Rachel's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

The man at the door was a stranger. He had blood down one sleeve and no weapon. He said his sister had been taken two nights ago by three men who rode east. He did not know where. He had walked the woods until his boots split, and then he had walked to Rachel's forge because people in town said she went after women no one else would. Rachel held the new sword at her side. Two nights was a long time. She asked him what the men wore. He said rough coats and a red band on the arm. She asked which road east. He said he lost their track at the creek. "Then we start in town," Rachel said. "Someone saw them ride through." She whistled for the dog. Pepper came around the cabin at a heavy trot, shoulders level with her hip now, big enough to carry two. She swung the stranger up behind her and pointed Pepper toward the road. They reached the settlement by midmorning. Rachel tied Pepper outside the big hall at the center of town, the one with the bright tower where the market crowded on trade days. Farmers were unloading crates. She went bench to bench and asked about three riders with red arm bands. A woman selling jars shook her head. A boy selling rope had seen them but only their backs. Rachel was losing time. She could feel it in her jaw. She crossed to the paired storage sheds behind the hall, where the town kept its tools in one and its food in the other. An old man sat on the step of the tool shed oiling a hinge. He looked up when Rachel described the riders. "Red bands," he said. "They took a sack of oats from me on Tuesday. Didn't pay. Rode out past the plow fields, north side, toward the old logging cut. There's a cabin up there nobody uses." Rachel thanked him. She ran back to Pepper. The stranger climbed on behind her again. They cut past the plowed fields on the north edge of town, where two men were setting new blades into a frame, and then up the logging track into the pines. Pepper found the cabin before Rachel saw it. Smoke, one horse tied, no lookout. Rachel dismounted. She told the stranger to hold the dog. She kicked the door in. One man at the table reached for a knife. She cut him down before he cleared the sheath. A second came from the back room and swung wild. She took his arm off at the elbow. The new sword did not bend. The woman was tied in the corner. Alive. Bruised, one eye swollen shut, but breathing. Rachel cut the ropes. "Your brother's outside." The woman started to cry. Rachel wiped the sword on the dead man's coat. Two men down. The third had not been in the cabin. Somewhere on the road, he was still riding.