You Women Are Insane

The knot of women came to a halt thirty feet down the hill on a wide stretch of the path. Sera lay stunned for a few moments, staring up at the sky. It was a bright robin's egg blue with just a few wisps of white cloud for accent. The sun overhead was pleasantly warm and there was a gentle breeze that smelled of green, growing things. It was the sort of the day that always tempted Sera to spend it lounging in a hammock with a couple of good books for company.

But that wasn't an option at the moment.

Instead, Sera took a deep breath and began sorting out her limbs from those of the guardswomen. One of the women was unconscious. The commander was still cursing up a storm, but her words were thin and reedy with pain. The last guardswoman gasped and grunted as she struggled free of the pile, then crawled a few feet away, cradling her ribs.

Right, one unconscious woman, one with bruised or broken ribs, and one with a leg wound, Sera concluded.

There was nothing Sera's limited first aid knowledge could do about the broken ribs, but she could help with the commander's leg. A few minutes later, after the sacrifice of another section of under-dress and a lot of snarling from the commander, the woman's leg was bound with a sloppy tourniquet.

As Sera helped the commander to her feet, the prince's flyer soared past, the engines a unnaturally quiet hum. Most of the prince's guardsmen hung off the sides in the same way the guardswomen had ridden on the rails of the palanquin earlier. The commander waved her arms to signal to the flyer, and it looped back to hover for a few moments. Then a bullet pinged off the side of the vehicle and it sped away.

The commander went abruptly silent, eyes narrowing, when that happened.

"We need to get off this hill," Sera said, turning her attention to the unconscious woman. A quick glance at the commander and the guardswoman with the broken ribs told Sera that they would have enough trouble moving themselves and would be no help with the unconscious guardswoman.

'I really need to start learning names,' Sera though to herself as she bent down and checked the woman for injuries. There were numerous scrapes and bruises, an arm bent in a direction it wasn't meant to go, and a enormous lump on the back of the woman's head that was slowly oozing blood. After a moment of contemplation, Sera used yet more of her underskirts to bandage the headwound and to tie the woman's arm in place across her ribs. Not ideal, but hopefully it would keep the arm from flopping around and getting worse. Then she dragged the woman over her shoulders in a fireman's carry.

"Well this was stupid," Sera muttered as she staggered under the woman's weight. What had she been thinking, using her skinny never-lifted-a-finger-in-her-life body to try and carry an amazon who was six inches taller and all lean muscle? She shrugged her shoulders a little, managing to get her awkward burden settled better, then glanced down the path and over the side of the hill.

She really should ask the commander for her opinion, Sera admitted. But from the way the guardswoman was staring at her like she'd sprouted another head, Sera wasn't positive she could keep the woman moving if she gave any openings for debate.

The path was the safer route for now, but once it curved around the other side of the hill she would have to run. That wasn't really an option while carrying another woman. The side of the hill was steep, but as long as Sera went slowly and picked her steps carefully . . . .

The scream of engines ended Sera's internal debate. And all pretense at being careful. She plunged forward down the hill, doing more dirt-surfing than running. It was pure luck that she managed to stay on her feet. Perhaps half-way down the hill, Sera hit a flat spot where the two paths crossed one another. Hearing the scream of another engine bearing down, Sera lunged into the shelter of the short tunnel.

"Are you f**cking crazy?!" the commander demanded as she and the woman with the broken ribs stumbled in on Sera's heels, leaning on one another.

"Down!" The woman with the broken ribs shouted, and tackled Sera moments before something like a flying motorcycle sped through the tunnel, one of the guardswomens' spears held out like a lance. This was the source of the engines noise Sera realized. Which was both good and bad.

Good, because the vehicle didn't have guns. Bad, because there was no chance of outrunning it, even if Sera wasn't burdened by the unconscious guardswoman. And it could fit into the tunnel.

As could the second one.

The commander had jumped out of the path of the first flying bike, but as this one passed by she jumped onto it. The driver dropped the spear as he tried simultaneously to fight her off and not crash. He managed the second, but when Sera lost sight of the vehicle as it left the tunnel he hadn't accomplished the first.

The guardswoman with the broken ribs cursed, picked up the dropped spear, and charged out of the tunnel towards a third bike. Or perhaps it was the first one coming back for a second pass. Sera watched in awe as the injured woman planted herself on the path to meet the vehicle's charge.

"You women are insane," Sera informed the last, still unconscious, guardswoman. Sera's mouth dropped open as the woman with the spear leaned casually to the side as the bike approached and sliced through something vital on the vehicle. It crashed to the ground and skidded to a halt a few steps short of the mouth of the tunnel. The guardswoman spun and threw her spear, impaling the man struggling his way off the vehicle's wreckage, then darted forward to scoop up what turned out to be another spear before she planted a foot on the dead man's back and yanked the first one free.

She then turned around and marched back out to face down another approaching vehicle and rider, spear in either hand.

This driver was smart enough to go wide around the guardswoman, but that meant he wasn't lined up to come through the tunnel. The one who followed right behind was lined up though, and the guardswoman wasn't in a position to stop him. Sera huddled as low as she could in the join between the ground and and the tunnel wall, arms up to protect her head and face. But that proved a mistake, since it left her torso exposed. She screamed as a spear plunged into her side. She was dragged several feet along the tunnel before the flyer lost his grip on the spear.

The guardswoman went charging up the tunnel to fling one of her spears at the departing man's back, then came running back the other direction, calling out, "Don't pull the spear out, Highness."

Sera was too busy trying not to pass out to do anything with the spear. She was distantly aware that the guardswoman was continuing to fight, the roar of engines and the thunder of crashing metal breaking through the haze of pain.

'I'm going to die again,' she thought unhappily. And she hadn't even lasted a day.

************************

Gunnar picked his way slowly down the side of the hill, hoping none of the Prince's men would notice him. It seemed unlikely, since they were hell-bent on killing a lone surviving member of the Princess's personal guard who was fiercely defending one of the tunnels where the two paths up the hill crossed each other.

Presumably the princess was in there. Gunnar would be thrilled if he caught Meirys there, but he wasn't banking on it. The best he could really hope for at this point was that she'd made her jump to a new life recently enough that he'd still be able to track her.

But that was unlikely as well. Prince Rhys had shot Gunnar's host in the forehead when the prince's flyer had arrived, and Gunnar had had to find a new host. He'd lucked out and discovered one of the princess's guardswomen still clinging to life. Inhabiting a female form was always uncomfortable to Gunnar, but in this case it was ideal—no one would question a guardswoman getting close to the princess.

Gunnar was still a good twenty yards up the slope from the tunnel when he heard the whine of a speeder approaching his position. He whirled towards it and readied himself to fend off the speeder with his borrowed spear. But the speeder slowed and Gunnar saw that it was piloted not by one of the Prince's men, but one of the guardswomen. The insignia told him she was likely in charge.

"I thought you were dead," the woman said.

"So did I," Gunnar said, since she seemed to expect an answer.

"Get on."

There was no room for argument in the woman's tone. Not that Gunnar was going to argue, since he had no doubt the woman would be headed to wherever her princess was. He climbed on the back of the speeder, movements clumsy. The guardswoman sped off before he was truly settled and he grabbed wildly at the seat to keep from tumbling off the back.

Moments later they were in the tunnel. Gunnar's heart sank when he saw a shape huddled at the base of the inner wall, a spear through her chest. He jumped off the speeder and raced to the woman's side, but the blank staring eyes told him that Meirys had fled and the princess was dead even before he confirmed she had no pulse and was not breathing.

"She's dead, isn't she?" the guardswoman asked. And then called out to the one at the mouth of the tunnel, "Kara, you can stop. She's dead."

The other guardswoman turned, defeat in every line of her body, as she slowly joined her comrade. To stand silently beside her commanding officer. Gunner stood on the woman's other side, bowing his head as his eyes searched for some sign of the strand of soul stones. He didn't even consider the possibility that Meirys might have dropped it, and thus died a true death here. She would never let go of a treasure like the Chain of Eternal Union.

There. The faint echo of the string of soul stones snaked through the princess's fingers and over the back of her hand, then up her sticklike arm. And as Gunner had known she would, Meirys had used one of the soul stones to escape into a new life.

But surprisingly, she'd once again failed to cover her tracks. Gunnar frowned.

Maybe she thought she didn't have to bother, when she was leaving this life so quickly? That no one could possibly have caught up to her already?

Whatever the reason, it was good for Gunnar. He smiled to himself as let go of his latest body and hurled himself into the void on Meirys's trail.