Chapter 203: The Man Behind the Quarry

Arthur brought Whisperwind up as the second bolt struck the wagon.

The two crossbowmen were still on the rock shelf. One had ducked behind the ledge, already reaching for the crank to reload. The other was struggling to reset his weapon, his upper body exposed between the pine branches.

Arthur focused Eagle Eye on him and released.

The arrow struck the man’s throat. He dropped his crossbow and toppled backward against the rocks before disappearing over the edge.

His companion abandoned the winch and flattened himself behind the ledge.

Down on the road, Emily stomped her heavy boot into the chest of the guard she had knocked down, driving the air out of him before he could reach his dropped sword.

Mira’s broadsword flashed. She took a third guard in the shoulder, stepped inside his reach, and drove the heavy iron pommel into his face. The fourth guard backed away, took one look at the bodies, and bolted toward the tree line.

"More coming!" Garrick shouted from the brush, his daggers drawn. "They’re pouring out of the sheds!"

Felix kept his shield angled toward the cliffs and grabbed the uninjured prisoner by the collar. "Get up."

The man scrambled to his feet, pulling at his bound wrists. Emily drew a combat knife and sliced the ropes off both captives.

The injured prisoner tried to stand and immediately collapsed with a sharp cry. His right leg was bent at an unnatural angle just below the knee.

"He can’t walk," Felix said.

The uninjured man looked frantically from Felix to Emily. "Who are you?"

"Hunters," Arthur called down from the slope, keeping an arrow nocked as he watched the rock shelf. "We found your wagon."

"The back trail is too steep to carry him," Garrick said, stepping out of the brush. "And the whole camp is coming."

Arthur looked at the stolen wagon. Felix had already slammed his shield into the driver, leaving the man unconscious across the wooden bench. The two draft horses were stamping nervously, spooked by the blood and shouting.

"Put him in the back," Arthur said, sliding down the scree to the road. "Garrick, take the reins."

Felix and Emily grabbed the injured merchant by the belt and shoulders, hauling him over the wooden tailgate. He screamed, but they didn’t stop to apologize. Felix vaulted up beside him, his tower shield covering the exposed rear.

Garrick shoved the unconscious driver onto the floorboards. He stripped a hunting knife from the man’s belt and used the cut lengths of prisoner rope to quickly bind his wrists. Then he grabbed the reins and cracked them hard. The horses jerked forward.

Mira and Emily ran alongside the wheels. Arthur took the high ground just above the road, tracking parallel to the wagon as they rolled toward the junction.

As the wagon rattled around a sharp curve lined with jagged quarry stone, four men on horseback rode out from a side trail, completely cutting off the route. Three more bandits scrambled up the rocks on either side, drawing weapons.

They had men watching the other roads too. Arthur had badly underestimated how much ground Kaelen’s Company controlled.

Garrick hauled back on the reins, pulling the wagon to a violent, sliding halt.

A large man in a heavy, fur-lined coat sat on the lead horse. He held a thick steel mace resting casually against his thigh. He was the same man Arthur had seen barking orders near the sheds. Kaelen had used the rear escape track to circle ahead of them.

The uninjured merchant peered over the edge of the wagon bed. His face went completely white. "That’s him. That’s Kaelen."

Arthur stopped in the trees above the road and sighted down his arrow.

Finally. There’s the bastard.

Kaelen surveyed the stolen wagon, the armed hunters surrounding it, and the two prisoners in the back.

"Leave the wagon," Kaelen called out, his voice carrying easily over the snorting horses. "Leave the merchants. Walk away."

Arthur had Whisperwind trained on Kaelen’s chest, but one of the mounted men moved across his line of fire. The bastard was already bringing a crossbow around toward the wagon.

Arthur adjusted his aim and released.

The arrow struck the man through the eye, knocking him backward out of the saddle. His foot caught in the stirrup, and the frightened horse dragged him several feet before he came loose.

"Take the archer!" Kaelen roared.

Kaelen spurred his horse toward the cover of a massive limestone boulder, using the terrain to cut off Arthur’s firing angle. His men scattered immediately, diving behind the stone walls lining the quarry road.

Two bandits rushed the left side of the wagon. Emily met the first one head-on. She ducked a wild axe swing, drove a gauntlet into his ribs, and shoved his staggering body directly into Mira’s path. Mira’s broadsword opened his chest in one clean arc.

Crossbow bolts snapped from the rocks above.

Felix planted his boots in the wagon bed, raising his shield over the merchants. A bolt buried itself in the heavy wood of the tailgate. Another sparked off Felix’s iron rim.

Arthur drew Whisperwind. He tracked a bandit scrambling up the right side of the embankment, trying to get a downward angle on Mira.

Before Arthur could release, Kaelen’s horse burst out from behind the boulder, charging straight at the wagon. Kaelen swung his heavy mace, aiming to smash Garrick right off the driver’s bench.

Arthur snapped his aim down and fired.

The arrow caught Kaelen’s horse in the neck. The animal shrieked and pitched forward, collapsing heavily into the dirt.

Kaelen threw himself from the saddle before the horse crushed him, hitting the ground in a fluid roll. He came up behind the dead horse, completely shielded from Arthur’s line of sight.

The bandit on the ridge fired his crossbow. The bolt grazed Mira’s shoulder, ripping through her leather armor. She grunted, staggering backward as another attacker rushed her.

Arthur couldn’t hit Kaelen through the horse carcass. Kaelen stayed low, shouting orders, directing two more men to flank the wagon from the blind side.

Arthur triggered Shadow Step.

He dissolved into smoke, slipping rapidly down the embankment, and reformed behind a jagged pillar of quarry stone ten yards from Kaelen. The new angle exposed the captain’s flank.

Arthur drew and fired.

Kaelen caught the movement at the last moment. He ducked behind the dead horse, and Arthur’s arrow struck the ground where his shoulder had been.

"You slippery fucker!" Kaelen shouted.

Arthur shifted to get another angle, but Kaelen was already moving. The captain came around the horse with his mace raised, closing the distance before Arthur could finish his next draw.

Arthur fired anyway.

The arrow struck Kaelen high in the shoulder. He grunted and stumbled, but kept coming. Arthur barely got out of the way as the mace smashed into the stone beside him, sending chips across the dirt.

Shit.

Arthur backed away, trying to open enough distance for another shot. Kaelen followed immediately, keeping too close for him to use the bow properly.

Arthur drew his knife as the captain swung again. He ducked beneath the heavy head of the mace and moved toward Kaelen’s side, but the man twisted with him, catching Arthur across the ribs with his shoulder.

The impact knocked Arthur off balance. He planted his left hand against the ground to keep from falling, and pain shot through his healing wrist.

Kaelen hauled the mace back.

Arthur scrambled away before the next blow landed. The weapon struck the ground hard enough to send dirt across his boots.

"Stay the fuck down!" Kaelen snarled, stepping after him.

Near the wagon, Mira caught her attacker’s blade on her crossguard, twisted hard, and drove her boot into his knee. As he folded, she slammed her pommel into his temple, dropping him completely.

Emily hit Kaelen from the side.

She drove her gauntlet into his jaw, knocking him away from Arthur. Kaelen swung blindly at her, but she caught his weapon arm and forced it down with both hands.

"Arthur!"

He had already dropped his knife. Arthur brought Whisperwind up and pulled the string back as Kaelen struggled against Emily’s grip.

Emily shoved the captain away from her.

Arthur fired.

The arrow struck Kaelen in the throat. He staggered backward, dropping his mace as both hands flew toward the shaft. Blood spilled down the front of his coat, and he collapsed beside the dead horse.

The fighting didn’t stop instantly, but it broke the bandits’ coordination.

Garrick drove a dagger through the throat of a man trying to climb the wagon wheel. Mira severed the hand of the last guard pushing her. Seeing Kaelen dead on the road, the surviving bandits broke and fled into the trees, scrambling back toward the safety of the main camp.

Arthur retrieved his knife from the dirt and sheathed it before approaching Kaelen’s body. The captain lay staring blankly at the sky, his hands still clutching the arrow shaft.

Arthur knelt beside him. He pulled open the bloody, fur-lined coat and searched the inner pockets. His fingers brushed a heavy leather pouch secured to Kaelen’s belt.

He ripped it loose and opened the drawstrings.

Inside sat a jagged piece of black metal, cold to the touch and covered in archaic runic carvings.

Veiled Knife Key II.

Arthur closed his fist around it.

Fucking finally.

He slipped the key into his own pocket and stood up.

Emily was standing a few yards away, breathing hard, rubbing her bruised ribs. She watched him pocket the item.

"Find something?" she asked, her voice raspy.

"Yeah," Arthur said.

Felix lowered his shield. Several fresh dents marked the iron face, and a deep scratch ran along one edge. He looked over the edge of the tailgate at the prisoners. The injured man had passed out from the pain, his leg lying at a terrifying angle. The other merchant was shaking uncontrollably but unhurt.

"Everyone alive?" Felix asked the group.

Mira inspected the bloody tear in her shoulder armor. "I’ll live."

Garrick wiped his daggers and sheathed them. "They’re going to regroup when the rest of the camp gets here. We need to move."

Arthur glanced back toward the quarry road. The bandits who had fled would be returning with reinforcements soon enough.

"Get us out of here, Garrick," Arthur said.

Garrick climbed back onto the driver’s bench and grabbed the reins. Arthur vaulted into the back of the wagon next to Felix. Emily and Mira climbed up after him, their weapons still drawn.

Garrick cracked the reins, guiding the heavy wagon carefully around the dead horse and abandoned mounts, and drove them out of the quarry.