The Hollow Grove: The Companions [Book 2]

[36] Ambush!

Otis had the caravan set to leave on the morning of the second day. 

Wess, Otis, Kayla, and Anyu all purchased saddles at Hawk's Leatherworks in town.  They were nothing like the saddles from Darnell's Custom Saddles back home in Corfé, but it surely beat riding on a blanket. Haygen merely had minor repairs made to Slasher's front and flank cinch.  They said their farewells to Tuppence and she made sure their packs were again filled with food for the road. 

Clay Niven bought a four-horse supply wagon and loaded it with simple provisions for the Druids and the battle effort. Clay, the companions, and one hundred and twelve mercenaries departed Port Bariss just before daybreak. 

Rumblings and dark clouds in the sky foretold of a storm ahead. The harsh wind out of the east blew in their faces and it was only as the caravan set off for Green Haven did the rain begin to spot the companions' garments.

Soon the yew and poplar trees swayed and bent as the sky grew darker.   

Otis said, "Clay, perhaps your counterpart and two of my trusted could ride point?"

The Ranger agreed.  "A wise idea, Otis.  Being we are all mounted, do you think it wise if the wagon rode up front."

"We're only as fast as our slowest man," Otis said.  "I concur."

Clay said, "This rain's going to be a problem."  It was picking up and getting more difficult to hear anything besides the falling of the drops.  They couldn't hear those slight brushes of branches, nor the falling of footsteps.  They could only hear the brewing of the storm. 

Otis and Clay shared their concerns with the trio and to counter the noise, they rode up ahead and halted their Kudakis to use their eyes knowing that they could not lie even in this weather.   

Wess looked through the bedding of green ferns as they would be perfect hiding places.  He tried on his glasses, but it was far too bright for their magical enhancement. 

Thunder rolled in the distance.

Wess sought the tallest tree he could, then leaped up from the back of Dawn and began his climb to the top.  The branches of the poplar was wet, but the Faeling's climbing skills were improved from his time on the Shady Lady.  And here he was again, up in the crows nest seeking danger.  But although he was high up, swaying back and forth, the green canopy of the Anorach forest was all he could see.  "Blast it," he said.  From the east, dark clouds were on fast approach carrying with it lightning and slanted rain. 

As nimbly as he could, he began his descent remembering to keep two points of contact on the branches.  Once low enough, he settled back into his saddle.  "Storm's on its way," Wess told Haygen, "less than an hour.  Couldn't see anything else though."

"The Kudaki are restless," said Anyu trying to settle Rainseeker.  "It's probably the storm."  She slid her bow from her shoulder and brought arrow to string.  Haygen followed suit with Icefang and Wess drew one of his small crossbows. 

They pressed on and the caravan finally met with storm head on.  Rain hammered down and the road turned to pools of muddy water.  The point men narrowed their gap with the caravan and they plodded forward.

When the attack came it was silent and bloody.

Black arrows and darkened crossbow bolts struck the mercenary caravan from both sides of the road.  Without warning and without mercy, in the midst of the storm they were delivered as if from the clouds above like small bolts of angry lightning.  This was followed by a harrowing wail.  A cry many of the mercenaries, and Haygen, knew all too well.  The war cry Orc raiders.