“Unless you have a better idea,” Max said.
“No. I’m just looking forward to having a little downtime. Even though we really didn’t do much at Solomon’s or your step-folks’, it’s still been too stressful for me to get a good rest.”
“I don’t think we’re going to be any safer with the Resistance,” Max replied. “If anything, we’ll be more of a target.”
“Max,” Britt said. “You don’t need to point that out.”
“Yeah,” Bo added. “Safety in numbers, right?”
“If Bo says I’m safe, then I’m safe,” Thomas called from the back of their line.
As they continued walking through the forested wetlands, Kirsten asked, “Is this where you and Max played when you were children?”
Bo answered, keeping his eyes forward, “We did our part hunting and fishing in this part of the world. Max claims this place is where he learned his sense of adventure.”
“You can explore every knoll, each river and stream, and still see something new. Year after year the waters change the landscape. Nothing stays the same for very long,” Max said.
“Sounds like a good place to get lost,” Britt said.
“That’s probably why the Resistance chose this place,” Max said.
“That and it makes it difficult to track them,” Bo added. “If they moved with the flow of water, tracking them would be almost impossible. There are so many different channels and canals intertwining throughout the area. It’s actually pretty clever.”
“Halt,” a voice boomed in front of them.
Kirsten jumped, not anticipating the command. Lifting her gaze from her feet, she saw that a group of archers had surrounded them. With their arrows drawn and tips pointed at them, Kirsten instinctively raised her hands.
“Why do you seek out the lawbreakers?” the man who’d commanded them to halt asked. Kirsten’s eyes fixed on him, examining his attire. The hood on his cloak successfully concealed his facial features. Kirsten eyed the others one by one, looking past their bows to see that they all wore similar brown cloaks with deep hoods.
Max and Britt pulled their broadswords from their belts, stepping forward to protect the others. As they did, Kirsten lowered her arms and felt at the crystal in her pocket, wondering if she should use it.
“We’re seeking the Revolutionists,” Max started. “On the trail we…” he continued until the hooded man apparently in charge shouted, “Silence!”
He stepped in closer to them, eyeing Max and Britt’s swords. “If you even attempt to use those on me, my men will poke you full of holes so fast you’ll be dead before you know what’s happened.” He pushed past them and stopped in front of Kirsten.
Kirsten stood up straight with her hand balled into a fist in her pocket, clutching the crystal. She stared forward as the man blocked most of her view. She glared at him as his head bent slightly to get a look at the streaking veins in her arm. Pulling a buck knife from his belt, the man flicked the point toward Kirsten’s neck and tapped the tip of his blade on the sapphire.
“Look what we have here,” he said.
“Don’t,” Kirsten said coldly.
“Sentimental is it?” the man asked. “You know that kind of stone could buy our army a lot of steel. Steel we’ll be needing to fight the war.”
“You take that sapphire and she dies,” Bo said.
Kirsten eyed the man’s knifepoint as he turned to look at Bo, the tip dropping down to her breast. The hooded man said, “That’s not a very good threat. Usually you’d say I’d be the one to die.”
“He’s not threatening you,” Thomas said, stepping toward the man. “He’s telling the truth. See the streaks on her arm. She was bitten by a goblin. That sapphire is the only thing that’s keeping the venom from reaching her heart and killing her. She took it off once already and we just about lost her.”
Kirsten watched the man’s shadowed face look down at her arm again.
Lifting the point of his blade slightly he tapped the sapphire again, “One little girl’s sacrifice for the greater good might mean our side winning the war. I’d say that’s a pretty just reason to take this from her right now.” The man slipped the knife under the necklace chain and had just began to apply pressure by the time Kirsten lifted the crystal from her pocket. The light from the crystal in her hand glowed, catching his attention and he stopped. Glancing at the crystal, he asked in a low tone, “What’s that?”
Kirsten gritted her teeth, “I’m much more powerful to you alive than I would be dead. What one sorceress can do with a crystal is far more than what a hundred untrained farmers can do with swords.”
One of the archers said, “She’s one of them,” and the man turned to hear the comment. Grunting, he pulled the knife away from her throat and slid it with a practiced hand back into its leather sheath. “You’re coming with us,” the man said and turned to walk back to his place among the archers.
“Rune sent us to find you,” Max said as he passed. “He told us we would be welcomed assets to your cause.”
The man looked at Max and said, “Oh, if Rune sent you then.” The man pulled his knife again and jumped toward Max. Max reacted too slowly and the man slid in close before he could lift his sword in defense. Kirsten raised her hand, pointing the crystal at the man as he held his knife to Max’s throat. Kirsten made eye contact with the man and he flared his nostrils at the glowing crystal in her hand. Pushing Max away, he said, “Rune’s a fool and I hope he dies on that stupid mission of his.” Walking back to his men, he pointed his knife at them and commanded, “Bring them.”
Several of the archers lowered their bows and approached, confiscating the group’s weapons, all except Kirsten’s crystal and sapphire necklace. They placed their cloaks backwards on Max and Britt, the hoods acting as blindfolds. When they came to Kirsten, two of the men warily placed the hood over her face, then quickly moved on to Bo and Thomas. Kirsten wondered how these men knew about the crystal’s power. She’d only ever seen it when Merglan and Rankstine had used them. Were there others like them in Brookside?
Under the cover of the thick cloaks, Kirsten allowed the men to lead her. Judging from the lack of noise from her friends and brother, they, too, were complying with this situation. Kirsten tripped and stumbled having to rely heavily on the man leading her for support. She thought about attacking the rogue revolutionaries with the crystal and using its powers to set her group free, but what good would that do if they were trying to locate the same group of people? She quelled her desire to obliterate the man leading them and quietly conformed. She tried to keep track of how long they’d been walking, but after the tenth time she stumbled, she shifted her focus to her feet and how to maintain her balance.
Once she heard the sounds of an encampment, she knew the cloaks would be removed soon. She felt the men force her to sit. She heard the clasping of shackles on her companions and soon felt cold steel wrapping around her ankle as well. When someone lifted the cloak off, Kirsten took a moment to observe her new surroundings. The five of them were all linked to a single chain that extended from a large wooden pole in the ground. She could hear people milling about, but a tan canvas tent provided a thin layer of separation from a look at the broader location. She saw light peeping through the tent door and tried to reach for her pocket. As she did, the man who’d removed her cloak caught her hands.
“Not so fast, witch,” he said clasping irons around her wrists and latching them securely to the T in the pole over her head. Kirsten pulled, trying to lower her arms, but she winced when the shackles dug into her wrists.
“What kind of a welcome was that?” Max asked sarcastically as the man exited the tent.
“Not exactly what I was expecting from our supposed allies,” Bo answered.
“I’m sure they’re just taking precautions to make sure we’re not spies,” Britt said.
“Are you defending them?” Max asked.
“All I’m saying is I’ve had to do the same thing during times of war. You can never be too careful,” she said.
