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Swords clashed.  Jenala Delasa fought savagely for her life against the man who would dare try to get her kalcion mine.  And claim her.  The bastard Zlaten Vandalar.  The man she believed murdered her father five months ago.  He attacked her with the intention of kidnapping and raping her, giving her no choice but to be claimed under the law.  She’d fall on her own sword before she’d allow him to claim her.

A passerby, heard the gray metal swords clanging off of each other, sparks flying, and her shouts of rage, as he rushed to watch the spectacle.  Jenala dared him a quick glance when he yelled and ran toward them.  Momentarily startled, she missed her jab.  Zlaten sidestepped, turned and flayed open her back from the left shoulder to the bottom of her ribcage on the right side.  Jenala fell to the ground.  Zlaten looked up at the stranger approaching and visibly paled.  He sneered at her as he ran a finger through her blood as it dripped from the tip of his sword.  “You’re not fit now.  I’ll come when you’re healed then you’ll be mine.”   He looked up at the stranger getting closer, turned and ran.

The stranger came to her, her sword still tightly gripped in her right hand.  She’d dropped to her knees, but never released her sword.  She wouldn’t go down without a fight.

The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth from where she’d bitten her tongue.  She looked up with pain bleary eyes, expecting to see reproach or perhaps opportunity.  If this man decided to claim her as Zlaten had, she could not fight him off but she would try.  Instead she saw compassion.  He removed his shirt and took great care to wrap her back to staunch the flow of blood.  Jenala hissed at the contact, white flashing light blurred her vision.  She knew he tried his best to cause her as little pain as possible.  But it didn’t matter Jenala didn’t know if she could handle the searing pain another moment.  He picked her up and carried her toward town.

“Owww.”  She couldn’t help the moan of pain. “Take me to the nupenian,” she said, her voice little more than a croak.  The only person who could help was Brenton, the town nupenian, who cared for animals.  The quack they had for a doctor would surely kill her and she wasn’t taking the chance.  Brenton could sew her up as well as the doctor could.

There hadn’t been a decent doctor in Rucem, since she was born twenty-seven years ago.  Dr. Nort had retired after delivering every baby, treating every illness and wound in the entire province for the previous forty years.  Rucem was the capital and the largest outpost in the Golong province.  It was a months hard travel to get to the nearest large town with a decent doctor.  The distance was so far, she’d only done it once with her father.

*****

She was laying on her stomach on an examination table looking at someone’s shoes.  Her face was in a cradle and her arms were hanging loose on either side of the narrow table.  The pain was gone.  Brenton must have provided her a pain blocker, thank Krios!  She heard the stranger leave instructions that she was to be taken to the Wardson’s Bed Stay after the wound was fully sealed, though how he knew her accommodations she had no idea.  After the stranger left, Jenala wet her lips and finally asked.  “Well?  How does it look?”  She wiped at her mouth, the blood she tasted dripped on to the floor leaving a small crimson puddle