Marri's Approach (Brackish Bay) Read Online Free Page A

going. I could hear them behind me, crashing about. They were fast, I'd give them that, so even if I heard them coming, it didn't do much good if I couldn't outrun them.
    Fortuna, I do understand that I'm stupid sometimes. I didn't glance up this time. Our lady of fortune didn't reside any particular place; she just meddled with our lives on her whims. Cruel and capricious, she could see me caught, beaten, and sold into slavery one day, but then rescued, protected, and doctor-provided for another. I had long given up trying to predict her moods, and therefore spent most of my time cajoling or cursing her name.
    There was the still the matter of what to do with the men behind me. I didn't want to lead them back to my patrol's meeting place, so I was going to have to lose them before then. The soldiers knew enough to keep their mouths shut as they ran, but I also knew from William's information that Rari, the city's hunts woman, claimed territory in the direction I was running. I could go through it, but that would be dangerous. She'd kill me on sight rather than ask why I was running through her territory with her House's soldiers on my tail.
    Speaking of which, I hadn't had sex in weeks, and it was wearing on me. I'd been forbidden after William beat me for endangering his foster daughter and apprentice Katherine. The little wench had followed me on the way to a foolish mission in Ken's Corner and almost gotten raped. I'd killed the creep, of course, but he'd inconsiderately spewed blood on her as he died. That was one of only a couple times that a beating hadn't given me pleasure.
    I ducked around a smooth-barked tree and scrambled up it. I needed the breather, and I wanted to see if I could identify just how far away I was from Rari's territory. I needed to skirt that if I wanted to have any chance of getting back to the meeting place alive.
    For a long time, my pursuers crashed and thrashed through the brush. Finally I saw one pass. He was wearing overalls without a shirt, boots, and wore his bow and quiver slung diagonally across his back. It was a small bow, made for speed rather than distance, and I shivered a little. They weren't green boys, and definitely not amateurs. I remembered William telling me Roy had held this patch of ground and water for a few years shy of two decades, and reevaluated my assessment of their relative preparations.
    Of course, this was just them dealing with me. I wondered how my patrol has done. Though Zarilla and I were both going to the heart of Brackish Bay, where Roy lived with his core group, I hadn't seen hide nor hair of her.
    I was silent as the soldier crashed forward. How do I know he's a soldier, Fortuna? Did you not see his ease with the bow before? The way he moves is very predatory, even if he's not in his element in the forest. I swiveled to look for the other soldier I could hear, but he was too far away to see. I decided to wait longer than I had the last time. Counting only to a hundred before coming out of the tree had not been my smartest move of the morning.
    I wondered whether having sex with them would constitute harm. It can't, right, Fortuna? If they consent? I grinned to myself. William had told my patrol not to sate my desires, and told Dinis, also. Amadeus, his lover, had no interest, nor did William. Katherine was a child, no matter how much she protested that designation. Never mind that I was tumbling boys in the fields at her age. That's different, Fortuna.
    I leaned back against the trunk and took the opportunity to rest my aching body. It wasn't the most comfortable space to be in, but it was better than continuing to run, dodging the men who continued on, oblivious to my stop. For all they knew, I'd dodged away hours ago. I prided myself on being fleet and silent. My father was a hunter, my mother a woodswife, and though he'd died when I was twelve, she'd taught me every day.
    I suspected they'd continue until they hit Rari's land, and then rouse her to look