34 – Fear

  The road south of Westview sloped upward to highlands bordered by sheer cliffs that overlooked the sea. The ground was hard and rocky, and the only thing that set the road apart from the surrounding terrain were the ruts that had worn away the grass; there were no cobbles or berms, and only occasional road markers confirmed that a person hadn’t wandered off on some goat farmer’s trail.

  “Should’ve said north,” he grunted to no one in particular, looking out at the gray skies over the likewise gray, churning, wind-blown waves of the sea. He couldn’t see the coastline; they were half a mile or more from the cliff’s edge, but he could see the water out in the distance, and it didn’t look inviting.

  Haley hurried her steps for a moment to come up beside him. “What?”

  “I should’ve said my ‘friend’ lived north of Westview ‘cause there are forests and hills up that way—easier to set up an ambush.”

  “We’ll descend out of the highlands in a dozen miles or so,” Lisa said from his other side. Her cheeks were flushed with the brisk pace and the cold weather, but she was keeping up just fine.

  Before leaving town that morning, they’d made a show of having a loud discussion in the hotel lobby about how angry Ward was at his ‘friend’ and how they were going to track him south. Ward hoped rumors would spread and, in addition to the note Lisa had sent to her mentor, Mr. Thiel, he figured they had a good chance of drawing a violent response out of Dame Ruby LaVore. He only had vague inklings of what he’d do after turning the tables on her ambushers, but he felt confident that doing so would be a good first step.

  “If I were them,” he mused aloud, “I’d ride us down after dark. They know we’re on foot, so they won’t be in a big hurry.”

  Haley shook her head. “If Keene hires more men like the ones he sent to the hotel, they’re liable to try killing us in broad daylight. If other travelers are near, they might just kill them too.”

  “Nah,” Ward kicked a stone off the trail, “Keene’s going to get an earful about that sloppy burglary. He’s going to stress caution and secrecy. I really won’t be too surprised if he rides along to ensure his mess gets cleaned up. I’m hoping for it.”

  Lisa nodded, taking a skipping extra step to keep pace with Ward. “Keene’s a fancy man now, but he made his name by doing dirty work with his own hands.” Realizing he’d started walking faster in his eager anticipation, Ward slowed his pace a little.

  “Even better.” Ward felt good—he hadn’t had a chance to shave, and the cold, sometimes rain-flecked breeze felt good on his face. He could smell so much more in the wind than he used to be able to. There were some obvious scents that he might have noticed in his old life—wood smoke, salt on the air, and the damp smell of moistened earth—but there were also new scents like stone and metal, distant whiffs of woods and grass and the wild creatures that lived in places the wind had passed through. It was enough to keep him entertained as they traveled, and he found himself sympathizing with dogs that wanted to stop and sniff as their owners simply wanted to hurry up and finish their walks.

  Lisa was right about the change in the terrain. After walking into the early afternoon, they started losing elevation, and Ward could see sparse woods and occasional plots of farmland ahead in the distance. As they wound their way down out of the highlands, he caught sight of a burned-out copse of trees and, at their far edge, a half-burned house or lodge of some sort. He grinned at the sight and pointed. “How long do you figure it’ll take us to get there?”

  “Another hour or so,” Haley guessed.

  “Not bad. That’ll give us some time to prepare, but darkness has been coming early, so we ought to hurry.”

  “You want to use the structure for our ambush?” Lisa asked.

  “Yeah. We’ll light a fire in the old hearth. Anyone coming down this road is going to see it.” Ward barked a short laugh. “Hopefully, we don’t draw more bandits than we bargained for.”

  Once they’d descended the winding road through the craggy, barren hills, the hike to the little burned grove of trees and the old house took a little longer than Haley had guessed. The turf was damp, and their feet sank inches into it, which was both good and bad as far as Ward was concerned—good because it left a clear trail indicating one large man and two smaller people hiked off the road, and bad because it was damn rough going.

  The soil firmed up before they got to the burned trees, and Ward paused to have a look around. It almost seemed like the trees had been an orchard. They were too orderly to have been part of a natural forest at one point. Deep ruts between the trees confirmed his suspicion—they had to have been used for watering. “What kind of trees are these?”

  “I’m not sure,” Lisa said, reaching up to break off a blackened branch. “Pear? Apple?”

  Haley nodded. “I think apple.”

  “Let’s check out the house.” Ward led the way, and they found the place to be mostly ruined, though the four stone walls and the old hearth still stood. If they were going to make camp there, they’d need to spend some time hauling out burned timbers and sweeping away the piles of old, damp ashes, so Ward unslung his pack and shrugged out of his jacket. “This’ll take a while to get looking how we want it.”

  Lisa kicked a hunk of charred wood, sending it skittering through the debris. “Are we really going to camp here?”

  “We’re going to set up camp, and we can pile the debris in the doorways and in front of the windows, making it hard for our pursuers to see what’s happening inside. Meanwhile, we’ll be hiding outside, ready to catch ‘em with their pants down.”

  “Oof,” she sighed, grasping Haley’s shoulder, “it’s going to be a cold night.”

  Haley grinned fiercely. “I’ll be hot—going to run through my Gopah forms a few times.”

  “Cheater.”

  “You can hide with Ward.” Haley's eyes narrowed, and her grin turned mischievous. “He’s warm.”

  “All right, all right,” Ward sighed, gesturing to the mess in front of the old, soot-blackened hearth. “Let’s clear this mess out.”

  Ward was thankful that Lisa didn’t comment on Haley’s remark, and he nudged Haley with his elbow as the other woman stepped out of the ruined structure to remove her backpack. “Are you trying to fill in for Grace or something?”

  Her eyes widened, and she put a palm before her mouth. “Sorry, Ward; it just came out!”

  He chuckled and shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.” The truth was that he was happy to see her smiling and joking around. He’d brought up Grace, though, which reminded him of the little nagging worry in the back of his mind. Was she gone for good? Had he hurt her somehow? Shrugging the thought aside, he stepped up to a half-burned wooden beam that once must have held the roof in place. He stooped to grab it and, with a grunt, hauled one end up so he could drag it toward the door. “Pile junk here.”

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  The three of them made good time cleaning out a large section of ash-covered flagstones in front of the hearth, and while he and Lisa continued moving and piling debris in front of doors and windows as planned, Haley worked on cleaning out the chimney flue and starting a fire. It was getting dark by the time they had the space cleared the way they wanted, and then Ward guided the other two toward his vision of the perfect trap.

  They set up their packs near the fire, and then, using broken boards, half-burned furnishings, and clumps of branches and twigs to simulate their bodies, they laid out blankets in a semi-circle before the hearth. Ward even propped up an old broken chair, covered it with his blanket, and put his hat atop a stick so it looked like he might be sitting there, keeping watch while the other two slept. When they finished, the three stood back and examined their handiwork.

  Lisa wiped soot off her hands onto her trousers. “I think it looks convincing. Surely, it will be from the windows or up on the wall if someone climbs over.”

  “Especially in the dark,” Haley added.

  “Yeah.” Ward picked up his sword belt and jacket. “It’ll work, but mainly because people like those coming after us will feel confident and superior. In their minds, they’re the hunters, and we’re just unaware idiots chasing after the wrong guy.” He squeezed through a narrow gap in the pile of burned wood and ash they’d put before the door, eager to get out into the cold night air.

  Lisa was the first to follow him out. “Where will we lie in wait?”

  “You should be with me or Haley in case there are a lot of them or some break off early and charge after us.”

  “I’m not helpless—”

  “No, I wasn’t saying that. It’s just that Haley and I are a good deal sturdier than you. You can’t deny that. Honestly, after I throw my spells and fire my two bullets, I’m going to charge into the fight, so maybe you’d be better off with Haley.”

  “I don’t think so, Ward.” Haley had stepped out of the house in the middle of their conversation. “I’ll be going for their support—archers and those with alchemical firearms. If Lisa stays by you, at least when you charge, they’ll be distracted by you.”

  Ward shrugged. “I’ll leave it up to you, Lisa.”

  She nodded slowly, her eyes distant, perhaps imagining the upcoming scene. “I’ll hide near you, then.”

  “Haley, you find a place to hide over there,” Ward pointed toward the back of the house. “We’ll hide that way.” He gestured toward the burned-out orchard through which they’d come. “I want to take them from behind.”

  Haley nodded, peering into the darkness of the grove. “You’re hoping Keene will be along. He won’t lead the charge into the house.”

  “Yeah,” Ward grunted.

  “I’m off then. I want to do my Gopah, and they might come anytime now.”

  Ward watched as Haley turned and jogged off into the darkness. He worried about her, but the last few fights had proven she could handle herself. “Come on.” He turned and trudged into the darkness of the burned orchard. Both he and Lisa wore dark gray clothing, and Ward’s jacket would cover the shiny bits of metal on his pistol and sword hilt. He glanced at Lisa. “Make sure your rapier doesn’t reflect their lights as they approach.”

  “You think they’ll use lights?”

  “Maybe not.” Ward glanced up at the sky. It was pitch-black. “Thick clouds. No moonlight.”

  “They may use alchemical mixtures to provide night vision.”

  Ward’s blood went cold as he contemplated the complications magic and alchemy could introduce into his plan. “Shit. I didn’t think of that. Is it likely?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so. Such things are costly, and, as you said, they think they’re going to take us unawares.”

  “Yeah, but the guy who robbed me had an alchemical bomb. They might—shit!” Ward cussed, frustrated at his lack of foresight. “We need to hide better than I’d planned. If they can see in the dark half as well as I can, they’ll spot us if we just hang in the shadows.”

  “It’s okay, Ward. We have time.” Lisa gripped his wrist, and he found the touch steadying. “Look,” she pointed toward the distant road where it climbed into the hills. “I can’t see any lights, can you?”

  Ward didn’t need any lights; he could see the road where it wound into the rocky hills up toward the highlands. It was shaded in grays, but it was clear to him—nobody was approaching. “Yeah. Okay. We’ve got some time.” He nodded and flashed Lisa a smile. “Come on, start gathering branches.”

  While Lisa found dead branches on the ground and dragged them over, Ward walked to the blackened trees, broke off more, and even knocked over a couple of smaller, burned trees. With all of those materials, they built a blind of sorts between the rows of dead trees. To a casual observer, it might look like someone had made an effort to clean up the damage before giving up. To the average criminal, Ward figured it probably wouldn’t even register. He wasn’t so sure about Keene, though, so Ward took another twenty minutes to build similar, if smaller, structures around the grove nearby.

  Every few minutes, he paused and stared toward the road, letting his lycan night vision do its job. He saw a solo traveler once, but he watched the man proceed down the road, only glancing toward the fire-lit structure once before continuing on. After he built the fourth such pile of branches, however, he saw, high on the road, a line of seven bright lights moving fast up in the hills. He hurried back to Lisa and squatted down in their little shelter. “They’re coming, I think.”

  “How many?”

  “Not sure. Seven lanterns or lamps or whatever people use on horses around here.”

  “Horses? You’re sure?”

  “Unless the guys carrying those lights were something like eight feet tall and sprinting, then yeah.”

  “Well, we can hope there are only seven, but…” Lisa frowned and shook her head. “I don’t think it’s likely that all of them would have a light.”

  Ward nodded. “Don’t worry, when they get a little closer, I’ll be able to see them.”

  “Should we re-evaluate? Can we take so many?”

  Ward shrugged. “We’ll have the drop on ‘em. Between the two of us, we’ve got five Mana Bolts—Haley’s good for two or three regular fighters. I’ll clean up whatever’s left. You just hang back and play defense.” As Lisa mulled over his words, Ward stood and peered toward the distant, bobbing lights. “Seven lights,” he counted again, “and, yeah, some shadows between them. I think I see four more. Eleven riders. Probably five minutes from leaving the road, then they gotta cross that bog.”

  “Perhaps they’ll leave their horses.”

  “Yeah, maybe. Shit, if we’re lucky, they’ll leave someone behind to watch ‘em.”

  “Can you fight men without killing them, Ward?”

  He squatted down and gave Lisa a look, arching an eyebrow. “What the hell do you mean by that?”

  She smiled a bit wanly and reached toward him again, gripping his wrist. “I mean, I’ve not seen you take a prisoner before. I’m not trying to be insulting—it’s just you fight with a certain…brutality.”

  “Tell you what: if I spot Keene, I’ll point him out to you. You take him down without killing him. Can you do that?”

  Lisa nodded. “I can.”

  Ward stood and looked again, confirming his earlier count. “Yep, eleven.”

  “They’re going to be very confident with those numbers.”

  Ward nodded grimly. “That’s the hope.”

  “Is—is it normal to be afraid at a time like this? You never seem afraid…”

  Ward looked at her, his bloody thoughts of vengeance and justice suddenly blown from his mind by the chilling breeze of Lisa’s genuine fear. He squatted beside her and took her hands in his. “It’s normal to be afraid, yeah. Listen, I’ve been in the shit a lot of times in my life, so I’m a little bit unusual, I guess. We picked the location. We’re going to pick the time. That gives me comfort. I intend to take out more than half of those guys before they even know there’s a fight going on, so yeah, I’m confident. I also know I can count on you and Haley.”

  Lisa’s hands were cold, and her nose and cheeks were flushed. Ward could hardly feel the chill, especially after dragging branches all over the place, so he shrugged out of his coat and hung it over her shoulders. Unfortunately, he hadn’t had a chance to pick up his new armored vest yet, but he wasn’t worried. He was a goddamn werewolf, and if those assholes shot him or cut him, he’d heal. “Just be ready. It’s okay to be scared, but it’s not okay to freeze up. Just remember that. You have to keep moving—press the attack or retreat, but don’t stand around like a rabbit.”

  Lisa nodded, reaching up to fasten the top two buttons of his coat so it hung on her like a cloak. “Your coat is so warm! Thank you, Ward.” She smiled, and it was endearingly timid. It made Ward want to hug her close, but enemies were approaching, and he needed to keep her head in the game.

  “We’ve got this, yeah? Think about how you’d be if you were them. They know they outnumber us almost three to one. They think we’re in that little house, camping through the night. If they’re not idiots, they’ll spread out for their approach, see this empty grove and the fire flickering through the gaps in those stone walls, and think we’re surrounded. When we attack, and they start dying, they’re going to shit their pants. We’re in charge here—remember that.”

  Ward was speaking in a low tone, nearly a whisper, and as he finished, he heard the whinny of a horse and instinctively tilted his nose into the air, sniffing. Sure enough, he smelled them—animal sweat, masculine musk, tobacco, gunpowder, and, to his delight, something else. “They’re not ready for us, Lisa,” he whispered, “Keene might have hired some hard men, but he also has some raw, untested ones out there.”

  “How can you tell?”

  Ward grinned at her, his lupine eyes glinting in the dark, perhaps reflecting the firelight coming from the cabin. “Because I can smell their fear.”