Page 128 of The Robber Knight
“What?” Aylastared at the metal-clad man in utter amazement. He, through theslits of his visor, stared just as fixedly back at her. “We havefought four battles so far,” she pointed out. “What makes you thinkthat I would suddenly give up now?”
“Well, let me think...” He scratched the sideof his helmet in mock preoccupation. “There's the fact that you'velost a major battle, that you are surrounded and cut off from anysupply chains, that we still outnumber you ten to one, and thatgenerally speaking, your situation has become completely hopeless.How about that?”
“You can take that and stuff it up thedevil's derriere!” Ayla growled, her hands balled into fists. Hewas right. And the fact burned her from the inside. She wouldrather have died than admitted it.
“Dio mio,Milady is getting feisty. Well, perhaps this will persuade you: inhis heavenly mercy, the Margrave Markus von Falkenstein has decreedthat, in spite of your resistance, if you are willing to surrender,he will spare the miserable peasants who infest your castle at thisvery moment. If, however, you do not surrender and we arevictorious, as we surely shall be, he will decimate them, as theancient Romans used to do to their rebels.”
“Decimate?” Ayla's voice was hardly more thana whisper. But somehow the red robber knight heard it.
“Kill one in ten men.” Sir Luca shrugged. “Aharsh but just punishment, don't you think?”
“And what guarantee do I have,” asked Ayla,her voice not as steady as it had been before, “that the Margravewill not inflict this 'just punishment' in any case?”
“Why, his word of honor, of course!”
“I see. Like the word of honor he gave whenswearing friendship to the three other nobles whose lands he hassince conquered?”
“Yes, Milady. Exactly like that.”
“Why are you even here?” Now her voice wasfirm again, cold and demanding. She could have sworn that, behindhis visor, she saw teeth glitter in a grin.
“To let you see that you have no way ofescape, Milady. Your fate doesn't belong to you anymore. It is inthe Margrave's hands now. He may choose to have mercy, he may not.Personally, I think the latter more likely. But you can alwayshope. If you persist in this folly, however, trying to resist yourfuture husband, you will only bring more harm down on yourself andyour people. That I swear by every bone I've broken and deadly blowI've struck.”
Putting her hands on top of the parapet, Aylaleaned over the wall.
“I shall never give in!” Her voice was ashard as the rock beneath her feet. “Never! Not to a villain likeyou! Not to someone who kills others for money! Not to someone whoburns the homes of innocent people. Not to a knight who disgraceshis station by robbing defenseless women in the forest! Never!”
There were a few seconds of silence.
“Robbing defenselesswomen in the forest?” he asked, actually having the gallto sound surprised. “Maybe Milady is better informed than I aboutmy many misdeeds, but as far as I know, I have never robbed anyone.I've always paid other people to do that for me. Much simpler.”
“Don't lie to me!” Ayla hissed. “What's thepoint? I'd recognize that armor of yours anywhere! There isn'tanother like it in the Empire!”
“This armor?” He looked down at himself. “Yourecognize it? Interesting. When was it that you were robbed, if Imay ask?”
“As if you didn't know!”
“Just pretend for the moment that I'm veryforgetful.”
“Very well, if you want to play games withme... It was the very same day that your master's herald came,making the same insolent demands as you just did.” She was about tosay more on the subject of his insolence, when he interruptedher.
“Was it? Well, Milady, then this is a rareoccurrence. It seems I am accused of a crime of which I am actuallyinnocent.”
“What?”
“I,” said Sir Luca slowly and clearly, as ifspeaking to a child, “did not rob you that day in the forest. Ididn't have this armor until a day later. My men pulled it off somefellow whom they shot down and left for dead in the forest—after hehad slaughtered several lances of good men, I might add.”
His words, so obviously spoken with theconviction of utter truthfulness, left Ayla reeling. For a fewmoments, she didn't know what to think. And then, comprehensionwashed over her like ice-cold water.
A man without armor.
Alone in the forest.
A man who was muscled like an expertfighter.
A man strangely knowledgeable about allthings military.
No, please, no, God, letme be wrong. Let me be wrong in this!
