Maeve saw red and, before she could get control of her own actions, she gripped the dagger tight and threw herself ahead. Recklessly, she swung the dagger around, managing to slice his arm, only narrowly dodging his return blow and escaping certain death herself. Suddenly, Cailean had grabbed her again, pulling her back in a hard yank.
"Let me go!" she growled. "I'm gonnae kill him."
"Be cautious," he told her in a low voice. "Ye're gonnae have tae fight — fight smart. Dinnae forget what ye've been learnin'."
Maeve realized that he was right. She couldn't allow herself to be lost to this, couldn't allow herself to give way to her anger and lose herself entirely. She nodded almost imperceptibly and turned once again to face her attackers, just in time to find all four of them running forward with their swords drawn.
Cailean moved into the path, his sword raised to defend her. The clashing of swords sounded and found Cailean fighting two at once, and Maeve threw her dagger just as a third approached Cailean from behind. It was a lucky throw; it caught the Darach man right between the shoulder blades, sending him to his knees. Maeve ran forward, yanking the dagger from his back and acting quickly to put an end to it.
The fourth man ran toward her with his sword raised, and Maeve rolled out of the way. She noticed the newly dead man's sword was long and thin, still not perfect for her but better. She grabbed it and scrambled to her feet, and managed to parry the plunging sword just before it could hurt her.
Remember. Use their weaknesses tae yer advantage.Cailean hadn't spoken out loud, but she heard his voice in her ear anyway, and it filled her with a warm resolve. She could do this. They fought back to back, Cailean expertly dodging and weaving the two attackers, Maeve managing to fight off her own opponent only barely. She needed to find his weakness, but in the dark, when she was already scared and her face was hiding from being hit, she wasn't sure she could concentrate.
But as she dodged out of the way, there it was; he was favoring his right side, just as Darren had favored his left. And now she knew how to beat him. Weaving out of the way of his attacks, she feinted, and was rewarded by the man lunging in the other direction. Her sword flashed and, with a gasp, she managed to slice it quickly across his throat. He stared at her as if unable to believe what had just happened, then fell to his knees.
"He'll… get ye…" the man gurgled, before falling face-first onto the ground.
Maeve's heart was hammering, but she knew that she could not stop to think about the two men she had killed, not now. Now the only thing that was left for her to focus on was surviving, and making sure that Cailean survived as well. She whirled around, her sword still drawn, just as Cailean managed to dispatch both of his opponents with two quick slices.
In the silence that followed, Maeve staggered, and Cailean caught her, holding her upright.
"Are ye all right?" he asked her gruffly.
"There are… there are more…" Maeve gasped. "They dispersed into the woods. We need tae find them. We cannae let them discover…"
Cailean nodded tightly. "Stay here."
"No. I can fight."
She saw his eyes tighten, but she was in no mood to argue, and he could see it on her face. With a resigned nod, he beckoned for her to stay close. "We'll wait here, then," he said. "And catch them as they emerge."
And they did. The Darach men emerged from the woods again in twos or threes, each with mad looks of death and fury in their eyes, and Maeve and Cailean fought together side by side. Maeve was exhausted, aching, and terrified, but she fought on, knowing that the second she slipped up, she could lose everything. Having Cailean by her side was like a strange boost, and she focused only on that as she parried and dodged and sliced and avoided attacks. In the end, she took down another three men, and Cailean managed to overcome the other six. In the wildness of the fighting, even Cailean's horse fled into the forest after the others, but Maeve could only focus on the fight before her.
When the last men fell, Maeve collapsed to the ground into a sitting position and drew her knees up to her chest.
Cailean's voice was in her ear in an instant. "Get up. Ye dinnae ken if it's over yet."
"It's over," she sobbed. "Oh, God. I killed those men."
"Kill or be killed. Ye wanted tae be a warrior." Cailean held out a hand, and Maeve took it, allowing him to pull her up. There was none of the usual gentleness or understanding in his voice now, and he avoided her eyes when she tried to look at him. "Are ye sure they're all gone?"
"I'm sure," Maeve replied.
"Are ye hurt?" he asked.
She was. She'd been cut and bruised several times, and she was sure that a deep slash in her upper arm was bleeding enough that she would need attention from the healers. But she wasn't going to tell him that, not now. Instead, she just shook her head. "I'm fine. I'm fine."
Cailean grunted. "Come on." He grabbed her hand without looking at her and started into the forest. "We've got tae find our horses."
Maeve followed without a word, shrinking back against his anger, yet at the same time yearning to be closer to him for comfort. She followed, her eyes downcast, and tried not to think about the bodies they left behind, and how close she'd been to being one of them.
15
Chapter Fifteen
Cailean did not know what to do with all of the fury inside of him. He had never been so angry in his life, never felt his blood pulse in his ears and his hands shake with rage so strongly. He wasn't an idiot; he understood what had happened now, he understood whom he was leading by the hand through the woods.
Mary had lied to them all. That probably wasn't even her real name. Was anything about her real at all? She'd manipulated them into believing she was one thing, but the reality was that they knew nothing about her at all. She could be a spy for the False King for all he knew, one he'd foolishly allowed into their camp and trained in all of their secrets.
