had. Shaking dirt and leaves from his hair, he glanced at the sky to gauge the time. Late afternoon. His knee felt stiff, but the pain had lessened. Standing with his weight on the other leg, he waited for the men to arrive. Sandra joined him not long after, carrying a slab of salted meat.
“They’re angry,” she said, her voice low. “Do you think…”
“Assume nothing,” Jerico said, helping her set up the spit. “Only hope for the best, and pray against the worst.”
Despite his words, Jerico also thought a rough defeat had befallen them, but it seemed that was not the case. When the first of many men appeared, they lacked a single wound upon their bodies.
“It doesn’t matter that I couldn’t have killed them all,” Bellok grumbled as he and Kaide walked toward the bonfire. “Packed together and unaware, I would I have wiped out half of Sebastian’s men before they even knew…”
“Jerico,” Kaide said, seeing the paladin. He approached with his back to Bellok, who clearly did not appreciate the interruption.
The rest of the men were joining them, all grumbling amongst themselves. Most ignored him, though a few, the Irons twins in particular, did their best to greet him warmly.
“I took too long building the fire,” Sandra said. “I’m sorry. I’ve just begun.”
“And what you’ve got won’t be enough,” Kaide said. “Adam, go grab us something more to eat. I think all of us could use a bit of blood in our bellies.”
“Be better if we had blood on our blades instead,” Adam muttered as he headed off to one of the buildings.
“Such dour moods,” Jerico said. “What is so terrible?”
“We had our ambush prepared,” Bellok said, sitting on a heavy log beside Jerico. “We expected only a handful of knights, but instead a good forty marched toward us. With my magic alone, I could have-”
“You could have cooked one inside his armor, maybe two,” Kaide said, drawing his dirk and stabbing it into the log he sat on. “We were outnumbered, and they were armed and mounted. We’d have been slaughtered.”
“We had surprise,” one of the men muttered.
“They can’t stand toe to toe with us!” Griff hollered, and the rest of the men echoed approval.
“Is that what you want?” Kaide asked. “To have charged out of the forest and died, just to kill a few random knights? Which of you, in your plain clothes and leather boots, would have withstood a single blow from their swords? Which of you has the strength to crack a chestplate of iron with only a wooden club?”
The men fell silent, until Adam reappeared, holding a slab of meat.
“I coulda,” he said.
Kaide looked up at him, and for the first time since returning, he smiled.
“I don’t doubt that, Adam. All of you, I don’t doubt you. But I don’t want to lose you, no matter what. The advantage wasn’t ours. One day, it will be, and we’ll break their necks and send their horses running to the four corners of Dezrel.”
“Bet if Jerico was with us…”
Jerico didn’t catch who said it, but Kaide did.
“You got something to say, Barry?”
Of the many men gathered, the shortest of the lot stepped forward, a thin man with a long beard. When he spoke, Jerico recognized him as the amusingly cranky jailor from before.
“Yeah, I do. I bet if Jerico was with us, you’d have given the order. You wish we all was him, don’t you? Wish we had training, fancy armor, and weapons that cost more than everything we ever owned put together. It’s been three years, Kaide. When’s the time gonna be right? When we ever gonna make them pay for what they did to us at Ashvale?”
The crowd fell silent, and the chill in the air was colder than it’d been all night, paying no heed to the fire. Jerico glanced between them, wondering if he’d need to intervene. His place or not, he wouldn’t watch one of them murder the other.
“Of course I wish I had knights,” Kaide said, his voice deathly quiet. “Of course I wish for weapons, armor, and horses. I wish Lord Hemman was dead, and I could piss on his corpse while the whole world watched. But that don’t matter none. I’d trade every single one of those wishes to have Lisbeth in my arms one more night. You got a problem with how I lead, then you go right ahead and leave.”
In the following silence, Sandra’s soft voice carried the power of a thunderclap.
“None of you are here because of my brother. You’re here because of Sebastian, because of what he did. I haven’t forgotten. Have you, Barry? Have you forgotten the smiling face of your little Mary?”
Barry stepped back, as if ashamed.
“I’m sorry, Kaide. You too, Sandra. I do miss my girl, but I got boys and a wife at Stonahm. They been waiting three years for me to come home. What we done all this time? We’ve hurt Sebastian, cost him some coin, but we’re no closer to taking back our home. We’re no closer to victory. This ain’t a war we can win. It’s not even a war. We’re a fly buzzing?round the ears of a horse, just biting.”
Barry left for his room. Jerico watched him go, while the rest of the men looked the other away. Kaide muttered a curse under his breath. Conversation took awhile to restart, but when it did, it was on a hundred other things than the failed ambush that night. The smell of cooking meat wafted over them, and Jerico felt his own stomach growl.
“What is it you’re cooking?” Jerico asked Adam, who was turning the spit.
“Leftover knight,” Adam said, grinning.
“Enough,” Kaide said. “I’m tired of that damn joke. It was never funny.”
The bandit leader stood and left. When it seemed no one would follow, Jerico looked to Sandra.
“Go,” she said. “I know him. He’ll want to talk, but only to someone he trusts will listen.”
Jerico stood and limped after.
“I prefer to be alone with my thoughts,” Kaide said as Jerico approached. He leaned against a heavy pine outside the ring of their homes, his back to the fire.
“We paladins are known for being intrusive.”
“That you are.”
No humor in his voice, just barbs. Jerico shrugged it off.
“You wanted my help once. You still do?”
Kaide glanced at him with red-veined eyes.
“Do I? Of course. But you heard the men. What does it matter? We’re just flies.”
Jerico crossed his arms and leaned against another pine, relieved to remove some weight from his knee. He watched Kaide for a while, saying nothing. He always considered himself a good judge of character. Many times he’d encountered outlaws, and they had a vibe about them that Kaide lacked. None of the rest seemed quite right with it, either. This wasn’t a ploy for coin. This wasn’t a man taking something because he could, or because he thumbed his nose at authority. Something more was at stake. Ashvale… What had happened at Ashvale?
“I want to help you,” Jerico said. “But I have to believe I’m doing the right thing. Tell me why you do this. Tell me the reason you fight. Who were you before this started?”
“Who was I?” Kaide laughed, and he looked to the darkening sky. “I was Kaide Goldflint, son and heir to a fortune, a fortune stolen away from me by Lord Sebastian Hemman. Will that suffice?”
Jerico shook his head.
“No, it won’t. What happened there? Three years ago, Barry said. Help me understand.”
Kaide rubbed his eyes with his fingers.
“Sebastian controlled much of the North, but he’d never laid claim to the rough lands nestled against the Elethan mountains. A few of us, my father in particular, spent years scouting the land, setting up exploratory mines, searching for veins. When we found them, we kept it secret, and acted fast. My father set up a guild, uniting several towns together. Sebastian was furious, but our lands were our own, and our mining guild spent enough bribes in Mordeina to keep the king from siding against us. We endured heavy taxes, taxes you couldn’t imagine, but we still had our land, our homes, and our wealth.
“Three years ago, that ended. That coward didn’t even send in his knights, for he feared King Baedan’s punishment. So instead, he rounded up thousands of homeless and poor in Mordeina and gave them deeds to our land. He convinced them they were legit, told them of our wealth, and sent them on their way. You can’t imagine
