Secrets and Guardians: Devious Intentions by H. Chambers (hot novels to read txt) 📕

found Shade already sitting in her usual place, eyes closed. He watched her, she could have easily left all of them; she was still young and strong. Sensing Ben Adhem close by Shade opened her eyes.

'Are you still all right to go through with this?' Shade asked.

'I think there is still a lot you have not been telling me, you have watched Kerdred's soldiers and what they have done to other villages, do you think you should go ahead with the plan?' he replied.

'I think my plan is too kind for them,' answered Shade bitterly.

'I am therefore, not only all right about it, but pleased and if I do not get to live another day at least we will have tried,' smiled Ben Adhem.

Shade went to prepare herself, everything else seemed to be ready. She strapped her leg up from calf to thigh giving her a quite convincing limp. She then tied her hair back and wrapped it in a scarf. One of the women came in and began applying make-up that made Shade look quite sickly, a few red 'spot' marks and a bit extra shadow under the eyes and she was done. The children had been told 'Sadie' was going to be dressed up for their afternoon meal as later she was going to tell everyone stories about witches and wizards. When the children saw her they thought she looked great, just like an old hag.

They all sat around the big table, the adults trying hard to keep the conversation light. Shade stood at the far end behind Ben Adhem stirring the huge pot of game stew. They all raised their cups, including the children and drank a toast to 'Sadie'. Shade then began filling plates with the delicious stew. The thundering of horses hooves became louder and louder. When the eleven soldiers arrived everybody reacted as expected. Some of the women grabbed hold of their children, one old woman gave a very convincing screech. Two of the older men made a gallant attempt at standing up quickly. Ben Adhem gestured for the two men to sit down.

'Welcome friends, would you care to join us, we would be happy to share our meal with you,' said Ben Adhem.

The leader of the soldiers laughed and spat on the ground, 'I've got some bad news for you old man, we do not share, we only take,' he said.

Shade realised the leader was a man named Cayan, she had met him in Kerdred’s castle all those years ago. Cayan slid down from his horse followed by all the other men. He walked over to the table and grabbed a plate, taking a mouthful of the food.

Turning to his men he laughed, 'Well the women might be ugly but the food is good'. He turned back to the table, 'Well?'

The villagers looked at each other and began to get up and move away from the table, one of the old men was a bit too slow for Cayan's liking and he sent him sprawling to the ground with a kick. Cayan's men laughed as they took over the seats.

'You!' One of the soldiers said, after tasting what was in the cups and spitting it out, 'bring us some ale'.

The men began eating what was left on the plates, soon they were shouting at Shade to fill them back up again. Cayan sat at the top of the table with his back to Shade, she managed to keep her face down when she refilled his plate. The ale arrived quickly and it was not long before they were thoroughly enjoying themselves. Their attention began to turn to the women, especially the younger ones, they were shouted over, pushed from one soldier to another, groped. There was a few arguments starting as to who was going to have first go with the women. Cayan laughed and grabbed hold of Shade pulling her to his side.

'Who wants this hag?'

Shade turned and bent so her face was right in front of his.

'Hello Cayan,' she said drawing a knife from under her apron.

She slit his throat before he realised what was happening. His eyes stared in shock, not only from realising what had just happened, but recognising Shade smiling back at him. She turned and faced the other soldiers, there was a couple of seconds of disbelief at an old hag standing there with a knife covered in blood. The spell was broken when Cayan's head went thump into the remains of the stew. Almost as one they stood up and reached for their swords, Shade just smiled.

'I hope you enjoyed your food, I added a little something; it should start working about now.'

The men looked at each other, a couple began to hold their stomachs. The one closest to Shade made an attempt to reach her, but fell across the table, dead. The old man who had been kicked stood behind him, a plank of wood with nails sticking out was in his hands. Around the table the men began to scream in agony, it didn't take long. When it was over Shade walked over to Ben Adhem and spoke so everyone could hear.

'Sorry about that slight change of plan, it wasn't that he called me a hag, I just don't like being grabbed like that.'

Ben Adhem roared with laughter, the tension was broken. Two of the children were asleep on the grass, the other two were just sitting with vacant looks on their faces.

'We had better get all this tidied up before the drug the children had in their drinks wears off,' said Shade.

One of the babies strapped to the back of her mother began to cry.

'You look after your little one, it will not take us long to get ready,' said Ben Adhem.

What he said was true, the large grave had already been dug. They stripped the bodies of anything they thought might be useful, hauled them into the back of a cart, attached a couple of horses and went down to the small coppice not far away. The pot and plates were taken to the stream and washed out thoroughly.

With the cart needing two horses and the wagon needing four horses, there were five horses left. Shade and four of the other women took the horses, Ben Adhem and the pregnant woman took the reins of the wagon and one of the men took the cart. That left five women, two men, four children and two babies to ride inside the wagon. That wasn't going to work, so two of the children would have to go on top of the supplies in the cart and the babies were strapped to the back of two of the women who were riding, that was better. Apart from that, everything else went like clockwork. They were ready to leave by nightfall and were just deciding which animals they should tie to the back of the wagon, a couple of goats and a cow or just the goats, when Shade turned to address them all.

'My name is not Sadie, but Shade and I am Kerdred's wife,' she said.

There was not a lot any of them could think of to say.

'Guess you two didn't get along then,' said one of the old ladies. 'Think we should just take the goats,' she added turning to Ben Adhem.

Shade smiled and walked over to the table where the men had died, taking out her knife she carved SHADE into the table in giant letters. Looking back she checked none of the children could see, she opened the sack she was carrying and placed Cayan's severed head onto the table next to her name. She closed her eyes and an owl which had been in a nearby tree took to the skies. Their path west was clear, it was time to go.