Edge blanched but didn’t flinch. “Why would they steal your arrows?”
Renken snorted. “Isn’t it obvious? To place the blame on Atty, or on the Mutah in general. Anything to keep the hatred and rivalry stirred up.”
“But why Cara? Why not me?I’mthe battle lord,” Edge persisted.
“Your death would be tantamount to treason,” Mattox explain darkly. “Your death would place Tanger immediately in the spotlight as the best possible suspect. Because of everything he’s been fomenting in the past, he’d automatically be held responsible, even if he didn’t personally make the death stroke.”
“Killing your daughter would be easier to explain as an accident. Or as a retaliatory attack by Mutah,” Yulen further explained. “Tanger would have no problem with having any accusing fingers being pointed at him.”
“But where is your evidence?” Edge almost yelled. “All of this is pure supposition. An outlandish one, too, if I might add.”
Yulen shook his head. “Other than the stolen arrows, and what your daughter’s told us, there is none. Not until that next arrow is aimed at her. And the chances are highly probable it’ll be one of Atty’s arrows.”
Caralas placed a hand on her father’s cheek and forced him to turn his head to look at her. “I’m not leaving here until we catch whoever’s behind this.”
Edge gasped, but she stopped him before he said another word.
“No. I’m staying. If you must go back, then you can leave without me. But I wouldn’t feel safe getting back on that road and traveling for three months while a madman is stalking us and waiting for the right moment to take me out.”
“What if I tell Tanger to go ahead and leave without us? What if I let him know his company, and those of his men, are no longer welcome to ride with us?”
She shook her head. “I still wouldn’t trust him, especially since he’s probably already paid off the archer.”
“Tanger’s not your problem,” Mattox reminded him. “The assassin is.”
“And you actually believe that assassin will go to all the trouble to tail us all the way back to Vega City?” Edge scornfully asked.
“If he’s a Blood, as we think he is, yes,” Atty replied. “If he’s been paid enough, and I have no reason to believe it wasn’t a generous amount, he’ll follow you to your own front gates to fulfill his obligation. They may be the lowest form of humanity, but Bloods are notoriously loyal to whomever they choose to cling to.”
Caralas watched as her father’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times as his brain processed this newest bit of information. Behind her, she was aware of Mattox moving closer to them, perhaps to lay a hand on her arm and lead her inside the compound, but a soldier on top of the wall interrupted his intention.
“Take cover! Take cover! Incoming from the north! Incoming horde from the north!”
32
Safety
Everyone rushed inside the compound as Yulen ordered the gates be manually set in place. The task was daunting, taking more than a dozen men on both sides to up-end the huge doors which had been pulled off their hinges during the storm. But once they were erected, they could be shuttered from the inside, preventing anyone or anything from opening it from the outside.
Yulen had been reluctant to set them up before now, knowing how difficult it would be to open them after they were nearly cemented in place. Now he was glad he hadn’t.
“Cole! Warren! We need additional reinforcements to the walls!” he yelled. “Luc, Garet, see that the battle lords and Mutah are brought inside. Most of the battle lords should already be within, but many of the Mutah are still out in the woods.”
“If there’s no bell to ring, we’ll have to inform the townspeople personally of the attack so they can get to safety!” Mattox called out as he hurriedly limped, trying to keep alongside his parents.
“We’ll go do it!” Mistelle and Echo volunteered, and everyone dispersed in different directions to prepare.
Mattox stopped to wait for Caralas and Edge to catch up. “You need to seek shelter now!”
“I need to lead my men!” Edge argued.
“Your men, and all the men from the visiting compounds, are now under my father’s aegis. They’re taking their commands from him. You need to find safety now!”
“Where?” Caralas asked.
Knowing it would be easier to show her, rather than try to explain, he waved for them to follow and took off toward his parents’ lodge.
They could hear the sound of screams coming from the distance as the horde descended on the compound. Mattox chanced a glance to the east. Their most vulnerable sites were where the walls had collapsed, but in the few short days since the storm’s passing, Atty informed her son that the men had been able to collect what logs they could find and were setting them vertically, tied together with lengths of rope.
