Page 24 of Conflicted Fate
My hand clamped over Kiel’s mouth before he could say anything.
“Of course not,” I snarled, getting in the centaur’s face. “We’re just going to do this subtly so thatyoudon’t make life more difficult by sounding the alarm any earlier than needed.”
“What do you mean?” he asked warily.
Kiel tried to say something behind my hand. I pinched his nose shut and glared at him until he fell silent, his shoulders sagging.
Jurvin started to laugh until I lifted a finger. “Keep egging him on, and I’m dressing you up as a draft horse to pull our cart up to the bridge,” I snapped. “And I won’t be gentle with the whip either.”
The centaur’s face bulged, and I prepared myself to jump backward if he came at me with his arms or reared back and tried to clobber me with some hooves.
“You little—”
I grabbed his beard and yanked him down to my level. “You may be in charge, but that’s only going to last as long as you make smart decisions,” I said, my face inches from his. “If you make a single dumb decision, I’m going to let Kiel beat the shit out of you in front of your men, and trust me, that won’t do a damn thing for your command. So, you can either go down to the men there and describe the plan I’m about to give you, or Kiel can knock you out and drag you back by your balls. Your choice, pony boy.”
Red fury danced in the centaur’s eyes. I could feel Kiel’s surprise through my fingertips as his face stretched wide at my threat, and for a long, terse moment, I wondered if I’d pushed just a little too far.
“You are in trouble,” Jurvin said, not to me but to Kiel. “This one, she’s going to own you.”
Kiel made a noise that equated toI know, though he fell silent as I looked at him, his eyes dancing across the sky innocently, landing everywhere but on me.
“Men,” I growled, letting go of the centaur’s beard.
“Very screwed,” Jurvin added softly before straightening up as I glared at him. “You mentioned a plan?”
“Yes. You, personally, won’t like it, but it’s the best way to ensure we get the full drop on the guards.”
Jurvin shrugged. “I assume you mean I will not be front and center of the initial attack. You wish surprise. I stand out a little bit. This, I understand. And no, I will not submit to being hooked up to the wagon and covered in a hood to hide my appearance. So, I will remain out of sight until the right time.”
“Good,” I said, then proceeded to outline the rest of my very basic plan. When I finished, I turned it over to the two experienced men to hash out the issues and make it better.
To my surprise, they managed to do so with only a modicum of snide comments to each other. Perhaps Ididhave a bit of a knack for conflict resolution.
Kiel and I headed back down the hill, splitting off from Jurvin, who went to brief the rest of his force. Shortly after, six others hurried toward us to take their role in our plan. The rest, meanwhile, would sneak through the forest as slowly as they could and get as close to the base of the hill and the nearest bridge without being seen.
That didn’t mean much, however, because it was still over half a mile into town from there. The trees were the last little scraggle before the mountain leveled off into plains. Everything near the city had been cleared out.
Which was why the eight of us were headed west, into the plains, until our straight line intersected with the road. We paused there, and Kiel addressed the six warriors sent with us.
“All right, which one of you is the worst fighter?” he said.
There was a long pause, and then all eyes turned to one of the men, a young man somewhere around my age. He was just beginning to fill into the thickness of his bear shifter form, so perhaps, he was actually younger.
“Okay,” Kiel said, as theclack-clack-clackrattle of wooden wheels on stone road announced a cart approaching. “I’m sorry about this.”
The young shifter had just long enough to look confused before Kiel’s fist cracked him on the jaw and knocked him out. The others stared in shock as Kiel grabbed the man and lowered his limp body to the ground, arranging it just off the side of the road.
“Okay, everyone to the other side of the road,” he ordered. “Into the wheat until you can’t see the road. We wait for the signal.”
“What’s the signal?” one of them asked.
“I’ll tell you. Now, go.”
The others sort of looked at one another as if to see if anyone would voice a complaint. But none did, and they disappeared into the stalks of wheat, crouching low to avoid being seen from the road.
“You got this?” Kiel asked, taking me by the arm.
“Of course I do,” I said, rising on my tiptoes to kiss him. “Now, go. I have a part to play.”
