Firelight flickered across Yaric’s face when Lauren raised her head once again, still surrounded by a black curtain that shrouded her in darkness. Yaric couldn’t see her eyes in the brief moment before she turned back to the fletching protruding from his side, but he knew where she was looking.
The explosions behind her had stopped though. Li Na was flipping barrels and sacks over the splintered and charred remains of the wagon while Sven stood ready with a spear. The search for Lei was slow and cautious, as neither of them wanted to lift a piece of the wagon up and come face-to-face with a raised crossbow.
Both had shields precast just in case.
“Got you!”
Li Na pulled Lei out triumphantly, hauling him from the wreckage by his collar. He’d been struck by several shards of stone, but the angle they’d penetrated at meant the falling wagon had pushed down on the ends like a lever, ripping them out of his rear. His right arm was badly burned, and the wagon appeared to have dropped far enough to crack several of Lei’s ribs.
Seeing he was no longer a threat; Li Na dropped him dismissively and ran over to where Yaric lay.
“Is he alright?”
“He’ll be fine,” Lauren replied shakily.
“I’m right here,” Yaric groaned. “And I’m fine, I just need to see a healer.”
Li Na had paled when she saw the bolt sticking out of his side, but she still nodded consolingly without saying a word.
Sven came up behind her a moment later. “What do we need?”
“A wagon,” Lauren immediately said. “We need to get him to the next town. It’s much bigger than the village we came from.
“Alright. We also need to fetch the people they robbed. Everyone is tied up in Fools Forest.”
“What about these idiots?” Li Na asked, tearing her eyes away from the bolt.
Sven paused for a moment to think, panning his eyes over everyone and everything as he did.
“Help me clear a wagon for Lauren so she can take Yaric down to the town. It won’t be any faster if we go with her. Then I need your help to turn another wagon around. I’ll take Bjørn or Lewis back the way we came so he can show me where they were tied up, and I’ll bring them back with me. Before I go, we can get the rest of these people secured inside another wagon, so Li Na can follow Lauren.”
“How will you turn around again to come back after you rescue those merchants?” Li Na asked. “And how will you get their cuffs off without burning them? Did you find the keys?”
“No keys, I think they tossed them. They’ll have to stay on for now, but they can still help me turn the wagon around. Those people will be more experienced than any of us.”
“Li Na will have to guard seven of these men while steering the wagon,” Lauren pointed out.
“Yes,” Sven said.
“Yes,” Li Na repeated, glaring viciously at the huddled bandits. One of them used his feet to slide slightly further back. “Let’s get started.”
Sven and Li Na had the wagon in front pulled further forward to make room, then they started throwing everything out the rear. Li Na pulled several rolls of material to one side.
“What’s that for?” Sven asked.
“Yaric. So he can lie on something.”
They were halfway done when Li Na had to jump down and calm the horses that pulled the wagon. The shouting and explosions were over, but they were still a bit spooked from the earlier noise, and now they had been moved further from the others and out into the dark road.
“Sorry girl,” Li Na crooned softly. “You need to go without rest for a little longer. But you’re almost there.”
Sven finished emptying everything out and placed the flattened rolls of cloth into a row to form a crude bed.
Getting Yaric inside was an entirely different story.
“I can walk,” he insisted. The discussions on how best to carry him were sounding worse and worse. “I just need help to stand.”
Sven hooked his arms under Yaric’s and lifted, walking backward as he did to keep Yaric’s body straight. It hurt, a lot, but it was the best they could do, and once Yaric was up he was able to slowly walk to the wagon they had prepared, with Lauren helping along the way.
Climbing up was a whole other ordeal, requiring Sven to get in first and once again lift Yaric from under the arms, until he could get his feet on the boards while still standing straight. Lauren helped him lie back down and briefly fussed with the cloth to make sure he would be comfortable. Then she kissed him again.
“Finally,” Li Na grumbled playfully, sounding almost cheerful for the first time.
“Shut up,” Lauren and Yaric replied simultaneously, earning a snort from Li Na. Not much else was said, however, as Yaric still needed medical attention, and no one was in the mood for joking.
Sven helped Lauren get herself set up in front while Li Na watched the prisoners, and then Lauren moved off, her lighting stone in hand. Steering the wagon was more difficult than she had expected, but there weren’t any serious concerns outside of slowing down far earlier than it seemed she would need to.
A second wagon was emptied and turned around, followed by a third that would follow Lauren. Each of the prisoners was cuffed and securely tied to the other, with one long piece of rope being threaded through the eyelet of each cuff before each end was tied to the front of the wagon. Sven also threaded the middle of the rope through a fitting at the rear, which combined with the knots he tied partway down each side to confine the prisoners to the rear section. It would be impossible for them to reach Li Na.
Sven watched her leave, then climbed up to where Lewis was waiting.
“Show me,” ordered, his tone leaving no room for argument.
They had to move slowly due to the darkness. Not due to navigating the road, but because Lewis was uncertain of his ability to find the correct location in the light and shadows cast by the lighting stone. Even Sven was forced to admit that it did make everything look very different compared to what he had seen during the day.
Still, Lewis did manage to find the location, and he led Sven through the trees with unerring accuracy.
The shivering merchants saw them first, or rather, they saw the light moving through the trees.
“Help! Over here!”
“Help us!”
All three were securely fastened with manacles, though they had ropes tied to the trunks of the trees instead of over branches. Sven burnt through each rope by holding a fireball over them, causing the merchants to fall silent.
“You’re a wizard?”
“Just a Novice,” Sven replied. “We don’t have the keys for those,” he added, “but if you’ll follow me, we have a wagon that will take us to the town south of here.”
“He’s one of them,” a merchant said, jabbing a finger menacingly toward Lewis. It didn’t come off as intimidating as intended as his hands were still securely fastened together.
“I know, he’s a prisoner. Along with all the others. We just needed him to show us where to find you three.”
That got a more jubilant reaction, as all three of them began asking after their belongings.
“Some items were recovered,” Sven admitted. “But we’ll sort that out in the morning.
Nothing Sven said changed the mood amongst the merchants. They had been tied to trees for hours, alone in the dark in the freezing winter. Their rescue obviously lifted their spirits, and knowing that the perpetrators had been caught brought grins promising revenge, but finding out that their livelihoods could still be intact almost started a celebration.
It was a strange sight, standing in a dark forest that loomed like a pitch-black cavern around them, with pure white light from Sven’s lighting stone providing the only illumination. The almost colorless faces with their long, dark shadows seemed menacing despite the manacles on the merchants’ wrists, while Lewis seemed withdrawn and afraid.
Walking back to the road did much to dampen the excitement, however, as the cold wet underbrush left everyone soaked and feeling numb with cold by the time they broke through the last of the trees.
Everyone worked together to turn the wagon around, and one of the merchants even insisted on taking over the steering, allowing Sven to sit back and watch how it was done.
That all changed when his lighting stone cast its light over the bandit’s campsite.
“That one’s mine!” someone shouted.
Two of them jumped off while the wagon was still moving, and the driver immediately began slowing down to stop beside their belongings.
“Get back on!” Sven ordered angrily.
“But these are -.”
“People got hurt rescuing your things! We’re not wasting time while you look things over. We’re going back – now!”
A brief argument broke out over abandoning their belongings on the side of the road. The two who’d jumped off the wagon both insisted that they would stay behind to watch over everything.
“It’s false bravado,” the driver explained. “You’ve caught the bandits, so they know they should be safe. They just don’t want to leave their things behind for any passing traveler to pick through. I’m inclined to do the same myself.”
“But you’re not going to?” Sven asked.
“Like you said, people got hurt. I’ll take you back to your colleagues before coming back. It’s faster that way.”
“Thank you,” Sven said earnestly, before begrudgingly helping the other two merchants pull spears out from under the mess they’d made. They wanted crossbows loaded as well, but Sven quickly and easily demonstrated how impossible it would be to fire one while cuffed as they were. They weren’t even able to lift the front end up. Spears alone were almost impossible to use, and Sven would have laughed if he wasn’t under so much pressure to get moving.
“I need you two to understand something before I leave you here,” Sven said. He was in a rush, but he didn’t want any additional crimes being committed because he’d allowed them to stay behind unsupervised.
“Some of this stuff is yours, but most of it isn’t. People will be coming along tomorrow to go through everything. If either of you see fit to add a little extra to your own belongings, you’ll be charged with theft as well. This is not an opportunity for you to rob others like you yourselves we robbed.”
Both merchants looked affronted, but Sven could tell when someone was putting on an act. It didn’t seem like they were intending to steal anything, just that they were more indignant than they had any right to be over a simple warning.
Markus, the driver, just chuckled, knowing all too well how important it was to appear honest in their line of work. Sven quickly got a fire started for them, pulled out a blanket for Markus, and then they were off, racing down the tunnel of light.
----------------------------------------
Li Na managed to make it twenty minutes before someone tried something. That someone being everyone besides their leader Lei, who was too injured to take part.
“Now!” Carl hissed, and the tailgate slammed back under the force of four men trying to rip out the iron fixture securing the rope.
Li Na started slowing down, then turned her light over the bandits still yanking on the rope. Her light flared brightly for a moment as she stood up.
An incendiary fireball was tossed over the side, bringing a sigh of relief to her lips. Holding that spell ready for so long had begun to get fatiguing.
‘Huh, a new training method for Yaric.’
The bandits stopped yanking on the rope when flames exploded over the road, bathing them in flickering light. Li Na started casting a second spell.
“Oh no, bandits are escaping,” Li Na said quietly in a dramatic voice, her mace back in her hand after she’d retrieved it at the campsite.
Li Na walked between the two rows, swinging her mace left and right to drive the wind from their lungs.
“Do you idiots think this is a game?” she asked, looking up and down the rows. Carl received a kick to his injured shoulder. “If there’s any risk of you escaping, I will break your kneecaps, understand?” Li Na pointed her mace at each bandit in turn. “My friend was almost killed by you lot, just because we showed mercy. Because we were asked to try and take you all alive. Oh, were you under the impression that we were using powerful spells against you?”
Li Na pocketed her lighting stone, plunging them all into darkness. It only lasted for a brief instant.
CRACK!
Lightning erupted from the small wagon, bringing everything around them into stark relief as a small sapling shattered and caught alight, its burning splinters spraying everywhere.
Soft white light bathed them once again.
“You lied to us and got Yaric shot after we held back so you could live,” Li Na said, kicking Carl a second time. “If anyone tries to escape again, I’ll be delivering your charred corpses instead, is that clear?”
No one moved a muscle, so Li Na channeled her inner Jolene and took a step forward. That single step was all it took.
“Yes!”
“Y… yes.”
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“We won’t!”
“Sorry!”
“Yes!”
Li Na walked backward until she got to the front, then turned and took her seat, reins in hand.
‘Thanks, Mom.’
----------------------------------------
Lauren rushed down the road, glancing over her shoulder whenever she could. Yaric had his own lighting stone lit up, but the beam it cast shifted all over the place, and it was always pointing behind them, leaving his upper body as nothing but a silhouette.
She was traveling as fast as she dared, so nothing she saw was likely to change anything, but Lauren would have felt much better if she knew he was okay. There was no doubt that he’d begun bleeding more after they had moved him.
Luckily the horses had become used to traveling by lighting stone, and they were more or less navigating by themselves. They kept near the center with almost no instruction, even if Lauren still had to slow them down for tighter corners. Most of the road was relatively straight though, so she mostly kept urging them to keep the pace.
Yaric did try and talk a few times, asking the odd question or checking in on her, but Lauren could hear the pain in his voice when he tried to speak, and he didn’t make too many attempts.
It was a relief when distant lights began to twinkle off to the side, and Lauren’s light revealed a gentle curve in the road that would take them right alongside. This particular road around Fools Forest didn’t actually travel through any towns or villages, but went alongside them, leaving the road clear and unobstructed from one end to the other.
Thankfully there was no gate, so Lauren could turn right into the town’s main road.
It wasn’t all that late, but it was cold, leaving the streets far quieter than they should have been. That made getting the wagon down the road much easier than expected, but it also made it very difficult to ask for assistance.
Six men dressed as laborers turned the corner up ahead, each holding a long halberd and with two lanterns between them. They appeared to be functioning as a sort of city guard, though made up of militia instead of professionals.
“Hey!” Lauren called, waving to get their attention. She struggled to come to a stop in time, with the wagon going halfway passed before she did.
“Where you out on the road at this time of night?” one of the men asked incredulously.
“My friend, he’s been shot,” Lauren said, pointing into the back of the wagon. “We need a healer or a surgeon.”
“That’s a bolt! Did you run into the bandits? Dudley, call the guards, the bandits are nearby!”
“No,” Lauren said impatiently. “They’ve been captured, they’re on their way in chains. My friend needs help, now!”
“Call the guards like I said, either way they need to know. And Ostap, you show the way to the surgeon. Make sure he’s up and has everything he needs before you leave. The rest of you come with me, we’re going to wait by the road. Keep your weapons ready.”
Lauren wasn’t sure what they thought they were going to do with halberds, since they were defending the town against a group known to favor crossbows, but she didn’t say anything. A young man, or boy really, hopped up into the wagon, his halberd raised awkwardly over their heads. He used his free hand to point straight ahead, so Lauren got them moving while Ostap worked out how to stow his weapon.
It took him several seconds, but Lauren knew when he was done as he held out his hand in front of her. “Ma’am? I have experience driving wagons and carriages, it would be quicker if I take over.”
Lauren handed Ostap the reins and moved to the side, her attention already shifting from the front of the wagon to the rear. Yaric was still breathing and still awake, though he hadn’t spoken for quite some time.
Fortunately they didn’t have far to go, with Ostap dropping the reins in her lap and bounding up some stairs to knock on a door.
The man who answered was entirely unlike the butcher who had worked on Sven. An older gentleman with greying hair and a ramrod-straight posture, he perfectly matched the expectations of a surgeon Lauren had held since she was very young.
“Where is he?” the surgeon asked loudly after Ostap’s hushed explanation.
Ostap led him to the wagon while Lauren turned her lighting stone on Yaric.
He was looking very pale.
“We need to get him inside, quickly.
The surgeon disappeared up the stairs for a moment, came back out, and then unlocked a nearby door that sat at street level. It only took a minute for him to light some lanterns inside and return with a long board.
“Help me get him on this,” he instructed.
Lauren placed the board beside Yaric on the bed of the wagon and then helped him to slide off his makeshift mattress. Dark stains shimmered on the rolls of cloth under that sat in the pale light of a lantern.
Ostap slid the board out and the surgeon took the other end, leading them into the doorway he had recently unlocked. Lauren followed closely behind.
“Mr Alger will take things from here,” Ostap said without looking anyone in the eyes. He hurried outside, closing the door behind him.
“That light you had, is it magic,” Alger asked, almost the moment the door closed.
“We’re arcanists,” Lauren replied, her voice hesitant. Her eyes were glued to Yaric and Alger’s inspection of the bolt.
“Good, bring that here. You’re in for a long night, but I’m confident he can be patched up well enough to travel in a couple of weeks. I know you people have magical healers on hand, all he really needs is to be comfortable enough and to safely get to wherever you’re going. Your mages and wizards will undo my work and put him back together like nothing ever happened.”
“It’s not that bad,” Yaric wheezed. He was looking directly at Lauren when he spoke.
“Not that bad, huh? How about you let a professional decide that?”
“But it didn’t hit anything,” Yaric protested.
“Really? Looks to me like it hit you,” Alger chuckled while he washed his hands.
“I mean it didn’t hit anything vital.”
“Perhaps you’ve read too many stories, huh? Of people getting arrows pulled out to save their lives, even though the hole that would kill them is still there? You should be aware that there isn’t actually any place in your torso that doesn’t hold something vital. Some places might be a bigger problem almost immediately, but every place is vital. And even if a bolt somehow misses every organ, what makes you think a bolt through your body is ever ‘not that bad’? We need to get this removed so we can patch you up, and it’s not going to be pleasant. I encourage you to keep talking though.”
True to his word, Alger worked throughout the night. It was long, and it wasn’t pleasant, but he managed to remove the bolt without causing much damage.
Li Na arrived while they were still working on the bolt. Both militia and guards had met her on the main road, where they immediately took the prisoners off her hands. The leader, Lei, was on his way to see someone as well, though it wouldn’t be Alger. Ostap led her to the surgeon and ushered her inside, where she was immediately pulled in to assist under Alger’s direction, just like Lauren.
Unlike Lauren, Li Na kept shaking whenever she had to do anything, and she constantly had to wipe tears from her eyes, so she was given the job of holding up her lighting stone to allow Lauren to give more attention to assisting the surgeon. Stress always had the effect of increasing Lauren’s focus, but she still found herself looking up at Yaric’s face from time to time.
Sven’s arrival just an hour later increased the efficiency dramatically. He’d been far behind Li Na, but he’d also had a very experienced driver on the way back, and he’d made up a lot of time. A second light and another set of helping hands made a noticeable difference to the operation, though Yaric felt like Sven’s calm and robotic obedience went a long way, which he was in the perfect position to observe as he lay on a table with everyone around him.
The benefits of the lighting stones couldn’t be understated either. Yaric was almost concerned when he realized that in any other situation, they would only have the lanterns for light. Almost, because while the bolt was removed, Alger was currently cleaning out parts of the injury so he could continue with some stitches deep inside. It was hard to hold much concern for anything else at that moment.
It was late when they finally finished, and Yaric fell asleep very soon after to everyone’s shock.
“Don’t be surprised,” Alger said gently. “He just went through a lot, and that numbing agent could only do so much. I’ve never had a patient lie so still and so quietly while I operated before. That was originally why I asked for your help, by the way. To hold him down.”
Lauren wasn’t surprised at all. Yaric had already told her some of the things he’d been through at Virgo’s hands, and he’d somehow adapted. A little digging around in his side was like a mild punishment compared to some of the things he’d been through when he was younger.
“If I could ask for one more favor,” the surgeon began. “I already had a full day before you four arrived, and I need to get some sleep. I’m sure your friend is going to be fine, but he should have someone watching over him tonight just in case something unexpected comes up. If someone coul -.”
“I’ll do it,” Lauren said softly, already turning to Yaric before anyone could reply.
“We’ll come by in the morning,” Li Na whispered.
Alger turned and began digging through a cupboard while they discussed things amongst themselves.
“We’ll come later though,” Sven added. “We have to report to whoever is in charge here, it’s not really optional. And we should go back to the campsite and collect the rest of our things. I’m sure Yaric would appreciate a change of clothes.”
“Yeah.”
Lauren just shrugged in reply while the surgeon laid two separate blankets over Yaric. “We’ll be here whenever you can make it.”
“I’m afraid I don’t have any beds here; this room was set up for emergencies like this. It’s not my regular operating room. Your friend is going to have to sleep where he is.”
Lauren nodded mutely without looking up.
“We’ll be back soon,” Li Na promised.
Li Na, Sven, and Alger left soon after, while Lauren sat beside Yaric and held his hand.
The surgery had been long and hard, but the quiet hours sitting beside him were no easier, though Lauren did relax a bit while listening to his rhythmic breathing. The only other thing in the room was Yaric’s cuirass, lying bloody and discarded where it had been thrown into the corner. The hole was plainly visible where it lay, but Lauren mostly worried about whether or not it could be repaired.
‘That was his favorite part. He loves that attachment on the back that holds his bow.’
----------------------------------------
Sven got up early despite how tired he felt. He’d already found out that the town had a mayor, and the sun had barely risen before he tried to set out to find him. Li Na had to hold him back while pointing out that the mayor himself wouldn’t actually be working yet before Sven relented and sat for breakfast.
They’d stopped at the first inn that would take them, and unfortunately it only served stew for breakfast. The food wasn’t bad, but they didn’t have any option for something they could take for Lauren.
That led to an early morning expedition through the town, looking for food they could bring back for her. Li Na hit the jackpot when she found a bakery that made actual breakfast rolls that were filled with an assortment of cheese, eggs, and meat. They bought the basket option, and then found both coffee and a light ale to go with it.
Lauren looked terrible, but she still smiled when they came in. Breakfast was a quiet affair, as there wasn’t much to say, and Yaric was still asleep. Lauren did look far better after she’d eaten, however.
“We’ve got to go again, but we’ll be back with all our things,” Sven said, judging it late enough for the mayor have started working.
Finding her took less than fifteen minutes, and briefing her was even easier. Her guards and militia had woken her up to report the capture, so she already knew much of what had happened. She was overjoyed to hear that most of the bandits were being held in her town, and that her guards would be leading the recovery efforts to bring back the stolen goods to ensure they went to the rightful owners.
“I knew our efforts would pay off,” she proudly declared.
“You realize we caught them and delivered them to you?” Li Na asked, sounding skeptical.
“Yes, and now we hold the bandits that have been terrorizing our trade routes. They’ll be tried and sentenced here. No one else managed to stop a single robbery.”
“Neither did you,” Li Na said, trying again, but the mayor only got annoyed and rushed to end the briefing. Something Li Na counted that as a major win.
Getting their things back was a whole other story. They had arrived in three different wagons, all of them horse-drawn, but the wagons had been taken off their hands after their arrival. No one had bothered much at the time, as city guards took two of them, and Markus took his back to the campsite, but now neither Sven nor Li Na knew where to look for the remaining two, or even who to ask.
Sven insisted on running in the end, pointing out that they would be riding back with their own horses, and he eventually won the argument, despite Li Na’s objections that he shouldn’t be running anywhere.
The three merchants had been hard at work even though they were still cuffed. Each had their personal wagon pulled aside and mostly packed, with their goods helpfully separated from the rest by packing their products neatly in their wagons while discarding everything else into one big pile.
Most robberies had been conducted by holding up caravans and carrying away choice items, so the volume per hold-up was never very large in comparison to the three entire wagons the bandits had taken off these three merchants. That left them with a significant percentage of the goods packed into their three wagons.
It also left Sven and Li Na with a significant percentage of their belongings under a pile of bags, chests, and barrels.
Not all of them though.
“Where do you think you’re going with all that?” Li Na asked, her voice as icy as the brittle breeze currently blowing from behind her.
“Where do you think? To market. This is our stuff, and we have a business to run.”
“No, I mean with all that,” Li Na said, pointing to the seat beside the merchant.
“Oh, these?” The foolish merchant had a wide grin on his face as he held up a sword and shield. “Figured those criminals won’t need these anymore, and we’re less likely to be robbed if we’re better armed.”
“Only problem is that’s my shield, and that’s Lauren’s sword,” Li Na replied. “Get off. Now.”
“I didn’t know you left weapons here. I’ll just switch them out,” the merchants said, looking flustered.
“And that’s Yaric’s bow,” Sven added, pointing to the other merchant who had insisted on staying behind.
Li Na held her head in her hands and took a deep breath. “He’s got Shadow too. Yaric’s horse.”
“We thought these things belonged to the bandits; they’re all used. And the horses had saddles,” the first merchant stammered.
“Don’t care. I said get off, now. Or are you disobeying a lawful order issued by the responsible party, appointed by Lekton Academy to investigate these crimes?” she asked, her voice dangerously cheerful.
Sven was taken aback by her almost rote repetition of a story Zahia had once told them about.
The merchants weren’t that foolish, and they quickly dismounted while grumbling about how the victims were having their own property confiscated.
“We’re not taking any of your things,” Sven explained. “All of this will stay here and be cataloged, and you will get what you originally had. And no more.”
Li Na took back their belongings and began unhitching Shadow from the second wagon while Sven started sorting through the pile. Getting everything together took much longer than they had expected, and included searching one of the merchants to find Lauren’s bow, but they finally had all their belongings together, their horses saddled, and their bags packed.
Then they began unhitching the other horses and mules as well.
“What are you doing, that’s mine!”
“We’re taking all the horses and mules with us,” Sven replied. “The city is sending people to retrieve all of this, and they’ll bring these animals with them. Until then they’re coming with us to be fed and groomed.”
“Yeah, and no cart goes anywhere until they get here.”
Sven and Li Na led a long train of animals back into town, helped along by members of the now disbanded militia. They were led to stables belonging to the town, which usually housed a few horses for patrols or urgent messages, but now housed two familiar wagons. And over a dozen mules and horses.
The next few days were long and boring. Their job was done, and the town took over dealing with the stolen goods and their disgruntled owners. Sven and Li Na moved to a better inn that was also closer to Yaric, with a room for Lauren as well, and they all took turns staying with him over the first three days. Yaric slept much of the time.
Luck was on their side, however, as a Mage came through the town on the sixth day, and he had some experience with healing from when he was an Apprentice. It wasn’t nearly enough to fully heal Yaric’s injuries, but it was enough to enable him to travel. In less than an hour Yaric went from bedridden to riding fit. Or at least, riding able.
They did have to take it slowly, but Yaric and the others finally left on the eighth day, winding their way down the road alongside a forest that they each hoped to never see again.
"I hope no one starts apologizing this time," Sven said. "We kind of go through that any time something goes wrong."
He'd barely finished speaking when Li Na broke into tears. "I was the lookout," she stammered, her eyes already red.
"And he was already hiding under that wagon," Lauren pointed out. "Your job was to watch for anyone approaching, not to search the camp."
Sven was wrong, as this wasn't like any of the other times. Li Na fully blamed herself for the situation, despite everyone's protests. They simply didn't know exactly when Lei had arrived, and he'd been too injured to interrogate. They did know that he hadn't snuck in while Li Na watched, however, and he also had two crossbows on him, something he'd have to have left in the camp, but that didn't matter to Li Na. She kept insisting that she had been on watch, and she'd almost lost her friend to someone she never saw.
Yaric had to settle for agreeing to disagree, and making it clear that he'd still pick her to keep watch any time.
In addition to never seeing Fools Forest again, they’d also never have to see the bandits again, as a local Baron had sent officials to collect them for a proper trial in a city.
Interrogations had revealed that all of the bandits really were originally hunters, but none of them had been locals. The region they grew up in had been devastated by mass goblin outbreaks and then stirges, killing off much of the game they needed for their survival and making the local environment extremely dangerous to hunt in. So while others found new locations or took up new occupations, they decided to find a more remote area and rob people, intending to keep at it until they had enough wealth to retire. No one doubted that they would have ended up spending all their money and going back for more, but that was the official statement.
“I hope I can get my armor fixed, or Lloyd is going to be upset,” Yaric said. Yaric and his friends were riding along the final stretch before Lekton, with the familiar city already in sight. Everyone was eager to get back to their own beds.
“He won’t,” Lauren said firmly. “And the first thing we’re doing is getting you to a proper healer.”
“It’s not urgent, it’s just stiff. It really just feels like a big bruise now.”
“Yaric…” Lauren said warningly.
“Fine, healer first. Lloyd is going to have a lot to say about this as well.”
“Only because he’ll be worried about you. And don’t you dare say everything is fine.”
Yaric sighed deeply, though it was more for show. “Healer first, Lloyd second.”
“No, healer first, city second. You know what happens when someone gets hurt like you did. And we’re not turning down the days off, we’re going to spend some time doing things that have nothing to do with fighting or magic. And you owe me a drink… fifty drinks.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Lauren inched her horse closer so she could nudge him, and both laughed.
Sven and Li Na rode further behind them, watching the exchange. Li Na had also been doing much better, primarily as Yaric had visibly recovered, but also because he continued treating her like he always did, even going so far as to pluck small berries from passing trees to gently lob into her hair whenever she got too quiet, something he claimed was an older brother's right. Things were more or less normal by now, but Yaric had managed to get Li Na to promise she would talk with Faruk the next time she saw him.
“So… after everything that happened… are they -?”
“No,” Li Na quickly replied, cutting Sven off. “Took them long enough, but Lauren said they havn’t spoken yet. She doesn’t want to push him while he’s hurt, and Yaric’s… uh...”
“Yaric?” Sven suggested.
“A dummy.”
“Wait, when did you and Lauren talk about this?” Sven asked, looking Li Na up and down in confusion.
Li Na snorted in reply, but she couldn’t keep the smirk off her face. “Why do ask?”
“I was just wondering if we could tell them yet.”
“Nah. They’re so slow, who knows when they’ll actually talk. Better not risk it.”