“Well, you better get ready,Arik,” Tedi scolded. “If they come for us, it won’t be to take ushome to our fathers. Even if the witch is with them, Dark Ridersdon’t openly track someone just to ask questions. Oh, she may asksome questions before she kills us, but you better believe thatwe’ll end up dead no matter what. The Dark Riders don’t normallyleave anything alive behind them.”
Arik stood staring at the millingriders on the road for several minutes. “Okay,” Arik finally said,“we’ll shoot if we have to, but staying here is suicide. We maykill some of them before they get us, but there are too many ofthem for us to win. We will head south trying to avoid them. If itcomes to a fight, we’ll fight, but we’ll hide and avoid it if wecan. We may kill fewer of them with this plan, but how many of themare dead will matter little to us if we are dead, too.”
Tedi nodded his head in agreement andthey both began gathering their gear. Quickly, they startedsouthward down the steep path. When they reached the bottom, Arikstopped suddenly. “I have an idea,” he declared excitedly. “Followme.”
Arik broke through the forestundergrowth with no regard to hampering the trackers and headed forthe sea. When they reached the beach he was panting, but he did notstop. Arik waded right on out in the surf while continuing south.“Is this your good idea?” asked Tedi frantically. “We drownourselves and deny the Dark Riders their fun?”
Arik stopped and smiled. “Okay, nowthat they are convinced that we hope to erase our tracks the sameway we did at Lorgo, we walk north through the water until we reachthe rocks below the promontory to our north. We can circle thebluff behind them and cross the coastal highway.”
Tedi smiled at the idea until he lookedtowards the rocks that he had seen the surf crashing on from upabove earlier. “You want us to cross those rocks?” Tedi blurtedout.
Arik nodded. “Have you ever spent thenight with Dark Riders?”
Tedi didn’t even bother to answer, butstarted wading towards the rocks. The rocks were slippery andcoated with some type of green slime wherever they had remainedsubmerged for long periods of time. The salt spray here was intenseand soon the boys’ eyes were smarting. Several times they slippedand were submerged. Once Arik had to grab Tedi by the collar tokeep him from being swept away or dashed on the rocks. Slowly theboys made their way to the base of the promontory and rested on therocks. The effort of forcing their way through the surf had tiredboth boys. “Why did you head here instead of continuing around theNorth side of the rocks?” asked Tedi.
“Two reasons,” panted Arik.“One, we have to be sure that the two riders we saw along the beachhave already passed before we try to get behind them and two, lookat the cliff face. It is hollowed out enough that we can stay hereand rest and we can’t be seen from the shore either to the North orthe South. Three, I could use the rest.”
Tedi chuckled and leaned back againstthe cold stonewall. The boys wiggled as far back as they could goso they could remain dry. “We can stay overnight back here if wehave to,” remarked Tedi. “I think it is about high tide now. Thisfar back would only get wet on a moon tide.”
“If we get some sleep now,”commented Arik, we can move out at low tide and it will be dark.Wherever our pursuers are they will be camped for the night and weshould be able to avoid them fairly easily.”
Tedi agreed and the boys were tiredenough to doze off.
* * * *
“Where are they now?” askedGarth laying his bow on the seat of the wagon.
“They are sleeping at the footof the cliff,” Kalina stated. “They are hoping the Dark Riders willpass them by and I think they might. Then they plan to cross overthe road and lose the Dark Riders.”
“Nice if it worked,” Garthsaid simply. “The problem is the Dark Riders are not totallystupid. They will realize that they have been duped and that willlead them back to the cliff. It sounds like the boys have adefensible position, but they also have no reconnaissancecapability. If they decide to leave their hole while the DarkRiders are near the cliff, they will be visible.”
“We could lose them before wecan react to save them,” summarized Kalina. “This is notacceptable.”
“I agree,” Garth declared ashe started moving. The bandit grabbed a coil of rope off of thewagon and retrieved his bow. “I want you to get the wagon about ahalf mile into the woods west of the coastal highway just north ofthe cliff. Avoid the Dark Riders at all costs. If you are not therewhen I need you, I will move directly south from that spot until wemeet.”
“Where are you going, Garth?”she demanded.
“Me,” he laughed. “Why, I amgoing hunting. There are a couple of pigeons on the rocks, and Iunderstand they are in season.”
* * * *
Wolinda screamed at the men, “What doyou mean, they didn’t come this way? Are you trackers or slackers?You told me they came south. You said that they hadn’t left thewater and now you’re saying that they didn’t get this far. Explainyourself.”
The head Dark Rider stepped between thetwo scouts and faced Wolinda. “What they are saying is that theboys headed back north, Mistress. They must have done it very soonafter they entered the water or we would have caught themalready.”
“Now you’ve become a tracker,Klarg,” spat Wolinda. “I thought these two fine specimens were thetrackers.”
“Enough, Wolinda,” Klargcautioned as his men gathered around. Klarg was dressed like therest of the Dark Riders in dark brown leathers with spurs on hisboots and bands of metal spikes on their leather gauntlets, but hewas also a massive hulk of a man. His imposing figure towered overthe hardy witch. “My men wanted to check the area where the boysentered the water, but you were adamant about them heading south.You have no one but yourself to blame for this delay.”
Wolinda was stunned. She led this teamand the stupid Dark Riders should know better than dispute herauthority. She could destroy every man here with her power andtheir leader hadn’t even addressed her as Mistress. “You shouldhave better control over your emotions, Klarg. I may be forced topunish you if you continue in this insolent manner.”
“Do not be a fool, Wolinda,”Klarg asserted, “and do not take me for one, either. You are incharge of this expedition and we have followed you withoutquestion, but it is the Dark One whom we both serve. If youractions jeopardize this mission, I would be within my rights toeliminate you, witch or no. I also have nineteen men to back myplay. If you managed to kill all of us, you would still fail inyour mission as you did back in Lorgo. And I’m sure you know thatfailure is death. My men and I are willing to follow your orders toaccomplish our task, but do not blame them for your actions. If wemust backtrack to capture these boys, let’s be about it withoutrecriminations. If you are acceptable to our agreement, we areready to serve.”
The color drained out of Wolinda’sface. She burned with the desire to kill every one of thesemaggots, but Klarg was right. Without them she was likely to failand one did not fail the Dark One. “Lead the men north, Klarg,” sheordered.
Klarg slapped his fist to his chest ina salute. “I hear and obey, Mistress.”
* * * *
Arik and Tedi awoke to the sounds ofhorses not far off. Quickly, the boys sat up and tried to determinewhich direction the horses were coming from. It was already darkout and the water was at low tide, but the sounds echoed off thewalls of their little hideaway and determining direction wasimpossible. The boys hefted their duffel bags and readied theirbows. Arik slid down the rocks a way and tried to pick up thesounds again. It had gone deadly quiet and he stayed perched on therocks waiting without movement. When he finally heard a sound, itwas the sound of men wading through the water from the South.“There are men coming through the water,” Arik whispered. “We needto move now or we will be trapped.”
Tedi was already at Arik’s side as thetaller boy started edging across the rocks to the north. As theboys stepped into the water, they could hear shouts coming frombehind them. Arik could distinctly hear a man bellow the order,“Take nine men with you over the top and cut them off.”Frantically, Arik tried to run through the water, but succeededonly in kicking up more water.