Part 2 (1/2)

”Her brother and not her father?' The man puzzled, then exclaimed: ”Signi? You seek to court the incomparable Signi? Thorn would cut your heart out if he knew you l.u.s.ted after her.”

”Not if I did so within the bounds of matrimony. That would make it acceptable, even for the great Lord Thorn.”

”It is risky, even the High King respects and seeks the Lord Thorn's counsel. He is no man to play for a fool.”

”I agree, he is a dangerous man, but I am determined to deal with him in an open and honest fas.h.i.+on. It is the only possible way I can hope to win her hand and live. Signi is loyal to her family and their code of honor. You must admit, she is a beauty and well worth the effort.”

”She has a dowry large enough to attract any suitor she wants, and they say her brother has promised her free choice. She will choose only a man she can love they say. Nor is the Lady Signi anyone's fool, as for the rest, I am eminently lovable but enough of this. It is time we moved on if we expect to make the next town by nightfall. I have no intention of staying in this town. The people here are too suspicious of strangers.”

”They also have been informed of the raids, nor are we all that far away. I cannot blame them for their wariness.”

As far as Aura was concerned, the men had long over stayed their welcome, despite their lesson in language. She was stiff from maintaining her perch in the tree, she was hungry as she had not eaten since morning, and she was beginning to feel chilled because of the setting of the sun. She could think of nothing, other than getting down so she could make herself something to eat and review what she had learned. She had a lot to think about.

To Aura, who was used to the finest of modern conveniences, the town she had seen was no better than a cl.u.s.ter of mud huts and hovels, and she was appalled at the living conditions. To her the cave was much preferable. She realized that she was going to have to be careful not to be seen.

Her clothing and manners seemed completely alien to what she had witnessed so far, and she feared what they might do to her if they found her. Primitive societies were not very understanding towards things they did not understand, and they would not know what to think about her. Nor did it help that she was female and this opened possibilities that she did not care to dwell on for too long.

She also understood that to run off from the area, without knowledge of what the true conditions were like about her, would be an act of a really ignorant person. She needed time, time to watch, time to find out where and in what time period she was in, time to decide how to adapt, and time to find a way to get back to where she belonged, because she certainly did not belong here.

CHAPTER VI.

”They are breaking up.” Duke Vernon yelled at Thorn over the clash of the battling armies.

”I know,” Thorn yelled back as he met yet another warrior, and dispatched him with two swift lethal blows of his sword. ”That means the chase will be on soon.”

”Do not remind me,” Vernon answered. ”You might like to run down the enemy, but that does not mean that I have to do it too.”

”Admit it, you enjoy the thrill of the chase. It makes for an efficient ending.”

”I do not have to admit anything, but as you are so happy about the challenge I will leave the cleaning up to you and your men. I am sure they will appreciate that every bit as much as I would.”

”They know the way of battle and they will not hesitate to follow my example.”

Nor would they hesitate to do all they could to make sure their Lord was safe. Vernon knew that and felt safe in teasing his friend about it. Thorn, being a strong and respected leader, attracted only the best warriors. It was a following that a weaker man would envy, though he, Vernon, only admired. As far as he was concerned: the stronger his supporting forces were, the stronger he was, and as Thorn chose to pledge his allegiance to him that made him even more powerful than most.

”Edmund, to my side.” The signal was given and Thorn's elite fight guard fell into place. It was time to put the finis.h.i.+ng touches to the battle. Thorn had found that after a battle, the less there was of the enemy to regroup, the less criminals there would be to patrol for, and the safer his people would be.

Another skirmish two miles further should have ended this particular exercise, but it did not quite work out that way. Confronted by the superior numbers and force of Thorn's men, the group split even more, and Thorn ordered his own men to do likewise, despite Edmund's objections.

”You are spreading your men too thin Thorn and thus leaving yourself open to attack. This could be just a trap to lure you away from the rest of us.”

”Are you questioning my command?” Thorn snapped, though he felt no challenge from his brother.

”No, but you must admit, the possibility does exist.”

”I know, but this is not the time.”

”You are too well known Thorn, and too sought after. An ambush could happen at any time. I want to ride with you to protect your back.”

”There are only two men brother, I need no one at my back. I send you with two men to bring down seven. Now ride, do as you are commanded, for until I move from the family estates I am still over lord.” With that Thorn pulled on the reigns and spurred his horse in another direction.

Edmund tossed Thorn a frown then galloped after his own men. Thorn could understand Edmund's anxiety, they were brothers and they were a close family unit. Edmund was the worrier, Thorn the one who moved forward, albeit not recklessly. Edmond knew this and he trusted his brother's judgment, as did everyone else who knew him. He had proven himself over the years.

Feeling as if they were being pursued by the devil himself the men zigzagged through the forest that skirted the battle zone, yet each time they changed their direction, so did their pursuer. It was enough for them to pray that their over lord would soon join them, for they knew that if the Lord Thorn caught up with them before they reached help they were dead men.

”That man has a nose like a hound.” One of the men complained to the other as they changed direction again.

”Save your breath in case he catches us, for the ensuing battle. He won't give us a choice of what we want. If he defeats us, he will cut out our throats. Who got us into this in the first place?”

”If you care to remember at all it was you, thought why I am not quite sure. I think you wanted to impress the over lord if I am not mistaken. Well, he isn't here. We are. Ask me if I am impressed.”

”Some form of help should be forthcoming, even if it is not from our Lord. Surely we were not the only ones who ran from that h.e.l.lish battle. I am sure I saw a whole contingent of others leave with us.”

”Yes, and as soon as they saw who was chasing us they all scattered like leaves in the wind. It is just our luck we ended up with the Lord Thorn on our tail, in person. He could have chased after any of the others with my blessing.”

”I have fought him before, he always goes after the smallest group himself. It never fails.”

”So you say,” the other man puffed as he again changed direction, pa.s.sing a couple of comrades as he did.

Thorn saw the men as their comrades pa.s.sed them and pulled his sword in battle readiness. He knew the signs of an upcoming fight. He just hoped that he was not about to face the four of them together. There was only so much he could do on his own, despite his reputation. He hadn't expected this.

As luck would have it, the two that he had been chasing kept riding as he clashed with their comrades. It didn't take him long to dispatch them, for they were every bit as tired and winded as their friends had seemed to be. He thanked G.o.d for the soundness of his mount, and spurred back after the two that he had been following earlier. It was time to finish tying up all the loose ends.

He found the men three miles further into the forest, near a clearing. They were waiting for him, and they were ready.

CHAPTER VII.

It had taken Aura almost a week to figure out her approximate location, but how she had gotten there remained a mystery. From what she could see of the layout of the land she had decided she had to be in the South East end of England, not too far from where she had lived. The lack of anything familiar told her that she was no longer living in the time period she had grown up in. She had no idea what year it was, just that there was nothing here that she could relate to. She was lost in a maze of time and s.p.a.ce and all she could do was to try and survive.

The time pa.s.sed quickly for Aura. Week after week went by and she managed to avoid discovery. She was afraid of being found. She was scared of what they might do to her. It was obvious to her that she didn't belong in this time and place. She considered herself lucky, for although she had witnessed what she considered several embarra.s.sing meeting, her own presence went unnoticed. She went about her solitary way learning what she thought she needed to know to survive in her alien surroundings. It seemed as if there were never enough hours in a day to pack all she felt she needed to accomplish, and she established a pattern to try to make it easier.

The pond below the falls had become a bathing spot for her, one she used with caution and discretion. She had always preferred morning showers, now she bathed after dark or very early in the day. The first order of business for Aura continued to be food, and the ways of procuring it. Her first kill; however necessary, had been followed by tears of guilt, though her wolf had seemed pleased enough about it. She had never killed anything before, and to see the poor creature in its death throws had been more than she could handle. It was something she had learned to overcome with the pa.s.sing of time. She understood that her existence depended on gathering what she could from the land.

Both the wolf and Roger were growing, and while Roger seemed to do well on his own, it seemed as if Wolf was almost totally dependent on her. He ate as if he was starved. Aura could not hold it against him. He was such a lovable, cuddly puppy, and he was so much fun.

In the learning process she found that she had to implement many of the lessons she had been taught in her science courses, and she often wished that she had a few of her text books with her. She, however, had to be happy that she could remember as much as she could. Even then she found survival hard, and often feared she might starve to death. It took almost all of her efforts just to survive.

In the beginning she had spent a lot of time deciding how she was going to manage to make ends meet. She had made a mental list of things she was going to have to do before the winter weather set in. Though it had been months away at the time, she decided she had to begin as soon as possible for her efforts to be effective. She laid in a supply of wood, gra.s.ses, herbs, grains, and other such dry items, so she would not either freeze or starve, and although she had been unsure how she would manage to hide the continuous smoke, she had found a way. Then again, maybe n.o.body had noticed, or even cared that she was there.

Aura devised a system to keep track of the days, marking them off on the cave wall, just as her caveman ancestors had done at one time. She also used the surface to write on, as a form of journal. In her imagination she could see some future archeologist studying her writings. They would never accept the truth of them. The memories she wrote on the wall would make no sense, not to a mind unable to deal with the reality she was living. She could barely believe it herself.

No one, in the era that Aura had come from, would believe the stories she wrote. She told how she had woken one morning soon after she arrived to find a rat in the cave. She had screamed and screamed. The rat had run for the exit, but it had not been fast enough to evade the coils of the snake its movement had attracted. Aura had declared her undying grat.i.tude to Roger.

A whole new world opened up for Aura as she worked to fit into her new world. She had never had much to do with nature before, and it was an alien country outside. Chipmunks might be cute, she thought, but they were destructive. The light of her fires at night kept most of the predators at bay, but she could feel them watching her as she sat and shook by the flames. She had to work to get past her fears and prejudices, as there was no room for them. It was time to toughen up or she would never survive. A rabbit was food, sometimes, even squirrels. It no longer mattered if they were cute. She also needed to find things to keep her warm during the winter. She only had herself to depend on, and in this world it was the survival of the fittest.

The winter of the first year had been spent making new clothing and bedding from the furs she had acc.u.mulated from animals she had killed for food. She made weapons for hunting and protection. The items she created looked crude, but they improved with practice, and they were functional. Roger continued to plague Wolf, but that didn't last long for as the snake slept, the wolf grew. He lost his puppy fur, and gained a full healthy coat for the winter. This he shed as spring approached, and the warmer weather returned.

Aura had to admit, by spring, she was very lonely. Even if she had never been the social type she had never been totally on her own as she had been during the past year. She needed the company of other people. She needed the sound of voices and movement about her, and needed to escape the cave, which had become as much of a prison to her as it had been a home. She decided, she would leave for a time, to check out the land about her more thoroughly.

During her travels Aura discovered a way she could make money and to keep her makes.h.i.+ft family fed. She had taken skills she had learned in the kitchens, the cla.s.srooms, and the hospital, and found a use for them as she practiced a form of medicine. It seemed that everyone was in need of some form of treatment.