wiping the gore off on the man’s shirt, she gives it a quick inspection then replaces it back in her quiver. When she notices the look on James’ face, she says, “I don’t have many left, may need it before too much longer.”
“Right,” he says.
“We better quicken our pace,” states Jiron. “Where there’s one, there’s likely to be more.” He then turns, and moving at a quicker pace than before, hurries through the trees.
As he follows Jiron, James worries about the dead man back there. If his fellows should discover him, the hunt will be on. Fortunately, dawn is still many hours away so maybe they’ll make it before anyone discovers him.
After making their way through the trees for another hour, they finally come to the base of the mountains. In the faint light coming from above, they see before them through the trees the unmistakable sight of a road running east and west. “I think this is the road leading to Bindles,” Jiron says.
“Yeah, I remember,” replies James. The last time they came through this area, they were posing as merchants on their way to rescue Jiron’s sister and Miko.
The road directly ahead of them is dark and looks deserted. Further to the west, it runs directly into the enemy camp and is well lit at a checkpoint guarded by a squad of men. Across the road from them to the south are more hills which gradually rise to become mountains.
As Jiron begins moving out of the trees and onto the road, Aleya grabs him by the arm and whispers, “Wait!” Pointing across the road, she directs their sight to a large boulder lying beside the road twenty feet away.
“What?” he whispers back after looking for a moment. “I don’t see anything.”
“Thought I saw something,” she tells them.
“Maybe you…” begins James when a shadow moves next to the boulder. “A sentry!” he says quietly.
“Why would they have one this far from the checkpoint?” she asks.
“They know we’re out here,” Jiron begins to explain to her, “and that if we come this way we’re most likely to give the lit checkpoint over there a wide berth. Which is exactly what we’re doing.”
“So,” adds James, “thinking to go around it, we run into a soldier hiding in the dark.”
“Exactly,” confirms Jiron. “Fairly sneaky and almost worked if he would’ve kept still.”
“What’re we to do now?” Aleya asks.
“Just how good are you with that?” he asks her as he indicates her bow.
“You mean, can I hit him from here?” she asks. When he nods, she says, “I think so. Be harder in the dark since I can’t see him clearly, but yes, I believe I could.”
“Good,” he replies. “If we take him out, we may be able to get by without undue attention.”
“What if there’re more out there?” James asks. “We could be alerting them to our presence.”
“A chance we’ll have to take,” asserts Jiron.
Aleya takes out one of her few remaining arrows and aims toward the boulder where the sentry is positioned. Drawing her bow back, she readies herself and holds until the shadow moves again. When she finally sees the shadow once more move, she lets the arrow go.
It flies through the air in the dark and they hear a gasp as the shadow stumbles away from the boulder and collapses on the road. Jiron rushes out from the trees toward the body of the sentry. Taking the dead man by the arms, he quickly drags the body behind the boulder and out of sight of anyone passing this way.
No other shadows move in their vicinity, the dead man must’ve been the only one posted. James is the last one to cross the road and joins the others behind the boulder. “There doesn’t appear to be anyone else around,” he says as he joins them.
Aleya has her knife out and is currently working the arrow out from between the man’s ribs where it had wedged itself upon impact. James is glad it’s too dark to see clearly what she’s doing.
“We’re going to have to take it slow from here on out,” Jiron tells them. “We’ve had two run-ins so far and most likely there’ll be others.”
After removing the arrow, she cleans it off on the dead man’s clothes before returning it to her quiver. Getting up she nods her head and says, “I agree, this area is crawling with sentries.”
Moving out, Jiron continues leading them south as they attempt to avoid the army camped less than a mile away. After moving deeper into the hills, he turns them more westward as he runs parallel to the encampment. They cover ground slowly as they keep vigilant for any sentries which may be in the area.
Keeping between the hills and rises, they work their way westward with only an occasional stop to climb to the top of one of the hills to determine if they’ve passed the outlying fringe of the army. Seeing they’re still south of the force, they return to the bottom and continue on.
It was during one such scouting excursion when they see a force of men moving in their direction from the west. Only a couple hundred feet away, they don’t have time to get down off the hill before being seen. The force is keeping to the lower areas between the hills which gives Jiron an idea.
“Lie down flat upon the top of the hill,” he whispers urgently to them. “In the dark, it’s unlikely they’ll see us up here.”
Doing as he suggests, they lie down and remain absolutely still as the force approaches. The sound of their marching feet can be heard as they draw nearer. James hopes this works.
Quiet conversation can be heard coming from the approaching men. From the tone of their voices, it doesn’t seem like they are searching for them, rather just passing through. As the men reach the base of the hill upon which they’re laying, James holds his breath, afraid that even the little sound that breathing makes will be heard by the men passing just below them.
The tops of their helmets can be seen as they file pass, not more than ten feet away from where he lies. If the sun had been up, there would have been no way for them to be able to pull this off. But between the darkness and the fact that the soldiers don’t expect them to be there, it works.
It isn’t long before the column of men completely passes by. Soon, the sound of their footsteps begins to fade as they move further away until finally dying out altogether.
Sitting up, Jiron whispers, “That was close.”
“Yeah,” agrees James. “I thought for sure we’d be spotted.”
Off in the distance, the fringe of the enemy camp can be seen a little to their right. They’ve almost made it completely past. Far in the distance, the lights from Kern can be seen. “Not too much further,” announces Aleya.
“The thing I’m worried about, should we make it there,” says James “is the reception we’ll have from Cardri’s forces.”
“What do you mean?” Aleya asks.
Turning to her, he explains, “They don’t know who we are. For all they know, we’re spies or soldiers of the Empire. I don’t know if we’ll find sanctuary there.”
“So you think we should try to avoid them too?” asks Jiron.
“It wouldn’t hurt if we could,” he replies. “But I doubt if we’ll be that fortunate.”
Jiron nods his head as he starts descending the hill. Heading further to the west, they travel another hour as they put even more distance between themselves and the enemy camp. Once they’ve reached a point where the enemy encampment is far to the east, they turn north and begin their push to the Cardri lines.
By this time, the eastern sky has begun to lighten with the coming of the dawn. The hills they’ve been traveling through all evening are beginning to smooth out to grasslands the further north they travel.
“We need to hurry!” James says as the sky continues to lighten.
Jiron nods as he breaks into a quick run. The others follow him and James is soon huffing and puffing in his attempt to keep up.
It isn’t long before they leave the foothills behind altogether. Running along the grasslands, James continues scanning the horizon all around for any movement which might indicate forces on the move. So far they’ve been lucky and haven’t yet been spotted.
When the sun finally crests the horizon to the east, horsemen are seen riding across the horizon ahead of them. “Are they Cardri’s?” asks James when Jiron brings them to a halt.
“Can’t tell from this distance,” Jiron replies.
They crouch down in the grass, hoping against hope for the riders to pass by without seeing them. When suddenly from behind them, a horn blares forth. James turns and looks behind them to see a dozen riders heading in their direction. The blast from the horn has caused the riders between them and Cardri to swing in their direction.
