She recovered faster than me, which was probably normal in our relationship. She said in a voice that barely cracked, “Get their weapons.”
The man at my feet had a sturdy bow over his shoulder, and his quiver held more than ten arrows. Kendra held up the same. I took his knife, a poor piece of metal. The handle was loose, the edge dull and chipped. Still, it was a knife, and it was tucked it into the pants I wore, despite that they were too tight and the legs too short. “Ten arrows here.”
“Same with this one,” she said. “Back to the camp and we’ll spread out a little. You begin with the sleeping ones to your left, I’ll take the farthest to the right. Work our way to the center. Keep at least one alive to question.”
Her voice was now controlled and cold as winter as she spoke of killing seven more men. I don’t believe the realization of the magnitude of what we were doing had become a reality or we would have failed. I was glad it was dark. The sleeping men would look like dark mounds. She took the lead, and I followed, moving to my left as we entered the clearing. Seven men asleep. Beyond was the sleeping form of Elizabeth, and beside my foot, Tater.
The bows were nothing unusual. Mine felt like an unadorned military issue weapon. Since I didn’t know how it would pull, the strength or accuracy, I nocked an arrow and crept closer so it couldn’t miss. From the corner of my eye, Kendra did the same, an arrow fitted and ready to fly if one of the men woke before we were in position.
None did. My mind turned to steel. They were no longer men. They were simply dark lumps in the night who intended to kill us. Targets. Not men. I watched Kendra. She nodded at me and let her first arrow fly. An instant later, mine did the same. There were two dull thumps as the arrows struck, and one man groaned in response, but not loud enough to wake others. Kendra and I pulled our next arrow and let them loose, then another.
A man howled in pain, and in the light of the coals of the fire, he leaped to his feet. I saw an arrow stuck high in his thigh, one of mine. There had been no way to tell the position of how the men slept under the blankets. He would be slow to move and more concerned with the arrow in him, at least for a while, so he presented no immediate danger. Others waking at his cries might have weapons in their hands. My next arrow took out a man who had also woke and was climbing to his feet, already preparing to charge me. He held a knife. My arrow took him full center, and he paused and appeared surprised as he looked down at it protruding from his lower chest.
I had another arrow ready to fly, but Kendra had been faster than me. Each of the men now had an arrow or two in them. She hurried to Elizabeth’s side and sawed her bindings with the dull knife she’d taken from the guard. I arrived at their side as Elizabeth sat up while rubbing her wrists and asked, “What took you so long?”
Kendra said, “Damon wanted a nap, first.”
Elizabeth said, “Have you seen to our guide?”
“Tater’s over there,” I answered while turning to where he lay. However, it was just like her to be as concerned for a man who hadn’t bathed in a year, spat constantly, and spoke rudely when he had the opportunity, to be nicer to him than us. Elizabeth looked below the surface of relationships.
Reaching Tater, he was still asleep and breathing heavily. I untied him, but he didn’t wake. “Throw some wood on the fire, will you?”
Kendra was busy tying the wrists of the three men still alive and binding their wounds. Elizabeth put several pieces of wood on the coals and then helped Kendra until the wounded men were secure. She rushed to my side and knelt. Tater was moaning, his left arm was twisted under him unnaturally, and his face beaten so badly his eyes were swelled shut.
The increasing light from the growing firelight revealed a split lip, a knot on his forehead the size of my thumb, and bruises already coloring. Elizabeth helped me check his body for more damage, finding at least one broken rib, and probably more. His left arm was broken below the elbow. She snapped at me, “Take his other foot. We’re going to drag him closer to the fire where he can get some warmth.”
We pulled him, each pulling a leg, ignoring his roar of pain protesting our actions. Once beside the fire, she shouted at Kendra, “Get me some water.”
A small spell of mine eased his pain and put him into a deeper sleep. We pulled his arm until it snapped into place, and splinted it, ignoring his screams when he awoke. I decided to learn a more powerful spell to relieve pain. We gave him sips of cold water and adjusted him to lay sideways to the fire where he would feel the most heat and avoid placing weight on the broken arm. We placed four blankets under him for warmth, and at least that many on top. He quickly went back to sleep or fell unconscious, we didn’t know which. It made no difference. He was more comfortable and warm.
Elizabeth said, “We’ll do what we can for him in the morning and stay the day here, and tomorrow night. Then . . . we’ll see.”
It was like her. Our intention had been to arrive in Mercia before Lord Kent and Princess Anna, and that wouldn’t happen if we remained here tending to Tater. Yet, she is the one who insisted from the beginning. I considered offering to ride on ahead but held my tongue. How would I live with myself if she and my sister remained here and something happened to them?
Kendra joined us. “Three men alive. Can you help me drag the others into the forest after daybreak, so their rotting bodies don’t attract scavengers willing to fight us for a meal? They are not dressed like the one at the top of the pass, so they probably were not working together.”
I watched her face in the dancing firelight. It was set into a hardness I’d never seen. She had killed men this night and now spoke of dragging their bodies away as if they were bags of old clothing. She was also right.
She looked back at me with the same stern expression and stiffness. “And you need to find your own clothing. You look ridiculous, and you stink.”
Both women wore their own clothing. Mine had been taken. The attackers wore rags, but little of what the women wore was suited for men or would fit. My mind raced ahead. “We also have to question the survivors. A lot of questions.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
We agreed that one of us would remain awake to tend to Tater’s injuries all night and keep an eye on the wounded. Elizabeth insisted she would take the first watch and wake me when she needed to sleep. I had the gut-feeling she wouldn’t wake me at all, but who am I to argue with the orders of a royal princess? Kendra began to search the dead, a disgusting task I wanted no part of.
She didn’t know what valuables or weapons they concealed beneath their clothing, so she cut the clothing off their bodies by the light of the campfire and after examining each bit of cloth. She threw most of what she discovered into the fire to burn. She placed a blanket over each, which was more than they had done for us. When she came to the last one, she paused and said, “You do this one.”
“Why?” I asked, not liking the snide tone she used.
“Because he’s wearing your clothes.”
For some strange reason, that upset me more than the corpses at her feet. Not that she had asked me to help, but because that was the bastard who took my clothes while I’d been unconscious and helpless. I suddenly relished the idea of searching him and returning the disfavor.
I reached him, and in the firelight, his dead eyes were watching me. He was heavily bearded, his hair dark and stringy, and his nose long and thin. I turned to peer at the others. It seemed each of them had long, thin noses and were dark-skinned. Their dead eyes were dark brown, their hair as dark as mine. People of Dire were generally lighter brown haired and were fairer skinned, as was almost everyone we knew. Our noses were also wider.