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Get rid of what would cause the most difficulty in achieving victory.

“Bloody hell!” Noble cried out and his men brought their horses to a halt and instantly drew their weapons.

Bew yelled out, “Lance!”

The tracker was stumbling out of the woods, his breathing labored, sweat soaking his brow, and several scratches marred his face from tree branches swiping at him.

Noble rode his horse over to Lance where he stood bent over, his hands braced on his thighs, his head hanging down while trying to calm his breathing.

“They led you on a chase, didn’t they? They counted on me leaving to search for you,” Noble said, keeping firm hold of the reins, his horse feeling his annoyance and growing unsettled.

Lance raised his head. “Aye, sir. I heard them talking about meeting someone and I thought it might be the person who is hiring the many mercenaries. I didn’t want to chance losing them or their tracks, so I followed. It took me a while to realize that it was a diversion. They knew I was tracking them. As soon as I discovered that,” —Lance shook his head— “I have been running to get home ever since, realizing they wanted to get you as far away from the keep as possible and hoping you had not come searching for me yet.”

“We need to get home now!” Noble ordered and Lance hurried onto Bew’s horse, and they took off.

Their horses pounded the earth and Noble’s heart pounded in his chest with anger and fear of what he might find.

Noble knew something was wrong when he got closer to the village. Not one warrior stood guard and he spotted no one on the outskirts or in the fields. He urged his horse forward and slowed him down with some relief when he saw that the clan and most of his warriors were gathered in one section of the village while the remainder of his warriors walked along the edge of the woods, their weapons drawn.

“Chieftain Noble has returned!” someone shouted, and the crowd spread out.

Noble saw what had gathered them together. Finley lay on the ground, his cheek and one eye bruised and swollen and looking as if he was just regaining his wits. Leora sat beside him bathing his head with a wet cloth.

“What happened here?” Noble demanded after dismounting and going to squat down in front of his wife to make sure she was unharmed and to get a better look at Finley.

“Mistress Leora saved us, she did!” someone called out.

“She was willing to give her life for us,” another shouted.

One more shout was heard. “Mistress Leora commanded that no one would die today and we didn’t, not one of us, thanks to her bravery.”

Finley went to sit up, ready to explain.

“Stay as you are,” Noble ordered, “until you’ve regained your strength. My wife can explain what happened here.”

“Mistress Leora commanded the Gallowglass to hold their weapons while she confronted a giant of a warrior,” Robert, the young lad, called out with pride.

Noble glared at his wife, annoyed that she would do such a dangerous thing and spotted a slight tremble to her hands. The incident had not left her unscathed.

Another person hurried to add to what Robert had said, “That giant threatened to kill us all if the woman with blonde, red hair did not make herself known. Mistress Leora did not hesitate to step forward.”

“Mistress Leora also hurried the women and children into the keep before the band of warriors entered the village,” a woman said.

“And she thought to send me for help to Lord Slayer, but I wasn’t fast enough,” Robert said, annoyed with himself. “I couldn’t outrun them.”

“We were ready to fight,” Finley said, managing to sit up with some help from Leora.

“I never doubted that,” Noble assured him, knowing his warriors would have died protecting Leora if necessary.

“He was a giant of a man. I never saw anyone with hands the size of his,” Leora said, dropping the wet cloth in a nearby bucket and gripping her tunic so no one could see her hands tremble, a delayed reaction to the chance she took confronting the mighty warrior. “He swatted Finley away from me as if he was nothing more than a pesky fly. But in the end, I was not the woman he was looking for.”

“He told you this?” Noble asked.

Leora nodded. “He did. He looked at me and told me that I was not the one he searched for.”

Penn spoke up next. “He left a message with us for our chieftain. He wants you to know that he has no reason to battle with you. He said he would leave us in peace and not return. Though if you go after him for revenge, then he promises all here will die and he will burn the village to the ground.”

“He is a formidable warrior, Noble,” Finley said. “I have no doubt he will do as he says but the men stand ready to go after them.”