The Hunters (The Silverleaf Chronicles Book 3) by Vincent Trigili

Author:Vincent Trigili [Trigili, Vincent]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-07-21T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

About an hour had passed when the first sounds of the squad could finally be heard coming down the trail, giving further support to my suspicion that the birds were being used as scouts by the fiends’ masters. My reasoning was that the squad apparently had no advance scouts, which would be a foolish omission out here. The soldiers of the Fifth Council didn’t seem to be that stupid, meaning the birds had to be their scouts. As crazy an idea as that seemed, it was the only one which made sense.

As they passed, it became apparent that the planned rescue would be a lot harder than I’d hoped. There were three dozen men marching in formation around a dozen female prisoners. The women had their wrists bound, and a rope went from each of them to the next, connecting them at the waist. They appeared unharmed so far, but this would be no simple matter of sneaking into the enemy camp to rescue a couple of people. We’d have to fight the whole squad.

I watched them go by, noting weapons, armor and positions. They appeared well trained, disciplined and organized. Their armor was a mixture of plate and leather, which seemed to be an attempt to find a balance between the superior protection of the full plate of cavalry and the more maneuverable and comfortable leather armor of scouts.

After they’d passed out of earshot, I climbed down and gestured to Jalin and Kaylissa. They slipped out of their hiding places and joined me under cover of the trees. I watched the sky to see if any more birds would appear but saw none.

“A dozen hostages: that complicates things,” I said.

“More wives and daughters of the farmers,” said Jalin.

“Do you recognize any of them?” I asked.

“Yes, a few; my wife and daughter were both there and appeared unharmed,” he replied.

Kaylissa said, “That kills any idea that we can just grab them and run.”

I nodded. “Jalin, any chance those ladies will be good in a fight?”

Kaylissa chuckled.

“What’s funny?” I asked.

“I’ve corrupted you,” she said with a wide grin.

Jalin watched the exchange in a confused manner, and replied, “Not likely.”

“What do you mean?” I asked Kaylissa.

“Most human women aren’t warriors. Indeed, very few women of the civilized races are,” she said.

“There are exceptions,” protested Jalin.

“Of course, but not in that crew,” she said.

“So we have a dozen liabilities,” I said. That was bad; indeed, the only way it could be worse is if one or more of them had delusions of grandeur and tried to help us fight.

“Maybe not,” said Jalin carefully.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I noticed a couple of things that give me hope. First, the women have been well taken care of. These men apparently have been instructed to make sure the women arrive undamaged, which makes the hostages more of a liability to them than to us. Second, my wife is out in front.”

“What difference does that make?” I asked.

“She’s a natural leader. I suspect that by now the other women are looking to her for protection and guidance.

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