Forged Destiny [Book 6: Ch. 7]

"How are Roman and the others doing, Blake?"

"Still on their way – several hours out, but definitely heading here. Cinder is maybe a day behind them still, probably a little less. Sixteen hours or so? It depends on whether they stop to rest or not."

Sixteen hours. It sounded like so long, but assuming Watts would have to camp for the night to recover, it might not be. If they took eight or ten hours for that, and Cinder chose to push on – likely, since she'd be able to see we'd engaged the enemy on her map – then they would catch up sometime early tomorrow morning.

The trick would be keeping Watts here.

"Yang, Nora, come help me with the cart. We're going to take almost all the food and water off and hide it somewhere we can camp. Sun, do you know a spot?"

"I know one. It's well-hidden, and the whole cart could fit in there if you wanted it to. There's no need to dump it."

"Yes, but then what will they drink?"

My words confused them, I could tell, but Ren's eyes slowly widened as he thought it through. "You want to give them reason to set up camp," he said, surprised, and if I dared admit it, maybe even a little impressed. No one else seemed to understand.

"Mind explaining it to us idiots?" Yang drawled.

"It's rather simple when you think of it," Ren said, taking the lead. "If Watts, Roman and Neo come here and are without supplies, then they will be forced to move on in search of victims. They might even dump their dead weight, which would be bad for us as we need Roman alive and well to give evidence as to the Greycloaks starting the war."

"Ah," Pyrrha caught on and nodded. "So, we're going to fake a ruined caravan and leave some supplies behind, which they will find. Enough for them to feel safe enough to set up camp for the night and recover their strength."

—Forged Destiny [Book 6: Ch. 7]