Page 47 of Heartless Enemy
Though, the thought of an old goat happily gallivanting through the woods and munching freely on grass did bring an unexpected smile to my face. I hid it by wiping a hand over my mouth.
“Ah.” She waved her hand in front of her face, as if it was no matter. “He’ll come trotting back again once he misses the cozy campfires.”
Both Levi and I nodded as if we thoroughly believed that too.
“Well, safe travels,” she said, and moved as if to start pulling her cart again.
“Oh, actually,” I blurted out, pulling my horse to a halt before I could ride past. Turning in the saddle, I met the old woman’s surprisingly sharp blue eyes. “We’re on our way to Helmark, but we heard that there’s supposed to be a castle somewhere around here too.”
A guarded expression blew across the old woman’s face, as if she was worried that we might be Christian White’s spies or something, out to trap her. “Aye, Helspire.”
“Yes, that’s the one. We’ve heard that it’s apparently stunning inside, so I was just wondering if you knew if it’s possible to go inside? Just for a peek?”
She vehemently shook her head. “No. No, no, no.”
“Oh, is there security?”
“Yes. Well, a little. But it’s not that. It’s more…” She cast a worried look over her shoulder, as if to make sure that White hadn’t materialized behind her. “No one is welcome there unless by prior invitation.”
“I see. And how do we get that?”
“You don’t. Take my advice, and stay far away from that place. It may look mostly unguarded, but that’s because no one is stupid enough to try to get inside.”
“But—”
“Excuse me, I need to go and find Herbert,” she interrupted. Grabbing the handle of her cart, she quickly hurried away while casting looks over her shoulder.
The cart rattled as she disappeared down the road.
From the horse next to me, Levi turned and arched an eyebrow in silent question.
“Now we know that there aren’t a lot of guards,” I explained.
He let out an amused breath. “Sneaky. But how do you know she won’t report us to White’s people?”
“The look in her eyes. She’s a woman who knows the value of secrets, and who doesn’t just go around spilling it to anyone.” I flashed him a grin as I urged my horse on. “And besides, by the time she could make it all the way to Helspire on foot, we will already have been there and left again.”
Levi nudged his horse into motion as well. “Sometimes I forget how clever you are.”
Scoffing, I was just about to retort when I noticed that Levi had turned his horse, along with our third horse, off the road and was riding straight into the woods.
“Uhm, where are you going?” I asked.
“Helspire,” he said over his shoulder. “We’ll approach it from the back.”
“Why?”
“Because now, we know that there isn’t a lot of security.” He grinned at me as I hurried to catch up with him. “Which means no perimeter scouts in the forest.”
Chapter19
Leaves crunched underneath our bodies as Eve and I crawled up to the edge of the small hill and looked down at the castle on the other side. The gnarled trees that had been covering our approach ended halfway up this little hill, so if we were to stand on it, we would be easily spotted against the gray sky behind. Which was why we were crawling across the cold ground instead.
“The old lady really was right,” I mused as I swept my gaze over the landscape before us. “No perimeter guards and no lookouts on the walls.”
“Yes, well…” Eve said dryly. “She kind of forgot to mention the moat.”
Below the small incline was a short stretch of flat grass. Then it dropped off. Abruptly. The grass turned into a straight rock wall that plummeted down to a wide river below. On the other side, the same smooth rock wall led up to a narrow patch of grass before the defensive wall that circled the castle. Based on the perfect shape of it, the moat had no doubt been created with the help of a stone mage.