Arissa's Fate (Redemption Trilogy) by Amanda Daul Read Free Book Online

strangers lay dead on the ground, the others still struggling for a grip on a rifle or blade from the other. The coward had abandoned his own troop and his prisoners.
                  Before she could mount the horse, a huge bulk of one of the strange men barrelled toward her. It was pure reflex for her to reach into her boot and pull free the sharp dagger she had hidden there. She gripped it tightly and held it out just as he smashed into her. The blade sunk into his stomach and he fell to the ground beside her.
                  The horse was galloping away before Arissa had even pulled herself upright. The smoke was nearly gone, as were the other two horses, stolen by the thieves. Only one unarmed soldier remained and he was dreadfully outnumbered. Arissa didn’t stick around to watch.
                  She did her best to follow the path she had taken with the Captain, but the remaining smoke and the startled horse made that difficult.
                  It was only after she came into sight of the dead man she had found earlier that she could slow the horse enough to stop. When she dismounted, being careful not to spook the horse, causing it to bolt from her, Arissa couldn’t believe what she saw.
                  The Captain was dead.
     

Chapter Eleven
                  The Captain was dead.
    Arissa couldn’t believe it. For a few moments, all she could do was stand and stare at the blank, bloodied face of the Captain. The icy blue eyes were empty, gazing into the air above him, his jaw slack and slightly agape.
    She couldn’t lie to herself and think that she was sorry to see him lying on the cold ground, lifeless. Maybe it was her vengeance talking, but she was glad that he could no longer hurt the lives of innocent people. The man had done truly terrible things and she had been beside him the whole time. Secrets strong enough to cripple their weak society were now useless, dead. Arissa was the only one left who knew about them and making it public knowledge about just how crooked and underhanded the Captain had been would only cause riots, drama and catastrophes that she didn’t care to be a part of. It was worth letting people think he was a good man, just to spare herself from the torture that she would be dragged through. At this point, she really didn’t trust herself to be anywhere around the peo ple that she used to work with because at the moment she wanted to murder all of them.
    Still, she couldn’t resist roughly nudging his shoulder with the toe of her boot as she stepped around the body. Feeling glee over his death was not something she would normally be proud of, but being hunted for the past several months changed more in herself than she cared to admit.
    Breaking out of her series of vindictive thoughts, she quickly focused on the scene, knowing she had to keep moving. Those thieves had to have seen her and a woman alone in the forest would be too much of a temptation for anyone from the Varkland mountains to ignore. They would be trailing her at any moment.
    Arissa’s eyes immediately fell to the shredded hole in the Captain’s blue uniform. A large blood stain had already soaked into the fabric over his chest, similar to the first man she had found.
    Who had shot the Captain? Everyone from his troop had still been around their camp when she had bolted. It w as highly unlikely that any other soldiers were in the mountains. That only left one possibility.
    It took everything in her not to scream out his name, hoping he was still within earshot, but knowing that doing so would also attract anyone else in the area.
    She mounted the horse again, her brain scrambling rapidly. There were so many questions whirling in her mind, none of them making sense and she had little chance of figuring them out until she found him.
    Trying to track was nearly pointless. They were on the same path that a hundred different horses had walked in the