Erik had his shield on his arm and his sword out a moment after tying his horse, and glanced over to see Roo on his right and Luis on his left. They crept forward through the trees, and came upon a sight that set Erik’s teeth on edge.
Two men were tying on top of two women, one who was struggling. The other lay motionless. Three other men sat close by, drinking from an earthen jug as they watched the rape. A sad cry was followed by a convulsion as one of the men finished and stood up, and started pulling up his trousers. One of the men who had been drinking tossed aside the jug and started unfastening his trousers as he came to take the first man’s place.
He halted and looked at the still form on the ground, then said, “Gods and demons, Culli, you killed her, you fool!”
“She was biting, so I covered her mouth.”
“You smothered her, you idiot!”
“She’s not more than a minute or two dead, Sajer. Go ahead; she’s still warm.”
Erik saw the body and felt his heart lurch. The corpse was Embrisa. Something strangely familiar struck him, and for an instant he saw Rosalyn in a similar position, her clothing torn away. Without thought he rose up and moved toward the nearest men. One was watching the argument between his companions, but the other started to rise. He was halfway off the log where he had sat when he died: with a single sweeping motion Erik cleaved his head completely from his shoulders.
Erik’s companions charged and shouted, and the four remaining men scrambled to defend themselves. Erik crossed to where the man named Sajer stood, while the one called Culli dashed to where his sword and shield lay. Sajer pulled his only weapon, a dagger at his belt, and Erik advanced upon him like death come into human form.
Fear crossed the man’s face as Erik bore down on him, and he made ready to defend himself as best he could. He lunged in feint with his dagger, but Erik only stepped forward, bashing with his shield, knocking him to the ground. He raised his sword above his head, then brought it down with a thundering blow, cutting completely through Sajer’s upraised forearm, slicing him from shoulder to belly.
Erik had to put his foot on the man’s chest to pull free his sword, and when he did he turned to see that the remaining three men had taken off their helms and thrown weapons to the ground, the sign among mercenaries of surrender. Erik’s eyes were wild and wide as he looked at the man named Culli. He walked purposefully toward him.
De Loungville stepped before Erik and, using all his strength, pushed him backwards. It was like trying to move a tree, but he did slow Erik’s forward advance. “Get a hold of yourself, von Darkmoor!” he commanded.
Erik paused at the sound of his name. He looked to where the two women lay. Finia had all her clothing torn from her, and lay motionless in the grass, the only sign she was still alive being the slow rise and fall of her small breasts. Embrisa lay a short distance away, also nude, but bloody from belly to knee. Erik turned to stare at the man named Culli. “He dies. Now. Slowly.”
De Loungville said, “Did you know her?”
“Yes,” answered Erik, part of his mind being surprised de Loungville didn’t. “She was fourteen.”
One of the captives said, “They was villagers! We didn’t know they belonged to anyone.”
Erik advanced, and this time de Loungville threw his shoulder into him, knocking him back a step. “You stand fast when I tell you!” he shouted at Erik.
Turning to face the three men, he said, “What company?” The man named Culli said, “Well, Captain, we’ve been sort of looking out for ourselves lately.”
“Did you hit that caravan a half day’s ride north of here?”
A grin of broken and blackened teeth greeted the question. “Well now, it wouldn’t be the truth if we took credit for it all by ourselves. There were another six or seven boys in on that one. But they joined up with some men who wanted to raid that fort at the village. Fat man, rode a big roan horse, he took them all together.”
“Zila,” said de Loungville. “I’ll settle up with him someday.”
Culli continued, “We was watching from the woods and got in to grab what we would when they started to leave. We saw these two women getting out of a burning house, so we decided to have some fun.” He nodded at the still-living but stunned Finia and the dead Embrisa. “We didn’t mean to be so rough, but these was the only two we could find, and there’s five of us. We’ll pay you gold if they was yours, Captain, to make up for it, you see. We won’t even say nothing about the two boys you already killed. We only killed the one. Two for one seems more than fair. Give the other a couple of hours to rest and, why, she could service all six of you and a couple of us in the bargain.”
“On your knees,” commanded De Loungville. Biggo, Natombi, and Luis forced the three men to their knees, holding them fast.