“I’m happy for both of you,” he asserts warmly.
Cassie gives Tinok a big hug as they settle down around the fire and then leans her head on his shoulder. Tinok just sits there with a happy and contented look on his face as he holds her tight. Putting their heads together, they talk together quietly.
James awakens the next morning to find Tinok and Cassie sleeping together, wrapped up in each others arms. He begins to get the horses in their traces as everyone wakes up. Shortly, they’re on the road again, making the best time they can.
He pushes them the entire day, anxious to get to Miko before something happens to him, only allowing a few short breaks before pressing on again. The miles quickly pass and by nightfall they’ve made it to a town called Jihara.
A small town, barely more than a village really but it has an inn where they can find some decent food. James offers to spring for a room for the two love birds but Cassie turns him down, saying it wouldn’t be right for them to have one when no one else does. Much to the disappointment of her betrothed.
So they spend another night together wrapped up in a blanket on the ground. Everyone can see that the two of them are deeply in love and belong together.
The following morning, they get an early start. Before the sun has risen much above the horizon, they’re already a mile down the road. A little before noon they begin to enter rolling hills, which James can see stretches a long way ahead of them. The road continues to follow the river as it winds its way through the hills.
Ever since Jihara, the other traffic on the road has dropped off to almost nothing, only the occasional rider or caravan is encountered. At sunset when they set up camp, they find an area adjacent to the river where they can have ready access to water. James even wades out into the river and does his fisherman routine and bags several large reddish orange fish.
“Neat trick,” Roland says when James brings back his third fish.
“It comes in handy,” he replies.
Everyone enjoys the fish and after dinner, they take turns telling stories or singing songs. Most of them seem to be love songs or stories about those in love. Stig begins recalling his first amorous encounter but Cassie begins to blush a deep red, causing him to cut it short. Tinok gives him a stern look before someone else breaks in and begins another song, this one a fast paced silly song for Arkie.
“Better get to sleep,” James announces when the song is finally over. “I’d like to get an early start tomorrow.” Some grumble about having to turn in, but most take it in stride. The only ones who don’t seem to mind are Cassie and Tinok, who readily lay down together. Cassie lays her head on his chest and quickly falls asleep.
James looks over and sees Tinok’s head up and he’s looking around.
“What’s the matter?” James asks him.
He gestures to Cassie sleeping on his chest and then whispers, “I gotta go pee!”
James tries to hide his amusement but fails as he just shrugs his shoulders at Tinok’s predicament.
He starts to get up and Cassie wakes up. “I’ll be right back,” he assures her.
She lays her head down on the ground and says, “Hurry up.”
In no time at all, he’s back and she lays her head down on his chest again.
James lies down and continues to chuckle as he begins to fall asleep.
Ahhhh!
A cry in the night startles James awake just in time to see Qynn fall into the fire with an arrow piercing his chest. Without thought, he causes a great burst of light to explode over the camp and in that brief instance, sees a dozen or more attackers approaching from all directions.
Everyone comes awake when the light bursts overhead.
“We’re under attack!” he yells as he gets up, trying to find the bowman.
Everyone bursts into action, the girls hiding under a wagon while the guys all grab their weapons and move to engage the enemy. With light to see by, the surprise the attackers held in the dark is now gone. The pit fighters rush to engage the attackers, wreaking havoc with skills honed by years in the pits.
James locates two bowmen who each get an arrow off before James has a chance to take them out. An attacker is rushing him and is almost upon him when a knife flies out from the camp, imbedding itself through the man’s left eye. He turns and sees Shorty standing atop a wagon as he lets fly another knife at an approaching attacker.
Scar and Potbelly are standing back to back as they hold off three attackers while Jiron and Tinok are busy slicing and dicing ones of their own. He looks to see Stig engaged with a large attacker wielding a longsword. Stig deflects the thrust of the man’s sword with his shield and then follows through with his mace, pulping the man’s face. Seeing Scar and Potbelly engaged with three, he runs over to render aid.
Scar, with both swords weaving a pattern of death, takes out one of the ones pressing him and Potbelly. Turning to engage the other, he watches as a hole opens up in the man’s chest, blood and gore spraying out his back. He looks behind him and sees James there with another slug as he prepares to take out another attacker. Between Potbelly and himself, they quickly take out the last of the attackers near them before Stig has a chance to join them.
Scar quickly looks around for another to engage but all he sees are dead bandits lying everywhere. Shorty jumps off the wagon and races over to where Qynn is burning in the fire and pulls him out. The smell of burnt flesh and hair permeates the entire area.
“Tinok!” he hears Delia’s anguished cry. He looks over and sees her cradling Cassie’s head in her lap, blood from where an arrow sticks out of her stomach rapidly spreading across her dress.
“Cassie!” Tinok’s cry echoes across the battlefield as he races over to her.
He drops to his knees, tears falling from his eyes as he looks to Delia. She just shakes her head.
“Tinok,” Cassie says weakly when she sees him there.
“Yes, my dearest,” he says, trying to hold back the sobs.
“I can’t wait to be your wife,” she says, distantly.
“You will be soon,” he says as he takes her into his arms, brushing strands of her golden hair out of her face.
“Don’t leave me!” he cries as he starts to sob.
“Silly boy,” she says as she looks into his eyes. “I’ll never leave you. I love you.”
“I love you too,” he says to her. A tear falls from his face onto hers.
“Maybe tomorrow,” she says as her voice begins to grow faint, “we can dance again.” And then she smiles as he kisses her on the forehead. She closes her eyes as her body relaxes in death.
“Cassie!” Tinok cries as he gently shakes her as if she was just sleeping, “Oh my god, Cassie!” He then holds her tight to his chest as sobs rack his body. He just sits there holding her as he rocks back and forth.
His head snaps up as he looks to James with red, tear filled eyes, “You can save her, can’t you?”
Shaking his head as his own tears fall, he says sadly, “Some things I’m unable to do.”
“But…” and then he starts sobbing all over again.
Everyone leaves Tinok alone in his time of grief. Each in their own way cared for Cassie and her passing has touched each of them deeply. While Tinok mourns the loss of his beloved, the others go through the grisly process of removing the dead from the camp. James and Jiron go through all the dead bodies and collect what money they can.
“I think they were just bandits, out looking to rob us,” Jiron says.
“It looks that way,” agrees James. Then he gestures over to Tinok, “Think he’ll be okay?”
“I don’t know,” Jiron says, “he really cared for her.”
By this time, Yorn and the others have wrapped Qynn in a blanket. As they pick him up, he says to Jiron, “We’re going to go bury him out in the desert.”
Nodding, he replies, “Just a second and I’ll come with you.”
He was about to go over to Tinok when he all of a sudden stands up, holding Cassie in his arms. Without a word, he begins to carry her out to the desert. When he sees Jiron coming toward him, he just shakes his head and then is soon lost in the dark as he takes his beloved out into the desert to bury her.
“Alright,” he says to Yorn as he joins them, “let’s go.”
James watches as they carry Qynn out to be buried, taking a different direction than Tinok so as not to
