CHAPTER 8: NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE ENEMY

Anyss opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling above her. The warm body next to her stirred a little and turned over. She stole a quick glance at his well-toned physique as the covers slipped off his torso.

What had gotten into her? She was in bed with a man! And not just any other man...

Anyss hadn't been with a man since...Ruella. The mention of the sorceress' name suddenly caused a wave of guilt to wash over her. What was she going to tell Ruella? She could just imagine the sort of reaction Ruella would have. She shuddered as she visualised it. It wasn't appealing at all. No. Ruella must not know about this, Anyss decided.

She felt Kane's arm wrap across her waist.

"Up so early?" he mumbled, giving her a half-asleep grin.

Anyss brought her gaze to him but couldn't bring herself to smile at him. All that was running through her mind at that moment was how wrong this entire thing was.

"What's up?" Kane frowned as he propped himself up on his elbow. There was something troubling the bandit queen, he could see it in her expression.

Anyss looked away. "You. Me. Us. This whole thing."

"Forgive my ignorance but I do not see why 'us' is so wrong," Kane said as he teasingly drew patterns with his finger on Anyss' arm. He knew of course. It had to do with Ruella. Kane could guess that Anyss was probably feeling guilty having cheated on Ruella. He suppressed a little snigger.

Anyss brushed his finger off impatiently and got up from bed, wrapping the covers over herself.

"You and I were not supposed to have happened!" she cried in exasperation as she proceeded to gather her clothes.

Kane shrugged. "Well, 'we' did happen. You can't go turning back the clock and pretend it never did. Besides, you did enjoy it, didn't you?"

Anyss spun around in anger at him. "Whatever happened last night will remain in this room. You are not to breathe a word of this to any soul or you'll wish you were never born."

"When you say 'soul', you really mean Ruella, right?"

Kane was mocking her. Not only that, he had mentioned her name again. Anyss clenched her fist and stared at him menacingly. "You can leave now."

It wasn't so much a request as it was an order.

Kane grinned to himself as he made his way back to his room. She had succumbed altogether too easily, he mused. He would give her some time to accept what had happened. Very soon he'll have her completely on his side.

Anyss closed her eyes as she rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. She had a sudden urge to go see Ruella.

She quietly pushed opened the door to Ruella's bedroom. It was still early and the sorceress was still in bed. Anyss lightly crossed the floor towards the bed where Ruella laid. She let her eyes wander over the sorceress' sleeping form. Careful not to wake Ruella, Anyss sat herself down at the foot. Her movement caused a slight stir in the sorceress. Ruella slowly opened her eyes.

The feel of the weight of an extra body on the bed caused Ruella to immediately sit up. She raised a hand ready to strike at the intruder.

"Anyss?" Ruella blinked a couple of times in registration before she lowered her hand.

Anyss forced at smile at her.

"Is something wrong?" Ruella asked as she squeezed the bandit queen's hand. "Are you okay?"

Anyss opened her mouth but no words would come. She nodded a silent 'yes'.

Ruella frowned. "You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Anyss lied through the smile. "I just felt like seeing you, that's all."

Ruella returned her smile. "Look, about yesterday..."

"Let's not talk about that anymore, okay?"

Ruella gazed searchingly into the bandit queen's eyes. She sensed that Anyss was holding back telling her something but decided not to pursue the matter. She'll tell me in due time, Ruella reasoned.

Kane headed towards the courtyard in search of Anyss. He had been sitting in his room all morning waiting for her to summon him for their daily sparring sessions. But no servant had showed up bearing her order. His brow creased into a worried frown.

Anyss kicked one of the guards in the butt as he bent over to pick up his sword. "You move too slow! You people are such a useless bunch of twits!" she screamed in frustration as she easily took down another few more guards.

"Perhaps my lady may not be so agitated if she sparred with more competent...fools?"

Anyss swung around, sword raised - the blade stopping a mere few inches from Kane's face. Kane smiled and gave a slight bow.

Anyss turned back round and ignored him, concentrating instead on torturing the group of guards that laid on the ground around her.

"I don't have all day, you know. Are you just going to stand there or are you going to pick up a sword and spar?" she remarked.

Kane grinned as he lifted his sword to meet the bandit queen.

Anyss struck the first blow with such vigour that Kane stumbled back a few steps in surprise. He looked at her questioningly.

"Do not for one moment think things are any different between us because of last night," she growled at him. "As far as I'm concerned, last night did not happened."