The soft wind blew, rustling the leaves as the sunlight broke through the cracks of tree branches in Dartrey Forest. The sounds of tweeting birds and chirping crickets orchestrated through the air enlivened the summer atmosphere.
Elegant green pine trees, along with spruce, fir, and tamarack, grew in the biome. A large lake, seated in the middle of the forest, reflected the colour of the blue sky, seemingly calm and tranquillising in nature.
A knight sat at the buttress roots of a tree, gripping a spear point, double-edged dagger. Holding a little slate stone he picked up near the lake, his rough hand ran it to the blade's edge — slowly and steadily. He poured some water from his container to wet the blade and continued.
'Sreet!'
The slurry sound of the honing dagger reached the three captives' ears, who were tightly tied and gagged. They struggled to let loose and screamed as they saw the knight's action. However, their efforts were in vain as their weak bodies could not break free from the sturdy rope, and their cries were muffled between the wads of cloth stuffed into their mouths.
The smell of urine wafted to the knight's nose, making him raise his head and glance at the captives with his cold eyes. The sunlight that shot the blade of his dagger reflected on his intense-looking face. He had kept them in close check, and not once did he heed their pleas.
The cracking twigs and leaves were heard as a man's feet tread through the forest floor. The knight quickly picked up the movement, stood up and turned to the approaching sound. With the skills of a high-ranking knight, he could quickly identify who was coming. Knowing who it was, the knight sheathed the dagger into the sheath.
It did not take long for the commander to arrive.
"So, they are the one?" Kyren's low, stern voice resonated as he stood before the captives with a solemn face.
Noah, the knight tasked with capturing and imprisoning the three slave traders, nodded.
"Yes. All three of them. The fourth one was already dead," he responded.
"I know. I snapped his neck. Pulling out anybody's groin would be messy after a bath," Kyren replied calmly with a desecration smile.
"What is your order, commander?" asked the knight, glancing his obsidian eyes at the captives.
Their bodies shook from the tremble, and fear clouded their faces. The pants that they were wearing were already wet.
The three slave traders who had captured Anna had been held captive in a cold, dark, cramped cage for nearly a month and barely fed ever since a mysterious man caught them.
Today was the first time they had seen the sun since they had been captured. Hearing that their accomplice, Brian, who they thought had escaped with their merchandise, had been killed, terrified the trio.
"Open the gags. I want to hear them scream while I cut off their limbs," instructed Kyren.
Initially, the commander ordered Noah to lock up the slave traders for a week after capturing them. However, the torture lasted longer than planned as he was engaged in his duty.
As Noah pulled out the gags from their mouth, screams and cries began to be heard.
"Please! Please don't kill us! We'll do anything. We'll give you everything we have. Please let us go!" Bill pleaded earnestly to be released.
"Why would I? You didn't let the woman you caught go. You intend to auction her, and your dead friend even tried to rape her," Kyren snarled at them.
Jake, Bill, and Dean were reminded of the slave who went missing with Brian. The three of them thought that Bill's brother had sold their merchandise to the City of Tarnova to gain all the profit for himself.
Angered by his actions, they searched for them but were caught on the way by an unknown man.
"The slave girl? We don't have her anymore! She had escaped!" Jake shouted.
"She is my woman now!" Kyren raised his voice. His eyes glared at the men like a hawk. "You've done terrible things to her!" he added.
"We are sorry! We won't do it again. Please spare us!" cried Dean.
"Yes, yes! We thought she was a prisoner of war! She was handcuffed when we captured her. She told us the Bargesians were after her!" Bill spoke up.
The commander's long fingers tapped the sword's hilt, and his eyebrows curved as he heard the slave trader's words. Such details had never been revealed to him. Even Anna had never told him so.
"Open their knots," ordered Kyren to Noah.
The knight who stood by his side quickly approached the captives. Noah's solid and skilful hands untied them in just a moment. The slave traders prostrated to the grounds, thanking the commander for the release.
"What else do you know about her?" asked Kyren. Knowing that the barbarians of the south once hunted Anna piqued his interest.
"That's all we know! She didn't talk to us after we caught her," replied Dean.
"Yes! Most of the time, she just cried," added Jake.
Kyren scoffed at the answer. Which woman would not have cried in that situation?
"Then, you're useless to me."
Hearing Kyren's intimidating voice, the captives tried to run for their life. However, the agile commander could easily catch up to them.
Kyren lifted his alluring sword and swung it high into the sky, bringing judgment. In a flash, screams of horror were heard, followed by howling pain. The chopped-off limbs fell, and blood splashed onto the ground.
The grand duke wiped the blood splattered on his cheek with the back of his hand. The screaming continued as blood gushed from the slave traders' bodies, who were now limbless.
"Too noisy!" The commander clicked his tongue in annoyance.
At first, he thought of leaving the captives to bleed to death, but their screams of pain irritated him. He raised his sword once more, slashing the blade with a deadly motion and beheading each one of them mercilessly. The screams stopped as their heads rolled to the ground.
The prince looked at the scattered dead bodies with satisfaction. As promised to his wife, he had made them pay the price for hurting her.
"Hang their bodies at the border fence as a reminder to other outlaws," he ordered Noah as he returned his sword to the sheath.
"Yes, commander."
"Noah...," he called up the knight after a moment.
"Yes?" Noah, who moved to collect the corpses, halted his steps and turned.
"I want you to go to the City of Constance," said Kyren.
"Ardel? What's the purpose?" asked the knight.
"Find out everything you can about her," ordered the commander.
"By her, you mean your wife?"
The knight raised his brow. The prince led a nod.
"As you've heard, she's a fugitive. I want to know why suddenly an Ardelian was chased by the Bargesians," he replied.
Through his experience, the commander knew the slave traders were telling the truth about the princess.
"Why don't you just ask her then?" asked Noah again.
"She might not want people to know her secret if she's an offender. So, it's better to investigate without her knowing," explained Kyren.
"Understood. If that's the case, could you allow me to observe her for a few days before leaving?" requested the knight.
The commander turned and looked at Noah with squinting eyes.
"For what?" The tone of his voice indicated that he was somewhat displeased with the request.
"No one is better at spilling their own secrets than themselves. I'm sure I would find out something even by just looking," said Noah confidently.
The knight was once the most sought-after mercenary with high espionage and intelligence skills.
"Fine. I'll make it better for you. You can talk to her, but never make it obvious or scare her," the commander said.
"Noted. I'll let you know the outcome before I leave," replied the knight with a smirk.
Uncovering other people's secrets was indeed his favourite task, and finding the information about a woman was a piece of cake, or so he thought.