The three pulled their horses up a mile down the track where it divided into two, all lowering themselves down to the ground.
"We'll take to the cover of the trees," Athos suggested, having spotted the horse and human tracks that they had been following had wondered off to the right.
After a while, they found a small clearing to tie their horses up in and then continued on foot. Aramis lead the way, scanning up ahead while Porthos and Athos kept eyes around them.
Aramis suddenly stopped, holding a hand up and looking straight forward. His brothers froze behind him, trying to listen out for what Aramis had heard.
"Get down," Aramis said before crouching and then moving slowly forward.
They came to a small banking and silently climbed up to lay at the top in the leaves to look down at the Spanish camp.
"D'artagnan," they all mumbled when their eyes landed on him being pushed roughly against a tree outside one of the smaller tents in the camp.
Porthos and Aramis watched with their hearts in their throats, giving anything to be able to run down the banking and rescue their brother.
On the other hand, Athos was scanning the camp, trying to remember every detail of it and formulate a rescue plan in his mind. He looked at where the guards were station, how many of them there were, where they kept the horses and which tent was which. He spotted the Captain's tent a mile off, the largest of them all with the Spanish flag flying above it.
"We'll sneak into the camp at night, take out as many Spaniard's as we can and bring D'artagnan and the others back," Athos mumbled as he finally turned to look at D'artagnan and then the two other musketeers stood behind the Captain. He narrowed his eyes and recognised them as Duval and Beaumont.
"You want to take on all those men, Athos that's suicidal. We can't just charge at them," Aramis said, his concern for D'artagnan clouding his thoughts. Athos glanced over at him, seeing the pain for D'artagnan in Aramis' eyes but also how stupid Aramis thought his plan was.
"I didn't say we simply charge," Athos replied and Aramis let a small frown appear on his face before he clocked onto what Athos was suggesting.
A sneak act, take out as many as it took to get the musketeers back and quietly leave without catching any of the Spaniard's attention.
"You know it'll still probably get us killed," Porthos added, eyes scanning the camp and counting the number of soldiers surrounding the tents.
The odd were dramatically against them.
"That's part of the thrill my friend," Aramis said, clapping Porthos on the shoulder with a soft smile.
A cry of pain echoed through the trees, drawing their attention back towards where D'artagnan was being punched in the stomach. He doubled over and received another hit.
Aramis growled in frustration, losing his power to just stay there and went to stand. Both Athos and Porthos grabbed the man's arms to drag him back down, holding him firmly to the ground.
"You'll pay for this you bastard!" Beaumont shouted as he thrashed against the soldiers' hold on him.
"Aramis," Athos warned and the marksman let out the breath he had been holding before slumping back down.
Antonio simply turned away from D'artagnan to look at Beaumont. He said something out of ear shot for the three musketeers to hear but the glare on both Duval and Beaumont faces' didn't flatter.
Duval began to speak but was stop when Antonio punched the man in the face.
"Plan of attack? I can't sit here and watch them get beaten up," Aramis said, his hands balled into fists as he watched D'artagnan sink to the ground.
"We have to wait," Athos said, glancing up at the sky and seeing where the sun currently was. "We go in at night fall, better to stay undetected," he said.
His heart broke at the sight of D'artagnan, wanting to do something, anything to help him but knowing he couldn't if he wanted to save them all. He knew D'artagnan had more injuries under his clothes just from the way the musketeer didn't fight back but simply fell to the ground on his knees.
Athos' heart went into his throat when D'artagnan simply slumped forward onto all fours before falling flat on his face.
"He going to be alright," Porthos mumbled mostly to himself to try and reassure him but his words did no such thing.
D'artagnan was dragged off into the small tent along with Duval and Beaumont before the guards exited and stood stationed outside.
"At least we know where they are being held," Aramis said, clocking how many guards stood around or near the tent.
"It's a start," Athos simply said before backing back down the slope. Aramis and Porthos glanced at each other before following their Captain back down.
"At sundown we will have our brothers back," Athos said. "But first we need to get some rest," he said, looking at the state his brothers were in from limited sleep over the past few days and the long none stop ride they had done today.
They both seem reluctant to rest when they knew their brother was hurting, however the look Athos gave them had them nodding in agreement with him.
They headed back to their horses to 'rest', which in Aramis' terms was load and reload his weapons, Porthos' was to keep glancing up at the sun and the continue to chew his lip as he watched Aramis. For Athos, he paced, just as anxious as his brothers to get this whole thing over with.
He took his time to coordinate the plan but once he had, he replayed it to his brothers and by then, it was time to make their move.
Sorry that this chapter is a short one, but the next will be much longer. Thank you so much for the reviews, follows and favourites, they make my day. The three are sooo close now... ;)