by Barb Hendee
However, the other five Äntes soldiers appeared fanatically loyal to Braeden and seemed to view Gisele as getting exactly what she deserved.
As of yet, Jan hadn’t seen a way to use this divide among the men, but his thoughts kept turning.
The sound of a soft thump broke his concentration, and he looked up.
At first, all he saw was a riderless horse in front of him, and then he saw that Gisele had fallen from her horse onto the road. She’d been ill and exhausted when the journey started, and Jan had wondered how long she’d able to ride.
When she didn’t move, he almost called out her name, but then stifled himself, fearing any open concern on his part might only make things worse for her.
The pockmarked Guardsman Günter was riding in front of her. He turned his horse and looked down in what appeared to be disgust.
“Sir?” he called.
Braeden pulled up his horse and glanced back, frowning. After hesitating a moment, he turned his mount and rode back, stopping a few paces from where Gisele lay and looking down at her.
“Get up,” he ordered.
Her eyes were closed, and she didn’t move.
Jan clenched his teeth to hold in a stream of profanity. Again, anything he tried to do to help Gisele would only make things worse for her.
“I said, get up,” Braeden repeated coldly.
“Sir,” a voice called.
Sergeant Cullen had been riding at the back. Now, off his horse, he strode up and dropped down beside Gisele. “She is too weary to ride, sir.” He lifted her off the ground. “I can hold her in front of myself on my horse.”
By then, everyone had halted, and a number of the men turned their mounts around and were watching.
Braeden stared down impassively at Cullen as if he didn’t care where Gisele rode so long as the contingent moved on. Without a word, he wheeled his horse and headed back toward the front.
Cullen’s eyes followed, glowing with anger.
Then Jan looked over at Corporal Rowan and the other two men who’d shown pity for Gisele. Their faces were tense, jaw muscles tight, in an effort not to betray open hatred for a superior.
The situation was heating up without Jan having lifted a finger yet. He began to think that a set plan might not be necessary. He would simply need to wait and watch and know when to act.
· · · · ·
That night, not long past darkness, Julianna stood beside her horse with her hands clenched. They were hiding in the trees on the north side of the road, and their only light source was a single glowing candle lantern on the ground. A short while ago, Cadell had sent Rico to locate Lieutenant Braeden’s camp. She had no idea how what would happen then… but she knew tonight they would take action.
She barely caught the sound of soft footfalls before Rico emerged between two nearby trees. His black hair was a tangled mess and, like the previous night, he wore only his pants and carried his boots.
Rosario handed him his shirt. “Well?”
Cadell, Klayton, Logan, and Sawyer gathered around to listen.
“Their camp’s not far,” Rico answered, sounding slightly troubled, “on the same side of the road as us. But the arrangement is different. Two guards on watch are inside the camp instead of on its outskirts, so we can’t take them out quietly. No matter what we do, all the soldiers will be alerted instantly.”
Julianna breathed quietly, trying to stay calm. She knew Cadell had hoped to even the odds a bit before invading the camp.
“But you saw Jan?” she asked. “He’s still safe?”
Rico nodded once.
Rosario crouched and drew a circle in the dirt. “Give us an idea of who is where.”
Rico crouched as well. “The soldiers on watch are here and here.” He pointed to the east and west sides of the circle. “Braeden is lying near the fire with three sleeping men close by. The other four are sleeping here around Gisele.” He pointed to the camp’s south side. “And Jan is not far from them, with his hands and feet bound again.”
After hearing this, Cadell walked to his horse and pulled something from one of the saddlebags. When he came back, he held pieces of black fabric.
“We cannot let Braeden live. He will only come after Jan again and again. I saw madness in his face. But if we can cause enough confusion that the soldiers don’t understand what’s happening… and Jan just manages to escape, we might be able to avoid killing some of the others.” He glanced around. “I don’t like the idea of killing men who are only following orders.”
“I don’t either,” Guardsman Klayton agreed with a sigh. “Though we must be prepared to kill if necessary.”
“Of course,” Cadell agreed impatiently, fiddling with the pieces of fabric. “We’ll kill anyone we have to. They took Jan. But we can at least disguise ourselves. Rosario, take off that vest. It is too memorable.” He paused. “Before we left home, Nadja made each of us one of these.” Lifting a piece of the black fabric, he pulled it over his head.
Watching curiously, Julianna drew in a loud breath when she soon saw only his eyes. It was a black hood with two holes.
“Masks?”
“Like bandits,” he answered. “But we need to do more than hide our faces. This cannot look as if we are attacking with the purpose of rescuing Jan.”
“Who kills Braeden?” Klayton asked suddenly.
From his tone, Julianna thought he might be volunteering.
“I will,” Rico answered, staring down the sketch in the dirt.
Julianna knew he meant to transform for the attack. She glanced at Klayton, Logan, and Sawyer, but no one else bothered to explain anything about Rico. She realized someone must have already told them about his… ability. Cadell and Rosario would never allow them to be surprised in the middle of the fight.
“Uncle Cadell,” Rico continued, “I think you and Julianna should remain hidden in the trees. Just before the attack, you two can use your crossbows to wound the men on watch.” He looked up at Julianna. “Can you aim well enough to hit a man in shoulder?”
“I think so.” She nodded. “Yes.”
“The instant that happens, I’ll charge into the camp,” he went on. “I’ll kill Braeden first, if I can, and that will panic the rest. We cannot give them a moment to think. Klayton, Logan, and Sawyer, you follow once their attention turns inward on me.” He looked to Rosario. “Father, run for Jan, cut him loose, and he’ll know what to do. As soon as he is free, we need to break off and vanish… so long as we’ve caused enough wounds and terror that we won’t be followed right away.”
“What about Gisele?” Julianna asked.
“Without Braeden, she might be better off where she is,” Klayton answered.
“You don’t know that.”
“Jan will know,” Rico interrupted. “If she’s in danger from the soldiers, he’ll grab her before he runs.”
“Oh…” Julianna began but didn’t finish. She hadn’t thought of that.
Rosario looked around. “We’re in agreement then? We try Rico’s plan?”
With his eyes on the dirt sketch, Cadell nodded. “Rico won’t need a mask, but the rest of you take one now.”
· · · · ·
Jan’s wrists and ankles were bound tightly. He had no blanket or cloak where he sat on the cold ground. Thankfully, he’d been given a cup of water and a few bites of jerked beef earlier. Perhaps Braeden didn’t wish him to die of thirst before he could be hanged.
Gisele lay near Sergeant Cullen, wrapped in his cloak, and she hadn’t spoken all evening.
Jan wondered if she’d eaten anything, though in worrying about her, he was growing more concerned for himself. From bits and pieces he’d heard from the soldiers, they were about a day and a half from Enêmûsk, and so far, he’d seen no opportunity to escape.
Closing his eyes, he again saw Julianna’s bleak, frightened face in the courtyard of the keep when he’d been taken. He couldn’t allow that to be his last memory of her… nor her last memory of him
.
There had to be some way out of this.
A part of him knew he should lie down and try to sleep. Around the camp, most of the men were lying on the ground, wrapped in their cloaks. Only Günter and another of Braeden’s sycophants were standing watch, one on the west side of camp and the other on the east.
Jan found he was absently biting his fingernails and took his bound hands away from his mouth.
He wondered what Julianna was thinking, alone in her bed at the keep.
Suddenly, Günter cried out.
An instant later, so did the other guard on watch.
Jan’s head swiveled back toward Günter as a crossbow quarrel appeared to sprout from the man’s right shoulder, and he dropped to his knees with a shocked cry. The other sentry suddenly fell backward, flopping down with a quarrel protruding from his chest.
Braeden and the other seven soldiers all stirred in confusion and shouts when an ear-splitting yowl smothered all other sounds.
Two breaths later a roar followed, much closer, and a great black cat the size of a small pony charged out of the darkness straight at Braeden.
Jan almost couldn’t believe the sight.
“Rico,” he breathed.
· · · · ·
Julianna was hiding in the trees, waiting for Cadell to shoot. He was on the east side of the camp, aiming roughly in her direction at a pock-mocked soldier with a dour expression. She was on the west side of the camp, aiming her crossbow at the other soldier on watch. Then she realized she was holding her breath, unlike what Cadell had told her to do.
She’d tried to sound confident when she’d assured Rico she could do this, but she was not at all certain she could hit someone in the shoulder. The camp wasn’t large, so the distance wasn’t far, but she’d only fired a crossbow a few times in her life—and always in practice beside the zupan. She had a case with a few extra quarrels, and Klayton had helped to make sure she knew how to reload quickly.
She was determined not to miss on her first shot.
As she and Cadell had no way to signal each other, the plan was for her to fire immediately upon him hitting his target. They were both wearing their black hoods in case anything went wrong and they were seen.
With her crossbow cocked and aimed, she’d been ready when the pockmarked soldier cried out as Cadell’s quarrel hit him in the shoulder. Julianna aimed as carefully as she could and fired. The quarrel struck the second sentry in the chest, and he fell backward.
Julianna felt a sudden chill that she might have killed the man, though she was simply relieved she hadn’t missed. On instinct, she began cocking the crossbow to load another quarrel.
A yowling roar in the night made her flinch.
When a second roar came and faded, she had the crossbow cocked and reloaded. But when she looked up, too much was happening too quickly.
Rico charged into the camp in his great cat form. She’d seen him like this before, but the sight was still terrifying. When he snarled, his black fur blending with the darkness only made his fangs glow white. He went straight for Braeden.
The other three men sleeping nearby roused and tried to gather themselves, but it was too late. Men in black hoods rushed from the trees with swords drawn.
Klayton, Logan, and Sawyer charged in behind Rico at the soldiers around Braeden. And then… to Julianna’s shock, the pockmarked man that Cadell had shot suddenly dashed between Rico and Braeden with his sword drawn. He swung hard, catching Rico’s black form across the shoulder.
The blade instantly darkened in the night with blood.
An eerie, almost human cry of pain erupted from Rico.
He whirled on his haunches, stumbling on the wounded foreleg, and slashed up with his other paw. The pockmarked soldier’s throat darkened like his sword and he fell instantly. Rico stumbled again in trying to twist the other way, and by the low firelight, Julianna saw blood glistening on his wounded shoulder.
Klayton, Logan, and Sawyer had already engaged the three soldiers who’d been sleeping near Braeden, and a cacophony of clanking steel and grunts filled the camp.
Rosario burst from the trees in his black hood, a dagger in his hand, and made a run for Jan.
Only the span of a few blinks had passed.
Julianna looked back to Braeden, who was on the ground and now crab-stepping backward away from Rico. Rico wobbled and stumbled, seeming disoriented, and Braeden’s head turned as he spotted Rosario running for Jan.
Even without his vest, few men were as large as Rosario, and Julianna saw recognition in Braeden’s face… followed by a twist of manic rage.
The four Äntes soldiers who had been sleeping around Gisele were on their feet. But instead of rushing to help their comrades, they encircled her. Jan was tied near-by and Rosario was pounding in their direction on his large booted feet.
A middle-aged man with a close-trimmed beard among Gisele’s guard was grabbing for a sheathed sword that had been lying on the ground beside him, but he didn’t have time to pull the blade. So instead, moving almost faster than Julianna could see, he darted in front of Rosario, and using both hands, he swung hard with his sheathed weapon, catching Rosario across the face.
The impact snapped Rosario’s head aside with enough force to knock him off his feet.
“No!” Jan shouted, jerking at his bonds.
Julianna wanted to shout in fear and frustration. This was all going wrong, and she quickly looked back to Braeden.
The lieutenant ignored the savage fighting taking place around him and the bleeding, wounded great cat attempting to struggle toward him… and he stared only at Jan in hatred.
Braeden’s sword was on the ground, but he ignored it and jerked a dagger from its sheath on his hip as he ran toward Jan. Julianna’s panic increased. Braeden truly was mad. He cared for nothing anymore besides punishing Jan.
Jan’s eyes widened as he saw the crazed lieutenant coming toward him.
Without thinking, Julianna dashed out of the trees, running in behind the lieutenant as she shouted, “Braeden!”
Something in her voice must have struck him, for he skidded on one foot in looking back. As his head turned, she merely pointed the crossbow and fired.
The quarrel struck him in the right eye. His head snapped back. His body toppled and flopped upon the ground. Julianna stalled for one cold instant.
Braeden didn’t move, and she didn’t wait any longer.
Dropping the empty crossbow, she crouched and grabbed Braeden’s fallen dagger before running straight to Jan. He stared at her, beyond speech, as she knelt beside him and began slicing at his bonds.
From behind, she could still hear cries and grunts and snarls and clashing steel. A scream sounded, followed by the clatter and a thud of a fallen blade and body. She finished cutting the rope around Jan’s ankles and started on the one around his wrists. She had to get him free.
A woman’s voice shouted in the night. “Stop this now!”
· · · · ·
Jan still reeled in disbelief at everything happening around him. Even with the hood over her head, he recognized Julianna’s form and voice, and she finally cut through the bonds on his wrists. When he got up, he saw Gisele standing on a fallen log with Cullen, Rowan, and her other two loyal guards gathered around her with their swords drawn.
Rosario was sitting up and groaning with one large hand against the side of his jaw.
Across the camp, Jan recognized his father’s shape, though he wore a black hood and was holding an empty crossbow as he stood over a large black cat struggling to stay on all fours. Rico had been wounded.
Three men wearing the rough wool tunics of the keep’s guard over their chain armor were panting and bleeding from various wounds, and the three soldiers who’d been sleeping near Braeden were now on the ground, dead or dying. One of them had a quarrel through his throat. Had Jan’s father come in from the trees and shot him?
The two men who’d been on watch were also dead, one shot in the chest.
The other had a quarrel protruding from his shoulder, but his throat had been slashed by Rico.
Braeden lay prone and still, not far beyond Julianna with a quarrel standing upright through his one eye.
As Jan absorbed this, he realized that Braeden and all five of his loyal men were gone.
Gisele, however, was still standing on the fallen log with her men at the ready.
“You will stop!” she repeated, and her voice had never sounded so strong.
Everyone still on his or her feet stopped moving. Instead of looking at her husband or the carnage around her, Gisele looked to Cullen.
“Sergeant, do you and your men still wish to serve protecting Braeden manor?”
This was the last thing Jan had expected her to say, but it made sense. With their lieutenant—and lord—dead, their only other option would be to go to Enêmûsk and try to gain a place in one of Prince Rodêk’s contingents. That was a far riskier life in Droevinka than protecting a manor now left to a dead officer’s wife.
Without even looking at his men, or turning to face his lady, Sergeant Cullen nodded, though he kept his sword up, watching all those who had invaded the camp.
“Yes, my lady.”
“Then when we are asked,” Giselle added, “we will say that we were attacked by bandits along the road, and your lord was killed. We will take his body for proper burial, and you will resume your duties. Is this agreeable?”
Cullen turned hard eyes upon his fallen lord and then glanced around at those men who had stood with him in defense of their lady. Rowan nodded, followed by the other two.
“Yes, my lady,” Cullen answered.
Giselle, wearing nothing but a nightgown and with her hair hanging in a tangle around her, still looked and sounded like the great lady of a manor.
Jan didn’t have to wonder about the cause of this transformation. With Braeden dead, she was free.