So far, things were going just as he’d hoped. Bandits milleddazedly mid-camp, though two of them tried to make a dash toward the higher ground. One fell with an arrow in his throat-M’Whan’s, Jerdren thought-and theother turned and ran back to crouch behind one of the fire pits. Suddenly, a short, broad man emerged from the tent, a sword in each hand, and began to curse at them in a loud voice. Another followed, and ran forward to grab one of the men and shake him hard.
“What’s wrong with you men? What was all that noise andlight?” he demanded.
“Keep soldiers! I saw ’em! Blue shirts!”
“Save that!” the squat man bellowed and brandished bothblades aloft. “Brother, get your squad moving. Make sure they don’t cut us off!You and you, see to the horses! Rest of ye, come with me!”
Some of the men simply broke and ran for the path leading down the east slope. Jerdren grinned broadly and strode forward to intercept the first of them, sword in one hand and a dagger in the other.
The closest men yelled a warning and broke off to either side of the path, but one massive brute with a black beard and a curved sword raised his blade and ran straight for Jerdren, bringing the weapon down in a hard overhand. Jerdren parried that stroke and brought his sword back around. The bandit parried in turn. A fast clash of blades, sword to sword, before his dagger slipped under the other’s guard. The man gasped, staggered away, and fellright in front of another who was pelting for the trees. The runner saw him but too late to change course. He fell hard, and one of the Keep men ran a spear through him. Jerdren was already righting another, vaguely aware of yet another charging up on his left, pike in hand.
“Eddis!” he yelled, but her sword had already cut through thepole, and her backswing slashed a long cut across the attacker’s forehead.Blinded by his own blood, he staggered back. Eddis strode forward and lunged, her point catching him high in the arm before she brought the blade around two-handed. He folded in half and fell at her feet. Before the man behind him could reach her, Eddis was back at Jerdren’s side, sword between her knees andthe bow in her hands. The string twanged sharply, and the man fell, her arrow through his throat.
“Look out!” Blorys shouted.
Jerdren came halfway around to his right, sword coming down as his dagger came up. The ragged swordsman parried his big blade, and the dagger bounced off a small buckler. Blorys slashed at the man and missed as the bandit brought his sword up and around in a blurring movement. Jerdren ducked, but too late. The blade sliced through his left eyebrow and into his hairline. Blood blinded him. He cursed furiously and brought the dagger up-by luck andguess burying it in the robber’s belly. The man gasped and went down, taking theblade with him. Jerdren went to one knee long enough to snatch up the dying man’s long sword.
Behind him, Blorys shouted, “All right?”
“Fine!” Jerdren said. Blood ran down his face still, but bytilting his head, he had one eye clear.
“Spearmen!” Eddis yelled a warning from his left and tuggedat his sleeve. He backed up with her as three men running shoulder to shoulder threw themselves at the path. All carried long boar spears.
“Room!” he yelled back.
Eddis moved away and launched an arrow at the nearest spearman. The man swung his spear wildly, possibly hoping to deflect it. The point sank deep in his eye, spinning him around and dropping him, dead before he hit the ground. Jerdren turned aside as the other two charged at him, let their momentum carry them on, then leaped back to slash at unprotected necks and heads. One man wailed and staggered off into the trees where two of the Keep men put him down for good. The other whirled back around, panic in his eyes as he looked at Jerdren, who was grinning like a madman, his eyes wild and blood running down the side of his face. The man screamed in terror, threw his boar spear aside, and sped on down the trail.
And there’s our man to spread the tale, Jerdren thought.That’s enough, I think. He spun back, blades at the ready, but for some moments,no one else came their way. He blotted the cut on his forehead and wiped his eyes clear. Off to his right, three of the Keep men had several bandits huddledon the ground.
Over between the two fires, Mead and M’Baddah confronted thesquat man who’d come from the tent. Captain, that’ll be, Jerdren thought.Another spate of fighting over near the ledge, and half a dozen men just beyond the canvas shelter seemed to be readying some plan of attack. Three men running toward the path were stopped by Blor and whoever was off to his right.
Eddis tugged at his sleeve. “You’re cut! How can you seeanything?”
“Still got one eye clear,” he yelled back.
“You’re supposed to be keeping an eye on things, overseeing!Like me!” She pulled a rag from her belt. “Hold still! And hold this for me!”She shoved her sword at him, roughly bound the cloth around his brow. He winced and swore as she took back her blade.
“Hurts worse than the cut did, woman!”
“So? You can see properly, can’t you?”
Blorys was coming back, and all at once Jerdren could see Willow and M’Whan, heading into the firelight with five men, two of them limpingbadly, the other three bound and tied together. There was still some fighting beyond the fire pits, but as he watched, the last of the bandits dropped his boar spear and went to his knees.
“Where’d the leader go?” Jerdren demanded. “Eddis, if youcost us that man, wrapping my head up-!”
“Give it over, Brother,” Blorys broke in. “He’s there, Meadhas him bespelled, I think. Got him before he could rally ’em.”
“Oh? Oh. Good.” Jerdren rubbed his forehead, dislodging thebandage.
Blorys tugged it back down into place. “You’re a gory enoughsight. Leave it be.” He looked around. “Anyone get past you?”
“One here,” Jerdren said. “On purpose. Other than him-don’tthink so.”
“Not here,” M’Baddah said. “Two of ours wounded up here, onebadly.”
“Get them into the firelight,” Eddis said. She looked acrossthe clearing as Mead came into the open. “Mead! All clear your way?”
“All clear!”
“Good!” Jerdren called back. “Let’s get this mess cleanedup!”
It took time, building the fires back up, searching out thebodies and the wounded. Their own wounds were mostly minor, though the man M’Baddah tended had suffered a deep cut the length of his forearm.
Ten of the bandits lay dead, another twelve wounded. Several had been taken prisoner without any fight at all, Mead’s spell and thesuddenness of the attack having startled them so badly. Their captain was still under Mead’s hold spell and now heavily bound as well. His brother had beenbadly wounded and was barely conscious. Three men, so far as they could tell, had escaped, and two at least had been unarmed when they fled.
Eddis was moving around the fire, sword still in one hand, checking the knots on the bound men, seeing that their own wounded were taken care of, then that the injured bandits were treated. When Jerdren would have protested, she gave him a cold stare.
“Act like a butcher, and you’re no better than they are.Didn’t you say that once? Besides, we’ll get back to the Keep with them thatmuch faster if we aren’t transporting half-dead men. Unless
She turned away before her co-captain could think of anything to say.
Mead, Willow, M’Whan, and Blorys were walking around thecamp-the mage seeking any bandits who might be in hiding, his brother searchingthe tent for stolen goods, while the other two worked through the men’s blanketsand the canvas shelter. As Eddis moved out into the open, Mead came striding past the horse lines and beckoned her.
“There is someone hiding out there by the horses,” he saidvery softly. “Not a bandit, no fighter. Someone very afraid. I thought perhapsyou and I…?”
Eddis nodded and went with him.
Most of the horses had calmed down, she noticed as they came up to the picket lines, but the two nearest the west end were restless, shoving against their neighbors. She met Mead’s eyes, nodded again, and let him lead theway.
Hay was strewn along the picket lines, but at this end, the stuff was piled high as a horse’s belly. Eddis slowed well short of the stackand gazed steadily at it. Not a trick of her eyes or the firelight-the hay hadmoved, ever so slightly. She gestured for the mage to go on around, until they had the pile between them. At her nod, the two dove into the stack, grabbing for whatever lay beneath.
