His lips twitched, and he rolled his eyes.
She gave him a cold look. “I’m not done yet, and it’s just asuggestion, but what if we waited for their next raiding party to move out, then ambushed those men
“It’s an idea,” Jerdren said. “Has its points. But twothings. We can’t be sure what parts of the road a sentry can see from up there.They see us attacking their men, and they’ll know we’re onto them.”
“If we hit them after dark, it won’t matter,” Eddis broke in.
“Sure, but one of them might get away from us in the dark,make it back and warn the camp, and there goes the surprise. I still say forty of them against us is bad odds for them, but only if they don’t expect us. Otherthing is, what would we do with prisoners? Tie ’em up and leave ’em for theorcs? Walk ’em up the road to the Keep, where their sentry could see us? Ididn’t much like having to order those men executed this afternoon, Eddis.”
Silence. She finally sighed faintly and shook her head.
“Good,” he went on. “Now, I say we send M’Baddah or Willowback up there, maybe a couple of our other quiet-footed men with ’em so more ofus know what this place looks like. Make sure this evening was part of a regular pattern. The rest of us be ready, because once the camp’s mostly asleep, we getinto position and hit ’em hard, from all three sides, kill those we have to,make prisoners of the rest.” He glanced at one of the spearmen. “The castellangot a lot of dungeon cells?”
“A few,” the man replied, “but they’re large and mostlyempty. Keep folk tend to avoid ’em.”
“Good. Maybe we even let a man or two escape, because thatway word gets around that men of their kind would do well to avoid the Keep.”
Eddis shifted. There must be a hole in his logic. At the moment though, she couldn’t find it. Sleep on it, she thought.
“We’ll need a real map, M’Baddah. Maybe he can make us one onthe back of yours, Jerdren?” She gazed thoughtfully at the smoothed dirt andtraced the line of the path up from the river.
Full dark the next night saw the company crouched along thenorth shore of the river, opposite the large island, waiting for M’Baddah’sall-clear signal. Jerdren lay flat on the island, as near the water as he could go without breaking cover. Eddis was on his right and his brother beyond her, the rest nearby. The ground was cold and damp, and he was about to ease up onto his knees when the jingle of harnesses and men’s low voices froze him in place.It was too far and the water just too loud for him to make out words.
Bandits bringing the horses to drink, Jerdren thought. He glanced up at the stars, west to where a little pale gray light still lingered. Right on time. He waited until it was quiet over there once again, then shifted his weight cautiously. Blor at his right elbow eased up to sit cross-legged. Eddis hadn’t moved so much as a finger since her lieutenant had left them.
Across from Eddis, M’Whan rose cautiously, just enough tolook out through the branches of the low willow he crouched behind. Eddis tensed, but the youth whispered something to her, and she eased over to talk to Blorys briefly, who tugged at his brother’s shirt sleeve and murmured,“M’Baddah’s on his way back. Willow passed word down that the south shore isclear.”
“Good. We ready?”
“Ready.” Eddis’ whisper reached him. She was on her feet,checking her weapons one last time. A tense silence as the rest of the company made sure they were set, then Willow waded out into the water, Mead and Eddis right behind him.
It was now full dark, but with enough starlight so they could make out each other, provided they stayed fairly close together. There would be no moon.
M’Baddah had gone partway up the trail, but he came back asthe last of the company reached shore. Mead and Willow passed him and started up the trail in utter silence. Jerdren beckoned the others close.
“This is it, people,” he murmured. “No talking from here onout. Any questions? Anything?” No reply. “Good. And good fortune to all of us.”He nodded and followed Eddis up the trail.
It was dark under the trees, and very quiet once they got above the river. Eventually, Jerdren was able to make out the least hint of ruddy light above them and to his right, and the faint sounds of men’s voices.Moments later, the party halted as M’Baddah stepped into the path.
The others gathered around the outlander, who whispered, “They are still awake up there, but it is growing quieter. A rest, here. Meadhas gone ahead.”
Coarse laughter echoed through the trees. Some of the men up there were drunk, Jerdren thought. Good. Another advantage to us.
He found a place just off the path, between tall tree trunks where the ground was soft, settled his back against a tree, and prepared to wait. As usual, when things were this close to a picked fight, all tension left him. Everything was set-planned as well as it could be-and there was nothingelse he could do, except wait. He rubbed his shoulders against thick bark to ease an itch between his shoulder blades. The Keep men who carried closed lanterns moved behind an overhanging boulder to light their candles. The flare of light illuminated the crouching shapes but nothing else, as the men quickly shuttered the openings. Moments later, two of the Keep hunters moved silently up the trail, to wait their opportunity to work their way over to the far side of the camp. Jerdren nodded his approval, then closed his eyes and listened.
Sounds from above slowly faded, though it seemed forever that the drunk men went on laughing and talking. Someone with a hard-edged voice finally snarled a curse, and there was immediate quiet. Jerdren opened his eyes and peered uphill. The firelight was dimmer-someone had banked the fires for thenight, probably. When one of the Keep men stood, though, Jerdren tugged at his pants leg and shook his head. The man settled once more.
“Wait,” Jerdren whispered. “Let ’em get to sleep, remember?”He leaned back against his tree once more, gazing around. Now that his eyes had adjusted, and with the faint firelight up there, he could see fairly far into the woods and make out his companion’s faces. The wind picked up briefly, fadedaway to nothing. The light up there was fading, and he hadn’t heard a sound insome time.
It’s time, he thought, and got to his feet. M’Whan and Willowleft moments later to take up positions blocking the path to the high sentry box. Eddis moved out onto the trail, Blorys just behind her. Jerdren joined them and began quietly counting on his fingers, aware Eddis was doing the same thing.
At a slow four hundred, Jerdren checked his sword and daggers one last time, then started up the trail. He stopped just short of the final switchback to listen and count off another slow four hundred. No sound from the camp, still; the others must be in place. He held up a hand briefly, then brought it down, and took the last section of trail at a fast walk.
M’Baddah had been good at description. Jerdren almost felt asif he were looking at a camp he’d seen before. The ground was fairly level, onlythe western storage and the horse-pickets out of sight. Two fires burned low. The third-near the captain’s tent, mid-camp-was out. He could make out the longcanvas shelter and the huddled shapes of men sleeping near the fires. No one moved out there.
He turned. Eddis and Blor were right behind him, the Keep men beginning to slowly fan out on both sides of the trail. He grinned at his brother, held out a hand to Eddis, who briefly gripped his fingers and mouthed “Good luck!” in reply. She moved off to his left, M’Baddah just beyond her.Blorys took his usual place at his brother’s right. Jerdren planted himselfmid-trail and drew his sword, slipped two daggers into his belt, and waited.
And waited. If something’s gone wrong…. If they knew wewere out here all along, if it’s their trap for us…? If those men weren’tthe fools he’d thought them, if they’d been waiting for these invaders and takeneach of them as they moved around the outside of the camp…
He bit his lip. It’s your fighting nerves, he told himselfangrily. Save it for them, why don’t you? If nothing else, he knew, their magehad an elf’s night vision and both spells and charms at the ready.
He caught his breath in an upsurge of fierce joy. The clearing between the fire pits exploded in a glare of red and green lights, flame and sparks flying everywhere. The noise was deafening. Men came awake yelling in panic or fury, and someone screamed like a girl. Men bolted from beneath the canvas, rolled out of blankets on the ground, fumbling for swords, daggers, and pikes. Two of the Keep men he could see were ready to leap forward, then, but Jerdren gestured them sharply back. We wait here for those men, he thought, and hoped the men remembered his orders.
