The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett [195]
The second thief looked from one of them to the other, then at his dying friend, and without further ado he turned and ran into the woods.
Aliena watched, incredulous. They had scared him off. It was hard to take in.
She looked at the man on the ground. He lay flat on his back with his guts falling out of the great tear in his belly. His eyes were wide open and his face was twisted with pain and fear.
Aliena felt no relief, no pride in having defended herself and her brother from ruthless men: she was too disgusted and repelled by the hideous sight.
Richard felt no such qualms. “You stabbed him, Allie!” he said in a voice between excitement and hysteria. “You did for them!”
Aliena looked at him. He had to be taught a lesson. “Kill this one,” she said.
Richard stared at her. “What?”
“Kill him,” she repeated. “Put him out of his misery. Finish him off!”
“Why me?”
She deliberately made her voice harsh. “Because you act like a boy and I need a man. Because you’ve never done anything with a sword except play at war, and you have to start somewhere. What’s the matter with you? What are you afraid of? He’s dying anyway. He can’t hurt you. Use your sword. Get some practice. Kill him!”
Richard held his sword in both hands and looked uncertain. “How?”
The man screamed again.
Aliena yelled at Richard: “I don’t know how! Cut off his head, or stab him in the heart! Anything! Just shut him up!”
Richard looked cornered. He lifted his sword and lowered it again.
Aliena said: “If you don’t do this I’ll leave you alone, I swear by all the saints. I’ll get up one night and go away and when you wake up in the morning I won’t be there and you’ll be all on your own. Now kill him!”
Richard raised his sword again. Then, incredibly, the dying man stopped screaming and tried to get up. He rolled to one side and raised himself on one elbow. Richard gave a shout that was half a yell of fear and half a battle cry, and brought his sword down hard on the man’s exposed neck. The weapon was heavy and the blade was sharp, and the blow sliced more than halfway through the fat neck. Blood spurted like a fountain and the head leaned grotesquely to one side. The body slumped to the earth.
Aliena and Richard stared at it. Steam rose from the hot blood in the winter air. They were both stunned by what they had done. Suddenly Aliena wanted to get away from there. She started to run. Richard followed.
She stopped when she could run no more, and that was when she realized she was sobbing. She walked on slowly, no longer caring if Richard saw her in tears. He seemed unaffected anyway.
Gradually she calmed down. The wooden clogs were hurting her. She stopped and took them off. She walked on in her bare feet, carrying the clogs. Soon they would reach Winchester.
After a while Richard said: “We’re fools.”
“Why?”
“That man. We just left him there. We should have taken his boots.”
Aliena stopped and stared, horrified, at her brother.
He looked back at her and gave a little laugh. “There’s nothing wrong with that, is there?” he said.
II
Aliena began to feel hopeful again as she walked through the West Gate to Winchester High Street at nightfall. In the forest she had felt that she might be murdered and no one would ever know what had happened, but now she was back in civilization. Of course, the city was full of thieves and cutthroats, but they could not commit their crimes