I dodged his swipe at my head and slammed the hilt of my sword into his face. I heard a crack, followed by a wheeze and gasp. Blood sprayed once more as he fell backward.
The mage’s eyes widened as I continued toward her. She yelped, turned tail, and sprinted off into the brush. I opted to let her go, in part because I doubted she’d be back any time soon and also because Jareb’s two friends, Kush and Amalek, had made it over to me.
I kicked out Amalek’s crutch before he could raise his blade. He fell.
Kush came in fast, hoping to make up for his friends’ failures. He spat angry curses, wanting to seek retribution from our confrontation yesterday. His anger made up for his sloppy blows. He moved with such strength I backed away and deflected the first half-dozen strikes. He overreached himself on the seventh, raising his arm higher for what he probably imagined to be some act of intimidation before raining down a stroke with all his might. It never came as my blade sank into his side just under the armpit.
I walked over to Amalek as he tried to rise and kicked him in the face. He fell back next to Jareb. Both rested, motionless, unrecognizable and covered in blood.
It was too good for them.
With my three men down, I turned my attention to Dekar and Ira. They stood over four injured men. Ira had a sword raised, ready to plunge downward.
“Wait!” I called out.
Dekar grabbed his brother’s arm as it started to descend.
Ira looked up, confused “What the heck, Ty?”
“Just wait.”
I looked over to Myra and Zadok. Both stared in disbelief. Zadok especially seemed unsure about what to make of things. I doubted that the ugly clash of steel reflected anything he had heard before in his fairy tales. There was no chivalry and majestic sweeping of blades, no swearing of long-winded oaths in real life.
“Myra. Myra!” I repeated, louder. She blinked. “Are you both all right?”
She nodded.
“Good. Stay there a moment.” I turned back to Ira and Dekar. “Where are the others?”
“You were right about the mayor running,” said Ira. “However, the sheriff and one of his deputies decided to join him when they saw things get out of hand.”
“Figures.” I nodded to the four groaning bodies. “Let them be and let’s get out of here.”
Ira gave me a confused look. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. We’ve made our point.” I thought of some of the accusations consistently made against me and others from the army. “We defended ourselves and won. We’re not cold-blooded killers.”
“You know they’ll just likely be part of some party coming to hunt us down inside of a couple of days.”
I knew he was probably right, remembering a lesson my old drill sergeant once told me. ‘Never let your enemy live, unless he’s living in chains.’ However, when I looked over my shoulder and saw the looks on Myra and Zadok’s faces, I couldn’t bring myself to kill the men lying helpless on the ground.
I knew I’d likely regret the decision.
“Let’s just go.” I faced my kids. “Hurry and jump in the back of the wagon.”
Myra led Zadok by the hand, making as wide a circle as possible to avoid the men on the ground. She reached the wagon bed and climbed in back. I piled in behind them and took a seat.
“I’m sorry you had to see that.”
“It was so much different than I thought it would be,” said Zadok in a monotone voice.
I nodded while blowing out a slow breath, scanning the bushes in order to make sure that mage hadn’t found the nerve to return. I neither saw nor heard anything. “That’s usually how they all go.”
Myra gasped. I turned. “Tyrus, you’re bleeding.”
I looked down and touched my side with a free hand. “Not mine.”
“Oh,” she said softly in recognition. “Shouldn’t you clean it up or something?”
“Later. Maybe I can find a place come morning to take care of that. For now, we need to get moving. Speaking of,” I began, realizing that neither Ira nor Dekar had climbed onto the front of the wagon. “Hey, let’s get a move on! We give the mayor enough time, he’s likely to come back with a mob.” I called out.
Ira snorted. “Funny you should mention that. Ty, can your kids fight?”
“What?”
Dekar said. “What Ira means is you might want to think up something quick.”
I cursed, stood, and looked past Ira and Dekar. About three dozen townspeople carrying everything from old swords to shovels and pickaxes walked toward us. None of them looked friendly. Worst of all they blocked our only way out of the area short of turning the wagon around, and maneuvering through uncleared terrain. Not exactly an ideal solution.
“Molak be cursed. We’re not taking them all out,” I said. “Quick, get in the wagon and take off.”
They both ran back. The mob didn’t speed their approach. I guess they assumed there was no need to rush with us pinned as we were.
Dekar called out as he climbed in. “They’re blocking us.”
“Then make them move,” I said.
“Now we’re talking,” said Ira, drawing his sword once again.
I had still had mine in hand and shifted the grip. I looked down at Myra and Zadok. “Climb underneath the seat quickly and tuck yourselves in tight.”
They did so without question just as Dekar seized the reigns and flicked them hard. The wagon lurched forward, nearly rocking me off my feet. We didn’t have a lot of room to build up speed in our charge, but my hope was that the sight of the animals barreling down on them would be enough to have them second guess their decision to make a stand. Maybe they wouldn’t realize they could strike at the unprotected flanks of our horses. If they did gather themselves in time, my hope was that they’d strike the wagon, which could take the punishment.
The mayor was smarter than I was hoping. He screamed for everyone to hold their ground. Funny how he did so from the edge of the mob rather than the center. He probably thought he’d be safe.
Dekar angled the wagon toward him.
A series of loud, rapid pops followed by a magnificent burst of bluish-white light exploded in our path. Dekar veered the wagon away and pulled up on the reigns. The sudden stop pitched me forward and I just barely stopped myself from falling over the side. Several more pops sounded again, and the transfer portal closed.
I was still working hard at blinking and rubbing my eyes with my free hand when a woman’s voice yelled “Get Back!” in the direction of the townspeople.
Through blurry, yet slowly clearing vision I called, “Ava? That you?”
“Yeah, it’s me. You want to tell me what in the name of the gods is going on?”
My vision started to return, and I saw that she was standing in front of the mob all by herself. With wide eyes and nervous glances, none moved.
Ava wore white robes rather than her black leathers. In any other situation, I’d give her a hard time about that. She had her hands on her hips daring the crowd to try something stupid. None of them wanted to take that dare. They had most likely never seen anything like a transfer portal before.
The mayor might have been able to work the crowd into a big enough frenzy to stand their ground against a charging wagon, but I doubted he could convince them to attack a mage, especially since it was obvious she knew more than the few parlor tricks like the woman I ran off earlier.
“Long story,” I answered. “The gist of it is that our homecoming has been anything but what we all thought it would be. We had a bit of trouble early on that’s only gotten worse. We’re no longer welcome and the townspeople want to imprison me.”
“Been busy, I see,” she said.
“Yeah.”
People still looked for the mayor to take the lead, but unsurprisingly, I could no longer spot him. The sheriff seemed the next logical person to command the crowd, but he was as dumbfounded as the rest. Without a leader present, everyone just stood and watched.
“Where are Lasha and the kids?” Ava asked over a shoulder.