Jalia At Bay (Book 4) (15 page)

“I didn’t win much last night,” she answered cheerily. “I even lost on some hands.”

“Are you ill?” Daniel asked half seriously. It wasn’t so much her not winning that worried him, but her cheerfulness over such an outcome was a little frightening.

“They were cagey with their bets. Apparently, some idiot told them I was good at Fade. We’ve got days on the road with them and I plan to take all their money. I just have to persuade them they have a chance of winning first.” Jalia spun on her heels and headed across the camp.

Daniel grinned. That was the Jalia he knew and loved. He wasn’t sure these experienced businessmen would be as easy to fleece as she thought, but if anybody could do it, it would be her.

When they approached the river’s edge, the party saw that the journey across was not going to be as easy as they imagined. The river was three hundred feet wide at this point and the water was flowing about as fast as Daniel had ever seen water flow. It would have been impossible to swim across.

From a distance, the broken segment of the bridge in the water looked intact and the water only a couple of inches deep. So it was, at the banks. However, the bridge sank down towards the middle of the river and had cracked in two at its center. It would be necessary to wade across.

“The donkeys can’t swim with their packs on and they’ll drown if they get swept off the roadway wearing them,” Daniel explained to Hadon and Tonas who were looking at the fast moving water in alarm. “We need to walk the bags across. Then we bring the donkeys and the horses.”

“That will take all day,” Hadon complained.

“I can’t see any other choice,” Grilt said. Grilt had walked up as Daniel was talking. “The other side looks like another good place for an ambush. It would be best if Tel and I went ahead and scouted around while you bring over the goods.”

That sounded like an excellent plan to Daniel, but Hadon was having none of it. “Two fewer hands will mean somebody has to do four crossings. I want you to carrying the bags with the rest of us. There aren’t enough travelers on this road to warrant two groups of robbers.”

Grilt gave Daniel a shake of his head which Daniel acknowledged. Hadon made a good point, but it was only a debating point. Grilt’s plan would have given them protection against the unexpected.

“You can forget it, Daniel,” Jalia said as soon as he mentioned the possibility of her carrying one of the bags of swords. “They aren’t my property.”

“You offered my donkeys to them quickly enough.”

“And you came with that, as the muscle. I shall supervise your efforts.”

Daniel and Grilt decided to ‘test the water’ by being the first to cross. The donkeys were happy to be unloaded barely before they had left camp, and wandered around looking for succulent grasses to nibble. Daniel and Grilt each carried one of the heavy packs as they made their way onto the submerged surface of the bridge.

Daniel was not surprised that the water was icy cold. It would have been just too helpful for it to have been warm. At first, the water came up to their ankles and the going was easy. As they approached the center of the river, the water rushed past at the height of their groins. Hadon had been insistent that they keep the bags out of the water, but that proved impossible. Daniel let his bag drop into the flow when the ache in his arms became unbearable.

Grilt grinned anddid the same. “I swear that I just heard a man’s scream from the shore,” he said.

“Can you see how deep it gets?” Daniel asked. The water had been clear when it was less than a foot deep, but out in the centre it was an opaque green and nothing was visible. He put a foot forward and staggered backwards as it encountered nothing but water below.

“Perhaps it is shallower at the upstream edge?” Grilt suggested.

“It’s worth a try,” Daniel agreed and they started staggering upstream against the force of the water.

Grilt’s guess turned out to be a good one. The water stayed at groin level as they progressed across on the forward edge of the roadway.

“That is such a relief,” Daniel said as they collapsed on the far bank. They let the sun warm them before they got up and waved the other men to come forward and across the river.

There were twenty six packs and only ten men to carry them, Jalia and Hala refusing to take part. Getting back across the river was easier without the packs, but still just as cold. It was several hours before Daniel strung the thirteen donkeys in a train with Ferd in the lead, and walked them across the river.

Without Ferd’s absolute trust in Daniel, there would have been a catastrophe on the way across. One of the donkeys in the middle of train stumbled and Ferd’s honking calls to the other donkeys kept them braced while the fallen donkey managed to find his feet.

Jalia walked across the river last with their horses in tow behind her. Hala sat nervously atop Blaze in the middle and worried that if Blaze slipped they would be washed away. The water came higher on Jalia’s smaller frame and she cursed fluently as it reached her money belt and soaked into it. Waterlogged leather is twice as heavy as when dry. Her money belt was packed with individual pieces of gold in little pockets, and even though the belt was made of the finest calf skin, those pockets were soon carrying a lot of water.

When they reached the middle of the river, Jalia slipped and vanished underwater, dragged downstream by the current. She still had hold of the horses’ reins and the animals were pulled with her into the deeper part of the ford.

Jalia managed to get to her feet with a supreme effort. The water came up to her shoulders as her feet touched the ground. She caught a glimpse of Daniel starting to wade out into the water. He would be far too late.

“Come on boy!” Hala shouted at her horse and dug her heels into the horse’s side the way her father taught her. Blaze, frightened by the water, reared, pulling Jalia most of the way out of the water. That reduced the drag on the horses and they started walking upstream toward the bank, with Hala screaming at Blaze and kicking her heels deep into his side to urge him to greater effort.

Jalia put a hand on Hala leg

“It’s all right, Hala. You saved us,” Jalia gasped as she was pulled along by the horses. A few seconds later, Daniel grabbed Blaze’s head and calmed the frantic animal down.

When they reached the bank, Daniel picked up Jalia and carried her onto dry ground.

“If you two have finished wasting our time, we can get on,” Hadon said irritably. He leant with his back against a tree, its trunk only just as wide as Hadon’s body. “We do have a boat to catch, you know.”

He would have said more, but the crossbow bolt buried itself into the tree above his head drove the words from his mind.

There was nowhere to hide. Stone blocks had never fallen on this side and The arche’s smooth stone wall did nothing, except block any possible escape.

“Stand still and drop your weapons,” a commanding female voice shouted. “I won’t tell you again,” she continued when nobody moved.

Cara Marin watched the trading party cross the river with increasing impatience. Her two younger brothers, Mic and Don kept changing position on the ridge, despite her orders to the contrary. She worried that someone below would spot them, given how long the river crossing was taking.

Cara looked at Mic with quiet exasperation. Mic was two years younger than her, being twenty one years old, and he was a bull of a man, heavy set and laden with muscles from the work he did on the farm. Mother had once whispered that Mic was stronger than a bull, just not quite so clever.

From Cara’s point of view, Mic’s strength was hardly an asset. He just didn’t seem to understand that standing behind a bush did not make him invisible, especially when he was a good foot taller than the bush in question.

Don was less of a problem. He had finally settled down and lay patiently behind a small boulder that he propped one of his crossbows on. The other two bows were cocked and ready to fire, in easy reach on his right side.

Cara’s skills were with sword, knife and brain, while Don’s were with any kind of bow. His hunting bow waited by his left side and he could be just as lethal with that when he needed to be. Don was a tall, wiry young man, and at nineteen years old, had been all too eager to come on this adventure to find and bring back their youngest brother, Bril.

Cara knew Gef and Tom Fasser all too well. Gef had been the first man to bed her when she was fourteen and he the ripe old age of fifteen. The bad boy of the village, she had been attracted to him since childhood, mistaking posturing and bullying for heroism. Cara leaned better when he took her on a robbery a year later and slit a man’s throat for the fun of it. Cara shuddered at the thought of her baby brother being associated with the man.

She knew Gef and Tom well enough to be certain that they would have attacked this party on the far side of the river, sure as eggs were eggs. Cara needed to know what had happened. She decided that the simplest way to find out was to capture these people and ask them from a position of strength. Traders lied when you simply talked to them Cara reminded herself, it was their way.

From her vantage point high on the ridge, she watched Daniel and Grilt struggle across the river with the first couple of bags. She mistook Grilt for the leader of the party as he was clearly competent and was the older of the two men. When more of the men started to cross the river, she realized her mistake.

Cara had never seen so many old men in her life. Traders often traveled in family groups, but a group of men of their age was unprecedented. She noted how heavy the bags were, despite their relative lack of bulk. She soon spotted the true leader of the party, a fat man with grey hair. It wasn’t a difficult task, given how often he shouted at the other men.

Daniel, in particular, caught her attention. Six feet tall, brown eyes, longish black hair, and handsome with a face that was always smiling or on the point of a smile, she felt her pulse quicken as she watched him work. Cara saw muscles ripple as he slung bags onto an ever growing pile and wondered what it would be like to lay with him. She shook her head to clear it of such thoughts and concentrate on the task at hand.

It was no surprise when Daniel was the one who led the donkeys across the river. He was the most capable man there and had the look of a leader. Cara noted the sword on his back and knew this was a man who fought to keep what he owned, well so did she. She would fight to the death for her family.

When Jalia led the horses across with Hala riding on Blaze, Cara frowned. She recognized competition when she saw it. Cara knew she was an attractive woman, her raven black hair, ample bosoms and pretty, if somewhat determined face, had led her into many amorous encounters, but Jalia was more than that.

Cara felt a twinge of envy at Jalia’s lithe form, legs that seemed to go on forever, hair that shone in the sunlight and skin as smooth and pale as cream. If she could have made out Jalia’s deep blue eyes at that distance, she would have certainly cursed.

The horses looked to be the most valuable assets in the traders’ party and they were entrusting their crossing to the girl. That told Cara several things about Jalia that made her begin to feel uneasy. She would be the one to watch when they launched their attack.

Cara gasped when Jalia slipped in the river. She knew the risk of using the ford, having crossed it several times herself and having heard many stories about those who slipped. Cara saw Daniel was in the water heading to the rescue the instant it happened. She knew he would be far too late. The river was too fast and strong, it would drag the girl to a horrible death.

When Jalia surfaced still holding the reins, Cara knew she still had a chance. It was Hala’s actions that surprised her. The girl had looked terrified earlier, but when things became desperate, she found her courage.

Cara wanted to applaud as Jalia was pulled to safety and Daniel took charge of the panicking horses. However, it would have been better for her plan if Jalia had drowned. Cara decided that she better act while the party was still confused and before Jalia recovered from her ordeal.

She gave Don the sign he had been waiting for and he fired his crossbow bolt with consummate skill, the bolt embedding itself in the tree above the leader of the party’s head.

Cara shouted orders at the traders below, and then repeated them when the stunned men below did not act fast enough for her liking.

Daniel knelt beside Jalia when the crossbow bolt hit the tree. He dropped flat and face down, shielding Jalia’s body with his own. Jalia placed her chin on his shoulders and peered around her as Cara shouted her commands.

“Options?” Daniel asked. If he was the strategic thinker of the partnership, Jalia was the tactical. Her ability to assess situations was phenomenal.