Not Even a Guardian

Silver stayed watching for a long time to confirm what he had seen.

Instead of trees in the courtyard, which would obstruct view if the fort were breached, large ferns, much wider than Silver was tall, had been installed along the peaceful path.

Because there was really nothing to see, the Guardian had almost made the same mistake as the soldiers.

Seeing no sign of anything beyond plant life, the soldiers had moved on to search the guest house closest to him and kept on going, leaving the area empty. But just now, Silver's gut told him something was out there.

When the Guardian was a thief, he had once hidden in a vat of oil with a tube to breathe. The men had searched high and low, but never in the spot right in front of them. 'Is Ryker also hiding in plain sight?'

That was when Silver senses had been pricked as he heard rustling. The wind from outside the fortress still managed to push through the wooden walls to some extent, but tonight things were utterly still.

The Guardian had stared intently at the ferns. Most of them were still as statues, but one was gently moving up and down.

The rhythmic shifting was almost imperceptible. The Guardian stared marking off time with each rise and drop of the long stems. It was like the leafy plant was...breathing. Plants didn't breathe with lungs disturbing the air, but people did.

'Got you!'

Normally when catching a troublemaker, the Guardian would swoop in and make the capture before turning them over to the proper authorities. But this was a special case because he was inside the fort.

Since Ryker was recently discovered spy for another kingdom, it would be far better if the soldiers caught and captured the fugitive. Having a Guardian involved would complicate things since he had not pledged allegiance to either entity.

'That's great in theory...but how do I do it. I don't want to spook him into running again. And if I leave, it is possible he may move on. There has to be a way to draw them in that will make Ryker stay put...'

Silver took a deep breath. He had an idea. He pulled out the leftovers from his lunch.

'Here goes nothing!'

-------

Although walking was difficult with his pounding head, Adym was determined to find the Lakilian spy. Ryker had not only hurt him physically, he had hurt his pride.

He should have been able to protect himself and his colonel, and instead was waylaid on the ground while the culprit got away.

"He can't have gotten far. Not even a Viper can scale these walls bare-handed," Adym told the half dozen soldiers who had joined him in the search.

All over camp, dozens upon dozens of groups were searching for the Ryker. Due to the man's strength and skill, no one was allowed to look alone.

"Let's go back and start over," Adym announced, exhausted.

"Sir?" one of the men was confused. "We have already searched back there. It is protocol to keep going."

Adym looked around at all the other groups. The area was saturated with men. If Ryker was here, someone surely would find him. They were literally ripping the camp to shreds.

"I know protocol, but right now it doesn't make sense. The colonel will have to understand." Adym led his group back towards the Viper's house. Perhaps they had missed something.

They had made it most of the way back when a foreign smell invaded their noses: smoke. The torches both on the walls and in their hands were almost entirely smokeless, making the acrid stench even more concerning.

"Follow me," Adym hurried his group along the wall until they came to a place where something was smoldering into ash. Perhaps it had once been waxed paper, but now it stunk of ruination.

It seemed a stray spark from the torch above it had the unlucky task of setting the trash aflame. What were the odds!

Adym stomped on the paper to finish putting it out. There was not much danger of it catching the wall on fire. Still, any stray flames were better put out than left smouldering.

"What's the meaning of this?" Colonel Jay came around the side of the guest house with a detail of his own. "Did you smell it too?"

Having already begun his defense as to why he was so far from the front line in his head, Adym quickly changed gears. "Yes sir. I think the torch on the wall set it off." He pointed to the sconce directly above the paper.

"Very strange...those things aren't supposed to spark at all. And I know no one around here would be foolish enough to leave trash around my camp." Jay peered at the men around him, who all straightened their backs in response.

Adym knelt beside the ashes. "There is something else down here..." He picked up the white crumbs from the ground and inspected them more closely.

"What are they?" Jay picked up a piece from the sergeant's hand and sniffed at it experimentally.

"It looks like....bread..." Adym answered, his brow knit in confusion. Lowering his torch, he could see the crumbs leading off to the courtyard. "What do we do about it?" he looked expectantly at the colonel. Surely they could not just ignore such an oddity!

Jay rubbed his forehead. "We follow the trail." The colonel felt silly, like he was being led on a wild chase that would be fruitless, but he had an obligation to see it through and make sure.

The trail ended when the crumbs mixed into the leafy ferns of the Guest Courtyard. Jay scanned the empty space and sighed.

"The gardener is going to hate me in the morning." Drawing his sword, Jay hacked and stabbed at the ferns, sending the pieces of foliage flying in all directions. The others in the groups joined him at his task, ripping the delightful plants to pieces with their razor sharp blades.

As if to keep the men from utterly destroying the remaining beauty, pebbles ricocheted off the wall and disturbed a particularly leafy fern on the far end of the courtyard. It was one that would be easily missed as it was tucked up behind a stone bench. A small grunt answered the rocks, someone had been hit by the falling rocks.

Jay rolled his eyes. Holding up his hand, the colonel ordered the others to stop and rally around the spot.

"Come out Ryker, we know you are there." Jay called loudly, alerting the archers on the wall as well to the situation. "We have you surrounded."

Everything went still.

The fern seemed to lose some of its volume, as if wilting without anything to support it any longer.

The colonel tensed. Something felt off.

"Ah!"

From behind Jay, a cry rang out. The soldier guarding his back was suddenly on the ground, a large wound in his side gaping open from his own stolen knife. With a vicious snarl, Ryker leapt out of the shadows with his new weapon, going straight for the colonel.

If the Viper was going to go down, he would not let the smug leader of the fort live to see the day. Jay had no time to react. He moved away as quickly as he could, but the sword was destined to make it around to his opponent too late. Even with the evasion, Jay's heart and neck were still within Ryker's reach.

At the last moment, a whistle sped between the two men, and an arrowhead entered the mouth of the serpent on Ryker's wrist. The force of the arrow continued on, pulling the inspector's arm from its aim.

With a sickly thud, the arrow finally stopped in the wood of the fort's wall, pinning the inspector's wrist.

Ryker screamed and cursed as the small army descended to rescue their colonel. In a short time, the Viper was freed from the arrow only to be bound again in chains.

"Thanks for the assist, Caedan!" Jay called up to one of the archers on the wall.

"It wasn't me, sir!" the archer called back.

Jay looked down at the fletching in his hand. One of the men had passed it to him while arresting the Viper. It was certainly a soldier's arrow.

Glancing behind him, the colonel saw a flash of silver from the roof of the closest guest house. He pressed his lips together before forcing a smile up at Caedan.

"Haha, very funny. No need to be so modest! Not even a Guardian could have aim like that!" Rubbing the sore spot on his jaw, Jay turned to the men around him. "Come on, we still have work to do."