Matilda and the other women took the horses, deciding on two riders per steed. We tucked the horses’ heads through the gaping holes we’d made through the flat wooden fence and pushed them through to the other side. Matilda and the blonde got on one horse, the redhead and another random got on another, and the last two women took the third. I turned on invisibility only for them. With nine targets, I had about thirty-five minutes. Once the timer reached twenty-five, I’d turn it off for everyone except Matilda, whom I was going to leave it on forever, with sounds on. With one target, she’d have a few hours at best. That meant Trent and I had to hurry and catch up somehow.

“Will your card hold out?” Trent asked.

“It has unlimited range once the effect is applied.”

He lifted an eyebrow, impressed. “Let’s get going, then.”

We broke through more houses’ fences in search of more horses but found nothing. We must’ve gone through half the houses in the neighborhood before calling it quits. We went back and made the mistake of wandering too close to the yard we’d taken the horses from and noticed an oil lamp hanging against the wall near the front of the yard had been lit. We were the only ones within the vicinity. This place felt almost deserted at night so I didn’t feel the need to waste precious invisibility.

“There ye’are!” a hoarse voice shouted in shrill anger, catching us off guard.

A grumpy old man emerged from the backdoor of the house onto the yard with a machete, waving it like a madman and threatening to kill us.

He didn’t make a sound…. How is a guy like him as quiet as a mouse?!

Trent and I managed to outrun him and fled from the small residential district.

We caught our breaths in the middle of the small forest leading back to town.

“What do we do?” I said, panting. “We need to get a horse.”

“Alster, look,” he said, pointing. The rainbow-colored dome of Alderman’s card was getting closer. He sighed. “I thought the other houses would have at least one horse, but that backfired on me.”

“Wait, so you—”

“Yes. I’m sorry, son.”

For once, Trent was the idiot. He wanted to look cool in front of Matilda and had chosen to sacrifice himself and his only son. I sighed heavily, trying to get the gears in my brain to shift and hit me with a plan. I looked at our surroundings. Nothing but trees keeping us out of sight and the dirt road with stores on both sides in the distance. I wondered if we could just stay here and wait things out. We’d already given the crazy old machete wielder the slip. Even without invisibility, it was hard to see us without being close by.

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Okay their ten minutes are up.

Wait I gave them 14 minutes. Ah, whatever.

I undid the women’s and horses’ invisibility. With only one target, my card read 3 hours 45 minutes.

No horses nearby. We could wait until the dome disappears. How long would that take? A few hours? What if his card doesn’t have a timer?

As I racked my head, the dome finally caught up to us. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to have some kind of radar alerting the wielder to a Dark type card in the vicinity. But sure enough, as I tried to turn on our invisibility, a spark of electricity jolted through my crotch where my card was. It hurt like hell for a few seconds. With this kind of trump card, the knights never had any reason to worry about the bandits turning on them.

I slid a hand down there to make sure my Johnson wasn’t fried. It was numb at first, but sensation returned pretty quickly.

Phew.

“I got nothing,” I admitted bitterly. “They’ll find us at this rate.”

“We have some time,” Trent reasoned. “I have a hunch the knights won’t split up, since they saw the water you made. Anyone would be on guard against an unfamiliar card wielder. They’ll likely close down the gates first. If it were me, I’d send one man alone to scout the area outside Casselberry in case they’d already escaped, and the rest would buckle down and search town.”

Hmm. That’ll give Matilda some time before the knights chase her if they give chase, since they’re sure to find tracks outside. But there’s no telling if they will. The captain guy had gone with some men already. As for us, we just have to not get caught.

The light had already expanded. If they’d thought to look in this small forest first, the dome would have expanded further south into the residential district, but from the direction of the expanding light, they might have been going north to the gate as Trent surmised.

If they reached the gate before us, we’d be trapped. Not to mention, the fire at the station would burn out and soon the other Holy Knights would emerge looking for revenge. Maybe not on horseback at first. But they’d probably wring some out of the town residents eventually. Yep, staying here was suicide.

Trent put his hands together in a hushed prayer, asking the gods for guidance. My thoughts went in a million different directions. Anything from taking out Alderman with a surprise shot, to hiding in the old machete wielder’s basement.

“How well do you think they’ll recognize us?” I asked.

“At least our clothes and hair. We were climbing with our backs facing them.”

“Argh,” I said, scratching my hair furiously. “Can’t you think of something? Your first plan worked.”

He sighed. “Seems I can only perform miracles once.”

To launch a surprise attack on a heavily armed and carded Holy Knight stronghold with just two guys was indeed a miracle. But there had to be another rabbit we could pull out of this hat.

But as we continued mulling things over, bells from a tower near the center of town started chiming so loudly they sounded like gongs.

Trent punched a fist into his other hand. “So that’s their angle, huh? An emergency signal. That means they’ll close off the gates. Anyone trying to escape would have to knock out the guards so they’ll leave a knight or two there. Then the rest can take their time looking around town.”

There was nothing at first, but as the minutes rolled by, people scrambled out of stores in the distance. A few of them even had torches or lanterns. Unsure of where to go, we stood there in the forest like sitting ducks.

“Looks like the townspeople might join the search soon,” Trent said in a hushed tone, exasperated while cradling his entire head with his palms.

“Well, fuck!” I shouted.

“Alster!” Trent barked angrily. It was the first time I’d cursed out loud in front of him. I hated religious types. Even at such a time, he wouldn’t let a curse word sully the air.

I apologized. “So what do we do?”

A breathy, hoarse voice behind us filled the air as a sharp blade was pressed against my back. “Don’t move.”