“The children?”
“No.”
“The mothers?”
“Some.”
She nodded. She was not showing us our ignorance. Instead, she was searching for where our knowledge might break.
“What signal tells them the main path is unsafe?”
I looked at the men around my fire. Men who could hold shield to shield without flinching, who knew the sound an arrow made before it struck, men who could find their way home beneath clouded skies.
Not one had an answer.
Darcy sat back on her heels. “That’s what I know.”
Leofric snorted. “You know how to ask questions.”
“A surprisingly useful skill.”
“You mock us.”
“No.” Her voice sharpened. “I’m trying to keep someone from realizing halfway into the forest that her child is missing and turning back while everyone else follows her. I’m trying to keep thirty people from trying to use one path because nobody told them there was another. I’m trying to make sure one dead man doesn’t take the whole plan with him.”
The fire popped and a spark jumped into the rushes. Darcy moved before anyone else. Her foot stamped down once. Hard. The spark vanished. She stared at the black mark a moment too long. Then she straightened.
“I’m not saying your plan is bad.”
Leofric gave a rough laugh. “It has taken you long enough.”
“I’m saying every plan can go wrong.”
That silenced even him.
She looked at me. “You know how men attack.”
I did not answer as she went on.
“You know where horses can move and where they can’t. You know the paths, the woods, the places worth defending. I don’t.”
I had expected pride from her. Instead she gave us the edge of her knowledge and marked clearly where it ended.
“But if you tell me what you plan to do, I can help you find the places where people will panic, get separated, go back, freeze, or follow the wrong person.”
Godwin’s fingers began tapping against his knee. A nervous habit that he stopped when he noticed me watching.
“You speak as though you have seen much panic,” he said.
“I have.” She met his gaze.
“At war?”
“No.”
Leofric folded his arms. “Then what is this knowledge worth?”
Her gaze snapped to him. “I’ve carried many children out of burning rooms.”
