“Bows. And a few strong recruits wouldn’t hurt, either. Where can we get them?” Kendra asked, but she was always more practical than me. I stated a need, she figured out how to fulfill it.
A farm drew my attention. Instead of the usual one or two room house and leaky barn, it was two stories tall, a rarity. The barn was large enough to hold two of the houses, and the fields surrounding it were plowed, some planted, and others fallow. Sheep grazed with goats and a few cows. Nobody was in sight.
My first thoughts were that in a city, people seldom displayed their wealth with fancy outsides to their homes. When marauders, conquering armies, or even common thieves chose their victims, they went for the money. Most of the wealthy people I’d met lived in very plain buildings on the outside, little different from any others. It was only when you went inside that you found the chandeliers with crystals to reflect light, walls painted by masters, and statues carved so well they took your breath away.
The farmhouse defied good sense. That made me uneasy. Still, we needed a place to spend the night because we wouldn’t reach Mercia before dark.
I pointed. “Let’s go there.”
After the slightest hesitation, while she probably considered all I had, but in far less time, she nodded. We turned down a lane and rode boldly, or in a manner I hoped appeared bold, right up to the house. Not even a barking dog greeted us.
The doors to the barn were fastened open. No animals were inside. We rode to the front of the house while watching for the slightest movement in one of the many windows, another ostentatious sign of wealth. Most farmhouses had only a single small window if that.
“Wait here,” I ordered, happy my voice hadn’t betrayed my fear. I dismounted and hammered a fist on the door. When nothing happened, my hand gently lifted the iron latch and pushed, my other hand gripped my sword. The door swung open, and nothing else happened.
I walked inside to find a sitting room with a dining table and kitchen beyond and motioned for Kendra to follow me. The house felt empty. There is a difference when people are there. It might be the smallest of sounds or smells. Yes, it was probably smells or lack of them. People have odors, their breath smells, the fire cooking their food smells, and more. The bottom floor felt empty.
At the top of the stairs spread a landing and four doors. Behind each door were sleeping mats and personal items for three or more, all but the last one. It was the largest, and only a single person had slept there. A man. It had the stink of sweat, a pile of dirty clothing caked with mud and earth. None of the objects in the room was feminine.
One wall held an assortment of weapons on pegs, one of the objects of our search, but we’d never expected to find a hoard like the one hanging there. A war ax, two broadswords, a pair of spears, various knives, and four bows, all different. I went to the bows. Two were so old the wood would snap at a pull. Two were newer, one a longbow, the other a common variety for hunting. Quivers held long and shorter arrows. I gathered them and noticed more pegs—without weapons. Almost as many empty pegs without as those with them—and that struck me as odd.
The hair on my neck tingled. I moved to the nearest peg and looked carefully at the top before running my finger along the surface. Near the end was a layer of dust. Closer to the wall was none. They had held weapons recently, probably this morning, would be my guess. A lot was missing, and that told me the people who lived here were expecting trouble and were armed.
I flew down the stairs and found Kendra still snooping. She held up a single sheet paper. “It has a name. Braun. There was a general who served Elizabeth’s grandfather with that name before we were born. He lost an arm in a battle and was awarded a tract of land and gold for his service and bravery. I read about him in a book. He was a hero.”
“Hold these,” I thrust the bows and quivers at her. My feet pounded on the bare wooden floor to the owner’s room again. The pile of dirty clothing drew my attention. I grabbed a shirt and carried it downstairs. There was one sleeve sewn to the body of the shirt so it wouldn’t flop while he worked. Obviously, a man with one arm missing.
Kendra went back to the small desk and pulled ink and quill, then searched for more paper. She found another letter and turned it over to use the back. A few quick words explained our theft, and we departed, careful to latch the front door. However, we also took a pair of heavy blankets for each of us. We also raided the kitchen for a sack of food. At the barn, a cask held grain for the horses, and we filled a leather bag, then we rode back up the lane.
“They’re watching us,” she said. “There were dirty dishes and a bowl of soup. It hadn’t been there a full day.”
“No, I don’t think so. But a good general would have a safe place nearby where the family could hide.” Then in a concession to the feelings we shared, I continued, “He might leave one of the older boys to watch the place instead of remaining where he’s sure to be attacked. He’d run to safety when needed.”
“That’s what we’re going to do,” she said. “That farmhouse will attract anyone from Mercia, especially those looking for us.”
“Or for riches to steal. Do you think the mages are actually looking for us?”
She cast me one of those looks again. “Well, they were earlier, and nothing’s changed, I suppose so.”
Ignoring her snide remarks, my response was cool and agreeable, “I guess so, too. Tater’s rubbing off on me. I’d rather sleep in the forest tonight than in that comfortable house. Searchers will look in the house before anywhere else.”
We knew the forests would end soon and we’d face the open expanse of desolation where nothing grew. I pointed Alexia to a small path that took us off of the road. After a few steps, I slipped off the horse and went back and smudged the hoofprints with my palm, carefully working the soft mud until it appeared as it had before we turned. The final hoofprints on the road also got my attention, and they were eliminated as well as possible. Then I walked over them as if a traveler had walked that way. My attempts might keep our departure hidden, especially in the dark. A few more innocent travelers on the road would help hide our prints too, but I saw no sign of that happening.
The trail took us up the side of a rounded knoll, where a small meadow spread out. There was no running water, but from there we had a clear line of sight to the road in both directions, while the tops of the trees growing on the lower slope of the knoll protected us from sight. Kendra fed the horses grain from the sack and staked them for the night where they could eat. I found a deep firepit with two rows of rocks piled high around the edges. A small stack of cut firewood sat beside it.
That told me others had watched the road from the knoll. Nothing said who, but I could think of no reason an honest man would be there—excluding us. Still, it was perfect for us, or for highwaymen. We wouldn’t chance a fire, but it gave us a place to spend the night where we might see our enemy before he saw us. What more could we ask?
Kendra and I sat together and watched the empty road. Near dark, a single man on a horse rode past, heading away from Mercia. The horse had big hooves, useful in working the fields, so they didn’t sink into soft ground, no saddle, and the rider was dressed as a farmer. Kendra said, “He’s scared.”
“Something bad is happening behind him, or he would walk that horse.”
“He’s coming from where you and I are going in the morning. Maybe we should have stopped him,” she said.
“Do you think we could have?”
She shook her head. “No, he’d have turned into the fields and escaped. Do you have a plan?”
“Yes, but you won’t like it.”