Chapter 4

The bullet shot through the lock of the door. The wood fractured, the white splinters glinting in the yellow candlelight. Avery watched those splinters fly through the air, his mind acting fast. He leaped to his feet, reached for his weapons belt off the wall, and hooked it around his waist.

"Kid!" he snapped at Callie. She sat up on the bed, her hands trembling. "Who is following ye?"

She didn't answer him. Her eyes were on the door.

She kens who this is. I ken it!

Avery reached for the pistol in his own belt, but he didn't have time to load it as someone kicked the door open. A hulking figure appeared in the gap, with long red hair tied at the nape of his nick.

"Callie!" he snapped, looking toward her sitting on the bed. He didn't notice Avery standing at the side of the door. Avery tossed the pistol around in his hand, holding it like a club, and lashed out at the back of the man's head. The man's eyes glazed over and he dropped to his knees, his face paling. Slumping flat to the floor, his face hit the wood like a plank, the heavy thud echoing around them.

Callie yelped and hurried off the bed, trying to get around the room.

"Who is he, Callie?" Avery barked as she pointed at the doorway.

"He's nae alone."

Avery backed up, pushing her behind him into the small space. He tossed his pistol to his left hand and took his sword from his belt, so he now had two weapons. He kept his eyes on the doorway, where two faces now appeared.

One of the figures was short and stocky. The other had a thuggish face and lank, fair hair which hung around his ears. He licked his lips as he looked at Callie.

"Ye offered yerself tae a man at last, Callie?" the latter asked and sneered. "Aye, it seems ye have finally changed your mind on staying pure, eh?"

Avery glanced at the girl behind him, rather startled to hear she was still untouched because of how she had offered herself to him that night. She appeared even younger to him now, her hands trembling as she reached for the wall behind her, clawing at it as if it would give her some escape.

"I am nae coming back," Callie called over Avery's shoulder. "Wallace, leave! Take Torkell and Blair, and go. I want nothing tae do with any of ye."

"Ye're a highwayman now, lass," Wallace said in a dark tone, his lip curling once again. "Highway lasses cannae just walk away." He stepped forward, but Avery raised his sword, pointing the tip directly toward Wallace's stomach. It made the tall, lanky figure halt, staring down at the sword with a deep glare.

"Ye heard her," Avery warned. "She is going her own way." His mind worked quickly, understanding just who Callie was. She wasn't just a thief, but part of this gang.

They are nae willing tae let her go easily.

"How did ye find her?" Avery asked, shaking his head, refusing to let Wallace any closer to her, despite the man's threatening stare.

Behind the two men, another two figures grew visible on the landing. One was a young woman, a couple of years older than Callie at most. She had a pistol in her hand and was pointing it at the innkeeper. The man trembled, shaking like a leaf being battered in a strong gale.

"I-I am sorry," he stammered, his eyes on Avery over the men's shoulders. "They wanted tae ken where a woman was, and when they described her, the only lass like that I've seen is the one ye snuck in here tonight. I saw ye." His voice turned weak. "I'm so sorry."

The woman struck the innkeeper with the pistol. He cried out as blood seeped from his temple, and he fell against the wall.

"Nae more bloodshed tonight!" Avery's voice boomed. The highwaymen looked toward him. "Ye leave now."

"Or what?" Wallace smiled. "Ye may nae have noticed, but ye are one man, shielding one woman. There are more of us." He gestured to the man at his side, the woman behind them, and the man on the floor. "Get up, Torkell." There was a groan, but the man still hadn't come round properly and said nothing; neither did he stand.

"I am warning ye," Avery muttered, raising the sword higher and pointing it at Wallace's face. "I've faced more men than ye before and lived tae tell the tale. Dinnae make me spill yer blood tonight."

"What are ye doing?" Callie hissed behind him. "Cut yer losses and run!"

"Ye seem tae have low opinions of men, kid," he said back to her. "Ye think I am going tae leave ye now I finally understand all this?"

"Leave her with me," Wallace ordered, his eyes on her again. "After tonight, Callie, ye will nae be disobedient again." The way he looked down at her body had Avery so disgusted, he could have retched. He used his elbow to push Callie more firmly behind him, shielding her.

"Ye willnae lay a finger on her," Avery warned. "Touch her, and I will run ye through."

"Too many of us," the stocky fellow said at his side.

"Be quiet, Blair!" Wallace ordered. Blair grumbled to himself but said nothing too loudly after that. "Torkell, get up." Wallace kicked the unconscious man again, but he didn't even grumble this time. Avery had struck the man too hard for him to get up.

"I am nae coming back," Callie called to Wallace. "Leave, please. Let me start again."

"Enough of this." Wallace snatched the pistol from the ground and pointed it toward Avery. "Step away from her."

Yet Avery smiled, knowing the pistol had already been fired, it could not be shot again without being reloaded.

"How are ye going tae shoot me with an empty pistol, eh?"

Wallace cursed and tossed the pistol behind him to Blair.

"Reload it." With the order, he stepped forward, pulling his sword out from his belt. "Very well, I'll have tae deal with this rat first by blade." He struck forward with the sword, but Avery easily met the blow with his own. The thief"s eyes widened when he knocked Wallace's strike away with such ease.

"Ye have chosen the wrong man tae fight tonight," Avery warned. He'd been trained since he was a boy to fight. His father had ordered the lessons, even when Avery's palms were bloodied and sore, his father had made him carry on, determined he'd be a warrior.

"Ye'll die tonight, stranger." Wallace ran at him again.

* * *

"Nay!" Callie called out, then covered her mouth with her hands, watching Avery fight Wallace. The movements were so fast, she could barely keep track of them. Avery moved his heavy sword as if it were as light as a feather, parrying Wallace's blows easily.

She'd seen Wallace fight many times. He lunged repeatedly, so it seemed to her that, sooner or later, he would inevitably hit his opponent. Yet each lunge was knocked away by Avery, who advanced across the small space. He used the blade to cut across Wallace's boot, slicing through his toes. Wallace roared in pain, and jumped back, allowing Avery to kick out at Torkell and roll him across the floor. He moved so far that he knocked Blair over, like a ball toppling skittles.

"Kid?" Avery called out to her, hurrying to load his pistol. "Ye get out of here. Ye take that purse and ye keep running, ye hear me?"

She looked back, seeing the purse and snatched it up, but she didn't leave, she couldn't. How could she walk away from this fight now and leave Avery, a practical stranger to her, to fight her battles for her? She stayed where she was, one hand trembling around the purse, her other shaking on the hilt of her dirk as she drew it out of her belt.

"Kid, go!" Avery snapped as Wallace advanced toward him again. Avery brought up his pistol and fired. Wallace barely dodged the bullet, bending down as it flew past his hair and lodged itself in the wattle and daub wall.

Wallace tackled Avery's shoulder and the two thrust up their swords, using them as battering rams against one another. It was a task of strength, with their feet driven into the floorboards as they fought against one another.

"Kid?" Avery called to her, sweat beading on his temple. "Go!"

She couldn't deny him again. While he tried to shield her, he was in danger.

For his sake, I have tae leave.

"I'm so sorry," she shouted to him.

"Go!" he barked again, turning red in the face as he drove Wallace back, winning their war of strength. He tossed Wallace over the bed, sending the man's sword blade straight into the wall behind him. Unable to retrieve the blade, Wallace tugged on the hilt repeatedly, but the blade was buried too deeply into timber to be pulled out again easily.

Callie stepped over the fallen figure of Torkell and hurried out of the door, only to find herself face to face with Hettie, who raised her pistol, pointing it at Callie's face.

"Ye cannae leave," Hettie said in a small voice. "Then it would just be me." Her finger curled around the trigger. "Ye have tae stay!"

"Ye should have left too. Long ago." Callie reached up with the dagger and swiped it at Hettie's pistol. The gun went off, but the bullet missed Callie, landing somewhere in the floorboards beneath her. Driving her shoulder into Hettie, she knocked the girl away. Hettie fell against the wall beside the innkeeper and cradled her head as he had done, nearly knocked out. "Avery?" Callie looked back at him, desperate for him to make his escape too.

He swiped at Blair's back, ensuring he did not get up again because of the pain. He was so busy fighting Blair that he did not see that Wallace had recovered from his fall on the bed and was now approaching Avery with a dirk in his hand.

"Avery! Behind ye," Callie shouted with all her might.

Avery swung around, backed up toward the door, and blocked the exit with his body. The dirk was thrust toward him.

Callie couldn't see clearly, but she heard the bellow of pain and saw the curl of Wallace's lip, satisfied as the dirk slid into Avery's chest.

"Nay!" Callie wailed, tears springing to her eyes.

Avery said nothing anymore. He didn't call to her, but drove his body over Wallace's, stopping him from reaching the door. Now, Callie could see the hilt of the dagger. It poked out from Avery's chest.

He's suffered a blow. In the name of the wee man, he will nae live through that!

He had to be dying, yet in those dying moments, he was still fighting for her.

"Go!" One more bellow came from him.

Callie nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks as she ran from the hallway. She took the stairs two at a time, racing past the innkeeper, who called out, demanding someone in the inn send for a nightwatchman, anyone who could do something to stop the bloodshed.

Callie reached for the door of the inn and burst through it, leaping out into the cool air.

I need an escape, an escape!

This was surely the end. Even if she escaped the highwaymen, the innkeeper would send a nightwatchman after her now, for certain. If she was found, she would surely be arrested. If she didn't get sent to prison, they could hang her for assault, just for being part of the fray.

"I need tae escape, I need a way out, a way tae start again," she muttered, hastening around the back of the inn and sprinting to the stables, moving so fast, she was breathless, and her lungs burned for want of air. When a stableboy shouted at her, she ignored him, pushed past his shoulder, and reached for the nearest horse.

This will be the last thing I steal.

Vaulting into the saddle, she turned the horse and fled out of the stable.

"Hey! Come back here, ye thief! I'll tell the watchman. Ye'll be done for this." The stable boy's shouts followed her down the street, but she didn't let up her pace.

She galloped past people who had come out of their houses, curious at the uproar. People shouted for the watchman, complaining of attempted murder. People scattered, leaping out of the horse's way, fearful of being knocked down. Callie called apologies to them, though they threw curses back at her.

At the end of the road, Callie reigned the horse to a halt long enough to look back at the inn.

"Smoke. Fire! Cannae anyone see that?" a voice bellowed from the street.

Callie saw with terror that the inn was, indeed, on fire. In the tussle, the tallow candle must have been knocked over. The room was on fire, with flames glinting beyond the glass of the window.

Nay, nay! That kind man cannae die like that. Nae for me.

She made the horse step back toward the inn before good sense took over her emotions. Avery was already dead. There was no chance he could survive a stab wound to the chest. The fire would simply cause more damage to his body, but his life was already lost. What have I done!

"I'm so sorry," Callie whispered as her breath hitched and more tears stained her cheeks. The fire grew so strong that the window glass shattered, the intense heat escaping into the cold air. Voices erupted in horror from the street, the wall of sound engulfing her. "Th-this will nae be in vain," she muttered to herself through her tears. "I will nae go back tae this life. Nae one will die because of me again. Nae one will be hurt. Nae so much as a splinter because of me. I will begin again."

She looked down at the purse in the palm of her hand. It was the one Avery had insisted she take. She looped the string at her belt and turned her chin to the sky. She was no longer sure if she believed in God, not after the years of pain she had suffered. But just in case he was up there, staring down at her from between the stars, there was something she wished to say to him.

"In that good man's memory, I make ye this vow," she whispered, "nae one will be hurt because of me ever again. I will begin anew, and his sacrifice will nae be in vain." With the words said, she turned the horse and rode away into the darkness, taking one last backward glance at the inn.

The innkeeper had escaped into the street and was wailing about the damage to his inn. Three figures staggered beside him, suggesting some from that room had made it out. Maybe Wallace, Hettie, and Blair, though Callie couldn't see their faces at that distance.

Goodbye tae this old life. I thank ye, Avery, and I'm so sorry ye gave yer life tae save mine.

With that final thought, she galloped toward the hills and far away.