Allison grimaced. “Greybeard soup, huh. How appetizing.”
Stu laughed and extended a hand to Chuck, hoisting him from where he sat. “Come on, friend. Let’s get moving. The sooner we get there the sooner we can give them a solid drubbing and find out what sort of loot they’ve got. And maybe even grab a bite to eat.”
There was vigorous head nodding at the prospect of finding food, and so the party once again set off, following Stu’s lead. In places, he pointed out other markings that suggested people had passed through. At times Simon nodded at what Stu pointed out, but the other four simply looked on dumbly, hoping that he wasn’t just making things up as they walked. Another hour passed and Chuck began complaining about his feet again. Stu cut him off with a quick “Shh.” Chuck gave him a pained look, but bit back his reply.
Stu glanced back from where he was leading and said, “Do you hear that?”
The other five looked blankly at each other and shrugged.
“Nope,” said TJ.
“Really? I hear voices ahead. They sound so loud to me.”
Chuck groaned. “You better not be pulling our legs, Stu. I don’t think I could stand the disappointment of more walking.”
“No, I’m sure of it. You all stay here, and I’ll be back in a few. I’m going to go see what I can see.” Without waiting for an answer, he slipped off into the woods, quickly disappearing from view. The friends looked at each other in confusion, and Chuck flopped back down on the ground to rub his feet. “This greybeard is pretty comfy to sit on, in addition to making a nutritious soup.” He chuckled, and the others smiled as they sat down too.
Long minutes dragged on before Stu finally returned to their resting spot. He gave them a grim look and said, “They’re only a couple minutes away. Like Claude said, there looks to be fewer than ten. But they seem to know what they’re doing. Their camp is picketed with sharp stakes, and they have at least one lookout. There’s no way I’ll be able to pick them off with my bow, so it’s got to be melee. And I don’t suppose that any of them will be rank three or lower, so our dear healer won’t be able to wow them with her ring.”
The report left the group in silence for a time, until Jimmy spoke up. “Well, we’ve fought two-to-one odds before. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible. And of course we’ve got some magic on our side that I’m sure our enemies don’t. Wizards don’t go around shaking down peasants for bags of turnips. I say we give it a whirl and see what happens.”
This made sense to the rest of the group. Chuck seemed the one most interested in the fight, since he wanted to justify the long walk. Allison was wary of the numbers disadvantage, since they were counting on her to contribute. The last battle she’d just scooched back and hid, and she had been looking forward to doing that again.
“C’mon and live a little,” Jimmy said, enthused. “So maybe we’ll take a little damage. Or even a lot. No big deal! We’ve got you, and you’ve got me!”
“Well, what if I’m the one who takes a lot of damage? I distinctly remember TJ saying I couldn’t take much.” She looked anxiously at the other four.
Simon patted her on the arm. “Don’t worry. You’ll be fine. Just keep Jimmy between you and any bad guys, and it will all work out.”
“Exactly,” Jimmy said, piling on. “I’m tough enough to take care of all of you!”
“And anyway,” chipped in Chuck, “she’s a newbie! She doesn’t really know what’s going on anyway, so it’s not like she really even gets a vote.”
The boys all laughed, and Allison had a hard time refuting the assertion, so she shrugged and agreed.
The group slowly crept through the forest toward the brigand camp. As they got closer, they all began to hear the voices Stu had pointed out earlier. It was a mixture of boastful oaths and drunken song—it appeared that they had recently returned from roving, no doubt shaking down another pathetic group of peasants. Within a few minutes the party had arrived at the edge of a clearing, in the center of which was a rudimentary military camp. As Stu had said, there was a wooden palisade around the camp, and one of the brigands walked the perimeter, looking out into the trees.
“So how are we going to do this?” asked Jimmy. “Charge the entrance and fight hand to hand inside? We can’t wait for dark, can we? If there’s another group or three behind us, we don’t have the luxury to wait around a couple hours. Even if only one other group decides to come this direction, they’ll be here well before dusk.”
There was much head nodding. “Well, let’s go around and take a look at the front door and see what there is to see,” said Allison. “I still don’t have the best feeling about this, but if we’re going to do it, we should do it right.”
Stu led them a quarter of the way around, following the direction of the sentry so that they were always just behind his field of vision. They discovered that the entrance was little more than an open space in the wall of stakes, and there was a single guard standing watch there, though he looked bored with his duty.
“Perfect, a sleepy sentry at the gate and one walking the perimeter,” said Jimmy. He looked pleased. “If we time our movement so he’s on the opposite side, that will be one less we need to deal with at the outset. With luck I’ll be able to take out several of them before he’s able to come back around and join the fight. That should help even the odds a bit. And once we’ve gotten in, Stu can always take that one out with his bow.”
It wasn’t the most brilliant of tactical plans, but everyone agreed that it would do the trick. The group shifted around another eighth of the circle so they were out of direct view of the guard at the gate. They hoped to make it all the way to him before he saw them. Ideally, they’d be able to cut him down before he could raise the alarm.
Just as the roving sentry passed around the curve of the fence and out of sight, the six ran at a crouch across the clearing to the wall. No leaves had blown into the area, so their treads were silent on the soft grass. Hugging the wall, they slowly crept toward the open gate and the unsuspecting sentry.
“Hey! What’s that? Intruders!” A voice rang out through the clearing, and all six heads snapped around and looked toward the trees. A man stood there, a bow in hand and a deer draped across his shoulders. He shrugged the carcass off and calmly placed an arrow to his bow. He released the string, and the arrow streaked across the distance, striking Simon squarely in the chest.
“Oof,” he wheezed as the air was compressed from his lungs. He leaned against the wall, dazed, blinking slowly as he looked down and saw the arrow—a real arrow—protruding from his chest, blood slowly trickling out. Pain shot through his body. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he sank into merciful oblivion.
CHAPTER 6
“What the . . . ?” was all TJ was able to say before he realized that the archer was nocking another arrow to his bow. “Run! Now!” he shouted, herding his friends toward the opening in the fence and away from the open ground.
“What about Simon?” Allison asked, hesitating.
“Leave him for now. We’ve got to move or we’re all dead. That madman will skewer us all!” TJ pulled on her sleeve.
Jerking her arm from his grasp, Allison grabbed at Simon’s collar and gave a tug, but there was no way she could move him. A sudden force spun her around. The second arrow had struck her in the shoulder. But by some miracle it had been deflected into the palisade wall, where it now stuck, quivering. Choking back a cry of despair, she turned and fled after the others.