The sudden movement caused the horses carrying the last carriage to reel backward as the rope skimmed their front legs. The driver shouted, “Whoa! Whoa!”
It didn’t do any good as the horses continued to prance backward while the ten guards surrounding the carriage tried to rein in their mounts. Lifting my bow, I fired off four arrows in rapid succession.
One of the arrows pierced through the chain mail of the rider closest to me and hit him in the shoulder. The impact knocked him from his horse.
My second arrow caught another in the upper chest and knocked him backward. His helmeted head collided with the horse’s rump; the impact caused it to jump forward as those holding the rope jerked it up and down. They succeeded in spooking the animal backward.
The guard scrambled to hold onto the terrified horse as it wheeled and bolted into the trees. His screams for the animal to stop faded into the distance.
My third arrow pierced through another guard’s thigh. He tried to yank the arrow free as he grappled to keep control of his mount.
The chain mail of the fourth guard blocked my arrow, and he spun toward where Scarlet and I sat in the trees. He already had his crossbow raised when he turned on us and fired.
Scarlet ducked while I leaned back to put the trunk between myself and the bolt that crashed through the leaves and sliced over branches. It would have embedded in my forehead if I’d still been sitting forward.
While I’d been working to disable some of the guards closest to me, Tucker and Ryker were doing the same on the other side of the road. They’d managed to take out more guards, but some of the ones from the front of the caravan were recovering and coming for us.
Shrugging my bow onto my back, I yanked the rope from the tree and plunged off the branch. Guards shouted as they struggled to regain control of the situation.
I had to get off this rope; this was when I was most vulnerable, when a single arrow could take me out and make it impossible to continue. A few of them fired those arrows and a bolt; one of them sliced across my back, shredding my clothes and spilling my blood. Another whistled near my ear, but the rest were all off target.
It felt as if I swung on the rope forever while arcing across the road and slicing through the cloud of dust, but it was only a second or two before I released the rope and landed with a small thud amid chests full of money. The guards at the front were still trying to get the horses under control when they twisted to look at me.
“Kill whoever that is!” one of them barked.
CHAPTERSEVENTY-EIGHT
Ellery
I duckedout of the way and scrunched down behind the chest as Tucker and Ryker unleashed another volley of arrows on the guards. The eye of one of the guards riding toward me exploded out of his head; it hung off the tip of an arrow.
The man screamed and clawed at his face as my stomach heaved. I’d known this would be a lot different than any of my robberies, where I’d always gotten in and out without detection. Still, I hadn’t anticipated something so gruesome or the awful sounds of a man in so much agony.
Get it together, or you’ll die here.
I ignored my nausea as I took a deep breath and craned my head to look around the chest as one of the drivers pulled himself onto the roof. He stayed low while crawling on his belly toward me.
Another guard was coming at me from the back. His hand was stretching toward the rail on the back of the carriage when something darted out of the trees.
It was so fast I barely saw it before it vanished into the woods on the other side of the road. I had only a second to realize the reins of the guard at the back were severed before his horse reeled back and bolted into the forest with the guard clutching its mane.
Mouse, I realized with a sinking heart.
The boy must have been hiding in the woods while waiting for an opportunity to help. I could only hope he’d kept running and was far from here, but he wouldn’t.
Damn it!
Having Mouse in jeopardy was a complication I hadn’t anticipated, but at least I didn’t have to worry about the guard at the back anymore. Pulling my dagger free, I craned to look around the chests at the other guard.
The idea of stabbing someone didn’t sit well with me, but I’d do whatever was necessary to survive, and I didn’t have enough room to maneuver my bow and arrows here. Thankfully, it stopped being a concern when three arrows pierced the guard’s back.
He still moved as he tried to rip them free, but they’d effectively pinned him to the roof. The carriage shifted, and a thud came from beside me.
With my knife in hand, I spun to confront a new threat but froze when I saw Ryker. If he’d joined me, then they’d eradicated most of the danger surrounding this carriage.
I couldn’t see his eyes beneath the mesh covering them, but I felt the tension radiating from him as his head remained turned toward me. His fingers went to my back and came away with blood at the tips.
When he lifted his head toward me, I gave him a thumbs-up to let him know I was fine. He didn’t seem to believe me as he hesitated, but when the remaining driver threw down his reins and spun toward us, Ryker’s attention shifted away from me.
