Page 100

“So, let’s have it.” General Ru leaned back in her saddle.

“They’re planning an ambush from the hills.” Luc sent her a wide grin.

“Is that so? You saw them?”

“Even managed to sneak up on their camp and listen for a while.”

The general lifted her brows at that, slid her gaze to Ava and gave a nod. “Hear anything interesting?”

“They thought we were surveying the crossing points for the river, so we let them think that. They were there to map the area for the Herald.”

“We’ll have to work on ways to surprise them.” Massi rubbed her hands together and laughed in a way so similar to the way Luc had done when they’d worked out what the Kassian were up to, Ava blinked.

“I’m sure you’ll come up with something good,” she said, “but the Bartolo River is going to be difficult to cross afterward. It’s really wide and deep.” Ava knew they needed to concentrate on the ambush from the hills first, but she honestly could see no way the carts and wagons of the column would get across. In fact, the whole idea of it was laughable.

“Pontoons,” Dak told her.

She frowned at him.

“Big, flat, wooden platforms which will float the carts over.”

“And the yakkuna?”

“The yakkuna are excellent swimmers. They’ll probably enjoy it.” General Ru shaded her eyes against the last of the evening light.

“You were right that they could wait until we were about to go across and attack us at the crossing point. We’d be incapable of retreat.” Deni pulled out the map and showed the general. “Hard to sneak up on us, though.”

“Varik said they could wait until half of us were across, half still on the other side,” Ava said. “They could hide in the forest, and then some could cross further down, out of sight, and come at us from behind and in front."

“I didn’t think of that.” Dak sounded intrigued. “An attack party on both sides?”

Luc nodded. “It could work, if they have enough people. There would be nowhere for us to go but into the river.”

“We’d hardly be running away, though.” Raun-Tu sounded insulted.

“No, but it’s always good strategy to have a place to retreat to,” General Ru said. “And they’d leave us none if they come at us from both sides.”

“We need to consider moving the crossing point to the town of Bartolo, lower down the river.” Luc tilted his head to Ava. “As Ava pointed out when we got there, the forest on the other side is a lot thicker than is shown on the map. The carts and wagons might not be able to get through. We need a road.”

“If we defeat them in the hills first, we could take the town afterward.” The general sat a little straighter in her saddle. “That’s a definite possibility.”

“And there’s a bridge over the river in Bartolo,” Deni put in.

The strategy talk continued on as the column slowed to a stop and began to set up for the night.

Ava had listened to it for the last three days, so she slipped away, rubbed down her horse and then went to find the bathing tent. When they’d set up camp by the river, they’d jumped in it and washed, but the water had been cold and the current strong. Ava had stayed in the shallows, shivering, even as she was grateful to be able to immerse herself in water.

Her two years in a cell, using a shallow bowl to wash in, meant even a cold river was a luxury to her.

The bathing tent in the Venyatu column was more wonderful still. The water was hot, and the soap smelled of lemon and rosemary.

As she sank down into the hard leather tub full of hot water she remembered the way Luc’s arms had come around her from behind while she washed in the freezing water, enveloping her in sudden heat.

He’d chuckled in her ear. “I can hear your teeth chattering.”

She’d felt his smooth, taut skin against her own, and the hard, poking evidence of his arousal at her back.

The memory had her rushing through her bath, pulling on a clean change of clothes, and heading for Luc’s tent. He wasn’t there, though, and she guessed they’d moved the strategy session to the general’s quarters.