‘Don’t know, sarge.’
‘Well, search! ‘e can’t ‘ave gone far.’
The soldiers approached. I held my breath. And not primarily because of the soldiers.
Merde, merde, merde! Really very, very much merde!
The soldiers came even closer, and then, their rifles raised, they—
—they stepped past me.
I let out a sigh of relief. Then I silently cursed myself. That was the last bit of fresh air I had left!
‘’e’s not in the horse boxes, sarge,’ came a voice from somewhere behind me.
‘Not in the haystack, either,’ came another from the left.
‘Keep searching! ‘e can’t have just vanished into thin air.’
Thin air? The air here is definitely getting thin, my friend.
I needed to breathe. But right now, breathing in did not seem like a good idea. I felt my face turning blue as the soldiers continued to ransack the stables. They seemed pretty determined to be thorough. So far they’d stayed away from my hiding place, for obvious olfactory reasons. But what if—
Bam!
‘Bloody ‘ell!’ Whirling around, the sergeant raced to the door—and ducked just in time to dodge a bullet.
‘It’s those two bloody bastards!’
Mr Ambrose! He was still out there, totally outnumbered, probably desperate to get to me. Crap, crap, crap! If only I wasn’t stuck in so much crap! I had find some way to help!
‘You there!’ The sergeant shouted to the men standing guard outside. ‘Go take care of them!’
Six men.
Six against two.
I had lots of respect for Karim’s killer instincts. And as for Mr Ambrose—well, he was Rikkard Ambrose. But still, those odds seemed just a little too risky. Particularly when dealing with professional mercenaries in the service of a certain lord.
What to do?
Well…
If I’d asked that question with my mind, there could have been many answers. I didn’t, though. I asked my heart. And the blasted thing was already decided.
Help him!
A moment later, a large dollop of merde hit the closest soldier in the back of his tête. He stumbled forward, and had a nice little tête-a-tête with a horse’s derrière. What do you know? I was getting the hang of this French thing after all.
‘What the—arglmph!’
The soldier’s comrades stared horrified at their muck-splattered companion getting intimate with an equine ass. It would be another second or two before they realized what was going on. A second or two was all I needed.
Bam! Bam!
‘It’s him! Get hi—’
Bam!