Angels Blood by Gerard Bond

looked on watching for his reaction, she hoped there wasn’t competition for this girl’s attention, Kane would be a formidable foe.  “Oh, she did say one other thing.” 
    What was it?” Kane waited. 
    “ She said, they think we are dead. I don’t know who she was referring to.”
    They think we are dead? The enemy? Wollfen? Think Kane, work it out. It would come to him. And yes he needed to get word out.   Wollfen and company needed to know what had happened. But he couldn’t move not while Solynne was so weak, he was stuck here for at least a week probably more.
    Giving Solynne a light kiss on the forehead, Kane left the room and went back out to Korr, the man was still contemplating the depths of his bowl.
    “ Have you heard word of the goings on in the next valley?”
    “ There is something up I am sure.” Stated Korr, “We haven’t heard a word from that direction for at least three days now and no travelers have come through either, do you know anything?”
    Kane looked on in wonderment, they were so close to the action and here they sat totally oblivious.
    “ Korr, you saw the hole in Solynne's leg, we came from that direction.”
    Korr sat there a moment digesting and putting it together, then he leaned forward and spoke very seriously,
    “ Tell me what you know and leave nothing out.”
    Back in the other room Solynne's eyes flickered open.  She could sense a calm in herself, she tried moving and felt too weak.  Then she became aware of the throbbing in her leg and with that the memory of the shock of being hit, then nothing. Where was she? She tried calling out and all that came out was a tiny whisper of sound, but it was enough, a strange fat woman came over and looked at her. 
    “ Just rest dear, you are safe and mending, take it slowly.” And then she was gone but the words were comfort enough and Solynne fell back asleep.
    “ Just thought you would like to know,” Rebecca stated as she walked out to the men, “She spoke a little and has gone back to sleep.  Barring any complications, she will be fine.”
    Kane breathed a sigh of relief and realized all of a sudden how wound up he was.  Forcing himself to relax he looked back at Korr whose brow was deeply furrowed, he had told him everything other than Wollfen’s expectations.  That was best kept to himself, the less people that knew the less likely the information that the enemy was already being watched would get out.  Korr finally moved, he looked up and uttered powerful words,
    “ It’s time to spread the word and get the men of the region mobilized, I know just the right people to talk to.”
    With that simple statement, the germ of an eastern army was being born and Kane would end up its leader.  Neither man had any idea at the moment of the wheels they were setting in motion.
    On the coast road Nightwing and Loranda had turned north joining the other local traffic that included wagons of trade, tourists sightseeing and other less savory characters.  Nightwing could tell some were up to no good, looking for easy pickings when things got quiet around a likely target.  It didn’t happen often but enough that one should be wary. Loranda had spotted them too.  There were two groups traveling separately, one consisting of a man and a woman, the other group the larger, five men and all of them looked hard. The two were obviously the ones checking out the wagons and other potential targets.  To the inexperienced observer the couple appeared to pose no threat.  The other five traveling much further back, well they paid no interest whatsoever to anything around them.  To the trained eye, they paid too little attention.  When Nightwing had watched them, she realized what the band was about.  She had then looked ahead a bit while traveling, eliminating all potential allies to the five.  It didn’t take long to work out who it was. She had spotted them rather easily by then.
    “ Someone is going to be left destitute