Page 88 of Arrows and Gems
She would never admit it if she wasn’t.
A few minutes later, they were in the same area they’d been hunting for the last few days. Cap reduced their speed to a standard hunting pace once they arrived, and Helena began searching for trails.
When she finally caught up with a deer, she took the shot without asking. Cap only had a hunting knife, a staff, and a hammer hooked in his belt, after all.
Helena pulled her arrow from the animal while Cap began field-dressing it. She grimaced at the placement. If their archery competition included moving targets, she would lose.
She would simply have to take advantage of their hunting trips to improve that area of her skill.
As Cap was cleaning his knife with some dry leaves, Helena knelt to tie her rope to the deer. Suddenly, her pocket buzzed. She frowned down at it, wondering what bug would be out in the middle of winter, let alone in her pocket.
“Is something wrong?”
Looking up, she saw Cap watching her with shrewd eyes. He knew something.
The buzz came again, accompanied by a prickling sensation on her thigh. Magic.
Stuffing her hand into her pocket, she pulled out the rough piece of mica. It vibrated in her palm, just like when Jean-haut sent a signal through one of his wooden tokens.
“Rouge,” she muttered. “That’s where this came from.”
But Cap had given it to her…
Holding it up, she asked, “Should I know what this message means?”
A grin twitched his mouth before he took it from her. He squeezed it in his palm with a look of intense concentration.
“No. Either the magic or the sender needs work.”
As he handed it back to her, his eyes crinkled. “But Laurent should be the one sending. They’re getting closer.”
~
Each day after that, the magic improved. Jean-haut and Rouge had only created a few objects that could send a signal, but Cap insisted that everyone learn to use them.
He didn’t say why, but Helena knew it was a battle precaution. If the carrier was incapacitated, one of his companions could still send a message.
Several days later, Helena was waiting for a plump doe to step out from behind a tree. They hadn’t found anything the day before, and she’d been following trails all day. Just one more step…
The stone in her pocket began buzzing. Helena tried to block it out, but the pattern was the quick beat of the distress signal.
She frowned. No one was supposed to practice that one unless they were all in camp.
The distress signal repeated, paused, and repeated again. After a beat, it was followed by Adrien’s signature.
And Adrien wouldn’t have sent it by mistake.
Lowering her bow, Helena ripped the stone from her pocket and handed it to Cap. Her heart tried to pound out a matching rhythm. The guards couldn’t have found them, could they? All the way out here?
Cap looked at her quizzically, but then his eyes widened.His head spun to the north. “The boys!”
Trees flew past as Helena sprinted after him. Her breath came in ragged gasps, but she didn’t slow. Cap couldn’t help Adrien and the boys with nothing but a hunting knife, a staff, and a large hammer.
When they reached the area Adrien hunted, Cap slowed. He bent low, searching for the clues he’d made Helena find for the last week and a half. She veered off to one side to expand their coverage.
“Here!” she called in a low voice. “I think I have their trail.”
Cap quickly joined her. They jogged down the path together, eyes and ears alert for danger. Helena was tempted to pull an arrow from her quiver, but running with it wouldn’t be safe.
