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CHAPTER NINETY-SIX

Ryker

Long after most of the camp had retired for the night, Ellery, Tucker, Ianto, Scarlet, Luna, Callan, and I sat on benches at one of the tables. Torches and fire flickered around us; their smoky scent filled the air.

Thankfully, they wouldn’t be seen this deep in the Revenant Woods. Most of the smoke dissipated before it rose too high amongst the towering trees.

From the woods, the guards for the first shift kept watch. A few listened to us, but most focused on the forest.

Tucker sat at the table as he unrolled a map of Seacrest, one of the fishing villages on the outskirts of Tempest. He’d gotten a lot of information for the map from the dozen or so residents that had joined us. The rest he’d gathered on his own with a quick trip to the village.

Because of the hills surrounding Seacrest, we’d decided it was the best place to attempt a robbery. My father would also realize its terrain made it more vulnerable than the other sea villages, but the rest were surrounded by water and wide-open land where it was impossible to hide.

“Most of the town is laid out in one big strip,” Tucker said. “It runs along the coast for about five miles, and its center is a fishing warehouse, some shops, and a few homes. For the most part, most of the houses sit on the cliffs overlooking the ocean.”

“Can we use those cliffs?” Ellery asked.

“They’re far too steep, and we’d have to go into town to get to them.

We can’t open a portal onto the side of them; there’s no shoreline beneath the cliffs.

We can’t risk moving through the town. While many amsirah are with us, I’m sure some of them would gladly hand you two over for the reward.

Our best bet is to stay on the outskirts of town and in these hills here. ”

Tucker planted his finger on a set of hills he’d sketched on the map. “Some of the other hills would provide better cover, but because of that, they might be under more scrutiny. They’re saying the duke assigned thousands of guards to the caravan.”

I folded my arms over my chest as I studied the map while pondering Tucker’s words. On the map, the hills cut off Seacrest from the rest of the realm.

They weren’t impossible mountains to climb, but they provided a barrier that isolated the village. I was sure many residents felt safer because of them… until my father stole their children.

They provide plenty of cover for us. However, they’d also offer cover for any guards my father hid there.

Would he do such a thing? He might suspect we’d try to rob the caravan, but would he expect it to happen in one of the sea villages?

My father was a devious, cruel, soulless man, and while I often knew what he planned, he’d surprised me before.

If we got into those hills and encountered guards, we’d be fucked, especially if we had a large number of amsirah with us. We’d gotten lucky to avoid anyone being caught in the past; that luck wouldn’t hold out forever.

If they captured someone, it would destroy everything we’d worked to build here. We’d established a small backup camp that only the immortals at this table knew the location of, but it was far from prepared to get us through the winter. It was more a safe space to hide a lot of amsirah.

However, we had to do something to rally the amsirah outside of these woods, and once winter set in, we couldn’t do much.

There would be no caravans of money in the winter, and the weather would make it almost impossible for us to make a stand against them.

Everyone would remain mostly inside, including my father.

While we had to do something, I wasn’t about to risk lives unnecessarily. “Can it be done with a smaller number of us?”

Tucker bit his bottom lip as he pondered this. “If there are no guards in the hills, yes. If there are guards, then we’d have to retreat.”

“What if one of us can’t get away?” Callan asked.

Tucker’s sea-blue eyes were turbulent when they met his. “Then you’re fucked.”

“Just don’t fuck the rest of us,” I said.

Callan gulped. “Got it, noooo fucking.”

“Speak for yourself,” Ianto murmured, and he and Callan exchanged amused glances.

“During the last robbery, we went for the last carriage and cut it off from the others,” Tucker said.

“You don’t think that will work this time?” I asked.

“Not as much as going for something in the middle would. They’ll anticipate us going for the last carriage, so they’ll guard it heavily, but the roads are pretty twisty through these hills.

Right here”—Tucker pointed to a section on the map—“it’s only wide enough for two, maybe two and a half carriages to be visible at a time.

It’s also so narrow the guards can only ride three abreast at most, which means fewer guards can pass through this area. ”

“Will we have enough maneuverability through there?” I asked.

“Yes, if we don’t take too many with us.”

“If we move fast and immediately cut them off from the others, we can trap the carriage and guards in the middle,” Ellery said. “We could use our abilities, but once the weather shifts, they’ll know we’re coming for them.”

“We can strike all the guards dead in that section,” I said. “We won’t be able to kill all of them, but I wouldn’t mind trying.”

Ellery’s eyes widened a little, and while she wouldn’t like the idea of killing men who didn’t know we were here, I didn’t give two fucks. If it meant keeping her safe, I’d fry every one of them and roast my dinner over their ashes.