Talon ground his teeth and kicked atthe cold embers of the fire the Basques had made no attempt tobury, just as they’d made no attempt to hide theirtrail.
“They mean to outrun us,”he said to no one in particular.
“Aye.”Anglbert pulled onhis beard as he came over from making his own rounds.“Which isgood for us, bad for them.Nobody’s ever outrun us before, andthat’s without women and children slowing them down.”
“True.”Talon’s gutknotted at the sight of women’s and children’s footprints ringingthe fire pit.
“They had a tent overhere,” Phillipe called out from the opposite edge of the smallclearing.
“Why would raiders set upa tent?”Talon ran a hand through his sweaty hair.“Unless someoneof importance travels with them, a Suleiman perhaps, bent onrevenge for Pamplona?”
“Was not Roncesvallesvengeance enough?”Anglbert grumbled.
“Against our soldiers,surely,” Talon thought aloud.“But what of their women andchildren?Why else would they have taken ours and nobody else’s?Why didn’t they take anything else?No horses, no food stores.Whyraid a small place like Denys’s and not the keep?They obviouslyknew we were away for the day.”
“How did they know whereour women and children would be and when?”Anglbert frowned.“That’s what I’d like to know.”
“A spy?”Talon rubbed hisjaw.“It would be easy enough to hide out in Tent Town.”
“Captain.”Oswald stood bya hedge of bushes along the clearing’s edge.“Overhere.”
Talon walked over and stopped at abush Oswald pointed down at.A bush that had a scrap of blue clothtied to a low branch.
Scratched into the dirt beneath itwere the words Nithard, trap, R and L, written in Latin.
***
Lara
Lara sat cross-legged on the groundbeside Patience, whose head bobbed and nodded as she fought thesleep the other women and children had long given in to.At last,the scout rode in and reported to Inigo and Ortzi, who wokeNithard, Ranulf, and Lothair.
Trying to act more interested in thefire than their conversation, Lara shifted closer and held herhands out to it.
“They’re half a day’s ridebehind us,” Inigo translated what the scout said for Nithard.“Twenty at least, maybe two, three more.”
“Twenty fighting men,knowing Guiscard,” Nithard said.
Inigo said something to the scout, whonodded and answered.“All armed, two horses each,” Inigotranslated.
“That’s just like thebastard,” Ranulf spat.“How do we keep ahead of them, draggingalong women and children who can barely hang on to theirmounts?”
“We ride early, ride long,don’t stop,” Inigo told him.“We need keep ahead one day more, thenwe let catch up.”
“And spring our trap.”Nithard looked as smug and pleased as a weasel that’d just spied afat, lazy vole.
Ranulf kicked at the dirt.“There areonly six men waiting at the pass.That doesn’t give us anyadvantage in numbers.”
Lara recalled Phillipe’s warning aboutnumbers not counting for everything to Ranulf when he’d demanded tobeat her after Hamm’s unveiling, and the corners of her lipstwitched up.
“Our advantage be positionand surprise,” Inigo said.“This Guiscard expect us keep running,not be waiting to ambush.”
“I do like thatadvantage,” Ranulf said with anticipation.
Lara ground her teeth so hard her jawclenched up.She rubbed it, working the ache out, and realized themen had stopped talking and were watching her.Ortzi crossedhimself and even Inigo took a step back, his dark eyes watching herkeen as a hawk’s.Ranulf glared at her and a chill ran down herspine at the possibility of ever being at his mercy.She glaredback.She’d die by her own hand before she succumbed to him.Nithard was staring at her with something between hatred andterror, and Lara saw exactly what it was Sophie had given her as aweapon against him.
“You’ll need more than anill-conceived ambush to kill my husband or me, or our daughter,”she said to Nithard, who startled when he realized she was speakingto him.She smiled.“I’ve seen you die, Uncle, in my dreams.Wouldyou like me to tell you how?”
Ranulf spat, Lothair snarled andmuttered a curse, but Nithard remained silent as he stood staringat her, his face pale in the fire’s light.Smiling as if she reallyhad seen him die in her dreams and liked what she’d seen, Laraturned her back on them and lay down beside herdaughter.
