Chapter 12
All that day, Baron read and stubbornly fought off sleep the best he could. I made sure to yawn as I passed him, slow and exaggerated, then slipped into the tent. I needed time unseen to work on my plan, and hoped that Baron would assume I was sleeping.
Inside, I knelt with my back to the tent flap and pulled the iron arrowhead from its hiding place, then set it to the crack on the warped chain link and began to saw.
The metal was cold and gritty beneath my fingers, and each scrape was small, tight, and controlled.
Within minutes, my shoulders burned and my hands cramped, but I persisted.
The chain warmed under the friction, and tiny metal shavings dusted my palms.
At long last, a thin slit cut clean through the link.
My heart lifted. One step was done. Now came the part that required strength.
I braced my boot against the chain, just below the weakened link, and wrapped both hands around the section above it and pulled.
With each pull, I threw an anxious glance toward the tent flap, sure that Baron was going to come bursting in and discover what I was doing.
Outside, the men had begun a drunken song about a man named Ogg who lived in a bog, voices booming over one another.
Hopefully that would provide enough of distraction that my activities would go unnoticed.
I set my foot harder and pulled again. My muscles trembled and my back ached from pulling in such an awkward position. When I checked the link, the gap had widened only the smallest amount, if at all. My mind might have fabricated it to convince me that I was making progress. It wasn’t enough.
I swallowed my frustration. If I could just manage to incapacitate Baron, even for a few minutes, I could finish the job without worrying about him realizing what I was doing.
I chewed on the side of my cheek, staring at the stubborn chain link before hiding the arrowhead again: digging a small hole beside my sleeping roll, scooping the dirt with my fingers, and burying the tool. I packed the earth tight and set a single flat stone over the spot.
If I could not break the chain in time, at least I would have a weapon, pathetic as it was. It was a thin plan and a desperate one at that, but it was all I had.
My father was not going to come for me and ask why I hadn’t done more.
Late that afternoon, I paused in my work to return to the fireside where Baron was sitting, book open in his lap and head sagging to the side. “What a wonderful nap!” I said, pretending to stretch luxuriously. Baron grunted.
“What are you reading?” I asked, as I walked the long way around the fire so the middle of the chain would trail through the white-hot embers again. Heat licked my calves, and sparks popped and hissed where the metal raked across the coals.
“A book,” Baron mumbled sleepily. He fought to keep his lids open, blinking and almost nodding off before he tried to force his head up again. Sleep kept tugging at him; he looked close to giving in.
Would he fall asleep if I left him alone?
I hummed a soft melody and poked at the fire with a stick, watching out of the corner of my eye as Baron’s head drooped to the side again.
Still humming quietly, I moved close to him, looking around for some sort of rock or other suitable blunt object.
If Baron was too vigilant to escape while he was awake, I’d have to send him off to dreamland for as long as possible.
His hands went limp and the book slid from his grasp.
The log Baron was using for a bench groaned slightly as I sat next to him, and he instantly snapped awake, saw me sitting next to him, and cleared about five feet of air as he jumped. “Wh-what are you doing?” he asked.
“I just came to pick up your book for you. You dropped it when you fell asleep.”
His former sleepiness evaporated on the spot and his gaze fixed on me.
“You are up to something,” he said, suspicion in every syllable.
“Get up.” He made me stand and ran his fingers along the metal collar at my throat.
When he found it whole, he gave the chain a firm tug.
The metal answered with a dull, confident clink.
He stood and walked a few paces away from me. “Show me your hands,” he demanded. I held them up and rotated them smugly to show that I was hiding nothing. “Turn around,” he ordered next.
I spun in a slow circle, then dropped into a mocking curtsy. “Going to ask me to dance next?” I asked with a smirk.
He approached cautiously and patted me down thoroughly, first feeling up and down my arms, waist, and legs to be sure I had nothing concealed. He even ran his fingers through my hair and made me empty my boots. I prayed a silent thank you that I had the foresight to hide the arrowhead.
“Satisfied?” I asked. We stared each other down.
“I still say you are up to something.”
I shrugged indifferently. “Maybe I am planning to burn down the tent tonight. How long can you go before you have to sleep again?” I narrowed my eyes wickedly.
Baron was at his breaking point, I could tell.
He was exhausted and weak, his energy completely depleted.
This was just the sort of opportunity I had waited for.
I could see Baron chew his tongue as he thought hard.
The whites of his eyes were bloodshot from so much missed sleep, one eyelid twitched constantly, and he ran his fingers through his untidy black hair, which made it stand on end.
He looked deranged. “Come with me,” he snapped, and marched off into the heart of the camp.
I pattered along after him and dodged Dorian, who tried to throw a stone at my head as I passed.
He still had ugly red gashes across his throat from my most recent escape attempt.
By placing Baron between myself and Dorian, it was easy to avoid being pelted and Baron threw a glare in Dorian’s direction as the stone went sailing past.
Baron walked right into the sheriff’s tent without waiting to be announced. “I want an extra guard tonight,” he said loudly.
The sheriff looked up from the map he was studying. “Why’s that?” he asked. I saw his eyes flick once to me where I stood right behind Baron, then snap back.
“Something’s going to happen tonight. I can feel it.”
The sheriff scoffed. “Your magical tracker senses tingling, are they?”
Baron slammed his fists down so hard on the table that the ink pot jumped and spilled over the map.
He was truly angry. This was the first time I’d felt genuinely frightened of Baron, and I fully realized that he had the raw, brute strength to overpower anyone in this camp…
and I could only stray twelve feet from him at a time.
“I just know it. Something’s going to happen.”
The sheriff sighed. “You’ve kept her under control for a week. No one else lasted more than a day. You’re just getting paranoid.”
“I’ve barely slept all that time because I’m playing nanny.” Baron folded his arms across his massive chest. “You bet I’m feeling paranoid.” I grinned mischievously and waved merrily at the sheriff from behind Baron’s back.
“She’s a little girl,” sneered the sheriff, as though these two simple words spoke volumes about my capabilities, or lack thereof. “You’re a senior officer. You can handle her.”
Baron stepped toward the sheriff. Large as the sheriff was, Baron was even bigger.
Now he pointed a finger into the older man’s face.
“This little girl already bested four of your guards, and if I hadn’t been armed at the time, she would have done the same to me.
Get me another guard tonight or you can be chained to this little girl yourself and see if you underestimate her again. ”
The sheriff narrowed his eyes and didn’t back down. His voice lowered to a deadly whisper. “Best watch your tone with me, boy. You can have Sneeds tonight.”
“Really? Sneeds is the best you can do?”
“Sneeds just has to watch her outside the tent while you sleep. She won’t be able to go anywhere, and he’ll wake you if she tries anything. For heaven’s sake, Baron, she’ll still be chained to you; it isn’t like she can get away. Tell Sneeds not to turn his back on her.”
Baron exhaled sharply and turned to go. “Fine. Better than nothing.”
“Baron?” The sheriff called him back.
“What?”
The sheriff’s gaze was lethal. “If you ever speak to me that way again, I’ll cut your tongue out.”