Chapter 33 Planned Vengeance
Erik stiffened up. He swapped a glance with Cedric before wrapping his arms around me and murmuring, “Robin…?” He brushed some of my hair to the side, and his eyes widened. “Gods, what happened to your neck?! It’s covered in bruises!”
Cedric elbowed Erik and shook his head. Erik grimaced.
I stepped away from Erik and took a breath before forcing on my practiced smile. “Sorry if I surprised you. I just needed a hug. I’m alright now,” I murmured.
The brothers were silent for a moment, but Erik smiled first. “I’ll hug you as many times as you need.”
“Thank you,” I murmured.
Cedric cleared his throat. “So we were told that you went on ahead to scout. What did you see out there? Unless you’re not supposed to say.”
I peeked back at the group tent. It felt as if it wasn’t my place to say, but I considered these two my friends. I whispered, “The bandits abandoned the village. I think they’ve taken shelter near a dam upriver. At first I thought they ran off because Erik got away, but I think they’re actually planning on ambushing the knighthood.”
“Holy shit,” Erik mumbled, eyes widening. “The bandits are roaches, but they’re not that ballsy!”
“I agree,” Cedric said. “Captain said the same. He believes there’s two things that could’ve changed their tone: the bandits feel that they’ve become strong enough to have no one to fear, or, they have someone new in charge. Someone quite smart if they’ve claimed the loyalty of those cowardly bandits.”
I hesitated. “…What if it’s both?”
“Yeah, Jackie considered that too,” Erik explained. “But he’s not worried. He has complete faith in us. Whatever they’ve got, we can do better.” His grin turned forced as he glanced away, rubbing his bandaged chest. “I wish that ‘we’ included me.”
“I see…” I murmured and then rested my hand on Erik’s shoulder. “Like I said, I’ll bring you back some good stories.” When Erik’s genuine smile returned, I glanced up at Cedric. “Captain Jackson said that you could tell me the plan.”
Cedric’s brow arched. “He didn’t tell you himself? It’s not that hard to explain.”
I winced, glancing away. “Ah, well… you know him. Always busy…”
“Right…” Cedric said, carefully looking me up and down. “Anyway, the plan is for us to circle the village. Scare them out of there. When the roaches scurry, we’ll cut them down out in the open.”
“Cut them down?” I echoed.
“Captain was pissed,” Erik said. “Can you blame him?”
I grimaced, gaze falling to the ground. After seeing what the bandits did to the two knights they captured, I could understand why Jackson wanted an eye for an eye.
Still, it didn’t feel right.
“But since they’ve abandoned the village, I’m assuming the plan hasn’t changed,” Cedric said.
“Huh? What’s the point of circling the village if there’s no one to scare out?” I asked.
“Playing dumb,” Erik chimed. “Or being bait. Probably both.”
My jaw dropped. “Jackson would use his own knights as BAIT?!”
“What?” Erik shrugged nonchalantly. “I’d like to think I’m pretty tempting.”
“That’s not what I meant!”
“Calm down,” Cedric murmured. “It always works out. Captain Jackson wouldn’t pull such risky moves if he thought lives would be lost.”
“Like I said,” Erik chimed again. “It’s better to just trust Jackie’s word and fall in line. He knows what he’s doing. The smartest man I know.”
I frowned and hugged myself. It sounded as if this had been done plenty of times before, but even so, it sounded far riskier than what they led on.
“So, what you’re saying…” I paused. “The plan hasn’t changed because instead of scaring them out of the village, they’ll come straight for us?”
“Precisely. We won’t have to chase them down,” Cedric said. His blue gaze darted over my shoulder. “Here he comes. Time to saddle up, Robin.”
“Be safe, the both of you,” Erik mumbled, stepping away from the horses. “Oh yeah, Robin—if nobody has told you yet, be careful around that dam! That thing is barely holding itself together. I won’t be getting any stories from you if you're crushed under those piles of logs.”
A grin parted my lips. “I doubt I’ll be anywhere near there, but I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Let’s go!” Jackson barked ahead of us, mounting Ruby and leading the way down the road.
I quickly climbed onto Snowdrift’s saddle. Giving Erik a wave farewell before riding after Cedric. His black horse rode next to mine as he covered his head with his helmet. I did the same, still using Jackson’s helmet.
Does he have a spare helmet? …Should I give this one back?
My jaw clenched as my chest grew tight. A wave of anxiety washed over me at the thought of speaking to him again. What made me the most anxious was the thought of hearing his voice…
Why is that?
“Robin,” Cedric called, his deep voice easy to hear over the thundering hooves. “Just stay close to me. Alright?”
“Alright,” I murmured. His presence helped clear my mind.
My gaze rested on what was ahead of us. The row of knights, and our captain at the front. As always, his black hair was in a tight bun and his armor was polished enough to look brand new, despite being littered with scrapes and dents. My hands squeezed my galloping horse’s reins.
I need to focus on the task at hand. If I can’t keep my family safe inside the palace walls, then the least I can do is to protect them by keeping Embercrest safe.
We rode on. The familiar wide fields that felt like they could stretch on forever now felt small when I was surrounded by so many knights. I could feel Snowdrift’s stiff movements beneath me, yet he still pushed forward despite the traumatizing experience we had just escaped from.
I still wasn’t sure about this plan. It seemed simple enough. The sight of a massive amount of burly knights should’ve been enough to scare any intruder away.
Naive as I am, ignoring my instinct’s warnings of the bloodbath awaiting.