"The Quest of the Defender"

Part Seven

As the eight women warriors encircled Saxon their leader stepped forward. "Drop your pack and belt. Ivy, get his weapon." He thought it would be wise to comply with their wishes as they were in a position to end his life. At best he could take one or two before he died. One of the women came over to pick up his gear as the nearest one still held a blade to his throat. He kept very still and said: "What manner of people are you that waylay a poor stranger and steal his belongings at point of sword?" As the woman who had picked up his gear backed away the leader stepped forward and looked him up and down. She was the same height as Saxon and looked him in the eye with a cold stare, he felt a chill run up his spine and it stopped to rest as a crawling feeling on the nape of his neck. He heard the snick of a blade being unsheathed from near the ground at her feet. He looked down to see that a small knife, perhaps four inches in length had pivoted out of the sole of her boot and was pointed forward from the toe. The rest of the women followed suit and activated similar knives from their right boots. They all lowered their weapons and closed the circle ever so slightly. " We are not interested in getting to know you better, foolish man." said the leader. "Give me one reason that I and my sisters should not kick you to death right here where you stand." Saxon smiled at her and the chill left his body, he had been taken off guard and was now composed again. He looked at her shoulder and the mark that she bore on it. She frowned and said: "What are you smiling at, fool?" He looked at her straight in the eye and said: "I was wondering if you could tell me something about the origin of the symbol on your arm." He tilted his head forward and looked at her from under his dark eyebrows with the look of a man who already knew the answer to the question he had asked. "What of it!" she said. Saxon looked at his chest and said: "Pull my talisman from my tunic and you will know why I ask." One of the women raised her weapon and put it against his left temple. "Don't even think about moving!" she said.

The leader reached inside his shirt and removed his talisman with a sharp tug that stung the back of his neck. She held it up for all of the women to see. The device was a match for the one on her arm. "How came you by this?" she said. Saxon relaxed a bit and let down his guard, "If they intend to kill me now there is nothing I can do about it." he thought. He turned his head to the left until the barrel of the gun was pointing straight at his forehead and said to the group: "You might try to relax a bit, it is now obvious that I mean no harm to any of you." He smiled broadly and laughed. "My name is Saxon and I am alone in my journey, I am searching for a lady that has been lost to me for years. She was taken by those of the lidless eye long ago and I have recently discovered that she lives. This talisman was found with me at birth and I think it may be a family symbol." The leader of the women reached over and pushed the muzzle of the gun down from his forehead to the other woman's side. She looked at him closely and said to the others: "He has the look in his face, he may be a distant relation to us all." One of the women behind him said: "Don't trust him, Aurora. All men are evil, this one is no exception to the rule." Aurora walked over and put her hand on the woman's shoulder. "All men are evil, Medusa? What about old Garrick who raised you from a small girl and taught you to fight?" Medusa looked down at her feet and shrugged. "He is different, he is like a father to me and to all of us. We have known him all of our lives." Aurora put her arm around Medusa and said to all of them: "Do you remember the stories his wife would tell us when we were young, about how Garrick had saved us from the unnamed evil and had kept us alive during the dark years when the land was scorched and the springs had run dry?" They all nodded without saying a word. Aurora continued: "Remember how she said we would someday meet others who had survived and lived on past the foolishness of the men who had trusted the evil one?" "How do we know he hasn't been wearing this as a war trophy after killing one of those very survivors?" Said Medusa.

"Look at him, he has the look of our ancestors and is apparently fearless as he hasn't broken one bead of sweat from his forehead since we disarmed him." said Aurora. "When do you suppose we should begin to trust others and show kindness to strangers who have done us no wrong?" The group of women began to look less grim and more receptive to Saxon who had been waiting for his opportunity to speak. "Why have I never heard of women warriors before this?" he asked. "Perhaps you have been looking at the world with the eyes of a man for too long, why shouldn't women be warriors?" asked Aurora. "Well since you put it that way, I agree." said Saxon. "I am an open minded sort and I can see no reason that women can't be warriors, as they are equal to or better than men in some ways. I have simply never given it much thought. You are most intimidating and I know more than a few men who would have fallen to their knees in fear at the sight of you." The women shouldered their weapons and with a flick of their heels they sheathed the small knives in the tips of their boots. The shortest one said: "He has a trustworthy look about him, I'll be willing to chance it." She smiled brightly and clapped him on the shoulder. Her name was Geo and in her Saxon recognized a kindred spirit. As he smiled back it seemed he had looked into the face of an enemy and found a lost friend.

"So Saxon, perhaps you wouldn't mind telling us what you are doing lurking outside our family's home." said Aurora. "We had just arrived and are looking forward to seeing our family, it has been a long time." He took a deep breath and said: " I have come to this place simply by chance." He proceeded to tell them about the events that had led up to his arrival here and the damaged display panel that put his search in the domain of the Unholy Kingdom without pinpointing the location of the destination code last used by the gate which had been destroyed when his friend Stormbringer had died. He filled them in on his lost history and the mighty army he had left behind in his quest. He told them the story about the loss of his one true love and how the quest now dominated his destiny. Geo looked at him with compassion and said: "That is the saddest story I have ever heard. You bear this grief well, Saxon." He smiled and said: "It wasn't always so, now that I know she is alive I am myself again. For years I was in the blackest of moods and rarely smiled. I had nothing to look forward to. It seems to me that happiness is simply having something to look forward to." Aurora looked at the sky and said: "It will be time for supper soon, we should go greet Garrick and his wife. Lady Death should already be here, if you can make friends with her you have an unusual gift, she has no love for men. She went on leave a week ago and has had time to catch up with them on events, we haven't seen them since last spring."

They began to march on towards the fortress in single file and as they walked they noticed that the trail had been used heavily in recent days. It was wider and very muddy. Saxon knelt down to inspect a footprint that was less obscured than the others. He frowned and looked up. "These prints are similar to others I have seen, heavy cleats and a singular pattern to the sole. This place may have been visited by the very men I am searching for." They stepped up the pace and put their weapons at the ready. The ground began to rise on up to the hill that the fortress sat upon. In places near the walls they could see scorched earth and the debris of battle damage. The entrance to the stone fortress was on the side away from the direction they were coming, as they went around the place the damage grew worse until they reached the main gate. It had been torn from it's hinges and forced inward past the twisted portcullis. The doorway was burnt as if by an explosion. The courtyard was in total chaos and the livestock had been killed. All around them was carnage. The women ran for the entrance to the main hall with Saxon plodding behind them looking over his shoulder. He had a bad feeling about this place and it felt like he was being watched. They entered the main hall and found it in disarray. The tables were overturned and the walls were burnt. Some stones had fallen from the ceiling and were now on the floor or on top of the overturned tables. At the back of the hall was an Ivy covered wall with a painting of a single red rose hanging in the center above eye level. Saxon walked up to it and said: "I wonder why they left this beautiful painting alone." As he looked at the painting the wall behind it began to move on a central point, turning with almost no noise at all. He stepped back and saw why the wall had no damage. On the other side of the wall was plenty of damage and the identical picture had been torn to shreds. An old woman and an old man stepped forth from the opening and greeted them. "Aurora, honey, they took Lady Death from the courtyard. There was nothing we could do to stop them." said the old woman. The old man looked Saxon up and down. "You are a Defender, are you not?" he said. Saxon nodded and helped the old man find a seat amongst the rubble. "How can you tell?" said Saxon. "You have the look of my old friend Alton about you. We were separated years ago and I can see him in your eyes and in your build." The group gathered around the old couple as the man related the events of the battle and how they had remained hidden for the last several days waiting for the return of the women.

The old man told Saxon that his name was Garrick and he had once been a Defender as had Saxon's father Alton. When the unnamed one had unleashed his evil and dispersed the Defenders to the four winds, Alton had come to Garrick and warned him of the danger. Together the two had made plans for the smallest of the children and Garrick and his wife had spirited them away on the very night of the betrayal. Garrick and his wife, whose name was Lydia, had brought the girls to this place and raised them as their own children. Alton, on the other hand, wanted his son to be left with his cousins at a place near the sea. The remainder of the young boys were all placed in separate homes as they would be less obvious when they were not being kept as a group. In Alton's mind they would need to carry on the line of the Defenders when he and Garrick were gone. Garrick had a different point of view, in his mind the women are more important in the continuing of the line than the men and he knew that someday they would need to defend themselves. He set about training them as Defenders from an early age as if they were boys. Soon it had become apparent that they were more than a match for any boy and would certainly be a match for any man as they became older. He selected quests for them and helped them grow strong in battle over the years. He warned them about men and their egos which caused the foolish behavior that led them into betrayal. Although he didn't agree with his friend Alton, Garrick had been missing him for many years and was happy and amazed to finally meet the son of his friend. Saxon shared his story with the old couple and all of the pieces were starting to fit into place. They made a fire and cooked a rustic dinner. After a time they all went to sleep for the night. All but Geo, who had the watch for the evening. She poked at the fire and looked at Saxon sleeping nearby.

In the morning they rose and went out into the courtyard. The sun was shining on the tops of the walls and it was apparent what a beautiful place this had been before the attack. It was also apparent to Saxon that this was not a fortress, but a home with some strong defenses. Garrick and Saxon went for a walk out into the meadow near the entrance to see the sun above the horizon. Some of the women went with them and walked barefoot in the grass.

All seemed peaceful when out of the nearby woods came five marauders that had returned from the attack the other day. As they saw the small group walking for the most part unarmed and unprotected in the meadow they broke into a run and brought their weapons to bear. Saxon dropped to his knee and aimed his weapon, but there was no need. With no sound at first all five of the attackers felt their chests explode and dropped dead to the ground. After a couple of seconds had passed five rapid reports from a weapon could be heard off in the distance from the far hills towards the rising sun. Garrick shouted: "DOWN!" and they all dropped in the grass. Saxon pulled his scope from it's pocket and focused it in the direction of the reports. Quietly he said to Garrick: "Those hills are at the very least a mile away. That must have been the most amazing group of marksmen in the world to make all five of those hits so fast and so easily." Garrick didn't say it but he had heard only one weapon. Saxon focused his scope on the far hill and scanned it for activity. The sun was in his eyes and while he panned he passed a lone figure silhoutted against the morning sky on the horizon. The figure raised an arm with a rifle in it and waved it over his head. Saxon set the rangefinder on the figure and the result amazed him. The figure was more than two miles away and appeared to be alone. What kind of hunter could make one shot at that distance, much less five deadly accurate hits? Saxon stood up and waved back. He kept his eye on the scope and soon it appeared that the figure was walking down the face of the far hill towards them.

Saxon looked at Garrick and asked: "What kind of man can make distance shots like that?" Garrick looked at the horizon with the sun in his eyes and answered: "I am aware of no man living who can shoot like that." The rest of the slayers of men were now in the meadow and they all waited for the lone figure to cross the valley and come to them.

To Be Continued............