“Don’t do it.”

The guys turned to look at me as they pulled their clothes back on. The fire between us had subsided to a warm ember now, but my fear was burning hot as ever.

“Please don’t go through with this attack on the bandits,” I explained. “There’re loads of them. You could get yourselves killed and I just couldn’t bear that. There’s money and a job waiting for you with Lord Krius, I…” I struggled to say it. “You don’t have to take me with you if you think that’s wrong but... Just go. Be safe. Please.”

But Taka shook his head. “We don’t run out on a fight. And we certainly don’t run out on you.”

“Then let me help.”

The guys looked at each other in a way that actually made me quite cross.

“There are many things you’re good at,” said Kai, finally, sugar-coating the group response for me. “Some of which, you are absolutely amazing at. Seriously. But I don’t think fighting bandits is one of them.”

“Do you know how condescending that sounds?” I snapped. “‘There are many things you’re good at’. So, if you need someone to fuck the bandits, then you’ll let me help, is that it? You think that’s all I’m good for?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“It’s what you implied.”

“Well, I didn’t mean to.”

“Yes, you did.” I was genuinely angry.

Kai’s face fell. “Yes, I did. Or, at least, that’s what I said. I wanted to say you couldn’t help without hurting your feelings, so I decided to make a joke out of it. Obviously, that backfired. I’m sorry.”

“But we really don’t want you to help,” added Luca. “Kai said it badly but there is nothing you can do.”

“And if there was,” Rex joined the discussion, “we wouldn’t want you risking your life. You mean too much to us.”

“You mean as much to me,” I protested. “And you’re all risking your lives.”

“It’s what we do,” said Taka. “We’re professionals. You said you wanted to be part of our lives; well, this is a big part of it.”

“This is different, it’s my town.”

“At least, if one of us is killed, you’d still have three left.”

“Stop making jokes, Kai,” suggested Taka.

“Besides,” Luca returned to his main point, “there’s nothing you can do. We’re trained, we’ve spent a lifetime at this sort of thing.”

“You’re telling me that having someone on the inside wouldn’t be useful?” I asked, tartly.

“What do you mean?” asked Taka.

“I can go back to Stenheim.”

Luca shook his head. “You’ve been gone for hours, they’d be suspicious.”

“I can tell them that yes, I helped you escape, then you fucked me in the mountains and rode off, leaving me behind. Wouldn’t be that far from the truth. I can feed them whatever bad information you want. I can tell a few people I trust that you’re coming, so they’re ready to help. I could even lure the bandits up here so you could ambush them, if you want.”

“Absolutely not.” Taka’s voice brooked no disobedience. “Luca heard horses passing overnight. We don’t know what’s going on but we think their numbers have swelled. You’re talking about lying to people who will kill you if they don’t believe you. People who may kill you just because they feel like it. If you tell them that you helped us escape, they could kill you as an example to the other people of Stenheim.”

“Why would they?” I pointed out. “There’s no point to prove ‘cause there’s no one else they could help escape.”

“Won’t matter to them,” said Luca.

“I have an advantage,” I pressed on.

“What?”

I shrugged. “Men like me.”

Taka rolled his eyes. “You think that’s going to convince me? That’s just another reason you shouldn’t go near the place. Even if they don’t kill you, there’s other stuff they could still do. You are staying here until tonight is over.”

That was an end to the discussion. But, of course, I never was that good at doing what I was told.

By the time I got close to Stenheim, a knot of anxiety had formed in my stomach. It had seemed like such a good idea this morning, and when the guys had so comprehensively shot down my offer of help, it had seemed even more important that I go ahead with it. Unfortunately, that was the type of person I was – once someone told me not to do something, I was determined to do it. Plus, I genuinely did think that I could help and this was the best way to do it. Having someone on the inside when they attacked was bound to help the guys, I could scout about the place and get a sense of whether the bandits were expecting them or not. It was only their desire to protect me that had stopped the guys from seeing the benefits of my plan, and sweet though it was, I wasn’t letting that stop me from going through with it. I had left a note for the guys to find, then sneaked off when they headed out to hunt for lunch.

The familiar sight of my hometown ought to have given me some comfort – whatever else was going on there, this was still the place in which I had grown up, the place in the world where I was most comfortable. But much had happened in the village of Stenheim since I had left it the night before. I knew that Luca had heard horses in the night, but I think even he would have been surprised by what I found as I reached the town boundaries.

When the bandits had arrived last night to take the guys and occupy the village, there had been around thirty of them – now, there looked to be closer to a hundred. A large encampment of cloth tents had sprung up on the outskirts. They were in full occupation of Stenheim, and looked to be settling in for a long stay. Thirty of them against the four guys had seemed like a challenge, but this seemed more of an impossibility. However good the guys were, they could hardly cope with odds of twenty-five to one. Devastating news though this was, I could not suppress a little glimmer of smugness. I had been right. The guys could have walked straight into this, instead, they were going to be forewarned.

The question now was; should I go straight back and tell them what I had learned? Or should I try to find out more?

At the very least, I needed to know what was going on here. I needed to know who these extra people were and where they had come from. Surely, bandit troupes did not get this big.

That would be easier said than done. Bandit guards patrolled the fringes of the village, making sure that no one got in or out. Skirting around the perimeter, using my knowledge of the area to keep out of sight, I found a gap in their defenses, courtesy of the old mill – a crumbling ruin for a decade now, since the stream that fed it had dried up.

Stealing along the dry stream bed to keep out of sight, I climbed into the ruin through a hole in the rear wall. Inside, a rickety ladder led to the decaying upper stories, and I made my way up carefully.

From a window, I scanned the village. The bandits were fully in control and my people were being used as slave labor to serve them, bringing them food and drink. I tried not to think about what else might be happening. Despite my earlier resolution to turn my back on Stenheim, my heart now went out to them as I recalled Taka’s speech. They had been trying to protect their own people, and however much they had done wrong, they had surely paid the price.

As I watched, I noticed that the bandits were not all that convivial. They did not all mix, but formed discrete pockets, and people from one pocket did not talk to those from another. The longer I looked, the more I noticed that they dressed differently, too. Those within one pocket all wore military badges and emblems stolen from soldiers. The bandits of another faction all had war-like face paint, giving them a distinctive and fearsome aspect. I realized that what I was seeing was not one bandit group, but several. King Cyrsan had invited other gangs from the area to join him in Stenheim. Why, I could not guess. Perhaps for some sort of summit, or to better teach my people a lesson, or just for the fun of the thing. Perhaps he was setting up Stenheim as a sort of bandit capital city.

I had seen enough. I needed to get back up the mountain to tell the guys what I had seen. I imagined their faces when I told them what I had discovered. They would apologize for suggesting that I was no use and would thank me for the good work I had done.

But as I stole back down, one of the woodworm riddled steps gave out under my tread. I screamed as my foot shot through, and as my body hit the staircase, it gave way, crashing to the floor below in a mass of splintered wood and a cloud of sawdust. Only the bannister remained, suspended in the air in apparent defiance of gravity, swinging from its fastenings. I clung to it, my feet paddling at thin air, my heart racing.

The door to the mill flew open and a group of bandits stormed in, swords drawn, led by Cyrsan himself. From the noise, they had clearly assumed they were under attack and had expected to find armed men. What they instead found was a single girl, hanging in the air, terrified and alone. They burst out laughing.

King Cyrsan looked up at me, a broad grin plastered across his ugly features. “Oh, it’s you. I thought you wouldn’t be able to keep away.”

I wanted to snarl back some clever and devastating response, but my mind was voided with panic. The bannister I was clinging to creaked, threatening to send me tumbling to the floor, where the best I could hope for was broken bones.

“Get her down,” ordered Cyrsan.

I couldn’t help feeling a wave of relief as the bandits set about to help me, but I knew that the time might come when I wished I had fallen.

“You helped your friends escape last night, didn’t you?” said Cyrsan, as I was brought before him, held between two bandits.

“Yes,” I answered, as proudly as my fear would allow.

“That was very stupid.”

“Probably,” I acknowledged. “They rode off without me once we’d gotten clear. I didn’t have any choice but to come back.”

“That was very stupid, too,” said Cyrsan.

“So it would seem,” I admitted, looking at the men holding me.

“Oh, I didn’t mean coming back was stupid,” Cyrsan corrected me. “Lying to me. That was very stupid indeed.”

“I’m not lying.” I hoped that the tremble in my voice did not give me away.

“Do you know how many bandits are in your village now?” asked Cyrsan.

“No.”

He shrugged. “Nor do I. Can you believe that? Bandits don’t usually play well together, but I think they recognized a good thing when I presented it to them. Or maybe they just wanted to have a bit of fun with your people while they still can. Doesn’t matter. My point is; there are a lot of bandits here. And yet, I still think your friends are going to attack. More than that, I’m actually worried about them attacking. People say that to be bandit king you have to be fearless. I say that’s stupid. To be bandit king you have to know what to be afraid of. And I am afraid of your friends.”

I wanted to say ‘You should be’ or something equally clever, but that would have given away my lie. I wanted them to think that the guys were long gone.

“And the reason I mention all of this,” Cyrsan went on, “is so you understand how important it is to me to know where they are. There is nothing I would not do to find out where they are. To you.” He leaned closer to me. “You will tell me where they are. Sooner or later, you will. Everyone breaks. So, why not tell me now? I take no pleasure in messing up so pretty a girl, and it would save you a great deal of pain.”

“They rode off and left me in the mountains.” I stuck to my story.

Cyrsan slapped me hard across the face.

I looked straight back at him, blinking back tears. “You think that’ll make me talk?”

Cyrsan gave a rueful smile. “Sadly not.” He looked at his men. “String her up in the square. Let her dangle awhile and see if that changes her mind.”

The bandits manhandled me out of the mill. I tried to struggle, but their grip was like iron. I’d like to say that I was brave about all this, but I was terrified, shaking uncontrollably and about to burst into tears at any moment. I didn’t know what they were going to do to me, but I knew in my heart that what Cyrsan had said was right. I would talk. We all like to think that we would never betray our friends, but no one is impervious to pain, and I had a hunch that I wouldn’t hold out long once they got started.

The truth was, it probably wouldn’t matter. I had left a note telling the guys that I would prepare the village for their attack tonight. Possibly, they would arrive sooner because of my sneaking off, but either way, they would attack without knowing what they were facing. They would ride into several gangs’ worth of bandits, and good fighters though they were, they would not have a chance.

As I was dragged into the village square, I saw friends and neighbors staring at me in horror and pity. Guilt, too; they all knew that they had played a part in my ending up here. Some stepped forward, as if coming to my aid, but they were shoved back by bandits. Last night, the people of Stenheim had outnumbered the bandits enough that they might have overwhelmed them, today, they didn’t have a chance. Amongst the onlookers, I caught sight of Bren and his eyes met mine.

Sometimes, it is the way with old friends, you don’t have to speak, you know what the other is thinking, and at that moment, I knew that Bren wanted to help me. Would do anything to help me. Looking straight at him, I mouthed a single word ‘Fort’. You would have had to be watching Bren very closely to see the slight incline of his head in a nod, but it was enough to give me some small sliver of hope. Even if I had not been able to save myself, I had perhaps given the guys the information they needed to make a successful attack on Stenheim tonight. Provided Bren could get out of the village safely. But that was now out of my hands.

Those hands were now tied in front of me, then held above my head. A rope was looped over the branch of a tree in the center of the square and one end tied to my bonds.

“Haul her up,” commanded Cyrsan.

I felt the strain in my shoulders as my feet left the ground. The bandits tugged on the rope till I was hanging by my outstretched arms a few feet from the earth, then they secured the rope about the tree trunk.

“Here’s the thing,” said Cyrsan, coming close to speak to me. “This is a village of sheep. These scum should be ashamed to call themselves humans. Not one of them has the backbone to stand up. Except you. In a village of people for whom I have nothing but contempt, you are a jewel. I like you. I like your spirit. And I would hate to be forced to break it. You would make a wonderful queen - I have seven already, one for each day of the week, but Wednesday has been boring me for a while now. That’s why I’m giving you this chance. One hour. If you tell us where the mercenaries are, then you will be well treated, and will live out a life of luxury as my favorite consort. If you don’t, then my men will strip you and I will personally beat you to within an inch of your life. I’ll probably still take you as a wife, but the beating will take away that spirit. It won’t be the same. We’d both be happier if you just talk now.”

“Go to hell,” I snarled.

Cyrsan smiled. “If you hadn’t said that, I’d have thought less of you. But it’s that attitude that condemns you. I wish we’d met under different circumstances. See you in an hour. If you change your mind, just scream.”