However, it seemed that either the insider information that the bandit had brought was not accurate, or the caravan had decided not to return at all. Not that he had even been told that there was a caravan there, but it seemed likely with the way they all had been hiding in the forest for the past few days. Either way, it was their fourth day hiding here, and by now their food supplies were already running low, which meant he barely got anything to eat while the deputy and Nokozal nearly had a feast every day after it got dark.
Coming back to the present, Joric looked around him for a moment, while moving a hand over his recently cropped black hair which one of the other clay miners had done when he had asked to make them shorter. The sun was already approaching the top of the trees in the west, so it seemed like today would also be a waste. For the bandits anyway. As for him, he just wished he wouldn’t have to fight. Not that he really could, since he hadn’t been given any weapons by the bandits. Just how were they expecting him to fight the guards anyway?
Suddenly, he heard his name being called out from nearby. Turning around, he saw the bald deputy beckoning him towards where the horses had been tied further inside the forests. Giving a nod, he jogged towards them, being glad that at least his hands were not tied now and saw that Nokozal the giant was also present there.
“Our informer in Kirnos had told us that a caravan was already present there,” the heavily scarred deputy explained, “and that it would take a few days for them to return. I think they would approach this place either today or tomorrow. Now here is what you are going to do. When our scout in the west sees a caravan coming on the road, he will give a long whistle followed by two short whistles. That’s the signal for you to walk to the road, pretending that you were injured.”
“But why?” Joric frowned, his heart starting to beat faster after hearing that he was being sent to face the caravan guards from up close. “I’m not injured…”
“Just shut up and listen,” Nokozal growled, “or I’ll make it such that you don’t have to pretend it!”
Joric gulped and gave an uncertain nod. “I’ll do as you say, but why did you even bring me here for this? One of you could have done this much better than me without getting scared! I might just wet myself in fear doing this…”
The deputy tilted his head. “That is kind of the point…” He added, “Have you not seen the other men we brought with us? None of them looks like a farm owner who would be stranded on a road. They are all brutes, and they look the part. They can’t act like a rich farmer if their life depended on it!” He jerked his head towards Nokozal. “Nobody would confuse this giant for a farmer, and I have more scars on my body than I can count. If one of us tries that, the caravan guards will easily find out that it’s an ambush and will be prepared for us. That’s the reason we brought you here.”
Joric just gave a quiet nod while looking at his muddy feet and clothes. “I don’t think the wagon guards will think that I am a rich farm owner…”
“Who else but a rich farmer would own a horse!” the bald deputy answered before glaring at him. “Now stop asking stupid questions and just listen!” He continued, “You will go to ask for help from the coming wagons, and tell them that you had come out from Kirnos to visit your farm nearby, but your horse broke its leg on a pothole in the road, so after putting it out of its misery in the forest, you need someone to give you a ride to Kirnos.”
Joric frowned. “Wouldn’t the wagons be going away from Kirnos? I don’t think they would agree to turn around just to take me back there…”
“That’s not the point, and you aren’t actually going to take a ride with them!” The deputy glared at him. “Your task is to ask them what they are carrying and where, like you are just making some small talk, so you can find out if their wagons have a good amount of food in them or not. If they tell you that even one of their wagons is full of food – either wheat or smoked fish – then you will raise both of your hands above and stretch them for a good time while interlocking them. That will be our signal to start the attack.”
Joric knew that this was going to put him right in the middle of armed swordsmen trying to kill each other, and it was already making him feel more nervous than he had ever felt in his life, but he knew this was no time to mention that, especially with that giant Nokozal standing right in front of him. “What if they aren’t carrying any food? What if the wagons are empty, or if they are carrying something other than food?”
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“In that case you will just say that you wish they were going towards Kirnos, but you can’t ask them to turn around just for yourself.” The deputy added, “That should satisfy the wagon guards and the merchant leading them, and they will just move on while leaving you behind. You will sit on the side of the road for a while until the wagons are out of sight, before returning to us.”
“If you even think of running away at that time…” Nokozal barked, “I’ll make sure you can’t run away ever again.”
Ignoring the giant, the deputy continued, “While we were lucky to arrive when we did, since a caravan had just entered Kirnos when we passed the village, our informer had told us that at that time the wagons were still full of coal. But he had recognised a few men as the same ones who had arrived there around a month ago, and they had carried half a wagon of smoked fish before leaving. I believe they should be buying the same this time as well, so it’s unlikely that the wagons wouldn’t be carrying any food at all, but we need to be sure about it before attacking, since Chief Torhan doesn’t want to risk his men for nothing.”
Joric took a moment to think about his task. He knew that he had no other choice than to follow their orders so he could continue living at the clay mine with all his limbs intact, but this was going to be the closest he had come in his life to a group of people trying to kill each other, and that was something which was already making him jittery.
What if the wagons weren’t carrying any food but the bandits didn’t believe his words later on and punished him anyway? What if the caravan was carrying food but the merchant was smart enough not to open his mouth about it? What would he do then? What if the guards recognised what he was trying to do and killed him right there?
He didn’t want to die yet, dammit! He wanted to see his family again instead of following these bastards who were sending him to die!
Another bandit who was listening from nearby, walked over to them. “How long are we supposed to keep waiting here, boss? All the bread we had brought with us is gone now. Who even knows if that caravan is even coming…”
“Shut up!” Nokozal barked. “We’ll stay here as long as we need to, even if we have to hunt for food or stay hungry. I’m not returning to that crazy bastard Torhan with an empty hand or it will be our hides!”
The bandit grumbled but started walking back, making Joric wish that they had agreed to return back. He thought of trying another tactic. “What if there are too many guards to protect the caravan? There are only eight of you. Wouldn’t it be better to return in that case?”
“That’s none of your concern,” the giant growled. “I can take on half a dozen men by myself!”
The deputy stared at Joric for a moment. “You ask too many questions, you know that?” Before Joric could say anything, he added, “Our informer in Kirnos told us that there were only four people in total accompanying the caravan there. One of them must be a merchant who wouldn’t know how to fight, and another one was a woman. I don’t know how that merchant could be that much of a fool to think a woman would be able to protect his goods, but if it’s true, this will be the easiest ambush I have ever made in my life!”
“A woman, you say?” Nokozal repeated with a grin. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier…? We don’t even need your men in that case. I can kill the remaining two guards by myself!”
“You can’t always trust these informers though…” the deputy muttered while moving a hand over his bald head. “They might not have counted all the men correctly, or they might not have seen all the guards at the same time. That woman might not even be a guard… but in that case it’s likely that she is a daughter or a sister of the merchant who owns the wagons. Hmm… But in that case he really should have brought more guards… something doesn’t feel right.”
“Doesn’t matter!” Nokozal boasted. “There are eight of us, so we can easily take a dozen of them with me here!”
“Perhaps…” the deputy muttered. “Maybe the informer didn’t see properly and that woman was just someone the merchant had picked up in the village for some time…?”
Joric was listening to them talk while trying to think of a way to say that he couldn’t do it, when he heard a long whistle from the west followed by two short ones. Immediately he looked at the others in surprise.
“Huh…” the deputy muttered as he peered towards the west. “I thought they would come by tomorrow… Well, good for us anyway.”
At the same time, Nokozal grinned and removed his sword. Raising it high in the air, he shouted, “Come on lads, it’s time to get some loot!”
“Be quiet, you moron,” the deputy scolded the giant, before calling up the other bandits and starting to explain where everyone should be positioned.
Joric was still hesitating, while he glanced towards the road. Would he be able to do what these bastards were asking of him? Would he be able to pretend well enough for this?
No… he couldn’t! His heart was beating so fast that it seemed ready to jump out of his chest. He turned around and looked at the deputy, ready to beg him not to send him there, but Nokozal gave him a big shove.
“Time to earn your keep, merchant,” the giant smirked. “Get ready to walk towards the road, unless you don’t want to walk ever again…”
“But… but I…” Joric was interrupted again, this time by the deputy.
“I’ve been easy on you so far since a rich farmer isn’t supposed to have bruises all over. Don’t make me change my mind that you have lost your use to us.” The bald deputy added, “Now as soon as we see the sight of the first wagon turning around that bend in the road, you’ll slowly start walking towards them and will do exactly as I told you to.”
Joric looked at that deputy’s scarred face for a moment, and saw in his eyes that he meant it. If he didn’t go and do what he had been told, that bastard might really kill him right here. Giving an uncertain nod, he took a deep breath and turned around to wait for the wagon.
It didn’t take long until they started to hear the usual creaking sound of wagon wheels. As the first wagon turned around the bend, Joric easily saw that there were two people sitting on the driver’s bench in the front, with two more of them sitting behind on the wagon bed.
Huh… Why were all four guards sitting on the same wagon? Did they leave their other wagon back in Kirnos?
Just after that, he saw another wagon being pulled by a pair of horses turning around the bend. So there were two wagons after all…
However, to his and others’ surprise, the second wagon also had two men sitting on the driver’s bench, with another two sitting on the wagon bed. By now it was easy to see that all eight of them were wearing leather armors, and all of them – including the woman in the leading wagon – had the sharp eyes of an alert guard. Huh… Where was the merchant who was supposed to be the owner of the caravan? Why did he send the woman along with the other guards if he stayed back in Kirnos?
Wait… Maybe the merchant was smart and had bought leather armor for himself as well, just in case they were ambushed sometime. That had to be it!
“How are there so many of them…” one of the bandits muttered from his hiding place nearby behind a thick tree.
“Are you blind?” Nokozal growled. “This is our lucky day. We can easily take them with eight of us!”
“We will kill as many of them as we need to,” the scarred deputy agreed, “and take the rest of them as slaves. But all of you, make sure not to kill the woman. It will be fun tonight!”
The nearby bandit looked at the deputy in surprise.
The bald deputy grinned. “Chief Torhan doesn’t let us have any fun with the female slaves in his compound, claiming that he doesn’t want us to damage his property, while he always keeps a couple of them in his own cabin! But that two-faced bastard is not here to stop us tonight, is he? As long as everyone keeps their mouth shut about it, we can have all the fun we want tonight!”
The giant smirked at Joric. “You do well out there, and we might even let you enjoy a little.”
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Joric barely controlled his disgust hearing them talk like this about a woman. He already knew that none of them had a real family, and had never known the meaning of love or loyalty, nor they ever would. But he would die before forcing himself on a woman, even if he wasn’t already married and loved his wife more than his own life.
Before he could retort anything, the deputy raised a hand. “Now be quiet all of you, they are getting close.” Then he looked at Joric. “Start walking right now, and do what I asked. We’ll wait for you to stretch your hands above as the signal to begin.”
Joric gave a shaky nod, not daring to mention the fact that it wasn’t in his hand whether the caravan was carrying food or not. The wagons were getting close now, so he started walking with a faked limp in his right leg, to make it easier to believe that he had fallen off his horse and injured it.
Taking a deep breath, he kept walking towards the dirt road, but with each step he took, his fear continued to increase, with his heart beating louder than it ever had and his hands already shaking.
Could he really do this…? Could he really pretend to be a rich farmer stranded on the road, when all he really was, was just a slave who didn’t even have the ownership of his own life?
******
~ Hyola ~
It had been a longer journey than she had expected, but now they were finally on the road, with their home only a day and a half journey away from here. Earlier in the day they had loaded up both of their wagons up to the brim with smoked fish when visiting the fish merchant in the north of Kirnos, while Feroy had paid the amount that was already overdue and bought today’s fish on credit. However, it had taken a whole day to convince the merchant to sell them some more fish on credit, which is why they had wasted yesterday just for that and had to stay near the smokehouses last night.
She didn’t know what was the exact amount which had been traded for the fish, but she did know that it was a lot of gold. More gold than she had ever seen in her life. In fact, she hadn’t ever held even a single gold coin in her hand until now since she still hadn’t been paid in coin for working as a guard, just like the others.
She did realize that the situation of the village was not great and Lord Kivamus was doing his best to make sure everyone had some work to do and had food in their bellies, but she still couldn’t wait for the day when she would finally be paid her wages. Even the thought of having just a single gold coin in her hands was enough to make her heart giddy with excitement.
By that time more shops and vendors in the marketplace of Tiranat should be open once again, while new merchants were also supposed to start coming from Cinran – from what she had heard from others. That would mean she really would be able to buy something for herself for the first time in her life, with money which she had earned by her own hard work! With Calubo also earning the same wages, they might just have enough coin to put together to maybe become a family…
She huffed while glancing at the trees passing on both sides of the road. Of course, it wasn’t like that idiot had asked her to marry yet! She didn’t even know if they would even be allowed to live together in the manor. Likely not, she mused, since the male servants and guards lived on the lower floor of the servants’ hall, while the maids and female guards lived on the upper floor. There just wasn’t any other place to live in the manor where they could stay together.
She knew that some of the other guards were already married, with their families living outside the manor, and that they used to stay with them after their watch duties were over. But that was when their families lived in shacks in the village – which was before the longhouses had been made and their families had been shifted there so they wouldn’t freeze to death in the winter.
Since all the longhouse blocks were already at full capacity, those guards had reluctantly started staying in the servants hall as well since there simply wasn’t any more space for them in the blocks for them to live together with their families. Although it did mean that once the weather became warmer, those families would be able to return back to their shacks, and the married guards would be able to live together with them when they weren’t on duty.
Hmm… Maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea after all. She could also live in one of those shacks, couldn’t she? Although she didn’t even have any saved money so she could buy a shack. Wait… Were people even allowed to buy shacks in Tiranat? Likely not. But didn’t that mean people could just build a new one and start living there? That could work, but it would take a lot of hard work to build a shack from scratch. She would have to talk with Calubo about it to see what he thought, but that wasn’t going to happen until that idiot found the courage to ask her to marry!
She snorted once again thinking about that and absentmindedly gazed to the right towards the trees in the forest, musing about what it would be like to live together with Calubo in their own shack when she thought she saw some movement there.
“Did you see that?” she whispered to Feroy while pointing towards that direction.
The ex-mercenary, who had been sitting on the bench next to her, immediately became alert. “What did you see?”
Hyola pointed towards the right. “I think… I think I saw someone between those trees. But I’m not really sure…”
Feroy peered into that direction for a few moments, before he suddenly gave three short whistles, which was their pre-agreed signal to prepare for a possible ambush on the road. Immediately, Hyola brought the crossbow which had been put under the seat, and started loading it using the goat’s foot lever, with a bunch of crossbow bolts kept ready next to her.
A single glance to the back told her that the guards sitting on the wagon beds had also picked up their swords, although it was still inside their scabbards. The second wagon behind them, on which Tesyb and Yufim were sitting had also become alert and Yufim already had his bow held tightly in one of his hands with an arrow in his other one.
However, there still wasn’t any real reason for them to stop in the middle of the road so they continued moving, when they saw a man stumbling out of the forest towards them.
Hyola’s heart began to beat faster thinking there was an ambush, but no one else came out of the forest. The young man with haphazardly cropped black hair was walking with an easily noticeable limp in his right leg, and looking towards them, he raised his hand to stop them. Most of his clothes were muddy and looked to be heavily repaired, and he seemed like he hadn’t gotten to eat well in weeks.
Feroy sharply looked around them for a few moments, before he pulled the reins gently to slow down the horses when they reached near the man who was close to the muddy road by now. Finally, the ex-mercenary stopped the wagon completely, with their other wagon following them to a halt. Hyola had also been looking around and didn’t see any other person nearby, so perhaps it really wasn’t an ambush after all.
She looked carefully at the unknown man. Why was he here? There wasn’t any other wagon in sight, so he couldn’t be another travelling merchant. With his dirty and damaged clothes, he also didn’t look rich enough to be a merchant anyway. As the man reached the road, she saw that his hands seemed to be shaking a little. Maybe he was just feeling too cold? It was still quite chilly after all.
The man slowly limped close to their wagon, and looked at them with pleading eyes. “Kind sir, my name is Joric. I would… I would like your help to return back to Kirnos. Would you be… be kind enough… to take me back there?”
Hyola frowned looking at the man who was favoring his right leg while standing. Why was he talking like that? Nobody spoke like that these days. The man was certainly in a bad position here, and wouldn’t be able to reach Kirnos easily on his injured leg, but he was still acting way too polite… She thought of asking this Joric a few things about that, but on the ex-mercenary’s gesture, she kept quiet and let him do the talking.
Feroy looked at the man from up to down. “Firstly tell me what happened to you? Why are you standing here alone in the middle of nowhere?”
“You see…” Joric hesitated while glancing to the left from where he had come from. “I am a farmer… Yes, a rich farmer!”
“A rich farmer?” The ex-mercenary repeated with his eyebrows raised high. “I don’t see any farms around here, do you?”
Joric glanced to the side once again, where there were only the tall fedarus trees around them, with no plowed fields in sight. “Uh… it’s a… a new farm! Yes!” He pointed to the side with a shaking hand. “It’s… It’s some distance away… That way.”
Hyola was starting to get a feeling that something wasn’t right, but this man didn’t look like a bandit at all. What would he be able to do by himself against the eight of them anyway? He wasn’t even carrying a sword, for Goddess’ sake! Maybe she was just overthinking it when there was nothing to worry about and this was just a desperate man who needed some help to get back to his home.
Feroy stared at the man for a moment. “A new farm you say… How did you even get here from Kirnos?”
“Oh, did I forget to tell you, kind sir?” Joric gave a nervous laugh. “You see, I had a horse. Yeah, a real good horse! But it broke its leg, and I badly injured mine too when I fell down. Then I had to put down the beast in the forest and now I can’t walk back on my own…” The man glanced to the left once again before looking at their wagon beds. “Actually, what are you carrying there?”
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The ex-mercenary tilted his head, while his eyes had started to look around at their surroundings again. “What concern would that be of yours, Joric?”
“Ah… well, haha,” Joric gave a skittish laugh once again while shifting his weight to the other leg. “Oh, you know… I would have to sit on the wagon bed, wouldn’t I? And if you are carrying any food, I wouldn’t want to squish it by sitting over it.”
Feroy frowned at the man, with his sheathed sword already in his hand. “You are forgetting that I haven’t even agreed to let you join us, not that we have any reason to go back to Kirnos again.”
Hyola was also confused. Why would this man care about damaging their food at the moment, when he should only be thinking of how to get a ride back to his home? It would be very difficult for him to walk there with his leg injured. Wait! Wasn’t it his right leg which was injured? Then why was he putting more weight on that one now…? Maybe the guy was just confused about which leg he had hurt? No, that wasn’t likely, unless he wasn’t really injured at all…
She looked carefully at his face and noticed that his eyes were still darting around, just like a deer which was being chased by an adzee and was scared for its life. But why would this man be scared right now? And from whom? Their two wagons were the only thing in the vicinity with any other humans, and Joric had willingly come to them to ask for help. It wasn’t like there was anyone else nearby whom he would be scared of, right? Right…?
Joric quickly glanced to his left once again, before looking nervously at Feroy. “Uh… Because… That is…” Then he began fidgeting once again and didn’t give any answer.
Hyola’s heart had started beating fast by now. Something didn’t feel right… What if there really was someone else here…? She clenched the crossbow tighter in her hand and started looking carefully at the treeline on the right side of the road, from where this so-called farmer had come from.
However, she had to glance back at Joric when she noticed that he had suddenly raised both of his shaking hands above himself and interlocked them together, while looking even more scared now.
What? Why was he trying to stretch his arms right now? Huh… She suddenly had a premonition that something bad was going to happen. She immediately looked back towards the forest once again and thought that she saw a glint of metal behind a tree in the light of the setting sun on their backs.
It had only taken a few moments for her brain to process all this, when she realised that she must have seen the reflection from a sword and this had to be an ambush! She was going to scream about it to warn others but before she could open her mouth, Feroy pulled his sword out of the scabbard and yelled loudly.
“Ambush!! Take cover!”
******
~ Torhan’s Deputy ~
~ A few moments ago ~
“Why is this idiot walking so slowly?” Nokozal growled from nearby.
“Be quiet,” he scolded, before turning around to look at the approaching wagons. “Joric is meant to be walking slowly, remember? Since he’s supposed to have injured a leg?”
The giant grumbled but didn’t reply.
Soon they saw Joric reach the wagons, which slowly came to a stop near him.
He was still very surprised to see that there were eight people with the wagon. From what their informer in Kirnos had told them, they were supposed to have four people in total. One of them should have been a merchant and another an unarmed woman, which meant the caravan was only supposed to have two real guards to defend them. That had seemed so easy, but somehow, there were eight people on the wagon right now, all in leather armor. It meant there were at least six guards with them, even if the merchant and the woman couldn’t fight. He wondered how the informer had gotten it so wrong. It couldn’t be that the informer had lied to them knowingly, could it?
He had been working for chief Torhan for nearly a decade by now, so he knew very well how bad his relationship was with the young master Lanidas. The Baron of Kirnos favoured his chief a lot for some reason, and he was why they had such good access to the village, but Farodas was getting old now, and more and more of the village was being run by Lanidas these days. It couldn’t be that the young master had bribed their informant to give them false news, could it? He could certainly see it happening with the chubby face of Lanidas laughing at them right now.
He gazed at Joric who seemed to be busy talking with the man sitting in the leading wagon and still hadn’t raised his arms above him to give them the signal to attack. Did the wagons not have any food at all?
“What is taking him so long?” Nokozal snarled before looking at him. “I’m telling you, we should attack right now!”
“You will stay right where you are until I give the order to attack!” he scolded Nokozal. “I am not going to risk my men unless we know we are going to get good loot from the caravan!”
Nokozal clenched his fists and glared at him for a moment, reminding him of an angry bear, before he raised his sword a little higher in anger, making him fear for his life thinking the giant was going to attack him, but thankfully, the huge bastard turned to look towards the caravan once again.
Giving a sigh of relief, he looked towards the caravan as well and noticed for the first time that the woman sitting on the leading wagon seemed to be holding something weird in her hands. It looked kind of like a small bow, but it was hard to say for sure from this distance. Hmm… It did make sense that she would have a bow with her. The merchant must have given it to her as a kind of protection, and of course being a woman, she wouldn’t be able to use a full sized hunting bow, so perhaps that’s why he had bought a smaller one for her. He put the woman out of his mind for now. There would be time to think a lot more about her, but that would come after they had won the coming battle.
Still, he knew it wasn’t going to be as easy dealing with the caravan now, as it would have been if they had just two guards, but with Nokozal on their side, he was still pretty sure that they could take on their six guards without too much difficulty. He would still have to make sure to keep one of the guards or the merchant alive. He really needed to find out how the informer had gotten it so wrong. Chief Torhan would want to know about it for sure – especially if young master Lanidas had anything to do with it – and the chief might even reward him with some gold for this information.
He grinned thinking about that gold, and the pleasures he could buy using it in Kirnos, not that there was much available in a village. Hmm… Maybe he could even ask for a leave to travel to Cinran in the future. If the chief was happy enough with him, he might just get the permission as well. He grinned even more while running a hand over his hairless pate, getting giddy just thinking about how he was going to spend that gold.
Suddenly he noticed Joric glancing towards them for a quick moment, before he slowly raised both of his hands up and interlocked them. Perfect! So the wagons were indeed carrying food! Just as he was going to call everyone to start the attack, starting with the archer they had brought, Nokozal gave a loud roar and began running to the caravan at full tilt.
Shit! This damned idiot! He should have waited for the archer to shoot first!
Reminding himself to make sure that the giant got a good scolding after the fight, he quickly gave a long whistle, and immediately saw their archer shoot towards the wagons.
“Attack!” he yelled loudly to signal the rest of their swordsmen, and with a loud war cry he and the others began running to the caravan with their swords raised high in the air. It was time to take what they deserved. New slaves, the food, and the woman. All of it!
******
~ Hyola ~
As soon as Feroy had shouted the warning, she and the others immediately jumped out of the wagon. Just like they had planned earlier about what to do in case of an ambush after leaving Tiranat, she and Yufim quickly ran to the small space between the wagons, which had been parked in parallel, so the archers would be better protected from any swordsmen. Feroy and two guards were standing on the right side of the wagons, looking to their front and right with their swords ready, while Tesyb and the remaining two guards had adopted a similar position on the left side, and were looking there in case they were attacked from that direction as well. This way, with the archers standing in the middle of the wagons to support others from a safe place, the swordsmen would be able to cover all the directions around them. At least, that was the plan.
However, they had barely taken their positions when she felt an arrow whistling close to her head. Shit! That could have killed her! Her heart started beating so loudly after that near miss that it felt like it was going to jump out of her chest.
“There!” One of the guards shouted while pointing to their right. She turned to look and froze in fear when she saw a huge guy running towards them with his sword raised high. It was like seeing a huge, angry bear which wanted nothing more in its life than to send them to the goddess and make them its dinner tonight. Or at least, to separate their heads from their bodies. Wait, she knew who that was!
“That’s the bastard Nokozal!” Tesyb shouted, just before they saw two more bandits coming out of the forest from behind the giant, one of them being a heavily muscular bald guy. At the same time, three bandits started running at them from the other side of the road, with another one coming at them from the west, behind them. Just how many of them were there! These bandits would reach here in moments!
The primal sight of so many people coming at her to kill her froze her completely. Instead of shooting at them with her crossbow, her hands were hanging limp on her sides in fear. Would she and the others even be able to defeat and kill them? What if she died here? What if the others died as well? What if she never got to see Calubo again? What if Nokozal captured her and took her to the quarry once again? What if…
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Hyola’s mind was feeling so overwhelmed that it took a bop to her head from Yufim to bring her mind to the present. “Start shooting you idiot! There is no time to waste!”
She blinked and realised that barely a moment had passed while she was lost in her thoughts. She took a deep breath and steeled her mind. This was no time for self-doubts. She could do this. She knew it! She brought the crossbow in front of her eyes, thankful that it was already loaded, and targeted the giant running towards them.
She shot the bolt at his chest, hoping to kill him first, but Nokozal somehow moved at the last moment and the bolt narrowly glanced away from his huge biceps, barely affecting his run.
Shit! She quickly began loading the crossbow again, hoping she wouldn’t be too late to help. At the same time, she noticed from the corner of her eyes that Yufim had also shot an arrow at the lone bandit coming at them from the west, but his aim was much better, and his arrow hit the bandit directly in his head, killing him before his body even hit the ground.
Suddenly another arrow struck the side of a wagon with a thwack, but thankfully no one was hit by it. She was pretty sure it came from their right, but there was no way to find the archer and kill him quickly from this far.
Knowing that she would get only one more chance before the bandits were upon them, she quickly finished loading it with a broadhead bolt, and shot again, this time at a bandit on their left side, so Tesyb and the other guards on that side wouldn’t get overwhelmed.
Whether by luck or skill, or perhaps simply because the bandit was barely a dozen feet away by now, the iron-tipped broadhead bolt hit directly on his chest, spraying blood and gore all around. However, it didn’t stop there. The bolt simply kept moving ahead and ahead until barely an inch of it was left outside the bandit’s chest. The sight of the bandit’s eyes opened wide in fear as he fell over in his tracks was captured in her eyes forever, and she froze once again.
She had just taken the life of a man for the first time. A real breathing human being, who must have had dreams and hopes of the future. How could she have done something like this? The goddess would never forgive her for this…
However, the sound of iron striking iron from close behind her brought her to the present. Turning around, she saw two guards barely defending their lives against Nokozal’s powerful strikes. Feroy was already in a battle with the muscular bald man, while she saw the body of another bandit on their right with an arrow sticking out of his chest, whom Yufim must have killed before he reached them. On their left side, Tesyb and two other guards were fighting with two bandits now, since she had already killed the third one.
Suddenly she saw another bandit running towards them from the right. This must be the archer, who must have realised that he couldn’t help others from far away in this melee without risking killing his own men. But how would he even use his bow even from up close? She aimed her crossbow to target him and shot the recently loaded bolt, but the sudden sound of a sword hitting the side of a wagon distracted her and the bolt went wide.
Noticing her movement, Nokozal looked directly at her, and roared in anger, while still easily dealing with the two guards. “You! I know you! You ran away from the quarry! You are coming back with me today!”
“Fuck you!” She yelled at him, and quickly began loading the crossbow again. To hell with this bastard! There was no way she would go with him again! There would be nothing good in store for her if she got captured, and that meant she had to try her best to kill him.
At this point, she knew that the goddess would certainly forgive her for getting rid of a lowlife like him. The giant and all his bandits didn’t deserve to live in this world and she wasn’t doing anything wrong by killing them. If anything, she was doing all the women in the world a favour!
That archer who had arrived last turned out to have a sword with him, and joined Nokozal, making it a fight of three against three on the right side of the wagons, with Feroy fighting the baldy, and the giant and the archer fighting with two guards. She glanced to see where that bastard Joric was, hoping to kill him as well, since he was the reason they had been caught in this ambush, but she couldn’t find him anywhere. Perhaps he had already been hit by a sword and had died. Good riddance! The horses were also neighing loudly in fear, but thankfully the fight had been away from them so far, so they hadn’t started running away with the wagons still hitched to them.
By now, she had loaded the crossbow once again, but everyone was moving around so much right now that she knew that there probably wouldn’t be a chance for her to help anymore, since there would be a risk of hitting a guard just as much as killing a bandit. She also couldn’t just jump in the scuffle with her dagger, since she would only be a liability there. Yufim already had another arrow nocked on his bow, but he also seemed to be looking for a good opportunity right now so he wouldn’t hit their own men.
However, the giant was enraged now, and with a huge roar, he kicked one of the guards back, and slashed his sword at him, easily cutting off the guard’s sword arm from his elbow. The man screamed in pain and fell backwards, his falling sword clattering on the ground with his cut-off hand still clutching it.
As angry as Hyola was at Nokozal for doing this, her heart broke on seeing the guard like that. She had even served on watch duty with him many times!
She immediately targeted her crossbow towards the giant, waiting for an opening to kill the bastard, but it just wasn’t coming. The remaining guard was now finding it more and more difficult even to protect his life against Nokozal by himself, while the injured guard had slowly crawled back under the wagons to protect himself, until he was also in the small space between the wagons, right next to her and Yufim.
Hyola quickly bent down and snatched a piece of cloth from the wagon, and helped the guard to tie it tightly just above his stubbed arm to stop the blood flow. She glanced on the left side, and saw that Tesyb and the other two guards had already injured one of the two bandits with their advantage in numbers, although the shorter guard seemed to be moving with a limp. But there were still three guards against two bandits here, while on their right, a guard was fighting against Nokozal and the bandit archer alone, which wouldn’t last long.
“Tesyb, they need help on the other side,” she yelled.
Tesyb quickly nodded, and ran to help against Nokozal, leaving the other two guards to deal with the two bandits there. Cursing at her inability to help, Hyola quickly completed tying the tourniquet and stood up, while watching in frustration as Feroy’s quick attacks against the bald guy were getting nowhere. However Tesyb had arrived to help at just the right time, and right now it was him and the other guard against Nokozal and the archer.
Suddenly, Feroy glanced backwards towards her and Yufim, and giving a small nod, he turned around towards the baldy once again. Recognising that it was a signal, Hyola brought her crossbow up and waited for an opportunity. Just as she expected, Feroy made a quick feint, drawing the man in, then kicked at him harshly, pushing the man a few feet back.
Immediately, Hyola targeted the chest of that man and shot her bolt, but the man turned out to be lucky, and stumbled on the rough ground just as she shot, making him fall down. She cursed as her bolt missed him completely, but Feroy took the opportunity and immediately slashed his sword at him. The baldy tried to defend himself with his free hand, but screamed in pain as some of those fingers were separated from his hand by Feroy. However the man quickly jumped to his feet with his sword, and then it was a stalemate once again.
She began loading her crossbow once again, while glancing towards Tesyb, where he had managed to keep the giant at bay, but still hadn’t been able to injure him. However, the bandit archer, who was somehow also a swordsman, had gotten quite a few cuts in his fight with the other guard, while injuring the guard just as much. If only she had been able to do more…
On the other side, the last two guards were still fighting with two bandits, when she saw one of them making a huge thrust at the injured bandit. The bandit immediately jumped back to save his life and prevent being skewered by the sword, but it just made him open to an arrow from Yufim, who had been waiting for exactly such an opportunity. With the kind of expertise Yufim had in archery, there was no chance of his arrow missing from this close. Immediately, the bandit’s head snapped back with an arrow sticking out of his head, and his lifeless body toppled to the already bloody ground.
The last bandit on this side was outnumbered now, and he was barely defending himself against the two guards there. Yufim quickly ordered one of them to run to the other side, leaving the last guard to fight against the sole bandit.
Immediately that guard ran around to help others, and now it was Nokozal and the archer on one side, with Tesyb and two other guards opposing them, while Feroy was at a standstill with the bald guy even now. However, the addition of this new guard meant while Tesyb fought with Nokozal, the remaining guards could go two versus one against the bandit archer, and that was enough to make the bandit keep moving back just to save his life. However, just as she expected, the archer wasn’t that good with a sword, and she saw with satisfaction as one of the guards slashed at him from the left, making the archer jump back, but the other guard was ready and immediately thrust at his chest, killing the archer easily.
They quickly moved to help Tesyb against the giant, who looked angry as a bull now, and started cursing everyone. She picked up her already loaded crossbow and waited for a good chance to put an end to this bastard.
The baldy who was fighting with Feroy, made a huge swing at him, which made the ex-mercenary jump back. That gave the baldy just enough time to take a look to his side where Nokozal was dealing with three men against him now, while the last bandit was still fighting with a guard on the other side of the wagon. That meant now there were only three bandits remaining to fight against five guards with swords, with Yufim and her supporting them from range, although that wasn’t easy because it was nearly dark by now.
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“Fuck it!” The baldy shouted. “Nokozal, we can’t win this. We need to run!”
However the giant just roared in response and made a huge swing with his sword making Tesyb and the other guards jump back to avoid being cut in two parts. “We can still win!” the giant barked back.
The baldy slowly circled around Feroy who was watching him warily, before he yelled, “Forget it, I’m leaving! Stay here if you want to die!” The baldy made a big lunge with his sword, towards Feroy, who stepped back to protect himself, and that gave just enough of an opening for the baldy to turn around and start running. However, instead of pursuing him, Feroy ran towards the giant.
Nokozal must have noticed the baldy running away, since he bellowed loudly, “Damn you, you coward!”
Hyola had been waiting for such a good opportunity, and bringing her loaded crossbow in front of her eyes again, she shot at the retreating baldy who was running away on the uneven ground. This time she didn’t miss completely, although she still couldn’t hit his chest or the head like she wanted. Her bolt struck the baldy on one of his legs, which didn’t stop him completely, but it was still enough to make him pitch to the ground.
The baldy started to get up again as she began to load her crossbow, but Yufim, who was also ready with his bow, immediately shot an arrow, and unlike her, he struck the man directly in the chest, making him slump down again, this time permanently.
“Damn it!” Nokozal roared, as he also noticed the fate of the baldy. “Damn it all!”
The giant made a huge swing with his sword around him to make all the guards move back, before calling out the name of the last bandit. “Cover me!” Without waiting for a response, the giant started sprinting towards the forest as well.
Tesyb and two of the guards immediately began running to follow Nokozal, while Feroy stayed back to coordinate.
“Fuck you!” the last bandit yelled, before he turned around and started running as well to the other side of the road. Hyola was still loading her crossbow, but Yufim, who was covering their left side, hit the back of the running bandit easily, killing him in his tracks.
Hyola finally finished loading her crossbow, and immediately shot a bolt towards the giant, but the bolt barely missed his head, and Nokozal kept running towards the treeline which was very close by now.
By now Yufim had nocked another arrow, and shot it towards Nokozal, but the giant had just entered the tree line, and the arrow only struck a tree, and the giant vanished in the already dark forest.
Immediately, Feroy gave a yell. “Tesyb! Come back here! All of you!”
“But we can kill him now!” Tesyb shouted back, but followed the order as he and the other guards jogged back to the wagons.
Once all the guards had arrived, Feroy still kept looking around warily, “It’s already dark and it would take too long to find a man in those forests. Three of us are also injured, so we need everyone here in case a wild beast comes here smelling the blood. Stay right here and keep an eye in case a bear or an adzee is lurking around.”
Giving a nod, Tesyb and the other two uninjured guards took positions around the wagon, making sure they wouldn’t be surprised again.
Was the fight already over? Hyola knew in her mind that they had won, but her heart refused to believe it and was beating just as fast as earlier.
She took a few long breaths to force herself to calm down and thanked the goddess that none of them had died, but the pitiful sight of the still weeping man who had his arm cut off, didn’t make it feel like it was a win. Another guard had just sat down on the ground with his back to a wagon wheel, and was clutching his leg, while a third one was bleeding from multiple cuts from all over his body, although none of those seemed life-threatening.
“You did good to stop the blood,” Feroy complimented her when he saw the tourniquet around the amputee before he pointed at the guard who had many small cuts, “Help him out as well.” He gestured to the guard who was clutching his leg, “I’ll take care of him.”
Glad that she and Feroy hadn’t given all the losuvil powder to people in Kirnos this time, she gave a pinch of it to the guards who were injured lightly, while giving a double dose to the guard with his arm cut-off, after applying a paste of it on his stub and then she tied another clean cloth to cover the stubbed arm completely. That would have to do until they returned to Tiranat. That man was already starting to nod off, so two of the guards helped to make him lie down on the sitting bench of a wagon.
