Prize Ch. 03

"Move and die." I stated plainly, anger driving me despite my heart aching to kiss his lips. It was not difficult to shrug off the desire for him, as I kept seeing my mother's fallen body at the men's feet, which drove me forward.

Once he was tied, I wrapped the rope to the same tree, with Sheba's help in moving his big form to it, and began to walk the direction I thought we had come from, ignoring any of his pleas for me to stop.

"Please take me with you at least!" Willhulm's last cry stopped me, and I pondered if I should.

It would be easy for a predator to attack him as helpless as he was, so I bit my lip until Sheba commented, "He is to blame for all of this, Kyrja. Leave him to die." I nodded at her words, and we began to trek through the forest with the intention of rescuing our Valkyrie sisters. When I could no longer hear his voice, I began to ponder why he had betrayed me. Was it so important to him to seek justice against my way of life that he would destroy lives in his path by doing so? I decided to think on plans of rescuing the rest of the Valkyries as each time I thought of the man, my prize, it fostered anger.

We moved stealthily through the forest until we came upon the men and their captives in rest. They had tied the girls to the trees and were sleeping, with a few guards taking turns at watch. Very few guards, such was their insolence that nothing could harm them. They were about to be rudely awakened to the fact that there were worse predators in the forest than wild cats and bears.

I saw movement in the forest, after counting two guards on one side and one on the other and motioned to Sheba to follow. We wove our way silently around fallen logs and between fronds where I nearly stumbled on top of the guard. His pants were pushed to his ankles and he had his hands pressed against a young Valkyrie's arms, pinning her naked body down. She was whimpering and I could tell he had hurt her to get her to submit. As he rose up and down quickly, rapidly and with a grunting noise as he assaulted her body, I flicked Sheba's dagger swiftly under his neck, silencing him forever.

As Sheba and I helped the young Valkyrie up to her feet, waiting for her to dress and wipe her tears, I began to devise a plan to destroy the men. I had not seen the Magistrate and his men so figured them to be ahead of the slave group, unwilling to travel slowly enough to stay with them. I gathered the sword not far from the man's dead body and motioned for both to follow, with the young one behind us.

In one swift motion I attacked the lone guard, left by his companion to do with what he wanted to my young sister-in-arms. He fell silently and I gave the young one his sword. I noted the feral look within her eyes and smiled as we swiftly moved to the lone two remaining guards. We cut them down fast and began to wake their captives, releasing them one by one. I wished there were more than a few swords and the dagger, but we would work with what we had.

As I led them in the direction that I supposed the Magistrate and his men to be, Sheba held my arm tightly, pressing me back.

"Shall we not flee? We can make it to the winter village by the next nightfall." Her words were full of wisdom and I glanced at the faces of the young ones the men had chosen to keep, pondering the best course. If we fled, we could rebuild and live in peace for a short while, but if the Magistrate never stopped searching for us, then our peace would be short lived. No, we had to destroy them else they get it in their minds to come after us. I shook my head and began to devise a plan. The Magistrate would have many, many guards so we would have to attack fast and hope we could get more swords as the men fell.

"My queen," Sheba startled me with the word 'queen', but I realized with my mother and sister gone, I was now leader. "The girls are tired, weak and full of fear. Do you think it wise to do this thing? Perhaps we should return once we have re-established the village?" I sighed softly, understanding her point. The young ones were not skilled. If I led them to the guards, they would surely be slaughtered. I would lose a good amount of them for certain.

After much debating within my mind, I finally nodded in agreement. We would make for the winter village and regroup, retrain and then seek our revenge. As we began the long trek through the dark forest, I spared one glance back, wondering if Willhulm would be well. I did not wish him death now that I had my Valkyries back with me and the anger had some time to fade. But one thing was certain, I would never let him touch me or love me ever again.

To Be Continued...