“There won’t be any need to cook until we get to a village,” Mistake retorted. “We will be eating the crumbs out of our sacks until then.”
“I will see what game I can find in the morning,” Bakhai said softly. “Let us eat before it cools.”
They ate in silence, which was punctuated only by the sounds of crickets chirping distantly. Rejji stole glances at his friends’ faces from time to time. Mistake’s face was a mask of gloom and Bakhai just shook his head. After the meal, Rejji staked out a place to lie down and stared up at the stars through the trees. Bakhai settled down not far away, but Mistake grumbled and stalked off into the woods.
“What is wrong with her?” Rejji whispered to Bakhai.
“She has been moody most of the day,” Bakhai answered. “I would just leave her alone for a day or two.”
“Did I do something wrong?” Rejji asked?
“You did nothing wrong,” smiled Bakhai. “She will be fine. Go to sleep.”
Mistake eventually ended up at the ledge Rejji had been describing to her before dinner. She sat and marveled at the stars for a time, mentally kicking herself for treating Rejji so poorly. She reclined on the ledge and let her eyes wander the heavens, wishing Rejji were there to stargaze with her. It was indeed beautiful, she thought. Oblivious to the cool night air, Mistake ended up falling asleep.
Mistake awoke suddenly and stared up into the sky. The huge full moon hung low in the sky, flooding the ledge with a soft moonlight. She shook her head and realized that she had slept almost the entire night on the ledge and the morning sun was only a couple of hours away at most. As the fog in her mind started to clear she heard the sound again. Yes, again, she thought, for it must have been the sound that had awakened her. It was the sound of riders.
Mistake crawled to the edge of the ledge and peered down at the trail they had ascended the day before. Four riders were climbing the trail at a fairly decent pace. They were not trying to make noise as they rode, but neither were they trying to remain silent. Their heads kept turning from side to side as if in search of something or somebody. Concerned etched into Mistake’s face as they rode through a patch of moonlight and she saw the red scarves adorning the riders.
Suddenly, the leader halted and pointed upward and Mistake’s eyes followed the path of his finger. A lump of terror formed in her throat as she saw the telltale wisps of a smoldering campfire riding gently in the still night air.
Silently, she pushed herself back from the edge. When she was sure she could rise without being seen, Mistake jumped to her feet and started racing through the forest. Mentally, she tried to calculate whether she could beat them to the campsite where Rejji and Bakhai lay sleeping. A dark frown covered her face as she tried to push herself even faster.
Chapter 15
Diakles
Bakhai was startled awake by the noise of the riders. He bolted upright to a crouch and shoved Rejji, wakening him, just as the riders appeared through the trees. Rejji’s eyes popped open and he scanned the campsite. His mind registered that Mistake was still missing, as his eyes locked on the approaching riders, their swords raised high. Rejji rolled to his sword, knowing he would not reach it in time. Just as his fingers wrapped around the hilt, he heard an inhuman scream that sounded like it had come from Bakhai.
Rejji completed his roll and came to a crouch while he tore his blade from its sheath. He looked up and saw the horses high on their hind legs and watched, as if in slow motion, the riders with red scarves tumble to the ground.
“Jiadin!” Rejji shouted as the three men regained their footing,
Rejji saw the fourth rider in the background still atop his horse, but his attention was drawn to the closer three as they charged forward. Rejji saw Bakhai swing at one of the bandits with a large dead branch as he brought his sword up to defend himself from the two bandits descending on him. He crossed swords with one of the men as the other screamed and dropped his sword, his hands going to the dagger, which had pierced his neck, as his knees buckled and his body dropped to the ground.
Mistake, smiled Rejji as the bandit he was fighting lunged at him. Rejji’s mind flashed images of the lessons he had learned with the Zaldoni, and he recognized the moves the bandit was making. He smiled inwardly as planned to utilize what he had learned at Fardale.
He pressed in close to the Jiadin bandit, locking swords for the barest of moments, and then pushed off from the encounter, letting his body fall backwards. As the bandit rushed forward to take advantage of Rejji’s fall, Rejji slammed his feet into the bandit’s ankles and brought his sword up in front of his chest. The Jiadin tumbled forward and Rejji strained to keep the hilt of his own sword from striking his chest as the bandit impaled himself on the blade. Rejji twisted sideways and thrust the dead body away from him.
As Rejji rose and tried to pull his blade from the Jiadin body, he saw the fourth rider pull a dagger out of the side of his horse and throw it back at Mistake. The small thief stepped aside and grabbed the hilt of the thrown knife so quickly that Rejji blinked his eyes and shook his head as if to clear his vision.
“He is getting away,” scowled Mistake as the fourth rider turned and raced away from the campsite.
Rejji looked towards Bakhai and saw the body of a Jiadin with the long branch imbedded in its chest.
“I would rather lose him than one of you,” panted Rejji. “I think we might want to get out of here quickly ourselves.”
Mistake nodded and walked over to one of the bodies and retrieved her dagger from its neck. She wiped the two daggers clean and shoved them back into their sheaths.
“That was mighty fine throwing, Mistake,” Rejji said.
“I missed the one on the horse,” she frowned. “At least he was kind enough to return my dagger. I thought you were going to die when you fell. I am sorry for being so nasty last night.”
“I let myself fall,” smiled Rejji who was happy to have his old Mistake back again. “Tagoro showed it to me in Fardale. It only works when your opponent is overly aggressive as this one was.”
“Hey,” Mistake said as she stood looking at the bandit that Rejji had killed. “This one has gold fringe on his red scarf. Wonder why he is different?”
“He is not different anymore,” commented Rejji. “Whoever he was, he is as dead as the others now.”
“I guess,” offered Mistake as she bent and searched the body for a coin pouch.
“I am afraid I scared our horses away,” interjected Bakhai. “We will never find them.”
“What was that you screamed?” asked Rejji. “I thought you had been pierced by a sword when I heard it.”
“I panicked the horses,” replied Bakhai. “I made them think you were a large cat about to strike. It was the only thing I could think of.”
“Well it saved our lives,” reasoned Rejji. “I never thought I would get my hands on my sword before they struck us down.”
“They will be back,” frowned Mistake. “One rule of the bandits is to never let someone kill one of their own without retaliation. Horses or no horses, we need to be out of here now. That rider will bring back an army.”
“For the three of us?” questioned Rejji. “We were lucky this night. They don’t need an army to kill us.”
“Maybe so,” Mistake said while shaking her head, “but these Jiadin were looking for somebody. They weren’t just passing through. I saw them coming from the ledge you told me about. They were searching for someone and must have thought that’s who we were. The smoke from our fire got them very excited.”
“Well it certainly is not us they are searching for,” retorted Rejji, “but let us get out of here just the same. Perhaps we should stay off the main trail.”