She reached up and messed up Daussie’s hair. “Let’s get in the wagon and I’ll wrap you up. We’ll get you in boy’s clothes again and smudge your face a little.” At Daussie’s apprehensive look, Eva said, “We’re gonna get through this girl, but if there’s trouble, the last thing you want to do is to look pretty!” She reached up and started muddling her own hair, lifting an eyebrow and saying, “Me either, for that matter.”
The guard wagon was barely leading the way out of the caravan’s field when Arco came by asking Daum and Tarc to get up onto the shooting platform. Daum got up there and Tarc led the horses until Eva had finished wrapping Daussie. Once again, Eva took over leading the Hyllises’ team while Tarc climbed up onto the shooting platform. Once Daussie had on her boy’s clothing, she mounted the bay horse.
Arco again had everyone wearing or carrying whatever weapons they owned. All the guards mounted up on horses with two scouting ahead and the rest scattered alongside. Henry Roper had again come up to lead the team of mules pulling the guards’ wagon and Daussie found herself riding beside him. Roper glanced up at her, then turned his entire head to stare. “Um, I’m Henry Roper. Who are you?”
“Daussie Hyllis,” she replied frowning at him. “We talked yesterday?”
Roper blinked at her a couple of times, “You’re the same girl I talked to yesterday?”
Daussie nodded.
“Um, you look different!”
“Yeah,” Daussie shrugged, “my Mom’s trying to make me look like a boy.” She grimaced, “A dirty boy to boot. She thinks that if the raiders attack, they’ll leave me alone if I don’t look like a girl.”
Roper’s eyes widened, “They kill ugly boys. Well, all boys and men, I guess.” He paused, “If I were you, I’d try to act like an ugly girl, not an ugly boy.” He tilted his head, “Although, my plan is for us not to get attacked, and if we do get attacked, for us to kick their asses.”
Daussie frowned at him, “You’re not even carrying a sword! How are you planning on kicking ass?”
Henry gave a wry smile, “Well then, that would be a problem, wouldn’t it? I’m not much of a fighter, so I see my role as supporting the fighters to the best of my ability.”
Daussie didn’t get time to reply. Suddenly, a small cluster of men stepped out onto the roadway in front of Henry. Tugging the lead mule’s bridle, he brought the team to a stop. Daussie glanced at him and saw his face had gone completely white. She felt her own heart thumping in her chest as her eyes turned back to the men in the road.
The one in the center carried a shield and had his sword out of its sheath. He waved the blade at Henry and said, “We’re needing to talk to the boss of this here caravan. Is that you?”
Out of the corner of her eye, Daussie saw Henry wordlessly shaking his head back and forth.
The man with the sword said, “Well then, somebody needs to get him for us.”
Henry turned his face slightly, without taking his eyes off the soldiers, and stage whispered, “Go get Mr. Norton!”
Extremely happy to be leaving the scene of the confrontation, Daussie turned the bay and trotted back along the wagon train looking for Mr. Norton. She found his wagon in the middle of the caravan, its usual location. Norton was already squinting ahead to try to see what was holding things up. Daussie said, “Mr. Norton, there’re men up front that want to talk to you.”
“Gods be damned!” Norton said. Then he turned to look back along the rest of the caravan. “Go find Arco, dealing with these kinds of people is his job.”
Daussie blinked in surprise, “They said they wanted to talk to the caravan’s boss.”
Norton grimaced, “when we’re dealing with bandits, Arco is the boss!” He glanced back again, “Of course, the moment we really need him, he’s all the way at the back of the caravan.” He looked at Daussie, then frowned as if wondering who she was. “Anyway, could you go tell Arco we need him to deal with this problem?”
Daussie nodded and started trotting further back along the column. She passed a couple of guards two wagons behind Norton’s who asked what was going on. “Some men have stopped us. They want to talk to Arco,” she called over her shoulder as she rode by.
Shortly after that, she encountered Arco riding forward to find out what had stopped the caravan. Daussie told him about the men and that Mr. Norton wanted him to deal with them. Arco rolled his eyes, “Come along then. We’ll probably need someone to carry messages back and forth to Norton.”
Daussie slowly rode along behind Arco who gathered two of the guards to go with him. Her dread grew with every wagon Daussie passed on the way back to the front. She kept thinking that surely there was someone better to run messages, but after considering the possibilities she realized that with a decent horse and no fighting ability, she made an obvious choice for messenger.
Daussie had lagged behind by the time Arco got up to the roadblock. She moved a little closer, but stayed back about five meters. Beyond the men blocking the road, Daussie could see the two scouts riding back towards the caravan.
From her position, Daussie couldn’t hear everything the men were saying, though she did hear the soldier say something about a tax. Arco exclaimed, “That’s not a tax, it’s robbery!”
Red in the face, the soldier barked something at Arco and Arco shouted back at him. Daussie’s horse backed up a couple of steps and she realized she’d been drawing back on the reins in her nervousness. She glanced up at Tarc and Daum. They both had arrows nocked. Their faces were tight as they watched the scene in front of them.
Lizeth and Jason, the two scouts, had ridden up behind the men in the road. They tensely sat their horses, hands on the hilts of their swords.
With a curse, Arco wheeled his horse, saying, “I’ve got to talk to our chief merchant.” As he rode back down the caravan, he shouted over his shoulder at the soldiers, “I’ll be back.”
The soldiers relaxed and grinned at one another, though their leader still gazed angrily after Arco. One of them turned and looked back over his shoulder at Lizeth and Jason. “Hey Wayne,” he said with a laugh, “Looky here, they got themselves a girly what’s carrying a sword!”
Apparently Wayne was the man who’d been carrying on the negotiations with Arco. He turned to look at Lizeth. “Ha, she’s a good-looking bitch!” He elbowed the man next to him, “Maybe she should be part of the tax?”
Daussie looked at Lizeth and saw that she was also white in the face, though, on Lizeth, it looked more like incandescent anger than fear. Daussie glanced back. It looked like Arco had almost reached Norton’s wagon. The two guards who’d ridden forward with Arco remained at the front. But they, plus Lizeth and Jason only made four guards to counter the twelve or so soldiers who were blocking the road. Lizeth wondered why Arco hadn’t brought the other three guards with him when he’d come to the front.
Wayne sort of meandered his way over to Lizeth, then slowly reached up and put his hand on her thigh while looking into her eyes. Daussie thought he looked like the kind of man who liked seeing fear in a woman. Lizeth didn’t look fearful at all, instead she slapped his hand away with a sudden violent swipe. Wayne laughed, “Hoo, she’s got spirit!” He raised the sword he still held in his right hand.
To Daussie, it looked like Lizeth jerked in the saddle and Daussie’s first thought was that Wayne had poked her in the leg with his sword. Instead, as Wayne leaned back, it became obvious that Lizeth had drawn her own sword with an unbelievably quick motion. Its tip rested at the angle of Wayne’s jaw. Sounding like she was chewing glass, Lizeth said in a low but carrying voice, “I’m not a bitch. I’m not part of any tax. I’m not someone you had better even think about touching again. And… if you screw with me any more, your spirit is going to depart this world!”
Swords leapt out of scabbards all around Lizeth.
Daussie stared with wide eyes at the suddenly motionless tableau. Hard as it was to believe that Lizeth had done what she’d just done, it was harder to believe these men
wouldn’t kill her as their next step. She glanced up at Tarc who’d been so infatuated with the girl guard. His eyes tightly focused on the events in front of him, he held his bow partially drawn, though the arrow still pointed downward.
Lizeth spoke and Daussie turned eyes back to her. Wayne’s head was tipped quite a ways back on the point of Lizeth’s sword. Lizeth said, “I’m thinking, Wayne, that your boys here are wanting to let myself and my partner Jason here on through your line and back to our caravan. Aren’t they?”
After a long period of silence and through gritted teeth, Wayne said, “Let ‘em through.”
The soldiers slowly moved aside and a half a minute later Lizeth and Jason slowly walked their horses through the line, Lizeth managing to do it without taking her sword off of Wayne’s neck.” When she finally dropped the sword from Wayne’s neck she wiped it so quickly on his sleeve that he didn’t have time to jerk away.
Arco rode up a few moments later while Wayne and Lizeth were still staring at one another, fury on their faces. He glanced curiously back and forth from one to the other, but without asking what it was about, said to Wayne, “I’ve spoken to our chief merchant. He’s given me leave to offer you ten percent of what you’re asking. He said to tell you that if you tax the amounts you’re asking for, merchants will lose money and no caravans will come this way.”
Wayne wiped at his bloody neck, tore his eyes off Lizeth and turned furiously to Arco. “Would your chief merchant rather make a profit… or stay alive?”
Arco slowly said, “You have a few more fighters than we do, but if you attack, a lot of you are going to die.”
Keeping his eyes on Arco, Wayne thrust his fist up into the air. A few moments later, men started stepping out from behind trees on either side of the road.
Daussie’s eyes widened. She estimated another twelve to eighteen men on each side of the road. The raiders had 40 to 50 men visible now, and the caravan still only had the eight guards. She didn’t know how well the rest of the men in the caravan could fight but… Daussie’s heart sank.
The tense silence stretched, and stretched…
One of the men lunged forward and grabbed the bridle of Lizeth’s horse.
It started to rear, but he jerked it back down. Lizeth’s sword flashed into view.
The man slashed out with a big knife. At first Daussie thought he must’ve hacked at Lizeth’s leg, but then she saw blood gouting out of the horse’s neck.
The man who’d cut the horse stumbled, then fell flailing oddly.
He had an arrow through his head!
Lizeth vaulted back over her horse’s buttocks, landing agilely as the horse sagged and stumbled.
The soldiers blocking the road all drew their swords.
Wayne shouted, “Sons of bit…” then convulsed, the fletching of an arrow protruding from his forehead.
Backing away, Arco and Lizeth glanced wide-eyed back at the shooting platform on their wagon. Daussie thought they looked astonished.
Daussie looked up there and saw Daum nocking another arrow. Tarc’s bow was already bent.
She looked back forward at the thrum of Tarc’s bow. Another of the raiders flipped over backwards.
The rest of the soldiers were raising their swords and preparing to charge.
Arco’s men had fallen back and taken a stance, swords up, but the Hyllises’ bows continued thrumming, one after another, and the raiders kept thrashing and falling, arrows through their heads.
One, then two more of the soldiers turned and ran.
Only three remained of the group who’d blocked the road. They glanced back over their shoulders, forward at Arco’s eight men; then they turned and ran as well.
At first, the men who’d surged out of the woods on Wayne’s command, had been coming forward. Then, leaderless, they began to mill around looking to one another for direction and waiting for the six men fleeing the confrontation to get back to them.
Daussie stared in horror at the seven bodies still lying in the road, two of them still quivering and jerking. She heard Lizeth ask Arco, “Should we try to run the caravan through them while they’re in shambles?”
Arco barked a discouraged laugh, “We can’t charge them with wagons! Even if we broke through at three miles an hour, the bastards would swarm the merchants’ wagons behind us.” He stood in his stirrups to study the raiders for a moment then turned to glance back at Daum and Tarc through narrowed eyes. In a low voice he said to Lizeth, “Holy shit! That guy can shoot!”
Lizeth said with a choked little laugh, “Yeah! When he shot that first guy right in front of me I was pissed that he’d shot so close to me. But if he can shoot like that, I don’t care if he shoots my fleas.”
At first Daussie was puzzled; then she realized that they thought Daum must have shot all the arrows.
Arco barked a laugh, then looked at Daussie, “Ride back down the caravan telling the merchants to turn around. We’re falling back to Prichard’s.”
As Daussie was wheeling her horse, she heard him say, “We’ll have to hold the raiders off until the merchants can turn. Good thing those bastards don’t seem to have horses or archers.” As Daussie started to ride away, she heard him say, “Aw Christ! They do have archers!”
As Daussie rode, her heart caught in her throat. The archers’ primary targets would be her father and brother! She continued down the train shouting at each wagon, “We’re falling back to Prichard’s farm! Turn around! Turn around!” She whipped around the back of the train and rode back up the other side shouting the same thing.
Back at the front, Daussie joined her mother in bullying their mules to move sideways, a motion they rarely engaged in. Slowly they got the mules moved far enough to the side that the front wheels of the carriage had turned sharply to the right. When they pulled forward into the barrow ditch, the wagon swayed dangerously, Daussie leapt up on the right side and leaned out trying to keep it stable as Eva continued chivvying the mules forward. Daussie thanked the gods that the barrow ditch was dry.
Surprisingly, Eva got their wagon turned before most of the other wagons had done so. She started driving the mules down the barrow ditch as the road was completely obstructed with turning wagons. At first, Daussie intended to go with Eva, but then she wondered whether anyone was turning the guard wagon. She untied the bay, leapt on and rode back to the front, wondering whether she was riding to her own death.
At the front she found to her surprise that timid Henry Roper had stayed and was getting the guard wagon’s mules turned about. Tarc and Daum were still on the shooting platform atop the wagon, but, as it swayed, they were holding on rather than shooting. Momentarily, Daussie wondered who was managing the mules at Roper’s wagon. She tied the bay to the guard wagon and ran to help Roper turn the team.
Grabbing the lead of the other mule at the front of the team she started pulling while glancing toward the soldiers. Thankfully, she didn’t see any of their archers, which she hoped meant they couldn’t see or shoot her. There seemed to be a reasonably sized group of the caravan’s guards present on the road, though she couldn’t take time to count them.
Daussie glanced up at the shooting platform. Tarc and Daum still seemed to be okay. She wondered how her mother had turned their mules so much more easily than she and Roper were turning the guard wagon’s team.
After what seemed like forever, they were turned far enough for Roper to lead the team back up out of the barrow ditch and onto the road. He began pushing the team as quickly as he could back down the road behind the rest of the caravan.
Daussie leapt back onto the bay. She glanced back and saw the guards slowly coming back down the road behind the wagon. Surprisingly, the raiders hadn’t attacked and seemed to be about as far away as they had when they’d first retreated. Up ahead, Daussie saw that one of the wagons had become stuck in the barrow ditch. She kneed her horse up to a faster pace as she wondered whether they would have to leave that wagon behind.
Arriving at the stuck
wagon, Daussie again leapt down, tying the bay to its back gate. One wheel had dropped into a hole. Fortunately neither it nor its axle had broken. Daussie leaned a shoulder into the back of it along with a couple of men, but didn’t feel it even budge.
Letting go, Daussie scanned the nearby wagons, then scrambled up onto the road and began shouting at the caravaners, “You only need one person to lead your team! Help us break out this stuck wagon!” Knowing that the panicked folk would try to ignore her, she didn’t shout at the caravaners in general. Instead, she got right in front of each man who looked stout, staring them in the eye and pointing at the stuck wagon. “That could be you some day!”
In dribs and drabs, the men she had picked out ran down to the wagon and added their shoulders to the pushing and lifting. A few minutes later, great joy came over Daussie when she saw the wagon suddenly bump out of its hole and begin rolling up the side of the barrow ditch toward the road.
Daussie got back on the bay, riding up to the front and then back to the back of the reordered caravan. She checked on people and urged wagons to close gaps that had developed during the turning. Arriving at the back, she felt astonished when she saw that the raiders were pretty much where they’d been when the caravan started turning. Gazing back down the road she saw bodies lying in the middle of it. A large lump, she realized, must be Lizeth’s horse.
Daussie looked around for Lizeth and saw her walking behind the guard wagon. A saddle had been tossed into the opening at the back of the wagon, presumably Lizeth’s. Daussie rode over, “Lizeth, do you need my horse?”
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