Chapter 7: The Murder

“What is the meaning of this?’’ My voice came out as a whisper, because I didn´t dare speak any louder.

“I think someone was already aware of your presence in Grenston,’’said Alexander, looking strangely thrilled.

“It must have been Albert,’’ I said, remembering the dark eyes I had seen behind the broken wall.

“You must go now,’’ said Alexander´s mother, looking at the small wooden door in terror.

“You don´t need to worry about me, mother.’’

He grabbed her shoulders and kissed her forehead. Then, he grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the backdoor where his mother had gone to take the water. I held back a scream of pure terror when I saw at least six scarcely dressed workers approach us even from the field. Some of them were older, others were young and strong.

All of them looked directly at me, with furious expressions.

“There she is! The wench of Collios.”

The what.

I raised my hand without thinking.

“You will take that back at once! How dare you commoners call me a wench!”

I felt the iron grip of Alexander’s arm around my waist as he dragged me away.

“We need to run, or did you forget how you nearly wet yourself when you heard them coming?”

I had.

If it wasn’t for Alexander pulling me, I probably wouldn’t have survived what happened next. The man were surprisingly strong, even though they looked like they hadn’t eaten a proper meal in decades.

Perhaps it was because it made them lightweights.

I was out of breath almost immediately, but Alexander’s force kept me going too. We ran past the field, demented voices screaming behind us. I didn’t dare look behind me, but the way I heard it, more people gathered by the second.

I had no idea where we were going, because Alexander had luckily chosen a different, less crowded route than the one we had taken to his mother’s house. When we had run across the field of his mother, dodging several confused cows and goats, we came closer to a line of trees. However, our chasers still hadn’t given up. We ran downwards, not following any path. I was out of breath, fearing I couldn’t keep running much longer. To my despair I could still hear people sprinting behind us, shouting the most horrible things. Not just things they would do to me, I could even hear Alexander’s name being mentioned occasionally.

When I looked behind, terrified, I saw three men right behind us. One of them was bald, whereas the other two had dirty long hair. They resembled each other so much that they had to be brothers. The bald man was wearing an eyepatch, whereas the other men were missing fingers. All of them were dressed in tattered clothes, and they reeked of sour ale.

Without any warning, the bald man lunged forward to grab my arm. However, Alexander was there first, pushing him out of the way, and grabbing his sword.

“Get out!” he yelled at me, as he brutally slashed at the bald man, cutting his hand off clean.

I felt vomit coming up my throat. However, the other men were dashing towards me.

Time stood still, when suddenly I felt a hard metal object being pressed against my hand.

The dagger.

“Go!” Alexander shouted as he tried to defend me against the three of them. However malnourished they were, I could see he wouldn’t be able to fend off the three of them.

Coward that I was, I ran away, just as I heard the sickening sound of metal on bones.

I leapt as fast as I could. I didn’t feel how tired I was, desperate as I was to get away. The forest, which had felt wide and open before, suddenly felt too small. The path was narrow, trees nearly blocking every step.

To my horror, I heard footsteps following behind me. I looked behind me in terror, seeing one of the brothers almost successfully grabbing the hemn of my dress. I screamed, almost failing to dodge his hand. He smiled cruelly at me, and I saw that he missed some of his yellow teeth.

“I never had a rich one before,” he said, trying to grab a strand of hair. I lunged backwards, stumbling over a branch. I quickly grabbed another branch to hoist myself up, but he was already looming over me.

When he put his hands around my neck, I screamed and tried to struggle. I could already feel myself getting suffocated. My hand, still holding the branch, was about to give out.

Tears streamed over my face. I could not let it end like this.

Then, in anger, I pulled up my leg to kick him hard.

In a place where he absolutely deserved it.

He moaned in pain, almost falling on me, trying to grab it instinctively. I hoised myself up and pushed him off of me with my leg. Then, I clenched my dagger and scrambled away from him.

The man looked up. Where he had only looked violent before, he was now downright murderous. I turned around ready to run away. Yet, I felt his dirty, callused hand pull mine.

Luckily, he had pulled the wrong one.

With my heart leaping in my chest, I let him pull me towards him. I used the force of him pulling me to turn around. Before I was too afraid, I swiftly lifted up my dagger, and rammed it straight in his eye.

The surprise hadn’t left his face when he fell down, blood pouring out of the socket.

I don’t think I completely realised what I had done at that moment. I am actually quite amazed that I had the presence of mind to pull the dagger out of his bleeding socket.

I still remember the sound it made.

After doing so, I didn’t look back at his corpse. Strangely, I just kept running, as if I hadn’t just done something horrendous. As if he were still chasing me.

However, I knew that there was a possibility that the other two men had defeated Alexander, and were on their way. I didn’t want to think about what that meant. I just kept running past the trees, not seeing any sign of Melchior’s camp, or the horses we had left behind. I had no idea where to go, and the sun was sinking lower and lower.

I remember, after some time had passed, that I looked behind and realised that no one was following me anymore. The forest seemed to spin around me. I remember seeing a particularly large tree, and walking towards it. I sat down at the base, looking at the bright red blood on my dagger, and smearing it against the ground.

Then, I vomited so much that my stomach was completely empty.

When I was done, I sat back down. That is, until I heard the rustle of footsteps. I jumped up, my fist around my dagger. At first, I thought he was one of the men who had attacked me, that’s how dirty he looked. There was blood all over his face, clothes and hands. However, the big sword in his hands, and his dark hair and eyes, even under the blood, made me recognise him quickly.

When he saw me, he barked out a laugh, revealing his white teeth.

“How can you laugh like this when you’re covered in blood?” I said incredulously.

He continued to walk towards me, hopefully unaware of the vomit in the grass.

“I am happy to see that you’re still somewhat sane,” said Alexander as he sat down next to me at the base of the tree.

“I thought the attack at the carriage would be the end of your sanity, but you keep surprising me.”

I put down his sword next to him. His entire face was red.

“I saw his body on my way to you,” he said, “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

I sobbed.

“I’m a murderer,” I said softly.

I got startled when he put his heavy arm around my shoulder. However, the weight of his arm didn’t vex me.

“And so am I, Ignis. You should be happy about it.”

I turned towards him, his dark eyes twinkled with something that resembled pity, but also pride.

“Why in the world should I be happy about it?” I asked, tears still in my eyes.

He smiled.

“Murderers get to live.”