CHAPTER 26
Helena
This can’t be right.” Rouge frowned at the sheer rock face in front of them, then paced along it to the west. She looked at the wooden disc in her palm and faced east again.
While the redhead debated their course, Helena scanned their surroundings. She didn’t expect any danger under the eaves of the forest, but one never knew who else might be out for a hike.
“What was my brother thinking?” Rouge grumbled. Tucking the piece of wood back under her shirt, she waved the group forward. “This way. It will be quickest.”
The tension in her voice made Helena nervous. Placing an arrow on the string, she edged her way past Tucker and Alanna, then sidled up next to Rouge. “If this is quicker, why didn’t we go this way from the start?”
“Because it leads to the road,” the other woman grimly replied. She set a hand on the pommel of her sword. “I’ve traveled it as kitchen staff when the royals visit the southern kingdoms.”
“So it’s not just any road; it’s a main thoroughfare.” Helena’s fingers tightened around her bow as she glanced behind. “Can we stay out of sight in the trees?”
Rouge shook her head. “No. It’s similar to where you and Cap met the first time, but this is worse. It’s a longer stretch with no escape and no place to hide.”
“And we can’t travel west instead?”
“Only if we add another day to our journey. At the least. From what I understand, there aren’t many paths through this section of the mountains, and it’s impassable as far as I can sense.”
Lovely.
When the road peeked through the tree trunks, Rouge motioned for the others to wait while she and Helena crept ahead. A few forest critters made noise, but otherwise the air was still. No sound of hooves or carriage wheels disturbed the peace of the forest.
“Looks clear,” Helena murmured, twisting her head to peer down the dirt track. “What’s the plan?”
“Ask Cap what he thinks of my plans,” Rouge huffed. She glanced over her shoulder at their friends. “But my impression is that yours wouldn’t be better.”
“I resent that comment.” Helena cast a quick eye over Rouge. “You lead and I’ll bring up the rear?”
Rouge hadn’t been exaggerating about the distance. Helena could feel sweat building up on her palms despite the chilly air. They’d been walking for several minutes, and the path had yet to open up. She wanted to urge Alanna into a jog, but their packs were too heavy for sustaining a faster pace.
Step by hurried step, they made their way down the road. But just when Helena spotted a break in the cliff face, she heard the sound she’d been dreading: the steady clip-clop of a horse’s hooves.
“Run!” she hissed to Alanna. Lunging forward, she jabbed Tucker’s shoulder and jerked her head behind them. “Pass the word. We need to get off the road!”
They could protest their association with Le Capuchon, but few would believe they were a group of homeless peasants journeying through the mountains. In the middle of winter. With camouflaged tents.
The hoofbeats grew louder as Helena grabbed Alanna’s hand and pulled her forward. Rouge reached the trees and beckoned frantically. Fifty more feet, and Helena and Alanna would be there. Forty. Thirty.
Twisting her head, Helena saw a young man in a guard uniform cantering toward them. She couldn’t read his face from this distance, but his posture announced that he had spotted them.
“Tucker!” Helena grabbed his hand and stuffed Alanna’s into it. “Get her to safety!”
“But what about you?” Worry flooded his voice as Helena dug in her heels and spun around.
“I’ll be fine. Now move!”
She tugged her hood over her face. How did Cap see like this?
Planting her feet, she raised her bow and pointed the arrow at the young rider’s chest. Deepening her voice, she barked out, “Halt!”
The rider sat back and jerked his reins, drawing his horse to a walk. “Why should I? The king’s guard doesn’t bow to highwaymen.”
“King?” she scoffed. “What king? The king is dead, and his son cowers in fear of the regent. And the regent cowers in fear of Le Capuchon.”
“Le Capuchon?” the young guard laughed. “It’s an easy claim to make. But why should I believe that you are he?”
She tilted her head to the side. “Shall I put an arrow in your knee to prove it? Or perhaps your sword arm?”
A trace of unease flickered in his eyes. “I don’t believe you.”
“Your loss.”
“Wait!” he yelped when her aim adjusted. “What do you want from me?” His eyes darted over her shoulder, but she didn’t take her eyes off him. “I don’t carry enough coin to make it worth your while.”
She needed to cover the fact that she was protecting the others. “Your satchel,” she demanded, taking inspiration from past experience. “Take it off and drop it on the ground. Then turn your horse and run back the way you came from.”
One hand grabbed convulsively at the strap. “What if I don’t?”
A tremor in her arm warned Helena that she’d held her draw for too long. She was in the habit of quick draws and releases; she didn’t stand for minutes at a time with the bow bent.
“Are the contents worth your life?” she snapped.
“I’ve heard Le Capuchon doesn’t kill unnecessarily,” the young man replied hesitantly. “Would you really kill me over the contents?”
Cap wouldn’t. And the thought of injuring someone was adding a tremble to her hands that had nothing to do with muscle fatigue. But she couldn’t let this young guard know that. If he knew she wouldn’t shoot him, he would ignore her.
“The last person who refused me her satchel couldn’t string a bow for weeks,” Helena replied coolly. “Would you like to be next?”
He gulped. His fingers fluttered over the strap while his eyes darted around, but he didn’t remove the satchel.
Helena adjusted her aim to his right shoulder. He didn’t carry a bow, and she was struggling to keep the arrow steady. She didn’t want to accidentally shoot him someplace critical.
“You have to the count of three. Then you learn why I’m feared. One.”
His eyes widened, and he pulled the strap away from his chest.
“Two.”
His breathing quickened, but he seemed unwilling to part with the satchel.
Helena clamped her jaw and took a deep breath. He couldn’t call her bluff. She couldn’t be bluffing. “Thr—”
“Wait!” he squeaked. Bringing his other hand up, he ripped the strap over his head and threw the satchel toward the drop off. Then he snatched up the reins, pulled his horse in a circle so tight its nose almost touched his hip, and bent low over the horse’s neck as it took off in a gallop.
Immediately, Helena lowered her bow and released the tension on the string. She took in a deep gasping breath, then another.
“Margit! Are you all right?” Tucker’s hand landed on her shoulder, but she couldn’t respond.
After another rapid breath, she gasped out, “I thought he was going to make me shoot him. I thought—” She squeezed her eyes shut.
Tucker jiggled her shoulder and pulled her in for a one-armed hug. “It’s all right. I’ve never hurt anybody on purpose either. And I think Cap would be glad you pulled that off without spilling blood.”
She laughed shakily. “Good thing he’s made himself so well-known. I don’t think it would have worked otherwise.”
He opened his mouth to reply, but Rouge’s voice cut him off. “Tucker. Come here and be a squirrel.”
His arm fell from Helena’s shoulders as he straightened. “What for?”
Rouge stood at the side of the road, hands on her hips as she peered down the drop off. “The satchel didn’t go far, but I can’t reach it. You’re better at climbing than I am.”
“Why bother?” Helena frowned as Tucker scurried over. “I don’t care about his satchel; I just needed a reason for stopping him.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be observant?” Rouge replied with a raised eyebrow. She pointed after the young guard. “That boy was more scared of giving up his satchel than he was of you. It was only the panic of an imminent arrow that spurred him to give it up.”
Would Helena have given up her satchel when Cap demanded it?
No, but she was a confident archer.
She recalled the way the guard had protested when she shifted her aim to his knee but then clung to the satchel when she demanded it.
An eager smile spread across her face. “Do you think Tucker can get it without hurting himself?”
“Almost there!” Tucker’s voice answered from below. “You’ll have it in a minute.”
“Keep an eye out, Margit,” Rouge said, fingering the hilt of her sword as she glanced behind. “That boy might be fetching friends.”
Helena lifted her bow. “Out of the frying pan, into the fire?”
“You bought us time, Margit.” Rouge spared her a glance before checking on Tucker’s progress. “Since we don’t know his origin or his destination, he might have brought help more quickly if you had let him pass.”
“But would he have, if I hadn’t stopped him?”
Rouge shook her head slowly. “He knew we were suspicious. But we can’t know what would have happened, so forget it.
All we can do is deal with what did happen.
” A grin spread across her face as Tucker’s hand gripped the edge of the road.
“And that may include something valuable enough to make the risk worth it.”