In All Places (Stripling Warrior) (23 page)

Jashon.

He looked from Gideon to me and scrutinized me as curiously as I scrutinized him. When he looked back to Gideon, I noticed the slight raise of his eyebrow.

Four chief captains, the lost
heir to the Lamanite throne, Teancum’s personal guard, five lethally trained assassins, a fierce Lamanite warrior, and a fourteen-year old kid with an attitude.

I almost laughed when I wondered who would emerge as the leader
that night.

“They’ve got fifteen captives,”
Zeke told us. “Isabel is among them.”

“But I didn’t see any captives! Only provisions. They only took provisions.”

I looked to Gideon to confirm what I
had seen.

“The prisoners were
gagged and bound, Keturah,” he informed me softly.

“
Some of the little ones were on pallets,” added Kenai. But he laughed just a little. “Isabel fought like a wildcat.”

Little ones?
“Why didn’t you stop them?” I demanded. He had obviously been close enough to see.

“We were only three against fifty at that time.
They didn’t intend the captives immediate harm. Better to wait until we gathered our men and surprise them when we have the advantage.”

“When they are sleeping,” Gideon added as he caught my eye.

And suddenly I knew what Kenai and Gideon were both planning.

It
had been the one thing I had done in the army that had really bothered me. Killing men while they slept, when they had no defense against me, did not sit well with me. I guessed I was like Kalem that way. He had killed my father when he was unarmed and defenseless, and his guilt had harrowed him for many years.

I thought of the men I had killed on the Cumeni crossroad so our army could get into Cumeni to lay the siege.
The deaths haunted me still, and I could finally understand why our parents had made such a powerful oath against shedding blood. That was something I had never been able to understand before that night and had, admittedly, resented a great deal.

I swallowed hard and listened
closely as the men made their plans.

We had a time to wait
, and I lay on the ground as close to invisible as possible between Kenai and Darius. We had followed the Lamanites until they stopped to make camp late in the second watch. We lay in small groups a short distance away from them, spread out until we had them nearly surrounded. We could only hope that they were too tired to harass their prisoners tonight. If they attempted to, we would shoot into the shadows and pray our eyes were as keen as we needed them to be.

Waiting in the darkness was torture.
It was not worse than the sheer terror the captives must have been feeling, but it was torture nonetheless.

I thought of Isabel fighting for her freedom like a wildcat, like the margay whose call we used as a warning.
Dinah had said the world needed more girls like us.

Isabel
, nearing fifteen now, was almost as old as I had been when I marched away to war. It was time for Hemni to start thinking about a betrothal for her. Another year or two and then a year-long betrothal. I smiled into the darkness. I had a feeling Isabel would be putting up a bigger fight than I had.

Finally, t
he wind shifted and the breeze would no longer carry our whispers to the enemies, so I turned to Kenai.

“You saw them take Isabel?” I asked in a low tone.

He didn’t take his eyes off the still shadows in the distance to speak to me. “Yeah. But she practically walked out with them willingly.”

“But you said she fought like a wildcat.”

I saw the hint of a smile on his lips. “She fought to free the other girls. When she finally admitted she couldn’t, she went willingly. I think,” he paused and shook his head. “I know she figured that if she went, she could free them later.”

“She could have gotten away?”

“They pushed her away. They didn’t want to take her. She was too much trouble.”

“She’s just a little girl,” I said.

“A little girl who carries a tanning knife,” Darius broke in.

“What?”

“I think she’s been watching you for a long time, Ket.”

It had never occurred to me that other young girls might be looking to me as an example. I cringed. I was such a poor one. Girls should look to women like Cana and Mother, but not to me.

I gripped my own knife and turned back to the enemy camp.
I felt suddenly responsible for Isabel. I would get her out of this. I would.

All
thirteen of us lay silent and absolutely alert for several hours. The third watch had nearly passed, and it was deep in the dead of the night when I finally heard Kenai let out a slow breath.

In the next instant he was up and stealing into the camp.
I heard the low call of the owl. My heart pounded. He was so broken inside and still so brave.

He was moving quickly, but his feet were silent and the wind was still with us.
There were three sentries still awake, each one facing one of the two small fires that glowed. We had been watching long enough to know there were no other sentries beyond the firelight. If there had been, Kenai would have taken them out long ago.

Jarom and Gideon emerged from the darkness at the same moment and none of them
hesitated when they reached the small circle of firelight, just kept moving crouched low until they were on their men. In the next instant the sentries were dead.

I
had been watching my shadows for hours. I knew what positions they lay in, how often they rolled over, how very close they were to the thankfully sleeping and unharmed captives. Probably they planned to sell these women or give them to their superiors, the purchase price of honor.

As if there was honor in what they did.

And with that thought in my head, I got up in the same moment as Darius and all the others and sprinted for the circle of men.

I kept my focus on the men I was to kill.
These men were not innocent. They were nothing like the guard on the Cumeni Road. They had faces. They had crimes.

Just as I was about to cross from the darkness into the firelight, one of the Lamanites called out to his brethren.
He had awakened, and he sounded the alarm.

This did not alter our course of action.
There would be no retreat. There would be no quarter given. We would not wait for a better time to fight, like Isabel had had to do. Unlike Isabel, we were completely prepared to save ourselves and others.

Three of my men were slow to wake so
I was able to get them with my dagger. I drew my sword to fight another. When he was down, I glanced around and saw a huge man bearing down on Zeke. I stashed my sword and positioned my bow in the same movement of my arm with the precision and speed I had gained from years of practice, drew an arrow, and in the next moment met Zeke’s eyes across the camp as his opponent fell at his feet.

But there was no more time than that before another enemy was upon me.

I dropped my bow over my head and felt it fall comfortably into place on my shoulder.
I pulled my axe from my belt in time to block the enemy’s. I kicked him and broke my axe free from his when he stumbled. I swung hard and wild—almost too wild. I was so furious with this man, with all of them. How dare they destroy our peace? Right here in our home. How
dare
they?

“Kanina.”
Gideon’s steadying voice was all it took to bring me back into control. I took more time with my next two swings and was rewarded with blood.

Panting, I turned to thank Gideon, but he was gone.
I found him engaged in a fight across the fire from me. How had he gotten there so quickly?

My mind went back to the meadow
and all the times I had felt him there with me. But I fought free of the memories and rounded to fight the real enemy.

But there was no one.
They were all dead or still fighting. They would be dead soon. We would not leave wounded, and we could not take prisoners.

I looked around at my brothers, all twelve of them.
But I counted again. Ten, eleven, twelve.

Thirteen.

I stared in amazement as Isabel stood strong and proud over her fallen enemy.

Kenai
noticed her too and approached her with care. He was right to do so. There was no telling what emotional state she was in. But it was clear she was okay—relieved and scared, but okay—when she didn’t attack Kenai and instead fell into his arms and let him comfort her.

I watched them for a moment, standing in the firelight together, the shadows and light flickering around them as they embraced.
Maybe, I thought, she could comfort him too.

From the
corner of my eye, I saw the man Isabel had fought was not dead. He had propped himself up enough to aim an arrow—not at the couple standing over him, but at Gideon, who stood victorious near the main fire, hands on hips, surveying our success.

My sling was on my belt and I grabbed it and loaded it in almost the same second.
I barely noticed I had loaded Jarom’s jagged stone, the last remnant of the war, into the sling before I had slung it at the man.

The man
jerked and slumped back to the earth, instantly dead from two projectiles—mine, that landed in his heart and another that landed simultaneously in his eye.

I turned to scan the camp for the other
slingman and saw Jarom standing still poised in position with his sling swinging from his hand.

He caught my eye, glanced at Gideon, and gave me a slight nod.
Then he grinned, winked roguishly, and blew me a kiss before turning to the others.

I turned too and found Jashon studying me carefully.
He stood with Lamech who was describing something to him, probably his part in the battle.

Don’t fall in love with me
, I thought ridiculously as I replaced my sling on my belt and wiped my axe down with a rag, remembering what Gideon had once said about yielding to his elder brother. I couldn’t contain a small smile that made Jashon narrow his eyes.

He watched me until Enos clapped him on the shoulder and motioned to the captives.

We woke the poor things and untied them. Some had slept through the battle, and some had lain awake. I hoped they had all used the good sense to close their eyes to it.

Many of them were still frightened and cowered from their
protectors. The men were being so gentle, even trying first to loosen the bonds before showing their knives to the children if the bonds had to be cut. But I realized the captives did not know half of these men, so I stepped forward.

“These men are Helaman’s striplings,” I
told the women. “They will not harm you.”

In all, there were seven women and eight children, mostly girls, that had been captured, and I knew most of them. No wonder Isabel had fought so hard—these were her friends, girls she went to church with, women she looked up to.

We didn’t especially want to bury the Lamanites, but we didn’t want anyone coming across the grisly scene either, so we took the time to dig a wide, shallow grave with two shovels we found among the dead. The men took turns digging while Isabel and I helped the women tend to the frightened children. Gideon’s kinsmen had traveling food in their packs, and we gave it to the captives along with water to drink.

Jashon brought me the offering of food.
“Here,” he said. “For the children.”

“Thank you.”
I glanced over my shoulder to where they sat and the women soothed them with soft songs, calming words, and gentle touches. “I think they will appreciate it.”

I started toward them, but Jashon called me back.
“Keturah.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment.
I was almost ready to just turn away again when he said, “I can see now why we have traveled all this way.”

He turned abruptly and returned to Enos
, who gave me a nod, and Lamech, who sent me a scowl.

It was past dawn when we arrived back in the village, but no one there had slept.
People from other villages had gathered too.

The captives returned to their families, all of them weeping with relief.

The thirteen of us stood back, observing the reunions. I looked around at the others. Micah went into Cana’s waiting arms. They really were sweet together. Kenai walked past them with a curt nod and Darius followed him toward our home where I could see Mother waited anxiously at the gate with Kalem, who held her back with a steadying arm.

Zeke and Jarom stood near each other, but a telling distance separated them.
I hated the thought that I had come between them. I knew their strained relationship went beyond me, though. They stood identical in their stances but so different in every other way. I thought Jarom had deliberately changed every physical aspect of himself that he could to set himself apart from his brother.

I watched sadly as they glanced at each other and by tacit
agreement walked home together, escorting Isabel between them, gently pushing through the emotional crowd on the road.

Muloki had likely been at Mother’s fire with Kalem and Melia when Jarom had run in with the warning.
Mahonri and Jonas lived in the neighboring village, and I guessed someone could have run for them when they were needed. But what were Gideon and his kinsmen doing here in the village?

As I was wondering this, my eye caught Gideon’s.
He stood a short distance away with his kinsmen. It had been over a year since I had come home, and not one day had passed that I hadn’t thought of this man. Seasons had passed. I knew I had changed, and I wondered in what ways he had changed. It was strange to see him so real and so close after all that time.