Eduard waited behind the tree at the side of the trail, slingshot in his hand.
They had noticed a very nice carriage riding down the path to Ivrark earlier, which Natalya had recognized as being from the royal palace in Tark. Knowing that it would be taking this same path back to Tark a few hours later, they had set up the ambush for it in the middle of the forest.
The princess had only been with them for a week, but the band of dwarfs were able to quickly figure out her strengths and weaknesses. It turned out she had some basic training with a sword as a child, so she wasn't completely lacking in fighting experience. She was also very intelligent, and quickly picked up on their lessons on how to deceive their targets into dropping their guard. With Tino's help, Natalya had already raided their supply of stolen clothing, and found herself a suitable vagabond outfit to replace the nightdress she left Tark with.
A familiar fake bird call sounded above him a short way ahead of him on the path, followed by another quickly after. Recognizing the signals from Emil and Raivis in their trees, Eduard knew for certain the carriage was coming. Eduard stretched out the slingshot in his arms, preparing to quickly turn and shoot, just in time to hear a pair of horses neighing.
Staying against the tree, Eduard leaned to look out at the road and saw the carriage approaching. As they had noticed earlier, there was only one guard at front steering the horses, which worked beautifully for them. Eduard raised his arms to raise the slingshot, quickly aimed for the target, and let the slingshot loose.
It was a perfect hit. The rock struck the driver directly in the forehead, knocking them sideways and off the carriage.
Eduard quickly backed away from the road as the carriage rushed past his tree, the horses now running straight ahead with nobody to guide them. His eyes followed the carriage through to the next clearing, where Lukas and Mikkel burst from their own hiding places behind the next set of trees. They used the momentum of their stilts to quickly hop onto the backs of the two horses, disappearing from Eduard's sight past the carriage.
Raivis and Emil suddenly ran past him on their stilts, having descended their trees from the start of the ambush. Eduard followed their lead and started running after the carriage. As they ran, Lukas and Mikkel rode the horses off to the side of the road, having cut them loose from the carriage, and led them away to where Natalya was waiting.
The carriage continued careening straight into the next clearing and into the large pile of boulders at the end of it. Waiting atop the boulders were Berwald and Tino, who immediately split off to avoid getting hit by anything that might fly off. Once the carriage had completely stopped, Berwald and Tino climbed on and opened the doors to see who was inside.
As Eduard entered the clearing with Raivis and Emil, they saw Tino make space on the left side of the crashed carriage, allowing Berwald to push the passenger out of the cabin. A man in nice clothing, with his black hair tied behind him, fell three feet to the ground where the dwarfs immediately surrounded him.
"What do we have here?" Lukas inspected as he and Mikkel came around to their side of the carriage.
"Looks like a noble to me," Raivis observed, "Are you a noble?"
"No, no, not a noble," the man groaned, "Just a humble servant."
"You're riding in a noble carriage," Mikkel pointed out.
"This is just a rental," the man dismissed.
"You're wearing noble garments," Tino examined.
"These tired old rags?" the man scoffed, "You boys have got to get out of the woods more often."
As the man attempted to downplay himself, Eduard saw Berwald emerge from the carriage cabin, a bag in his hands.
"What did you find, Berwald," Eduard asked, "What's in the sack?"
"Oh, that's just my lunch," the man deflected nervously.
"Sweet, I'm famished," Emil commented, "What's the grub?"
They all watched as Berwald opened the bag and looked inside it, a surprised look on his face. He said nothing, only giving a smirk as he reached in and pulled out a handful of coins. Next to him, Tino leaned over to look as well to confirm.
"Is that all coins?" Tino detected, "Boys, we struck it rich!"
Mikkel was the first to start laughing as they all started to cheer.
"Give that back to me," the man demanded, rising to his feet, "That money belongs to the Queen!"
They paused their cheering momentarily, pulled out their swords, and pointed them at the man.
"Don't spend it all in one place," the man advised, raising his hands in surrender.
Eduard chuckled with the others as they lowered their swords, Lukas and Raivis pushing the man a few steps further from the carriage. As they relaxed a bit, Natalya came around the carriage to join them.
"I have the horses tied up," Natalya reported before looking at the man in shock, "Yao?"
"Your Highness," the man suddenly blurted, "What are you doing here? Why are you still so close to Tark?"
"What's this about, Natalya?" Mikkel asked, "Do you know this guy?"
"Yao is the head servant at the palace in Tark," Natalya identified, "What are you doing out here in the woods?"
"I'm just riding back from Ivrark," Yao explained, pointing at the sack, "That money is the royal taxes I just collected."
"The royal taxes?" Emil cheered, "We're rich, and we get to piss off the Queen as well!"
As they celebrated, Eduard noticed the stern look on Natalya's face as she walked over to the carriage and faced Berwald and held her hand out for the sack.
"Hand it over now," Natalya commanded, "That is not ours to keep, it needs to be returned to the people of Ivrark."
"What?" Tino wailed, "You can't be serious!"
"That is the people's money we're stealing," Natalya justified, "It doesn't matter that the Queen was taking it first. The people are starving, it's unfair to be stealing this from innocent families. Returning this gold to them will also earn you men the respect of the villagers, perhaps even acceptance to join them again."
"So what then?" Lukas protested, "You're making us walk away from this without anything to show for it!"
"This is the only thing we're not keeping," Natalya amended, "You can search the carriage and Yao for anything of interest, and we're already taking the horses. But we explicitly agreed that whatever we take from Erzsébet should go back to the people, and this is the perfect thing to return to them."
A moment of silence followed as Lukas glared at Natalya, only for her to resiliently stare right back at him.
"If I may provide some advice," Yao intervened, "I've known the Princess for many years, and the only person who's ever stood a chance against her in a staredown is the Queen. You're better off doing as she says, and returning the money to Ivrark."
"We've also known Lukas for years," Berwald countered, "He's always been stubborn as a mule."
"Yeah, but he's losing this one," Mikkel conceded, "We'll take what we can from Yao and the carriage, then Natalya can lead us into Ivrark to pass along the money."
"Fine," Lukas groaned, breaking off the staring contest and moving to the carriage, "Let's see if there's anything worth it in here."
"One more thing, Yao," Natalya addressed, "Erzsébet cannot know I'm alive, you hear me?"
"My lips are sealed, Princess."