have that. You will do as I say. You will ride off and hide and stay hidden until I come to find you. I will have your word on that.”
“I cannot give it,” she said with a forceful jut of her chin. “I do not know what I would do in such a situation.”
Brogan went to argue when out of the corner of his eye, he caught the first man fall from the tree just missing him from being dragged off his horse. He did not wait for others to attack, he smacked Annis’s horse on his rump, and the animal raced off.
15
Annis was a distance away before she got her horse under control and she was spitting mad, not to mention frightened half out of her wits. She turned the horse and saw Brogan fighting three men. He felled one man with his sword and knocked another down with the hilt of the sword. The man staggered to his feet and Brogan elbowed him in the jaw when he got close as he fought the other fellow off quite brilliantly with his sword.
Two more men stepped out from behind trees and Annis’s heart leapt in fear. Were there more lying in wait? She was no match for those men. They would easily overtake her, but she could not leave Brogan to fight on his own. When another man stepped out of the woods, it was no longer a decision of if she should wait.
She hurried off the horse and, fashioning part of her cloak in a sack to hold the only weapon that would serve her well, rushed to collect rocks. With the rocks weighing her down, she led her horse to a boulder that she managed to climb up on to mount the animal easily.
She grabbed the reins and was ready to join the fight when she heard the now familiar squawk of a raven. She looked up and there in the tree sat not one, but three ravens. Had the witch sent them?
Not feeling the least bit foolish, she spoke to them. “I need help if I am to find the woman the witch instructed me to find.”
The largest of the three ravens squawked again as if in response.
She nodded at the bird. “Follow me.” And they did.
“No blood. No blood. You will see no blood,” she whispered as she urged the horse into a run and gripped a rock in her hand.
She eyed the fight, seeing what man to strike first and avoiding any chance of hitting Brogan. She spotted one that kept back from the others. He waited, letting the others fight, letting Brogan grow tired so he would be able to strike when Brogan was at his weakest. She thought him a fool. Seeing how Brogan fought with tremendous strength and agility, he would outlast the less skilled men.
Annis gave a quick glance to the sky and the ravens flying overhead. Though they couldn’t hear her, somehow, she knew they would know when she ordered, “Attack all but Brogan.”
The ravens dipped as they squawked loudly, and her target turned at the perfect time. She threw the rock with all her strength, and it caught him in the head, and he went down hard. She did not look at him or the other men on the ground. She rode straight past them and once she cleared the fighting, she turned the horse around ready to attack again.
The ravens pecked at the men but avoided Brogan. They had understood her. One man was swinging his sword at a raven who was relentless in his attack. She smiled. It might be foolish to think, and laughable as well, but she thought the raven had moved him away from the others leaving him open for her to attack, and she did.
She got him in the head as well and by the time she turned the horse around once again, it was to see that Brogan had finished off the other men. She approached slowly, knowing blood had to have been spilled.
“Do not come any closer,” Brogan called out when she was still a distance away. “And we are going to have a serious talk about you obeying my orders.”
“I will not be made a widow when I am barely a wife,” she said loud enough for him to hear her.
“You forget I am the condemned lord,” he reminded as he dragged one of the men, she had knocked unconscious, to a tree.