Chapter 20

“Ruben! What in the seven hells are you doing? Why did you kill Trent and what do you mean - ‘unless he finds you’?”

Ruben wiped the blood off his sword, using the leg of Trent’s pants, as if it were nothing more than an inconvenience. This arrogant display only further angered me, at his disrespectful attitude more so then the heinous act he had just performed.

“I am truly sorry, Davik, but he had to die, as do you. I did not want to have to do this, but I do not have any choice in the matter, there is too much at stake. Do you think I wanted to kill him, to kidnap my own daughter in order to draw you out? I am disgusted with what I have had to do, but if I did not do any of this, my family would have been eaten alive in front of me. I would have to watch my son be eaten alive in front of me, watch as my wife and daughter are raped and murdered. I could not let that happen, and though I think of you as a son, you are not my blood.”

I looked at him incredulously, “Do you honestly think that Violet would have forgiven you for kidnapping her, let alone killing me?”

“I had an elixir that would have removed all memory of the past few hours, once administered, it would not have even seemed like a dream. She would have mourned your death, but in the end, she would have never known it had been me. I did not account for her biting me and running off as she did, nor did I expect her to be able to move so quick in the forest.”

I laughed, “She was always the fastest of us and has always been able to hide so well, even I could not find her. By the time you do see her again, it will already be too late and she would have exposed what you have done.”

“Even if I do get exposed, even if I do die,” Ruben said with a somber look on his face, “I would have protected my family. Their safety is the only thing that matters Davik, and if it was not for you, they would be safe.”

“What do you mean, if it was not for me? What have I done to earn this man’s hatred and ire? He seems so desperate to have me killed, so whatever I have done, it must have been terrible.”

“It would have ended with the death of your parents, but your return and the death of Brant at your hands turned his attention back on Cartha. He demanded information, so I told him of your trip and where you were going. Hence, the two attacks you suffered during your trip and Liza’s kidnapping. But you survived them, despite his efforts and I was tasked with finishing what they started.”

Suddenly he made a slash at my head, and I barely got my blade up in time to guard the attack. The strength of the blow was astonishing, given how fast he had moved to attack. He pressed his attack with two more quick slashes, as well as a thrust towards my abdomen. I was quick to guard and parry those blows, but I knew I was fighting someone with far better skill than my own. My strength would have its limits as well, given that I could not fight with my dominant hand.

As I let my training work to deflect his blows, I took a moment to gage his mental state. He was calm, but there was an urgency to his movements that meant he needed to get this fight over quickly. His breathing was steady, but quicker than my own, meaning that he had maintained appearances then run after us. If he had gone to the house, then left to catch up, he would have had to push himself rather hard. During two more parries, I remembered that he had come running to us out of breath, no doubt from when he broke off his chase of Violet. Given the distances he had to cover, and the short amount of time he had to rest, prolonging the fight would be in my best interest. During his next attack, I parried his blow with a flourish and was able to cut his forearm. When he went to grasp his injured arm, I sheathed my sword, turned and dove off the ridge into the water below.

I made my way across the lake as fast as I could, trying to make his pursuit as exhausting as possible, while not exhausting myself in the process. Halfway to my destination, I heard a splash behind me, meaning that he decided that it would take too long to go around and had dove in after me. This was exactly what I had hoped would happen, as the water and the wound would slow him down. I did not look back, as I needed as much of a lead I could manage, It was the only way I would survive this. As I approached the shore, I looked about and decided to run down the river. It was only clear for seventy meters before the trees and bushes started to mask what was down stream. This would give me the cover to hide my tracks and lose him. I could then try and get ahead of him and start to wear him down. I dashed down the stream as fast as my legs could take me, trying to manage the uneven terrain as I made my way. Thankfully, the river was only ankle deep this time of year and not very wide: it did not slow me down as much as feeding the lake had.

As I continued down the river, I started looking for branches low enough and thick enough for me to get onto and have it not snap under my weight. I had to make sure that it would not have been an obvious diversion of my path, otherwise he might figure out the ruse, before I am ready for him. Most of the trees in this forest were old enough that even the low branches near their base could hold a person’s weight if done correctly. Still I would have to be careful and time this right, for it to work the way I hoped.

I was soon rewarded with the branch I desired and launched myself onto it, stopping long enough to seek the next branch that I could get to. I kept my movements as light as possible, in hopes of not causing any unnatural disruption to the branches as I went. I then began to move along the tree line, moving from branch to branch as lightly as possible, so as not to make noise or disturb too many leaves. After five minutes of travel, I had headed south a fair bit, and now was high enough in the trees it would be difficult for Ruben to notice me. I took the opportunity to catch my breath and try and think out what I would do next.

Ruben was far too skilled a fighter and strong enough that it was unwise to try and go toe to toe with him in a sword fight. While he was wounded, my shoulder would provide him the means to incapacitate me if it was struck hard enough. My only hope would be to keep out of reach long enough, to wear him down and catch him off guard. If I could lay some traps, I would be able to do that, but the lead I had was minor now.

As I pondered how I could do this, I started hearing someone running through the river, approaching my general area. From the direction the sound was coming from, the only person it could be was Ruben, searching for sign for where I had gone. He was as trained in hunting and tracking as I was, which was why I had to be careful in how I moved through the woods. As I listened, the noise continued until it was directly north of me and then continued past that point, headed east. As I had hoped, he was looking for footprints along the shore but would not find any. I would only have a limited amount of time until he realized that I had not run that far and turned back to check again.

I cursed myself for not having my bow with me, as this current advantage would have been the perfect situation where I could end things quickly without one of us being killed. However, we still had not figured out a way to use it without causing my shoulder to burst with pain and cause me to go into a tremor fit. The only other weapon I had on my person, other than my sword was my hunting knife.

As I pondered what I would be able to do with my weapons on hand, I was hit with a thought. If I could make it to where we had been harvesting the teaka logs, I might be able to use that area to set up some sort of surprise for Ruben. But that also meant I would need to lure him there and I needed to focus on one problem at a time. First, I needed to get there, quickly and quietly, while still living the necessary hint to lure Ruben to where I want him.

I looked up at the stars to get my bearing, and then I headed off northwest towards my intended destination. I knew roughly where they had been harvesting the wood, in relation to where the grotto had been, so I was confident that I was going in the right direction. I used the trees until I returned to the area I had jumped up from, and carefully landed back onto the ground into the water. I was successful in making little to no splash, which would not be heard unless you were close by. I crossed the river quickly and quietly but made sure the leave a print or two as I left and began to dash towards my destination. I tried to be light on my feet as I went, but there was only so much I could do, given how fast I was running. Still, I kept my ears keen for movement, given how he had snuck up on us at the grove, I needed to be careful.

Ten minutes later, I arrived at the open area and started taking in the landscape so I could start planning my first counterattack. I figured he would continue for no more than twenty minutes and if he did not hear me, or see a sign of me leaving the river, he would start to back track. It would take him twenty minutes to get back to where I had crossed, to find my fresh tracks and another ten minutes to get here. That meant that I had fifty minutes to come up with and execute a plan of attack. I looked around and quickly surveyed the area, to get an idea of what I was working with and what materials I had on hand to use.

The area looked to be about four square kilometers and had felled trees in different stages of preparation. Along the eastern section of the clearing, there were a stack of stumps that had been pulled out of the ground so that the holes could have a new tree planted in them. Just south of them was a collection of cut logs awaiting transport to the house. On the western side, there were two felled trees, one with all the branches cut off. The other still had the various limbs still on it and between the two was a pile of cut branches. A plan quickly formed, and I dashed over to the pile of branches. It was three feet tall and seven feet in diameter. Thankfully, they had chopped them smooth off the tree, that gave me a base to use for my current plan. I quickly collected a few branches, pulled out my knife and quickly started hacking the ends into spikes. It took me ten minutes to create enough for my plan.

I located a hole that was deep enough for my purposes about fifteen meters from where I had entered. I went over to the hole and began jamming the spikes into the hole, spreading them out about a 30 centimeters from one another. I returned to the pile and began to select the branches I needed to disguise the hole with. Once I had enough, I went over to the hole, and placed them across it in a crisscross pattern. I then collected felled leaves and dirt and began spreading around the framework.

Ten minutes later, I had blended the hole with the area around it. I needed time to hide, but I had to make sure that my tracks led to it. I used a branch to disturb the tracks I had made building my trap, until I arrived where I entered, and then moved along the desired path. I took extra care to make sure it looked like I ran across the hole, then continued into the woods. I then darted to the right and made my way back to the forest edge, then headed towards the group of cut logs, as the foot traffic there would make my movements easier to disguise. I knew I should have left the area and moved to a new one, but I had to be sure that he had triggered my trap.

The anticipation was palpable as I waited for the telltale sounds of someone approaching. As my patience finally reached its end, I heard movement in the trees where I expected Ruben to emerge. I was not disappointed, and Ruben came out of the woods into the clearing. He looked visibly angry and exhausted; he looked around desperately to find me, but the lack of light made my cover most effective. I watched as he desperately looked around to try and find any sign of me, and his frustrations were growing. When he finally found the tracks he was hoping for, he dashed off to follow them and I held my breath as he approached the trap. As the resounding snap of branches filled the air, I allowed the breath that I had been holding in, to escape my lips. I could hear the yelp of surprise as the ground gave out beneath him and watched as he scrambled forward to try and catch himself. I heard a scream of pain and hoped that at least one of them had indeed hurt him. I did not wait around to find out and I silently made my way north from the clearing.

I knew that there was a road at least a kilometer to the north west of here, and that there was extensive foot traffic. I made my way there as fast as I could, listening to the sounds of Ruben screaming in pain and frustration. Part of me hoped that he would just give up and head home, but I knew that was not the case. He had told me the threat the old one had made, and if he did not silence me, I would no doubt reveal his treachery. His only recourse was to kill me or render me unable to reveal his dirty secret to those we both loved. The revelation of this act would destroy their family and cast in doubt all that had happened.

My heart ached at the betrayal, for Ruben had been like a father to me in the time since I had returned. I remembered how loving and caring he had been when I had been a child, and how close he and my dad had been. However, I also felt a deep rage for what he put Violet through and for what he did to Trent, as it seemed to me unnecessary.

As I continued my path towards the road, my thoughts drifted to Violet. His plan to use her had failed, and even if he killed me, she would reveal what he had done. A terrifying thought came to my mind, as an image of him killing her flashed into my mind. I doubted any threat in the world would make him kill his own daughter, but the thought still turned my stomach and caused me to slow my pace. I shook my head, trying to get the thoughts to leave me, and resumed my jog towards the road.

When I reached the road, I was frustrated to find it deserted, but there were still fresh enough tracks to hide my movements. I then started making my way, following the path southwest as it curved through the forest. I tried not to run, allowing my prints to mix with the others on the trail, until I started hearing sounds coming from the forest. It sounded like there was something heading towards the road and was about ten minutes away. I figured that I could continue another five minutes before I had to dash into the woods. I decided to continue west and see what the terrain gave me to work with, hoping that it would give me another advantage against Ruben.