I saw no one at first. Moonlight bathed the surrounding countryside, but the wind kept everything swaying, so it was hard to pick out motion. Cecilia pointed to a pair of men circling the bottom of the hill. They might be scouting. Or they might be hunting, and if so, Cecilia and I were the quarry.
“What should we do?” Her voice was soft, barely audible, but laced with worry.
“I’m not sure yet.” If we moved, they were more likely to notice us. But if they were tracking us, we ought to leave at once. I pulled the hood of Cecilia’s cloak over her head to cover her hair. I didn’t want flashes of her enchanted tresses to give us away. “What did you see before you woke me?”
“Just the men. I woke you as soon as I saw.”
Her eyes were sharp. The men moved by light of moon rather than by torch or fire. Either they weren’t searching for anything, or they were hoping to keep an element of surprise and sneak up on us. Regardless, they were moving closer.
“Oh no.” Cecilia’s words were a mere breeze. “Look.”
Another group, larger than the first, approached from a different direction. They called out to the first group. Not in Turkish. In Catalan.
What were Catalans doing this far south? They’d ruled the Duchy for a stretch of seventy years, but I’d personally helped kick them out of Thebes, and after that, they’d been expelled from Livadeia and Athens. They still held Neopatras, but Neopatras lay to the north, and last I’d heard, the city was under siege, so every warrior would be wanted to prevent its fall.
A face like mine was uncommon enough in the Duchy that people remembered me. If any of the men below had been in Thebes eleven years ago, and if they saw me, I’d be in trouble. Cecilia, too, since she was chained to me.
“We need to leave now. As quietly as we can.” The groups were on the southeast and northeast side of the rise. “West.” I motioned, but I didn’t need to. She was a sailor. She could tell direction better than I could.
She grabbed the bundle of chestnuts. When I stood, pain shot through my left leg, and it wouldn’t hold my weight. I stumbled and ended up back on the ground. My leg hadn’t given out on me like that in six years. Worse than the pain was the amount of noise it had made.
“Did you hear that?” one of the Catalans asked.
Cecilia’s eyes grew wide. I put a finger to my lips and strapped on my sword. Maybe they would dismiss the noise as something other than human. The wind. An animal.
My leg would work again soon; I just needed to start off more gingerly—not that we had time for that. I got to my feet again, more slowly this time. Cecilia grabbed my arm and pulled it around her shoulder to help me walk. The injury would work itself out in a few more steps, but I wasn’t as fast as I needed to be. When the limb held my weight, I released Cecilia and picked up the loose bits of chain so they wouldn’t drag. The Catalans continued their search, but we might still be able to get away without them seeing us.
I pointed downhill through a thicket of trees and brush, a path that risked more noise but would shade us from the moonlight. As we moved, I handed the chain to Cecilia so I’d have my hands free for my sword.
We paused in the thickest part of the grove. Our position was precarious. I couldn’t trust the Catalans, yet it felt wrong to attack them before they showed themselves hostile. But we were outnumbered, and if they weren’t friendly, surprise was the one advantage we had.
I guided Cecilia to an opening between two close-growing trees. She pulled the hood of her cloak across most of her face and held perfectly still. I did the same, but I kept my sword unsheathed and at my side.
Eventually one of the Catalans strode into the grove. I hoped he would pass by without seeing us, but his face froze when he looked in our direction. He gripped the hilt of his sword and came closer.
My Catalan wasn’t polished, but I could communicate. “I’m not looking for any trouble. I hope you don’t intend to give any.”
The man drew his sword. “Give me something to make it worth my while, and I’ll let you alone.”
“I don’t have any coin. The Turks already robbed me.”
He focused on something over my shoulder. “Who’s behind you?”
I’d been hoping he wouldn’t notice Cecilia. The Catalans weren’t as active in slaving as the Turks, but it remained one of their key trades, or it had been when they’d run the Duchy.
I brought my sword up. “If you don’t leave us alone, you’ll regret it.”
“Regret passing up two slaves who can’t otherwise line my pockets? I think not.” He ran toward me with a sudden burst of speed.
I stepped toward him, conscious that I had only a little chain and, therefore, only a little room to maneuver. I blocked his cut. He was a sloppy swordsman and couldn’t stop my counterstroke. But my slash into his collar bone didn’t silence him quickly enough. His cry of pain echoed through the grove as I shoved him away with my foot.
He wasn’t dead, but he was no longer a threat. That didn’t matter because now all his friends would come for us.
“Run, Cecilia.” I picked up the wounded Catalan’s sword—it was better than the one I’d taken from the Turks—and ran after her.
Shouts came rapidly as the others gave chase. Four now threatened us, maybe more. Chains and an uncooperative leg hampered my movements. This wouldn’t be an easy fight.
Cecilia let out a cry of alarm but quickly muffled it. I pushed her aside to charge at the man racing toward her. He’d somehow gotten in front of us. I blocked his cut with the Catalan sword and used the Turkish blade I held in my left hand to stab him through.
We ran only a little farther before the next Catalans caught up to us, two of them, and they were wise enough to attack together. I used both swords to block their swings but couldn’t coordinate duels against two adversaries at once. Cecilia flung the cuff on the end of the chain into one of their heads. While he was distracted, I slashed my sword across the other’s neck, and as he fell, I finished off the one Cecilia had injured.
“There’s at least one more out there.” Cecilia swallowed. “Maybe two.”
I listened and waited, but between the wind whipping through the trees and my heavy breathing, it was hard to catch Catalan footsteps. I still gripped both swords in my hands as I searched the bushes and trees for signs of more attackers. My leg burned, but it obeyed the commands I gave it, and that was good enough for now.
I sheathed the Turkish sword and rummaged over the dead bodies, looking for anything that might be of use. A satchel with cheese and salted fish, rope, and another knife. “We can’t stay, so we’ll try to sneak away and hope they don’t follow.”
I handed her the plundered items, and she wrapped them into a bundle. I would carry them, eventually, but not when I might need a sword at any moment.
Something snapped in the night, and I spun toward the noise.
“I see him,” Cecilia whispered. “On the edge of the grove, but I don’t think he wants to come in.”
“He isn’t leaning over to arm a crossbow, is he?”
“No. I think he’s doubling over to vomit.”
If he wasn’t going to attack us, I wasn’t going to attack him, but I watched the trees closely in case another enemy stalked us. Wind stirred all the leaves, raising prickles on my neck and making it hard to spot the enemy.
Cecilia yanked on my arm. “Get down!”
I fell to the ground with her as a crossbow bolt slammed into a nearby tree. Had she not tugged on me, the bolt would have plowed into my torso. “Where is he?”
She pointed.
I pulled the two of us to our feet and ran forward.
“Why are we running closer?” she asked.
I would have answered had there been time. We reached another Catalan as he finished reloading his weapon. I slashed twice: once at his crossbow, once at him.
I inhaled deeply, trying to catch my breath. “We ran closer so I could kill him before he had time to reload and aim again.”
Cecilia stared at the body. “I see.”
We continued through the grove, moving cautiously forward, uncertain if the ones I’d wounded would attack again or if the one we’d seen vomiting would find his courage and seek revenge for the comrades I’d slain and injured. I led us from one shadow to the next in a serpentine line so anyone watching would have a hard time determining our direction. Only when the grove and the hill were out of sight did I put my second sword away and take some of the supplies from Cecilia.
She scanned the countryside and seemed to relax. She hadn’t seen anything either. “That’s two nights in a row that someone has wanted to enslave us, and you’ve managed to fight more men than I thought possible.”
I hoped we were safe, but the Catalans made me nervous. “Let’s add some more distance, just in case there are more of them somewhere.”