Thief's War: A Knight and Rogue Novel Read Online Free PDF

first problem is that shackle. Does anyone else have a key?”
    “The train boss does. He locked me in, gave the driver one key and put the other in a pocket on the inside of his vest.” A small cold hand clutched mine. Are you… And your friends, you said? There’s more of you?”
    “Just one friend. He has longish hair…” Michael wasn’t that remarkable. “He’s riding a big gray gelding that looks like a tourney horse.”
    “I’ve seen him. But I’m out of my shackle. Can’t we just run? Now?”
    The young are cute, but impractical.
    “And then what?” I gestured to the open fields around us. “The only cover is beside the road. If you go darting off, how long do you think it will take the train guards to ride you down?”
    Some of the hope faded from his face. “Then how can I get away?”
    “Mostly, you leave it to us. We’ll find some way to stop the cart—hopefully when there are thick bushes nearby. You need to start pissing, by the way.”
    “Oh.” He fumbled his britches open, and did so. “But won’t the driver, and everyone else, see me climb down? What about the shackle? And even if I hide in the bushes, they’d find me.”
    “Not if it looks like you’re still in the cart,” I told him. “That’s your job for the next few days; find a sack of something, about your size. And it has to be light enough that you could lift it quietly, wrap your blanket around it, and prop it up on the bench. You need to start traveling with the blanket wrapped around you all the time, too, so that’s what people are used to seeing. If anyone asks, tell them you’re getting sunburned, and that’s why you’ve got it over your head. Is there a sack like that in the cart now?”
    If there wasn’t, we’d have to make up a reason to add one—though off hand, I couldn’t think of any.
    “Several,” the good lad said. “A potato sack, maybe.”
    “Excellent.” He was refastening his britches. We hadn’t much more time. “As I said, this may take a few days. You’ll know when it’s time because I’ll pass you the key. Your job is to free yourself and get the sack ready. When I give the signal you go out of the cart and into the nearest bush, and hide there till the train’s moved on. Michael and I… Can you make your way home on your own?”
    “Of course,” he said, with a thirteen-year-old’s unjustified confidence. But he should be able to make it. “I’d need some money. Though I suppose I could work—”
    “I’ll toss a purse into the bushes for you.” I turned him to walk back to the wagon. “Michael and I will stay with the train as long as we can. If they suspect we had anything to do with letting you go—and they may—they’d follow us, so you’ll be on your own once the train is gone. Pass at least two towns before you ask for help, right? And stop looking like that, or even that dull-witted driver will know something’s up. Keep your eyes down and look angry, like you did when we came out here.”
    “He’s not really stupid.” Neither was young Will. I couldn’t see much of his face, but his gaze was on the ground once more, and his mouth had turned down. “He gave me the pillow, and extra food sometimes.”
    “Well, he’s going to be stupid,” I said firmly. “At just the right moment. Here we are. Back in with you kid.”
    I hoisted him up to the driver, who locked the shackle again as I rode on. They’d get back into the line as soon as someone fell behind enough to create a space. We’d already observed that the wagons didn’t travel in any set order.
    We had considered the possibility of a night escape, but not only was the prison wagon too well guarded, the whole camp was too well-patrolled. The boss divided the night into three shifts, and every guard had to take one of them. Being the newest members of the troop, Michael and I got the second patrol shift, right in the middle of the night.
    This plan was too complex. But considering that we had to