Page 92 of Taking Jenny
“You really think Jenny is going to win this, don’t you?”
I couldn’t think any other way. “If we have anything to say about it, yes. And because her odds are so terrible, when we all win our bets, you will have enough money to put the Footwick cousins back into your ancestral home.”
He nudged my ribs with his heels. “Then hurry up.”
I laughed, even as I quickened my pace.
The hunters swaggered up the path, each of them acting as though they had all the time in the world to hunt Jenny. We were ahead of them in the forest, despite the physical disadvantage of me carrying Surge, but I could still see their movements through the trees. They had not even bothered to dress to disguise themselves in the forest—they wore purple huntsman clothes—nor had they tried to prevent their voices from carrying. They spoke as loudly as they normally did, which made it much simpler to know where they were.
They assume this is a massacre. Not a hunt.
We were fifty meters ahead of them, when Surge squeezed my shoulder and pointed at the path. “Longshot has been here.”
There on the path, trees had been felled. They had resided next to a rocky outcrop, so the choice would be to go left of the outcrop or to the right of the fallen trees. Left would bring them closer to us in the forest, or right would bring them closer to the path’s continuance. Left was the rougher path, and right was the easier path. Whoever had felled the trees wanted them to choose between the hard path or the easy path, and either one could be a trap.
Definitely Longshot’s work.
Fearing they would choose left, I grunted, “We better hurry.”
I dashed up the incline, legs burning, lungs tightening.We spent all this time training Jenny—I should have been training myself, too.Once we were far ahead of the left choice, I wedged us between a thick cluster of trees to watch which way they chose.
Justice laughed at the obvious nature of the blockade. “Think this was the handler or the human?”
“Could have been natural,” Pleon offered, crouching beside the trees. “Look at the bases of the trunks. Looks like bugs ate them.”
“Or, that’s what someone wants you to think.”
Craven scoffed. “I don’t think our little avatar is capable of such a thing.”
“The handler, then,” Justice said, examining his fingernails with dramatic boredom. “I shall have him beaten.”
“He’s just trying to make things interesting,” Craven said with a shrug. “Why beat him for keeping us on our toes?”
“I suppose you’re right.” Justice tilted his head at the group. “Well, hunters. Left or right?”
“Left, obviously,” Boxer said haughtily. “They want us to go right.”
“After you,” Justice said, sweeping an arm in a grand gesture.
Boxer strutted past them and threw a smug look at the others before going left and coming closer to us. Three meters into the forest, he fell through something and screamed as he dropped out of sight. Birds erupted into the sky overhead, startled by the sound.
Two more hunters behind him stumbled, nearly falling in after him, but managed to catch themselves. Craven and Justice peered into the pit, and Justice laughed at what he saw.
Between agonizing howls, Justice shouted down to him, “Those spikes don’t look too comfortable, Boxer.”
“Help!” Boxer cried.
“Your leg shouldn’t bend that way, either.”
“Help me, please!” He begged.
“Arrow, help him,” Justice said.
Arrow Eranu was a quiet member of the council, with a reputation for his achievements in the army during the war. What he lacked in dialogue he made up for in sheer ruthlessness. He bent at the pit and flung his staff down with deadly precision. There were no more screams from Boxer after that.
Justice glanced once more into the gaping hole. “It seems our avatar is more clever than I had imagined. Since she carved those sticks into spikes and had enough time to dig this shallowpit, we cannot assume she is as ignorant or unskilled as we believed. So, we will split up. We don’t want all of us falling into one of her traps. Craven and Arrow, you’re with me, we’re going right. Pleon, Coil, and Lawson, you take left.”
Of course he paired Pleon with Coil and Lawson. He doesn’t like any of them. No one else does, either.
