Sabit scrambled away from the fallen man’s reach, every muscle shrieking in agony. She tried to pull herself to her feet, only to have her legs collapse beneath her. Crawling would have to do. The bridge gave her only two directions: backward toward the other bandits, or forward into the unknown. The bandits had her spear and Verdandi, her traveling companion. She was a few steps from the merchant’s cart and its disheveled payload.
The bandit king let out a furious roar. Sabit dragged her exhausted body toward the cart. Behind her, she could hear the bandit king pulling himself up. His skin scraped like stone across the mahogany planks.
Reaching the cart, Sabit seized an end of loose rope. The bandit king’s footsteps came closer, shaking the bridge. Sabit rolled onto her back, pulling her feet up to defend against him. He lunged at her, both hands outstretched. His chest pressed against Sabit’s feet, the tattoos writhing with fury where her sandals touched his stonelike chest.
The bandit king’s inexorable fingers grabbed at Sabit’s muscled legs and the tattered tunic she wore. With a swift motion, she looped the rope over his head, pulling it tight around his throat. The tattoos writhed wherever the hemp touched his flesh.
“You think you can strangle me, you fool?” the bandit spat.
“Not I,” Sabit grunted as the pressure of his approach squeezed her knees hard against her chest. “The river.”
———
Wayfarings of Sabit: Bandit Queen is copyright (c) 2017 by Michael S. Miller. All rights reserved. New chapters are posted on Monday and Thursday. You can support this and other stories on Patreon, https://patreon.com/michaelsmiller, or at http://ipressgames.com/fiction/.