“What?” the assailant asked. As he did so, Kre had a new wave of feelings wash over him. Those of calmness, serenity, and peace. He looked into Cooter’s eyes and saw the same emotions echoed there, along with a new one. Resolve.
“Five seconds.” The blade pressed against Kre’s cheek though it did not yet make a cut. Determination.
That resolve spilled over into Kre and the young man acted without thought. He slid his hand off of Cooter’s wrist, past the short stock of the crossbow and along the back of Cooter’s hand, until his thumb rested gently on the trigger. Commitment.
The feelings pouring into Kre were those of resolution. Without a second thought, Kre pushed lightly against the trigger and he felt the power of the weapon blast against his own body. The crossbow’s iron bolt though flew from under Kre’s arm, through the side of his tunic, and slammed into the chest of the assailant.
The amount of force held in that one shot seemed more than should have been packed into such a small weapon, but Kre didn’t think to question it. He simply appreciated the fact that this particular crossbow, one that should never have been able to be fired, had completely neutralized his attacker.
Taking a moment to look behind him, Kre saw his assailant pinned against the bed, the feathered end of the thick bolt sticking out from the area on his chest where his heart was located. A clean kill. Something that the intruder refused to grant either of them. Before Kre could think too much on what exactly had happened, before the realization hit him that he had helped to take another person’s life, he felt heard the bell signaling the front door.
Suddenly worried that there might be more intruders on the way, Kre scoured the area around him frantically looking for more ammunition for the crossbow. Catching Cooter’s eyes, Kre felt that the old man was telling him not to worry, that everything was going to be okay. How the old man could know that and how he could communicate those thoughts so well was beyond Kre’s immediate concern.
The footsteps coming down towards the bedroom were almost as loud as the heartbeats thundering in Kre’s head. The footsteps stopped just outside the door and there were several tense seconds before the floorboards creaked with the sound of someone entering the room. Even with Cooter’s assurance that everything was going to be okay, Kre still felt an instinctual need to put his own body in front of the older man’s.
He soon realized why Cooter wasn’t worried about the new visitor. The woman that stepped in, or rather… the lady given her regal bearing and commanding charisma, was strikingly beautiful. Her long black hair fell down her back and along the simple white dress she wore. Her feet and arms were both bare, with no adorning jewelry or markings of any kind. She looked down at Kre and offered up a small smile. When her eyes touched on Cooter’s nearly comatose body, her smile faded.
“Oh, my poor Terync.” She knelt down beside Kre and placed a soft hand on the young man’s shoulder. “Bless you for your help here.” She spent the next few moments focused entirely on the older man, placing her fingers along his neck, pressing the back of her hand against his forehead, and running her eyes and hands over his body. Despite the obvious familiarity between the two, Kre didn’t feel any uncomfortableness at being present for this intensive examination.
Finally, she sat back on her heels and looked down at her hands, folded neatly in her lap. Cooter’s eyes were tightly closed and his breathing had grown slower and more labored.
The lady looked up at Kre with sorry and pleading in her face, gently laid one of her hands along his cheek, and asked in a voice that was barely a whisper, “Child, there is one more duty for you this night.”
Kre looked back at the dead body behind them and then down at the nearly lifeless body between them. Still, surrounded by this gruesome scene, Kre felt nothing but acceptance at what was happening.
“Name it, my lady,” he responded confidently.
Her eyes closed and she took a deep breath. “We need you to take Terync’s life.”