Red Rowan: Book 2: All Gone, the Gods

by Helen Gosney

  Their courage & devotion to duty is to be commended, for injured as they all are & heavily outnumbered by the force they pursue, it is likely that they will not survive an encounter with Rollo & his men.

  I am aware that Capt. Del’Quist has already twice requested assistance from the troops held in reserve at Den Siddon. However we have had no response to our very urgent message, though sufficient time has certainly passed.

  Of our original 2000 troops, we have only about 200 men still alive, including Capt. Del’Quist & his 15 brave troopers if indeed they have not been killed. Of these 200 men, 50 are seriously injured and the healers say that most of these brave men will certainly die. The remaining men are less badly hurt, but there will inevitably be more deaths among them too. Some of the men are already showing signs of lung fever.

  The healers report that their supplies are being depleted at an alarming rate & soon we will have barely enough to keep the pain of the worst injured men at a more or less tolerable level. It is all we can do for them now. The rest of us have little relief from our own unrelenting pain.

  I urgently repeat Capt. Del’Quist’s request to you, Sir. We desperately need suitable wagons to help to transport our wounded men home, & we desperately need more healers, potions & dressings, In Particular we are in dire need of painkilling medicines or potions. Our situation is very grim & as the weather has started to break again, it will only become more so as time goes by. Our brave troopers are suffering and dying in pain every day and we simply cannot help to ease their anguish. Their morale is lessening by the day & soon they will be so mired in misery that nothing & nobody will be able to help them.

  Sir, I beg of you to send the reserve troops to help us here at Messton, or none of us will survive.

  Signed this day at Messton-near-Edge

  Idris Cholli

  Lieutenant, Den Farrar.

  ***

  Report from Trill

  I, Sergeant Cade Pendtsen, write this report from just outside Trill. Capt. del’Quist has been badly injured & I shall write more of this shortly.

  The Captain has tracked Duke Rollo of Plait & a group of his men to Trill, following the battle at Messton-near-Edge, with the intention to catch up with him & capture him if possible, before he can escape Wirran soil.

  On the way we came across the bodies of many of Rollo’s men, presumably murdered by their fellows. We also passed several farms near Trill. All were burning & the farmers and their families had all been slain.

  In the little town of Trill itself we found terrible devastation. The slaughter & violence of Rollo & his men is indescribable & it will haunt all of us who were there, forever. Every woman, no matter how young or how old, had been raped & very many young girls had been too. Every man, woman & child of the town has been killed, many horribly. There is no Guard garrison here, & all those killed were unarmed civilians. It is simply beyond our comprehension that anyone could or would do these things.

  The town square was filled with the bodies of the townsfolk. Amid this dreadful carnage Capt. del’Quist found a single living soul – a tiny baby still cuddled in his dead mother’s arms. For a few moments we thought he was uninjured, but Rollo’s men had simply stabbed him in the back & left him to die. He died in the Captain’s arms a short time after he was found. There was nothing we could do for him, but maybe the poor child found a little comfort in his last few minutes of life.

  We found Duke Rollo & his men, perhaps 45-50 in all, in a tavern near the main square. We approached cautiously & Capt. del’Quist deployed us around the building in case any of those inside tried to escape. There were only two narrow entrances, front & back, & the windows were small, so in the event of a confrontation they would not be able to attack us with a large number of men at one time. It wasn’t a good choice on Rollo’s part, but I doubt he believed that we were still pursuing him after 5 days.

  When we were in position, our Captain called on those inside to surrender. They were most surprised that we were there, they were making so much noise that they simply hadn’t heard us. They were mostly very drunk & they refused to surrender or leave the building. The Captain called on them to surrender twice more but they simply refused. Deeming it too dangerous to try to enter the inn with our small force, the Captain ordered the building to be set alight.

  Many of Rollo’s men were simply too drunk to be able to escape the building as their friends brawled viciously among themselves to try & get out through the narrow doorways, but some sobered up very quickly & those who did escape fought us savagely. Despite their efforts, there were no survivors among the men of Plait, many having been killed by their own comrades. Duke Rollo himself died at the Captain’s hand.

  Our Captain & troops fought bravely & selflessly and several have sustained further injuries, though most are relatively minor. Tr. Donal Fergusson of Den Bissen was killed while bravely doing his duty & Capt. del’Quist has been badly injured. He has suffered a severe chest injury, with most of the ribs on one side smashed and a long sword wound around his body. He has lost a lot of blood & is in much pain & despite his great courage & strength I fear he may not even survive this night. Certainly I doubt if he can live for more than a very few days at most. The men & I are devastated at the extent of the injury to our heroic Captain & shattered by our experience in Trill.

  It is only due to our Captain’s courage & leadership that any of our little troop has escaped from Trill. After the battle we were all very much affected by the horrors we’d witnessed in the town & the sheer scale of the butchery of Rollo & his men. Even the carnage of Messton had not prepared us for such barbarity against innocent & unarmed men, women & children who’d been merely going about their business in their little town when Rollo arrived. Gravely injured & in great pain though he was, our Captain rallied us somehow. He ordered that we search every house for possible survivors, even though it was unlikely we’d find anyone still alive in that horror & even insisted that we free any beasts that we found, before the fire spread & consumed the town.

  We have regrouped on a hill above Trill. We have buried Tr. Donal here & we have tended to our wounds as best we can. Our Captain is certainly the most seriously injured, but his concern for his troops & his courage & devotion to duty are truly inspiring. He will not hear of us staying here for a few days in the hope that he might regain some strength, & is insistent that we must continue on tomorrow & try to return to Den Siddon. His plan is to return via Messton in case there are any men still there who were simply too ill to have been taken home to Den Siddon by the relief troops from the garrison. From there we shall return to Den Siddon at our best speed.

  The Captain is finally resting now, but it is a disturbed & uneasy rest due to the pain & difficulty of breathing with his badly damaged ribs. All of us are fearful that he cannot survive, but in the event that he does not we will honour him by doing our best to return to our families as he so desperately wishes & we will do whatever we can to ensure that his valour & sacrifice do not go unrewarded. It would be scant consolation for the loss of such an heroic man.

  Signed this day outside Trill

  Cade Pendtsen

  Sergeant, Den Mellar

  ***

  Report from Messton after return from Trill

  We have returned to Messton from Trill, led by our brave Captain.

  I had feared he would not survive his very serious chest injury, but survive it he has, so far. He is in a lot of pain & is weakened by his heavy blood loss, but he simply will not give in. His own words are that it’s better to sit on a horse trying to get his men home, than to sit under a tree waiting to die & it probably hurts nearly as much either way. It sums him up well.

  His courage and determination have inspired our little troop to believe that we really can get home from this nightmare somehow. Certainly we will not let him down, will not let his brave attempt to get us home to our families in spite of ourselves be in vain.

  He instructed us in how to harvest willowbark
from trees & we’ve now got quite a good supply to help keep us going.

  We arrived at Messton expecting to find perhaps a few troopers still here, those too ill to be moved, and the rest to have been relieved by the forces held in reserve at Den Siddon & to have gone home. But they have not. The camp has been moved a little, but otherwise it is virtually unchanged save for the men who’ve died in our 11 day absence.

  There has been no communication from Den Siddon at all, though Lt. Cholli has sent another request for assistance.

  The situation here is dire. The healers report that their supplies are running very low and conditions for the men are very grim. Morale is very, very low. The men feel, with justification, that they have simply been abandoned by Den Siddon, but none of us can understand why the requests for assistance have been ignored. Capt. del’Quist is very upset & angry at the situation & I feel he is unlikely to simply accept it, regardless of the injury he struggles with so bravely.

  Later

  Somehow Capt. del’Quist has procured carts to transport the worst injured & sickest men & those who are able to ride are riding & we are all on our way home to Den Siddon. I can’t believe he has managed to get these dispirited, injured troops on the move at all & certainly I believe that no other man here could have done it. But he has, & nobody has been left behind to die. The men understand that there will inevitably be more deaths on our journey, but they also realise now that none of them could have survived for much longer at Messton.

  Capt. del’Quist rides at our head. He refuses to travel in a cart as he certainly should be, believing that he can’t ask the other wounded men to ride if he doesn’t do the same. Certainly his strength & sheer courage in spite of his obvious injuries has inspired the troopers to do their best to get home to their families & to see the Commandant punished for his terrible treatment of them & those who’ve died while waiting for help that’s never come.

  Our little troop from Trill stays close beside him & we try to ease his great burden as much as we can. The nightmare of Trill haunts us all, but it unites us too. Our Captain struggles with the pain of his wound & the previous injuries that aren’t healing well, & often I wonder that he can keep going at all, but he doesn’t complain & in spite of the difficulty of our journey he is adamant that he won’t give up & he won’t let anyone else give up either.

  Nobody would let him down like that now. Our previous inter-garrison pettiness is forgotten as we strive together to simply survive & keep going. All of us are as determined as our Captain to get back to Den Siddon. The bravery & sense of camaraderie of these men, who were sitting waiting to die just a few short days ago, is astounding. And it is all due to this courageous, inspirational & very stubborn man, Capt. Rowan del’Quist. Red Rowan, as the men call him. We are all in awe of him.

  Signed this day on the way to Den Siddon

  Cade Pendtsen

  Sergeant, Red Rowan’s Troop

  ***

  Healers’ Report from Messton-near- Edge

  I write this report from the battlefield of Messton at the end of the first day of fighting between our own Wirran Guard & the invading forces of Duke Rollo of Plait.

  It has truly been the most dreadful day, with great loss of life and injury on both sides.

  We have gained some ground, but we have sustained very heavy casualties. Three-quarters of our original troop of 2000 men have been killed on the battlefield and the remainder of the troops are all injured to one degree or another.

  Some 300 men are very seriously injured & most of them are unlikely to survive this night, the rest of them may live for a few days, but I doubt that any will live longer than that.

  Of the remaining 200 or so men, a few are relatively uninjured, but are undone by the horrors of the day and all the others have sustained wounds of some severity.

  Our troop commander, Capt. Yianni Josefson of Den Mellar was killed this morning & one by one most of the other Captains have been killed or seriously injured as well.

  A bloodsoaked & very battered young Captain with an arm in a makeshift sling came to the healers’ tent to tell us as a courtesy that he has taken command of our remaining troops, he being the only man of Captain’s rank still able to more or less function. Capt. Rowan d’Rhys del’Quist, ‘Red Rowan’ as the men call him. He has a formidable reputation for one so young: Captain of Den Siddon, dual Champion & Weapons Master, all of which speak for themselves. His troopers revere him & would follow him anywhere, indeed they did just that today & he and they were inspirational to the remainder of our troops, rallying them as their own Captains fell. Certainly more men would have been lost but for the heroism of this young Captain.

  He was injured & shocked of course, as all the men are, but though he seems to have sustained a serious arm or shoulder injury he refused treatment until he’d seen to all of his remaining troopers. He went among all the men here, speaking quietly to them though he looked ill and upset himself. The men were cheered by the mere fact that he bothered to take the time to see them. I managed to convince him to at least take a painkilling potion & a rag to staunch the bleeding from his broken nose, but that was the best I could do. It seems he has the proverbial stubbornness of all Siannens, but his genuine concern for his men is obvious.

  A good while later he returned, still wearing his blood-drenched chainmail & battered breastplate, after having gone around the entire camp checking on the condition of his men. He has sustained serious injuries to his right shoulder and arm as well as several deep gashes and he has lost a lot of blood. His right hand and several fingers are broken, the little finger being so badly mangled it had to be amputated.

  The Captain has already sent a message to Den Siddon requesting urgent assistance from the troops held in reserve there, but of course he realises that there will probably be no survivors from tomorrow’s inevitable attack. He has told us all that there will be no retreat, as we cannot take our seriously injured men with us & he will not abandon them or we healers to the very dubious mercies of Rollo & his men. There are about 180 or so men, himself included who can & will face Rollo’s attack tomorrow despite the overwhelming odds, and even we healers are armed & will try to defend our injured men for as long as we can.

  Next day

  Against all expectation, we have not been attacked by Duke Rollo’s forces today. Capt. del’Quist took a small force over there & returned to tell us that there were no living men at the camp. Some healers hastily went over there, but it was as he had said. Some 400 or so of Rollo’s troops have died of their wounds & approx. 200 appear to have been murdered. The remainder of Rollo’s sizeable force have simply gone. None of us can understand it. Capt. del’Quist will take a small volunteer troop and go after them in an attempt to capture them before they can leave Wirran soil, brave man that he is. His courage & devotion to duty are commendable. He has sent a further request to Den Siddon for urgent assistance & leaves the camp under command of Lt. Idris Cholli of Den Farrar.

  Of our own injured troopers, 144 of the very badly injured men have died overnight as well as 27 of the less badly wounded men. Undoubtedly we will lose more men, but at least with help from Den Siddon we shall be able to get a good number of these brave troopers home.

  8 days later

  We continue to lose more men every day & our supplies of potions & bandages are getting very low. Capt. del’Quist & his little troop have been gone for over a week now & I fear that they will not return. Injured as they all were, they have probably not survived an encounter with Duke Rollo & his men.

  The whole camp worries & frets for these troopers, particularly their Captain, who is greatly respected by all. His own men of Den Siddon do still hold out some hope that he might yet return, but I truly believe it to be wishful thinking.

  There has been no response at all to the urgent requests for assistance that have been sent to the Commandant by both Capt. del’Quist & Lt. Cholli. We had certainly all expected that the reserve troops would have been sent to our a
id by now, but there has been nothing. Yesterday, on my recommendation, Lt. Cholli ordered that the camp be moved in an effort to escape the intolerable conditions & we are now encamped about half a mile east of our previous site. It was as far as we could manage to move ourselves. Certainly conditions are a little better here, but the morale of the troops is very low. They are worried that the relief troops will never come & though I still have hope that they will, it is fast coming to the time when we must leave here. Our medical supplies are very low & several of the men have contracted & died of lung fever, which we simply do not have the resources to treat.

  Our few remaining officers & we healers have spoken about how we might get the troopers back to Den Siddon, but there seems to be no way that we can transport our seriously injured & ill men & thus it seems that they must be left behind so that the others might return to their homes.

  3 days later

  Capt. del’Quist & his men have returned to the camp against all expectation. They are all exhausted & much troubled by what has happened at the little town of Trill, near the northern border with Plait, where they caught up with Rollo & his men. The Captain remains strong for his men & the rest do their best, but they are struggling. On reading the Captain’s report, I am not surprised that they are all so distraught and I wish I knew of some way to help them.

  One of our men was killed at Trill and several others have sustained further injuries, but none of Rollo’s men survived. Capt. del’Quist is badly injured, with a serious chest wound; Sgt. Cade Pendtsen, who tended the Captain’s wound in the field, reports that there is a long gash around the body, with many ribs broken on one side of the chest & of course one can hear them grating together as he struggles to breathe. There was heavy blood loss & severe shock; indeed the Sgt. did not expect the Capt. to survive the first night, and certainly not for more than a few days if he did. But he has, somehow. He is a strong & very fit man but he is weakened by blood loss & pain & the sheer effort of breathing, and frankly I cannot believe that he has managed to get his troopers & himself back to our camp. Yet here they are, & they are all fiercely determined to return to Den Siddon. [as they themselves say, ‘in spite of themselves’]