M rolled his eyes. Why do I always have to be the one saving helpless women, he thought.

  He inspected the camp through the bushes. A campfire crackling in the centre, all five of them sitting around it, their horses tied straight past the flames. Their conversation drifted through the trees clearly.

  "I'm telling you, twenty gold each and I'm done," Bram said, poking at the embers with a stick. He was the largest of the five, massive across the shoulders. Face blunt and heavy. Not a man built for thinking. "I'll buy a proper house. One with a roof that doesn't leak. Martha's been on at me for three years about our roof."

  "Twenty gold?" Cael looked sideways at him. All his features were sharp, he had hollow cheeks, cheekbones like knuckles pressing through parchment skin. His eyes were the colour of dirty water and they moved constantly, quick and precise. A massive scar ran through his lips, it definitely was not pleasant to look at. "It'll cost you more than twenty to buy a proper house," he stated.

  "Who said?" Bram questioned irritatingly.

  "Trust me. I got a friend at one of those fancy coin places."

  "That's what I told him earlier," Edric added quietly. He was the most forgettable face in the group, medium build, medium height, soft brown eyes and a gentle unremarkable mouth. Perfect for sneaking around unseen and stealing things.

  "I'll figure out the house!" Bram snapped, his heavy face going red. Then quieter, "I'll figure it out…"

  Edric laughed.

  "How about you?" Cael pointed to Rowe, who was sitting slightly apart from the others, elbows on his knees, staring into the fire. His dark unwashed hair hung in long curtains across his face so that one had to look twice to find his eyes besides all the black hair, and when one did, they found them tired. Deeply and permanently tired. "What'll you spend the ransom on?" Cael asked, eyes squinting.

  Rowe looked at the fire. "My daughter…" His voice was low which carried a soft, sad tenderness. "I'll buy her a… Necklace." he finally decided.

  Cael rolled his damp brown eyes. "Boring. As always."

  "Twenty gold on a fucking necklace?" Wilas said. He had the roughest voice of all of them, low and used up, like gravel being stomped on. His face was a record of bad decisions, jaw heavily scarred, a broad flat forehead under a brown, bowl haircut.

  "I… Won't spend it all on the necklace," Rowe slowly said, still looking at the fire. "Maybe… five gold on it. Then a ring for my father and brother…" he smiled faintly. “My brother likes silver rings…”

  The beautiful princess tied to the tree rolled her eyes at all of them. Only twenty gold? thought Sera, bound to a tree with her wrists slowly going numb. Twenty gold is nothing she thought to herself. Her face was beautifully lit, large purple eyes almost unsettlingly vivid, set in a face of sharp elegant bone structure, her brown hair tangled from the road but still catching the firelight. She had been watching the five men for hours, Sera was intelligent. She had already identified Rowe as the one with a conscience. And noted Cael as the leader of the group.

  The tree she was tied to was small, M could see that immediately from the bushes. No way to get behind it without being seen.

  Leo and M were both listening in.

  "They… Have families…" Leo said quietly, his small face troubled all the way through. "Like I used to..." He looked at M. "We can't kill them. What happens to their families if we do?"

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  "These men kidnapped the king’s daughter." M uttered plainly. "That's not a small crime." He shook his head.

  Leo was staring at the five men with something between worry and fascination. If M were to kill these men, Leo would be a witness to all of it. It would definitely change the boy even more. The poor lad had already seen his father beheaded, a thing no child his age should ever have to witness, he was already traumatized and M knew it.

  "Fine," M said with a grunt, "No killing. But they're all looking at the girl. We need to somehow distract them and just get her out of there." He pointed silently toward the beautiful purple-eyed woman tied to the tree.

  K snorted behind them, as if wanting to be let in on the conversation.

  M's eyes quickly lit up. He looked at his horse, coal-black, enormous, ears already forward and attentive.

  "I'll use K as the distraction," he said, smiling.

  "Who's K?" Leo said in confusion, his small delicate face turning.

  "My horse." M whispered.

  “Ohhh,” Leo nodded in agreement, though a bit bewildered by the name.

  “Stay here. When I free her, I’ll return to you and whistle to K to come back, just get on the horse as fast as you can. If I get caught, run back to Fenwell, try bringing those two guards we met earlier here."

  Leo nodded, looking at M with a worried face, not wanting the last possibility to come true.

  "Hey, give me a dagger. Just in case." Leo requested silently.

  M glanced at him. “I don’t have a dagger.” He said dryly.

  “What?” Leo blinked twice at M. “Everyone has a dagger.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Why not?” Leo said frustrated.

  “Haven’t found one worth keeping.”

  Leo opened his mouth then shook his head in disappointment.

  “Besides,” M added, “I shouldn’t be giving a child a weapon.”

  Leo's face turned dead serious in an instant. “My father taught me how to wield a dagger.”

  “I’m sure he did…” Your father was a bandit who probably stole that dagger he trained you with off an innocent man, M thought to himself.

  M grabbed K's reins and leaned close. "You can do this," he murmured. K's ears swivelled toward him. M walked around the left of the camp, still behind the bushes then lined the horse up with a small gap, pointed at the small space where K would be visible from the camp if the men turned around. "Stop right there." He said it plainly, K understood perfectly.

  He smacked his horse firmly on the rump. M quickly ran back passing Leo.

  K surged forward, hooves loud and deliberate.

  "Oi, hear that?" Cael was on his feet instantly, his dirty-water eyes already scanning.

  They all looked behind them and stood, unsheathing their ordinary swords unusually fast. These were properly trained men.

  "It's just a fucking horse," Wilas said, squinting.

  "What's a lone horse doing out here?" Bram said, his flat face creasing.

  Every back turned. Every eye was on the black horse now.

  M went right and jumped over the bushes. The bandits were all looking at the black beauty. This was his chance. Sword already drawn, he moved fast toward the girl's tree and got to work on the ropes. M noticed the king's daughter was holding something in her tied hands but didn't pay much attention.

  "BEHIND YOU!" Leo shouted valiantly as he spotted someone.

  What M and Leo did not know, was that there was a sixth man. Pike had wandered further behind the trees a few minutes ago, far enough back that no one could see or hear him, not even his outline could be seen from the bushes where M and Leo once were. He was attending to himself but was now walking back. Pike suddenly heard the shout and ran towards M as he saw his green cloak behind the tree.

  M quickly looked back. He had barely even started cutting on the ropes yet.

  The five men looking at the horse spun around. Chaos erupted across the camp.

  Pike came running, still adjusting his belt, square-faced and broad. Leo grabbed a rock from the ground and hurled it at him. It caught Pike above the ear and he stumbled but didn't go down.

  "Get them both!" Cael shouted, his sharp face alive with command as he saw the two trespassers.

  Wilas went after Leo. Leo started running, he was fast, surprisingly fast, legs driving hard between the trees. But Wilas's stride ate twice the ground Leo's did and he closed the gap in seconds, one scarred hand closing on the back of Leo's collar and wrenching him clean off the ground.

  Leo twisted and kicked but accomplished nothing.

  “Let me go!” he protested in anger.

  Wilas smirked, running back with the child, he then passed Leo to Cael, who received the boy smoothly. Cael got his left arm and locked it across Leo's chest, a knife in the other hand. Leo's feet dangled. His face was white and furious.

  M could still fight—

  "Drop your sword or I kill him." Cael pressed the blade inward against Leo's throat. Not cutting… just yet. The skin pressed inward around the edge of the knife.

  M’s heart started pounding fast, eyes widened as he saw Leo.

  Leo was trying his best not to look afraid though his breathing had gone shallow and rapid.

  "I won't say it again," Cael said sharply. He meant it. His face showed no hesitation either.