“Don’t get up. He ain’t worth it,” advised Sven’s voice quietly.
“Who?” whispered Will.
“Wilson,” answered the old soldier. “Looks like some of them got tired of his bullshit.”
“What are they going to do?”
“Probably just beat the shit out of him. Depends how much they hate him. Sometimes people get a little too excited,” said Sven. “Go back to sleep.”
Will kicked off his blanket and began crawling toward the now-loose tent wall.
“Where are you going?” hissed Sven.
“He’s in our squad,” said Will, unable to think of another reason.
He heard Sven spit in the darkness. “That jackass deserves it. He even beat you up in the lockup. You think you’re the only one that heard them drag him out? You ain’t. Nobody else is going to go after them. Don’t make trouble for yourself.”
“What would your excuse be if it was me?” asked Will, but he didn’t wait for a reply. Lifting the edge of the tent, he slipped out and followed the men dragging Dave’s squirming body away from the camp.
The men taking Dave weren’t gentle as they hauled him along between them. They’d gone barely twenty feet before one of them dropped one end of the bundle, and they angrily kicked their victim several times before lifting him back up. They probably want to take him far enough away that no one will hear, thought Will. So, if I’m going to do anything, I better do it now.
Too scared to think any further, Will charged forward, tackling the man holding Dave’s legs from behind, knocking him prone. Jumping up quickly, he swung at one of the men on the left and felt his fist connect with something. Someone was cursing, and Will got several more punches in before something hard hit the side of his head. As he fell, he realized that there were more of them than he had thought. Eight, nine? I’m screwed. Hands caught him as he struggled to rise, and someone slugged him in the gut hard enough to take the fight out of him.
They let go of him then, and Will fell to his knees, expecting more blows, but when he looked up, he saw two more people had joined the fight. One was of an average size, but the other was too big to be anyone but Tiny. The two were outnumbered, but Dave’s abductors weren’t prepared to deal with a giant.
Tiny picked one of them up with one arm and threw him into a tree before wading into the rest of them. The big man took a lot of blows, but nothing seemed to faze him, and with every swing he sent someone else to the ground. The man with him was no stranger to brawls either, and as Will got to his feet he realized it was Sven. By the time Will rejoined them, it was almost over.
And then they heard the sound of whistles, and Will saw several lanterns approaching.
“Run for it,” yelled Sven. “They can’t see who we are yet.”
“What about Dave?” asked Will as everyone began to scatter.
Sven pulled him along. “He’s tied up, it ain’t like they’re gonna think he did it to himself.”
The tent wasn’t far, and as they reached it Tiny bent down and held the side up for them to enter. Will and Sven shimmied under it, but a voice yelled out before Tiny could follow. “You! Stop, right there!” Tiny dropped the tent flap, and Will and Sven could only listen from their bedrolls as he was taken away.
Looking around the tent, Will doubted anyone was actually asleep, but everyone was making a good show of it. Sven whispered to him, “They’ll come in here in a minute. Just pretend to be asleep. Ain’t nobody gonna say otherwise.”
Will frowned. “How do you know?”
“Trust me. Soldiers hate snitches more than anybody. Remember that when they start asking questions,” answered the older man.
Sven’s prediction turned out to be accurate. Moments later, men with lanterns men with lanterns threw open the front flaps of the tent and walked down the center, checking to see who was present and who wasn’t. They woke the corporals first and then dragged everyone outside for a roll call.
Amazingly, everyone had somehow managed to sleep through the entire event without hearing a thing, even Corporal Taylor. Will felt a strange mixture of awe and surprise as the normally honest corporal lied with a perfectly straight face about what he had seen. Will did his best to emulate the corporal’s example when they got to him.
“What’s that on the side of your face, trainee? A bruise?” asked Lieutenant Latimer.
“Yes, sir,” said Will.
“And you still say you weren’t involved in a fight?”
Will shook his head. “I got it during the drills earlier. I moved wrong and caught a shield with the side of my head.”
The lieutenant looked at Corporal Taylor. “Is that so, Corporal?”
“Yes, sir. It didn’t seem serious, so I didn’t report it,” lied the corporal.
The questioning didn’t go on much longer after that. Dave was released, and ironically, he was the only one who truly hadn’t seen anyone, although from the look he gave Will it was obvious he knew who had come after him. Tiny refused to say who had helped him, claiming it had been too dark, and naturally none of the abductors identified themselves.
It was then that Will discovered how quick military justice could be. The men took Tiny to one of the training pells and tied his hands together on the other side of it. They brought out a whip and he was given two lashes. According to the lieutenant, that was leniency on his part. The appropriate punishment was three, but he deducted one lash since Tiny had been acting on behalf of a squad mate.
Will still felt it was unfair, and he felt guilty that night as he watched the big man struggle to find a comfortable sleeping position.
Chapter 39
The next morning Will examined Tiny’s back. The big man had a scar from his previous time before the whip, and it appeared he would get another from the previous night’s punishment. Since he didn’t have any freshly boiled water to clean the wound, he accompanied Tiny to the chirurgeon’s tent to make sure it was well taken care of.
As they were about to enter, Will caught the sound of a woman’s voice and paused. He and Tiny exchanged puzzled glances, as neither of them had seen or heard of a woman in the camp before that moment.
“What is he thinking?” protested the woman. She sounded young. “He should at least send Nerrow’s men here. They’re going to need more men to hold the pass. Doesn’t he realize we have no magical support either?”
“My apologies, milady,” answered a deep male voice. “You know I agree with you, but it isn’t my place to second-guess His Majesty’s judgment.” Will thought the man’s voice sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place it. “I have two teams scaling the mountains via separate routes. They’re experienced mountaineers and scouts. We should know more about Darrow’s disposition in Barrowden soon.”
“It won’t matter much if he sends the entire army to Thornton. Even a modest force will be too much for us here,” argued the woman. “Eighty-percent of the troops here are green, and our numbers are pitiful.”
“At least we have you, milady,” said the man. “He wouldn’t risk you here if he didn’t believe the intelligence regarding Thornton to be extremely credible. It’s highly probable that Darrow’s incursion into Barrowden is just a diversion.”