MEET CAPTAIN ADESTEIS... MEET CAPTAIN ADESTEIS...
The woods on the outskirts of Southton:
Adesteis saves Colya from a deadly enemy
from "The Chieftain's Man," Soulful Sex: The Fantasy Collection
If this Outmon was just going to kill me when he was done, should I really just lie there? I wanted to fight him, but it was hopeless. I opened my eyes and could see he was undoing his breeches with his free hand. In a soft voice I whispered, "Sir, I'm just a girl . . . I'm only a girl . . . "
"Shut up, little bitch," he hissed, and to drive the point home, scratched me across the cheek with the tip of his blade.
I gasped and burst into terrified tears, biting my lips together to keep from sobbing out loud. I felt his cold hands prying my legs apart and I didn't struggle. It was all no use.
In that moment I wished I were a soldier, a brave member of the Chieftain's men, like the ones I sometimes saw in the market getting supplies for the garrison's camp. I knew one of them would have fought back, even if it meant certain death. But I was only a girl, and afraid to die, afraid even to hasten death by a few minutes.
I'd be braver if I were older, I said to myself, like a prayer. I swear I would be, but I'm only fourteen.
Suddenly I heard a strange noise pass over, close by, and felt a breeze on my face. The Outmon let out a horrible noise, so I opened my eyes in terror.
To my shock, by the dim light I could see an arrow protruding from his chest. The shaft looked amazingly long. The Outmon had let go my legs, and clutched at the arrow; darkness spewed from between his white fingers. He was looking up at something with wide, horrified eyes.
He started to fall forward. I put my hands up to steady him, not wanting him to lie down on me, nor get any more of his blood on me than I had to. At first I found the sight before my eyes so awful I thought it would make me go mad, but then a coldness came over me. "Die!" I told him. "Die right now!"
He was doing just that, for the mere effort of a girl's arms was enough to topple him, and he fell next to me. The arrow must have pierced his heart.
I heard footsteps coming on fast, and looked up to see a man with a bow dashing through the brush to me. He was upside down from my vantage point, but I could tell he was one of the Chieftain's men. It suddenly hit me that I had been saved, and I began to sob.
The man fell to his knees at my side. He seemed even bigger than the Outmon, and had long, wavy dark hair, bound back. His features were broad and stern, but even in that dim light his eyes seemed soft and kind. He seemed to me not old, but not young either. And although I had never seen him this close before, I was quite certain I knew him . . . but not yet certain enough to trust my eyes and call him by name.
"Little rabbit," he said, "you're safe now, it's all right."
He made quick work of dragging the dead man's body off me and away, and then scrambled back to my side. I frantically pushed down my skirts, horrified at how much blood there was on my clothes. The soldier knelt, his eyes looking me up and down, and said, "Did he cut you anywhere but your cheek? Are you bleeding, little one?"
I shook my head. "Sir, he was going to kill me."
The man cupped my cheek in one large hand. "Ah, but I changed his mind, didn't I?" he said, offering me a smile.
"Yes."
Then the soldier gathered me up in his arms. He made me feel like a tiny child. I couldn't remember a man holding me in all my life; my own father had also been a soldier, and died when I was only a toddler. I pressed myself against the fellow's hard chest and sunk my forehead into his neck. Strangely, the warmth and comfort of this man's body only made me want to cry more, and so I did. He rocked me, there on the forest floor, and stroked my hair, until my sobs were spent and I only felt quiet and very tired.
He eased me back so he could look in my face. "My name is Adesteis, and I'm a Chieftain's man." he said, "And you are?"
"Colya, of Southton. My mother is a baker, and my elder brother apprentices at the carpentry."
"Pleased to meet you, Colya," he said with a smile.
"Pleased to meet you, sir," I replied, trembling. I could not dare be so familiar as to use his name, for indeed he was not only a Chieftain's man, but the Chieftain's son, the most admired warrior in all the region. He had been renowned even when my father was still alive, and was nearly the same age as he would have been. With his father advanced in years, Adesteis now served as captain of our regiment, and effectively was their leader. And yet he introduced himself as just another soldier.
Adesteis picked a leaf out of my tangled hair, smoothed it. "Now let's get you home. Would you like to ride on my horse with me? He's a haughty war horse but I don't think he'd mind a young girl riding him just this once."
I remember so well sitting on Adesteis's great horse, with the soldier seated behind me, holding the reins and keeping the beast to an even pace. Oddly, however, I can't recall at all what my mother and brother did when I arrived at home covered in blood, with the second-in-command of our army as my escort. But I do remember like yesterday that ride down the moonlit streets of Southton on Adesteis's horse, and the sound of him singing "The Ballad of the Silver Wolf" in a soft, gravelly baritone, the sound and the feel of his song against my back. I remember that I thanked him when he left our cottage, but only in the fewest of words, for it made me shy that he was someone so important and wonderful.
Nevertheless, lying in my bed that night I banished thoughts of the Outmon by imagining myself with Adesteis, and I swore I'd become a soldier one day and dedicate my life to serving the man who had saved me. Girls did not become soldiers, but I wouldn't let that stop me. I loved Adesteis and I owed him my life.