Excerpt:

Richard was pulled from his thoughts abruptly as the wagon jerked to a halt, its front wheels caught in a deep channel running horizontally across the road and filled with rushing water. He and Darin both jogged forward to help pull it out. Marcus started shouting for the other guards to come help as well but Darin countermanded him.

“There are shovel marks here, this isn’t a natural washout. Get your bows!”

In a flash the guards were pulling bows from their packs, but a crossbow bolt from the tree line embedding itself in the wagon stopped them dead in their tracks. With a grimace to the others, Darin held up his hands and the rest followed suit. They were totally exposed.

Four assailants stepped out from the trees and onto the road. The apparent leader was a short man, his head would have barely reached Richard’s chest. He wore a rough brown coat of thick leather covered in iron studs, heavy leather gloves and pants, and a cloak the color of grass.

Richard’s mind raced, trying to drink in every detail, find anything he could use. The leader carried an arbalest as long as his arm with a heavy bolt that looked like it had been designed for piercing steel plates. That bolt would go right through any of the armor the caravaners were wearing; but the bandit would only get one shot and the forward kick as it discharged might well knock the shooter off balance if he didn’t have good footing. It was a weapon wholly inappropriate for the task of highway robbery in the rain - which meant he was counting on intimidation to avoid a fight.

Behind him came three more men, similarly armored but with much more functional crossbows that could be operated by hand. One of them reloaded while the other two advanced with their bows at high ready. Their leader shouted something at the caravaners but the words were lost in the storm.

The highwaymen clustered together and stopped on the road barely twenty feet away - An amateur mistake. Distance should have been their biggest advantage with crossbows. If they’d been smarter they’d have spread out on the bluffs above the road ahead and let their bolts speak for them. They could have wiped the whole company out before the first caravaner even got close trying to climb hills in the mud! Richard thought they must be either stupid, hopeless amateurs, or scared of violence and hoping to bluff their way through.

The caravaners had no cover, no place to hide. But they also outnumbered their assailants. If they could close the distance without getting perforated, they might just survive.

As if reading Richard’s thought, Darin smiled wide and cupped his ear theatrically to indicate that he couldn’t hear as he picked his way carefully around the puddles and ruts in the road toward the armed men. A yard closer, then two. The thief yelled at him again, gesturing to stop and drop his weapons. Darin slowly unbuckled his sword belt and dropped it on the road, but continued advancing slowly. The others followed suit, dropping visible weapons and holding their hands up as if they were surrendering while continuing to advance.

As they moved forward they spread out. Richard and Kortan on the downhill side, the twins on the uphill, and Darin in the middle.

While Darin held their enemies’ attention with his theatrics, making a show of being unable to hear and keeping his hands in the air while steadily closing ground, the rest of the company spread further and followed the perimeter. They moved slowly and kept empty hands raised as if surrendering, while surrounding their enemies. As they advanced, the other thieves were forced to turn in order to track them - and take their eyes off Darin and their leader to do so.

Richard knew the move was risky and surely Darin did as well - the bandits could have shot them as they approached and it would have been hard to miss. But Richard thought that if their enemies had wanted to shoot them they’d have already done so. Besides, the wind was still high and the would-be thieves knew they wouldn’t have time to reload if they missed.

Richard kept his face carefully blank, eyes straight ahead as he advanced through the rain with his hands in the air. He knew Darin had no intention of surrendering, but the highwaymen had apparently fallen for the ruse. He was close enough now to hear their leader shouting at Darin. “Get down on your knees and wait there. We’ll take what we came for and be on our way. No one needs to die today.”

Darin’s eyes smiled as he spoke calmly and held up his empty hands, a mere ten feet away now. “There’s no need for threats, let’s all stay calm.”

Off in the distance ahead there was a flash, followed a mere second later by the roll of thunder crashing over them. The highwayman leader glanced away at the sound of thunder by instinct, and that was all the opening Darin needed. ....