Brogan did not take his eyes off the man. His slow approach, his alert eyes, and the way he sat his horse with relaxed confidence spoke of victory. The man had subdued Brogan’s warriors without anyone being harmed.
His gray hair that faintly touched his shoulders and the identical gray in his close-cropped beard and moustache and the wrinkles that dug into his face along with a few scars betrayed his age but also identified him as a seasoned warrior. His lean body advised that age or not, the man had retained his strength.
“Both of you, and your men, will come with me,” the man ordered.
“What do you want from us? Brogan demanded.
“It is not what I want from you. It is what you want from me,” the man said. “We leave now.” He signaled with his hand and one of his men approached with a horse. “One horse for you both. One of your men will remain behind and you will order him to return to the village and let them all know that if they dare search for you that I will ride on the village and kill everyone there.”
From the empty look in the man’s eyes, Brogan knew he would do as he threatened, and fear spiked in him. How would he ever keep his wife safe from these men? If he had had time to devise a plan for them to be captured, he would have had a good chance of seeing her kept from harm—not so now.
After Brogan mounted the horse and got Annis settled safely in front of him, she whispered, “Something is amiss with this.”
“What do you mean?” he asked as he directed the horse to his men.
“Why take you and your men if I am the only one who they were hired to abduct? And the leader said it was what we wanted from him not what he wants from us. And how does he even know we want something from him?”
His wife was right. He had been so concerned with her safety that he had not given thought to anything else. How did the mercenaries know they wanted something from them? Who had provided information to the group about where he would be? Who had betrayed him?
Brogan instructed one of his men as he had been directed to do and had added, “Do nothing and tell no one beyond the village.”
The warrior nodded and was warned to wait until they were out of sight before returning to the village or risk losing his life.
Brogan assessed the group as they rode away. Eight mercenaries in all had overpowered his ten skilled warriors.
His wife voiced his thoughts. “The mercenaries must be highly skillful to have defeated your warriors and with harm to none. And how did they know where to find us?”
“I have thought the same. My father takes pride in his exceptionally skilled warriors. My only guess at their defeat was that someone provided the mercenaries with information. Though, Rannick once warned me that mercenaries are an evil bunch, never to be trusted. Their first and only thought is how much coin they can get. Pay them and they would do anything.”
“How does Rannick know this?” Annis asked with a suspicious worry.
“Rannick spent time with the mercenaries and has first-hand knowledge of them.”
The thought did not set well with Annis. “Why did he do that?”
Brogan silently cursed himself for letting that bit of information slip. He should have known it would worry his wife. But she had the right to know, and he would be honest with her since he would expect the same from her.
“Rannick once thought that if he immersed himself with evil, he could find a way to defeat the evil curse.”
Annis shook her head. “A foolish thought. He should have examined the curse more wisely.”
“What do you mean? Rannick, Odran, and I spent endless time examining the curse,” he said. “The conclusion was obvious. The curse is evil, and evil is difficult to defeat.”
“I will not argue that to you the curse is evil. But it was not cast with hate or an evil heart. It was cast with a mother’s love for her bairn, to protect her. You, Odran, and Rannick should have looked to love to understand it.”
“That is pure nonsense,” Brogan argued.
Annis gasped and gave his arm a squeeze. “I am a fool I should have realized it sooner.”
His wife’s revelations had proven helpful and correct, so he was eager to hear what thought had struck her. “What is it?”
“With the curse cast with a loving heart then it will take a loving heart to break the curse.”
He shook his head. “I do not follow.”
“I am not sure myself,” she admitted. “I only know that it is a battle of evil versus love that will see this curse broken forevermore.”