raged before him was commonplace. She knelt down and gazed into the deep emerald eyes. A moment later Bani snorted indignantly and stalked over to Cero’s side where he curled up and disappeared.
“He was offended when I asked him if you forced him to do anything!” Inadar scowled at Bani’s last seen location.
“He tends to be quite dignified. I personally don’t think that anyone could force him to do anything he doesn’t want to.”
“Dignified is one way of saying it. Egotistical is another term used for the male species.” Inadar massaged her knee then tested it. When she didn’t feel any pain from it, she brushed some straw out of her hair and tried to wipe her face clean.
“Ouch. No wonder you don’t like me. The unforgivable crime of being born a boy has finally caught up with me.” Cero grimaced then brushed his fingers across the crystalline scab on his cheek. At his touch the crystals seemed to turn to dust and fall away revealing tender new skin beneath.
“Watch it! If you try doing anything to Enthbani, I will be here watching you and won’t hesitate to put you down.” Inadar shook a finger at a grinning Cero. She scowled when he didn’t seem to take her warning to heart.
“So you aren’t going to run away with Torroth like you were planning a few days ago?” Cero laughed when Inadar dropped her jaw in surprise.
“How could you have known that?”
“The Golden Thistle is Urake’s. You can guess that nothing is done or said within those walls that he doesn’t know about.” Cero was still smiling, but Inadar had a cross set to her jaw.
“Where is everyone?” Inadar abruptly changed the topic.
“I'm not sure. Urake was in here when we started. I think the others were posted outside to keep a watch.”
“How did that hole get in the wall?” Inadar had cleaned herself up as best she could without any water and was now walking towards the gaping hole in the barn wall.
“I'm not sure, but I think you threw me through the wall.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I know we were sparing, but other than that, I don’t exactly know. I do know that I couldn’t have done that.”
“I don’t know either. Last thing I remember was you telling me it was all right to hit a girl because you hit me first, then I was standing out there. Come one Bani.” Inadar shook her head as she watched Cero’s clothes move where Bani was pulling on them as he climbed to Cero’s shoulders. He could be seen outlined faintly until he stopped moving. She followed Cero out the new door in the barn but stopped when they met Urake with sword drawn.
“Cero?” Urake uttered the single word question as he looked the two of them over.
“We are all right. What happened to you?” A bruise was already forming on Urake’s jaw and from the stiff way that he was walking, Cero could tell the he was sore for some reason.
“I got startled and tripped.” Urake put Ice Heart away and sent a warning glance towards Niman and Arken as they stood watching in astonishment. “I don’t ever want to hear either of you complain about how heavy your packs are. Between this and the stunt you pulled at the Golden Thistle, we will need to be leaving Warton ahead of schedule. You four go back to the Golden Thistle and hope that no one notices their forced nap. I am going to see if Tusul can speed up any. Don’t get into any more trouble while I'm gone.”
Chapter Nine: Intentions
Lortin somberly led the column down the road on his way back to Keom. Ten of his men were dead and another twenty were injured. The opportunity to attack the small camp that was blockading the northern entrance to the Outlands had been too tempting to pass up. They had not been posting sentries, brazenly flew Reigns’ banner, and were seemingly oblivious to any threat that the rebels might pose. The plan of attack had been to sneak into the camp and eliminate as many as possible before the alarm was raised. By Lortin’s estimates, there would have been a weak defense before the element of surprise enabled his men to wipe out the remaining men in the camp.
All had gone according to plan until he had been about to give the order to attack. Apparently one of the soldiers had been emptying his bladder discreetly and had noticed the shadowy