It's going to be a long tired day today at the stables. I think I'm going to have to skip today's training in swordplay, which is a shame. I've never wanted to study it harder than now. Last night there was a moment where I felt like not just my life, but maybe three others, could depend on it. Luckily it didn't, but what if it had?
It all started around the dark of the moon, a few weeks ago. I was visiting at Miss Baker's bakery. I'd noticed she, and Miss Adri, had both seemed tired and not their usual selves, but I didn't think anything of it. But Miss Baker let slip that something awful had happened, something that made me so angry. Some villainous folk had taken her parents, and burned down their house, and were demanding her family fortune -- which was more treasure than I figured ever to see in my whole life! -- for the return of her family. She swore me to keep it secret, since the Watch were working on it. But I offered to help. Didn't think there'd be much I could really offer. I hadn't even known such things happened, and didn't know the word ransom at all (at first I thought they were saying "rand-some"). What could I offer? But about a week later, a couple of members of the Watch came to see me at the stables and asked about what help I could offer, and mentioned that they could use archers. They gave me a quick test and then asked me to be ready to come on the night of the full moon, when the exchange was to happen.
During the week in between, I got more than a little tired myself, practicing with the bow every minute I could spare. I kept up with my chores at the stables, and my sword training, but every other minute I spent with my bow. Some was practicing up on the hill near the barracks -- regular target practice, and trying different things that I thought might come up, like shooting from on a tree branch, or on Kestrel's saddle, or from on a roof, or while running. And I spent a lot of time near Midgewater Marshes, killing goblins and bringing their ears in for bounties. If I can keep that up all winter I might have the gold for the tolls, but more importantly, it helped me get comfortable with using the bow against moving targets, and while in dangerous situations, when I can't take my time. I'm still not as fast as maybe I could be, least not if I want to also hit my target, but my aim is getting near to perfect and I can even hit sometimes while on the move.
When the full moon came I still hadn't heard from the Watch, so I headed to the bakery, and it seems everyone else had the same idea. The Watchman who was supposed to be leading us didn't show, but Miss Adri, me, and another friend of Miss Baker's, a fellow named Hartaine, were there, and with the moon rising we set out anyway. I remembered something my brother Leofdan told me while he was visiting the winter before I left home, how at Helm's Deep, his captain would use signals so his men would know what he meant even when he didn't have time or freedom to shout proper orders. I suggested that, while meeting the kidnappers, Miss Baker could signal to the rest of us, who'd be hiding nearby, whether she wanted us to attack or do other things, by putting certain words into what she was saying. Since we might not hear her, though, instead they decided she could move a basket in different ways: drop it if we were to attack, hold it close if we should hold back, switch it to the other hand if we should follow. Turned out to be we needed that, since the exchange didn't happen at the bridge where we were to meet.
I had been going to have Kestrel bring the other horses back to the gate, but we ended up going different ways to hide in different directions, so we could follow or intercept no matter which way the kidnappers went. I was out west near the stream, so I had Kestrel wait behind a ruined stone wall, ready to come at a whistle. I figured if it got to a chase, they couldn't possibly have a horse Kestrel wasn't the match of; even Éogar's best could only keep pace with him. I climbed into a tree the way Leoffweard would, with a good view on the bridge, and waited.
When I first spotted one of them I thought it was just some local boy out too late, about to wander into a dangerous situation unwittingly. I wracked my brain to think of a way to warn him off without giving away my position. Good thing I couldn't think of anything, because it turned out he was one of the kidnappers; they were both boys, and in fact, boys from Beggar's Alley that Miss Baker knew, that her family had helped before. There was no sign of the Bakers, as the boys demanded the chest of treasure, and to lead Miss Baker off into the fields. She signaled with the basket and we followed, keeping behind cover of trees, but as they were out in the open, we couldn't surround them anymore.
That's when Miss Baker recognized them. "There. Will, there!" she said as she passed the boys the treasure chest. "How could you!? We gave you food! We helped you! My parents trusted you!"
"Shut up!" the older boy answered. "You didn't help us! You were making things worse for us. I know that now, she taught me that!" I didn't know, and still don't, who this 'she' was.
The younger boy started to haul the chest off, but the older boy, Will, must have felt he had some things to prove. He drew a dagger and started manhandling Miss Baker. I very nearly put an arrow in him right then; I would have, I think, if I'd had a clean shot. Miss Baker kept begging him for her parents, but her tears only emboldened the boy, and he demanded a kiss, and even started trying to force one.
I might have done something rash at that point, but for a sound off to my right. The younger boy crumpled and disappeared behind the cover of trees, and I saw Hartaine standing over him. Apparently the boy, Aher, had happened to walk right into Hartaine's reach, with Adri and Marney close by as well. Leaving me the only one whose position wasn't given away, I thought, so I shifted to try to get the clear shot on the older boy, who was now forcing that kiss he wanted, or thought he wanted -- at his age I doubt he even knew what a kiss was. Not that I know any better. Sad to say at this point he's kissed one more girl than I have, seven years his senior. But I would never steal a kiss. I suppose by now he knows better, too. At least I hope so.
Unfortunately I didn't get to teach him that lesson. I wasn't as quiet as I hoped, and he spotted me. "You didn't come alone, Owena," he said, looking right at me.
I stepped out from behind the tree, my arrow pointed at him, my hand steady. Even killing goblins I shake a little, but the sight of this boy hurting the sweet Miss Baker made me feel more sure than I almost ever did. "More than you know. You can still survive this if she gets her family back. Choice is yours." I wanted him to choose right, to tell us where her parents were. But I also kept thinking how maybe the world would be a better place if there was an arrow in this boy somewhere. I'm not proud of that part.
Hartaine stepped in and took a wiser course, trying to convince the boy with wit rather than threat. "Son, whoever put you up to this can't help you from being cut in half, and you and your brother will never get a penny." I advanced, slowly, the tip of my arrow never wavering. "Drop the knife, take us to her parents, or you're both going to hang... Just drop the knife," Hartaine continued, his voice almost soothing.
"Hanging takes too long," I said. I think maybe the boy flinched.
But Hartaine kept up his persuasions, promising that we'd find whoever put them up to this and punish them together, and the boy finally dropped the knife. Hartaine pinned him, and I called Kestrel, figuring it was time to go gather the parents and bring them back. But the boy found another bit of fire somewhere in his heart. "You still don't know where her parents are and if you kill me no one ever will and they will die."
There was some fire in me too, or maybe it was ice, it felt more like ice. "Fair point. So it's to be hurtin', not killin'. Aye, I can do that. Where you want the first arrow? Leg, maybe?" I never did put an arrow in his leg that night, or anywhere else, it turns out, but my words were prophetic, as that's exactly what happened to him later.
Again, other folk approached more with wisdom than fire or ice. Hartaine and Marney in particular made plain to the boy that he wasn't going to come out of this better unless the Bakers were safe. He tried to ask for half the treasure, but Miss Baker countered by telling him that he could have just asked for help. I nodded, and relaxed the bow a bit. "You see before you that folks help out them in need, them as have been wronged. You can be inside that circle or stay outside it."
Finally, the boy relented enough to tell us what we needed to know. The Bakers were at Bronwe's Folly, an old ruin near Archet, but they'd been poisoned. The younger boy had a vial of some antidote that would make them well, if we got it to them quick enough. I took the vial, and brought Miss Baker back to the gate to collect her horse Snow, and off we sped towards the ruins, leaving the boys under the watch of Miss Marney and Miss Adri, and I thought also Hartaine, but it turned out he was following not far behind us. Later I heard that the boys tried to make a run for it and Miss Marney had to put an arrow in the older boy's leg, just like I'd threatened. Part of me is glad it wasn't me that did, and part of me wishes it were.
Bronwe's Folly is a turning and twisting stairway going up to a high platform. The boys had suggested that the woman who'd put them up to this might be waiting for us, so I was expecting a trap. Miss Baker was near to panic and I had to jump up in front of her, give her the vial, and ask her to let me go ahead. I crept up with my sword out, trying to remember everything Mister Aren taught me. Me, barely knowing how to use the sword, facing an ambush from above; I wasn't so much afraid for my own life as that, if there was an attack waiting, I wouldn't be able to protect the Bakers. I had no idea that Hartaine was not far behind, but if there had been an attack, could he have intervened fast enough to save any of us?
Lucky enough, there was no ambush waiting, just the Bakers, groggy and bound. Hartaine tested the antidote and decided it wasn't another poison, while I kept lookout. Miss Baker freed her parents and gave them the antidote, and as we were making to bring them back to the bakery to recover, the Watchman, Qais, finally arrived. I didn't even hear what had delayed him; by this time, with the tension finally drained away, exhaustion was catching up. I barely remember leading Kestrel, bearing Miss Baker's father, back to the the house of some cousin or other, while Snow bore her mother. It's all a hazy blur of fatigue and relief. Once I was sure that they were safe and the Watch was satisfied, I made my way home and fell into a weary slumber.
The sun rose way too early, bitter cold, and my chores in the stables went slow, my legs feeling like blocks of ice. The knit cap Miss Sareva sold me is helping with the cold, and the scarf, but nothing can shake off the bone-deep tired of having been awake late into the night, poised on the edge the whole time. But I'm also satisfied I got to help, if only in a small way, to get Miss Baker and her family together and safe again. Good people shouldn't be put to such hurt. There's enough bad in the world without making more.
