It's time," Brax whispered, nudging Kalat, who was almost falling asleep.
They peeked out from behind a rock. The camp was quiet, their moment had come.
Fortunately, like most mercenaries, they were also dressed in dark clothes.
"Let's go. Ready?" Kalat asked.
"Yeah, let's do it," Kalat nodded.
They pulled their hoods over their heads and quietly crept into the camp. Now they looked almost like one of the robbers.
They tried to act casual. To reduce the chance of detection, each of them wore a medallion around their necks, obtained from a slaughtered group in the forest.
Here and there, some bandits greeted them, returned their greetings in the same rude style, and continued on through the camp.
The cages with the hostages were deep inside the camp. How could they not?
During their short walk, they had thoroughly inspected the terrain. Most of the bandits were sleeping or drinking, exactly as Brax had expected. There were four guards around the cages, though. They had to think of something. Something quiet and effective, they didn't want the whole camp on their heels until they were far enough away.
She reached up and hit the man in the head. She managed to push him away a little, so she quickly pushed herself away with her hands. She started to move, but as soon as she lifted her head from the ground, she started to spin, so it wasn't easy.
The man shook himself and got to his feet. Lina knew she didn't have much of a chance, but she still wasn't going to give up that easily. She could see him approaching, already stretching out, either to give her another blow or to bruise her even more than she already was.
Almost instinctively, she reached behind her and pulled an arrow from her quiver. She gripped it tightly in her hand, ready to hurt him in any way she could.
He was only a meter away when out of nowhere a whinny sounded. Lina's eyes widened and she looked behind the man at Rillan, who had stood on his hind legs and hit the bandit, who had just turned, in the chest with his front hooves. He yelped in pain, fell to the ground, and Rillan's front legs landed on him.
Lina exhaled and stared in disbelief at the motionless robber.
The horse neighed and threw its head wildly. The girl stood up carefully, but her head became dizzy and she fell backwards down the steeper slope, sloping down, into the trees.
She had hit one of the trunks a few dozen feet from the path, which probably led directly to the bandits, she realized after a while. She hissed softly in pain. She felt like a shaken sack on a cart. Her head kept banging and the rest of her battered body began to resonate as well.
She almost fainted in her mind when she saw two men coming down the path who seemed to be looking for something. She knew at a glance that they were one of the scoundrels. They must have heard the scream, either hers or their mate's, and now the sound of her rolling down.
The presence of the guards at the cages forced Brax and Kalat to retreat back to their hiding place.
"We can't do this," Kalat hissed, once they were back in relative safety. "If we take down those guards, we'll be gone before we can reach the river."
"You're right. We have to think of something," Brax agreed.
But how do we do it? How do we incapacitate so many people, or at least reduce their numbers so that no one notices?
"I might know something," Kalat said nervously, reaching for the leather pouch on his belt.
"What is it?"
"Poison. In small quantities, it stuns, in larger quantities it kills," Kalat replied, hefting the pouch in his hand.
"That solves our problem," Brax smiled, taking the pouch in his hand and standing up.
"What do you want to do?" Kalat didn't understand.
"Watch and learn," Brax replied with a satisfied expression.
In a second he was gone—back in camp. Nothing happened for a while, but then Kalat heard Brax yell, "Cheers, guys!"
A wave of cheers rose. Uncontrolled drinking immediately began.
"Well, that would be it," Brax smiled when he returned.
"You poured it into their beer?"
"Right into the keg. Now we'll just wait. As soon as I yelled 'cheers', they swooped down on the keg like vultures. Now watch. I bet they won't miss such a celebration." "
But they have nothing to celebrate," Kalat didn't understand.
"And you think they mind? When the mood is good, you can drink for no reason. A good half of them are sucking it in now," Brax explained, and sat down contentedly. "As I say - now all you have to do is wait."
They sat in hiding for another hour, letting Kalat's poison take effect.
Lina saw the men look at each other and move on. She tried to breathe carefully, hoping that Rillan would retreat. She looked around and saw that there was nowhere to run. She wouldn't climb up unnoticed, and the trees around her formed a perfect wall on both sides.
All she could think of was that if they caught her and found out she was a woman, she would pass from one to the other.
She tried to raise her hand as quietly as possible, then hid her hair under her cloak and tucked it behind the collar of her shirt. Her face was covered in blood, she could feel it, but just to be sure, she dug her hand into the dirt, blackening the skin around her mouth and neck.
She watched the men, hoping in a surge of slight despair that they would miss her, that they would associate the previous sound with some animal.
They were perhaps five meters away. Lina realized that the gathering darkness around her might help her, that they might miss her, and that gave her hope.
The bandits passed by where she was hiding and were heading down the road. She almost sighed, but then the men started running straight towards her.
It dawned on her that they knew exactly where she was. Before she could pull out the dagger she had hidden in the leg of her boot, they grabbed her and dragged her away from the trees.
"Come on!" one of them shouted. "Do you think we're blind?"
Lina tried to get out of their grip, but in vain. She didn't even try to use her voice, she knew it wouldn't help.
The second bandit grabbed her by the throat and squinted at her through the darkness, as if trying to recognize her.
"He looks like one," said the first, who had tied her hands in the meantime.
"Yeah, like a pig," chuckled the second. "And look, the boy has a sword," he said, pulling it out of its sheath.
"Can you even handle that?" one of them shouted at her.
Lina's eyes were wide and she was just trying to keep her mouth shut.
"What - are you speechless?" he shook her.
The girl realized that if he was only talking about the sword, her arrows must have fallen out when she rolled down. She could still feel the quiver strap on her, but that was all.
"He must have lost his voice," chuckled the first, and the second joined him. "Well, at least we have another catch. You'll stand out from the rest."
"But just to be safe," the first one said to her face.
He then shoved a gag into her mouth and tied it tightly around her head. Then they grabbed Lina, one on each side, and dragged her down the path to the camp.
As soon as the girl saw the fire burning and dozens of men around her, she wanted nothing more than to sink into the ground.
"Do you remember the plan?" Brax asked as he got up from the hard, rocky ground.
"Sure, you do," Kalat replied, almost offended.
"Look, if anything goes wrong after we free the hostages, you'll take them away and I'll try to buy some time, okay?"
"Brax, that's…" Kalat started to flinch.
"Stop that nonsense," Brax snapped harshly. Then, somewhat more gently, he added, "I thought you were an idiot at first, but you're a nice guy."
Brax offered Kalat his hand in a friendly way, and he accepted it with a smile.
They climbed out of hiding and walked slowly through the camp. Many of the bandits were already lying on the ground. Whether they were dead or just dazed, they didn't know, and they didn't want to try. Those who were still conscious had drunken, satisfied expressions on their faces. Very few of them seemed to be in their right minds.
"It looks good," Kalat hissed.
"Yeah, let's check out the whole camp first, let's see what the situation is," Brax whispered in response, and they split up.
"I thought so!" shouted one of the men who was holding Lina as they approached the camp. "Drink everything yourself!"
Lina looked around the camp with wide eyes and saw that most of the men were lying on the ground, and some were rolling around so close to the ground that they weren't far from the ground. Nearby she saw wooden cages that had already been used by someone and where she guessed they were going to put her.
"Bastards!" the other man said in relief.
"Hey, you there! You!" he called to the man who seemed to still be walking straight ahead. "Take this guy to the cage with the others, you hear me!"
Lina shot her eyes at the man the bandit was calling out to. He was taller, much taller than the one holding her, and looked much more powerful and had much more strength.
As the girl realized, they wanted to hand her over to someone else so they could go get a drink, if there was anything left. She considered her escape, whether it would be possible in a camp almost full of drunks and with only one bandit by her side.
Brax looked around and saw that the newly arrived bandit was calling out to him. They had a prisoner with them.
That could have made things much easier. He turned and headed for the prisoner.
"Well, there you go," he grumbled, trying to sound disgusted.
"Come on, you scumbag," he said as he grabbed the prisoner and led him towards
the cages.