Keira's Fire

Chapter 16

The others took some convincing, especially Jeremy, but it wasn't long before everyone was on board with Owen's idea. Within a day, the excitement around camp was palpable at the possibility of crippling the king's army.

I still had my own reservations, feeling like this might be a big suicide mission, but it was easy to forget my concerns in light of this new opportunity to kill the captain. And Owen did make a good case. If as many people supported us as we hoped, we really might be able to pull it off. Particularly since our enemies would never see an attack coming and would, in large part, be inebriated.

Ten weeks before the festival was to take place, Owen and his men traveled back the way they'd come. They were to gather support from the villages they knew to be sympathetic to our cause, and ask them to get the word out to others. It was helpful that many of the men originated from of those villages. They would know where it was safe to talk and where it wasn't. Our men divided into two groups, covering areas closer to our camp. We planned to meet up with Owen's group three days before the festival, just south of the High King's territory. Once there, we would be able to see how much support we gathered and then we'd decide if it would be wise to continue.

"Jeremy, come practice with me." Aaron loosely held his sword, standing a few feet away from where I sat with my older brothers, sharpening swords and arrows in preparation. "I need to work on my technique."

I glanced between them anxiously. Aaron was possibly more excited than most of the men because this would be his first real fight. Jeremy only recently allowed him to graduate from lookout to an actual archer in our raids, and with the increase in our number, there hadn't been very much for him to do.

Unfortunately for Aaron, I knew Jeremy had no intention of allowing him to come with us. For that matter, neither did Stephen or I. Not even sixteen yet, he was still a kid. Although, he believed himself to be a man, of course.

We all avoided saying anything so far, choosing to put off the inevitable confrontation, but he really needed to be told. We would be leaving in a few days on our trek to meet everyone at the designated location.

"No, Aaron, you don't," Jeremy said quietly.

Aaron beamed for a moment, taking Jeremy's comment as a compliment of his skill. A second later, he noticed the stony look on our brother's face.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you don't need to practice because you're not going anywhere."

I flinched at the hardness in Jeremy's tone. He expected resistance and was preparing for an argument, but he should have known that his antagonistic approach would only serve to ignite Aaron's temper. They did have the same temperament, after all.

Aaron was dumbfounded briefly before outrage surpassed his confusion.

"You can't be serious!"

"I'm entirely serious," Jeremy said. "You're staying here."

"But I'm-!"

"You are a child and I'm not about to launch a children's crusade." He didn't allow him to argue. "Especially not one which could quite possibly result in the death of us all."

"I'm not a child! You can't make me stay here!" Aaron's petulant attitude wasn't helping his case. "I go on raids. You need me!"

"No one under the age of seventeen is going," Jeremy said. "So I certainly can make you stay. There will be plenty of men to take your place. You'll only distract the rest of us, worrying about you."

"You're letting Keira go!" he tried, causing my brow to lift in amusement. As if Jeremy was letting me do anything.

I knew by the way Jeremy pursed his lips, the same thought came to his mind, only he didn't find it amusing. He would love to banish me from the fight as much as Aaron, but he wasn't that stupid. His limit of seventeen wasn't an arbitrary one. If I'd been a year younger, he'd have made it sixteen. I knew enough about the country to get myself to the meeting place if necessary, and I would if it came down to it. He wouldn't want to risk me traveling alone. Besides, I was the unintentional face of this rebellion. My participation was basically mandatory.

"Keira is older than you are. She has much more experience, and she's a much better fighter," Jeremy grudgingly admitted.

Even after his near insult, Aaron had the audacity to give me a pleading look. I was tempted to ignore him, but I knew how I'd feel if I were in his place.

"You really need to stay," I said sympathetically. "For James and Michael."

More frustration crept into his expression and he turned to Stephen in supplication.

"She's right," Stephen said. "If anything should happen to the rest of us, you'll be all they have. You have to keep them safe. Even if we're successful, we'll be gone a long time. They can't fend for themselves yet and they can't go home."

Aaron's shoulders slumped in defeat. He knew there was no point in arguing with all three of us.

"You'll have plenty to do," Jeremy told him. "As I said, no one under seventeen is going anywhere. And I don't think it's safe to leave you all here either."

That got my attention. Why would our camp suddenly be unsafe? We were miles from any village and had always been perfectly safe.

"Should we fail, the king's men will come looking for you. They won't be naive enough to think that we didn't have a camp and that there might be some people still inhabiting it. As well hidden as we are now, they don't have the proper motivation to come looking. But they will after what we've got planned."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Aaron crossed his arms, irritably. "Hide in the trees? If it's not safe here anyway, we may as well come with you and help."

"I told you, you'll be busy." Jeremy shook his head. "You'll be moving our entire camp to the underground shelter, near the rocks."

The shelter he referred to was a good two miles away. Large boulders and dense vegetation hid the entrance well. Sound echoed from a long way off, giving adequate notice of an approaching threat so that anyone lingering outside the shelter would have enough time to tuck themselves safely away. There were plenty of things to be transported and it would probably take the boys a few weeks to get everything safely hidden. Which would coincide nicely with the time we would take to reach our destination up north. Jeremy really was a good leader. With the exception of my brothers, the safety of the children of our camp never even crossed my mind.

"What?" Aaron was clearly overwhelmed at the prospect.

"If they come looking, I don't want them finding even a trace that there was a camp here," Jeremy said. "Because if they find a camp, they'll know to keep looking and they will find you eventually. But if there's no sign of anyone staying long term in the area, they'll keep going and miss you completely. You are to get everything moved and then keep mostly in the shelter only coming out when necessary until we come to get you."

"And if you never come?" It was hard to tell if Aaron was more angry or afraid at the idea.

"Then you'll know it's not safe and to keep yourselves hidden." Jeremy was trying to hang on to his casual demeanor, but I knew that the thought of leaving the kids to fend for themselves, disturbed him greatly. More than the fact that we would all be dead in such a scenario.

"While I'm gone, I'm leaving you in charge," Jeremy said causing Aaron to stand a little straighter. "There will be quite a few boys left here and they'll need some order. I need you to keep it. You'll be the best prepared to lead them. And if we don't return, they will need you to remain their leader."

Aaron had a hard time holding onto his anger after such a show of confidence. I think he was still upset that he would be left behind, but he seemed to be thinking of more than just the glory of battle. Now he was thinking about how he might lose all of us, and how if that happened, he would suddenly inherit quite a bit of responsibility.

My younger brother walked away, thinking and I looked at Jeremy, noting again what a good leader he was. He found a way to take care of the boys and keep our brother out of danger. All while managing to make him feel he was a vital part of the plan rather than a child in need of protection.

His competence gave me some reassurance. Maybe this really was possible if Jeremy was in agreement. He wanted the same thing we all did, but he wouldn't lead us where there was no chance of survival.