CHAPTER 36
Helena
The fight was lost before it began, but it went from bad to worse after Jean-haut threw Cap to safety. He was their best fighter. Without him, the remaining outlaws were quickly overcome.
Helena crouched on her branch, her bow in its sheath and the lid fastened over her quiver so she wouldn’t be tempted.
It went against every fiber of her being to sit by and watch while the guards hunted down her friends, bound them, and prepared to lead them away.
But both her arrows and Cap’s had been blown off course during the fight.
She had no doubt it would happen again if she tried to free her friends right now.
Besides, there were too many enemies. She didn’t have enough arrows to take them all out.
So she did what she was worst at and waited.
Eventually, the injured had all received basic aid. Those who could walk were roped together; those who couldn’t were thrown over a shoulder. Then the guards marched them down the mountain, calling threats and jerking the rope if anyone resisted.
Helena began a slow count to one thousand. She wanted to chase after Cap, but she trusted that Jean-haut had sent him someplace safe. Since she didn’t know where, she would waste precious hours searching for him. Better to follow the guards and try to free their captives tonight.
She had no doubt Cap could take her to the capital. But if the Amitian castle was anything like the Ralnoran one, staging a jailbreak from its dungeon would be much more difficult than breaking into a village garrison.
Helena quickly descended to the lowest branch on the tree.
Sitting down, she wrapped her hands around it and flipped off the way Tucker had taught her, landing lightly on her feet.
She glanced around the scattered remains of their camp.
Only half the tents had been carried away, and numerous bags littered the clearing.
No bodies, thank the heavens, but the guards might have hauled away any dead.
Jogging to her tent, she grabbed her satchel and double-checked her spare provisions. Enough for a day or two; she would need to find a village and restock. But she’d kept a few coins from their last raid. She would be fine.
Tracking her friends was simple at first. The guards didn’t expect pursuit, and their prisoners had no incentive to move carefully. They may as well have been a herd of cattle stampeding down the mountainside.
But when the trees thinned, so did the trail. Wagon tracks led across the ground, making for the road she and her small group had crossed that morning. Helena increased her speed to a jog. They would move faster with horse-drawn wagons, and the road would obscure their trail.
The moon helped to light her way, but after three hours of alternating between a jog and a walk, Helena was forced to admit defeat.
After hiking all day and the adrenaline of the short battle, she didn’t have the energy to walk all night.
Either she’d missed their camp, or the guards were traveling farther than she could without rest.
Slipping off the road, Helena found a tree with a decent amount of shelter.
She hadn’t grabbed a tent, so she pulled a blanket out of her satchel, wrapped it around herself, and curled up next to the tree.
It was cold, but not quite as cold as the night she followed Cap and Jean-haut from Marielle’s house.
Marielle. Her mind caught on her cousin for a moment, wondering if she had kept Helena’s secret or if she had written to Axel, despite Helena’s letter.
Would her brother be lurking in the capital, waiting for her to surface?
She hoped not; if she failed to free her friends before then, she would have a jailbreak to plan.
Not to mention finding the proof to restore Prince Raphael so that he could pardon Cap.
Her thoughts circled back to her friend. The last time she spent a night like this, she’d been afraid to ask him for shelter. But as she drifted into an uneasy sleep, his hazel eyes, burning with intensity as his lips lowered to hers, lingered in her mind.
Curse General Valentin for not waiting ten seconds longer to launch his attack!
~
“Miss? Miss, are you all right?”
A strange man came into focus as Helena blinked her eyes, trying to gain her bearings. Then her mind pulled free of her troubled dreams, and it all came back.
The attack. Cap whisked through the trees. Following her captive friends.
Shooting upright, she reached for her bow. But the blanket tangled around her feet, making her stumble.
The man’s hand shot out and caught her arm. It kept her upright, but she jerked away. “I don’t need to be rescued.”
“My mistake.” His eyebrows rose. “Guess I drew the wrong conclusion about a young woman alone in the woods in the middle of February.”
She took a moment to examine him as she collected herself. His clothes were old and patched, but they were neat and clean. A short beard surrounded his mouth, and bushy sideburns covered the sides of his kind-looking face. He was probably a little younger than her father.
“I’m sorry.” Lowering her arms, she tried to appear relaxed. “I was separated from my companions, and I’m a little jumpy.”
“That’s understandable.” He gestured toward the road. “With Le Capuchon in the area, we’re all a little on edge. Is he the reason you’re lost?”
Bristling, she unwound the blanket from her legs and folded it in her arms. “Le Capuchon saved my life once.” She grabbed her satchel and stuffed the blanket into it. “No, I slipped away to do some hunting yesterday and didn’t tell anyone. When I returned, my friends had already left.”
He raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment further. “Can I take you anywhere? The missus and I have room in our wagon.”
Helena hesitated. If they were going the right direction, she would appreciate a ride. But would she be able to part ways with them when she needed to?
“I have no wish to inconvenience you,” she said slowly. “However, if you’re heading for Laurier, I wouldn’t mind.”
“You’re going to the capital?” He started toward the road. “I can’t take you all the way, but I can get you close.”
“That’s more than sufficient,” Helena quickly said, trotting after him. “I’m sure we’ll catch up to my friends before then. Or at least reach somewhere I recognize.”
He looked at her with something between confusion and amusement. “You went hunting by yourself in unfamiliar territory?”
She shrugged and let him think she was a fool. It wasn’t like she could tell him the truth.
The man and his wife didn’t talk much as they drove. Occasionally, one of them asked Helena a question, but she gave short answers that discouraged further conversation. Since they had to turn to talk to her on her squash-barrel perch, neither of them worked too hard to engage her.
They drove all morning with no sign of her prey. As the afternoon wore on, she began to fear that she had missed a camp deep in the trees or that the guards had ridden through the night and kept going through the day.
How would she save her friends if so? Rouge and Alanna might have escaped with the noncombatants, but she’d seen Jean-haut and Tucker fall. And Adrien had been surrounded the last time she saw him.
The thought of any of them facing execution made her stomach twist.
Evening approached. The road north took them deeper into the mountains, and the landscape looked vaguely familiar. In fact, if she squinted, the drop-off on their right was remarkably similar to the one where Cap had ambushed her.
About an hour later, the outline of log houses rose from the trees in the gathering twilight. Helena sat up straighter as she stared at them.
Arles. General Valentin has an outpost here.
She kept her eyes open as they drove through the town. As they approached the two-story building where she’d met the General, she spotted a line of wagons parked next to it. Those hadn’t been there the last time.
“We’ll be stopping here for the night,” her host said, angling his head toward her. “Are you able to pay for accommodations, or shall we—”
“I’ll arrange my own,” she replied. “I recognize this village. If I don’t meet you in the morning, it means I found my friends.” Gripping the strap of her satchel, she stood and prepared to dismount. “Thank you again for giving me a lift.”
The wife turned in her seat. “But how will we know if you don’t send word?”
“When do you plan to leave?”
The man and his wife exchanged a look. “An hour past dawn is our usual departure time,” the wife replied.
Helena nodded briskly. “If I’m not outside the inn by then, I’m not coming.” Then without waiting for their protests, she vaulted over the wagon side and disappeared into the shadows.
~
Helena tugged her hood a little lower as the guard strolled past. The number of men patrolling was more than a typical garrison building had. Getting in and out without being seen would be difficult.
But the risk was what made it exciting.
Reminding herself that tonight’s adventure wasn’t about fun, she tied her satchel tightly across her shoulders, set the coiled rope on the ground, and double-checked the knot around her arrow. It looked better than her usual ones.
She was fairly confident the upper window across from her led to some of her friends. Hopefully, there weren’t guards in the room with them. Otherwise, this would be a sadly short rescue.
The guard cleared this side of the building. Helena swiftly nocked her arrow, aimed at the wooden beams in the ceiling, and released.
The dull thunk was loud in the silent night. Helena crouched behind her wagon, waiting, but there was no shout of warning nor pounding of guards’ boots.
Springing up from her hiding place, she sprinted across a short open space and grabbed the rope with both hands. She dug her toes into the gaps between stones and began pulling herself up, grateful that her trousers had been in her satchel.