At first, Tarc thought he might try to send the guards to where the archer had actually been. There might be blood there to tell them where the man had been and that he must have left. Then Tarc realized that the most obvious evidence of the archer’s presence would be Tarc’s arrow, stuck into the base of the fence post. Blood would suggest that another arrow had been successful. Because it was one of the guard’s arrows and pointed directly back at Tarc’s location, it would raise a lot of questions he didn’t want to have to answer.
He resolved to pick up the arrow in the morning before anyone else found it.
Chapter Eight
With the camp calm, when Tarc’s watch was over he was looking forward to getting some sleep. As he was starting to crawl into his tent, he sent his ghost over to check on Lizeth. She was in her tent, but wasn’t lying down. She seemed to be changing her boots?
A minute or two later, she came back out of her little tent and moved off towards the back of the caravan circle. Tarc suddenly realized that she was still planning to go out on her scouting trip. For some reason, he’d assumed that after all the excitement she would cancel it.
Tarc quickly pulled his own boots back on, then went to the wagon to get his bow and over-the-shoulder quiver. He considered getting his sword, but it tended to make noise when he walked.
Besides he wasn’t any good with a sword.
Minutes later he was leaving the back side of the camp himself. Lizeth was about 100 yards away and completely invisible in the darkness, but easily detected by Tarc’s ghost. At first, he trotted a little bit to catch up, then realized that if he caught up enough for her to realize he was there, she would probably demand that he return to camp.
He started keeping a close watch, both by eye and with his ghost on the position of her head. When she turned to look behind her, he dropped to the ground and remained motionless.
He had thought that they would be going in somewhat the same direction that the raiders’ archer had been going when he left, but they weren’t. Then he remembered that Lizeth had heard the raiders were staying at a farm further along the road the caravan was following. She seemed to be heading in approximately that direction. He wondered where the raider had been going. With an arrow wound like the archer had in his shoulder, Tarc would have thought he would have been heading directly back to his base, but maybe he had a good path he followed. Or maybe Lizeth’s info on the location of their camp was faulty.
They traveled on across country. A crescent moon had risen since the caravan had been attacked. Tarc thought that Lizeth must’ve been waiting for moonlight before she undertook her mission. He could sense and sometimes see the road off to their left a ways and wondered why Lizeth didn’t move over to it. It would certainly make travel much easier.
After some thought, he realized that she probably suspected the raiders had a guard on the road.
They entered some woods. The going was a little difficult even for Tarc, who could sense the paths, underbrush, and various roots that obstructed their route. In the poor lighting, Lizeth had quite a bit of difficulty. She occasionally had to stop and double back.
Tarc felt amazed by her stamina. After standing a watch and going through the excitement of the attack, he felt drained. Traveling over the rough land and through the woods was taking it out of him, even though, as opposed to Lizeth, he could tell where to place his feet. He kept expecting to hear her cursing when she made a misstep or had to double back, but she remained silent.
Eventually, she stopped at the other edge of the woods. At first Tarc just waited behind her, but then he realized she was observing whatever was going on out there. He slowly moved off to her left, maintaining his distance from her, but closing on the road. He figured this was a good opportunity to examine the area near the road for anything the raiders might have done to prepare an ambush for travelers. To his surprise, he didn’t find anything. Then he realized that if they had had an ambush set up, they would’ve used it when the caravan went out the previous morning. They’ll probably build one as soon as they have time, he thought to himself.
Tarc reached the edge of the woods. Lizeth still hadn’t moved, so he spent some time studying the next farmstead himself. Both the house and the barn had many body-temperature objects in them. At this distance he couldn’t tell for sure what they were. The objects in the barn weren’t big enough to be horses, cattle or oxen. They could have been small pigs, but Tarc suspected that they were the captured womenfolk from the other farms.
Six other warm spots were scattered about in a loose circle around the farm buildings. They probably represented guards Tarc decided. They were pretty well hidden; he really couldn’t see them without using his ghost.
Lizeth started moving closer to Tarc. At first he thought that somehow she’d detected him, but then she moved out of the woods into a little swale that lay between her first position and his current location. Possibly it was a streambed after a big rain, but it was dry right now. It meandered towards and passed fairly close to the farmhouse. Tarc realized she was hoping to use it for cover as she approached it.
Unfortunately, two of the guards were hiding in it. With a curse, Tarc started toward the swale himself. He moved faster than Lizeth was traveling because his ghost let him watch his footsteps even in the dim lighting, but he was afraid he wasn’t going to catch up to her in time.
And what the hell am I going to say to her if I do catch up to her? I just happened to be out here? Somehow I know that there’s a guard hidden in those bushes just up ahead on your path?
Besides, she was the fighter. Tarc’s ghost told him that she was carrying her sword out of its sheath and with the speed he’d seen her display, Tarc suspected that she could take out any guard who attacked her.
He abandoned any plan he’d had to run full speed in order to catch up and warn her. Instead, he continued a steady pace. Not really a run, but not just a fast walk either. He danced along on his tip toes, almost leaping from spot to spot, landing where his ghost told him the ground was stable and wouldn’t make noise. He didn’t know what to call this method of travel.
Lizeth glanced back and Tarc ducked behind a bush. Now she was approaching the guard. Did she see him? Did he see her? Tarc’s tension ratcheted up.
To Tarc’s astonishment, Lizeth walked right past the man! Was he asleep? No! The guard slowly rose and stepped out of the bushes he’d been hiding in, then into the bottom of the little swale behind her. He turned to stealthily follow Lizeth!
Tarc felt astonished that the guard had focused on Lizeth without noticing Tarc himself. Tarc was about fifteen yards back now. He kept up his “almost run.”
Lizeth was approaching the next guard. Suddenly, the one behind her said, “Corn.”
Lizeth spun around while Tarc wondered why the hell the man would say “corn.” Then he realized it was probably the first half of a challenge and response password.
Lizeth lifted her sword, but Tarc realized that any chance she might have had for a stealthy reconnaissance of the farm was rapidly evaporating. He reached back over his shoulder.
Lizeth’s eyes widened as she saw Tarc approaching behind the man. She quietly said, “bread.”
Tarc stopped ten feet behind the guard, wondering if Lizeth actually knew the response to the challenge. Could she be with them?
The second guard stepped out and started moving up behind Lizeth! It doesn’t look like she is with them!
Lizeth stepped towards the guard in front of Tarc as the man laughed and lifted his own sword. He said, “Wrong response honey, you were supposed to say ‘cob.’ Now drop your pretty little sword before I have to hurt you.”
Tarc heard a light “clink” as Lizeth’s sword pushed the guard’s aside during an astonishing lunge that sent the tip of her blade up under his chin and into his skull.
Tarc threw his knife, then started backing up with his hands held in the air as Lizeth stalked after him, the bloody point of her sword right in front of his nos
e. “What the hell did you just throw at me you sniveling little shit?!”
Eyes crossed to focus on the point of her sword, Tarc kept backing up. He kept from stumbling by using his ghost to determine where to place his feet. He said, “Um, behind you.”
Lizeth couldn’t believe that the Hyllis kid had been there behind her. He had to have followed her from the caravan campground, but how could a wet behind the ears, citified, boy serving-wench, have followed her across the countryside without her noticing him?! And then gotten close enough behind her that he could’ve thrown something at her. She wasn’t so much upset that he tried to follow, but she was horrified that he’d succeeded in shadowing, and disgusted that she’d let him get in a position to attack her!
No one got the drop on Lizeth Salder!
Staring at the boy, she said, “You’re not going to fool me with that crap. Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you right now!”
“Really, there was a guy behind you too!”
Lizeth suddenly leapt to the side, knowing that when she moved quickly others simply couldn’t keep up. She glanced back where she’d been coming from. There were two bodies back there, not just one! She looked back at Tarc. Still holding the point of her sword on him, she glanced back again.
Narrowing her eyes she looked at Tarc another time. She waved her sword a little and bobbed her head in the direction back toward the two guards. “Let’s you and I go back down there and try to figure out what just happened.”
Lizeth directed Tarc with her sword until he was leading the way back down the swale to the two bodies. Lizeth stayed right behind him with the point of her sword just behind the middle of his back.
When they reached the two sprawled figures, Lizeth ignored the one she’d taken out herself. Instead, she walked Tarc to the second one. This appeared to be a man much like the one she’d taken out with her sword. Unmoving, muscular, large, a sword lying by his hand, he lay face down in a slightly contorted posture. He couldn’t possibly have been lying there when she had been walking down the swale, could he? She shook her head, Even as focused as I was on the heads up view, I couldn’t possibly have missed someone lying right in my path!
“What the hell…” she said wonderingly. She nudged the man with a toe, keeping her sword unwaveringly on Tarc. When the man didn’t respond, she slid her toes under his shoulder and lifted until he rolled onto his back. A knife was sticking out of his eye socket! “Holy shit!” she breathed, her eyes slowly sliding up and over to stare into Tarc’s. “You’re the one?”
“Um, what one?”
She gave him a sly grin, “The one that stuck a blade into the eye socket of so many of Krait’s men back in Walterston!”
Tarc shrugged noncommittally.
“You sneaky little bastard,” she said with a grin, stepping closer and punching him in the shoulder.
Tarc looked like he was resisting the temptation to reach up and rub his shoulder. “Um…” he said.
“‘Um! That’s all you’ve got to say for yourself?! Hell, if I’d known you were a lean, mean, killing machine, I would’ve been begging you to come with me, not trying to leave you home with Mommy!”
Tarc gave her a sheepish grin. But then he said quietly, “I’m not real proud of all those guys I killed. I hope you won’t start telling everyone?”
Lizeth stared at him wide-eyed for a moment; then she broke into a grin. A moment later, she doubled over, hand over her mouth as she tried to stifle a fit of laughter.
Getting control of herself, she straightened up, wiped an eye, and said, “Sorry. The guys I hang with bend over backwards to try to get people to think they’re dangerous killers, even if they aren’t. Your request just caught me by surprise is all.” She grinned again, then forced her face to solemnity and gave him a little bow. “Your secret will be safe with me.”
Tarc glanced down at the two bodies, then bent down and pulled his knife out of the closest one. He wiped it carefully on the man’s shirt, appearing to pay particular attention to the junction between the hilt and the tang. “Are we going back now?” he asked.
“Oh hell no! Now that we know their challenge and response, we’re going to take out more of their guards. Finding a bunch of their guards dead’ll take the starch out of the bastards.”
“Um,” Tarc said, “I’m not too excited to just go around killing people.”
“Tarc,” she paused, considering her words, “you need to think about what you just said. First of all, think about what these guys did to the town you used to live in. Think of what they did to the people who lived there, some of them probably your friends. Think of what they’ve done to your life, forcing you onto the road and costing your family its tavern. Then, consider what’s happened to the people on the farms around here, not just the men killed and the women raped or enslaved, but also the heavy taxes they’ve imposed. Finally, think about what’s going to happen to you, your family, and the rest of the people you’ve come to know in the caravan! Unless something is done about these guys, they are going to attack us. We got lucky today… but just think of that stunt a few hours ago, shooting random arrows into the caravan! Women, children, animals, they don’t care! These guys are sick! Somebody needs to do something about them, but Prichard, Norton, and Arco don’t think they can.”
“They can’t, but you think the two of us can?!”
“No, I don’t think we can kill all of them. But I think if we take out some of their guards, it’s going to scare the hell out of them. If they run away,” she shrugged, “problem solved.”
The kid got a distressed expression on his face. He said, “That’s what we thought when they left Walterston.”
She recognized how torn he was, “You heard what you just said, didn’t you? You just made my argument for me!” She put a hand on his shoulder, “Tarc, the world would be better off if they were all dead.”
He looked numb, but nonetheless Tarc nodded at her. She wasn’t sure whether he agreed or just wanted to make her happy. Lizeth said, “Good, I’m going to keep walking on around the farm buildings, waiting to get challenged. You stay a little ways behind me as my backup.”
“Um, I should be in front. When you respond to the challenge in a girl’s voice, they’re gonna know that something’s wrong. You should be backing me up.”
“We need someone stealthy out in front.”
“I followed you here all the way from the caravan.”
She grinned at him in the dim moonlight. He had her there and she’d just as well admit it. “Damn! I guess that must mean you’re stealthy all right. Otherwise it means I suck at watching my six.” She waved her sword in the direction they’d been going, “Okay, you take the lead.”
They started out, Tarc walking quietly along. He said, “I’m just going to walk normally but quietly. If I look like I am trying to sneak up on them it seems much more likely that the guard will attack us without challenging first.”
Deciding that sounded reasonable, Lizeth quietly said, “Okay.”
Lizeth had the distinct impression that Tarc was unsurprised when a man said, “Corn,” from behind a tree trunk about 12 feet in front of him.
Tarc paused and said, “Cob.” He looked around, “You seen anything?” He reached up to scratch his neck.
“Naw,” the guard said, “all I’m seeing is red, dammit. Can you believe that stupid son of a bitch Johnson has got six of us out here standing watches? Like he thinks those pansy caravaners are going to come after us in the middle of the…”
Tarc’s scratching hand had reached down into the back of his shirt, then abruptly shot back out of his shirt and towards the man. As the guard fell over, Lizeth realized that he must keep his knife hidden in a sheath between his shoulders. She walked up and stared at the body. Looking back up at Tarc, she said, “You really can hit them in the eye socket every damned time can’t you?”
Tarc shrugged, “Not if they’re facing the other direction.”
Lizeth snorted. “Well, if this guy
was telling the truth, there’s only three more guards.”
Tarc nodded, quickly retrieved and cleaned his knife, then started walking on around the farm buildings. When they came to the next watch stander, it once again seemed like Tarc was walking directly towards him. You’d think he knew where they were! Tarc responded to the man’s challenge, but kept slowly walking around to the other side of the guy. Sure enough, the guard slowly turned with him, this one also complaining about standing an unnecessary watch. Unfortunately for the guard, this left his back to Lizeth. The man suddenly stepped a little closer to Tarc and began to say, “Wait, who are y…”
Lizeth struck.
Tarc stared at the guard as he lay dying, then at Lizeth for a moment, then walked on. Lizeth could tell he still felt conflicted about what they were doing.
They made a complete circuit of the farmhouse and indeed found and killed a total of six guards. Tarc, looking exhausted, said, “Okay, we headin’ back to the caravan now?”
Lizeth said, “With the guards gone, we should be able to cause a lot more mischief.”
“Like what?” Tarc asked warily.
“Set the farm house and barn on fire.” Lizeth said, her eyes on the small cluster of tents that some of the soldiers were staying in. “I don’t think we can do much to the bastards that are in those tents.”
“The women are in that barn!”
Lizeth turned to stare at him. He’d said it like he knew it, “What makes you think that? Granted, now that you mention it, it seems likely, but how would you know?”
“Um, I don’t…” Tarc said. Lizeth couldn’t know that he’d been able to tell by the shapes of the people in the barn that they were almost all women. “I’ve just been wondering where the women are. The barn is the most likely location, don’t you think?”
“Okay,” Lizeth said slowly, turning to look at the barn, “I suppose you’re probably right.” She looked around, “We can at least set the house on fire.”
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