Gareth Ashford's Arc

Chapter 5 of 9

The camp still smoked at dawn. Gareth crouched at the tree line and watched the ruined tents. The guild would not pay him until Thornwood was dead or gone. Thornwood still lived, with half his men around him. Gareth knew the truth plain. If he waited, the bandits would scatter into the woods and vanish, and the bounty with them. He had to end it now, today, or lose the coin he needed to break his village's curse. "He expects us from the field," Snikka said. The goblin crouched beside him, yellow eyes fixed on the fence. She had guided him through the carnivorous plants twice and saved his life once. He trusted her reading of this place more than his own. "He set guards there. Spears pointed at the flowers." "Then we don't come from the field." Gareth studied the camp's far side. Barricades of rough logs. Supply crates stacked loose. One narrow gap where the fence met a wagon they'd dragged in from some ambush. "He watches the one way in. He left his back open." Snikka showed her teeth. "You're learning." They circled wide through the brush. Gareth climbed the broken wagon and dropped inside the fence. Five bandits turned. He took the first before the man raised his spear. Snikka hit the second low, fast, a blade in his gut. The rest shouted and rushed. Erik Thornwood came from the large tent with a sword already drawn. He did not shout orders now. He had too few men left for orders. He came straight at Gareth, swinging hard. Gareth caught the blow on his cheap leather and felt it to the bone. "You burned my camp," Thornwood said. "You fed my men to flowers." "Walk away," Gareth said. "Take what's left and go." "No." Thornwood swung again. "This is all they have." They traded blows across the muddy ground. Thornwood was bigger, stronger. But he was tired and down to five men, and those five had Snikka in their midst, cutting them down one by one. Gareth saw the leader's eyes flick to his dying crew. In that flick, Gareth read him, the way he'd once read a guard captain in an alley. He stepped inside the next swing and drove his sword home. Thornwood dropped to his knees, wounded and unable to continue fighting. The last two bandits saw their leader fall and fled into the trees. Gareth let them run. The camp was his. Snikka wiped her blade clean. "Not bad for a cute little farm boy."