A Shifter's Tale

Payback

~18~

“That’s it?” Demitri asked. We were stood on a hillside overlooking what looked like an army barracks, exactly as Hunter had described it. Stone walls, big iron doors, smaller buildings inside the walls that we could see silhouettes of figures darting between. I could also make out faint red lines marking the dark sky, even though the storm pressed on.

“If we’re going to do this, I reckon we should get going,” I said, nodding my head towards the red in the sky.

“At least another hour till dawn,” Hunter told me. “We won’t need that long.”

“What’s the plan?” Arizona asked. She didn’t sound afraid at all; despite I’d told her exactly what they planned to do with shifters they captured. “Are we holding them hostage, or what?”

Ash laughed at her.

“There’s plenty more of them then there are of us,” Hunter said. “Aim is to make as much of a distraction as possible while Ash goes to release the others.”

“So we know exactly where they’re being kept, then?”

Every eye turned on Hunter. “Huh,” Demitri said. “Hadn’t thought of that.”

Hunter hesitated, looking like he was battling with himself. “Well, no, I don’t know exactly where they are, but the place isn’t all that big and it won’t take too long to find them.” His tone was confident but his eyes wouldn’t meet anyone else’s.

“Bearing in mind that they outnumber us about a hundred to seven, it would be nice to have an idea of where to go,” Ash said with a grimace.

“It sounds like most of it will have to be improvised anyway, so I say just go for it,” Arizona stated and I felt her shrug. “How hard can it be?”

“I really like this girl,” Seth said, beaming as he stared at her.

“Come on,” Hunter said authoritatively, nudging Zosia into a cautious walk down the side of the steep hill. I noticed him close his eyes tightly every few seconds and I remembered he didn’t like heights. The horse wasn’t stupid, she knew where to go. Demitri followed him and we wandered down the mountainside in single file.

As soon as we were in range, Cassius jumped off Zosia and walked the rest of the way. Salvador took a daring leap from a ledge on the side of the hill, impatient with waiting for the others to get down and Arizona and I were thrown forwards.

“Oof!” I said as we landed heavily before trying to pry Arizona’s arms away from my neck, which she’d thrown around me when she’d felt the horse lunge forwards.

I spotted Hunter wave an arm from where he’d halted Zosia. He made a gesture for us to be quiet and we approached the building at an almost silent walk while Cassius scampered ahead and peered through a crack in the stone wall.

“There’re people on watch,” he hissed to the rest of us when we were close enough. “You’ll need to get their attention diverted long enough for at least one of us to climb over.”

“Easy,” Demitri scoffed, holding his hand out to Hunter. “Give me an arrow.”

“Why?” Hunter asked suspiciously, retrieving one from his quiver and holding onto it.

“Trust me,” Demitri said with a sly grin. Had it been up to me, I wouldn’t have trusted him with an apple, the look he gave Hunter, but he handed over the arrow nonetheless, watching him carefully. “Get your bow ready.”

Hunter did as he was told as Demitri fished a lighter from his pocket and held the very tip of the wooden arrow to the flame.

Once it was aflame, he tossed it back to Hunter as the rest of us ducked to avoid being hit even though it was nowhere near us. Hunter wasted no time, loading his bow with the flaming arrow and shooting it over the wall. We waited with baited breath for a few seconds before a bright orange glow lit up the sky and Cassius looked back through the crack in the wall, straining his neck to look in the right direction.