An evil thought came to him. Does that mean I could offer the Darrowans to them in exchange for getting rid of the invading army?
He shivered at the idea, and though he had no concrete knowledge, he suspected his grandfather would consider it a betrayal of the trust he had been given. Dealing with the fae was risky enough, but selling the life of a human to them was definitely an act of warlockry. Selling thousands was pure evil.
Will was unsure of the time. His body wanted him to return to sleep, but he still needed to figure out how to share the knowledge he had gained without getting himself into even more trouble. Campfires, he thought, but it won’t work after dawn. Shrugging off his blanket, he rose from his bed and headed for the latrine.
On his way back he began to run, assuming an air of urgency. “Lights!” he told the camp watchmen. “There are lights to the south!”
That got their attention, but when they went to confirm none of the night watch could see anything. The perimeter patrol also reported having seen nothing, but Will persisted, claiming he had seen several lights in the darkness to the south. After some argument, they took him back to his platoon’s tent and woke Sergeant Nash.
“Is it already time?” asked the sergeant groggily.
One of the patrollers spoke first. “One of your men is saying he saw lights to the south, but no one else can confirm his reporting.”
Sergeant Nash sat up, irritation on his face. “Who’s the jackass?”
“Me, sir,” offered Will.
The sergeant stared at him until his eyes focused in the dim light, then he groaned. “Goddamn it, Cartwright, not you again.”
“I really saw them, Sergeant,” insisted Will. “They put them out after only a minute or two.”
“What time is it?” Nash asked the guards who had come with Will.
“It’s the middle of third watch, Sergeant. Roughly an hour before wake-up call.”
The sergeant stared at Will, his expression unreadable. “Why should I believe you, Cartwright?”
“I have very good eyesight,” said Will. “I swear there’s an army out there. If we do nothing they’ll be at our rear tomorrow.”
“And yet none of the scouts found anyone to the south of us yesterday,” grumbled Sergeant Nash.
“They didn’t find the crossbowmen either, sir,” Will reminded him.
The sergeant got to his feet. “We’ll let the captain decide, but this is on you, Cartwright. If you’re wrong, I’ll make sure you wish you were never born.”
Sir Kyle was none too pleased to be woken early, but the knight hid his annoyance better. “I’m not rousing the entire camp early on one man’s word,” he pronounced. Glancing at Lieutenant Latimer, he ordered, “Send four men, two to the south-southwest, two to the south-southeast. Cartwright, you’ll go south on your own. Since you have such keen eyes, I’m sure you’ll be fine, and if not, you’ll be one less headache I have to deal with. Report back in an hour.”
Shortly after that, Will found himself walking alone by the light of the stars. There was no moon, but the sky was clear and Tailtiu’s mist had dispersed. Once his eyes had adjusted, he had enough light to walk without tripping, but the terrain ahead of him was just a mixture of blacks and grays. The turyn that flowed through the air helped slightly, and he hoped that by paying close attention to it he would be able to make out the positions of any guards that might lie ahead.
With only an hour to spend he did his best to make good time. From what Tailtiu had said, the enemy was three or four miles distant, an easy walk on level ground, but in the mountains, it was far harder. He had no way to track time, so he would have to guess at how long he had traveled.
After what he judged to be a half an hour, the landscape became more rugged and he doubted he had gone more than a mile. He saw no sign of the enemy, but he believed his aunt’s report, so he continued on. He kept going, determined to vindicate himself.
The sky was beginning to brighten in the east, and he knew he had probably been gone more than an hour before he saw the telltale disturbances in the flows that indicated men hidden ahead. Most probably they were enemy sentries. Just as Tailtiu had said, the land dropped away behind them into a wide crevasse of some type. They must be