A Warrior's Redemption

  Chapter Twelve

  Upheaval Begun

  Krista

  Krista watched the minnows congregating around the piece of bread she had thrown into the brook. She hadn’t done much of anything today but laze around in the coolness of the forest. Being out here alone in the forest almost made her think she was as free as the songbirds fluttering around in the branches overhead. Until she remembered that in everybody’s eyes, except maybe Sansa’s, she was nothing but a slave. She was something to be used, sold and discarded at an owner’s whim.

  Oh well, life was what you made of it and at least hers, for right now, was the best it had ever been. She was living in the moment as tomorrow was no guarantee in her world. She ambled back towards the cottage regretting her laziness. Sansa had probably needed her for something hours ago.

  Her route back brought her within sight of the village and she gave it but a passing glance. Her eyes flew back to it in surprise at what she had seen. There were columns of smoke billowing into the sky from many of the town’s buildings, which were wreathed in flames. She could see people running around in the town, but mostly they were fleeing from it! Instead of fighting the fires, their only purpose seemed to be escaping the town. Other figures in the scene seemed more purposeful.

  Attorgron Slavers!

  The thought occurred to her and she was immediately sure of it. Rarely did the slavers venture so far into the west for fear of angering the Zoarinian controlled interests too much, but apparently they had thought it worth the risk.

  “Oh no! Sansa!”

  Krista tore off through the forest towards the cottage. She leaped over fallen logs and dodged tree trunks. Her feet were steady and sure in the dense littered undergrowth of the forest even in her haste. She could see smoke ahead of her in the cottage’s clearing, which made her pace quicken even more. She burst into the clearing and saw Sansa weakly protesting as several men carried the medicinal wares of their healing trade from the cottage. One of the men, a big swarthy skinned brute, back handed Sansa so hard that she was thrown backward several feet and fell across the doorway of the cottage.

  Krista screamed in heartfelt pain at the sight and ran to Sansa’s side. Sansa was still conscious, but barely. She recognized Krista, smiled softly and reached up to brush some of the fiery curls off her forehead.

  Weakly she said, “Remember what I told you dear, the Creator is going to keep you! Remember?”

  Tears streaming down her face and with her lips quivering from unspoken cries of sorrow, Krista nodded her head.

  “Good. You have been the joy of my later days child, God bless you! I have to leave you now. He’s waiting for me.”

  With a look of peace wreathed across her face, her eyes closed and the breath left her body, as she was held clutched in Krista’s arms. Krista started shaking uncontrollably, tears streaming from her eyes as short strangled gasps for air forced her lungs to open and close.

  “Hey look at this one mates! She’s a ripe one for the picking! I saw her first!”

  The lurid meaning of the slaver’s slurred out statement broke the solitude of Krista’s grief over her kind hearted caretaker.

  Krista listened to the voices of the slaver as he approached from behind her. Something crystallized and snapped within Krista and suddenly, with a scream of rage, she turned from Sansa’s lifeless body to face the big slaver who had killed her. He approached her now with nothing but evil intent in his small beady eyes. She grabbed the small paring knife from her pocket and fairly sprang upon the surprised slaver.

  He tried to protect himself, but to no avail. The small blade of the paring knife flashed again and again in the fiery light of the burning cottage which couldn’t compare to the intensity of the rage that had befallen Krista. The slaver crumbled to his knees and then pitched over onto his face, already dead from a dozen or more stab wounds. Lost in her hate filled rage, Krista continued to stab the inert form of the man, until a terrific blow from behind hit the back of her head and knocked her over onto her face. Not wanting to succumb to the enshrouding darkness, Krista fought to keep her eyes open, but failed more than she succeeded.

  She felt herself being picked up and slung over what felt like a shoulder. Battling unconsciousness, she lifted her head and looked back. The cottage was engulfed in flames now. Everything she loved gone within a few pain filled moments. Giving in to the darkness she collapsed, devoid of any hope for the future, as her world once again burnt behind her.