"Roxane!" She heard Diana's screams from somewhere behind her, but she was frozen in place as the leader of the mercenaries' hands came crashing down at her.
She saw a flash of metal before a spray of blood came bursting forth, splattering on Roxane. She flinched back in utter shock when the man who was about to strangle her shrieked out. The ends of his arms were now reduced to bloody stumps.
Roxane stood up from her seat quickly. She wasn't sure if what was happening before her very eyes was really happening.
She heard the terrified screams of the other patrons as they all fled the tavern.
Thatcher stood above the leader's body. He looked truly menacing as he wielded his sword.
"Kian." With one word, Thatcher didn't take his eyes off the leader as he lay whimpering on the bloody ground.
"I have the others." The wizard responded with the same amount of coldness in his voice.
Roxane looked to the side and found that the wizard had the other mercenaries in electrified bands, almost like chains. They writhed in pain on the floor.
"Send out for the city's guards." He told the innkeeper who was still cowering behind his bar's counter. "Tell them there was a commotion caused by the mercenaries and I fully intend to press charges." Roxane had never seen Thatcher like this before. His eyes were no longer the same shade of grey as before, now they were an intense silver as they radiated with animosity. It was enough to send shivers down her spine.
"Before you go, take the women to their reserved room." With one jut of his chin, Thatcher was able to shake the innkeeper out of his daze. The innkeeper quickly went towards Roxane and Diana.
"Thatcher." Roxane began by opening her mouth. She was glad that she didn't have to say anything else, for Thatcher interrupted her.
"Roxane take Diana and go up into the room. The innkeeper should know where your things have been kept." She felt a tinge of pity, for both of the men were left to clean up the mess at the tavern, but she did as Thatcher instructed and left with Diana.
As the innkeeper quickly took them to their room and showed them where their things were kept, Roxane suddenly remember Kian's words from the night of the wedding. He was right. Thatcher was a truly terrifying opponent.
The innkeeper rushed out of their room, shutting the door behind him. Diana dove into Roxane's arms, holding onto her with a grip so tight she wondered if her friend wanted to stop her from breathing.
"Diana," she began to say as she rubbed her back, "you are holding on too tight."
"I thought something was going to happen to you!" Diana yelled into the front of her dress. "I wish Thatcher never put you into that position in the first place! What if that man had gotten his hands on you?"
She tried to calm down Diana as best as she could, but the silver haired beauty was beyond angry. Diana vowed to give Thatcher a piece of her mind come morning.
"Please don't," Roxane remembered the way Thatcher's eyes shone dangerously when his sword was out. She definitely did not want that version of Thatcher to point his sword towards them. "Today has been eventful, to say the least, but it has given me some insight into our leader."
Diana nodded, "To me as well."
"Are we perhaps thinking the same thing?" Roxane's golden eyes met with Diana's green ones. They nodded at each other, the words they shared were written in their eyes.
They needed to keep a closer watch on Thatcher, as he wasn't at all what he seemed.
The following morning Roxane and Diana packed and headed outside at the sound of a knock on their door. As soon as they opened their door they were presented with a fresh-faced Thatcher.
He smiled warmly at them.
"Good morning Roxane, Diana." His smile unsettled both of the women. It was as though he wanted to erase what had occurred the other night. Roxane opened her mouth to respond to the man.
"Good morning Thatcher." There was a pause of complete silence as they stood, carefully regarding each other.
Thatcher sighed, his hand going up to rub the back of his head in a way that woefully misrepresented his darker personality.
"Listen, Roxane," he started with a look of utter defeat within his grey eyes, "I am truly sorry for last night. I should have never put you in such a dangerous situation. Had I known the man was a crazy miscreant I would have never," she stopped his barrage of apologies with the palm of her hand.
"You don't need to apologize Thatcher. I was much stronger than that man so I doubt any real harm would have come to me."
"Even so, you form a part of my team." At the word team, she found she felt a tingling sensation. She felt herself straightening up as he continued. "As such, it is my duty to protect you two as we travel towards our destination."
His eyes softened as he quickly scanned Roxane from head to toe.
"You weren't harmed last night were you?"
She shook her head and his grey eyes went back to land on her golden irises, searching for any indication that she was lying.
"That's most fortunate. I would have hated it if anything had happened to you." Roxane blinked at his flowery words, and both she and Diana watched the man as he turned his back to them.
"We need to head out now. Come, the horses are already prepared and waiting for us outside."
They followed Thatcher outside the inn and were met with two stunning black horses. She looked around for a third but she couldn't find it or any signs of the ashen haired wizard.
"Where is the wizard?" She avoided saying his name aloud, fearing it might show her growing feelings for the man.
"Kian?" Thatcher scrunched up his eyebrows together as he hoisted himself upon his horse after helping Diana tie their satchel to their horse. Roxane had noticed the mercenaries' things were also among Thatcher's bags.
"He said he needed to take care of some personal matters. He'll meet up with us again after we cross the border into the next kingdom."
Roxane nodded before she got onto the horse that Diana had already bribed with a sugar cube. She hoisted Diana up behind her and they set off again. She noted her riding had gotten much better as she steered the horse beside Thatcher's horse. Despite this, she didn't come even close enough to be able to skillfully maneuver her horse as Thatcher does.
"How long is it until we cross the border?" Now that they were on the outskirts of the city, she thought it was only natural that she asked. She didn't want to be stuck incessantly wondering how many days it would take.
"Not long. It's only a two to three day's ride because I know of a route."
"Why would someone from the Solstine royal family know routes from the other side of the world?" Roxane said, looking at Thatcher from the corner of her eye, trying to gauge his reaction.
He turned his head to the side, displaying a playful grin on his lips.
"Now who's the one prying?" She knew the man was only joking, but she felt a pang of guilt stab her as she remembered she had scolded him not that long ago for asking too many questions. She told herself it was different than when he did it but she wasn't convinced.
He had already apologized for his rudeness then, but how would she?
"I'm sorry Thatcher." She mumbled underneath her breath. Thatcher smiled at her in the same boyish smile he was known for.
"The Great Roxane, apologizing?"
"It's rare, but it does happen." Diana quipped behind Roxane's back, spurring Roxane to roll her eyes as the two began talking to each other. Their conversations usually were about mundane topics so Roxane could only listen for a while before she began to push their voices out of her mind.
"We can take a rest here."
They got off their horses at a small clearing that had a bubbling creek running through it. After they untied their supplies and bedrolls from the side of their horses. Thatcher then led the horses over to the creek and watched them as they drank. He chose a big rock covered in moss to sit down on.
He smiled when he noticed Roxane staring at him from where she and Diana were busy setting up their camp. He waved at her and she took it as an invitation to join him by the creekside.
His grey eyes watched her curiously as she made her way over to him. He cleared his throat nervously when Roxane stood in front of him without saying anything.
"Roxane?" He spoke her name hesitantly like he was afraid.
"You aren't what you make yourself out to be. I understand that now after last night." Thatcher regarded her facial expressions as if he was searching for something within her golden eyes.
"What happened to those men from last night?" She asked, realizing she had forgotten all about the mercenaries. Her mind flashed with the image of the leader's hands being cut off in one swift motion. The man that did that was right in front of her, enjoying the sun's rays with a smile on his face as if he had no recollection of doing such a thing.
"What do you mean what happened? I sent the innkeeper to fetch the city's guards and they took them away." He shrugged rather nonchalantly for a man that had such a fierce look in his eyes last night.
"Are you honestly asking about the very men that tried to harm you?" Thatcher appeared vexed as he scrunched up his brown eyebrows.
She snorted.
"Hardly. I was just curious as to whether you did just that," she placed her hands on her knees as she bent down to get to his eye level, "or if you killed them." She peered into his eyes and waited for any crack in his façade to appear. When that didn't happen, she rose back to her full height.
"Don't misunderstand me. I only want to know what lies behind the mask of the man who claims he will look out for us. Last night you cut down that man without a single hesitation. Who are you really Thatcher?" She turned to go back to Diana, but she was caught by a man's hand.
"I'm only a bastard from the royal family." Roxane doubted his words the very second they left his lips. "Or at least that was the case until I trained to become something more."
She let her confusion show plainly on her face.
"What the Solstine royal family doesn't know," he took a deep breath, still holding onto Roxane's arm, "is that my mother was not a commoner woman. She had ties in Zerentha."
"She was a baron's daughter and their family held multiple properties. My aunt was able to rise up in rank by marrying into a ducal family in Melios. She was the one who sent to have me trained after learning of my birth, and when I was thirteen she had me tour the eastern continent."
"That is why I know the different routes and how to wield a sword. I was taught by only the best swordsmen and I even trained with mercenaries so ruthless you would not believe me if I told you even half of the stories." He shook his head, maybe recounting in his mind all the stories he could tell her.
She frowned and looked down at his hand that still held on to her arm. He was telling her much more than she wanted, and now that she knew more about him she saw him in a new light. He was not the same uptight and selfish young nobleman she met only weeks ago at the temple.
"Despite all the hardships she sent my way, I still love my aunt. Without her, I wouldn't have been able to protect myself from the royal family. In a way, she saved me."
"Thatcher, you don't have to say anything else."
"You're right, I don't." His sad smile tugged at Roxane's heartstrings and she was suddenly terrified that the man would start crying. "But I find myself wanting to tell you all this."
Her heart flipped inside her chest as time seemed to stop around them and she realized she had forgotten how to breathe.
"Roxane," her golden eyes widened as the man before her tugged at her arm, bringing her back down to his eye level.