17.
It was the middle of the afternoon when they saw the first signs of a camp. Several plumes of wispy grey smoke climbed into the air. Valen was nervous from after his last visit to this area had resulted him having a hole in his shoulder. He kept feeling for his sword when ever he heard something, every time it was the usual sounds of a wood.
Junilla and her brother were in a deep but quiet conversation. Occasionally one of them would smile while the other would frown and giggle afterwards. To Osrin they seemed like children at the way they reacted to one another. Soon he expected his mother to turn her head with her chin up and ignore anything she didn’t like.
Mazim had not said a word the whole morning and in fact this was the longest Osrin had seen of him. His face gave off little sign of his mood or what he was thinking of. From what Osrin could tell he was bothered by something he may have done. He couldn’t be sure and gave up working out what could have happened in Mazim’s long life.
Galaya had some how managed to fall asleep in his arms. Her head lay nestled on his shoulder which she had softened by using part of his cloak. She lay almost completely limp and occasionally Osrin had to nudge her up right to stop her rolling off.
The first conformation that it was Osrin’s new camp was when a group of archers came out from their ambush positions. One of them was an archer who had travelled with Osrin to the Inn. The archer apologised for leaving Osrin but they had been ousted from the Inn and had to go into hiding until they could escape from the town.
“Do not apologise for something you could not prevent. I was not expecting to be rescued until someone who owes me came to my rescue” he replied. Galaya woke up slowly when she heard talking but did not move.
“Who is girl lord?” the archer asked “Seems quite friendly to you” he grinned
“Not in that special way” he blushed. The archer grinned even more and Galaya had an idea. Osrin and the archer continued to exchange stories while Galaya playfully put her hand on his stomach and slowly moved down and her hand danced just above his waistline. Osrin smiled trying to seem blissfully unaware of what she was doing. The would-be ambushers were starting to feel that it turning to an awkward situation. They said goodbye and headed back into the woods. Osrin gently kicked Galaya in the back of the leg in which she returned with a slap on his chest. She beamed up at him and returned to his shoulder and tried to fall back asleep.
**
They rode on into the camp unchecked which agitated Osrin about how easy it would be for an assassin to walk in. They dismounted and continued on foot to the small house. Liat had spotted him and ran up and jumped on him, hugging him tightly. She then hung around closely to Osrin as they entered the house. They found Denanal looking through some papers he looked up. He grinned and stood then moved round and immediately embraced Junilla. They kissed quickly and Denanal gestured them to sit. Osrin quickly sat at the end of the table and Valen sat down next to him which made Osrin relax that he did not need to sit next to Galaya and risk a repeat of earlier. Instead of next to him she sat directly opposite him. She didn’t do anything the entire time they were sitting. Osrin was made to recount his story of escape with the others filling in gaps along the way. When they finished Denanal told them some disturbing news.
“These parchments I have here are letters that our spy in Lithrandurs servants and our other spy in Count Keyes’ manor”
“We have spies?” said Osrin, alarmed that he had only heard about them now.
“We got them in after you were captured. In these letters contains information about their armies” he sighed and passed them around. Osrin read and his heart sunk.
“They out number us three-to-one!”
“Worse, they’re still growing!”
“Step up training immediately! We need this mob of ours organised!” Osrin shouted slamming his fist on the table.
“I couldn’t agree more. I suppose I should give you the good news, now it’s quite small but it’s good”
“What is it?”
“Defectors, we’ve gained a few mainly in groups of up to three but this time it’s a larger group” He grinned
“How big?”
“Just over sixty men, a third of them are from their cavalry as well” Osrin returned the smile
“Why did they leave?”
“They’re not getting little food because of the size of their army and they have cramp conditions and rumours that disease may have started”
“But wouldn’t because of how badly fed and the conditions their army in give us an advantage?”
“It would…but our equipment is still an issue, we’ve managed to get a fair amount but not enough to equip over three hundred and fifty!” Denanal sighed.
A few more things were discussed and the meeting slowly disintegrated as people left when they claimed they needed to be doing something. This left Osrin and Galaya on their own.
“Why did you do that?” He asked
“Do what?”
“Earlier when we met those soldiers on the road”
“Am I not allowed to flirt?”
“That was a bit over the top flirting I think!”
“Well I bet you liked the idea of what I could have done” She smiled coyly
“Shut up” He blushed while he shouted and slammed his fist on the table.
“See your blushing”
“I am not he scowled”
“Fine then” She said airily and glided out of the house.
After she left someone walked in, a tall large man who Osrin recognised. He had a large sack over his shoulder and expression showing that he didn’t particularly wanted to be there.
“Hello Axil” Osrin sighed
“Damn you kids and your battles” Axil grumbled and dumped his sack by the door and sat.