The Seamstress

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Kae leapt in the water, giggling as she dove back inside the river, relishing in the feel as it cooled and cleaned her. Finally, all the sand and sweat were fully gone.

Rehan had taken his armor off, leaving only a linen tunic as he knelt by the edge of the river and cleaned himself. "I gotta admit, it feels good to be back in Farowyn."

Kae nodded and shook her brown hair out of her face. "You don't like to swim?"

Rehan shook his head. "I know how to, I just don't see the point unless I have to."

Kae splashed him and giggled as he shot her a hard glare. "You mean you don't know how to have fun!"

Rehan scoffed at her. "Of course I do. I—"

Suddenly, he snatched a sword and whirled around just in time to smack away an arrow flying right toward his back.

"Rehan!"

Dozens of men wearing armor, wielding bows, swords, axes, and shields, leapt out of the trees. Rehan slashed through one man's neck and danced out of the way of an axe cleaving toward his head.

Kae squealed and climbed out of the river on the other side. Maybe all of the bandits were—

Before she could even finish the thought, hands furiously grabbed her neck. Kae choked and tried to stomp on the man's foot, but he threw her to a second man who lifted her up and onto a horse.

"Rehan!" Kae screamed. "Rehan!"

Rehan turned toward her. "Kae!" He didn't see one of the bandits behind him pierce a sword deep into his stomach.

Rehan collapsed to his knees, as the bandit's horse took off through the woods.

The last she saw of Rehan were dozens of the bandits surrounding his fallen body.

Kae screamed in horror as grief rolled through her stomach. She slammed her fists against the horse's side and reached her elbow up to try to jab it into the bandit's ribs. He grabbed both her hands with one of his and still kept his other hand on the reigns as his horse galloped away, taking her with it.

The ride was actually far shorter than she expected, but she didn't stop kicking and thrashing, trying to yank her hands out of his grip. He threw her to the ground and she landed with a thud. Even though she had no breath, she forced herself to her feet and sprinted back through the trees as quickly as she could.

Another bandit laughed and grabbed her around the waist. He slammed her against a tree and this time, she wheezed and couldn't move, fully unable to catch her breath. As she collapsed onto the ground, five more bandits surrounded her.

"They got that mercenary?" one of them asked.

"Yeah, they'll take care of 'im. We can have our fun here while we wait for them to come back."

Kae finally caught her breath just as one of them brought his leg back and kicked her in the stomach as hard as he could. Pain erupted in her stomach and tears fell from her eyes.

Another man hoisted her to her feet and dragged her inside a cave where they had made sleeping bags and fires.

He threw her to one of the other men, who smacked her face. She groaned and fell to the ground, but another one yanked her arms backward and rolled her over onto her stomach. That man pressed a knee into her back and pressed his full weight against her.

She groaned, sobbing with a wild cry of pain. "P—pl—please..." she begged.

No one ever really knows how they're going to die. In Kae's heart, she always knew that it was for God to decide. That was something she had never doubted.

What had always bothered Kae was never knowing what she would die for.

Never in her life would she have imagined that she might die for the sake of becoming the best seamstress the world had ever seen.

Now, hands furiously beat her senseless. She begged and pleaded for them to stop, to let her go. But she knew in her heart that she was alone. No one would come for her and he was gone...

Kae felt death approaching her.

And now she knew the reason.