“Do not let him escape!” Gautho called from behind him.
But it was too late. Rowena pressed forward, breaking through the two Chendas soldiers behind her, making for the road as she picked up speed.
In the time it would take the soldiers to mount up and follow them, Ian, Ulli, and Jette would have disappeared into the trees.
Chapter 33
Robin followed Brother Fletcher through the tunnel from the caves to the monastery. From her years of working with the monks, she knew this cave as well as she knew the one near the port city.
But, in all her time working with the monks, she had never ascended the stairs to the interior of the monastery. To protect their place of prayer and quiet, the men had kept a comfortable guest house—which Robin had frequented—attached to the front courtyard for visitors who needed to stay with them.
As someone who valued her own quiet life, Robin had never begrudged the monks for this rule. She respected them all the more for it, as she had seen them break it several times. Often, the Majis who traveled through the monastery were ill and exhausted. If they could benefit from a long rest within the private walls of the monastery, the monks invited them up to stay for as long as needed. They would have done the same for Robin had she needed it, so she was content with staying in the guest house and respecting their peace.
At the moment, a part of her wished she had a better knowledge of the building they were about to invade, but shehad spent several hours poring over the map with both Elias and Fletcher, so she was as prepared as she could be.
Robin inhaled the damp, salty air of the cave. She forced her breath to be long and slow, letting the air seep deep into her lungs. The attack they were about to begin could get messy, and there was always the chance that one of them could be hurt, or worse. As a rule, they tried to not outright kill anyone, and today would be no exception. Disarm and overpower, yes. But not kill. However, they could not expect the enemy to afford them the same luxury. In fact, they expected the opposite. Robin breathed in again deeply. She trusted her team to defend themselves well, no matter how outnumbered they might find themselves.
Aden walked behind her, a tall and quiet presence that felt not unlike Ulli. For a moment, she wished it was Ian at her side instead of his brother. But then she reminded herself that Ian would be safely outside during the thick of the fight. And she would hate for him to be injured. Just as she would hate for anyone on her team to be injured, she reminded herself.
The smuggler’s tunnel ended in a steep staircase carved up the sandstone rock. Brother Fletcher stepped aside, letting Robin take the lead up the stairs so she would be the first one to enter the monastery as they had planned.
Robin passed around the monk and made her way quickly up the stairs. At the top, she came to a stop behind a small wooden door.
Grasping the handle, she tested it gently for squeaking. There was none. She slowly pulled the door back toward herself, revealing a heavy tapestry hung in front of it.
She turned around. “Douse the torches,” she whispered to Aden.
Aden passed on her command down the stairs.
Robin waited for several moments, listening intently for footsteps in the hallway, which she could not see through thetapestry. Hearing nothing, she pushed forward the heavy fabric and stepped through the doorway. Slipping between the tapestry and the wall, she moved into an empty stone hallway.
Slowly, quietly, the others followed her.
Fletcher and Sarah—the Lockwood smithy who was handy with a hammer in several types of situations—immediately moved down the hall to her left. They would search out the library turned weapons room to lock it off from access.
The soldiers they encountered would still be armed with the smaller weapons they kept on their person, but hopefully none would have time to go for full armor or heavy swords.
Robin moved down the hall to her right, stepping silently on the smooth stone floor. She counted each wooden door that she passed, exactly as Fletcher had described. The hallway ended at an open courtyard.
Hugging the wall as her only cover, Robin approached the open space. In the distance, she heard faint voices, the first sign of life in the monastery. She dropped to a crouch, getting her first view of the open space.
The courtyard itself held remnants of the peaceful garden it had once been, but its current state showed overgrown plants bowed under windswept sand.
There.
Across the way, two soldiers walked down a hall. They moved casually, wearing no visible armor or weapons.
Robin waited for them to disappear down the far side of the courtyard. This was not the place to make their first contact. She wanted to get deeper into the building, to start at the back and then fight their way to the front courtyard to slowly force the soldiers out.
After the last of the footsteps had faded, Robin led the nine bandits behind her in a quick, quiet, crouched dash across the inner courtyard.
A few more doors down the far hallway and they would make their first attack.
Once she was safely in the hallway, she again hugged the wall, moving quickly into the space so all the bandits could join her.
She had moved past the first door of this hall, counting it in her head as Fletcher had instructed, when she sensed something was wrong. Trusting her instincts, she spun around, looking at the door. It opened in front of her, revealing the unshaven face of a young man.
He looked at her in surprise, then turned his head to catch sight of the nine men frozen in step behind her.
