Lisa asked her friends to quiet down. She wasn’t in a joking mood. The job ahead was serious and dangerous. She wanted to convey those facts to her friends, both with words and with attitude.
“We’ve made a difference everywhere we’ve been,” she began. “Up to now we haven’t had to fight anyone to do what we’re trying to do. Now we have to risk our lives. We almost certainly will have to fight.”
She’d thought long and hard about what she was going to say. She considered an address that would slowly lead her friends to uncomfortable truth. The composition bogged down. She tried another approach, only to realize that softening the facts would cover them. It would be far better to be direct, to state the truth harshly. To make it plain, and therefore unavoidable.
“We’re going to move our camp up to Richmond today. Tomorrow some of us with make the run up to Southport. The folks there are hurting. They need our help.
“But the trip won’t be easy. There’s a group of outlaws robbing everyone on the road. These bandits aren’t like Ned and his friends, a group of guys trying to get along anyway they can. They’re vicious. They don’t give any warning, they just attack. And they kill.”
Lisa saw her friends flinch in their own ways to that statement. Ned’s was most telling: he shook his head in disgust. She’d learned that even when he was “collecting tolls” he had a code. He never stole from people worse off. He never took more than he and his comrades needed. They never wounded anyone, much less killed. They’d talk first; if a fight looked imminent, they simply ran. In fact, none of the outlaws on White Rocks behaved much differently. There seemed to be an unspoken acceptance of the fact that violence only led to more violence. Murder was bad for business. They might be headed that way eventually, but until Lisa entered the picture that was still in the distance.
Wayne and his friends knew a slightly different history. Robbers on Lone Star had on occasion resorted to violence. Even those outlaws had some sort of prohibition against outright killing. They might shoot first, but only to wound. They also didn’t attack any traveler on the road, but only those with something of value. Lisa suspected that it was because bandits were hindering trade that the Rangers arose. There had been exceptions, of course; Allie’s parents were killed in a bandit raid when she was a small child. Everything Lisa had heard suggested that Lone Star hadn’t witnessed the kind of nastiness that now confronted her.
“What’s the plan?” Ray asked. “Do we go after them?”
“We don’t know the terrain,” Lisa answered, “except that it’s wooded and hilly. There could be dozens of hiding places.”
Ned raised a hand. “Couldn’t we get guides?”
Lisa shook her head. “The only folks to leave Southport either flee back or run on to Richmond. No one in Richmond has tried to head out after these robbers. There just doesn’t seem to be anyone who knows the area well enough.
“Instead of that, we’re going to give them something to attack. We’ll take three wagons of goods up to Southport. We have to do that anyway. We’ll have plenty of guards. The driver and the side-man will be armed, and there will be two guards in back of each wagon. The side-man and the guards in back will carry their bows loaded and at the ready. The driver will keep his loaded and in his lap. No one talks. There’s a chance we’ll hear an attack seconds before the first arrow flies.”
“Why would they bother to attack a heavily-armed group?” Donna asked.
“If they’re robbing anyone they see,” Ned replied, “they’re desperate. If we got enough food with us, they might risk a fight.”
“That’s exactly what I’m counting on,” Lisa said. “We let them come to us. Unlike the people they usually attack, we will fight back. I don’t think we’ll get all of them. Maybe the fact that someone is fighting back with scare them off. Maybe they’ll try again on the way back, and that convinces them. Or maybe wagons will just have to go up there protected for a time. No matter what, the folks in Southport need help, and help has to get through.”
Donna raised her hand. “Who’s going, or do we volunteer?”
“I’ve made some choices. I have my reasons why some of you should or shouldn’t go. I won’t force anyone to go, but if we don’t have enough I will.”
She began with Ned and his friends. She chose all of them except one, Doug. He was the little brother of another in that group, Dan. He was younger than Allie, and still not very good with a crossbow. The one thing he was good at, getting into places others couldn’t, wouldn’t be of much use.
From Wayne’s group she picked Ray and the three other single young men. Lisa then looked at Donna. “You can opt in, or stay here,” she said.
“I’m there.”
“Then that’s it.”
“What about you?” Little Wolf asked.
“I’m going.”
Wayne was the first to protest. “We can’t risk losing you! You’re too important.” Others in the group agreed with him.
Lisa waved her hands for calm. “Please, please. It’s very kind of you all to say that. Don’t take this the wrong way, Ned, but you and your friends still need a little watching.”
“Do you have to be the one?” Ned countered.
“No. But who else also has the experience to make deals? I can only think of Ellen, and she is not going. Wayne can take charge if something happens to me. Little Wolf knows how to operate the portals, and he’ll hang on to my portal manual. You can go on without me.”
She smiled. “I don’t think it will come to that. And yes, I will be careful. Any questions?” She waited for a moment, then clapped her hands. “Okay, let’s get packed up. I want us in Richmond before lunch.”
Everyone rose. Most went to their tasks. Only Ned hesitated. He walked up to Lisa. He led her a short distance away from the rest. “I know the other reason why you’re going,” he told her in a low voice.
“Oh? What’s that?”
“You’re a woman.”
Lisa didn’t reply immediately. It wasn’t something she wanted to bring up. The vast majority of her group, including most of Ned’s followers, had lived pretty secure lives. The dark and sordid side of the present was beyond their experience. Allie was an orphan, but that happened when she was too young to remember such things. Jane and Alek had been outcasts, but not from their families. Dan and Doug had an abusive father, but they found a new, more caring “family.”
Somehow, though, Ned knew. Lisa wasn’t sure if she wanted to know how he knew. Or what he knew, for that matter. That was for later.
“That’s right,” she said. “So’s Donna.”
“You’re prettier.”
“Thanks.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I do. Who should I put in my place? Allie’s too young. Jane’s scouted Butler and Poplar Ridge. The others have children. Or do we find some young woman in Richmond who’s pretty and stupid?”
Ned frowned and shook his head. “I don’t like it.”
“I’m not exactly thrilled about it, either. I don’t want to be bait. I’ve given this lots of thought, Ned. Food, even lots of it, might not be enough to bring out those thugs.”
He was quiet. He seemed to mull over her argument. Finally he said, “You just make damn sure you fight, and fight hard. You won’t be able to talk your way out if they get you.”
She inhaled, stiffened her back. “I told you once, I bite.” She smiled, somewhat maliciously. “Besides, they won’t know I’m in charge. They see me barking out orders, maybe they’ll hesitate. Confuse them, and crush them.”
“You hope.”
“Damn right.” She nodded towards the others. “Let’s get to work.” She pointed to him before they started walking. “Not a word of this to anyone. They don’t need it on their minds. They have enough to worry about.”
“Sure.”
She patted him on the arm. “Great.” She turned, and led him back to the group. Before they rejoined their friends she said, “We we get back, you’re going to tell me how you figured this out. I wanna know who it is that’s sitting next to me.”
***
For the longest time, the main sounds the group heard were their wagons’ wheels rolling on the gravel road and the clopping of horseshoes. A bird would call out. An animal would drift by the road, watch the armed travelers, then wander away. In the background were the buzzes, chirps, and cries of various insects.
About three-fifths of the way to Southport, the noises of nature dropped off. Ned elbowed Lisa, then cupped his hand around his ear. Lisa shook her head. He nodded and gestured, signaling that this was important.
Lisa whistled a bird call. From her position in the back of the second wagon, she could be heard by everyone else. No one changed what they were doing except to look around. Something was about to happen. They had to be ready.
Moments later rustling sounds broke on their left. Lisa shouted “Down!” the instant before four arrows whizzed from the woods. Someone in her group growled in pain.
Dirty men with ragged clothes and sharpened sticks charged out of the forest. The men yelled fiercely, like crazed animals defending their young. Lisa sat up, crossbow in her hands. She aimed at the man directly in front of her. She fired. The bolt thunked into the man’s chest. He groaned once, then fell.
Before she could reload, two more men grabbed at her. One tried for her legs. She pulled her right leg back, and pushed her right foot into his face. He screamed and backed away.
The other man got his arms around her upper body and yanked her out of the wagon. She tried to wriggle free. She tried kicking his legs. She tried to pull him down and push him back. He wasn’t letting go.
“Turn him around,” she heard Ned shout.
She glanced ahead of her. Ned had his knife out. He dodged a club swing from the man she’d kicked. With his left arm he grabbed the man’s right hand. He jerked the man forward into his waiting knife.
With two tremendous efforts, Lisa got the man hold her turned around so that her back was to Ned. Seconds later she felt the man’s grip slacken. She jumped free, finding herself in a crouched positions. She yanked a knife out of top of her right boot. She rose, turned, and caught the man’s right arm in her left hand. She pulled him forward and jabbed her knife into his chest. The man’s weight almost pushed her down, but she took her knife and shoved him back.
The first thing she saw after the man had fallen was the backs of a few of the ragged men. They were racing for the forest. She wasn’t quite sure what to say. Should we go after them? Ned’s voice answered her.
“Let them go!” he shouted. He looked past her to the wagon in front. “Bill, you see how many got away?”
“Three.”
“Anybody see any bows on these guys?”
“Got one!” It was Dan, who’d been driving the wagon Lisa and Ned were riding in. He pointed a short distance away. A ragged man had two crossbow bolts sticking out of his torso. He was clutching a longbow and an arrow. Apparently he kept trying to shoot after taking a bolt to the belly. A second shot to the chest sent him down.
“Howard’s hurt!” Ray screamed.
It broke Lisa and Ned out of their survey of the scene. They ran to the third wagon. Shawn and Matt had eased Howard onto the ground. When Lisa got close she saw two arrows in the young man, both in his back. Ned brushed past Donna and bent down.
“He covered me with his body,” Donna said.
“Is he okay?” Ray called from the driver’s spot on the wagon.
“Ned?” Lisa asked quietly.
As Ned looked up Shawn spoke. “He’s dead, isn’t he?”
Ned nodded. “Yeah,” he said. He stood, then looked at Shawn and Matt. “I’m sorry.”
Lisa nodded. She took a few steps back. She decided to give them a few moments to grieve. She patted Donna on the shoulder, then nodded her head towards the two young men. Donna moved in between them and held them.
Lisa signaled to Ned to approach her. He walked over to her. She led him a short distance away. “Count up how many we got,” she told him. He nodded and jogged away.
She hadn’t known Howard, so she found it hard to feel too strongly about his death. She could remember the fight, and that hurt her. I let myself get grabbed, she admonished to her now-battered ego. She had made myself a target, and they almost got her. She told herself that she should have swung at them, or jumped at them, or just pointed and shot.
God, I was incompetent.
Ned returned. “Eight bodies,” he said in a low voice.
“No prisoners?”
“Nope.”
“How many fled?”
“Three or four.”
“Okay.” Lisa walked around him. Donna and the others were still crying over Howard’s body.
“We can take some time to bury him,” she told them, “but not too long. We have to get to Southport by sunset. Besides, they could attack again.”
Shawn looked up at her. He was frowning. “That’s all?”
“Yes, that’s all.” He wants to go after them, she thought..
“They can’t get away with this. Howard’s death...”
“Is terrible.” Lisa forced a calm into her tone. “”People are counting on us.”
“We don’t know the forest,” Ned added.
“I can track them,” Matt said.
“Maybe you can, and maybe you can’t,” Lisa said. “There’s no sense taking the chance that you can’t.”
“They murdered him,” said Shawn
“Eight of them are dead. Eight.”
“Let me finish it. Just me and Matt.”
“No!” Shawn was about to say something. “That’s an order, Shawn,” Lisa said.
“We can’t let his murderers go.”
“Yes, we can.”
“Why?”
“Because I say so!” Lisa felt her fists clench. She paused to regain her composure. “I know you want revenge. I know you’re angry. So am I. I don’t want outlaws to run free. But we have a job to complete.”
She stared down at him. She made sure he knew that she wasn’t about to give an inch. Moments passed. At last Shawn turned away from her gaze. Donna led him and the others away to bury Howard.
Lisa walked back to the middle wagon. Ned followed her but said nothing. They climbed into the back of the wagon and sat down in the bed. They watched the burial.
“You could let them go, Lisa,” Ned said after a some time had passed. His voice was low so her couldn’t be heard. “He might find them.”
She didn’t meet his gaze. “We don’t have time.”
“They might come back, try again.”
Lisa turned and glared at him. “Let it go,” she said, teeth clenched.
“All right.”
She kept to herself until the burial was done. She waited for them to take their places. She rose up, turned to the first wagon, and ordered the group to start moving. No one spoke as the resumed their journey.
Ned waited for several minutes to speak to Lisa again. He kept his voice barely above a whisper. “You didn’t do too bad back there.”
“I almost got carried off.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t.”
“I took too long to shoot.”
“Your first fight?”
She started at him, frowned. An instant later her expression mellowed and she sighed. “Yes.”
He smiled to her. “Bill Travis always said, ’You live through a fight, you did good enough.’”
“I guess.”
They rode on in silence.
“We can’t chase after every outlaw that attacks us,” Lisa said at length. “We’d be up to our necks in blood.”
“Yeah. Still, it don’t seem right.”
“It is right. Going after them would be getting revenge.”
“And that’s bad?”
“Yeah. Justice isn’t revenge. We have to make a distinction.”
“Why?”
“Because if we don’t, someone could decide to get revenge on us.”
“So, we do nothing.”
“For now. If they attack on the way back, we fight as hard as we did this time. If they don’t, we don’t worry about. Either they’re stupid, and their stupidity will get them killed. Or they’ve been scared off, so they’re no longer a threat. We move on.”
“Sounds hard.”
“It is. But we don’t have any choice, Ned. Doing the right thing is hard, sometimes. Don’t you agree?” She finally smiled.
He smiled back. “Yeah, I guess it is.”
***
Lisa wanted to stay in Southport for no longer than the rest of that day and overnight. There wasn’t that much business to do. She thought finding out the town’s needs wouldn’t take long, and it didn’t. Their greatest need was a secure road so clothes, tools, and seeds could get to them. With most of the outlaws dead, that need was fulfilled. Finally, there was the town feud to deal with, and that would take time as well as effort.
In the morning when they should have been leaving, Lisa discovered that two of her group were missing. Shawn and Matt had taken off during the night. She didn’t need to think too hard about why.
Her first choice was to leave anyway. She knew which direction the two went. The group was certain to meet them on the way back to Richmond. The only problem was that if the two failed to meet the group on the road, there would be pressure to go after them. That would weaken the group when there was still a chance of another attack. What was worse for Lisa was the thought of having to tell Wayne that two of his friends had disappeared, and that she had returned to Richmond instead of searching for them.
She decided to wait. She wasn’t sure how long she should wait. It turned out that the residents of Southport needed help repairing some of their buildings, and with a few other minor tasks. Lisa knew that if her group left after lunch they could make it to Richmond by dark. Lunchtime came; neither young man appeared, and the work wasn’t completed.
Part-way through that afternoon Lisa had a moment to speak to Donna. She told Donna she knew why Shawn and Matt were gone. She said she was willing to wait until the next morning. At that point they absolutely had to start back for Richmond. Donna simply said “Okay” and kept working.
The pair finally returned at sunset. Lisa stomped up to them. She pointed at the community building. “Come with me,” she ordered, “now.”
She had wanted to discipline them in front of her group. Upon reflection, she decided that discipline and embarrassment weren’t the same thing. She waved at seats. As soon as they sat down she asked, “Have you avenged Howard now?”
“Yes.” Shawn’s tone was defiant. “They won’t be a problem any more.”
“That’s no excuse.”
“What excuse?” Matt asked. He was more puzzled.
“Did either of you stop to think? What if those outlaws had friends?”
Shawn snorted. “Those animals? I doubt it.”
“Oh, really. Are you sure? Would you be willing to stake your lives on it? How about the lives of the rest of us?”
“You were gonna let them get away.”
“The important word being ’you.’ It was my decision, Shawn. Mine, and mine alone. I am in charge of this group. If I tell you to do something you do it. If I tell you not to do something, you don’t do it.”
“So we just let them...”
“Yes!” Lisa took a breath to calm herself, and to figure out a better approach.
“Shawn, did you think about the chance that maybe, just maybe, those guys weren’t wild attackers? What if they wanted us to follow them? What if it was a trap?”
Shawn and Matt didn’t reply right away. Matt shifted in his seat. He was now thinking about that, and clearly it was bothering him. Shawn stared at the floor, but his anger seemed to be fading. Lisa pressed on.
“It could be a trap next time,” she continued. “Or maybe next time they do have friends. You go after them, then they come after you. Do we have to avenge you? Do we keep getting revenge on each other? When does it stop?
“Tell me, do you both believe in what we’re doing?”
Shawn’s head snapped up. “Of course,” he said. Matt nodded his head vigorously.
“You know that there’s some things you had to give up, right? You have to follow my orders. You can’t hoard anything. You have to obey the rules of any towns we come to.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“There are other things that you have to give up. That we all have to give up, if everyone’s lives are going to get better. One of those things is that we can’t do what feels good to us. We can’t do whatever we please. We have to do what’s right. Not just what’s right for us, but what’s right for everyone else.
“You think that the bandits that killed Howard don’t have any friends. If they did they’d come after us. Do you really think that fighting every outlaw will make things better? Does that help us trade goods? Does that get towns working together? Does that really bring people together?”
“It makes the road safe.”
“Safe for who? Remember, we’re about to try to stop two towns fighting each other. Suppose those bandits were from one of those towns. You both remember White Rocks. What if those guys were working for one of those towns? What if they only looked like wild bandits? Maybe they were covering their real intentions with that disguise. Maybe they looked like that so no one would know who they really were.”
“Then why’d they just attack us?” Matt asked.
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is we really don’t know who those guys were. If they were from one of those towns, doing their bidding, and word got back that we not just defended ourselves, but that we hunted them down and killed them, what would that do to us?
“We’re not just going there to stop that feud because we have lots of armed men, and even a few armed women. We’re also going there because we’re not from this world. We haven’t taken sides. They don’t know us, and we don’t know them. They have to know that. They have to be able to trust us not to give victory to one town and defeat to the other.”
“If those guys were from one side, they wouldn’t like us,” Matt said.
“That’s right. They’d think we were on other side.”
“So what?” asked Shawn. “Isn’t it wrong to use outlaws like that?”
“Of course it is,” Lisa answered.
“Then I don’t see why what we did matters.”
“It matters because we’re not here to pick fights with anyone. We’re here to get people working together.
“Think about Ned and his group. They were robbing people. They knew it was wrong. They needed someone not to wipe them out for doing wrong. They needed someone to tell them that they could do better for themselves if they did right. They were smart enough to understand that, and they’ve joined us.
“Yesterday, who was it who knew when an attack was coming? Ned. Would you have known that?” She looked at Matt. “Would you?”
“No.”
“No. We made friends with them, and that paid off yesterday. We could all be dead if it wasn’t for them.”
“Well,” said Shawn, “we couldn’t make friends with those guys who attacked us.”
“Probably not. Does that mean we have to make them our enemies? Fighting and avenging are what enemies do. We aren’t supposed to be making enemies. We’re supposed to be making friends.
“Besides, getting revenge isn’t the same as getting justice. Anybody can rationalize getting revenge. If we’re going to make things better, we have to stand for better ways of doing things. Making rules and sticking to them. Dealing with everyone equally. Not punishing those who break the rules more harshly than what they deserve.
“Think about that, both of you. I know what you did when you found those guys who survived our fight. Don’t bother telling me that you let them fight back fairly. I bet they didn’t even know what was happening.
“It’s one thing to kill in battle. What you two snuck off and did wasn’t killing in battle. Why you did it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I told you not to. That you didn’t think about what you were doing. That the consequences of what you did could have been much worse.”
“What are you going to do to us?” Matt asked.
“I’m taking half of both your shares of our goods when we get back to Richmond. If any menial jobs come up before we leave this world, you two are first to do them.” Lisa folded her arms across her chest. “Don’t disobey me a second time.” She nodded towards the door. “That’s all.”
Shawn and Matt stood up. Shawn still looked unhappy. Matt appeared to be ashamed. Once they left the building Lisa sighed and shook her head. You both better learn from this. I don’t want lots of kids wanting to avenge their parents.
I don’t want to wade in blood to make things better.
***
Once back in Richmond, Lisa took a walk to clear her head. She was still angry with Shawn. She knew she had to put that mess aside and move on. It refused to go away. She kept thinking about how to keep the incident from happening again. She wondered if she could set aside her own feelings and do the right thing. The issue just would not step aside.
That became a new concern. She had to start thinking about the feuding towns. She needed to figure out what to do. Every time her mind tried to move on, something sparked the old fire. She grew more and more frustrated.
Someone cleared his throat behind her. Lisa jumped and gasped.
“Sorry.”
She turned around. It was Wayne.
She raised her hands. “My mind was elsewhere. I didn’t hear you come up.”
“Yeah, I figured that. I didn’t want to bother you, Lisa.”
“Oh, no bother. I’ve been trying to think about those towns, and what we can do to stop their feud. Well, trying and not succeeding. Anyway, what’s on your mind?”
“Well, Shawn talked to me...”
Lisa let out an agonized cry. She sighed, then shook her head. “Damn! I haven’t been able to focus because of what he did.”
“He asked me to talk to you.”
“About?”
“About that incident. He wanted me to talk you out of punishing him.” He raised his arms quickly. “I told him I wouldn’t. You’re in charge, you make the decisions. I don’t know if I’d be so hard on him, but you said not to go off and he did. I told him he ought to take it like a man. He broke the rules, so he has to pay the price.”
Lisa sighed. “I’m sorry if you thought I was going to jump all over you.”
“That’s okay. I heard you weren’t too happy about it.”
“Well, I’m not.”
“It did get me thinking, though.”
“About what?”
“Springdale. I got to wondering if maybe Shawn might have gone off partly because he thought we’d move to another world once we were done here.”
“No offense, Wayne, but I doubt he thought all that much before he took off.”
“No, probably not. It occurred to me that he might have thought about it if he knew we wouldn’t be moving on. Maybe he wouldn’t have ran after those killers so quick if he knew me and Sherrie were staying on this world.”
Lisa had to admit that it made some sense. People tended not to take action if they knew they had friends or family that could suffer as a result of their action. She thought that this sort of thinking was used by bad people to keep good people in line. Don’t oppose me, or I’ll take it out on your kids. Would that kind of persuasion work for Wayne?
He seemed to know what she was thinking. “I know that it’s not the sort of argument you use in a situation like this,” he said. “Maybe our friends need to think like that. Y’know, bad things might happen to us if they don’t think before they act.”
“Yeah, I suppose so.”
“We need to talk to everyone about it anyway. Make sure everyone understands what happened, and why you punished Shawn and Matt.”
“Okay. I’ll see if there’s a place...”
“The church isn’t being used.”
Lisa put her hands on her hips. She narrowed her gaze. “Should I be concerned about that?”
Wayne smiled. “Not at all, boss.”
***
Wayne spread out his arms. “That’s it,” he said. “We really don’t want to leave you. We’ve talked this over, and there doesn’t seem to be any other way. I think we will make a difference here.”
Lisa had been standing to Wayne’s right on the side of the platform. She let him be the center of attention while he explained why he, Dave, and their families were settling down in Springdale. She now stepped towards him. She turned to her friends, sitting in the pews.
“I didn’t want you thinking about Wayne’s plans while we tried to bring peace to those two towns,” she said. “What happened on the way to Southport changed my mind. There can be consequences to our actions. Those consequences might not affect us. They could affect any friends we leave behind. Friends we’ve had for a long time, or friends we’ve just made.”
Wayne nodded in agreement. “We all need to be careful when we get into a fight. Especially coming up. We don’t want to make enemies that might chase us for years.”
“I was first asked to try and end this fight because I’m not from here. By not being from here, Mayor Ross thinks that both sides might accept a solution from me. They can’t see me as biased towards one side. If you do something, and either town finds out that you’re one of my friends, they’ll think I’m playing favorites.”
Ray raised a hand. “I know what you’re saying, but does it really matter? Especially if someone else picks a fight with us?”
Before either Lisa or Wayne could reply Little Wolf spoke up. “We do not know how we shall end this feud. It might take days. It might take a season. It might take a year.”
“We might try one solution,” Donna added, “find it doesn’t work, and have to try something else.”
“So what?” Ray asked.
“If one town thinks we’re being harder on them than on the other, they might never accept a solution.”
“There’s also a principle involved here,” Lisa said. “Getting revenge might feel good, but it’s not good in the long run. Again, look at these two towns. Do they know why they’re fighting? Probably not. I’ll bet someone from one town did something to somebody in the other town. Instead of trying to look for justice, the victim or his friends went out and got revenge. To the first guy or his friends, it didn’t look like revenge. Maybe the revenge was worse that what had been done in the first place. Pretty soon, both towns are getting revenge for the other’s attempt to get revenge.
“Now, either this stops, or there won’t be much left of either town. That’s why we’re supposed to get involved. To keep it from destroying both towns, or dragging the other towns into the mess. Do you really want to follow in their footsteps? Once something like this gets started, it’s hard to stop.”
Ned smiled to her and raised a hand. “It might help if we knew what your plan was, Lisa.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know, to tell everyone the truth. I do know we can’t just go and knock heads, or take out all their warriors. Aside from us actually standing between the towns and forcing them go through us to get to each other, I really don’t have a plan.”
Ned let out a laugh. “Lisa, I like your principles, but I’m here to get a longer and better life. Getting between those towns doesn’t sound like I’d get either.”
Everyone else laughed, including Lisa. Suddenly, something sparked in her mind. Get between them. One side thinking we’re against them. That’s it!
She snapped her fingers. A wide smile appeared on her face.
“She’s got an idea,” someone said.
“That’s either good news, or bad news,” someone else replied.
Lisa laughed. “Oh, don’t you guys worry. Not yet, anyway.”
She looked for Jane. Making eye contact she said, “I want you and Alek to bring those drawings to my room after breakfast.”
She turned to Ned. “If you don’t mind a little lying, I’ve got something I want you to do.”
“Sure.”
Wayne touched Lisa’s arm. “Are you going to let us in on what you’re planning?”
She looked up at him. “Not just yet. I don’t have this fully formed. I don’t want anyone in town knowing about this just yet.” She turned to the rest of the group. “Surprise is going to be very important. I want all of you to keep honing your skills. Don’t talk to anyone in town unless I say so.”
“Why not?”
“One rumor, and we really could be risking our lives. The only way we can end that feud is with as little bloodshed as possible. The only way to do that is through surprise.”
“In other words,” Ray said, “we have to trust you.”
“Yes.”
“Unlike people who aren’t your friends.”
Lisa grinned. “Look at me. I’m short, I’m not very strong, and I’m a girl. All I have are my wits. Should I worry if that gives me an unfair advantage?”