Game of Pawns

Chapter 28

"What did you two do now?" Grim asked as soon as Zan, Jun, and a procession of armed soldiers were within earshot.

She'd heard the commotion earlier as the warriors rode in on horseback from a mountain road. Several passerby had been startled by the sudden appearance, and there was even some confusion in the air, for it seemed to many that the guards had materialized out of nothing. Maybe they had. From what Grim could see, the port was on a small island. The only way to get to the other side of the bay was to use yet another ferry that waited on the opposite side of the land. Generally, such a large group and their willowy steeds wouldn't have been allowed upon the boat.

As the soldiers shoving her companions got close enough, she could smell the magic in their blood and knew they were glamoured fey. Before, she had been too close to street vendor carts smoking fish and mollusks to get anything but the scent of cinders. Now, it was obvious that these were men from the Court of the Red Sun who had been ordered to fetch them and bring them to their Queen—by any means necessary, apparently.

"We didn't do anything!" answered Junius nervously.

Beside King, Zan's head was hanging, but there was a few drops of blood on his vest and neck. Pinching the bridge of her nose and giving it a quick massage, Grim pondered what she'd done in a past life to deserve this kind of inconvenience. Then she shoved the dried fish and beans she'd purchased into her backpack and put a hand on the hilt of her shortsword. The claymore strapped to her back surely gave the soldiers reason to approach with caution, and they slowed to a stop right outside of the blade's reach.

She sized up the men then found the one who looked most haughty to direct her question. "Mind explaining what's going on here?"

"Queen's orders," he snapped. The accent suggested that the common tongue was not his native language. "You come with us. Now."

Jun strained a little against the two men grasping hold of the rope tied to his wrists. "We're being apprehended for no bloody reason."

"Did the Queen tell you to handle us this uncouthly? We're envoys from England, after all," Grim said. She aimed to reason with the warriors, even though they didn't seem apt to listen.

"Don't care. This is what I was told to do," stated the captain brusquely.

Well, this isn't the welcome I had in mind.

Grimhild didn't know what to do, but it was evident that resisting the soldiers would make matters infinitely worse. The warriors were not adverse to using brute force to make others complacent, of which Zander was an example. And they were smart enough to not underestimate Jun's strength. She eyed the crowd of conical straw hats, bamboo umbrellas, and silken tunics that was beginning to gravitate closer to them, every pair of dark eyes questioning the exchange. There would be too many witnesses if she did something drastic. That left a single option.

"Fine. Do what you must," she muttered, letting the soldiers seize her weapons and wrists.

The handling was rougher than necessary, and the men spoke among themselves, laughing snidely once in a while. Then, the warriors led their captives over to where their white horses had been tied up.

"I can't believe this," Jun whined. "We're being treated like criminals."

Grim shook her head as she was pushed against the stone wall of a hut. "Do we even know if these men are really from the Court of the Red Sun?"

"I didn't see any insignias, and they didn't have a warrant or decree," Zander said flatly. The cut on his lip had started to scab over.

The soldiers were not human, that much she knew. Their armor was reminiscent of Erastus', but that wasn't enough proof to say whether these men could be trusted to bring them to Queen Kaede or not. Grimhild wasn't adverse to breaking free for her bonds and fleeing, especially if these warriors were working for another player. Mounted atop his steed, the captain tied the rope connected to their wrists directly to his saddle. Then he clicked his tongue, tapped his heels against the animal, and urged the entire group forward.