garrattj

Five-Minute fiction - 17:05-17:10

Let the girl go, a voice said, the words cutting through the din that surrounded the central table and the solitary serving girl who had been corralled by some of the more drunken patrons.

Several heads, in ones and twos, and then more turned to see the pair of figures standing in the door.

I said, let the girl go, one said. He was dressed in traveling clothes and his gloved hand rested on the hilt of a sword. The other figure carried an slender staff and remained sheltered in the frame of the doorway.

Want her all to yourself, do ya? one of the more drunken men said. He pushed his way through the crowd pulling the helpless girl with him. Her clothes were torn and there was blood on her lips but she still looked in one piece. The man was a bilge rat, a sailor, one of the transient men that so commonly frequented these isolated inns on their way between ports.

No, but I dont want you to have her either, the man said again. His words were punctuated by the silent rasp of steel on steel. Metal glinted in the faint lantern light and the crowd seemed to swell, entranced by the threat of violence.

Fancy sword, I got one of those too, the drunk said. He dropped the girls arm and snatched