The Thorian Sagas. 1. The Trader.

Stoker rode steadily up the track at the side of the river, followed by a woman on another horse.

He often looked back at her, but he also looked around carefully, and watched what his dog, loping along with them, or riding with them on one or other of their saddles when he got too tired, told him about the dangers close to them.

It seemed that the Mountain Bears and Rogues had retreated back into their mountain hideaways to lick their wounds rather than take on this particular Thorian again, or take on this ‘unknown’, that rode with him. An unknown that had assumed legendary proportions! And a woman!

It was time to re-group, and re-think.

The unknown, was not just a woman. She was Stoker's woman!

He would have died to protect those tributes and he almost had. He had defeated that first Rogue in full view of all of those tributes who had never seen such violence in all of their lives. Their hearts had stuck in their throats.

If he failed, they would all surely die.

Then there had been a second Rogue that had caught them all off guard and had almost killed him. Would have killed him, but for her. Erianne. Her name was now known all through the region for what she had done, and she was from Dorian.

Erianne had nursed Stoker back to health, never leaving his side, taking care of him as she had never cared for anyone before. This man was her life now.

He, and every Thorian who ever drew breath, was prepared to die ten times over to protect just this one woman, the most valued member of their society.

It took a Thorian male many years to rise to the rank of Alpha Thorian, and this woman had done it in the blink of an eye, and without hesitation. Without any thought of the danger facing her.

She rode steadily behind him. Where the trail allowed, they rode side by side.

She was adorned around her neck with the greatest prize that any woman could ever be given, apart from the man with her, and it had almost killed him to get them. He had her necklace from the Rogue she had killed around his neck. The hides of those two bears were rolled behind their saddles.

His heritage now awaited him in the villages of the Alpha Thorians, and in their councils.

Stoker was going home, taking his bride to meet his mother.

Days earlier, the tributes had all gone out from Fenn. A group of nine, and then a tenth had followed an hour later behind them. Bradshaw’s niece had been hard for the council to find.

Liam had met them all in the wasteland; all nine, and then the terrified and disoriented, tenth, and had seen them to a place of safety. Most of them remembered him from the Hostel in Saltash.

Bradshaw had been shocked at what she’d learned when she returned from her retreat. She’d sent out the Guard warriors to recover her niece, despite what the treaty said about any warriors going out into the wasteland. They had not succeeded in recovering her.

Other things had greeted them, however, taking them entirely off guard, and by surprise. They had broken the treaty in so many ways, but hell did not rain down on them as they had expected. Then they tried to hide what they had done, and merely compounded one problem onto another.

Stoker could not help but smile. Monique and her friends had not been given a choice but had been led into a special kind of a trap.

As a result, Stoker’s friends were now in the City of Fenn, just as they’d intended. Captives of these women, and held, sedated.

Death, would be the reward for what these women had done; daring to take on and to subdue Thorians. Except it had been taken out of their hands the moment they’d left the city, just as the Thorians had intended.

Stoker had lost mental contact with those friends in the days since they’d taken on those Rogues, so they must be somewhere deep in the city of Fenn by now, and would be waiting for the insurrection to get to the walls of Fenn.

He would learn more of that when he got to Thorium.

The coming attack on Fenn, whenever it came, and its unexpected outcome, would be a shock for the other cities. They could not possibly know what awaited them, to overturn their carefully drafted plans!

It would be a shock for Monique and her friends too, but at least a full war would have been averted.

What they had done, would be something else Monique would have to forgive him for, when this ended.

Finis.

The second story continues from this one. If you enjoyed 'The Trader', please leave a review, as well as 'likes'. Apparently, 'likes' are a big part of how FindNovel.net judges books. Go figure.