Page 104 of Arrows and Gems
Gathering himself, he began the climb down. He would collect his sword and get his bearings. Then he would work his way back to the clearing.
And hopefully, he would find that at least some of his friends had survived his mistakes.
CHAPTER 36
Helena
The fight was lost before it began, but it went from bad to worse after Jean-haut threw Cap to safety. He was their best fighter. Without him, the remaining outlaws were quickly overcome.
Helena crouched on her branch, her bow in its sheath and the lid fastened over her quiver so she wouldn’t be tempted. It went against every fiber of her being to sit by and watch while the guards hunted down her friends, bound them, and prepared to lead them away. But both her arrows and Cap’s had been blown off course during the fight. She had no doubt it would happen again if she tried to free her friends right now.
Besides, there were too many enemies. She didn’t have enough arrows to take them all out.
So she did what she was worst at and waited.
Eventually, the injured had all received basic aid. Those who could walk were roped together; those who couldn’t were thrown over a shoulder. Then the guards marched them down the mountain, calling threats and jerking the rope if anyone resisted.
Helena began a slow count to one thousand. She wanted to chase after Cap, but she trusted that Jean-haut had sent him someplace safe. Since she didn’t know where, she would waste precious hours searching for him. Better to follow the guards and try to free their captives tonight.
She had no doubt Cap could take her to the capital. But if the Amitian castle was anything like the Ralnoran one, staging a jailbreak from its dungeon would be much more difficult than breaking into a village garrison.
Helena quickly descended to the lowest branch on the tree. Sitting down, she wrapped her hands around it and flipped off the way Tucker had taught her, landing lightly on her feet. She glanced around the scattered remains of their camp. Only half the tents had been carried away, and numerous bags littered the clearing. No bodies, thank the heavens, but the guards might have hauled away any dead.
Jogging to her tent, she grabbed her satchel and double-checked her spare provisions. Enough for a day or two; she would need to find a village and restock. But she’d kept a few coins from their last raid. She would be fine.
Tracking her friends was simple at first. The guards didn’t expect pursuit, and their prisoners had no incentive to move carefully. They may as well have been a herd of cattle stampeding down the mountainside.
But when the trees thinned, so did the trail. Wagon tracks led across the ground, making for the road she and her small group had crossed that morning. Helena increased her speed to a jog. They would move faster with horse-drawn wagons, and the road would obscure their trail.
The moon helped to light her way, but after three hours of alternating between a jog and a walk, Helena was forced to admit defeat. After hiking all day and the adrenaline of the short battle, she didn’t have the energy to walk all night. Either she’d missed their camp, or the guards were traveling farther than she could without rest.
Slipping off the road, Helena found a tree with a decent amount of shelter. She hadn’t grabbed a tent, so she pulled a blanket out of her satchel, wrapped it around herself, and curledup next to the tree. It was cold, but not quite as cold as the night she followed Cap and Jean-haut from Marielle’s house.
Marielle. Her mind caught on her cousin for a moment, wondering if she had kept Helena’s secret or if she had written to Axel, despite Helena’s letter. Would her brother be lurking in the capital, waiting for her to surface? She hoped not; if she failed to free her friends before then, she would have a jailbreak to plan. Not to mention finding the proof to restore Prince Raphael so that he could pardon Cap.
Her thoughts circled back to her friend. The last time she spent a night like this, she’d been afraid to ask him for shelter. But as she drifted into an uneasy sleep, his hazel eyes, burning with intensity as his lips lowered to hers, lingered in her mind.
Curse General Valentin for not waiting ten seconds longer to launch his attack!
~
“Miss? Miss, are you all right?”
A strange man came into focus as Helena blinked her eyes, trying to gain her bearings. Then her mind pulled free of her troubled dreams, and it all came back.
The attack. Cap whisked through the trees. Following her captive friends.
Shooting upright, she reached for her bow. But the blanket tangled around her feet, making her stumble.
The man’s hand shot out and caught her arm. It kept her upright, but she jerked away. “I don’t need to be rescued.”
“My mistake.” His eyebrows rose. “Guess I drew the wrong conclusion about a young woman alone in the woods in the middle of February.”
She took a moment to examine him as she collected herself. His clothes were old and patched, but they were neat and clean. A short beard surrounded his mouth, and bushysideburns covered the sides of his kind-looking face. He was probably a little younger than her father.
“I’m sorry.” Lowering her arms, she tried to appear relaxed. “I was separated from my companions, and I’m a little jumpy.”
“That’s understandable.” He gestured toward the road. “With Le Capuchon in the area, we’re all a little on edge. Is he the reason you’re lost?”
