A razor-sharp dagger was pressed against Li Na’s neck, though now that Yaric got a better look, its oversized blade looked capable of hacking through small trees. Five crossbows were pointed at the other three, while one man had pulled out a spear which he held to Sven’s throat, high atop the horse. The only man without a weapon was the injured one with his arm in a sling, who Yaric now realized must have been who he hit a few nights previously.
Dozens of spells flashed through his mind. Shields, fire, even lightning since he would likely get the time. None of his plans were practical. Most of the better ones would require an impossible level of communication, particularly since the bandits would see and hear as well. They didn’t need to understand his instructions, they only needed to be aware that something was going to happen. Just one nervous hunter needed to loose a crossbow bolt and that was it.
Because that was where real life veered far away from strategy games or capture-the-flag exercises. They could win, sure, but at what cost? A single casualty on their side was one too many. The bandits had the drop on them, yet they still held their fire and stayed their hands. With so many weapons threatening them from so many directions, launching their own attack could only end in disaster. Someone was bound to be hit.
Yaric was surprised to see his friends’ reactions to the ambush. Sven sat tall on his horse, ignoring the spearhead at his neck. Lauren’s eyes were wider, as she was obviously scared, but Yaric knew Sven would be too, he just hid everything better. Both were looking to him.
Lauren’s shoulders dropped almost imperceptibly at the same time that Sven nodded very slightly. They wouldn’t make any moves.
Looking back over his shoulder, Yaric quickly glanced at Li Na’s situation once again. She was more isolated than the others, with Lauren completely hidden from her sight and only Sven’s head and shoulders clear from where she stood. Li Na wouldn’t know what was going on, and if anyone was going to strike decisively when a dagger was pressed to her neck it would be Li Na.
But Li Na wasn’t paying much attention to the dagger, nor her own weapon that was being pulled from her belt even as Yaric watched. Li Na’s eyes were turned as far to the side as she could manage, darting from crossbow to crossbow. She clearly understood that any move on her part would trigger a reaction from everyone, and while she only had a blade to her neck, the others weren’t so lucky.
“That’s a fine bow you have there, boy. What is it?”
Thinking quickly, Yaric tried to come up with a plausible lie. “Family heirloom.”
The friendlier man stepped around Yaric to fumble with the release for the bow while Yaric stood still. Doing so blocked the line of sight for all three crossbows being held at the edge of the woods, but it didn’t make any difference to Yaric - nothing had changed for the other three.
Still, it did confirm that the men were not professionals, at least not when it came to taking prisoners.
‘Not sure if that’s a good thing,’ Yaric thought wryly.
“What’s it made of?” the man asked, his eyes glued to the bow he now held in his hands, taking in the different materials and their contrasting black and white.
“No idea.”
The man ignored Yaric and raised the bow to draw.
“Are you kidding me?! What kind of draw weight is this?”
Yaric had never been good at playing a part, but he knew he had to keep people from guessing their abilities, so he shrugged. “We start with practice bows and work our way up,” he said, trying to sound arrogant. People tended to find it easy to believe that others were arrogant and haughty. Yaric hoped it would be to his benefit now.
The wounded man stepped closer instead. “How much power does this bow have, boy?”
“A fair amount,” Yaric replied, unsure of how he should answer.
“Enough to send an arrow clean through muscle?” the man asked. He shifted his arm unconsciously as he spoke.
“Hah! You think this boy is who done that to you?” one of the men at the edge of the wood asked. “Those people tracked us good, and they did things I’ve never seen before.”
“You mean like shooting an arrow through someone’s shoulder with enough power that it goes clean through and disappears into the darkness?” the wounded man snarked.
“No kid did that,” the man holding the bow mumbled distractedly.
“Well boy, were you out at night shooting at shadows?” the wounded man asked while pointing aggressively at the bow with his free hand.
Yaric scoffed. This time he tried to play up the ridiculousness of the question, but it only came across as arrogant once again. “You think an arrow could do that? Arrows are too long,” he said, even though an arrow certainly could travel right through the body given enough power. You didn’t even need magic. “Sounds like someone using a crossbow at close range.”
“Crossbows aren’t as easy to come by as you think,” the wounded man replied.
“Shut up Carl. Those people were professionals. They retreated like the military; they could be carrying crossbows. That’s the whole reason why we need to get clear of this place and sell our stuff. It’s only a matter of time before those soldiers chase us down.”
“Maybe one of those crossbows did it,” Yaric said, pointing at the other bandits.
That seemed to hit a nerve, and judging by Carl’s reaction it was something they had argued over before. Four different bandits opened their mouths to speak at the same time, though none got the chance.
“Shut it,” the man with Yaric’s bow ordered, and everyone froze immediately. “You too, boy. You speak when spoken to, and not another word. Got it?”
“Yes,” Yaric said, his tone much meeker.
“You a noble?”
The question took Yaric by surprise. So much so that he shook his head in denial before realizing that the man was examining the bow again and couldn’t see him. “No,” he added.
“You act like one. Would have explained all this equipment too. Not often you see a group of kids with such fine horses and saddles, and look at how you’re armed. The little one even has a mace. I have to admit, Carl might have a point.”
Carl grinned triumphantly.
“I’m not a noble,” Yaric said once again. “He is.”
The bandits now all turned to look at Sven.
“What’s your house name?” the apparent leader asked Sven.
“McDavids.”
“Never heard of it.”
This time it was another of the men on the other side of the road who spoke up, one who up till now hadn’t said a word. “I heard of it. They’re involved with the army.”
“We breed horses for cavalry,” Sven clarified.
“Yeah, that was it.”
Yaric had the distinct impression that the man had never heard anything about horses or cavalry, but his answer was to their advantage regardless.
“And you kitted everyone out?” the man with Yaric’s bow asked, still taking the lead.
“My father did.”
“Where are you headed?”
“Home, to the ranch. We’re going to do some hunting.”
“Say I believe you. How are you hurt, and why -.”
“Whoo! Look at this, Lei!”
One of the men who had crashed their wagon had now pulled out a bag of manacles from their saddle bags, Lauren’s from where he was standing.
“See?!” Carl shouted.
Lei simply looked up to where Sven still sat on his horse. “We found them just before the last village. Maybe two hours further up the road.”
Most of the bandits began looking at each other knowingly. They must have guessed exactly what spot Sven was talking about.
Lei looked torn, but he quickly barked another order. “Search their bags,” he said reluctantly. “But make it quick, we don’t have much time.”
“Don’t bother,” Sven said, “I have the other bag here.”
Sven pulled a matching bag of manacles from his pack and tossed it over. “We didn’t know they were yours, or anyone’s really. Figured if no one came back to pick them up then they didn’t care.”
Lei didn’t let on that there were not, in fact, his, nor did he mention that he thought the people hunting him might have been the ones who’d dropped the bags, but he did turn to the rest of the men instead.
“These make our jobs easy. Get ready to move on, we can’t wait around here like this, just waiting for soldiers to come along. We need to get back on the road. None of us look like travelers right now. And I want to catch up to the merchant who passed us, we can add his cart to our haul.
“Get these kids restrained in the cuffs and give them their water bottles. Justin, you three will take them into the Fools Forest and restrain them somewhere those soldiers should find them, preferably in a day or two. Make sure they aren’t hurt; we don’t want some noble family with ties to the military chasing us down.
“We have fresh horses now, so there’s no need to rest except when we stop to sleep. I want to get far ahead of those people chasing us. Quickly now! And you four, I suggest you bundle up and take turns to call for help. You might have a few cold nights ahead of you.”
Yaric and the others were led to their horses where they were searched for any remaining weapons, and once everything was stripped from them, they were securely locked into the manacles. Lei kept the keys. The only thing they had left was their cloaks and armor, which would not only help keep them warm but would also be a hassle to sell.
The four of them were made to carry both their water and a coil of rope, before being led into Fools Forest by Justin and the other two crossbowmen who had been hiding in the woods.
This time they took up a far more reasonable formation, even if it was likely by accident. Justin took the rear of the line, while the other two each took a different flank, with one closer to the front than the other. They also kept enough distance that reaching them before they could fire would be unlikely.
Sven led the way, with Li Na and Lauren in the middle and Yaric with a crossbow a couple of meters behind his back. The silent walk lasted almost fifteen minutes.
“Stop here,” Justin ordered.
Everyone stopped where they were. By now they were a fair way in, easily far enough that no one on the road would hear them.
Justin took the ropes and walked around, looking up at the trees as he went. He eventually called them to a spot a few meters to the side and began arranging them under specific branches. The ropes were tossed over those branches and securely fastened, before being fastened to the iron manacles that secured their hands.
Each manacle had a fairly standard design for the cuffs, with keys embedded that only popped out when someone was secured, but the pairs Yaric had chosen were joined by a solid metal bar. None of them were able to bring their hands closer or further away, and worse, the center of the bar featured a large eyelet for attaching a line. This is just what Justin was using the ropes for, tying each of them to a tree with a knot that was just beyond their reach. He’d also carefully selected the trees and their branches, making sure that none of them would be able to reach the others despite how close they were to each other.
“You have your water and your cloaks. It would be best if you listen to Lei and make some noise so you can be found, or soldiers might walk right by there,” he said, pointing off into the trees, “and they would never notice you. Just don’t make any noise before we’re gone, because we’ll come back, and you won’t like that.”
“Are you serious?” one of the others asked. “We can’t leave them here like Lei said. They heard where we’re headed.”
“Says who?” Justin replied. “Lei is obviously going to change the plans now. Telling someone where we’re going might even be in our favor when it’s wrong.”
“And how long will we stay on this road for then? It will take two or three days to get to the first branch. If they get found before then we’ll be run down by real soldiers,” the man complained.
Justin was silent for a moment while he mulled the man’s words. “You really want to do it?”
“Well I think we all should do it, but yeah. We got to protect our own.”
Yaric and the others shared a look between them. It would have been relatively easy to escape soon after everyone had left, at which point they could just chase them down, but now things were taking a turn for the worse.
And not only was the man arguing that they should commit murder, but his silent companion never said a word against the idea. While he never spoke up in favor either, it was clear he was siding against Justin and Lei.
“And what about when his family hears what happened?” Justin asked, gesturing toward Sven.
“What about it? They don’t know us, or what we look like. But they will if we leave these four to talk.”
That seemed to sway Justin, who had a grim look come over his face. “All right then,” he sighed. “Never done this before.”
“It’s easy,” the other man said, drawing looks of surprise from everyone, including his friends. “What? Had a man stealing from my traps, I know you have too.”
“None of us ever killed anyone over it,” Justin countered.
“Stealing my livelihood, he had it coming. Same as these four.”
The three bandits grouped up to talk but Sven beat them to it. “Aren’t you going to listen to your boss? He explicitly ordered that we weren’t to be harmed.”
“Lei isn’t our boss,” Justin replied. “No one is. He’s just good at givin' directions, and he likes it too. But we all make our… you know what? It doesn’t matter. I don’t need to explain to you.”
Turning back to the others, the bandits began talking quickly amongst themselves. There were only three bandits, with four prisoners, which meant one of them would have to kill two prisoners. That was resolved easily, and no one was surprised by the volunteer. Justin did have an interesting concern, however.
“Seems wrong to kill three of them and leave the other to watch,” he complained.
“Why? People don’t usually die all at once.”
“Just seems cruel,” Justin explained.
“So we leave the noble till last. Seems like something a noble should do, watching his people die.”
Justin took a very deep breath. “Fine. Crossbows for the first three, then you use your knife on the noble. Don’t make him wait while you reload.”
“No arguments here. That’s how I did the trap thief anyways.”
Neither of his friends seemed very comfortable with that revelation.
“Layered defensive walls in front of bolts, angled and as close to them as possible,” Yaric called, drawing everyone’s attention. “Opposite numbers, crafter to reinforce all. Hamster focuses on counterattack.”
“What you going on about?” Justin smirked.
“Forget it, shoot now,” the murderer called impatiently, already raising his crossbow to aim at Lauren.
Yaric came just moments from screwing up horribly. Only Lauren seemed to be in danger, so he shifted his attention to the self-confessed murderer, intent on reinforcing Lauren’s shield, just as the silent bandit raised his crossbow to take aim at Yaric.
He dropped his shields in the right place just in time.
A rapid-fire series of thuds and cracks followed, each so close you could barely hear the pause between them. Three bolts flew by their targets, missing entirely but passing close enough for the disturbed air to create a gentle breeze behind the soft whistle. The one targeting Yaric struck Sven’s shield, set perpendicularly since he didn’t know which way his friends would angle their shields, and in Yaric’s case, set slightly off center as he didn’t have a good angle to see clearly.
Now each crossbow was empty, and the severe risk of someone being killed disappeared with the vanishing bolts.
There was another series of cracks when small shards of ice flew from Li Na’s outstretched hands, flying perfectly to strike their target dead center. Or at least, Yaric hoped they struck their intended target, as razor-sharp ice was embedded deeply in Justin’s upper legs.
The other two bandits stood with their mouths open while Yaric used his earth spell, manifesting and firing a single bolt of stone. They froze for only a second, but it was enough. He instinctively copied Li Na with his target, embedding his spike in the silent bandit, who seemed to pause for a moment as if confused, before clutching his leg and transforming into the loud bandit.
Lauren’s two bolts struck the murderer in each leg, while Sven started targeting the dropped crossbows with molten stone.
Li Na, meanwhile, shot off more ice, but these were just large frozen balls that struck each bandit in the midsection, one by one, knocking them off their feet and driving the wind from them. The ice fractured around them on impact, but the injuries were likely to be extensive.
Without a single word to each other, the four of them raised their hands and fired off a windblade each, cutting the ropes that had held them.
“What now?” Lauren asked, raising her manacled hands.
Behind her, the iron bar keeping Sven’s hands apart began to glow red.
“Careful!” Li Na shouted, rushing over.
Sven was already grimacing as the heat traveled closer and closer. The cuffs were far from red hot, but they didn’t need to heat up that much for Sven to start getting burned.
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Li Na held up her hands over Sven’s and closed her eyes, focusing hard. She couldn’t freeze over the edges to counter the heat, since that would hurt Sven just as much as the heat, but she did manage to keep the temperature more bearable.
Twenty seconds later Sven was twisting and stretching the metal that made up the central bar, while Yaric and Lauren watched over the fallen bandits, until his hands suddenly separated with a small snick.
The stubby ends quickly lost their glow under Li Na’s attention.
“Now you two,” Li Na said.
Lauren went next, though her experience was far better than Sven’s. Having Li Na help from the beginning meant she barely felt the heat. The same went for Yaric.
“Which of us is the best with ice?” Lauren asked. Li Na wouldn’t be able to control the spell as well as heat up the bar, and they all felt like the person cuffed should control the melting.
“It’s a pity we can’t freeze or harden it, then we could shatter the bar instead,” Sven mused.
“Huh?” Li Na asked eloquently.
“Doesn’t matter,” Sven said. “If metal is too hard it breaks instead of absorbing an impact. But it doesn’t help.”
Li Na turned and ran awkwardly to the downed bandits, her arms swinging comically with her hands bound rigidly. She leaned down and managed to draw a knife, then ran to the nearest tree.
Yaric flinched when she stabbed the knife into the trunk. He’d instinctively expected the blade to break, but Li Na had augmented it, and the knife sank deep into the wood.
Then she raised her hands and brought the bar down hard.
CLINK!
“That won’t work, Lina,” Sven began, but Li Na just lifted her hands again and brought them down even harder, striking the part of the blade that was as close to the tree as possible.
SNICK!
Li Na stood with her hands separated, the bar broken cleanly through.
“How?” Sven asked, looking dumbfounded.
“You said steel can’t be too hard. Well steel is hard, so I made it harder.”
“But, even then,” Sven stammered, “the knife. It would just dent the blade.”
“You already told me how knives are made,” Li Na smirked, brushing past him. “Hard edge but softer spine. I augmented the knife too.”
Sven followed in silence while they tended to the wounded bandits. The bandits had their cloaks torn up for makeshift bandages, as even relatively small wounds could lead to lots of blood loss.
Justin lay with his arms clenched around his stomach, but the other two received mild concussions when they wouldn’t calm down. One scrambled in a panic, the other fought for freedom.
It didn’t seem too bad at first, but they soon discovered that one of Lauren’s spikes had struck something vital. Blood began pumping out when they removed the last spike.
“Tourniquet,” she called, her calm voice belied the visible panic in her eyes.
Sven tied off the leg while Yaric applied pressure over the wound.
“Do you think you can repair that?” Lauren asked, looking both desperate and hopeful.
“Maybe,” Sven replied, more for Lauren’s sake than anything else. He had barely been able to patch himself up, and he never had a nicked artery. “Let me take that,” he said, replacing Yaric. Sven applied pressure to the wound while trying to cast his new spell.
The other three started moving Justin and the screamer to get them ready to leave, but Lauren kept shifting her attention back to the man she had struck. Yaric had a good idea of how she felt, even if this guy was a murderer. No amount of training or practice, or even clearing of monsters would ever prepare you for taking a life.
Each of the Corporals had stressed multiple times that even soldiers often struggled at first. It was one of the key differences between new recruits and veterans. And just minutes before, Justin himself had struggled with the decision to kill his prisoners.
Their job was to capture the bandits, not play judge, jury, and executioner.
Deep down Yaric knew that they were all likely to end up taking a life at some point, but Lauren clearly wasn’t ready. Yaric dropped Justin where he stood and wrapped his arms around her.
“We need to get him back to the village,” Sven eventually said. He lifted his head from where he crouched over the murderer so he could look Lauren in the eyes. “I don’t think I can do more, but if we get him there quickly, he should make it. I just don’t know how much time we have.”
That started a mad scramble from everyone. Li Na picked Justin up by his belt and started jogging back, Yaric picked up the screamer, while Sven hoisted the murderer over his shoulders. Lauren followed him closely, pressing on the bandaged leg to try and stem the blood flow even further.
Thankfully they weren’t far, but it still took over an hour to get back to the village. The run back was faster than the ride out, just not as fast as it could have been since they were limited in how quickly they could run while carrying injured prisoners.
The murderer was still alive when they ran into the village, looking desperately for any sign of where to go.
Yaric ran up to a small supply store and shouted through the door. “We have a medical emergency, where do we go?”
The shop owner was talking to a friend inside, but the friend replied almost instantly.
“Just down this road, turn left when you see the mill. You’re looking for the butcher.”
Yaric hesitated when he heard who would be helping them, though only for a moment.
‘Of course their local surgeon is also the butcher,’ he mused.
Everyone followed him through the village until he found the butchery. They’d been warned in advance, so no one hesitated to enter.
“We have a deep puncture wound here, it’s hit something that’s making him bleed really badly,” Lauren called out while they were still entering.
The butcher frowned, but he didn’t say a word. They followed him when he strode through a back door.
Yaric had been expecting to see butchered meat hanging on hooks, but it was actually a small room with a table and surgical tools already laid out.
“Place him here,” the butcher said. Sven and Lauren lowered the unconscious and unnaturally pale man onto the table while the butcher glared at everyone else. It was clear that the room was too small for everyone.
“We’ll wait outside,” Li Na said, still carrying Justin by the belt. He was bumped hard into the doorframe when they squeezed their way out. Accidentally.
Yaric and Sven followed, along with the once again silent bandit, but Lauren stayed behind for a few minutes. It was clear from her reluctant and worried expression that she had been kicked out as well.
“Wait here,” Yaric said gently. “We’ll go find someone to watch over these two.”
Lauren stayed behind while Yaric carried the silent bandit and Sven took over carrying Justin. Finding where to go was far easier this time, as even small villages were required to have somewhere to lock up nuisances.
“Anton,” the old man who met them said, introducing himself. “Village elder.”
That drew a smile from almost everyone, as the hunched figure even sounded similar to their friend Anton, despite the vast difference in size.
The more confusing part was how so many different regions had so many different governance systems.
“Novice Sven McDavids,” Sven said, introducing the other two in turn. “We’re still Novices, so we haven’t…”
Sven trailed off when Anton raised his hand for silence. “I know the laws, young man. Or old man. You could be twice my age for all I know.”
That made Sven smile, as Anton already seemed more capable and better informed than many of the people they had dealt with in the past. Sven pulled the paperwork from inside his armor and handed it over to Anton so he could confirm their story.
“Well, the appeal we are answering is about the bandits, so it covers all the towns and villages around here. But these two are part of that gang, and they were caught south of here. Could you keep them locked up for us? There’s another receiving medical attention at your butcher right now, and we need to get after the rest of the bandits. There’s five more, and they’re trying to escape with the things they stole.”
“I’m almost inclined to say let them go, and good riddance, but far be it for me to get in the way of justice. I know that wouldn’t be a permanent solution. Hold them here while I fetch the keys.”
The building was actually the administration building for the village, but it had a heavily reinforced shed attached to the side, with a barred gate. No unconnected would be getting out if they didn’t have proper tools, and even then they would make a lot of noise.
Anton hobbled back and opened the gate for them.
“They’re also going to need medical attention,” Yaric said. “It’s not bad like the other guy, but they will need stitches.”
“They will be seen to today,” Anton promised. “Don’t forget, they are in my care now.”
“Thank you. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
“Hopefully with properly functioning cuffs,” Anton quipped, wheezing loudly.
Yaric and the others glanced down at the metal cuffs still locked around their wrists.
‘I guess this doesn’t look too good.’
“We got lucky with that search in the beginning,” Sven said. The three of them were walking back to check on Lauren.
“What do you mean,” Yaric asked.
“Everything was so wet all the time. When we started tracking these bandits after we arrived here, I took the papers with us in case we needed them. But the forest was always so wet that I was worried about keeping them safe. So I stuck them between my clothes and my armor. The special travel wear I received has a useless pocket on the outside, but it’s waterproof, and so is my armor, so it kept the paperwork safe.”
“And we would have lost the paperwork if you didn’t have it hidden there,” Li Na said, her eyes growing wide. “Imagine if they’d found the appeal!”
“Exactly.”
Lauren was talking to the butcher when they returned.
“… so long as he doesn’t move. I can’t do more than that. He’s safe, and he’d have to pull his stitches for something to go wrong, but what I could do wasn’t enough for him to heal properly. He’s going to need someone better than me in the next few days.”
No one needed to ask what had happened, as they already heard enough to get the gist.
“Let’s go get the rest of them,” Yaric said. “We can stop at a larger town and get their surgeon to come up here.”
“Will they do that though?” Lauren asked. “The stitches will pull if we try to send him there instead.”
“They will if we can get our things back,” Yaric replied, smiling. “I can issue a decree, remember?”
“You can’t use it for that,” Lauren said, pushing his shoulder. Still, she was clearly feeling much better about the situation.
“Sven needs to see someone first,” Li Na said firmly. “He’s bleeding again.”
It was apparent that he’d been bleeding for a while, likely from the start of their run, as the blood soaked his pants all the way down to his boots, hidden by the dust that coated everything damp.
“Let’s have a look,” the butcher said.
Sven looked highly apprehensive, but Li Na stood firm.
It only took five stitches. Even if five stitches weren’t that much, stopping the bleeding would help a lot, and the antiseptic the butcher applied would help prevent infection. Sven rewrapped his own bandage so he could wrap it tightly.
They still had five more criminals to run down. Literally.
Li Na inspected Sven carefully when he returned, though no one had any idea what she was looking for.
“Let’s go get my mace,” she said, turning on her heel and marching back out.
“From now on, we need to carry better medical supplies with us,” Yaric suggested.
“I thought of that long ago,” Lauren admitted. "The problem was we didn’t know how to use any of it.”
“We have a better idea now,” Yaric said.
“What we really need is proper training. And not just with magic. None of us even know how to make proper stitches.”
“I can ask Lloyd,” Yaric said, too late to catch himself. He remembered how Lloyd’s healing skills had been laughed at in Sarton. And he had been the recipient of said healing skills. “Or maybe someone better.”
“Hiawatha,” Li Na said.
“What? The Battle Mage?”
Yaric was just as confused as Lauren.
“Yeah. He’ll be used to dealing with all the kinds of injuries we usually see. Who better than a soldier?”
Li Na did have a point, so they decided to ask Hiawatha about the best way for them to gain the skills they needed, at least for emergencies.
Running at full speed was far faster than riding on horseback, and even faster than when they had run the other way. It took less than thirty minutes to get to the site of the accident. Yaric was still kicking himself for not questioning how experienced merchants had managed to get their wagons so tangled up. Assuming others had made mistakes or were incompetent was always so easy.
‘Although, in this case, they were incompetent. Because they didn’t know how to drive the wagons to begin with.’
They pressed on for another twenty minutes before slowing. With at least one more merchant roped into their little caravan, Yaric and the others would need to be extra careful. Caution was warranted even without the threat of hostages, as they were heading toward five well-armed, highly experienced hunters, but hostages put other people at risk. People without armor or magic at their disposal.
The bandits had made good time, as it took over an hour of running while cautiously peering around corners for them to finally catch up.
They had eight wagons.
Shadow, Yaric’s horse, was tethered to the rear of a wagon, while also being hitched to a driverless wagon as well. The same scenario was repeated three times, with only two wagons being pulled individually.
“It’s too dangerous to head straight at them on an open road. They’ll see us almost immediately, and we’ll have absolutely no cover,” Yaric said, assessing the situation.
“Should we go through the forest and get ahead of them?” Lauren asked.
“I’m not sure we would be fast enough,” Yaric admitted.
“Then what?”
“Right now I’m leaning toward following them until they stop for the night. Then we got through the forest.”
“It sounds like the best option to me,” Sven said.
“Poor horses have to wait to be rescued. And my mace!”
There wasn’t much more to discuss. The decision was effectively made, so they simply followed while being careful to keep their distance. Yaric felt certain that there would be someone left behind to make sure they weren’t being followed, just as they had done when they tracked them through the forest on the first night, but no one ever showed themselves, and there was never any sign that the bandits knew of their presence.
“They’re already trying to pull eight teams with just five men,” Lauren pointed out. “They have their hands full.”
“I bet they think the three we took out are covering their rear,” Li Na added.
Yaric felt a little better about their exposure on the open road, but he still didn’t like using bends in the road as their only cover.
Evening came and went, and yet the bandits still kept moving forward. It wasn’t until the sun had fully set that they finally pulled over to the side of the road to make camp, with full night less than an hour away.
Yaric and the others headed into the forest, running at first, but slowing as they drew closer. Lauren led them to a spot less than twenty meters further on past the campsite.
“Nothing defensive,” Sven said quietly. “They’ve just lined up the wagons like they’re still on the road, and they’re making their fires on the other side.”
“Probably scared they’ll get tangled again,” Li Na whispered. She’d been very angry when she saw how the horses still had their saddles on.
“Okay, eight wagons, but they’re all behind the third from the front, overlapping slightly with the fourth. Those wagons are going to make things difficult, but they won’t know how fast we can be.”
“The wagons make things difficult?” Lauren asked. “I was thinking they help us. None of them will see us coming until we get right up to the wagons.”
“I think they will. They’re all seated on the ground, so they’re going to naturally be looking underneath, whereas our vision is blocked, so we won’t know where everyone is until we get inside their camp.”
“Should one of us go down the road and cross over to have a look at their camp? It’s almost dark enough that we can, and they’ll be in the firelight.”
“No,” Yaric said. “We won’t be able to tell where it is in relation to the wagons. And going in when it’s too dark will be more dangerous. We have magic, but we need to be able to see where they are and who’s a threat. I don’t want any of us catching an unseen crossbow bolt.”
“We have to go in now then,” Sven said, looking up at the sky. It was already starting to turn red.
“Alright, we go in fast. They aren’t cooking with their weapons in their hands, so hit them before they can arm themselves. Ready your spells now, then two seconds to cross the road.”
In less than five seconds everyone was nodding to indicate they were ready.
“On three,” Yaric whispered. “One, two, three.”
All four burst from the trees and tore out across the road. Apparently they weren’t so unprepared, as one bandit reacted to the noise by hopping up onto the wagon they were running toward, his crossbow already in hand.
The hunter might have been left on guard, but he wasn’t prepared for the tiny blonde bolt that surged ahead, her skills with augmenting making her far faster off the mark.
Li Na didn’t even bother to engage him directly, not with his crossbow being pulled across to aim at her friends.
CRACK!
Wood splintered as Li Na smashed into the side of the wagon, sliding it back half a meter from the sheer force of the impact. Enhancing her mass before impact devastated the wagon, but most importantly, it also shifted it back, pulling the crossbowman’s feet out from under him and sending him tumbling forward. He fell with his crossbow under his body and his head and shoulders projecting over the wagon, only for his descending face to meet Li Na’s ascending fist.
Sven changed his angle slightly to run through the recently created gap between the wagons, while Yaric and Lauren both hopped up and lifted their feet to skim just over the top of the wagon.
Lauren hammered the bandit on the other side of the campfire with a blast of wind, catching him in the process of standing up and sending him straight onto his back in a cloud of embers.
Yaric did the same, but he used fire from the outset, sending a stream of flames at the wounded man he had shot previously.
Sven came in while the last bandit was trying to pick up another crossbow. He stomped hard on the weapon, shattering the stock and snapping the bolt. The same leg was swiftly raised to bring his knee into the man’s face.
Yaric held up his hand, holding a ball of flames for everyone to see. “Where’s your boss? Where’s Lei?”
“Gone ahead,” Carl groaned. Yaric’s flames had been so brief he had barely singed the man’s clothes, but he had tried to dive out of the way and managed to land on his shoulder in the attempt. “You messed with our plans; he needs to make new ones. Didn’t know you were wizards.”
Yaric glanced at the others.
“We can deal with that later,” Sven said.
Li Na came around the wagon, dragging the guy she had knocked out.
“Lina, find the bags with those manacles, then restrain them. And the keys for these, if you can,” Yaric added, glancing at his wrists.
“Sure.”
Yaric turned back to Carl. “What plans changed.”
“Routes, destination, transport, everything. He didn’t want to risk any of you telling others where we were headed. Didn’t think you fell for his bluff. And he was the one who told you about where we were headed, it’s his mistake to fix. The dumbass.”
“Uhhh… guys?” Li Na shouted.
“Did you find them?”
“About that.” Li Na walked up to the fire and dumped the bags on the ground, then started tipping them out as she spoke. “They were right on top, but some are missing.”
One bag was empty, and the other had two. As there were three per bag, that accounted for the four still attached to their wrists. The third bag had all three, but the fourth was empty as well.
“Three missing,” Lauren said, looking at the wagons. “And they’ve gained three extra wagons filled with trade goods.”
“Smart girl,” Carl chuckled darkly, still breathing deeply to mask the pain in his shoulder. “That’s three poor merchants, tied up in the forest, alone. Let us go, and we’ll leave a message for you on where to find them. Don’t, and, well, good luck. Who knows how far into Fools Forest they are? Not even wizards could be certain they’d be found in time.”
“You’d all be charged with murder,” Yaric explained.
“We didn’t murder nobody. Last I saw, they were all fit and healthy.”
“Cuffing them to a tree and leaving them to die is still murder.”
“Who did that?” Carl taunted. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. But let us go, and I just might remember something.”
“Remember what?” Yaric asked. “Only one or two of you would have taken them inside, the rest would have stayed with these wagons. And you’re in no condition to be restraining people in there,” Yaric added, gesturing over his shoulder at the dark tree line behind him. “That means you have no useful information.”
“Oh? Who do you think is in charge while Lei is gone?” Carl snickered. “What will people say when they find out you let those people die just so you could catch us? What will their families say?”
The missing people files Yaric had once poured over flashed through his mind. The teenager who’d gone out to celebrate with friends after finishing school. The new mother who went out for water and never came back. The man who’d moved to the other end of the city so his wife could live near her new job, despite his workplace remaining the same. All of them taken by an undead monster.
But that was a monster that needed to feed. This was how it survived.
And this man was worse.
Yaric was about to step forward, but he was too late. Of all the them, Sven was the last person Yaric expected to drag Carl to his feet by his injured arm.
“Where are they?” Sven demanded. “It’s already getting dark.”
“I’m not feeling open to talking when- Argh!”
Sven grabbed three of Carl’s fingers on his good hand and dislocated them with a crack. In truth, the injury wasn’t bad, but the visceral sound of his fingers popping out of their joints, and the disturbing angle they stood out at made everyone feel very uncomfortable.
Yaric was about to step forward and stop Sven when he noticed how Sven was holding up Carl’s hand. He wasn’t attempting to torture Carl. Torture didn’t get the truth, it simply got you whatever the victim thought he had to say to make the torture stop. Instead, Sven was showing everyone else what had happened, and it looked truly horrible, despite the relatively light injury. Yaric had dislocated his fingers several times while sparring.
“You’re going to tell me, but how many unbroken bones will you have left when you do?” Sven asked menacingly, his voice entirely foreign to everyone who knew him. He rolled Carl’s hand over so it was palm down, then raised his fist over it.
“I can’t! I don’t know! I wasn’t the one who tied them up, it was Bjørn and Lewis!”
Sven turned to look at the three men Lauren was watching over. Two of them were very pale and trying to crawl backward, even though Lauren had already tied them up and was just finishing up with the only one who wasn’t implicated.
Just taking a single step forward with flames dancing around his hands was enough for them. “We’ll show you! We’ll show you; I swear!”
Sven turned back to where he’d dropped Carl and dragged him to his feet once again.
“They’re going to help you, they will! Murder isn’t – Argh!”
This time Sven gripped the same finger and pushed them back into place with a pop.
“They’ll be swollen for a couple of days, but it’s just bruising,” Sven said. He lowered Carl back to the ground and turned to wink at Yaric. “That’s one injury I do know how to deal with.”
Yaric let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Uhhh… Li Na, can you keep watch quickly? Just in case. The rest of us will sort these guys out and start going through our stuff.”
Li Na hopped up onto the wagon she’d previously tried to tackle and started looking up and down the road.
Meanwhile, Lauren finished securing the last prisoner and stood up. “Done,” she said, wiping her hands across her pants to make her point and smiling at him, then she turned to ensure their prisoners weren’t too close to the fire.
Behind him, the sound of gravel scraping between the ground and what might have been boots made Yaric stiffen. His head snapped around, just in time to see the stirrup of a crossbow slide out from under a wagon and into the firelight. Ice went down his spine as he realized where it pointed.
Lei was too far away. There was no time. Not for shouting, not for spells, not even to think.
Yaric lunged desperately, his foot digging into the ground as he fell back onto the basic component he’d spent so many years using as an augmentation spell. It was all he had time to do.
Three steps were all he needed to take, but the space felt like an impassable chasm in the second it took to cross the distance. Yaric twisted on his last step, turning his body to face Lei and provide the widest obstacle he could. His back clipped Lauren, taking her by surprise and knocking her off balance, though thankfully without pushing her back into sight.
And still, he barely made it.
The bolt hit with a hollow thud, tearing through his armor and deep into his side. It struck from the front, but so far to his right that it almost missed him entirely, penetrating above his liver and passing all the way through, only to be stopped by his armor on the other side.
Searing pain came an instant behind the impact, but Yaric was already falling.
He hit the ground hard, driving any breath he still had from his lungs.
Lauren’s startled question was cut off by Li Na’s scream, followed almost immediately by the sound of splintering wood. Yaric tried to roll off the side with the bolt protruding from both ends, but Lauren was already kneeling behind his head and lifting his shoulders up.
Another series of cracks rang out as streaks of molten rock flew overhead and into the dark abyss below the wagon sheltering Lei, just before Li Na came down from her arcing jump, her augmented body smashing into the wagon with enough force that the axles broke, dropping the body most of the way to the ground.
Lauren dragged Yaric back past the prisoners and knelt over him. “Wha… Why?”
Orange and yellow light danced across the thick film over Lauren’s eyes while she pressed her hands around the bolt.
“I didn’t have time for anything else,” Yaric groaned hoarsely. He tasted blood.
‘Maybe it isn’t clean through.’
Two successive explosions detonated where Lei hid. With no way to tell if the danger had passed, Sven and Li Na kept pummeling the wagon, intent on dismantling it entirely.
“But… why… now it’s you…” Lauren stammered, completely at a loss for words.
Yaric was confused. “He was going to shoot you?” he said, his confusion making it sound more like a question.
Lauren’s eyes flicked rapidly between Yaric’s eyes and the bolt just below his chest. She kept opening her mouth to speak while tears started dropping on Yaric’s chest, but she clearly didn’t know what to say.
Instead, she leaned even further forward. Her hair dropped over her shoulders and fell over Yaric, draping them in instant darkness. Hot tears landed on Yaric's face. Then Yaric felt warm lips press against his.