They’d gone less than a mile into the forest, steadily climbing, when Ki caught the scent of cooking fires. The air was damp and it carried the smoke low through the trees. Soon they could see wisps of it curling just below the dripping roof of branches. He began scanning the trees more carefully, unable to shake off the image of sharp eyes watching him down the length of an arrow shaft.
But nothing happened. The only sounds were the soft thud of hooves on moss and the waking calls of the birds.
They reached a clearing and dismounted. The officers and Companions gathered around Ahra while the squires took charge of the horses.
“Not much farther,” she whispered, gesturing to where the track continued out the eastern side. “The camp is less than half a mile that way, down in a little dell.”
All eyes turned to Korin. He conferred briefly with Ahra and the captains. “Well, Tobin, you’re in charge here with your guard. Nik, Lutha, Quirion, you’re with them.” Quirion started to protest but Korin ignored him. “You’ll hold our flank. I’ll send a runner back for you if we need you.”
“You two stay with them,” Ahra told her brothers. “You know the lay of the land up here, in case they need a guide.”
Korin pulled at his new amulet, then glanced at Porion, who gave him a nod. “That’s it, then. Swords out, and follow me.”
“The lookouts, my prince. Shouldn’t we wait to hear back from them?” Ahra asked.
“We’re already later than I meant to be.” Korin cast an eye up at the brightening sky. “If they’ve gotten themselves lost, we’ll give up any chance we had of surprise. Come on.”
He waved his sword in a great circle and the rest of the company fell in behind him.
“Well, you heard him,” whispered Tobin as the sound of their horses faded away through the trees.
The squires and Tharin’s men strung tether lines between several trees and set about securing their horses.
“Running knots, boys,” Tharin called softly, undoing a tight knot Ruan had made. “We want to be able to get loose in a hurry if we have to.”
Then there was nothing to do but wait. And listen. There was no real reason to stand at attention, but no one sat. Hands on their sword hilts or tucked into their belts, the Companions stood in a loose circle, watching the path. Some of Tharin’s men spread out, patrolling the edges of the clearing.
“It’s the waiting gets under your skin,” Amin muttered.
“How many raids have you been on?” asked Lutha.
Amin’s cocksure demeanor gave way to a sheepish grin. “Well, only two with real fighting, but we done a lot of waiting!”
The sun was just showing over the tops of the trees when they heard the first distant shouts.
Tharin climbed onto a large boulder by the trail mouth and listened for a moment, then smiled. “From the sound of it, I’d say they caught them by surprise after all.”
“Be all over ’fore we get anywhere near it,” Amin grumbled. “Why don’t the runner come?”
The distant shouting continued, but a breeze came up and the sigh of it in the branches drowned it out. Tharin stayed on his rock, watching the path like a hound waiting for its master’s return.
He was the first to fall.
34
The first moments of the ambush were eerily quiet. One minute Tobin was standing with the others, listening to the wind in the trees. Then, without warning, Tharin let out a choked cry and spun off his rock with an arrow protruding from his left thigh, just where the split in his hauberk hung a little open.
A good shot, or a lucky one, Tobin thought, heading for him. Then he was falling, knocked sideways.
“Stay down, Tob!” Ki seemed determined to remain on top of him.
“Tharin’s hit!”
“I know that. Stay down!”
Crushed into the long grass, Tobin couldn’t see past Amin, who was sprawled close beside him.
The air over their heads was filled with the dragonfly buzz of arrows now. Arrows thudded into the ground on both sides of Tobin and Ki. He could hear shouting in the trees. Somewhere nearby a man cried out in pain—Sefus was it? A horse screamed, then the whole tether line began to rear and kick. The ropes snapped and the horses scattered.
The arrow storm stopped as suddenly as it had started. Heaving Ki off, Tobin was the first on his feet. Everyone had scattered. Some were still down in the grass. Others had made it to the edge of the trees. Koni and some of the others were trying to calm the remaining horses.
“To me! To me!” Tobin shouted, drawing his sword and pointing to the cover of the trees to his right. “Come on, quickly!”
No sooner had he spoken than the arrow assault resumed, but the others had heard. Some ran with their shields up, others trusted to speed.
Ki shielded him as best he could without getting underfoot. Nikides and Ruan made it to them, and Ki’s brothers were there, too, shields up to catch the flying shafts.
But too many of them had been caught out in the open. Some weren’t moving; at least three of Tobin’s guard lay too still. The only one he could make out was Sefus, staring up at the sky with an arrow through one eye. Beyond him, Tobin saw someone else on the ground wearing the bright surcoat of a noble; from the colors, it was either Lutha or Barieus.
“Tobin, come on!” Ki urged, trying to pull him deeper into the trees. Tobin looked back at the boulder where Tharin had been, but there was no sign of the man. Praying his friend had made it to cover, Tobin ran to join the others hunkered down behind tree trunks and stones. Strangely, that empty feeling under his heart had disappeared; he didn’t feel much of anything. Looking out through the trees, he saw more bodies in the meadow, arrows sticking up like thistles around them.
Ki grasped Tobin’s arm again and pointed off to the right. “Do you hear that?”
Branches were crackling under someone’s boots nearby; whoever it was was headed their way. Tobin quickly took stock. Nikides and Ruan were the only other Companions with him. Quirion was nowhere to be seen. Besides Amin and Dimias, he had Koni and five other guardsmen. By now they could make out enemy sounds to their left, as well.
Damn, they caught us and split us, Tobin thought grimly. It was the worst possible start, especially since they had no idea how many men they were facing. Everyone was watching him.
“Nik, you take Koni, Amin, and those four and go to the left,” he said. It sounded like there were fewer people that way. “The rest of you, with me.”
Koni shrugged off his shield and gave it to him. “Take this, Tobin.”
Tobin accepted it gratefully. “Sakor’s luck, everyone.” Slipping his left arm through the straps, he set off, leading his little force deeper into the woods on the right.
They’d gone less than twenty yards when a pack of burly men broke cover and rushed them with axes, cudgels, and swords. There was no time to think after that. Tobin ran at them with Ki at his side, dimly aware of others running with them to meet the attack.
The two lead bandits bore down on Tobin like hounds on a rabbit; a noble was worth a ransom, and they probably took him for an easy catch. Ki blocked their way and got his sword up in time to keep the taller of the two from splitting his skull. The other man darted around and made a grab for Tobin. He wore a short mail shirt and helmet, but it was clear from the way he lunged in that he wasn’t a trained warrior. Tobin jumped back, then caught the fellow across the thigh with his sword. The man dropped his axe and went down, howling and clutching at the spurting wound.
Before Tobin could finish him, a blur of motion on his left made him turn and he nearly fell over a dead swordsman just behind him, close enough to have killed him. Silently thanking whoever had stopped him, Tobin turned to face another man charging him with an upraised cudgel. It was a foolish stance to take and Tobin was able to sidestep and strike him across the belly. The fellow staggered. Ki leaped in and finished him off with a stab to the neck.