The Rogue Lady

Chapter Twenty

    This chapter is a lot longer, that is because in the original draft, there were two different chapters; Chapter 20 and Chapter 20.5. I had already started writing Chapter 21 well I realized it would leave too much out. When editing, I put them together in one wonderfully long chapter. And I added music. I have a handful of songs for some chapters and this is the first one!! Yay!!

     If you find any mistakes, point them out to me =) Map in the external link. Have fun!

     ***

     The sun slowly rose above the trees beyond the camp. Everything was deadly silent as we all hid and waited; it was almost as if everyone was actually asleep in the tents. The illusionary silence made the ruse more believable and that was what we needed right now; for the Queen’s men to believe what wasn’t real. I wasn’t entirely sure how all the trees were able to hold up and hide several thousand outlaws, but I wasn’t questioning it. It was probably magic anyway; I could feel a great amount of it around me, though Eric looked utterly relaxed, which wasn’t normally the case when he used magic.

     As I looked around I noticed that my archers were also taking in as much of their surroundings as they could. All archers at our disposal had been given the best view of camp and would start firing arrows once they had been given the signal. Everyone else had climbed into the other trees and would be the first to fight on foot. After the Bandits, naturally. Eric sat squatted on the branch and shot me a reassuring smile every time I turned to look at him. It kept me from trembling from pain linked both to my uncomfortable squatting position, and to the memory of what I felt before I passed out a few days ago. With that second kind of pain, also came the guilt.

     In the distance, I could hear the soldiers coming closer. They would be here in less than ten minutes judging by the sounds they made. It was that noise that I chose to focus on. Everything else around me easily faded away as I focused on the footsteps of the soldiers gradually coming closer. The battle jitters were finally raging in my stomach. It was a relief to be honest; at least I wasn’t heading into this fight fearless, or empty of any kind of emotion in general.

     After a long enough wait, I heard the first silent footsteps below us and I held my breath. If anyone made a noise right now we would be discovered, and in these trees, we were like sitting ducks. We all held our breaths as we watched and waited. I watched them walk right underneath us; they literally walked right by and didn’t even look up. Through the branches and leaves I could see them all make their way to camp on the tip of their toes. Their armor gleamed like silver in the early sunlight, the red crown on their breastplate standing out clearly. Other parts of their armor were also colored red, solely to display where their alliances lay. It was as if all outlaws held their breaths as they watched the invasion of their camp. The red soldiers walked between the tents without making more than a whisper of noise. Soon enough though, they disappeared into tents and I waited, silently thanking William for pushing me hard enough to make a quick escape to Brightburn last night.

     If I paid close attention, I almost swore I could hear all their swords being unsheathed at once. Or maybe that was the sounds of rebels and Bandits drawing in a sharp breath together. On either side of me, archers had their bows ready; arrows nocked and ready to be fired. I gazed over my shoulder once more at Eric, who nodded at my silent question. I nodded back at him before breathing in softly. Then I whistled; nothing sharp like the way you call a dog, but something soft and almost birdlike. Something that I knew wouldn’t sound suspicious and yet would reach all the way to where Colin was hiding, at the outer edge of the trees.

     Tom, who was closest to me, turned to look at me. His face was a mask determination. I knew he wouldn’t miss a single shot from the moment he fired his first arrow until his quiver was empty. I knew without needing to be told that he would have my back once I was on the ground and he moved on to his second quiver of arrows. Behind him, hidden by even more trees, branches and leaves, I could only just make out Alex’s blond hair. He didn’t turn his gaze away from the campsite once. It was unsettling how he could joke around and suddenly become so serious; but I knew that he would never do anything to put anyone here in unnecessary danger. On my other side were Harper, and then his brother Bram a tad bit further away. Of the two siblings, Bram looked the most nervous. Maybe he was worried that Harper might get hurt again. Not that I was going to let something happen again to any of them. No way. These four young men had my back and protected me, and I would do the same for them. Though I was still glad they would stay in the trees where they were less exposed.