Chapter 8 A Plan Comes Together
Lyra
When Jorin gets out of the bathroom, I tell him everything. He asks to read the letter for himself, so I let him. It’s not as if there’s anything personal in there. Bram and I are just friends, after all.
Finished with the letter, Jorin hands it back to me and then stares at the cabin wall in deep thought for several moments. I’ve seen him do this a time or two before, usually when he’s making important decisions. I’ve learned to be quiet and let him think.
“If we attempt to do this,” he finally says, “we have to realize they’ll be coming for us. They won’t let us get away with it.”
“If they know it’s us,” I correct him. “After all, they probably think I’m dead, and they haven’t had any idea where you are for a long time.”
“We should probably put some bones out by that tree where they chained you,” he says, a bit off subject, but still important. “We could drag one of the corpses from the old village over there.”
“Okay.” I shrug. “That’s fine by me. If they think I’m dead, that’s all the better.”
“Put your original outfit over there.” He strokes his chin.
“Jorin? I think you lost the plot.”
“Right. Sorry. I know. We were talking about an ambush. What day is it today?” He turns toward the calendar I’ve been marking into the wall. “It’s Monday. Bram said Thursday night would be the best night to strike. That gives us three nights to work on it.”
“We do need to be careful though. That road isn’t well traveled, but other people do use it.” The thought of us getting caught or hurting an innocent bystander is not appealing.
He nods. “Yes, that is a good point. We will definitely have to be careful. I have an idea.” He stands and walks over to our meager dining room table. From a cabinet near it, he produces some paper and a pencil.
For the next thirty minutes, Jorin and I work out the details of how we can make sure no one innocent falls into our trap and still take out large segments of the Running River Pack’s warriors. It won’t be easy; we’ll have to put a lot of work into it. But if we are successful, and we can put a dent in their military machine, not only will it help the other packs in the region that Alpha Kaelen is bound and determined to conquer, it will also help us both get a bit of revenge.
I want nothing more than to see Kaelen’s kingdom crumble all around him.
The next morning, we handle first things first. We go to the village and look around for supplies. There, we find some large boards that we can use to cover the holes we plan to dig so that other parties don’t accidentally fall in them. We also find the remains of a woman who is about my size. It’s a bit morbid, removing her body, but I have a feeling she wouldn’t mind us using her bones to trick Kaelen, especially since it’s likely his fault–or his family’s fault–that she’s dead to begin with. Over at the tree where I was left, we chain her up. We’d taken the chains initially in case we needed them, but they’ll serve a better purpose to show Kaelen that I’m dead. We can tell by the way it smells that none of his soldiers have come out to check on me. Putting my clothes on the woman is gross, but it has to be done.
After that, we start moving our supplies closer to the northern passage. We spend hours surveying the route between Running Rivers Pack and Moon Falls Pack, trying to pick the exact right location where we can do the most damage. Jorin finds a bend in the road before a creek where it’s difficult to see ahead. The road narrows here, so the warriors will all have to bunch together. It’s the perfect place for us to dig a massive hole, so that’s what we intend to do. In the bottom, we’ll put stakes lined with wolfsbane. This should take out at least a few dozen of their troops.
That’s not all we plan to do, but that comes first. We were able to find some shovels at the old village, which makes the digging easier than it would be if we were using our paws, but it’s still slow going. Thankfully, we have the hole dug by the end of the first day, and we can cover it up with the large boards we found and then place leaves and tree branches on it. The next day, Wednesday, we’ll come back and make it deadly.
I’m exhausted when I get back to the cabin that night, but it’s well worth it to know that we are finally going to start exacting our revenge.
The next day, we’re back at it. We can tell by the way the debris is scattered that some wolves ran over this part of the path during the night. “Probably rogues,” Jorin says. “Too bad we covered it up so well.” He chuckles, and I do, too, but I’m honestly glad that no one is the wiser so that Kaelen can’t be tipped off.
It’s difficult sharpening the stakes and working with the wolfsbane, even though we’re wearing gloves we found at the village. It takes a long time for us to be happy with this booby trap, but ultimately, when we cover it up that night, we’re satisfied.
The next day, we come back to do some more damage. Spring traps made of nets. We start the process of chopping through the main support of the bridge so we can finish it later, when we know the troops are coming through. It’s not that big of a drop into the water, but there are a lot of sharp rocks, and the river is moving quickly. Jorin is also clever enough to know how to load some arrows that will fire along the road when the hole is triggered. We cover it up with long branches, but they will give the moment a wolf steps on them.
It’s too bad we can’t stand around and watch. I would love to see it all unfold. But we can’t take the chance of being found. I’m certain Kaelen will start a hunt for the culprits as soon as he hears about this, so we can’t be anywhere nearby, and we’ve been careful to cover our tracks with skunkroot.
We’ll have to wait until it’s all over to see the aftermath. I’m salivating just thinking about it.