“I offer guidance, proud warrior. I ask your name only that we might be friends. I am Rayshabu. What may I call you?” The woman’s voice was warm and full of kindness. Her smile offered comfort. Sabit recalled that comfort in another place. Recalled the soothing touch of a poultice spread upon a burning shoulder.
Recalled the chains around her wrists.
“You may call me Heguir’s Bane. You are a faithful servant of a cruel master, Rayshabu,” said Sabit. The smile melted from the kind woman’s face. “What is this place?”
“This is paradise!” Rayshabu spread her arms as though to embrace all the world. “Let me show you!”
Rayshabu hurried down the stairs, beckoning Sabit to follow. Filling the courtyard below were the training grounds of the guardsmen of Ghabar. A broad circle of soft, red sand held white training circles—enough for three dozen pairs to spar in mock combat. Sabit had tasted that bitter, red sand more times than she could count, but had driven her opponents into its gritty embrace many times for each fall she took.
Men and women, blunted weapons in their hands, filed into the courtyard from the far side. These were not dressed as the guards of Ghabar, tall and straight in their crimson uniforms. These troops wore makeshift clothes of brown and green stretched across their taut, hungry bodies. They walked with bare feet more accustomed to crouching among tree roots than marching across open plains.
These were Sabit’s bandits of the forest.* These were fighter who had never seen Ghabar. These were troops that Sabit had led to their death.
Nerit rushed to her side—the young hunter’s eyes bright and lively as ever. He bowed from the neck, just as Sabit had taught him. “Your men are ready for your lessons, my Queen. We fight for Heguir’s Bane!”
*-Sabit’s time as a queen of bandits is detailed in Wayfarings of Sabit: Bandit Queen and Wayfarings of Sabit: Betrayal.
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Wayfarings of Sabit: Chains is copyright (c) 2018 by Michael S. Miller. All rights reserved. New chapters post every Thursday (and the occasional Monday). You can support this and other stories on Patreon: https://patreon.com/michaelsmiller Find more sword and sorcery fiction at http://ipressgames.com/fiction/.