Miriam's Dance with Rogues - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I found two men in the trees watching the bridge. One on either side of the road. As I slipped silently back to Rolin, I considered my options. The problem was that it would be difficult to silence one without alerting the other. I couldn't really climb up the trees without making noise or shaking the trees either. I could wait until they changed the watch, but I had no clue when, and then I might find myself dealing with four people rather than just two. I stepped out behind Rolin and crouched next to him. He jumped in the air and spun towards me waving his knife wildly.

"Holy shit. Don't scare me like that." He hissed.

"Put your knife away. There are two bandits watching the bridge. They both have crossbows. Do you think you could shoot one in the throat while I throw my spear at the other?"

Rolin's face paled visibly in the dim light. "I've uh" never killed anyone before."

I mentally smacked myself. What was I doing? Asking an eighteen year old boy to help me kill a man.

"Nevermind then."

Rolin grabbed my hand. "No no. I can do it. I just need time to... get ready."

I rubbed his hand gently. "No. We'll find another way. Tell me exactly what they do when you and your father cross the bridge?"

Rolin answered promptly. "They stop you in the middle of the bridge and tell you to pay them."

"Where did they come from though?  Did they all approach you from one side of the bridge? And do they stop you going toward Betancuria or leaving?"

He thought a little this time before replying. "Two or three of them come at us from both sides of the bridge when we reached the middle and they charges us fare both ways."

I ran my hand through his straggly blonde hair. "And how do they collect the fare?"

"Well, they point the cross bow in our faces, and then we hand them the money." He said pulling my hands away from his hair.

"Do they all approach you though? Or does only one person walk up to you? And after they take your money, do they go back their original ways? Or do they all leave together?" I asked as he guided my hands together behind my back.

He began to tie my hands together using the cuffs. "They all walk up to us and threaten us. I think it makes them more intimidating. After stealing from us, they go back to the side they came from."

"Rolin? This isn't a good time." I murmured as I tried to tug my hands apart.

"I just don't like you rubbing my head. It makes me feel young." He blushed furiously.

"I'm sorry Rolin. I didn't mean anything by it." I knelt at his feet and kissed the crotch of his pants. "I have an idea, but I need your help."

Rolin responded without any hesitation at all. "Okay."

I smiled at him, appreciating his trust and rubbed my face against the crotch of his pants as I spoke. "I want you to go up to the middle of the bridge. When they approach you, pay the fare, and walk across. I'll kill the bandits heading back towards me. After you get across, when the bandits start to leave you to climb back to their trees, turn around and tell them you dropped something. They'll definitely ask what it is. Tell them it's a purse of yellow rocks you found in a cave near your house. They'll think gold and follow you back across. Once you cross the bridge again, run into the forest as fast as you can while I kill the other ones who followed you."

He placed his hands on my shoulders and leaned me back so he could see my face. "Couldn't we just disguise you? Say you were really sick and contagious? Like pretend you're my sick grandma and I'm taking you to Betancuria to get you healed?"

I was shocked. His plan was so much simpler and much more likely to succeed. "But we don't have anything to disguise me with."

"We were going to dispose of your cloak anyways right?"

I nodded. "True. Alright, I'll trust you with all the talking then?"

Rolin reached out and traced the top of my breasts. My full breasts were thrust forward proudly thanks to my bound arms behind my back. "I doubt they'd think you were my grandma if they heard you. Your voice is too sexy."

"You'll be using my spear then. It wouldn't look right for an old lady to be carrying a weapon. I have to admit though, I'd feel a lot safer if you knew how to use it."

He grinned wickedly at me as he untied the laces attached to my collar, causing the top of my corset to fall down and completely expose my erect nipples. "I guess I'll need to remind you how well I can use my spear later."

My quiet chuckle turned to a soft whimper as he roughly twisted both of my nipples. "If you're plan works out, I'll be more than happy to be impaled by your spear."

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So a short time later, when we crossed the bridge, I was completely wrapped in my bear skin cloak. All that showed beneath the cloak was calf length leather boots. Not exactly regular footwear for an old lady, but not unusual either. I walked hunched over in small steps. Rolin gripped my elbow through the cloak to guide me since I was keeping my face completely covered with the cloak.

"Halt!" Came a yell when we had walked a fair distance.

Rolin stopped, his grip on my elbow pulling me to a stop as well. I heard footsteps move towards us from both sides of the bridge.

I peeked a little through the cloak and saw four men in front of us. I assumed there were two behind. They were all dressed in black leather and wool. All had swords and crossbows though out of the four I could see, only one of them had his crossbow pointed at Rolin. I couldn't really distinguish their features in the dark light, but I could see they were all large men and carried themselves with an air of confidence.

The one pointing his crossbow spoke. "Aren't you that woodcutter's son? What're you doing here by yourself?"

"My grandmother is sick. I'm bringing her into Betancuria to find a doctor." Rolin replied.

"Really now. Why's she covered like that?" I heard bandit with the trigger happy crossbow ask. I assumed he was also the one I heard step toward me.

Rolin lied smoothly. "We think whatever she has might be contagious. My dad isn't feeling well. He's not as sick as her, but he's not doing too well either."

Trigger happy laughed. "Even I know that covering someone with a cloth isn't going to keep contagious fevers from spreading and I'm no doctor."

I felt someone grab the cloak around me and knew the game was up. Rather than waiting for them to expose me, I threw the cloak over my head and onto who I assumed was trigger happy. Spinning so that I stood back to back with Rolin, I grabbed the spear from his hand and pierced the throat of one of the bandits behind us. Muffled curses came from trigger happy as he began to pull off the cloak. The other bandit who had approached us from behind looked at his partner in shock. I took the opportunity to slash the spear across his throat.

I immediately turned and pushed Rolin out of the way. Not a moment too soon. Trigger happy had finally gotten rid of the cloak and raised his crossbow to fire. His struggle with the cloak had knocked the crossbow bolt out of alightment. So when he fired it now, rather than flying into my face, it flew wildly into the spot Rolin had been standing a moment ago. At the same time, two other crossbow bolts hit me simultaneously. One of them stabbed me in the left shoulder, spinning me off balance, the other one glanced of the armor plating on my corset. I wasn't cut and there was no blood, but I knew I'd have a bruise on my breasts. Even as I fell to the ground, off balance, I stabbed my spear into trigger happy. He looked at the spear in his stomach in disbelief. Then the remaining bandit who hadn't fired his crossbow stepped next to my head and pointed his crossbow down at my face. I froze. The other two drew their swords and approached us warily. The one with the crossbow pointed at my face suddenly kicked out, connecting with my forehead, and blackness took me.

Continued in Chapter 6

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