Jez

A week later, the King’s Company was suiting up, all twenty-three men and the eleven boys - well, ten boys and one undercover girl. A medium sized group of bandits was plaguing the border towns, and it was thought that the trainees of Sir Kenneth’s needed a test, of sorts. They would be paired with a knight apiece and stand watch all night. There would be three groups of three, paired with a knight apiece, and three extra knights. They would be at three separate villages. Then there was a group of two trainees, also paired with a knight apiece, and also three more knights, this whole group of whom would be at another village entirely.

As it was one man shorter, the higher picks out of the trainees - that is to say, Evan and Jez - were placed in this group, but Sir Kenneth was not because of his parental status to Evan, and kind of to Jez. So Jez was paired, instead, with the father of Don, and Evan paired with a man named Orwin. The three other knights to accompany them would be Sir Marcus, third in command of the whole King’s Company, Sir Brennan, and Sir Paris.

For a ways, the whole Company rode together, before first the group that Don was in, with a boy named Wesley and a boy named Isaac, split off to go to the village of Myragard. Next, an hour later, a group containing the boys Harold, Jameson, and Brian branched off to go to Cedar Bough, an even smaller village than Myragard. The third group to split from the original contained Jez and Evan, the group continuing on involving Juan, Sherman, and Kirtan, along with Sir Kenneth.

For three more hours, Jez’s group rode through dense trees. The town they were to watch over for the week was in the woods - which, Jez thought, probably meant it to be more susceptible to bandit attacks than those out in the open - and slightly larger than the village of Myragard. The largest town of the four that the King’s Company was going to was the last, Port Reginald, where Sir Kenneth’s group was headed.

When they finally reached Synderwood (which, Jez decided, wasn’t a very good name for a town in a forest, as synder sounded awfully close to cinder), they were greeted with enthusiasm from the populace of around sixty people. Two homes and a barn had been destroyed by the bandits just the night before, so the village elder predicted that the next attack would not be that very night, but the next, as attacks had been occurring every other night. Jez couldn’t help but think it was kind of foolish to fall into the bandits’ pattern, because before the villagers knew it, they’d change it up and the village would be completely unprepared. She leaned over and whispered as much to Evan while the older knights conversed with the elders.

“I agree,” Evan murmured back, scanning the trees nearby warily. “I don’t feel comfortable standing out in the open like this - the bandits will already know we’re here.”

“We’ll just see what happens,” Jez decided, glancing around before following the now moving knights. “We’ll probably be put on guard tonight, anyway. Just in case. You know how things are - it’s part of the whole thing. We’re supposed to be ready at a moment’s notice, even in the middle of the night on very little or no sleep.”

Evan nodded his agreement, falling in step with Jez as they went to join their beckoning chaperones.

Sir Reagan, Don’s father, put a hand on Jez’s shoulder as she stepped beside him and Evan stepped beside Sir Orwin. Sir Marcus, however, was the one who had beckoned, and the one who puffed up and got ready to speak.

“The situation should be at nothing tonight,” he told them confidently, “so we’re going to have to two of you on watch alone. Any little sound, and you alert Sir Paris, who will be awake with Sir Orwin and Sir Reagan here at the meeting hall, immediately. Only one of you needs to leave your post for that task.”

“We’re not going to leave the post empty when we hear a sound, Sir,” Evan said, in a kind of smartass tone. “Even a person alone would know to call out to another and not move.”

“Besides,” Jez jumped in, throwing a warning glance at her partner, who realized the tone he must have had and flushed lightly, “we’re the higher seeds in the trainees, right? If it comes to it, the one of us still at the gate will be able to handle the situation for a few moments, until the other gets back with Sir Paris, or all three of you. We haven’t been trained, or put in the smallest of the groups, for nothing, Sir Marcus.”

The man examined her with a calculating gaze, and turned away, looking out across the darkening village as lamps and candles were lit in homes.

“I don’t doubt that the two of you are intelligent, or at least have common sense,” the knight said, turning and looking down another small street, “but I do doubt that the thieves would keep to their schedule, especially since they probably saw us on the road. They’re going to expect us to be unprepared, and I’m afraid they’ll strike tonight. For all the training the two of you have done, for how good you are…I’m just not sure. Evan, when angered, some of your attacks are predictable and Jez, for a knight…you’re just small. And you’re one of the youngest.”

“They’ll underestimate me that way,” Jez said before Evan could even open his mouth to argue his own point. “I’m also light on my feet, and agile. They won’t expect that, and it will catch them off guard. And the only reason Evan ever gets angry is because I tell him he’s got a girl’s arm, and I wouldn’t do that in a real battle. We’ll be perfectly fine.”

“Jez,” Sir Brennan spoke up, “we don’t doubt you. We just want you to be cautious and use discretion on watch tonight. Any suspicious sound, go tell Paris. We don’t want any mishaps on your first assignment. It might take your chances of making the company down.”

My chances are zilch already, Jez refrained from voicing.

“We understand,” Evan regained his composure. “We will do all in our power to protect these people. It’s our duty - or could one day be our duty. We won’t shirk from the responsibility, and we won’t fail you.”

The knights were not entirely convinced, but let it fly, and began to explain the procedure and such for guard duty at night.

“You must rely on hearing more than sight,” Orwin explained the obvious. “At night, it is difficult to see anything, let alone clearly understand what it is you see. Be sure you don’t mistake a tree for a person in the night and alert us for nothing.”

“Nocturnal creatures wake at night,” yet another obvious explanation but from Brennan this time, “so be sure you do not mistake their sounds for hunting calls, or some such nonsense like that. Any sound, like a stick breaking, and you listen harder.”

“No one can move without making a sound. The villagers might not be able to tell the bandits from the other night sounds, but just listen. You train your ears well enough, and you’ll know whether or not you’re hearing a person, or a beast. Listen for the breathing - rough, ragged, but consciously lowered? You’re dealing with a person who doesn’t want to be caught. But if it’s ragged and not being restricted, you’re most likely dealing with a night creature searching for its next meal,” Sir Paris gave the more helpful information. Sir Marcus was off conversing with the elders once more.

Finally, it was time for Jez and Evan to take their posts on either side of the gate. The entire village of Synderwood was surrounded by a wooden wall, and so they thought the bandits were entering silently through the gate.

Jez didn’t believe it for a minute. And again, she told Evan just as much. This time, he wasn’t so sure.

“How can they be getting through the gates when there has been a watch every night?” Jez protested quietly as they walked toward the gate. “I think they’re jumping from the trees to the wooden walkway around the inside of the walls. Or they’ve made a way through them.”

“Jez,” Evan sighed softly, glancing around, “even if it’s possible, I don’t think the village is so stupid to have left that option uncovered.”

“Maybe they didn’t think it was possible!” the girl in disguise tried entreating her friend. “Perhaps they thought the nearest branches were too far away, but I know bandits, Evan! They don’t look like much, but if they’re woodlands bandits, they can do a whole bunch of things that normally wouldn’t be considered possible!”

The girl stopped and closed her eyes, fighting back the rise of roiling memories that always tried to fight free.

“Jez, I-” Evan said weakly, touching his companion’s arm. She pulled it from his comforting touch.

“Just…please, let me walk around the walls every once in a while. To check the perimeter of the village, just in case. Please, Evan.”

Glancing around, Evan grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the gates, and lowly he told her, “Once an hour, understand? And don’t take too long, because I don’t want them checking on me. And if you’re right, and you run into them, shout for me and I’ll come help.”

“No,” Jez shook her head, “you’ll need to go get Sir Paris. Remember?”

He grimaced, but grudgingly nodded. The flash of emotion in his eyes, nearly hidden in the dark, was unbridled uncertainty. Jez could see that he understood her reasoning, and that he saw truth in the possibility, but he didn’t want to stray from the rules set for them by the other more experienced knights. Evan, Jez knew, was a proud person, and more than able to think and act for himself, but he looked up to his father more than any other man. He wanted to be like his father; someday, Jez knew, he dreamed to be in the position his father was in now. Evan didn’t want to go against the Company’s set rules, against the establishment per se, but he was kind hearted and knew pieces of her past.

“Promise me one thing,” he said as they prepared to ascend the steps to the wall.

“Yeah?” Jez asked, one foot already resting on the bottom stair.

“If you do run into them, don’t die on me.”

Jez snorted at the elder boy, who had started walking past her as he let his statement fall. To his retreating back, as she started up the stairs, Jez asked him, “Who do you think I am, Rodelle?”

The blonde boy snorted in response, shaking his head as he reached the top of the stairs and gazed out across the wooden darkness.