I was so grateful to Gentry, because I had no idea how to plan something that looked like military strategy. He had marked the place where we would leave the county road and take an old fire road running through some heavy woods. It was high ground above the cabin, which had been a little gray square on the satellite maps. He’d also drawn the route we would take on foot to the road that led to the cabin.
“’Tis nigh half a mile, my lady. Mayhap ’twould be best if thou waitest here,” he said, and put his finger on the map where we were going to leave the trucks.
“Wait there? Are you for real? I’m not fucking waiting there.” It was the first time I’d ever been mad at him.
“I would not for the world put thee in danger.”
“Oh, but you in danger is fine? And which one of you is going to do the talking? Because I know you’re not, Gentry.” I felt bad saying it that way, but he didn’t look offended.
“Nay.”
“Yeah, I think she better go,” Dirk said.
“’Tis nigh half a mile,” Gentry said again. “Wilt thou be able to walk it, my lady?”
“Yes,” I said, but I already knew I wouldn’t be doing it sober. My stomach felt so tight I thought I might vomit up the hamburger I’d eaten. When I took out my THC drops and offered them around, Edrard and Dirk took some. Gentry was too busy plotting to be nervous.
“We shall reach it ere the sun sets and I shall search out the place that we might come upon them unawares. ’Tis to our advantage, for the sun shall set behind us. Master Dirk, thou shalt come with us, but remain here, where the trees given cover to the road. If we needen help, we shall call for thee. Sir Edrard, as ever with thy mighty bow, thou shalt remain here, upon high ground.”
I know I gave Edrard a doubting look, and he blushed.
“I’m no good at hunting,” he said, “because I don’t like killing little animals. I’m actually a really good shot, though. At a hundred yards, I can hit a three-foot target zone with my compound bow. I’ll be good for sniper cover.”
“Yea, and so shall we use thee as proof we comen not alone,” Gentry said.
Except for when he’d tried to convince me not to go, Gentry hadn’t clenched his hand or scratched his neck. The closer we got, the calmer he was.
“So, we ready?” Dirk said.
“Yea, but hence we travel under the dragon banner,” Gentry said.
“What’s that mean?”
“No quarter. No mercy.” That was Edrard and, hearing the nervousness in his voice, I wished so hard that he’d stayed home. I wanted to wish that Gentry had stayed home, too, but I couldn’t have done it alone. And Dirk? He acted like we were in a video game.
“Hard-core, man,” he said and laughed.
CHAPTER 41
Zee
Gentry was so relaxed he didn’t even do a drive-by. On the first pass, he turned off the highway and, a few miles further on, he left the county road for the fire road, with Edrard a few car lengths back. For once, I had a job to do. I had the bolt cutters that Gentry apparently always carried in the back of his truck, and I was the one who jumped out and cut the chain on the gate. We drove in probably another half mile, until the dirt road turned into not much more than a gap between trees. When Gentry cut the engine, Edrard pulled up beside him.
Even with the THC drops, I was a nervous wreck, and Gentry must have finally felt his nerves, because he started scratching his neck. After he finished, he got out of the truck and folded the seat forward to get his weapons. My heart hammered like crazy, watching him buckle a leather harness on over his T-shirt. When he was done, that sharp, shiny sword was strapped to his back, ready to be drawn over his head. He pulled a loose blouse on to hide it, and traded out his Timberlands for the soft leather boots he’d worn at Bryn Carreg. Dressed that way, he looked like a woodsman, all in green and brown, with another knife and a small axe strapped to his belt. He squatted down and rubbed a little dirt on his bare skin to take the shine off.
While he was getting changed, Dirk and Edrard had gotten out of the other truck and walked over to us. We didn’t talk, because by then we’d gone over it enough times there was nothing to discuss. Gentry took one of the phones, tucked it into his pocket, and walked off to reconnoiter. After he was gone, Edrard got his bow and arrows ready, and I braided my hair to keep it out of the way.
Then I double-checked the money. Including what I’d started with and what Uncle Alva had given me, minus what I’d paid to the Fury, I had ninety-four thousand dollars. I wasn’t about to offer that up front, because I thought there was a good chance I’d end up haggling with them. So I’d split the cash into two piles: fifty thousand in one Sonic bag and forty-four thousand in another. I locked them both in Gentry’s truck. Finally I chambered a round on my gun, put the safety on, and tucked it into the back of my jeans. Then all we could do was wait.
It was so quiet out there; I didn’t hear any sounds of civilization. Not even road traffic. I didn’t have a watch, so I kept pulling out the phone and checking the time. Gentry had made us promise that if he wasn’t back in half an hour we would leave, but looking at Edrard, I knew we weren’t going to do that.
After twenty minutes, I started to get this gnawing dread like I had never had before in my life. Maybe because nobody had ever taken that kind of risk for me. Gentry was out there walking around in the woods, spying on guys I knew were killers. I looked at the phone again. Twenty-four minutes.
Gentry came walking out of the trees to the west of where he’d gone in. He was deep in conversation with the black knight. Not saying anything out loud, but nodding and gesturing. Edrard, Dirk, and I gathered around him, but it was a few more minutes before he was done. He bowed, first to the black knight, then to me.
“’Tis better than we hoped. I saw but four men. Two in the barn that standeth to the north. They aren at work upon their truck, and much distracted. Another man hath gone into the house. One sitteth upon the porch to keep watch, armed with naught but a shotgun.”
“Did you see my sister?” I said.
“Nay, my lady.” He pulled out his burner phone and thumbed it on. “But when I spied into the window, I saw this.”
“Oh my god. You looked in the windows?”
“Yea, for I would see as much as I might, and they keepen no watch upon the south.”
He’d taken the picture through a gap at the bottom of the curtains. I could make out the shape of a couch and an old TV and a rocking chair. Tossed over the back of the rocking chair was a piece of pink fabric. None of those men owned a size extra-small pink fleece jacket with fairy wings embroidered on the back, but LaReigne did. She kept it in her car, and there was no reason for it to be there unless she was, too.