The mercenary, who introduced himself as Kalat, rode to Brax's left and didn't shut up.
"So you're Brax, right? Well, I've heard of you! You're a legend among mercenaries. That performance of yours at Santer two years ago was something. I wish I could have been there. You don't know how much I'm looking forward to seeing you in action!"
Brax had been listening to similar talk for an hour.
But relief soon came. There was a fallen tree on the road. One look at the trunk was enough for Brax - it didn't fall by itself, it was felled.
"Well, we're doing well today," came a voice from nowhere, and within a moment, five bandits from the front and four from the back blocked Brax and Kalat's path.
"May I suggest you guys get off your horses and put down your weapons? We don't want blood to flow here," smiled the obvious leader of this group.
Brax glanced discreetly around the area. He needed to know if there was anyone with a bow or crossbow around.
"They want to play," Kalat smiled.
"Shut up and get off," Brax growled.
Kalat's smile disappeared from his face and he obediently dismounted. He probably didn't understand why Brax had ordered him to dismount. But Brax had everything planned out. He needed to stand on the ground, you can't fight with a hammer on horseback.
So they both dismounted, but they didn't put down their weapons. Brax was quietly about to draw the dagger in his handguard.
"Those weapons, boys," the group leader frowned.
"I can put it right under your nose," Brax smiled.
"As you wish. At them!" the leader shouted.
There was a click in the treetop to Brax's right, and an arrow from a crossbow flew out from there. He jumped instinctively. Immediately, the man jumped down from the branch and was about to shoot again. But Brax had already thrown a dagger in his direction. A painful roar followed - he had hit his target. He knew how to use a dagger.
"And into them," Kalat exclaimed enthusiastically and drew his swords.
Brax took down his hammer and stood in a defensive position. The bandits did not wait for anything and rushed at him. Their mistake. He swung and killed the fastest one with a single blow to the chest. There was a loud crunch as the hammer crushed the man's ribs. Brax, however, did not wait for anything and started at the others - he could see red again. He swung his hammer from one side to the other. He attacked, took cover and attacked again. His war cry echoed through the forest. Every move he made was perfectly calculated, he knew how to use his weapon. More and more bandits ran out of the forest and the pile of bodies in front of Brax only grew.
Kalat did no worse. For a chatty amateur, he did a great job. He moved with the grace of a cat. Soon, only the leader was left of the bandits. He ran away, but Kalat killed him by throwing a dagger at his back.
"You idiot! We needed him alive," Brax roared angrily.
"Why? I just want the medallions, right?" Kalat didn't understand.
"We could have found out where their base was."
"Ah. Well, next time."
Brax just sighed resignedly and began collecting the medallions from the bodies.
Lina rode along the stream of the forest for more than a mile. She wasn't sure if the men would try to chase her, but certainty was always certainty.
When she was sure it was safe to get out of the stream and into the forest, she urged Rillan on and they rode out.
The girl looked around carefully, listening carefully for anything suspicious. There was silence everywhere, but not unnaturally so.
She breathed again and was finally able to relax in the saddle after a few hours. She dismounted to stretch her legs and give the horse a chance to rest. She let him walk alongside her, not even holding his reins.
Lina's mind flashed back to what had happened. She was well aware that she knew several people who would have only shaken their heads in confusion at her behavior. She remembered one person in particular just now. But she also knew very well why she would care what he thought. She didn't want to kill. She didn't want to kill anyone. She knew that death would bring her no peace. She wouldn't be able to breathe if she killed those bandits. The shot in the arm and leg wasn't fatal. Unless she hit an artery, that is. But the men remained conscious, she could hear their curses and screams, so they must have been able to treat the wound.
'What about the third one? Why didn't you hit him with an arrow when you could?' she asked herself inside. 'She couldn't. Hitting a moving target is harder, although I probably could have done it anyway, but... what if I hit somewhere other than the arm? No. The branch was a better solution.'
Lina exhaled and looked around. She hadn't even realized she had come this far. She was just a few dozen feet before a major bend. The view behind her was blocked by dense trees.
"Go," she said quietly to Rillan and touched his side.
The horse obediently trotted aside behind the bushes to her right. Lina didn't know why she was suddenly so alert. Perhaps it was because of the previous events. She looked around again and saw a small rise to her left, from which she could see whether it would be safe to go straight on or take a detour.
She stepped quietly on the fallen leaves, careful not to disturb the branches of the bushes she was crawling under. When she was a little below the rise, she lay down on the ground and began to slowly move upwards.
Now she realized how lucky she was that her hair was brown. Even though the girls from the village had sometimes teased her that having hair that was blond and shining like liquid gold was the best thing for a woman. Now she remembered it with a smile.
On top of the rise was thick grass, swaying slightly in the wind. Lina carefully spread her fingers a few stems apart so she could take a look.
She swallowed hard and opened her mouth to smooth out her exhalation. Behind the bend she was about to take was a smaller ravine, in which there were about twenty people. She could tell that they were men by the roars and rough laughter that came from there. She didn't immediately recognize who they were. They were still a long way from her. Fortunately, she realized. Then, however, she more than realized where she had ended up.
She watched them for a moment. During that time, two of them began to fight among themselves and others around them laughed loudly. Some of them looked similar to the ones she had met earlier, others were wearing cloaks.
'Especially since I told Brax that I wouldn't go straight to the bandits,' she thought and smiled bitterly to herself.
So she definitely couldn't go that way. She would have to go around it, and in a real roundabout way.
Lina began to look around carefully, hoping to see any patrols or anyone who had broken away from them and wandered where they shouldn't have. She wasn't sure whether she had reached the main bandit lair or just a smaller group. She was hoping for the latter.
She couldn't see anyone in front of her, so she slowly turned around. Nobody either, she breathed a sigh of relief. Now she examined the left side and finally the right. At that moment, she froze, because a few meters from where Rillan had stayed, a hooded man with a bow appeared and was looking around.
"I'll tell you, you were really good at wielding that hammer," Kalat started talking again.
"I've never seen anyone who could handle a weapon so well."
Brax didn't answer, just looked at the map. They had already passed four places where bandits were said to occasionally lurk, but apart from the first clash, they hadn't encountered anyone.
"How about a little duel?" Kalat suggested.
"No," Brax replied, his gaze still fixed on the map.
They were driving briskly along a well-used trade route. It was impossible to guess from the marked places on the map where the bandits might have a hideout. The ambush sites were spread out in all sorts of ways, with no logical place from which they could attack in all directions. With one like that, they would have to comb the entire surrounding forests. But where to start?
"Where are we going? Do we have a specific destination? Or are we just wandering around and hoping that someone will ambush us?" Kalat could not be stopped in his flood of words.
"The Mered Valley," Brax replied simply.
"Why are we going there?"
"It doesn't matter? We have to comb the entire area anyway, so we have to start somewhere," Brax growled sullenly.
He had his reasons for wanting to start there, but Kalat had none of them.
"Excuse me, don't bite my head off right now, I was just asking," Kalat defended himself. "Did I tell you about the local girls? Man, some of them are really worth a sin. But when I get close to one, she just takes off and is gone."
"That's because you're a mercenary, you idiot, get used to it," Brax shook his head.
"But maybe we'll come across a damsel in distress. Saving someone like that would be something - she'd jump for our throats! Well, not for you, because you're nasty and scarred, but she could for me."
Brax just shook his head and prayed that someone would ambush them.
Lina's eyes widened, but then something occurred to her. She carefully began to slide lower and lower, until she was back on the level ground from the hill. She slowly backed away until she was hidden behind one of the trees.
She looked around and found what she was looking for. She lightly picked up a thick branch from the ground, picked up a fallen pine cone in the other, and peeked out from behind the tree. She saw that the man was not far from Rillan, but he hadn't noticed him yet.
Then she took a deep breath and whistled. She made an exact imitation of the finches, which resembled the melody to the words 'a doll sits in a flower'. She saw Rillan quicken his pace and prick up his ears. Lina whistled again, and the horse slowly came out of the thicket toward her.
The man noticed him immediately and aimed his bow at him. But when he saw that the horse was not carrying anyone in the saddle, he lowered his bow a little, but began to look around even more attentively.
She whistled again. Rillan slowly approached where she stood, and the man followed him warily.
It had taken Lina almost a month to teach the horse this. She had wanted to stop several times, but now she was grateful to herself that she hadn't, and to Rillan that he had learned it.
She felt her heart pounding in her throat and her hands were starting to sweat. So she gripped the branch tighter and concentrated.
Rillan reached the tree she had been hiding behind. Lina saw the man looking around through the branches and waited for him to turn around. As soon as he did, she threw the pinecone with all her strength into the bushes to the man's left. He jumped closer to the horse and aimed an arrow at the bushes.
At that moment, Lina stepped forward, swung, and before the man could turn, she hit him with a branch with all her strength in the back of the head, so that he fell to the ground like a cut-down tree.
She didn't wait any longer and quickly jumped on her horse. She urged him on and rode off towards the road she had come on. She rode back, looking back only once, and then, as soon as she saw the green grass of the meadow shining through the trees, she and Rillan drove through them and onto it.
They were approaching the Mered Valley. With an experienced eye, Brax recognized the tracks around the road. Those thickets
between the trees were often moved by someone. There was no doubt about it - this was one of the bandits' main ambush sites.
'Unlucky, stubborn girl,' Brax thought, and only hoped that Lina was still alive.
They stopped and dismounted.
"Here are the tracks of horses and leather boots," Kalat called out, walking through the trees.
"There is blood on the ground," Brax said.
They examined the scene of the ambush.
"The blood is fresh," Brax muttered.
"The tracks too," Kalat agreed.
All his childish playfulness and playfulness were gone. Now an expert stood before Brax.
"Whatever happened here, it wasn't more than a few hours ago."
"I agree. Can you follow the tracks?"
"I don't know, I'll look around," Kalat replied with a frown.
While Brax examined the ambush site and its immediate surroundings, Kalat looked around a little further. They split up for an hour and then regrouped back at the horses.
"What did you find?" Brax asked.
"I found horse tracks leading to the stream. They disappear there - the prey probably defended itself, and did quite well."
"The bloody tracks lead further through the forest towards the valley," Brax shared his find.
"So, what do we do now?" Kalat raised his eyebrows, pulled out one of his swords and made sure it was sharp.
"I don't like walking around in hot mud," Brax smiled coldly.
"I agree," Kalat nodded. "Whoever they were waiting for, either escaped or was caught further in the forest."
"And if they didn't kill the poor thing, they dragged him to a hiding place, and we're the only chance of saving him now."
Brax sighed.
'Lina, if you've gotten into trouble, don't wish me harm,' he thought to himself.
He prayed that he wouldn't find her dead body in the bandit camp.
"So shall we set out?" Kalat asked.
"Yeah, but on foot, so we don't lose track."
They took their horses by the reins and disappeared with them deep into the forest.
"That can't be true!" Lina said to herself. "In a single day… I've never met anyone here!"
Pressed against Rillan's neck, she could only look ahead to the end of the meadow. She glanced back several times to make sure no one was following her. She didn't know how long it would take for the man to wake up and whether he would raise the alarm. Either way, she wanted to be as far away as possible.
They galloped through the meadow. Right behind her was a long stretch of field that had not been worked for almost a year. Lina slowed down and broke into a trot. She looked under Rillan's hooves, where grass and weeds grew together. But then she raised her head and scanned the landscape ahead. She had a perfect view of about a mile ahead, but she also knew that the forest would be right behind her. It was two miles, three at most, to the Mered Valley.
Lina decided to hide in the bushes at the beginning of the forest, to rest for a while and eat something. Rillan wasn't tired yet, but he would certainly benefit from the quiet.
After a few minutes, she realized that just moving around in the open countryside wasn't exactly a good idea, but she didn't want to ride through the forest either. Finally, she rode a little closer to the forest.
She figured that if someone tried to attack her from there, she would be far enough away to run to the open space and then somewhere else. And if someone approached her from the other side, she could hide in the forest. She didn't like either option, yet she knew she had no choice.
When she could see the beginning of the forest, she stopped and turned to see if anyone was following her. Once she was sure that they weren't, she dismounted and walked into the forest.
She carefully scanned her immediate surroundings and sounds with her eyes. She didn't move for two minutes before she cautiously walked to a bush that conveniently shielded her from a direct view of the landscape and the forest.
Rillan began grazing a short distance away under the trees, where the green, lush grass still reached. Lina took another piece of bread from the bag on his saddle and chewed it quickly, as if something was constantly urging her to keep going.
As she swallowed the last bite, she heard a twig snap a few meters away. She jerked, quickly grabbed her bow, and aimed it out through the bushes. As she jerked, she bumped her head against the thorny branches that protruded from the bush. She felt the thorns digging into her face from her temple to halfway up her face, she suppressed a quiet hiss and stared wide-eyed at the place where she had heard the sound.
She looked around for a moment and then breathed a sigh of relief. It was only a doe, standing a few meters away from her, sniffing at something on the ground.
The girl loosened her grip on the bow and after a moment put it down on the ground. Then she pulled a branch from her face and carefully touched the place where the thorns had dug into her. Two even broke off and stuck in her skin. She quickly pulled them out and wiped her face on her shirt sleeve. 'Nothing serious,' she breathed.
She studied the landscape in front of the forest for a minute, then got up and checked to make sure she hadn't dropped anything. Once she had smoothed out the tracks she had made in the grass and bushes, she mounted Rillan and they set off.