Ferra rode throughout the morning, and when the sun was high in the sky, she heard her first sound of acknowledgment that they had indeed found the enemy.
There were shouts in the distance, the faint clanging of swords and screams filtering through the air as Ferra approached slowly, finally deciding to remove herself from the horse and tie him at a safe distance from it all. If she needed to make a quick getaway, then he would be ready.
After tucking in a few of her daggers in her skirts, Ferra moved closer, hoping that the trees were giving her enough cover lest she be found by the enemy. That would not bode well for the clan’s win and Kaiden’s triumphant return.
Her pulse ratcheted up a notch, every sense well aware of what was going on before her, and Ferra couldn’t help but wonder if this was how Kaiden felt right before he joined in battle. It was the same feeling she had whenever she was tending to the injured, the vague sick-to-her-stomach feeling far too familiar.
Now she understood the draw to the battlefield. Now she understood Kaiden’s need to get back in front of his warriors, to fight amongst them. They were not much different, after all.
Ferra drew one of her daggers and held it close to her skirts, hoping that she wouldn’t need it.
It was time to put herself in the midst of this battle.
17
Kaiden grunted as he pushed at the warrior before him, using his booted foot to put distance between them so that he could swing his sword. They had come upon the camping enemy quickly and had no time to prepare for what they would face. Kaiden had only given one order to Erik before they left.
They would try to bring all their warriors home alive. It was a tall order, one that Kaiden knew Erik wouldn’t be able to keep, but he was tired of losing them.
He wanted to win. He wanted everyone to go home. He wanted to go home himself and tell his wife what he felt.
But first, he had to defeat the enemy, or they would never be safe.
Pivoting on his left foot, Kaiden sunk the sword deep into the man’s stomach, and he cried out, falling to his knees as his lifeblood poured out of the wound that Kaiden made. He didn’t have time to relish in what he had done, moving onto the next incoming warrior that wanted to smite him down.
When Kaiden relieved himself of that warrior as well, he found Erik in the thick of battle, holding his own against two warriors who thought they were dealing with a regular warrior.
His second-in-command was far from that.
Right now, it looked as if his clan had the upper hand. The surprise attack had killed a number of the enemy in a matter of seconds, and those that were left were now attempting to wipe out the warriors. It had been clear to Kaiden when they had spied their enemy, that they had anticipated this battle would be like the other, where they would attempt to negotiate a peace treaty before the two clans would agree to disagree and get on with the fighting.
Kaiden had not given them that option. It was something he and his father had discussed days before, about what this clan had done to their own and how they had given them no recourse but to strike hard and fast. During his sparring sessions, he and Erik had plotted out every possible thought they could come upon on this day, from finding the clan asleep to meeting them on the path, but it had been the fate of the gods that their enemy had decided to remain in camp one more day before striking against the village.
The advantage had been on their side, and now he was going to ensure they never came out of this alive.
The McGregor clan would not be taking any prisoners on this day, but neither would they become prisoners themselves.
Kaiden gripped his sword tightly as he moved forward, finding one of his warriors already dead as he passed. The vow had already been broken, and Kaiden whispered up a prayer as he moved past the familiar face. He was not going to be the one who died on this battlefield today.
He was going to go home. He had to go home.
So he fought on. Kaiden swung his sword until he couldn’t feel the burn in his shoulders, until the throbbing in his injured thigh grew to be numb. One warrior got a lucky hit on his face, and Kaiden tried to ignore the drip of his own blood down his cheek as he fought on, knowing that if he could gain the upper hand, then his clan was going to win.
Wiping his cheek on the back of his leather brace, Kaiden nearly didn’t see the next attack, throwing up his sword at the last moment to block the hit. “Och, here we are once more,” the warrior chuckled, moving his sword from palm to palm lightly.
“So we are,” Kaiden grinned, though his own jaw was clenched tightly. This was the one warrior he had been looking for, the second-in-command that sent him to his bed for four months. He would live with this pain if it meant he could end it today. “As ye can see, ye didnae kill me.”
The warrior begrudgingly smiled. “I guess not, but I wilnae be making that mistake today!”
Kaiden barely had enough time to block the first sword attack before he was stumbling back and shaking off the blow. His entire life in days flipped like fractured images in the recesses of his mind, and there was so much regret.
But there were parts he didn’t wish to put into regret. One of those days was the day he met Ferra, even with the way she had forced him to move forward with his life and not back.
Now she would wear the ring of a lady McGregor, and if it was deemed by the gods for him to perish on this battlefield today, he knew that she would move on.
Shaking out of the memories of Ferra, he got the large warrior off balance with a swing of his sword, glad that he was far more limber on his feet than anyone else.
That was going to be the only way he defeated him this time.
