Plans: Part 2

Havald grit his teeth as he struggled with unfastening the knots of the ropes binding the last of the wagon drivers.

“Your friend has had a few too many moon sugars,” murmured a freed Khajiit as he watched the commotion at the entrance to the small, concealed camp. Though hidden from sight, the rise of whistles and jeers had announced the Dunmer woman’s approach. 

Havald glowered as he shifted to peer out from their hiding place with the freed drivers. The sound of a rich, indignant laugh rose above the murmurs of the brigands. “She’s crazy enough without it.”

“Crazy or ballsy, she’s no match for them, and we can’t hide here forever,” another driver muttered, adjusting her scarf over her nose as the wind spat sand over the ledge from above.

One arm protectively cradling his fat satchel, Havald up-nodded to the three survivors. “I took care of the guards in the back. Get whatever you can and blindfold the horses, then hide in the back wagon. When she gives me the signal things are going to go down fast and it will be best to be out of the way.”

The Khajiit’s whiskers twitched, and his eyes narrowed at Havald’s pack as he sniffed at the wind. “This one thinks you may be crazy, too. But he also thinks you are right. You two, come, come. Quick and quiet.”

Chewing at the inside of his lip, Havald let out a calming breath, and crawled the rest of the way under the wagon. Tense in the waiting as the brigands slowly converged around Risala, he slowly unfastened the straps on his satchel.

~~~~~

A smug smirk on her lips, Risala lifted her chin as the men around her chuckled.

The mage pulled his staff from his back to leisurely lean against. “I don’t think I heard you right, sweetheart.”

The two fallen guards grunted as the Dunmer walked over them. “I said that I’m here for the wagons. You have a minute to take your leave.”

The brigands laughed and moved in closer, though some more or less eager than others as the woman twirled the axe propped against her shoulder like a parasol. “That’s bold of you, but no one is leaving, especially not you, sera,” the mage responded with a growing grin. “We were promised fortune on this take. First the village, then the caravan, and you’re the icing on the cake.”

Risala’s lips twitched, and she tossed her head back as she laughed richly. As if echoing her, a wild screech rose from behind. “Funny thing about fortune….”

As she spoke a long shadow slithered around the bend in the trail behind her. The men scrambled back, cursing and reaching for their weapons. A wicked grin turning up her features, Risala held out a hand to the side, and the massive head of a sand serpent ducked under to receive a friendly caress down it’s neck.

“You’ve inconvenienced me, and my friend, and my employer,” she offered slowly, lifting her chin as the reptile’s tongue flickered along her jaw, and her gaze held the mages’ while the enormous creature wove around her. “You could even say the last two days have been very… unfortunate. But wouldn’t you agree, ser, in the ability to change our fortune?”

The mage grit his teeth, pale at the sight of the snake, and lifted his staff. “We’re not giving you anything, you wit–”

In a brilliant crack of light Risala lashed out, the blazing rod of daylight in her free hand snapping the mage’s staff in two. “One more move and I rend your from your navel to your nose.”

The man’s shoulders tensed, shaking in anger as he stood frozen, the Dunmer’s blazing spear at his neck.

Risala, though, sighed in irritation. “I said, I will rend — oh, for the love of Vivec. Havald!”

At her shout a fat, white and violet speckled egg rolled into view from between one of brigand’s legs.

There were several muttered curses before the serpent let out an enraged shriek. Diving around the Dunmer, screams rose from the men as the beast tore into them. The mage trembled, and dropped to his knees in the damp sand.

“Not a fan of snakes, I take it?” Risala asked, glancing between the man and where he knelt without sympathy.

Pale and staring back at her as the snake screamed and ripped through the small camp, the mage clung to the broken end of his staff. “W-What are you going to do to me?”

Ignoring the sickening crunch of the serpent finishing a kill beneath one of the awnings, Risala’s spear flickered away and she crouched down before the mage, balancing on her toes as she held his gaze. “Usually I would knock you out. If there was a bounty for you I’d turn you in. But for the village? I would do much, much worse.”

Axe stabbing into the sand between his knees, she patted the mage’s cheek, then very purposefully traced her thumb across his cheek as if casting a spell. His eyes widened with fear. “Death is too easy, my fortunate friend. You will live, at least for today, and you will remember me. Find some honest work, maybe. Because if you harm anyone like you did in that village I will know, and the blue-eyed mer will find you.”

Rising to her feet, Risala stepped over the shaking mage. “It’s safe!” she called. “Hitch up the horses!”

Havald rolled out of the safety of one of the carts as Risala gently picked up the snake’s egg, and watched as she offered it to the serpent.

“Thank you for the loan, my friend,” she said, setting the egg in the creature’s fanged maw. Nudging fondly against her, the sand serpent began to slither away, it’s wounds closing up as Risala’s free hand brushed along it’s scales.

“What about him?” Havald wondered as he guided a skittish gelding to be hitched up to the rist cart.

Risala glanced over her shoulder as she approached, offering Havald his axe back. “He won’t be a problem any more. You are all right? And the others?”

Havald smirked and grunted as he cinched a strap on the horse’s tack tight. “They’re scared as shit, but we’re all okay. You?”

“Pissed that I used up my last charm spell.”

“Will Merline reimburse you?”

Chuffing a soft breath, the Dunmer petted the gelding to try and help calm it. “I can only hope. I’m just glad it worked.”

“You and monsters, I swear to Kyne,” the man huffed, shaking his head. Frowning over to the mage who was still sitting in the sand, shaking as he surveyed the few dead that had not been devoured, Havald brought a second, unsettled horse around to hitch up with the other. “What did you do to him?” he wondered, brushing at his own cheek in a silent question as they worked.

Risala smiled wryly, and motioned back to the wagon behind theirs when the Khajiit waved that he was ready to go. “Honestly? Not a damned thing.”