Page 2 of The Warrior Priest (After the Rift #1)

“Surprising. I thought they’d run out of steam by now.”

He leapt over a wooden crate while I darted around it, only to have a wheelbarrow full of cabbages thrust at me. I wasn’t sure if the cabbage seller did it on purpose or if it was an accident, but it slowed me down as I lost my balance.

Rhys grasped me around my waist before I fell, and tucked me into his side, lifting my feet off the ground. Not only was it an ungainly position, he would have felt all of my feminine curves, what little curves my undernourished figure had.

“Put me down! I’m not a sack of potatoes.”

He glanced around and finally released me. “Down that lane,” he ordered. “We need to get out of the market. Coming here was a bad idea.”

“I could have told you that if I’d known your plan,” I tossed over my shoulder as I ran.

“It would have been a good plan, if you’d avoided that wheelbarrow.”

“How was I supposed to avoid it when it was shoved directly at me? I don’t have legs like a giant leaping spider,” I said pointedly.

“I’ve been compared to a few creatures before, not always favorably, but never a spider.” How could he sound so calm? My heart thundered in my chest, not only from fear but also exertion. I was used to sneaking, not running for my life.

I dared another glance back at the pursuing constables, only to trip over the uneven cobblestones.

Rhys once again grabbed my jerkin, causing the beleaguered seams at my shoulders to finally rip apart. “You’re good at thieving, not so good at escaping.”

“I don’t usually need to escape,” I spat out between labored breaths. “Today is not a good day.”

“Cheer up. It’s about to get better.”

“Why?” I followed Rhys’s gaze.

He looked directly ahead where a brick wall loomed. The lane came to an end. The only exit was behind us, where the constables were still in pursuit.

“How is that better?”

He flashed a grin. “Change of plan.”

“ What plan?”

He stopped and linked his fingers together, forming a cradle. “Up you go.”

I looked up. The building was the only single-level one in the entire lane. With Rhys’s help, I could escape across the roof. But could he climb up without any assistance? There was nothing for him to stand on to give him a boost.

“ Now , Jac.” It was the tersest he’d sounded throughout the entire escapade.

I glanced along the lane. The constables had slowed, but there was no way to get past them out of the lane. “What about you?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ve been in stickier situations than this and got out of them.”

“With Merdu’s warriors at your back,” I said as I placed my foot into his hands. I grasped the roof tiles and hauled myself up. Rhys made it easier, pushing me as high as he could.

Despite a niggling doubt, I wasn’t too concerned about him. Constables wouldn’t arrest a warrior priest.

Below me, the constables drew their swords and faced off against Rhys. They were alone in the lane. There were no witnesses. They could attack him with no one finding out what they’d done. Rhys had to rely on his own skill with the sword, and two against one weren’t favorable odds.

But he didn’t even draw his sword. He simply ran at the wall below and leapt. Using the wall as leverage, he stretched up to grasp the overhanging roof. Swinging his legs, he managed to get half of his body onto the roof. But one of the tiles broke under the weight. He slipped.

“Rhys!” I grabbed his shoulders. The pendant around my neck emerged from beneath my shirt as I leaned forward.

I doubted I played much of a part in saving him, but somehow he managed to keep both arms on the roof while his body dangled down. Seeing an opportunity, the two constables leapt at his legs.

At that moment, Rhys swung them up again. This time, the tiles held, and he pulled himself onto the roof. He lay on the sloping tiles and grinned at me. “Don’t look so terrified, Jac. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

I tucked the pendant back under my shirt. “Merdu and Hailia, you’re mad! Why didn’t you just give yourself up? Or will you be thrown out of the order if your master hears of this?”

He sat up. “Never. I’m his favorite.” He stood and peered over the edge of the roof, just as two hands suddenly gripped the tiles from below. “Isn’t that interesting.”

I scrambled to my feet. “What is?”

“They’re still going. I’d have put money on them giving up by now. Come on. We’d better get a head start. You’re going to need it since you don’t have legs like a giant spider.” He indicated I should go up the roof ahead of him, much as a gentleman signals to a lady to enter a room first.

To the tune of grunts coming from the two constables as they tried to get onto the roof, I used all fours to balance as I scrambled up the tiles. “If you get me killed, I’m coming back from the afterlife to haunt you.”

“Our religion doesn’t believe in ghosts.”

“Then it’s lucky I don’t believe in religion.”

The ensuing silence felt heavy after the lighthearted moments we’d shared during our escape, but I needed to concentrate on my balance as I navigated the roofline, so gave it no further thought.

I came to a stop as the building butted up against a taller one.

We’d need to repeat our climb if we were to continue that way.

The only other way out was down the sloping roof on the other side then dropping into what appeared to be a courtyard surrounded by buildings.

In other words, we would be easy to trap down there.

I turned to face Rhys. “I don’t fancy going up again.”

“Afraid of heights?”

“No. I’m tired of being chased.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “Do you have a plan?”

One of the constables was on the roof, although he looked unsteady on the steeply sloping tiles. He was calling down to his colleague, instructing him on the best way to get up.

“Unlike you, yes.”

I was glad to see the humor return to Rhys’s eyes. I wasn’t sure why it bothered me that he’d been offended by my heathenism. All I knew was that I preferred his mischievousness.

“I have some skill with a knife,” I said. “I presume you have some skill with a sword. If we work together, we might have a chance.”

He chuckled. At the time, I had no idea why.

Later, I would witness Rhys’s skill for myself.

Even with his eyes closed and a hand tied behind his back, two bumbling constables would offer no opposition.

If I’d known that then, I would have found his actions even more baffling.

Why didn’t he just fight them then and there?

Perhaps he didn’t want to harm them. Or perhaps he was simply enjoying himself.

“I have a better plan,” he said.

“It’s about time,” I scoffed. “What do you propose?”

He looked down at the courtyard.

“But we’ll be trapped!” I said.

“I told you, Jac. Have a little faith.”

“Fine,” I ground out. “Do I go first or do you?”

I’d not even finished speaking before he was on his way down the sloping roof. He hung onto the edge and swung himself down to the ground, landing deftly on his feet. He held his arms up to me. “Jump. I’ll catch you.”

I stared at him, open-mouthed.

Behind me, the constable stood on the ridge of the roof. “Got you,” he snarled.

I jumped.

Rhys caught me effortlessly. He didn’t set me down immediately, however.

With his hands at my waist, I was pinned against his body.

The cloth of his tunic and the shirt underneath hid nothing, not the ridges of muscles across his chest, rising and falling with breaths that had suddenly become ragged for the first time.

Could he feel the contours of my body through the layers of my disguise?

Was that why his gaze suddenly heated as it locked onto mine?

Eye to eye, chest to chest, I could easily kiss him. I wanted to kiss him. It was as if a madness had come over me, taking control. I’d never felt this brazen, this much desire and need. Rhys consumed my thoughts, even to the exclusion of my own safety, and I hadn’t even known him an hour.

I reached up my hands to bury them in his hair, when he suddenly lowered me to the ground.

That’s when I heard a door behind me crash back on its hinges. I suddenly turned to see the second constable barreling out of the house and into the courtyard. He drew his sword. “You should be ashamed of yourself, Brother.”

Rhys put his hands in the air. “Let the lad go. He’s just a hungry child.”

“I thought you had a plan,” I hissed.

“Who says it’s not going how I wanted it to?” he hissed back.

“You wanted this to end in our surrender?”

“Not ours. Just mine.”

“I’m not letting you do that for me.”

“All will be well. Nothing will happen to me, Jac. You can still escape through the sewers. I’m standing on the grate. When I step off, open it quickly. Climb down the ladder then continue left. Always go left. Eventually, you’ll come out at the river.”

“I know the way. You’re not coming with me?”

“I’ll stay up here and keep him busy. Don’t worry, I won’t let him follow you.”

I glanced up to where the constable on the roof was carefully navigating his way down the slope, arms out for balance, his attention focused on each slow, cautious step.

Rhys stepped off the grate. I bent down and wrapped my fingers around the bars.

“Stop!” The constable in the courtyard advanced.

Rhys moved to block him, his hands still in the air. “I said, let the lad go.”

The constable, however, thrust his sword point at Rhys. “Move aside, Brother.”

Rhys glanced at me. “What’s taking you so long?”

“It’s stuck,” I said.

“Pull harder.”

“Easy for you to say.”

He grunted, conceding that he must have miscalculated. He swore under his breath, and the fingers of his right hand twitched, as if he wished he held his sword. For the first time since the pursuit began, he seemed rattled.

The constable ordered Rhys to step aside. Rhys hesitated before complying. The constable drew in a relieved breath then came for me.

I pulled out the iron grate and swung it at him. It hit his arm, and he lowered the sword with a grunt of pain.

I sprang up and ran past him, grabbing Rhys’s hand as I did so. “Your plan needed a slight modification.”

To the shouts of both constables, we raced across the courtyard.

Just as we were about to enter the building, the constable on the roof cried out.

I glanced back to see the constable on the ground look up at the same moment his colleague rolled off the roof.

He dropped his sword in order to catch the man.

Both tumbled to the cobblestones in a tangle of limbs and curses.

Rhys and I ran on, out through the building and back down the lane. We reentered the market briefly before turning down another street then another. More twists and turns later, I was quite out of breath.

Finally, Rhys stopped when we reached the river. It was then that I noticed we still held hands. As if he’d just realized, too, he released me. I bent over double in an attempt to catch my breath.

After several moments, I straightened. Rhys’s eyes were bright, his lips curved with his smile. He wasn’t in the least out of breath. “I told you I had a plan,” he said.

“ That was not part of your plan.”

“Wasn’t it?”

I narrowed my gaze at him, no longer sure if it had been or not.

He started to laugh, and I couldn’t help laughing along with him.

Perhaps it was the danger and excitement we’d just shared, or perhaps it was because he made me feel safe, but in that moment, something exploded inside me.

It was heady and all-consuming, and it awoke every part of me in such a way that I was utterly and completely absorbed by the feelings coursing through me.

Rhys made me feel wonderful, alive, special.

If I made him feel that way, he didn’t show it. As his laughter faded, he simply pointed upstream. “You can find your way home by following this until you reach the crooked house, then go right, then left at the high fence.”

“Oh,” I managed to say. “Right. I mean left. Right.” Hailia, stop me.

Still smiling, Rhys sauntered off, one hand resting on his sword hilt. “Don’t forget: tonight at the eleventh hour.”

I watched him walk away with an overwhelming sense that my life would be different from then on. A believer would say that Merdu, the god of change, had me in his sights. I was no longer sure if I believed in the power of the god and goddess. Like Rhys’s, their plans seemed poorly considered.

All I knew was that meeting Rhys would be just the beginning.