Chapter 30

They arrived about a mile away from Rathara just as the twin suns began melting into the horizon. Gypsy sat in a clearing with Gavin, Desmond and Trajan going over the last-minute attack plans and she had to admit, she was nervous. It wasn’t the fear of death or injury that made her jumpy but the awful knowledge that they were minutes away from finding out the fate of her mother. Their own numbers had also dwindled since they had embarked on the rescue mission. When they surveyed the destruction at Sanguar, Desmond had given Gavin an estimate that forty to forty-five men had participated in the attack. With their initial party of twenty-nine seasoned fighters they were pretty evenly matched. Now they were down to only nineteen and that gave her pause, even more so because they were on foreign soil. This being her first real field fight she really wasn’t sure what to expect. For his part, her father was calmer than she’d seen him in days and seemed to know the outcome of the battle already. In fact he acted as though the impending fight was nothing more than a minor inconvenience that distracted him from his true purpose. At least he was feeling better and that gave her an immeasurable amount of comfort. It was the first time since they’d left the empire that she felt as though she didn’t have to worry about him.

Gavin squinted at her through the building darkness. “Repeat your attack plan,” he said. He’d been making her go over it and over it to make sure everyone not only knew what they were supposed to do, but what the other combatants were going to be doing. There was a time a few short years ago when she would have given him some sarcastic answer thinking he didn’t trust her to remember. But now she knew why he did things and it made all the difference. She repeated the plan and listened one more time as Desmond repeated his and then Trajan his.

Satisfied that everyone knew their place, Gavin mounted up. Scarlet came over and stood by his hyperia, absently stroking the soft black flesh of its muzzle. “What am I supposed to do?” she said.

“You, my dear doctor, will stay here until we come back and get you. Harlan may very well be hurt and I can’t risk you getting killed,” he said.

Scarlet nodded, clearly unhappy with the idea of staying behind. She walked over to the small campfire and sat down cross-legged on the ground, staring into the flames. Gavin dismounted and came over to her. She looked up at him and draped a lock of red hair behind her ear. “I have something for you,” he said in a low confidential tone that only Gypsy could hear. He crouched down by her and handed her Harlan’s gun.

“But I thought…” she said awkwardly.

“I know,” Gavin said, returning to his mount. “But these are difficult times and you need some protection. I can’t afford to leave anyone here with you as we are already outnumbered.” He stared off into the forest as if he could see the future and didn’t like it one bit. “I never gave that to you.”

Scarlet nodded and pushed the weapon down into her pants pocket and out of sight. “Good luck, General.”

“Thank you, my dear, but I don’t need luck,” he said in a voice laced with cold doom. “I have experience, lots of experience in carnage.”