Crow settled down next to Penelope with a sigh when they reached the spot in the corner of the room that he had indicated to her. Leaning back against the wall, he sat with his legs crossed and his plate resting on his lap. It wasn’t long before the other knights joined them, and he lowered his gaze slightly to avoid making eye contact with Gavin. Even though it seemed like he had fooled the knight for now, he didn’t want to say or do anything that would set him off and ruin all the hard work he had put into gaining at least some of his trust.
So, when the knights began discussing what their plan would be when they got back to their camp, he stayed quiet. There wasn’t much for him to say, anyway. Not being a knight nor a noble of any sort, he had no input on how they should approach their barons with the news of their trip to Aramoor. The way he would have handled it would have been through lying, but he knew Gavin would never approve of that, let alone humor it as an option. Instead, he sat back and ate his dinner in silence, listening to them discuss the problem on their own.
However, he did look up when he heard Penelope admit to her former suitor that she planned to exaggerate their lead to Wheldrake. Curious to see Gavin’s reaction to her plan, his eyes wandered to the knight so he could study his face. The man looked like he disapproved of her idea, but he seemed more resigned to it than usual. Crow bit his tongue to keep from smirking. After being dragged along in their deceptive schemes throughout the whole mission, it seemed that Gavin was finally coming to terms with their methods of doing things.
As the knight stated confidently that they probably wouldn’t need to go to Wheldrake, Crow shrugged. “Perhaps not,” he said, meeting Gavin’s gaze. He had caught the man’s subtle glance towards him, and decided it was worthwhile to speak up now. “Who knows? Maybe another patrol really did manage to find their trail.” He popped another bite of food into his mouth, chewed slowly, and swallowed before adding. “But I wouldn’t put any money on it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Gavin narrowed his eyes.
“Jaxon’s group is slippery,” the thief explained simply. “They’re good at covering their tracks, and they kill anyone whom they believe will sell out their location. There’s never a clear trail to follow, and with no living people to give away exactly where they are, I doubt any of the other knights in your camp would have caught even a trace of them.”
“Our comrades are not incompetent,” Gavin growled, clearly displeased with the thief’s response. “We’ve all caught criminals before. Besides, I’m certain you’ve learned from experience that it’s only a matter of time before you thieves make a mistake. When that happens, we’ll have the real culprits in chains.”
“I’ll admit, I did make a mistake once,” Crow rolled his eyes, ignoring the knight’s obvious undertone that he was the one behind the raid. “But that’s not something you can count on.” He set his now-empty plate aside and folded his arms over his chest, shooting the other man a cocky grin. “I’ve been stealing for almost twenty years, and in all that time, I’ve only been arrested once. Slip ups do happen, I won’t deny that, but any skilled thief—of which Jaxon is one—can recover from almost anything before it causes any real trouble. If you wait around for him to make a mistake or for your comrades to stumble upon his camp accidentally, you might as well kiss the rest of your supplies goodbye.”
“The thieves aren’t going to get anything else from us,” Gavin argued confidently. “Now that everyone is on high alert, they’ll be caught the moment they set foot in our camp.”
“Right,” Crow drawled. “Because alertness is enough to stop a group of merciless killers from getting what they want. Be sure to tell me how that goes the next time they bleed your camp dry.”
Gavin clenched his jaw, seething from the thief’s pessimistic words. However, he couldn’t seem to think of anything else to add, so instead, he averted his gaze, muttering, “It won’t happen again.”
Crow exhaled softly. He hoped the knight would at least consider what he had said. Even though he despised the knights in their battalion, he didn’t want to see them get trampled by Younis because of Jaxon’s raids. For the sake of Penelope’s safety, they needed to put a stop to the band of thieves before their attacks started to impact Brerra’s performance in the war.
Having finished his argument with Gavin for now, he turned to look at Penelope. “If you need an excuse to convince your barons to let you go to Wheldrake, you can always use me as a scapegoat,” he offered her a smile. “They think they’re looking for me anyway, so you could tell them that you saw me heading towards that village or something like that.”
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