The Red Rider Page 7

  "I guess your fatness couldn't save you," Leviatha taunted, "eh Knight of the Folds?" She lay down across his back and put her arms around his neck, pulling his face off the ground so he could see Red through the prison window. Though her chest wound bled freely, soaking her dress with red, she wore a proud smirk. "So what say you? Do you concede, or will you continue fighting for your little friend?"

  Herbert didn't speak, but drool and mucus dripped from his orifices, and his face was turning red. Leviatha pulled harder, putting his head at a terrifying angle to his body. His neck looked like it would snap any second, and Red feared for his life. She wanted to tell him to stop, as dying like this wouldn't be worth it, but Leviatha spoke first.

  "How about this?" the giantess offered. "If you give up, she stays put. If you don't quit and let me break your neck, on the other hand... then I'll let her go."

  Red grew terrified that, being a knight, he would have too much pride and allow himself to be killed. But just before she could shout for him to quit, he tapped Leviatha's arm, signaling his admission of defeat. She relinquished her hold—thank the gods—and shoved his head to the ground, where he stared at Red with eyes miserable for his failure.

  Leviatha stood and retrieved her sword, then put her foot on Herbert's back while he continued to lie there. "That was not a good performance. A great big knight picking on a grievously injured woman, and you still can't win? Maybe if you weren't so lazy sitting on your ass and eating all day, you could have lasted a few more seconds."

  "Red," Herbert gasped, struggling for breath, "I'm sorry."

  She saw tears running down his cheeks, and her own eyes filled with moisture. "Don't be. You tried your best."

  "No," he whispered so that Leviatha wouldn't hear, "not yet. I'll get you free, I promise."

  #

  Four days after his loss to Leviatha, Herbert walked into a bar in the city of Cochen. He had ridden hard to get here this fast, and was still winded when he approached the curly-haired younger man sitting at a table playing cards. "Aidan. I need your help."

  The clean-shaven warrior looked up. "Oh, it's you again. Haven't I paid you back enough for saving my life before?"

  He had done Herbert a lot of favors since then, but he really needed another now. "You haven't saved my life back yet, though. Just one more time, please? I need your help to save a girl—after this, we can call it even and there'll be no debts between us, is that all right with you?"

  Aidan's handsome face perked up. "A girl? Is she pretty?"

  "She has good features," he said after a moment, rolling his eyes, "but has silver veins on her face, and looks rather thin and sickly right now after being impaled. Missing a few teeth too."

  "Impaled, huh? What do you need my help for, I'm not a healer."

  "It seems like she'll survive the wound. But she's been imprisoned."

  He let out a long sigh. "So you want to use my name to buy her freedom. Well, who's the captor?"

  Herbert smiled. "A pretty lady. I think you'll like her."

  "Is that so? Fine then, I'll help you!"

  #

  Another week passed with agonizing slowness for Red, who really wished she had gotten farther away before stopping to tend to her wounds. Sure, she had passed out shortly after anyway, but maybe if she'd kept her singleminded focus on escaping, she could have stayed awake. She also realized a full moon must have passed by now, maybe even a while ago. As she hadn't heard any panicked screams of terror from the town, she concluded Leviatha's plan had not yet been enacted.

  One morning, she heard Herbert's voice outside again. "Hey, I'm back. Brought help this time to save you."

  She looked. A very handsome man in brilliant mail stood behind him, impatiently tapping his shiny-booted foot. "Who's he?"

  "Prince Aidan."

  Red's eyes widened. "That Prince Aidan? Not sure how much he'll be of help."

  "Well, you better hope he is."

  The man bent down to see into her cell. "So this is the girl? Not bad, all things considered."

  She shook her head. "That's the first thing you think about? Doesn't seem to suit your fearsome title."

  "But you have to remember I did that to save some people," he said with a wink. "Should count against my fearsomeness."

  "You still ruined the country."

  "It was the only thing I could do to satisfy my conscience. Principles, and all."

  She waved dismissively. "You killed your uncle the king over a girl."

  "Over an intended act of genocide! He wanted to wipe out her whole religion."

  "Maybe you shouldn't argue with him?" Herbert put in. "He's here to help you."

  "He still did what he did."

  He shrugged. "It wasn't strictly wrong. Those people's lives were saved."

  Aidan looked distantly towards the south. "Alas, they would flee our lawless country, taking the woman of my dreams with them. It's good then, I have many different dreams." Red stuck her tongue at him while he wasn't looking.

  Leviatha soon arrived on the scene. "You're back," she said to Herbert. "I must admire your persistence after the humiliation you suffered before." Aidan looked at him, and he shook his bowed head. Leviatha turned to Aidan. "And if it isn't the Kingkiller himself! It's been a long time, great and magnificent prince."

  He chuckled. "Your sarcasm is duly noted. When you told me 'a pretty lady,' Herbert, I kind of expected someone I didn't know."

  "I didn't know you knew her. I don't know her."

  "So what are you here for?" Leviatha asked Aidan. "You're with him, so I assume it has something to do with the Red Ridiot?"

  "Herbert wishes that you free her. Hearing the events that led to her captivity, I too feel it unjust."

  She snorted. "Under what authority do you demand her release? This isn't the old kingdom anymore, and even if it was, I'd think you revoked your status by slaying kin."

  "They still call me Prince," he said with a smile. "But I don't 'demand' anything. I'm just requesting, from one honorable person to another, that you don't punish her undeservedly."

  "And why should I heed your request? Just because we fought a little on the same side together, I should give your opinions weight?"

  He looked down in silence for a while. Then he asked, "So what, are you going to challenge me to fight with the condition that you'll release her if I win?"

  That got a laugh out of Leviatha. "You know me well. Or did you guess that from Herbert's story?"

  "It's a secret."

  "So, will you fight me then?"

  He touched the jewel-encrusted hilt of his finely scabbarded longsword. "No. My sword's rusty."

  She frowned. "That's too bad. You used to have quite the skills."

  "Who says I don't still? I just haven't been in an environment to keep them as razor sharp as you. By the way, I hear the girl impaled you when you fought. How are you?"

  "Fine, of course. Herbert can attest to that."

  "Do you feel good, though?"

  "I'm an indestructible giant. I don't stay hurt for long." Her tone had softened. "Oh, all right! I'll let the Red Ridiot go." Red's heart leapt in her chest.

  "When?" Herbert asked.

  Leviatha's voice regained its edge. "In a couple weeks." After the next full moon, she meant. The precise timeframe she gave indicated she now knew when the werewolves would come, and only planned to release her after her plan came to fruition. She had to get out before then, but how...

  "Thank you," the knight said, and Red thought she would be helpless to stop the slaughter after all. But then she noticed he had crept in front of her window, and now dropped something behind himself. A hairpin... which she could use to pick a lock or two. So he had figured out something about Leviatha's intentions, and knew she needed to get out in a hurry. Thankful he'd come up with a backup plan, she snaked her hand between the bars, snatched up the hairpin with a smile and hid it under some dirt in the corner.

  "So now that I'm here," Aidan asked the
giantess, "how about you take me to your castle so we can get reacquainted?"

  "That'll be fine," she said with a tight-lipped ambivalent expression. They left together with Herbert, who gave Red a concealed thumbs-up behind his thigh as he departed.

  That night, Red had removed her manacle and was in the process of picking the cell door lock when the old man spoke. She'd thought he had been asleep. "You going now?"

  "It's the plan. You want to come?"

  "No, I'll just wait my sentence out. Seems like more trouble than it's worth if I get caught. You plan on being a thorn in Leviatha's side, yes? Good luck with that... don't get killed."

  "Thanks. Take care of yourself, and don't let any werewolves eat you." She unlocked the door, knocked out the two guards in front, and was gone.

  #

  Red exited the town, wondering where Herbert was. He saved her the trouble of looking when he shortly found her himself. "There you are!" she said when he walked out from behind a clump of dried up dead brush. "Thank you for saving me."

  He patted her shoulder. "You're welcome. Glad to see getting stabbed hasn't slowed you down too much. You're nearly skin and bones, though."

  She felt frightfully conscious of how close she had come to death as she hugged herself and felt the unfamiliar boniness of her arms, but said, "It's not that bad. Get some real food in me, and I'll be good as new."

  "Do you plan on going after Leviatha again?

  "No. It seems unlikely I'll dissuade her from letting the werewolf attacks continue without killing her, and I'm doubtful I could kill her even if I really wanted to. Besides, even if I did, the werewolf horde would likely still come at this point. I should probably switch my focus to keeping them from getting to the villagers."

  "Werewolf horde? What exactly is her plan, anyway?" She explained, and he asked, "So you want the two of us to try and stop this horde?"

  She opened her mouth to answer, then stopped. "Wait, what do you mean us? Don't you have responsibilities? I'd thought your superiors must already be unhappy with you taking so much time off to help me."

  He shook his head. "I'm not a Knight of the Fold anymore. When I got back I asked to be put back on active duty, but despite my success, they tried to relegate me to pageboy tasks again. So I quit."

  "Sorry to hear that."

  "It's not so bad. Might be good being independent for a change. Besides, now I can be your sidekick."

  She touched his chest and smiled warmly. "You mean partner."

  "Partner, sidekick, whatever. You're the one with experience at this... fighting werewolves, being independent and all. Back to my question, though—are you planning for the two of us to take on scores or possibly hundreds of werewolves?"

  "Not alone. We'll need help."

  He looked up at the night sky. "The full moon's two weeks away. You said you don't have a lot of friends, so is there anyone you can get to help out in time?"

  Red considered for a moment, then grinned. "As a matter of fact, there is one person..."

  Chapter 5

  Red led Herbert into the fistfighting arena that had once been a courthouse in the big port city of Veid, a true sign of the times. He wasn't used to this kind of environment, dark, noisy, and crowded, and could only follow her blindly through the screaming throngs of people. On occasion his great mass would bump into another man, and often they would shove or snarl at him. Wanting to avoid a fight, he ignored this. Eventually, Red somehow managed to bring them to the inner edge of the audience, where he got to see clearly what they watched with such zeal. Inside a cage in the middle of the arena, a musclebound, bald and goateed male fighter wearing only shorts traded blows with a well built but smaller female in a sleeveless top and long pants. To his surprise, the young woman was winning, putting her opponent back on his heels with solid punches.

  "Damn, she can fight," he said as she ducked a hook and came back up with an uppercut that rocked the man.

  "Like me?" Red asked.

  "Well, I've never seen you fight strictly hand to hand."

  The female fighter hit her adversary hard, turning him around to stumble away. But when she charged after him, he spun back and nailed her with a haymaker she ran right into. She dropped momentarily into a crouch, putting a hand on the ground, but somehow stood right back up. She was stunned, though, he could tell from her dazed eyes. The man blasted her with more hard punches right to her jaw, finally dropping her to her back. He followed her down, continuing to strike. Her hands lay limp over her head, which had lolled to the side facing Herbert—her eyes closed, and lips parted.

  "They need to stop the fight!" he said to Red. "She's out!"

  "Don't worry, she's a tough girl."

  The downed fighter's fingers moved. She grabbed the man and threw him headfirst into the cage. She struggled up just after he did and kicked him in the head, wobbling him. But she proved too dizzy to capitalize, and by the time she gathered herself enough to kick again, he was already throwing a punch. It warped her face before her foot reached him, causing her to fall away with eyes rolled up. Herbert heard Red gasp, and saw she now looked very worried.

  The female fighter tried to crawl away, dragging herself across the floor. Her foe kicked her in the back of the skull, laying her out flat. He knelt and pulled her up by the hair to show the audience her blood-dripping face. One of her fingers twitched, and just for that he stood and stomped repeatedly on her head. Herbert thought she was going to die.

  She covered her head with her arms, which didn't look like it would save her for long. Then she rolled over and kicked her opponent in the knee as he raised his foot for another stomp, causing him to fall back. She pulled herself up using the cage for help. He stood, hopped a little favoring his leg and advanced again. She pushed him back with a kick to the middle, ran at him and hit him with a jumping elbow that left her close enough to kiss him. Instead she bearhugged him, pinning his arms at his sides. Herbert doubted she could hold him for long... but then she headbutted him. A loud crack reverberated through the arena. She did it again, and again, and again, until his legs gave out and they fell together, her landing on top. She spun atop him so that her knees ended up behind his head and kneed him repeatedly in the top of the skull. His body went limp. She gave him a couple more knees as if to be sure, then stood up off him.

  "The winner and still champion," the announcer proclaimed, "Eeeeevie!

  The victor didn't look like much of one. She leaned against the cage looking badly hurt, eyes distant. But then she raised a fist, and the audience roared with cheers.

  Red took on a sad smile. "Whatever else you'd say about her, that is a warrior."

  "Who is she?"

  "You'll learn."

  After the ring was cleared and the crowd began to disperse, Red led Herbert backstage. They walked through some dirty halls and into a small dressing room where the female fighter sat hunched on a bench.

  "You should stop doing these fights," said Red. "They aren't good for you."

  Evie looked up, face horribly bruised and swollen. Her nose was almost sideways, but now she remembered to reach up and wrench it back into a semblance of normal alignment with a crunch. "But where else would I make a small fortune, certainly not werewolf hunting with you. Besides, it doesn't look like that's been treating you too kindly either, sis."

  Herbert stared at Red. "She's your sister? I thought she'd be more... feminine."

  She slapped his arm. "What, you mean I'm not feminine?"

  "That's not what I said. I meant I thought she'd be more feminine than she is."

  "So I'm not feminine?" Evie asked.

  "Uh..."

  To his relief, she didn't seem angered. "Call me what you want, I am what I am." She turned to Red. "So what do you want, you need to borrow money again?"

  Her face reddened a tad. "I need some help killing werewolves."

  "From me, a fistfighter? Huh."

  "It doesn't need to be you personally, although I'd appreciate it if you le
nt a hand." Herbert could tell she wouldn't feel great about dragging her sibling into mortal danger, but practically speaking her abilities might be a big asset. "I know you're connected, so if you could find us some men..."

  Evie's brow rose. "And that'll take what—money, right? See, I knew you came here for my coin."

  "I... guess it might take some money, but you make plenty don't you? I'll pay it back someday, I promise." Red tried to meet her impassive gaze. "Look, a lot of people are going to die without your aid. Werewolves killed your grandma and mom too, don't you want to pay them back for that?"

  She put her hands on her hips. "I've helped you kill plenty of werewolves already with my gold. But hmm... lots of people, huh? Tell me what's going on and maybe I'll consider it." Red told her the story, and she held her head. "All right... against my better judgment... I'll do it. Mainly because you'll probably get yourself killed trying to go it alone if I don't help. How soon do you need to be on your way?"

  "In two days at the most. We traveled rather far to get here, so we have to hurry to get back in time."

  "Two days? That's a tall order."

  "You're a tall person."

  Evie recoiled in exaggerated surprise. "No I'm not. Just taller than you." She was still nearly a foot shorter than Leviatha. "But I'll see what I can do."

  "Shouldn't you tell her about the gear?" Herbert asked Red.

  "Yeah, thanks for reminding me. Make sure everybody's weapons are silvered, and any man who can use a bow or crossbow should have silver-tipped arrows or bolts."

  Evie nodded. "That makes sense... more money out of my purse. Anyway, meet me back here in two days and we'll see what I could do."

  They exited the arena and walked through streets flanked by tall buildings together, the sisters catching up on what had happened since they last saw each other, before Evie dropped Red and Herbert off at a cheap-looking but quiet inn. Herbert had some reservations about becoming her partner and having to make do without a steady income, but the alternative of running home to family with the news he'd been un-knighted and had nothing to do would be worse. And if he had to brave the complexities of the world without the guidance of authority, better to do it with a friend than alone.