Angelet did, but she gasped when something thunked right by her head. She looked to the carriage wall behind her, where a crossbow bolt was now jutting out only inches away from her head.
Rafe reached out, grabbed Angelet by the hand, and pulled her next to him, using his body to block her from the general direction the bolt must have been fired.
“We have to go,” he ordered.
Angelet nodded, but lunged to the open carriage, where she grabbed the sack lying on the seat. “We can go!”
She glanced around, but saw no one holding such a weapon as a crossbow. Not that it meant anything. The thick underbrush and densely wooded area could hide any number of bowmen.
Rafe started to move toward where his horse Philon stood, unperturbed by all the noise and shouting, just as a well-adapted war horse should. He muttered to Angelet, “We’re walking to Philon. Quick!”
She matched his pace and a moment later they reached the massive creature. “Stay here. Right here. Keep your head low.”
“Where are you going?”
“Just wait here!”
Rafe moved away, and Angelet waited for an agonizing time.
She watched the ongoing fight through slitted eyes. How were there so many attackers? What would happen?
Then Rafe reappeared, holding the lead to a white horse. “Let’s go,” he ordered, as he mounted Philon.
“We can’t leave! Look!” She’d just seen Simon get struck by a black-clad man. Simon howled in pain and slid to his knees, still parrying the other’s blows. “Rafe, you must help him!”
Rafe looked about to object, but then Simon himself saw them.
“Go, Rafe!” Simon shouted from where he was locked in a grim battle with his attacker. “Get her out of here! Just go!”
Rafe leaned over and scooped Angelet up in one arm. He swung her up into the saddle in front of him, then rode hard back the way the cortège had come. The white horse galloped behind, the lead still gripped in Rafe’s hand.
“Where are we going?” Angelet gasped, clinging to him. She was shaking with fear, and the heat of his body made sweat break out on her skin.
“Away,” he said, sounding out of breath.
“But Simon and the others. We have to help…”
“We have to get you to safety,” he said. “That’s what matters. Simon knew that…knows that. The others will defend themselves. But the thieves weren’t just after the gold. They were afteryou.”
He glanced behind, searching for signs of pursuit. Angelet did too, and thought she could see a horse and rider in the distance. Rafe urged Philon to go faster. The riderless white horse kept pace.
When the road presented a fork leading west, he took it. The smaller trail suggested a local path, perhaps to a nearby village. If they were lucky, the pursuers would continue along the main road, assuming Rafe would retreat to the last large town, or just be too rushed to look for alternate routes.
The road branched again several moments later, and Rafe once again took the westward-leading fork. Only when a huge felled tree blocked the path in front of them did he slow the blistering pace.
Both horses came to a halt yards before the tree trunk. Angelet glanced behind them again, relieved to see nothing that hinted of pursuit.
Rafe stilled the horses and listened.
Angelet remained quiet, so quiet she could feel the thudding of her heart in her chest. The sounds of the forest around them were ordinary, and even though she strained her ears, she couldn’t identify any hoofbeats.
“I think we can rest for a moment,” Rafe said at last. He circled his horse around to stand parallel to the massive trunk. “Angelet. Hold my hand, and you can slide down. There you go.”
A moment later, she stood on the trunk, well above the ground itself.
Rafe dismounted and took both horses by their leads.
Angelet, still on the tree, pointed to the left. “There’s a little opening that way to get around the trunk. The path is clear on the other side.”
