Angels Blood by Gerard Bond Page B

shaved head, an earring in one ear and a goatee. He certainly was interesting to look at. 
    “ And now we will finish him.”
    The boss moved forward and raised his sword above his head, the man on the ground recoiled and closed his eyes.
    “ No! You cannot kill him, that is not the law.”
    The men looked at Nightwing a little more carefully,
    “ And who are you to call for justice?”
    “ My name is Nightwing, daughter of the Earl of Windere and I am on my way to seek counsel with the king.” 
    She had said it in a firm imperious tone and even impressed herself.  The men were a little taken aback, they looked at each other not sure what to do. They certainly didn’t want a report to the king that they had slain an unarmed man. 
    “ Well what do you suggest we do?”
    Nightwing thought quickly,
    “ I will be approaching the king tomorrow.  Release him to me and I will see that he is handed over to the sergeant at arms to be dealt with by them. Simply bind his hands and we shall take care of the rest.” 
    Again the men looked at each other, most looked at their boss and shrugged their shoulders, they didn’t really care.
    “ Very well, we release him to you on the understanding he shall be taken into custody to be dealt with by the King’s counsel, will you stand witness?” 
    “ It shall be so.” replied Nightwing. “Now bind him, we shall collect him at dawn.”
    Nightwing turned and left, Loranda following with wide eyes.  As they walked back to their site, Loranda couldn’t help but speak up,
    “ What was all that bullshit? Are you seriously going to hand him over? Why the hell would any of the king’s guard be interested in him?” 
    “ I couldn’t let them kill him, they wouldn’t let him go I’m sure and no we won’t be handing him over to the king.”
    “ So what then, does he become our bound pet? I’d like to see you explain that to the king’s guard.”
    “ I’m not sure what we are going to do with him yet, I hadn’t thought that far.  I’m sure I’ll think of something by morning.”
    Having arrived back at their site, Nightwing gave Loranda a soft kiss and a smile, lay down and quickly drifted off to sleep.
    Nightwing awoke just as the sky became lighter, it was just before dawn and she felt quite refreshed in spite of the night’s excitement.  She leaned over and gave Loranda a hug waking her.  They both stretched and slowly got up.  One more day of riding and they just might find a bed tonight. Rolling their blankets up, they packed the horses and walked them over to the wagon site. Nightwing spied the captive tied with his back to a wagon wheel.
    The boss was at the fire as she approached and she could see two of the men leading three horses out of the trees.  Obviously they had belonged to the three thieves here, two of them wouldn’t be needing them anymore.
    One of the two men commented,
    “ The cowards that fled didn’t even bother to take the horses, obviously spineless scum.”
    “ Good tidings fair sir.” greeted Nightwing on approach. The man stood up and nodded in reply; he obviously wasn’t a morning person.  “Is the prisoner ready?” 
    “ In a minute, I suppose you would like him put on his horse?”
    “ That would be fine, you can keep the other two horses and whatever wares are on them in payment for burying the two dead.”
    She sure was generous with other people’s property. The man looked at her with a jaded eye, maybe she was pushing the royal air thing a bit too far. 
    The boss man kicked the prisoner awake then leaned down and untied him from the wheel.  He had to pull him up to his feet as the man was stiff from the night’s sleep there.  He led the prisoner over to the horses and asked him which was his but the fellow gave no reply at which point the boss gave him a slap across the face. Again he asked him and this time the prisoner nodded at the brown one.  He was promptly sat upon it and tied into place, hands behind his