Hugo dropped to a crouch the moment he heard the rustling of leaves. He put a finger to his lips and waved a hand at the others to do the same. They all quickly went down on one knee without question.

  They had followed the ditch made by the spring that only ran after the deepest snowfalls. It kept them hidden from any of the main pathways, up until now, when they had reached where it funneled to become level with the hillside within the forest.

  Dalfur and Bruce were at the back of the line, being the biggest of the group, both with worried glances back and forth between Hugo and the muddy ditch, crawling with roots, behind them. Samma and his brother, Damon, were keeping together in front of them, looking to Hugo for what he wanted them to do. He winced as he lay against the side of the ditch to take a peek.

  Chase held the bolt in his crossbow, ready to shoot. His thumb was pressed hard enough to bend it from how much his hand was shaking. He had the stock already held firm to his shoulder and his eyes on Hugo as well. Beside him, Andre and Raphael were loading their own bolts as quietly as they could. They were shaking, too.

  It was a deer.

  Hugo heaved a sigh and slid back down with a grin to the others. He signaled for them to move slowly. They were almost to the waterfalls. Just a little further and they will be within the caves. With one hand to brace against the steep hill and side of the ditch, gripping the steel spear, he slowly crept forward.

  It was weighted unlike any spear he had ever used. That holed cylinder at the end before the point made it twice as heavy as any spear he had ever held and almost all of on the shaft before the point. How anyone can throw this thing was beyond him.

  He sprinted for the nearest tree and crouched behind it, careful not to spook the deer. Olaf had taught him that. If there were any soldiers or scouts around, that would give them away in an instant, and they would be in for it. If only he could breathe quieter. If only he couldn’t hear his heart throbbing through his head. He took another peek at the deer. It was munching on something on the ground.

  Its head jerked upright just as Andre started to lift himself from within the cover of the ditch.

  Hugo held a hand up for him to stop. Flapping its ears, the deer turned and stared for a moment.

  Hugo held his breath.

  There was nothing but foliage and trees around them. The forest, them, and the one deer. But there is never just one deer.

  “What is it?” Andre mouthed more than whispered.

  Hugo shook his head. He shifted the spear. The deer was still looking. He was still looking.

  It returned to eating. Hugo waved for Andre to come his way. Only the brush of a leaf as quiet and soft as a breeze was left by Andre as he came to beside Hugo and crouched down with his crossbow ready. Hugo could feel his trembling through the ground between them. But looking at Andre, one could never tell. He had the look of a soldier ready to fight at the first opportunity, constantly moving his eyes and his crossbow aim with it, as he gave room between Hugo and him for the others.

  Chase was next, just as silent, stopping behind a tree across from Hugo so he can keep an eye on whatever was toward the river. Hugo could not concentrate on that deer and signaling without having to watch for everything else. He held a hand for Raphael to wait while the deer meandered toward another patch of ferns still green in the bareness of the cold autumn frost.

  Raphael’s foot slipped from under him in the mud and he floundered into the ditch wall.

  The thud was like thunder in Hugo’s ears. He didn’t have to look or hear the prancing across crackling leaves and snapping branches to know that the deer had fled in an instant. He bounced his forehead on the rough tree bark with a groan. Of course, Damon snickering and Dalfur’s cackling laugh didn’t help.

  Raphael rolled onto his back, covered from his face to his knees in muck, and sat with a shake of his head. “It’s slippery, okay.”

  “Your precious boots not so good in the woods, huh?” Dalfur said between guffaws.

  “He looks like one of the old statues. You don’t happen to be Napolea, do you?” Bruce winked over his shoulder, still crouched on one knee with his spear in hand and scanning behind them.

  Hugo was waving for them to stop laughing. He and Andre were both straining to listen toward where the deer had fled. He tried snapping his fingers but their jabbering only continued.

  No bushes were moving. No birds were chirping. It was just them, their voices echoing through the trees in all directions. His jaw tightened.

  Raphael clawed at the mud on his face with a growling, “I have the same boots as the rest of you.”

  “Not anymore, I keep the mud on the outside,” Dalfur was now pointing at him, snickering. Even Bruce wasn’t watching behind them.

  There was something like a shout, short and barely audible over their noise, but Hugo caught it. He whipped his head, “Shut up!”

  “Tell that to Weeble-wobble over here,” Dalfur shrugged a pointing finger at Raphael, who was slowly getting back on his feet after gathering his spear and shield that had been thrown when he fell.

  “You always were a prick,” Raphael was still trying to scoop mud off of his shirt and legs onehanded once he had his shield back over his back. He used his spear like a staff to brace himself.

  “I can’t see anything,” Andre whispered. Hugo could hear the back of his teeth rattling. The knuckles gripping the crossbow were going white.

  “Just,” Hugo ground his teeth and shook his head. “Come on, we need to keep moving.”

  “You’re the boss,” Bruce shrugged. As he passed Raphael, “You’d make a good scarecrow.”

  “Plow yourself, Gervaise,” Raphael growled with a whip of muck from his hand before following.

  Hugo tapped Andre’s shoulder as he moved around him and, hunched down, rushed along the path that would snake closer to the cliff overlooking the river rapids below. The northern canals had been made to bypass this part of the river for good reason. He could already hear the rush of it filling the air like a low rumbling. It was overpowering his ability to hear anything.

  “I know you’re trying to be all ‘knightly’ and everything, Hugo,” Dalfur had edged his way past Damon and Samma to say loudly. “But I didn’t think we were hiding from harmless deer, too.”

  Bushes with browning leaves and barren branches like thickets. Trees that were still green and full between those that were brown and naked. Some ferns. Patches of moss that had decayed nearly to black mud on rocks jutting from the ground. Fallen trees with their roots rising over the holes where they had been set for ages blocking most of his view. The forest was a vice closing around him with prickly branches, strangling the breath out of him and thrashing the blood out of his heart with every step he took. They could be anywhere and now they knew someone was here. That they were here.

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  “If we weren’t playing hide and seek so much, we’d have gotten there already,” Dalfur was getting louder. “Though, seeing Raphael finally look like he actually did some labor for once does make it worth it.”

  “You act like I don’t have to work in our tannery the same lot as the rest of you,” Raphael stepped in front of Dalfur, bouncing his chest against him. “Just because my trade looks like it’s easy doesn’t mean it is. To me, all you do is swing a hammer. Not much skill needed for that, if you ask me.”

  Hugo thinned his lips. He couldn’t hear anything. Couldn’t see anything. He wondered if Andre could. He had a good eye on the hunt, almost as good as Maud...he wished she was with him now. She could see everything. And she was a much better aim than all of them put together. What was he thinking? He can’t lead them to anything but their deaths. And no one even knew they were gone yet!

  “And all you do is exactly what every one of us does to make it through the winter, except you get paid for it,” Dalfur bumped his barrel chest against Raphael hard enough to make him stumble back a few steps.

  Samma rushed to between them, “Do we have to do this now? Can’t we just keep going like we have been? We’re almost there.”

  “We’d already be there if our fearless leader would stop playing like he’s some noble and us, his knights,” Dalfur shoved Samma back from him after resting his spear on his burly shoulder. “And you’re just playing along because you always wanted to be just like him, too.”

  “He’s a Paladin!” Damon rushed to shove Dalfur, though was barely strong enough to make Dalfur lean, let alone shift a step. It only made the burly blacksmith laugh at the tall, lanky Damon.

  “I think I heard a shout from that way,” Chase was gripping his crossbow with both hands, using it to point toward where the deer had run off to for Hugo to look. “It’s far away, but I heard it, I swear.”

  Hugo winced. The rumbling of the river rapids was making everything but their bickering inaudible to him.

  “I heard it, too,” Andre was shaking his head while keeping his gaze scanning over the forest in that direction. “Barely,” he added with a worried glance to Hugo. “You gotta do something. They’re getting too loud.”

  “Like what?” Hugo growled with a backwards glance at Dalfur being joined by Bruce in their jeers against Raphael and the two young brothers. “If we fight, they’ll hear us for certain.”

  “You’re in charge,” Chase shrugged angrily at him, “Be in charge. If you have to thump them, we’ll help, but get them to shut up.”

  Hugo gritted his teeth in an open-lipped wince, hesitating.

  Bruce and Dalfur had already taken steps back to pull their shields and crossbows from over their shoulders so that they could roll up their sleeves. Samma was pleading with them to stop while Raphael and Samma’s younger brother were rolling their own sleeves. Hugo rolled his eyes. What did he get himself into?

  Just before Raphael would have leapt into a charge, Hugo grabbed his shirt with a twist. Using his hip, he sent Raphael sprawling sideways and drew his sword with a quickness that even he didn’t know he was capable of. Dalfur was the one who rushed for Raphael until Hugo’s blade crossed his path with the point nearly pressing into his shoulder. He had to blink from letting them see how shocked he was at himself. All those weeks of the King and Olaf making him practice really did work against people, not just bags of hay on poles.

  Dalfur raised a challenging brow at his glare but didn’t move. Damon took their hesitation as opportunity and rushed around him to charge Bruce but found himself floundering to the ground when Hugo sidestepped enough to trip him. His glare never fell from Dalfur.

  “I suggest you all get your arms and get back in line,” Hugo eyed Dalfur, still keeping his sword point held to his shoulder, “And keep your mouths shut and eyes open. They’re coming for us now. You would know that if you weren’t being so plowing loud that everything between the river and Talkro knows we’re here.”

  “You don’t know that,” Dalfur glared. He didn’t try to move against the blade aimed into his shoulder. His fists were balled, though, and Hugo noted them with a flick of his brow and roll of his eyes.

  “Willing to risk our deaths to prove you’re right?” Hugo lifted the angle of his sword and used it to shove Dalfur back a step before sheathing it.

  Dalfur stiffened with a sneer. He was still defiantly glaring in Hugo’s direction, but he was gathering up his shield and spear along with the others.

  Hugo shook his head with a disappointed sigh, “Now, get closer together and shields out. If they ambush us, it’ll be arrows first.” He eyed Dalfur when he said, “Believe what you want, but they are coming for us now. The same men who nearly killed our King and Adrian, who beat my aunt black and blue, and are far better fighters than any of us by tenfold.” He bared his gritted teeth to growl in Dalfur’s face, “I’m not stupid enough to think we’ll last one minute against them. So, you either shut up and move, or go home like the selfish prick we all think you are already. Which is it, knight or Talkrois coward?”

  Hugo looked at the faces around him. All of them were gaping with shame and realization. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. He just knew that they had wasted more time than they had. Once he saw Dalfur’s nod, he let out a long breath and went back to Andre and Chase, who were giving him hurried glances and waves.

  “I’m sure of it now,” Chase said as Hugo climbed up to beside him. “They’re close. We need to go, now.”

  Hugo looked over his shoulder to the rest of them, leaning on his hands into the increasing steepness of the hill they had to climb. “Keep low, but keep up.”

  Crouched down, gripping his spear in his right hand and shield in his left, Hugo started moving as quickly as he could, following the path that winded and snaked up that steep hill between thickets and low hanging branches. He knew they were going to snap at least a dozen times as they brushed past them. It didn’t matter now. They had to get to the cave before they were found.

  Hugo took a knee after the hill became steep enough that he couldn’t hold his shield and spear while climbing it, regardless of following the path or not. His eyes twitched with every snap and crackle from the others behind him, no matter how unavoidable they were. They were beacons calling out to their hunters. His hand sank into the frosty mud of the narrow path and he tried not to let the worry show. They would be slipping and sliding the entire climb.

  So much noise. So much mud. He had to do something. He had to take another way but this was the only one he knew. He eyed the slant of the hill on both sides of him. Then at the faces watching him in huddles of anticipation. He held his breath and listened to the rumble of the rapids.

  The loudness of the river rapids rose from the cliffs and poured in echoes through the trees. There was another shout that pierced through the rumble. That one, they all heard. That one made Dalfur raise his head and roll his eyes at himself with a nod.

  Hugo only blinked for a moment. He was thankful they all understood now why he had been so careful. And now, he had their attention. They were all looking to him. They were waiting for him.

  A constant rolling of thunder, loud enough to keep Hugo’s thoughts from focusing. They kept scattering into those trees, into the mud his hand had sank into, across the bushes and logs that marred his surroundings. Hugo blinked toward the river.

  If they can’t hear them…Hugo bit his lip at the tiny bits of sunlight piercing through the branches from where he knew the cliff was. He tapped Andre’s shoulder and rolled off of the path, stepping from tree to tree to keep from sliding down the slope with a wave for the others to follow. There were no paths once they neared the cliff, except right along its edge, here and there, but that only meant that there were no clear ways they could be followed and found.

  When Hugo looked back to their hesitant faces, each bracing themselves haphazardly against trees and laying against the slope, he sent them a winking smile.

  They would be hidden by the forest. They would be silenced by the river. He navigated through a prickly bush and brimmed with pride. This must be what every good leader feels when they finally figure out what they’re doing.