Savage by Robyn Wideman Page A

Another couple men, who normally traveled at the time were staying home. Fear had all of the prince’s associates staying close to home.
    So Bazur and Kyra headed into the badlands the evening before Mauri Planche, and his mercenaries were scheduled to leave. They stopped halfway between Draisha and Pera for the evening. Bazur built a fire while Kyra stretched out on the desert sands. She was in good physical condition, but not as accustomed to walking the badlands like Bazur was.
    When the fire was built, Bazur crouched down on his haunches beside Kyra.
    “Okay partner, I did my part and figured out the who and the when, now it’s up to you to figure out the where. You know the badlands as well as anyone. Where do you think the attack will come?” asked Kyra.
    Kyra was right. It was her research that had gotten them this far, and he knew that she’d be asking him that question. Ever since they found out that Mauri Planche was indeed intending to cross the badlands, Bazur had been contemplating how the previous attacks had happened and how he thought the next one would be. “Whoever is behind the attack has military experience. They’ve used high ground or places with cover to hide large forces and attacked from hidden dugouts on ground one wouldn’t expect to be attacked from. The bandits also have always attacked in areas that had easy escape routes, and where they were far enough away from anyone who could help the caravans.”
    “So they are smart,” said Kyra.
    “Very,” replied Bazur. “However, since we know the size of Mauri’s group of mercenaries we can surmise that the bandits will attack with an equal or larger number of warriors. That will require a large amount of cover for an ambush. It greatly limits the number of places where they can attack.” Bazur grabbed a stick and started drawing a map in the sand. “It isn’t likely that they would make the attack too close to Draisha. They wouldn’t want to risk a large force of royal soldiers being close enough to make chase. There are normally patrols between Draisha and Pera. So the attack is most likely to come after Mauri and his men have passed Pera and moved north towards the Westmere watering hole. The trail to Westmere is mostly flat through occasional dunes, decent cover but not enough for a large force to hide. From Westmere to the Oclesh border is much rougher land. You could hide an army in the small canyons out there.” Bazur drew the watering hole and the Oclesh border and drew a big circle around the area between the two. “This is where they will attack.”
    Kyra scratched her head then waved her hand at his makeshift map. “That does narrow it down a lot, but what do we do about it?”
    That was another problem that Bazur had been sorting through in his mind. He didn’t want to put Kyra in harm’s way, but they needed to find out more about the attackers, and in order to do that they needed to be close. He put his stick down on the ground marking a spot. “Here, there is a rock formation, the Devil’s Arm, that has a higher elevation than any other point between the watering hole at Westmere and the border. The main trail, the one I suspect Mauri and his men will be following, goes right beneath the rock tower. From this point, we can observe the entire trek from the watering hole into Oclesh land.”
    Kyra frowned. “The Devil’s arm? That doesn’t sound ominous at all. You want to watch the attack? Are we going to try to stop it?”
    “I don’t know that we can stop it. If the opportunity arises, I’ll join the fight. But watching the attack will give us more knowledge about the attackers. We can track them down and see where they go after the attack. I’m not going to die because Mauri Planche is a pompus fool.”
    “Good. I’d rather you didn’t die as well. You’d be hard to replace,” said Kyra with a wink.
    Bazur chuckled. “You are just being cheap. You don’t want to have to pay another warrior or two to