Amongst Thieves

CHAPTER FOURTEEN- Search

Her father slumped into his seat when she finished recounting the attack from the day before, though she had left out how the stable boy screamed as the guards pulled him away, or as how she had fallen from her horse to slump against the guard-post wall, silently sobbing until he ran to meet her.

'I'm sorry about your horse,' she said softly, unsure of what else to say. Her father let out a low, tired laugh.

'He always was an angry brute, I can't think of a better way to be rid of him than to send him running at a dozen armed men. Honestly El, I'm just glad you are safe.'

'There probably wasn't that many. I didn't have time to count.'

'Seemed like a dozen to me,' Sasha said from beside her.

Her father laugher again. 'Well we still have no clues as to who they were but considering that they asked for you by name and that our stable boy left town the moment they pulled that arrow out of him we can assume that someone has been planning this for a while.'

'Why would someone come after me?'

'They wouldn't, they would use you to control me. Don't tell your mother this, but someone hired a thief top steal from us few weeks ago. Obviously as soon as a formal request was made we were notified, as were the protection guild, and luckily for us the man didn't make it past the front gate. We never found out what his target was but I thought that would be the end of it, at least for a while. I never thought...' her father trailed off as he stared at the table, voice heavy with guilt.

'For now we will do our best to hunt them down. Until we know more it's not safe for either of you to go out alone.'

Elinore had expected as much but losing her freedom hurt all the same.

'At least your mother will let you learn swordplay now,' Sasha said with a weak smile. As much as she tried to hide it the news of the stable boy's likely betrayal had hit her the hardest.

'For all the good it does with me stuck in here. Besides, unless they can find a way to hide a scabbard in a dress I doubt I will ever get the chance to use it.'

'Does that mean the next time you come across bandits you'll just stick to throwing your horse at them?'

Elinore glared at the girl. 'I didn't throw a horse at anyone, I just sort of pointed him at them and...'

'Threw the horse at them?' Sasha finished with a smile

'Well it was a better plan than just letting them take us, as stupid as it was. It's a wonder neither of us got killed.'

'Yes, well that's what the human shield was for, wasn't it?'

'I didn't use him as a shield!' Elinore scowled.

'Oh I'm sure, just know I won't be riding double with you for as long as I can help it.'

Her father cleared his throat. 'If it's all the same to you I would prefer if you could avoid bandits all together. I will arrange for riders to be sent to the clearing you mentioned, with any luck they will pick up the bandit's trail and we can find whoever was behind all this.'

'I doubt they will find anything, they were too organized for that,' Sasha said, suddenly serious again.

'I agree, but I will send the riders all the same. If there is no sign of them until next season we can assume they abandoned the cause, until then I will have the protection guild on guard here.'

'Here? There's no way they could get near us within the city walls, that's why they had to wait until Sasha and I went riding to make their move. So long as we stay in the city we are safe.'