The Troven (Kingdom of Denall Book 1) (15 page)

The woman started laughing and it turned into an eerie cackle. “You’ll never know until it’s too late, stone holder.”

Chapter 14

According to Dunkan's plan, each crew member came at the appointed time to the small room in the basement of a local tavern. P liked the location, as they were arriving in the early hours of the day; anyone in the tavern that early would be too inebriated to understand or hinder their plans. She watched through a small hole in the wall as Com was the first to arrive. He came in and sat down at a table across from Dunkan.

“Everything seems to be in place,” he said as he leaned back in his chair. “Today's shipment is smaller than expected, but worthwhile.”

Dunkan smiled at this news.

“Remember your orders. When we have the shipment loaded you take out Stash and Derft. They should be in the cart, so that shouldn't be a problem from your position. Then the two of us will drive the cart away.”

Com rocked the chair back to four legs, stood up, and took a few steps toward the door. Before leaving he paused, turned around, stepped close to Dunkan, and spoke in a whisper. “If you have any plans to double cross me, just remember that I see everything.” With this final pronouncement Com left the basement and passed by Flick and Scar who were just arriving.

“Hey, why are you leaving?” Scar asked, clearly confused.

Com continued walking as Flick gestured for Scar to shut his mouth.

Flick began to speak as they were walking across the small room. “When the shipment leaves the keep we'll intercept and deliver it to Stash and Derft.” When they reached the table, he rested his hand on the table but did not stop to sit down. Scar rounded the table and sat down next to Dunkan and looked at him with a stupid grin. “We'll meet you back at Deadman Falls tomorrow just after noon.” Then a pause. “Will that be enough time for you to get rid of Com and the others?”

Dunkan nodded. Then, looking at Flick he added, “Make sure that nobody suspects anything. One misspoken word to the wrong person and we won't live to enjoy our treasure.” Flick nodded in response and gestured for Scar to get up out of his seat and follow him back out of the tavern.

Before leaving, Scar turned around to face Dunkan. “Flick says we need to watch you close, so I'm watching you close.” Flick shot Scar a look that would have silenced any half-intelligent person. Scar continued, “So you keep your word or we'll know you're a liar who didn't keep your word.” Scar was no intellect, but he was ruthless and as strong as three men, so he was an invaluable part of the plan.

“I will see you at the falls tomorrow,” was all Dunkan said.

The next to arrive were Stash and Derft. “How is the head?” Dunkan asked as Derft came into sight.

The large strongarm stopped rubbing his head and snarled. “It'll be a lot better when I'm away from here with all my money.” He smiled hopefully at Dunkan. “Are you sure I can't just kill the girl? I think I owe her that much.”

Dunkan remained seated, while the two strongarms stood behind chairs at the table. He gestured for them to sit down but they waved their hands in refusal. “It's too risky. You know what she did last night. We need to leave her behind and get out with the money. That is our best chance for success. She’ll take the fall, we take the gold.”

“Yeah, I know, but I really want to get her back for this headache.”

“When you rub your head, think of it as a second chance at life. Not everyone else was that lucky,” Dunkan reminded him.

Bringing them back to the plan Stash interjected. “So after we kill the idiot and his thin friend, why do we need you?”

Dunkan slowly rose from his seat and walked up to stand toe to toe with Stash. “You are lucky I chose you to be one of three to take the treasure. Don't ever forget that.” Then as he pointed to the map laid out on the table he continued. “There are three roads that lead from our interception point out of Kinstock. All three have guards at the gate, one set of guards will let me through with no questions asked. Two of the roads will have some mutual friends on them,” Dunkan did not need to name the 'mutual friends' as members of their band he intended to double cross.

“Sounds good to me,” Stash answered taking a step back away from Dunkan. P was impressed at how a level two intellect was able to intimidate such a large strongarm. “Thanks, by the way.”

Dunkan returned to his seat, and looked down at his map. He ignored the two strongarms until they got the message and found their own way out. “I’m glad they are not going to be alive to enjoy the gold,” he said softly as he looked over to the small crack in the wall. “I’ll see you when everything is done.”

Dunkan rose to his feet, rolled up the map and left the small room. When he was clear of the building P emerged from her hiding place. The plan was starting to come together, but it also hinged on a group of dishonest criminals following directions and trusting the man she had chosen to lead the heist. After doing an audio scan of the building, she left as she had come; unnoticed and alone.

* * * * *

The shining armor of the patrol of forty-eight guards entering the keep drew little attention this early in the morning. They were lost among the crowd of soldiers arriving for duty, changing guard, and performing routine training drills. The keep in Kinstock was no more than a small stronghold. The large stone structure was home to the Kinstock barracks, the political meetinghouse, and the mint. Despite the dwarfed size of the structure it looked like it was prepared to stop a full frontal assault of the King's army. Starting at ten feet from the ground the stone wall had rows of tall narrow arrow slits. On the inside of the walls there was scaffolding so that archers could quickly scale to their posts and fire hundreds of arrows from the safety provided by the thick stone wall. It was built to protect the large stores of gold that came from the mine.

The soldiers' duty was completed as the carriage loaded down with gold bars entered the keep. Exactly two hours later, as Dunkan had said, an old wooden cart left the keep through the same iron-reinforced door. It would be foolish to think the treasure was completely unprotected at that time, but the two visors sitting on the back of the cart with longbows, and the listener, who was driving, were hardly a match for the two well-trained thieves waiting for them in the woods.

Flick and Scar had taken up a concealed position behind the tree line at the side of the rarely used, packed dirt road, beyond what they suspected would be the listener's neutral hearing distance. Scar squatted behind some bushes, holding a live rabbit he had caught earlier that day. On the other side of the road was a pile of carrots and lettuce that Scar had shown to the rabbit several times. When the cart was about to cross their path he released the rabbit and, as expected, the rabbit ran for the hidden food. Scar raced after the rabbit, and, seeing the guards in the cart with drawn bows, he pointed to the rabbit and yelled, “Shoot it!”

The guards laughed at the foolish strongarm chasing a rabbit on foot, but turned their attention toward the rabbit, firing their arrows at the unfortunate decoy. With all of their attention on the rabbit, they didn’t have time to react when Flick appeared from behind a tree with an armed bow, and Scar drew his concealed short hammer. Scar abruptly turned from running after the rabbit and smashed the two visors with his hammer. The driver of the cart had already fallen over, an arrow protruding from his back.

After wiping off his war hammer and replacing it in the leather loop of his belt, Scar held up a finger to Flick, indicating he should wait for a moment.

“What are you doing?” Flick asked, confused about what could possibly be important enough to draw attention away from a cart full of gold.

“I’m getting the rabbit.”

“I can't believe it,” Flick said, shaking his head.

“I know,” Scar interrupted. “They actually got him. They're much better than the last crew. Good thing they weren't aiming at us.”

“Not the rabbit. I can't believe you,” said Flick as he pulled the driver off the cart and slid him behind a small mound and into a hole they had already dug. “We're stealing an entire cart of gold and you're worried about getting a rabbit.”

“No need to leave a perfectly good meal to waste,” Scar replied as he removed the arrow from the rabbit and deposited his lunch into the back of the wagon with the gold. Then he dragged both men from the back of the cart into the same hole in which Flick had hidden the driver. The two quickly covered the bodies with dirt and jogged back to the horse-drawn cart.

Flick moved to the driver’s seat and turned back to look at his friend who had also removed the satchel of provisions the lead visor had been carrying. Gesturing to the rabbit and the bag of food with an ironic expression on his face, he hopped onto the back of the cart.

“That’s why you’re the brains of the operation.” Flick said with a shake of his head. The two men chuckled as they moved the cart to the next destination.

Flick pulled up slightly on the reins when they arrived at a curve in the road that ended in a steep hill. He pressed the brake down and locked it in place, then got down out of the driver’s seat and started unhitching the horse.

“We’re a little behind schedule,” he said to Scar. “We need to get moving.” Flick made his best hawk call and waited for the response. A much more convincing hawk call was returned. “Good, they’re here.” Flick began to saddle the horse while Stash and Derft appeared from their concealed place in the trees. They were leading one mare for Flick and half a dozen pack horses for the Gold. “Did you count the gold bars?”

Scar looked at his feet. “I tried, but every time I got past eleventy I ran out of fingers, and then we hit a bump or the bars shifted, so I lost count.” Then he looked up happily and continued, “But I did count ten bars at least fifteen times so that means we have at least thirty-six bars.”

Cutting in before either Stash or Derft could overcome their amazement enough to comment on Scar’s stupidity, Flick made an announcement. “The horse is saddled…”

“Yippee!” Scar shouted. He ran to the horse, jumped on its back, and took off at a gallop before anyone could stop him.

Shaking his head, Flick began to help unload the gold from the cart onto the pack animals. After a couple of minutes he also jumped on his horse. “I'm just worried he'll get lost or say something to the wrong person. I'll give you some of my share for doing all the loading.” Then he was off as well.

“Wait!” Derft shouted, but his voice was drowned out by the galloping horse. Then to Stash, “What are we going to do now? We were supposed to wait till they helped us load the gold, then roll the cart down this hill with their bodies in it.”

“I know the plan. We'll just tell Dunkan that they're dead. He'll never know the difference, and we'll kill him as soon as we're safely past the edge of town anyway, so it won't matter.” The men quickly loaded the pack horses down with the gold and filled the cart with some heavy rocks. They then rolled the cart down the hill where it made some clear, deep tracks before disappearing off the edge of the cliff.

The two strongarms led the line of horses as quickly as they could to Dunkan, knowing that they were getting farther behind schedule.

Hiding up in a tree, P watched the men working and scheming. After they had moved out of sight and hearing, P lowered herself to her waiting mount and rode back down the path to keep an eye on her gold.

Dunkan was pounding down the grass as he paced back and forth by the side of a cart. Stash and Derft arrived and quickly jumped off their horses. Derft was the first to speak. “We were delayed in getting everything done.”

“I can see that,” Dunkan replied. “Is it all taken care of?”

“The cart fell on the rocks just like you said it would,” Stash said with a nod. Dunkan’s eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, as if he noticed how the men avoided directly answering the question, but he quickly recovered a straight face.

“Good. Let's get this loaded and get out of here before anyone figures out what we've done. By now someone has surely noticed that the gold is missing.” With that, Dunkan dismounted and began helping the two men load the cart with gold. When the gold was in the cart, they grabbed their shovels and covered it with a foot of soil. “Let’s go!” Dunkan sat in the driver’s seat with Derft at his side and Stash riding in the back. “Stash, keep your eyes open for anything unusual.”

When they began to move, a solid thud sounded as an arrow stuck squarely into the side of the cart.

“Ambush!” Stash called out.

Dunkan silently cursed under his breath. Instead of urging the horses into action, he pulled his knife from its sheath and jammed it into Derft’s heart while the large strongarm was turned around searching for the archer who had attacked them.

“What's going on?” Stash asked. Dunkan ignored him and just shoved Derft from the cart. Stash would never know the answer to his question as the second arrow from the woods found its target. “Get in, Com! We’re running very late.” Dunkan emphasized his words by waving his arm. Com jumped down from a tree and sat next to Dunkan on the front of the cart.

The two travelers, dressed in farmer's clothing, drew no attention as they passed through Kinstock, moving toward the gate at the far west side of town. They slipped a gold coin to the guard and passed through with no question. As they trotted passed the guard outpost building and around a bend, they shared a smile.