would buy us a few extra minutes to get into position.
We left the edge of the marsh, moving into grasses chest high with occasional patches of tumbled stone that looked completely out of place given the soft land. The high grasses met a thinly wooded area dressed with a variety of underbrush, mostly consisting of milkweed. We worked our way through it carefully.
“We should get there in another fifty yards. So, what’s the plan?” Hamath asked over his shoulder in a voice I could barely make out.
I responded in kind. “We leave our packs and shields here. Ava will know to pick them up on the way in.” We didn’t need the worry of having them snag on anything. “You go right. I go left. I’ll drown out our movements.”
He leaned in, inches from my face. “Please tell me you ain’t going to use one of your dumb bird calls.”
“Why not?”
“Because they’re awful.”
“They’ve always worked.”
“It only takes one time for them not to.”
“I’m hurt.” And truthfully, I kind of was. I had used my calls countless times over the years and they had always paid off. “Trust me.”
He sighed, shaking his head.
We continued on a bit before splitting up.
Growing up on a farm and hunting for food with my father, I learned a lot about animal calls. My Pa had mastered them all—mountain lion, owl, coyote, whatever. If you could name it, he could do it. He nearly got himself killed a couple of times when someone loosed an arrow into the bushes where he hid, thinking he had been the real thing.
I never figured out half of what the old man knew, but I felt like I was better than most others when it came to mimicking animals.
I hadn’t seen or heard anything too exotic in the swamp as far as birds went so I decided on a simple crow while slipping into the underbrush, trying my best to silence the tiny branches rustling against my legs.
The communication post was essentially a tent, a small fire, and eight men in different stages of alertness hunkered down behind several old logs someone had hauled into a semicircle. It wasn’t what I would have called a well-fortified position. There weren’t any engineers among this bunch. Thankfully, several of the enemy were busy catching a few minutes of sleep while most of those awake ate. I couldn’t yet see the two crossbowmen, though I did see the ditch.
I wasn’t in the most ideal position for me to give the call, crawling around, ducking and weaving between bushes and rock. Still, I thought it sounded believable.
A sword hissed through its scabbard. “What in the name of the gods is that?”
I froze, rising up just enough to spare a quick glance toward the post. One of the men already awake looked in my direction, though it quickly became obvious he had no idea of my location. I did the call again, this time throwing my voice a bit as my Pa had taught me.
“There it is again,” said the man, swiveling his head while trying to locate its origin. “What is that?” He appeared nervous.
I did the call again, this time moving as fast as I dared.
“Sit down, Corporal, and keep quiet,” came a voice from one of the men who had been asleep. “We didn’t make a bunch of racket during your watch.”
“But I ain’t ever heard anything like that before.”
I kept the call going intermittently during their conversation, changing the pitch and throwing my voice to mix up the location.
“Probably just a couple of squirrels having a romp in the bushes. Now stay quiet.”
A few of the men chuckled. I couldn’t believe they thought my crow sounded like a squirrel.
By the time the Geneshans settled down, I was in position. So was Hamath. I looked his way through a gap in the brush. I could tell by his posture that he heard the squirrel comment. I knew I wouldn’t hear the end of that.
Hamath gestured down and across to the two crossbowmen, making sure I not only saw my target, but could get to him easily enough. I nodded. The man was about ten feet away, weapon butted up against his shoulder while he stared out toward the point the rest of my unit would be forced to attack from. Neither he nor the man next to him seemed to care what could be lurking on either side of them. Lucky for us.
Not long after we got into position, a small pebble