Arrows of Promise (Kingmakers Book 2) by Honor Raconteur Page B

very
reason—to prevent anyone from actually succeeding with the theft.
    Riana caught this out of her peripheral vision even as she
danced in and out of Ash’s shield, covering his blind spots even as he covered
hers. They’d fought together often enough now that she had a sense of what he
would do next, and words weren’t really necessary between them anymore.
Watching his back was far more important to her than tracking down a barrel of
tools being rolled away. She left that to the snipers—
    “DON’T LET THEM ESCAPE WITH ANYTHING!” Ashlynn bellowed out.
    —and to Ashlynn, apparently. Of course, as sheriff, any
theft at all was intolerable.
    Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ashlynn and her father
race off toward the western side of the settlement, following a pair of bandits
who had loot in their hands. She didn’t give the bandits very good odds.
    The fight this time was harder than usual. Partially because
they were up against seasoned criminals who fought dirty. They didn’t think
twice about coming in at someone’s blind side and trying for a lucky strike. It
kept Riana on her toes, more than usual, because she never knew what they might
try to pull.
    But aside from that, they had to be careful how they fought.
Ash was pulling his punches, so to speak, actively trying to not hit anything
except bandits. He didn’t want to have to rebuild something due to a careless
moment in the heat of battle. It slowed him down because he was taking more
careful aim than before, and it gave the bandits another edge.
    An edge they didn’t need. Riana had to use her bow like a
staff, knocking a bandit back, because she couldn’t keep up with their
approach. They were coming in faster than she could nock and fire. “Ash!” she
growled in vexation.
    “What do you want me to do, burn down a building?”
    “Buildings be replaceable, man!” She twirled on her toes to
his other side, aimed, fired, and then had to take a step back before getting
knocked over by a stumbling guardsman. His face was familiar but the name
escaped her at the moment. “Go-to!”
    Ash shot off three quick spells, none of which were aimed
anywhere near a building, and only took out two bandits. “See? My aim is off if
I go too fast.”
    There were days when Ash’s caution saved them. His ability
to think ahead, and turn something onto different angles, had proven
invaluable. But there were times, like now, when he overthought something and
it was moments like these that she was ready to strangle him.
    He must have picked up that emotion as he yelped, “Whoa,
calm down, I’ll pick up the pace!”
    About time. She put her back to his again, half-in, half-out
of the shield, and focused on the enemies in front of her.
    Ash was true to his word and picked up his pace, although he
didn’t fire off spells as fast as he normally did. It was more like a middle
ground, but it was fast enough to keep bandits from overwhelming them, which
was all she really wanted for the time being.
    It became a blur of sweat trying to run into her eyes, the
hum and whistle of arrows being released, the sweet feeling of being incased in
Ash’s magic, and the blur of men running back and forth as they fought. So focused
on only hitting her targets and not accidentally firing at one of her own, it
came as an abrupt shock when she realized that she didn’t have any more bandits
to contend with. Arrow half-drawn, she paused and looked all around.
    Not all of the guardsmen were standing; some were down, some
were leaning against the side of the building and clutching at some injury. The
ones not injured were quickly going to comrades and offering help. But no
matter how she looked, there wasn’t a bandit standing anywhere in their area.
“Be that all of them?”
    “And whichever ones had the sense to grab and run. Ashylnn
and Broden are chasing them down, though. Even if we knew what direction they
went, it’d be impossible to catch up.”
    Riana could track them