Page 62 of Arrows and Gems
Freezing, he listened for sounds of danger and felt for a breeze. All was still, but Jean-haut’s message pulsed again.
Danger. Return to camp immediately.
Spinning on his heel, Cap sprinted back the way he’d come. Startling his prey was no longer a concern. He needed to help his people before they became prey themselves.
Gasping for breath, he broke through the trees into the clearing. Half the tents were down. Jean-haut barked out orders as he scrambled to dismantle the clearly unnatural table and pack at the same time. The horses and slower members of thegroup had already disappeared into the trees, so Cap headed for his lieutenant.
“What’s the situation?” he gasped. His lungs ached for breath, but he lifted his chest instead of hunching over his knees like he wanted to. He needed to display a strong face for his band. Some of them must be terrified after the warning Jean-haut had sent out.
“Laurent spotted a member of the guard,” Jean-haut replied sharply, eyes scanning the mix of order and disarray in front of them. “Just one, but he was mounted.”
“Are all the hunters back?”
The forester snapped a sharp nod. “Two of them had split off on their own, but they arrived just before you did. Rouge already took the food supplies. The tents are all that’s left.”
“I’m on it.”
Dashing off, Cap joined the others in ripping up tent pegs and rolling canvas. It had been a long time since they’d had to flee because of a guard sighting.
They should have moved as soon as he and Jean-haut returned from interrogating the traitor. He never should have lingered near the Lancée lands.
Cap slung his pack onto his shoulders. He could scold himself later. First, he needed to get his people to safety.
There was no time for a head count. But Jean-haut said all the hunters had returned, and there was no one left in the clearing. He would ease his mind once it was safe to rest. For now, he needed to run.
~
It had been a very, very long time since Cap had run for so long. Maybe he should add it to his daily training.
After several breaths to regain his wind, he filtered his way through the crowd. He exchanged words of encouragementwith Laurent’s hunters, then stopped to reassure Tucker. The fifteen-year-old’s face was pale, and his eyes were wide. He’d run from guards the day they met Margit, but that had been an expected adventure for him; this was his first time fleeing the supposed safety of their camp.
“What will we do if they find us, Cap?” the boy whimpered. “I was on their watch list for stealing before I joined you. They won’t need proof that I’ve been on any of your raids; my past and our association will be enough for them.”
Cap put a rare hand on Tucker’s shoulder, remembering the terrified boy he’d found crouched behind some barrels a few months earlier. “They won’t catch us, Tucker. Once we leave the area, it will take them weeks to find us again. And with lookouts posted farther out, we’ll have plenty of notice the next time.”
The teenager looked uncertain, but he nodded. “I trust you, Cap. You haven’t let us down yet.”
Yet. With every wrong choice he made, the day he failed them was rapidly approaching.
Tucker looked past him. “Where’s Margit? I thought she’d be with you.”
Thinking of her in Tucker’s presence recalled the scene his young friend had recently witnessed. Cap could feel heat rising to his cheeks, but he stubbornly pushed it away by refocusing on the current crisis. He didn’t need Margit’s shining green eyes or soft red lips distracting him. “I haven’t seen her. The horses were already gone when I returned to camp, and I stayed at the back as our rearguard.”
“But Margit wasn’t ahead of me,” Tucker replied with a frown. “Not on a horse, anyway.”
“She wasn’t—” The blood drained from Cap’s face as his eyes darted around the surrounding people. Margit could barely walk. If she hadn’t ridden, then where was she?
His weariness dropped away as he ran for the front of thegroup. “Margit!” he called out. “Has anyone seen Margit?”
“Cap?” Rouge appeared at his side. “What’s the yelling about?”
He grabbed her shoulders. “Where’s Margit? Tuck says she wasn’t on the horses.”
His friend’s eyebrows pulled together. “I haven’t seen her since that tussle with you.” Her voice turned a little tight on those words. “After Laurent charged into camp yelling about a guard, I was too busy gathering supplies to worry about her. I didn’t even break down our tent or grab our belongings.”
“You hadn’t sent her away from camp?”
Rouge shook her head. “No, I gave her some time off before lunch.”
