Well, I decided I'd give this a shot too. I'm answering the #samplesunday challenge on Twitter. This is an early scene from Only A Name. It's only gone through a basic revision and a spelling/grammar check. So it's still a little rough. But I wanted to show that I am making some progress on this thing. :)
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Scat dozed a little but was woken up by the sound of men and horses. She opened her eyes as the guards swarmed the little camp where her friends were sleeping. Spade was kicked awake. Hawk was on his knees with a sword at his throat while Bay stood off to the side. “Where be Scat, Spade?” Bay asked.
Spade spat onto the ground. The guard that kicked him grabbed him by the hair and hauled him up to his knees. “There are only a few landmarks the girl could follow,” the soldier holding Spade said. “The mountains and the river. She won’t find any safety along either route. No place, not even the temples, are safe against the Emperor’s decree.”
“What do we do with these three?” the man with his sword at Hawk’s throat asked.
“Kill them,” the first guard said.
“Ye said I would be spared.” Bay started backing away. The third guard kicked his feet out from under him and twisted his arm up behind his back.
“We’ll spare you a death by torture, for that’s what you’d get at the hands of your former master,” the first man said with a bloodthirsty grin. “We’ll give you a merciful passing here.”
Off to the side, hidden beneath the bushes, Scat pressed both hands to her mouth to keep from being sick. She watched as the man holding Spade drew his sword. He raised the blade high and brought it down with considerable strength. The sound of the metal as it sheared through flesh and bone was something the child would never forget. Blood spurted wildly out of Spade’s neck as his head bounced and rolled a little to one side. The body fell forward, blood spraying out across the guards’ boots.
Hawk was next. He closed his eyes and waited the blow with the same courage Spade showed. His head hit a rock and bounced a little higher, coming to land only a handspan away from Spade’s lifeless body.
Bay fought back. He punched and kicked, trying to get away from his attackers. Spade’s killer lunged forward with a dagger and slit his throat. Bay choked, gasping and clutching at his neck. He tried to stop the blood but it escaped from beneath his fingers. When at last his body was still, they cut his head off as well. All three heads were shoved into a sack. The bodies the guards left where they’d fallen.
“Think we should go looking for the child?” Hawk’s executioner asked.
“As small as she is, she’s not worth the silver or the effort,” Spade’s executioner said. “She’s dead no matter what.” He led his horse away from the bodies, and his men followed suit.
Scat stayed as still as possible until she was positive she couldn’t hear them any longer. The entire forest around where she hid was too quiet. The horror of what had just occurred had silenced even the normal nocturnal inhabitants of the area. The stench of blood and death overwhelmed her and she threw up what little was in her stomach.
Scat turned away from the bodies. Spade had said to head to the river but it was still too dark for her to see the path clearly. She would go carefully and make sure she had somewhere to hide just in case someone else was on the road.
She looked around. The large, dark shape off to her right was a patch of the same berry bushes Spade told her to avoid eating. There was just enough room beneath them for her to hide without a chance of being seen. Her feet were raw and bleeding again. She bit her lip to keep from making any sound. Her left leg buckled beneath her as an old injury stole her strength. With the pain came the clearest memory she had of her childhood. She closed her eyes, clinging to that memory instead of the horror in front of her now.
She was falling. She wasn’t home with her parents, but she was falling. The hill beneath her was rocky and crumbled beneath her even as she fell. Her body impacted the hard packed earth that served as the road near her family’s home. She screamed as her leg snapped. Blood oozed from where her bone tore through flesh. “Mama! Mama!” Someone called to her from the darkness, a name that she no longer remembered. But she knew the voice wasn’t her mother’s. “Mama!”
Then horses, and men, and more pain. Then, finally, darkness. When she woke again, she was in a place with other children. All of them were chained. Many were crying, but even more were silent. Her left leg was wrapped tight with bandages and held immobilized with wood. Someone commented on her being lame, and how that would lower her price. She was in the slave market and her number was soon to be up on the block.
Scat blinked as tears, long unshed, trickled down her cheeks. She crawled under the berry bush. Ignoring the shudder of revulsion at the thought of sharing sleeping space with spiders, Scat curled up into a ball and closed her eyes. Shock and fear took their toll and soon Scat fell into a nightmarish dream.
“Ignorant, blind, idiotic fools!” Scat was awakened by the sound of a young voice shouting.
“Col, keep it down. They might still be around,” another voice cautioned.
“The blood’s clotted,” a third voice said in a calm voice. “They’ll be long gone, Kieran. With their bloody prizes clutched tight in their greedy fists.”
“We don’t know that,” the second voice, the one that Scat thought might be Kieran, said angrily.
“Manus is right, Ky,” the first voice said. “If the blood’s clotted this happened some time yesterday or last night.”
“Looks like someone came on the bodies before us, Colwyn,” the third voice – the one called Manus – said. “See here?”
“Probably never saw a headless corpse before,” Colwyn sighed.
“We’ll be seeing a lot more of these,” Kieran said. “What with the usurper’s edict and all. He’s paying in silver what the Emperor is paying for in gold.”
“The temples offer no protection anymore either for those of us touched by the goddess,” Colwyn said. “Even the river god’s shrine has turned a blind eye to the killings. They won’t raise a hand to save anyone fleeing the purge.”
Kieran snorted. “Is this another one of the goddess’ so-called blessings?”
“No,” Colwyn said. “It’s a murderous bastard’s way of stealing power that’s not rightly his.”
“We’d better get back to camp, Col,” Manus said. “We need to report this.”
Scat intended to let the boys pass by and then head for the river. But a forest spider, irritated by the large creature blocking her from her web, took that moment to express her displeasure in a most painful – and potentially fatal – way. Scat shrieked and rolled out of the bushes as the large grey spider bit down hard on her hand.
The boys whirled around, swords drawn. Scat paid no heed to them as she tried to shake the spider from her rapidly swelling hand. “Goddess save him,” Colwyn said, sheathing his sword. “Manus, get the paste. Kieran, help me get that damn thing off his hand.”
“Right,” Kieran said grimly. Colwyn caught Scat as she flailed around and held her as Kieran got out his dagger. Colwyn held her arm in a vice like grip as Kieran slid his dagger between her flesh and the spider. The wet pop of the fangs was very audible. Scat screamed again.
Manus came up with a small jar of paste, which he smoothed liberally over the wound. Scat tore herself free from the boy’s grip. Her terror sent her heart racing. The spider’s venom sped through her body, carried by her blood and the feverish pounding of her heart. She didn’t even realize she was unconscious until her body hit the unyielding earth.
Yeep! also, wow.
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