The boy poked his head out from behind the iron-bound wooden barrel, a lock of black hair falling into his eyes. “Where’s yer white tunic?”
“I’m on a secret mission.”
His gaze moved over Landyn, and he stepped from behind the barrel. He couldn’t have been more than ten summers. “Can ya help us? I mean, if ye’re with the Templars, ya have ta, right?”
“Help you with what?”
“Couple a men came into town. They took whatever they wanted without paying fer it. They took me da prisoner, forcing him ta work for them.”
That sounded like Boucher. Landyn’s jaw clenched. “Where are they?”
“I’ll show ya.” The boy ran up the dirt street.
Landyn followed, pushing his horse into a trot. One-story homes and businesses lined the street. Wooden signs hung outside of shops, describing them. Bakery. Candlemaker. Beside the blacksmith’s shop was a two-story inn. The boy stopped before the door, pointing inside and hopping from foot to foot in excitement.
Landyn dismounted, tying the reins of his horse around a tree branch. He glanced at the door, his hand dropping to the hilt of his sword. “How many are inside the inn?”
“Two fighting men,” the boy responded. “George, the innkeeper. Maggie and me da.”
Landyn took a breath and reached for the handle of the door. He pushed it open.
The main room was lit by a low burning hearth, casting a red pallor over the room. Two doors flanked the hearth on the opposite wall. A couple of black-tunicked men sat at a large table in the center of the room. They looked up when Landyn entered.
The boy’s father must be working behind one of the doors, Landyn thought.
The child scurried past him into the main room.
Landyn reached out to stop him, but he hurried by. He must be going to help his father, even though it was dangerous. Landyn closed the door behind him as the two men rose from the table. “Where is the boy’s father?” he demanded.
The boy paused at one of the black-tunicked men’s sides. He gazed up at the one with long, dark hair. “I done good, didn’t I?”
Landyn scowled in confusion.
The man handed the boy a coin and pushed him aside before drawing his sword, chuckling. “You did good.”
What was going on? Landyn slowly eased his sword from the sheath. Two untrained men would be no problem for him. Afterwards, he would figure out why the boy had led him here.
Suddenly, the doors on the opposite wall opened. Two men with black tunics emerged from one door, and two men with the king’s heraldry on their tunics came out of the other door. Four more men.
A trap!
