Adventure on the Road

The morning after celebrating the sale of the dragon scales, the rogues were packing their belongings and getting ready to set out on the road again. Several heavy, but not very large, bags were already sitting on the floor in their room. Betsy stopped rolling up her skirts for packing, and sat on her bed.

“We have a problem, Vince,” Betsy announced. “Everybody in at least this half of Radalis knows we’re rich, filthy rich. I’m not worried about casual thieves, or even ordinary bandits. We can handle them with ease. What are we going to do about serious brigands? And by serious, I mean those who will join their gangs together to make it easier to rob us?”

“The real problem is not keeping our money safe,” commented Jenny, “it’s keeping ourselves safe. We can send for the money after we arrive someplace to settle down. We can hire armed guards to protect it. That’s easy. Brigands aren’t going to think about us doing that, though. They’ll expect us to have the money with us, whether we do or not. So they’ll attack us even if they can’t get the money. They won’t know that until they finish killing us all.”

“You’re right, Jenny,” replied Horace. “They gotta figure we’re carrying it. Where else could it be? If they want it, they’ll try to git it from us. So let’s hire the armed guards fer ourselves. We kin afford to hire a lot of guards. Twenty or thirty oughta do, Ah reckon.”

“Thirty, at least. I’d rather have too many than too few,” declared Vince. “That’d give us three dozen fighters, enough to handle most gangs of brigands. Betsy has a point, though; what if some of these gangs band together? Most gangs run twenty to thirty men. Three dozen of us can handle that many if we have to. If they unite into a bigger gang, that changes things. We have enough money to make ’em more willing to share with others to be certain they get it all. Fifty or sixty brigands will be hard to handle, more will be almost impossible.”

“We’ve fought against big numbers before,” argued Ben.

“We had Amos’s help against Scarface, and against Mittanolo’s men up north. We managed to whittle down the brigand gang at Windleby so we never had to fight all of ’em at once. Any brigands we face now will attack where they want, without warning. They’ll try to swarm all around us and use their numbers to defeat us.

“You haven’t had to face several men at a time. It’s a lot harder. We have good weapons, but I can still only hit one man at a time. All of his friends will be hitting me all the while. We have good armor, very good armor. And Betsy still got wounded at Windleby.

“Thirty fighters as good as we are can stand against sixty, seventy brigands. Where are we goin’ to find so many really good fighters? We’ve all had some experience as caravan guards, Ben. Some are good enough in a fight, and none will run from a fight. The question is, can they fight and not get killed? Guards who die too fast ain’t goin’ to do us any good.

“When we leave Syke we’ll be taking our money with us, and that’s what the brigands want. If we get unhorsed, can we guard our horses while we’re fighting to stay alive? Two or three brigands can try to steal the horses away from us as we fight. Once they have our money, they can all leave. They’ve got what they came for.

“How are we going to get it back? Six of us and however many of our guards survive, against dozens is long odds. Don’t tell me we’ll kill enough of ’em that the odds will be better. What if they manage to kill some of us? And they’ll split the money up before we can chase after ’em and try to get it back.”

“So we should hire even more guards then?” asked Polly. “As Horace says, we can afford to hire an awful lot of armed men.”

“We could hire a hundred men easily, if we just considered the cost,” Vince pointed out. “Can we find a hundred good fighters here in Syke? I don’t know. Doesn’t really matter, a hundred men is an army, and will scare off even several gangs of brigands all workin’ together. Though it brings up another problem.

“Where will we spend every night? Stopping at inns in every town we visit? Where does our army sleep? Do we camp out, protected by our army? A large gang of brigands can still overpower the dozen watchmen we’ll have on duty. We’re too temptin.’ Brigands will be very willin’ to take chances to get this prize. This may still be the best way to travel, but it still worries me. We can’t afford to make any mistakes or we lose our wealth, and maybe our lives. Jenny, for once, I don’t have a plan. Let me go for a walk and think some more about this. The rest of you do the same. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

***

When he returned to the room two hours later, Vince set a keg of beer on the table, much to Horace’s joy. He poured each of the rogues a full mug of the good beer and sat down with a satisfied sigh.

“Have you figured out how we can defend ourselves?” asked Polly.

“No, I walked around thinking of how to attack us,” answered Vince. “I spent too many years working with bandits and brigands, too many years fighting ’em. I know how they think, what they’ll do to get rich. A chief with twenty men knows he can’t beat a hundred, so he’ll get some other gangs to join him, share and share alike. There’s enough to go around, it’ll be easy to recruit men.

“The larger the force we hire to guard us, the more brigands who will attack us. If we have ten guards, a chief with twenty men won’t think he needs help. He’ll attack us with just his own men. If we have twenty guards, he’ll band together with at least one other chief. If we have fifty men, he’ll try to get seventy or eighty. If we have a hundred, he’ll try to get maybe two hundred.

“A hundred men is a sign that says ‘Something worth stealin’ here, come and get it.’ The brigand chief will hear reports from Syke and see this large body of men leaving town. He’ll take the time to build up his force. I asked around and there’s a lot of brigands in the mountains between here and Taril. That’ll make it easier for an ambitious chief to build a small army to attack us.

If we have a large enough force to feel safe, fifty, seventy, a hundred men, the brigands will build up an even bigger force. Maybe twice our number, to guarantee their attack is successful. They’ll also attack at night, when we and most of our guards are asleep. We can have thirty of our hundred on watch, in shifts all night long. That’s still our thirty against all of their two hundred. When those bandits attacked us on the way south to Syke, Polly did a good job of defendin’ us. And a good thing that was, because I slept through most of the alarm. Suppose dozens were attacking and I was asleep.

“Their two hundred can sneak close and swamp our thirty watchmen, then start cutting down the men who are just waking up, or are still asleep. Think how easy it was for basically four of us to raid Amos’ cabin, with two dozen men in it, when we rescued Polly. I’ve told Ben good armor and good weapons won’t cancel the advantage of large numbers. But large numbers ain’t enough, either.

“We have one advantage over any brigands who want to rob us. We know we’re goin’ to Taril, and they don’t. Ben talked to Remy about Taril, and us, and that’s it. I found Remy and he told me he hadn’t talked to anyone about our destination. Walking around town today, I dropped hints we’d be goin’ back north to Ethe. That might send some brigands the wrong direction.

“If they don’t know we’re coming, brigands may ignore us on the road. We have a lot more wealth than when we first robbed Barnabas, but we actually have fewer coins now. We stole over twenty thousand moons from Barnabas, most of it in silver. We’re carryin’ more cash now, but it’s all gold. Thirteen thousand five hundred coins. Just over six thousand coins for each of us to carry. A few sacks tied to the back of a horse, nothing to attract attention. Our pack animals carry our camping gear and clothes. Nothing to tempt a large band of brigands, as long as they don’t think we are the rich target. If that target is headed north, we should pass unmolested.

“Our real problem is we are what’s at risk. We care about the money, of course, but we care more about our lives, our own and those of our dear friends. As Jenny said earlier, they’ll come after us whether we have the money or not. So I’ve come up with a really risky plan. Tell me what’s wrong with it, why we shouldn’t do it, why it won’t work. I’ve made bad plans before.

“The plan is to hire fifty guards, enough to look tough, enough to guard vast wealth. We dress some of ’em in clothes we’ve been seen in around Syke. They head out on the road north, as if they were goin’ to Ethe. We pay ’em for a week’s travel, plus some danger pay. Then they can come back home. A week’s misdirection should get us safely far from Syke.

“We don’t hire any guards for ourselves. We sneak out of town before dawn that same day, just a small band of travelers goin’ down the road. The pretend army leaves with great fanfare, to waving crowds. We are already on the road west before they ever set out. I talked to the captain of the town watch, and he’ll open the west gate for us early.

“We travel fast, staying in towns when we can, because that’ll be safer. We keep a sharp eye out for signs of anyone following us. Every day. We won’t know we’ve fooled any gangs until we get safely into Taril and settle down somewhere there. Remy won’t tell anyone where we’re really going, but we don’t know if anyone’s watching us now.

“If we have to camp in the open, we make certain we haven’t been followed before we camp. Then we move camp after dark to someplace else. Two of us will take each watch, Horace and Ben, Jenny and Polly, Betsy and me. We sleep in our armor. Yeah, it’s goin’ to be real uncomfortable, but if we get attacked at night, we’ll be ready.”

“Risky? Practically suicidal, Vince,” argued Jenny. “I talked to some of the merchants when I went out today. We can get a hundred men if we want. Half of them might not be very good, but the number is the important thing. Do you really think any brigand chief can put together a gang big enough to take on a hundred men?” “For two hundred seventy thousand moons? Sure, any big time brigand will look on this as a chance to make his fortune and his name. He doesn’t have to have enough men right away. When he sees us leave with that small army, he can send for other brigands to join him. He doesn’t have to worry about how to split the money. There’s enough to go around. Besides, only the survivors of the fight will get shares.”

“So your decoy goes north, and we go west quietly, and early,” Betsy considered. “Might work. We’ll be going into brigand country, you know. As you said, the mountains between here and Taril are full of them. I talked to the merchants, too.”

“Vince, I wanna help, but I ain’t sure if this’ll be enough,” Ben offered hesitantly. “I been practicin’ the fire magic. Jenny showed how to put a flame on somethin’ she warn’t touchin’. I went to the stables this mornin’ to try somethin’ out. I put a flame on a horse, all over it. It didn’t hurt the horse, but it skeered all the other horses real bad. If we’re bein’ chased, I could do that to the bad guys. Their horses would all git skeered ’n’ run away with ’em. That’d give us time to git away.”

“That’d be really great when we’re on the road,” chuckled Horace. “Still don’t do anything fer when we’re asleep at night. Ah don’t know, Vince, it’s mighty chancy. Do you really expect the brigands to fall for your diversion?”

“I don’t know. I said it was risky. There’s no guarantee either way. Surrounded by a hundred men we’re still targets. Enough men might protect us, but we still have to count on ’em stayin’ awake on watch, fightin’ hard when caught by surprise, keepin’ our horses safe. The six of us on our own means we are all in danger of dying. A hundred men guarding us makes us feel safer, but no one is ever safe in a battle.

“Our problem is that any brigands are goin’ to come for us, as a way to get the money. We could send the money to someplace in Taril with the Prince of Radalis guarding it, and it would be totally safe. The brigands wouldn’t know that he was guarding our money, just something of value, and they’d still come after us.

“So, that’s my idea. Forget the huge force that really can’t protect us at night. Sneak out of Syke, keep an eye out for anyone followin’ us, change campsites every night after dinner. That large force will make us think we’re safe, but we won’t be safe, not when it counts.”

“My Gods, Vince, that is the scariest plan you’ve ever created,” shuddered Jenny. “Still, you’re right. Any brigand bold enough to try to rob us will be certain to have enough men. He’ll bring in more than he needs, maybe, just to be sure. Against a hundred men, he may think a lot will die and not get a share. All right, Vince, I think it’s a crazy idea, but I can’t think of a better one.”

“Then let’s go out now and try to hire us some guards to go north,” suggested Betsy. “If you want to send fifty men north, we’ll need some time to find that many. I think the merchants may be able to give us some names. They know the local caravan guards after all.”

Two days later, an hour before the first lightening of the morning sky, the rogues rode out of the west gate of Syke, thanked the captain of the guard who had opened it for them, and spurred their horses to a brisk pace. They wanted to get far from Syke before anyone in the town knew they had left. Two hours after dawn, a force of fifty tough looking caravan guards surrounded six well-dressed riders and headed north.

***

Everyone in Syke was aware of the sale of the dragon scales, and many knew how much money the rogues had added to their saddlebags. Those who didn’t know, speculated on the high side. Who could possibly believe they hadn’t made a king’s fortune from such a sale? Gathering enough gold coins to pay the rogues caused a shortage in suns that rippled through central Radalis. Reports and rumors of the immense wealth of a handful of wanderers spread to every town, every bandit lair, every brigand hideout.

“Jens, we’re gonna be rich, I tell ya.” Blake was laughing enthusiastically when he told his leader the news from Syke. “Six people are about to collect a huge fortune. Somebody said they’re sellin’ dragon scales. Hardly. There ain’t no dragons. But someone thinks these are real and is willin’ to pay big fer ’em. I heard reports of over two hundred thousand moons.”

“You’re kiddin’, Blake,” replied Jens. “Diamonds, pearls, rubies, they might be worth that much. But imaginary dragon scales? Cain’t be.”

“I know, but that’s what they say. I don’t care if the scales are real or not, the money’s gonna be real. And these six people are just three married couples. Three men and their wives. So I figger that means just three fighters against whatever we can throw together. I did notice that all of ’em, even the gals, was wearin’ armor when they brought the so-called scales into town. But that mighta been just to make folks think they’re tough. Hell, even if they fight, that’s still only six of ’em, and one of the women was carryin’ a spear. What sort of fighter uses a spear?”

“What about guards? Do they got any?”

“Not now, far as I kin tell. ’Course, they might hire some when they leave town. ’Cause they’re gonna leave Syke, from what I hear. Not sure where they’re gonna go, though they came from up north. We’ve got a few days to put together a big enough band to beat ’em and any guards they do hire. Cain’t be wastin’ time if we want to git rich.”

Jens began planning his raid. Over two hundred thousand moons! Lots of bags or chests if it’s silver. A lot less if it’s gold. Where kin even merchants find that much gold, though? Don’t matter, it’s gonna be a lot to carry either way. Extra horses. Guards. Yes, but how many? Lessee, me and five of my best men would want, oh, mebbe ten guards to help us out. What would they want, considerin’ three of ’em are women? Fifteen, mebbe twenty guards. Yeah, that sounds ’bout right.

I’ve got twenty men in my gang already. We’re pretty good, and hired guards ain’t always that great. Still, I want to survive the fight. And I want my men to think they’ll survive too. Need more men. Ten. Twenty. No, got to have enough to overwhelm ’em. Fifty or sixty would be good. I kin get a lot of ’em by just offerin’ a good payout. Offer most guys a few hundred moons, and they’ll jump at the bait. My guys’ll get full shares. I kin even use the new guys to take all the real risks, too. Heh, heh.

Other bandit leaders thought of the same thing, but soon realized that joining with Jens would be easier than forming their own large gang. Soon Jens had sixty men under his control, camped in the hills northwest of Syke. The newcomers were partly brigands, with plenty of tough experience, and partly bandits, tough enough but not likely used to hard fighting. The brigands, like his own men, had half-way decent armor, heavy leather studded with metal knobs or scales. The bandits wore whatever they had managed to steal before joining him. He insisted they have at least boiled leather and some sort of helmet. He didn’t really care how many of the newcomers survived, but he didn’t want their deaths to endanger the whole attack.

Meanwhile Jens continued planning the robbery. First, I gotta know how many guards they got. Me and sixty tough boys can handle thirty or forty in a stand-up fight, most likely. Do I want to do that, attack ’em on the road someplace out in the open? What about ambushing ’em where they’ll be hemmed in? What about attackin’ ’em at night? If they got a lotta guards, that’ll be easiest. Most of their men’ll be asleep and vulnerable. So let’s do a night attack, with an ambush in a narrow spot as backup.

Now, which way are they gonna go? I’m gonna have to wait till Blake kin tell me which way they head when they leave Syke. Mebbe he’ll be able to find out before they leave, so we kin be waitin’ for ’em. Even if he cain’t, we’re close enough to Syke to catch up with ’em.

***

“They say they’re goin’ north,” Blake told Jens when he met him that first evening. “They hired fifty men, pretty good caravan guards far as I could tell, offerin’ ’em good pay, and a danger bonus. I almost took a job with ’em jist to keep an eye on ’em from the inside, but one of the leaders was a guy who knows I’m with you. They got all their men together in the main square of Syke and paraded ’em out the north gate.”

“North’s not so good for us,” objected Jens. “Not so many good spots for an ambush. Still I want to attack ’em at night, and north is just as good as any other direction for that.”

“I didn’t say they was goin’ north,” countered Blake. “I said that’s what they said. I seen these guys when they first brought the supposed dragon scales into Syke, and none of those people was with the fifty guards. There was a big guy with a bushy beard and an axe. But he warn’t as big as their big guy, and he had the wrong sort of axe. And there was a redheaded woman, like was with our targets, but she was a lot taller, and maybe just a teen-aged boy with red hair and no beard. I’m not sure the guys we’re after went north.

“I know they ain’t in Syke any more, ’cause they ain’t at their inn. I couldn’t spot ’em anywhere in town, so they musta left. I sent some of the boys to look for ’em on the main roads outta Syke. I hope they ain’t goin’ east, ’cause we’ll run into more barons and towns that way. People who can protect our targets. I don’t think they’ll go south, ’cause I heard someone say they was worried about the Duke of Phada takin’ over Ghanal. That still leaves west into Taril or northwest into Meruno. You’re well placed right now to intercept ’em whichever they head for.”

“How long is it gonna take to find ’em​​​?” asked Jens, irritably. “I gotta know perty soon which way to go, or we’ll never catch up with ’em. You say this fake caravan left this morning. If our real target left at the same time, they’ve already got a good start on us.”

“Here comes Zeke,” Blake pointed out across the plain. “I sent him with my brother Paul to check the main road west. What’s the news, Zeke?”

Zeke reined his panting horse in, and dismounted quickly. He motioned to one of the other brigands present to take care of his sweaty horse and walked over to Jens and Blake.

“We seen ’em this afternoon on the main road to Taril,” he reported. “They were riding fast, but we damn near killed our horses to catch up with ’em. They didn’t see us, we didn’t get that close, but Paul said he recognized ’em. He’s gonna keep an eye on ’em, mebbe find where they’ll camp tonight.”

“All right, now we know which way to go,” declared Jens. “Let’s git everybody in the saddle and head out now. We kin ride half the night and find Paul in the mornin’. Start givin’ orders to our men. I’ll tell the other chiefs.”

***

His men were making their dinner, which frustrated Jens. He wanted to leave at once, but he knew his men would have to eat sometime tonight. Traveling hungry wouldn’t slow them down, but it would make tempers short, and he couldn’t afford to have his men unhappy. Some of the other gangs hadn’t even started preparing dinner, or were scattered over a three mile area.

Jens tried to remind himself that no one had expected to be leaving just now. The lack of readiness was accidental, but still a bother. Something else bothered him, too. I don’t really need all these other gangs now, if what Blake says is true. Three men, and three women if they really do fight, won’t be a challenge to my own gang. Without extra guards for the treasure, I don’t need the extra brigands. I cain’t jist send ’em home empty-handed, though. They expect a good payout from this raid, and if I don’t give it to ’em, I’ll make a lot of enemies. Something I don’t need.

A fast meal, packing up their gear as they ate, and his men were ready in an hour. The other gangs were on the move in another hour. Zeke took a spare horse from their remuda and led the way to the road to Taril.

They rode hard for hours that night, finally stopping about three hours before dawn. They hadn’t even reached the road to Taril yet, but everyone was getting tired. They made camp and rested until an hour after dawn, then pressing on to find the road. When they found it two hours later, Zeke couldn’t tell them exactly where Paul might be so they just followed the road, still riding hard.

Jens began to worry about his plan. We rode southeast to where Paul and Zeke saw this band. But they was movin’ west, so they got further west all that time. Now we turned west to catch ’em. How much farther behind are we gittin’ every hour? Paul’s good, he’s careful followin’ a target, but kin we find him in all this open land?

In the middle of the afternoon, Paul came riding up to the large band of brigands. He raised his hand, signaling them to stop where they were. He got off his horse and strolled calmly over to Jens.

“Hiya, Jens, looks like you’ve been pushin’ the boys perty hard. Give ’em a rest for a while. The guys we’re after are a couple of miles up ahead. They’ve attached themselves to some nobleman’s entourage. If you wanna fight fifty well-armored men at arms, go right ahead. I’ll wait here to count the dead.”

“Blake, you said they didn’t have any guards!” roared Jens in anger. “What do you call this?”

“They didn’t have any when they left Syke, all the guards went north, honest,” argued Blake.

“He’s right,” added Paul, “there was jist the six of ’em when Zeke and me spotted ’em yesterday. Today, however, they ran into this baron and his men, and decided to tag along with ’em. I been followin’ ’em for a while now and askin’ questions at the villages we pass through. The baron is from someplace south of here, and he’ll probably turn off by tomorrow. In any case, there’s a town up ahead, walled, and they’ll all likely stop there overnight.”

“So they’re nearby, but protected. Fifty men at arms will be a challenge, especially in a walled town. We’ll have to wait till they leave. Let’s move north of here, since the baron is goin’ south. We kin git ahead of ’em and mebbe set up a trap for ’em up ahead somewheres.”

***

In camp that night, Jens tried to think of a good place for his ambush. He knew of a gorge through the foothills of the mountains in the west of Radalis. The hills weren’t very tall there, but this was a very narrow gorge, with straight, sheer walls, and the main road ran right through it. If they’re goin’ west, it’s the likeliest route. It’s long enough they cain’t see the far end when they start into it. If I block one end they won’t see me until it’s too late. Blake and his men kin then close the trap behind ’em. Then it don’t matter if they have guards or not, or how many guards they got.

“Blake, take a dozen men, some of our band and some of the tougher new guys. I want you to follow our targets when they leave this town. We’ll pass further north of the town and ride hard to git ahead of ’em. I think we kin ambush ’em at that narrow pass we used a coupla years ago. It’ll take another day to git there, but it’s a great spot for an ambush. You follow ’em in and keep ’em from escapin’. That’ll be easy if there’s only six of ’em.”

***

The older rogues were well aware that their new riches would attract criminals, but they hoped that traveling without giving a destination would keep thieves off their trail. The first three days after leaving Syke they hadn’t noticed anyone following them. A chance meeting with a baron and his small army gave them a day’s worth of free protection and conversation with the baron.

On the fifth day, as they neared the mountains, they entered another town. Vince didn’t know its name, and didn’t care. It was just some place on the road, and they would be out of it in half an hour. It was too early even to stop to wet their whistles, much to Horace’s regret. They came in through the town’s eastern gate and followed the street out to the western gate.

An hour later they came to a small village, unwalled, with several roads meeting in it. Betsy, used to looking at tracks, noticed something odd. She suggested they stop for a quick beer, to keep Horace happy and to give her time to look over the village. As they mounted up again, she told Vince what she had seen.

“It’s been dry lately, and the ground is hard. But a lot of horses will still break the surface. And a lot of horses have been passing through this village recently. I didn’t see it at first, but after passing the crossroads, I saw signs of a lot of traffic. The road west is much better traveled now than any of the other roads. You’re worried about someone trying to rob us. We haven’t seen anyone yet, but they may be up ahead, waiting for us. And there may be a few dozen of them.”

Vince thought about her warning and cautioned the others: “Watch out, in front and behind, for signs of riders. These plains are pretty open, so we should have some notice before anyone can attack us.”

Three hours later they approached a narrow passage through the hills. The real mountains were still ahead, but these hills were steep enough to make any gap useful. This gorge looked almost as if it had been dug as a trench. The walls were straight up for fifteen feet, and almost straight for another twenty above that. Betsy asked Vince to hold up while she checked the ground.

“The ground’s still hard, and there’s a lot of rock here too, but I’d say several dozen horses went in here sometime today, or maybe late yesterday. Looks like a nice place for an ambush, too. Narrow, easily blocked in front by these riders, and behind by any followers we haven’t seen.”

“Yeah, I’d certainly want to stage an ambush here,” agreed Vince. “We don’t really know if there is an ambush waitin’ for us in there, but the only way to find out is to go in and get ambushed. I’d rather go somewhere else, somewhere we know there’s no one waitin’ for us. Let’s turn south for a while and try to find another pass through these hills.”

Another hour brought them to another gap in the hills. Betsy couldn’t find any sign of horses going in, so they turned into the passage. It was wider, with shallow sides and lots of boulders all over. Two miles in, it ended.

***

Blake had been keeping just close enough to the rogues to follow their route. He saw them stop at the entrance to the narrow gorge where he knew Jens was laying his trap. He cursed when he saw them turn south without even entering the gorge. He sent a man to tell Jens their victims had changed course, and he led his part of the band after the rogues again.

Not much later, he saw them go into another opening in the line of the hills. Fine, he thought, one trap’s as good as another. He sent another messenger to Jens and led his men into the passage to seal it off. Jens’ll either block the other end of this route, or join us here. If we attack ’em here, we can pin ’em down fer our whole force. Won’t be as good as Jens’ trap, but it should still work.

A mile in, he saw the rogues coming back out. What’s this? Why did they turn back? Oh, oh, I know. It’s a dead end. They cain’t go on, and gotta come out the way they went in. And I won’t let ’em. Oh, yes, Jens will be happy to see this.

***

“Are these the guys what were in the other pass?” Horace asked. “Now we got us a problem. They’re blocking the way out.”

“Let me think this out for a bit,” Vince began. “We’re in an open area, with some space to maneuver. Some boulders for ’em to hide behind, but not too many. How many are there?”

“I count ten or eleven,” estimated Jenny. “That’s not all the horses Betsy counted earlier, so maybe it’s not the same bunch.”

“Lets’ dismount here,” Vince decided. “Move the horses back up this passage a bit. Tie ’em to those bushes back there. Betsy, Ben, Polly. I want you three to start firing arrows and sling stones at those guys. No, wait. Not yet. We should move back to the horses. That’ll give more clear, open ground in front of us. Easier for you three to shoot at ’em. And it’ll make it look like we’re afraid of ’em. Wait until they’re almost up to us, then start firin’. Betsy, you know your rate of fire, so choose your own time.”

Ben pulled out his sack of enchanted sling stones and gave some to Polly. “I’ve changed the way I’ve enchanted these. I usta just make ’em hit someone in the head. But sometimes it’d hit a guy’s helmet and hardly hurt him. So now I set ’em to hit a guy in the neck. Most helmets don’t cover the neck, and that’s a good spot to hurt a guy perty bad.”

Blake had twelve men with him that morning, but two had already been sent with messages to Jens. He wasn’t worried though. Three men against him and ten others, all tough brigands. He knew Jens didn’t want to risk his gang rashly, but this looked easy. The eleven men spread out across the open ground and ran up toward the waiting rogues.

When they were twenty yards from them, a voice shouted “Fire!” An arrow and two sling stones dropped three men. The attackers paused in surprise, which gave Betsy and her friends time to reload and fire again. Three more men fell dead. The five survivors turned and ran back, trying to get out of range, or at least find some boulders to hide behind. Before they could find any cover, another three had died.

Blake was shocked by what he saw. Almost all of his men dead in the blink of an eye. They hadn’t even gotten close to their prey.

“Put your shield up high in front of you, and back out to our horses,” he ordered his last man. He leapt up and realized that walking backward over loose rocks was difficult. Then he felt an arrow hit his leg. He winced and his shield drooped down. The sling stone hit his exposed throat. His partner took an arrow in his thigh, followed a minute later by another in his chest.

“Well, that warn’t that bad,” commented Ben.

“Don’t brag just yet,” advised Betsy. “I counted a few dozen men earlier at that other pass. This is only one dozen. Their leader may have sent a message off to the rest of the gang at that other gorge. Which means they could be coming here soon.”

“Right, Betsy,” agreed Vince. “We haven’t time to loot ’em properly, but let’s get their horses at least. Tie their reins together like this, and we can lead the whole bunch of ’em out of here. Now, let’s us get out of here.”

Their remuda was hard to control, but they managed well enough. Vince led them out of the gap and east into some woods. They reined up deep inside, and Vince and Jenny snuck back to watch what was happening outside. After half an hour, dozens more horsemen arrived and started into the box canyon. When they had gone out of sight, Vince signaled his friends to follow him. He led them back to the narrow first gorge, now free of attackers.

Safely out of the gorge, they turned south again, looking for a different route. Vince led them past three other gaps in the hills before settling on one he liked. It was late, well after dark, when they made camp and had dinner. Polly asked the question on all their minds.

“Is this spot safe enough? What if they come at us tonight?”

“I skipped the first few passages through the hills so they would try those and waste time. They need to rest too; so they can’t search all night. If they check each of those gaps, they might spend a few days lookin’ for us where we ain’t. That gives us time to go somewhere else. Every day we can get farther away makes us safer and safer. They won’t give up lookin’ for us, but the more time they spend at it is more time for us to get away.”

“Especially after seeing what we did to their friends,” added Jenny. “It takes a really tough man to see his buddies wiped out and realize they didn’t hurt those who killed them. They’re going to be very wary of us from now on.”

“Maybe, Jenny,” Vince argued, “but they won’t give up. I know brigands too well. I know how their minds work. They want our wealth. Whatever they’ve heard about it, they know it’s a huge fortune. The temptation is greater than they can resist. A serious brigand would as soon cut off his hand as give up a real treasure.

“They’ll think up a new approach now that they know we’re tough. Simple traps work for easy targets. They may try to find us and overwhelm us at night, when only one or two are on guard duty. Not tonight, as I said, but maybe as soon as they can find us. Or try to catch us relieving ourselves in the woods, one at a time. Maybe find an archer and do to us what Betsy did to ’em. They only need to drop one of us every day or two to have all our wealth at the end of a week.”

“How cheery, Vince,” Betsy’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “How are we going to survive without all of us on watch? And if we’re all on watch every night, how do we get any rest? Your original plan was to mislead them, not let them have a clue about where we are. That plan failed. I’ve never known you not to have a plan, no matter what. So what’s your plan now?”

“You’re right, my plan failed. I knew it was risky, but I felt any other plan would be just as risky. I was wrong. I apologize to all of you for that mistake.”

“You gave us a chance to challenge the plan, and we all agreed it was risky but acceptable. You don’t need to apologize for not being perfect,” replied Jenny. “So what now?”

“Sleep tonight, find the outlet of this gap, and keep moving. The way we planned back in Syke, we camp, eat dinner, and move our camp in the dark. We ride like the wind tomorrow; these extra horses will slow us down a little, but we can use ’em as remounts when our horses get too tired. Running without a burden won’t tire these other horses that much. We can ride hard all day tomorrow, and the next day. By then, I hope we’ll have lost the brigands. We should be able to build up a lead of a few days at least.”

***

The next morning, looking back over her shoulder, Betsy noticed a horseman on a tall hilltop, silhouetted against the clear sky.

“Vince, I see them again,” she told him. “Look back there, on top of that tall hill. He’s a couple of miles away, probably, but if I can see him, he can see us.”

“Thanks for the warning, Betsy. Well, they’ll have to find which pass leads to this spot, and we won’t be here when they get here. We should find a little stream running south or southwest, and ride in it for a few miles. That may throw ’em off our trail. Meantime, keep looking back, everyone.”

***

The man on the hilltop was Paul, seriously intent on finding the rogues, not just for their wealth, but because Blake was his brother. He wanted to find and kill those who had killed Blake, and he wasn’t going to kill them nicely.

Jens had split his gang into three sections, a dozen each, to search all the possible paths more quickly. Paul had been through this gap without seeing any sign of recent human passage. He looked up at the hill above him and decided he was a good enough rider to take his horse to the top and have a look around. Now he saw a hint of motion out on the plain, a few miles away. Some riders, too far away to count, but with a lot of extra horses. Horses taken from Blake’s band. He smiled a grim smile and turned back down the hill.

He blew a horn to signal the other groups, and waited for them to show up. Jens arrived first, and Paul told him what he had seen, and how far off they were. Half an hour later, the last group showed up and Jens had already thought out his new plan.

“They’re off to the south, Paul says. Riding fast, leading all of Blake’s horses. That means they can use ’em as remounts when their own horses get tired. We don’t have that luxury. So I need someone with a good horse, fast and with a lot of endurance. Who’s got a horse like that?”

“I do, boss,” replied Zeke. “I stole him from some nobleman last year, and he goes like the wind, all day. I wore him out searchin’ for these guys with the gold. I’ve been usin’ another horse the last coupla days, but he’s rested now.”

“Good, then go after those guys. Paul, did they go through this gap, or some other one?”

“Not this one. I think one further on down. If we look fer tracks, we should find the right one.”

“All right, Zeke, do that. Find the tracks of a lot of horses and follow ’em hard. Don’t try to overtake ’em. Try to keep from being seen, or they might ambush you. But mark the trail as best you can so we can follow you. Go now. The rest of you, follow along behind him. Don’t try to match his pace, or all our horses will be blown before the day is half over. Just keep a steady pace. Let’s go.”

***

It took Zeke all day to catch sight of the rogues. Their trail had been obvious for hours, but he wanted to see them. He wanted to see them stop to rest, so he could stop and rest. He wanted to see if they sent anyone back looking for someone tailing them. He wanted to know if they took any unexpected turns from the obvious road. Passing through a village, he saw a scribe with quill, ink, and parchment squares. He knocked him down and stole his material. Zeke didn’t know how to write, but now he could leave notes for Jens by drawing.

He imagined that Jens and the rest would be falling farther and farther behind, trying to keep from wearing out their horses. Their only hope of the whole gang catching their targets was if the travelers would stop somewhere for more than one night. They’re tricky, ridin’ up that creek fer a mile to hide their tracks. Good thing I was close enough to see that. If I kin keep avoid being seen, they might not know they’re still bein’ followed. That might make ’em take a rest.

Late on the third day he saw them entering a fortified town, and he smiled. If Jens can just get here quickly enough, we’ve got ’em trapped in this here town. Too bad I cain’t tell him to hurry hisself some more.

***

Late the next afternoon, Jens and his gang saw a walled town in front of them. The gate was still open, but a couple of men in livery, with halberds, were keeping watch over the people coming in. Jens was worried that Zeke wasn’t there. Could they have kept on going past this town? Did we miss some note from Zeke? Drawing arrows on parchment to show the way was a good idea, but what if one got turned around, or blew away.

“Hey, Jens! What’s this drawing about?” asked Paul. “Looks like one of Zeke’s notes, but I cain’t figger it out.”

Jens looked at the scrap of parchment, with a hole in it where Zeke had poked a small branch through it to stick it on a tree. Zeke had drawn a large circle with a long line going from top to bottom. At the top was a small mark. Jens puzzled over the picture for a while, then smiled.

“I got it! This circle is the town here, the line is this road. This mark at the top is where Zeke is waitin’. Right where he should be, to see when they leave town. They ain’t likely to go back when we’re on their tail, so they’ll go forward, and he’ll see ’em. We’ll have to go around the town to meet him. I don’t think those guards will let tough lookin’ guys like us come in. We’ll make camp somewhere there.”

Jens led his gang around the town and found their progress blocked by a river. It was only twenty yards wide, and must have been deep because there was a bridge. Unlike most towns, this bridge did not end in a gate to the town. The gate stood back from the river by another fifty yards, leaving a grassy bank between itself and the river. Jens couldn’t understand why there was a gap between the town and the bridge, but it gave him and his band free access to the bridge. Guards who might have kept them out of the town merely watched them with suspicion as they crossed the river.

Once across the river, they soon found Zeke resting under a tree not far from the bridge. His horse was unsaddled next to him, nibbling on some grass. He seemed quite at his ease.

“Hiya, Jens,” Zeke cried when he saw his boss. “They’re still inside. I waited all day yesterday, ’spectin’ ’em to come out. But they didn’t. The town is called Hythe, four or five biggish inns, and some small ones. I wandered through last night but I couldn’t figger out which was theirs. Now that you and the rest of the boys are here, we kin take ’em anytime you want.”

“You did good, Zeke. Any place we kin camp without bein’ noticed?”

“Yeah, I spent last night about a mile up this road. There’s a lot of woods, both sides of the road. Might be a good spot fer an ambush. Let me git my horse saddled and I’ll show you.”

They rode west to the woods, and Jens liked the way the trees crowded close to the road. He ordered his men to settle in on both sides of the road, but out of sight. While they set up their camps and began preparing dinner, Zeke told Jens and the others what little he knew about their quarry.

“They kept lookin’ behind, but I always managed to stay outta sight. Just the six of ’em. Tricky as anything tryin’ to avoid bein’ followed. They rode up streams, moved their camp every night after dark, all kinds of tricks. That last one nearly saved ’em. I discovered they had moved by accident shortly after they left. I managed to follow ’em anyway.”

“I cain’t understand six people, includin’ three women, carryin’ so much money and not havin’ guards,” puzzled Jens. “They cain’t be so good they don’t need guards, kin they?”

“They slaughtered Blake and his men,” countered Paul angrily. “Blake didn’t even have any blood on his sword, which means he never got close to ’em. Arrows or sling stones, not even a slash from a sword on any of the bodies. That looks like bein’ that good to me.”

“All right, they are good, then,” agreed Jens. “Let’s come up with a new plan fer takin’ ’em. They’re in a town, which means they’re stayin’ at an inn. We kin sneak into town, find where they’re at, go in and rob ’em in their sleep. Pick up the sacks of money and we’re gone. Easy.”

“Why would they keep the money with ’em at the inn?” asked Zeke. “Someone’s got to stand watch or anybody could steal it. Out in the open, it’s harder to sneak up on a camp. Indoors, it’s easy to git surprise on ’em even if they stand watch. I’d expect ’em to deposit the money at the Temple of Pronustio.”

“Oh, damn! Why didn’t I think of that?” bellowed Jens. He got up and stomped about the camp, cursing his own carelessness. “I’ve been so intent on gittin’ this money, I didn’t even consider that. And I should have, it’s so obvious. Damn!”

“Maybe they didn’t do that,” suggested Paul. “The Temple of Pronustio charges a fee fer holdin’ your money. One moon fer every hundred you leave with ’em. If these guys have a couple of hundred thousand moons, that’s a couple thousand moons every time they hit a town. That gits to be mighty expensive.”

“That makes sense, too,” agreed Zeke. “Maybe they hid it somewhere we wouldn’t think to look. I once stole a bag of coins from a merchant. He warn’t sure I was the thief, and when the watch caught me, I didn’t have the bag so they let me go. I went back to the stable I had passed through durin’ the chase, poked around at the back of a haystack, and found the bag where I had left it.”

“This should have been so easy,” moaned Jens, calming down. “They’re stuck in this town. We kin git close to ’em without their knowin’. We kin kill ’em any time we want. But we have to know where the money is before we kill ’em. And we don’t know, and they ain’t gonna tell us.”

“Let me and a few of my boys try, Jens,” asked Jorge. “I joined you and your gang because I didn’t think we had a chance at this prize on our own. But we have talents you kin use now. We needed your numbers, but you need our ruthlessness right now. You’re thinkin’ they ain’t got the money with ’em, and won’t tell us where it is. They’ll tell me, once I start in on persuadin’ ’em. Nobody keeps a secret from me.”

“I know all about your ruthlessness, Jorge,” countered Jens. “You’ve turned against three other gang leaders that I personally know of. I ain’t about to let you get close to that money without standin’ right behind you myself. I didn’t bring all you brigands and bandits together jist to let you take my prize from me and my boys.

“They ain’t gonna stay in this two-mug town forever. When they leave, we’ll be waitin’ for ’em right here. They gotta come this way if they’re goin’ west, and we kin lay a trap for ’em in these woods. They hug the road perty close and no one’ll see us till it’s too late. Tomorrow or the next day, what difference do it make? We jist have to keep our eyes open and they’ll come to us.”

***

There were inns all over Orilon, big and small, cheap and fancy. They differed in the quality of their rooms, their food, their drink. But there was a certain uniformity about their design. The basements always were full of barrels of beer, casks of wine, and preserved foodstuffs like hams. The ground floor was always where where the owner lived in back, the kitchen was, and the tap room, which doubled as the eating area and cheap dormitory.

Upstairs were a number of other floors, depending on how much business the inn might have. The first floor up the stairs was called the “first floor”, and so on up to the top. Most floors contained private rooms. However many floors the inn had, the top floor was normally an empty room. It was a storage place for battered furniture and other not quite useful items that weren’t going to be thrown away just yet. Caravan guards often slept in places like this because there was room for them, which the barroom floor might not have.

Vince wasn’t cheap, but he was a clever strategist. He asked for the attic room, exclusively for his party. If anyone else wanted to sleep up there, Vince would pay for them to get a regular room. The innkeeper looked puzzled by this, but Vince paid him for the room as if it were full of caravan guards.

There were a few cots and stools and a lot of empty floor in the attic, and little heat. There was light from windows at the east and west ends of the room.

“Push those cots into the east end of the room,” Vince ordered. “We’ll stash our gear against that wall, behind the cots. That leaves a nice open area for fightin’ if we get attacked. We take turns all night, sittin’ near the door and keepin’ watch.”

“So that’s why you chose this luxury suite, dear,” joked Jenny. “Easy to keep watch, harder to be surprised. Good thing none of us are heavy sleepers. Ben, you and Polly go down now and have dinner. We’ll eat when you come back up. We can’t leave the money unguarded. Bring some beer up if you want.”

“Ah’ll see if’n Ah kin git a table from the landlord,” declared Horace. “We got some stools, but a table to sit around’d be nice.”

The first night went quietly. The morning found them still tired from their race from the brigands.

“If we leave today, we kin travel at a slower pace,” suggested Horace. “That won’t be as good as resting, but it needn’t tire us too much. Ah don’t want those brigands to git any closer too soon.”

“If we stay today, we can rest and so can our horses,” argued Betsy. “We pushed them hard the last few days, even swapping them with the remounts. I kept checking behind us, and I never saw anyone following. We switched from one road to another a few times. We left a hard trail to follow, well, except for the tracks of of all these horses.”

“We don’t know if they’ve got a decent tracker with them,” mused Jenny. “But we used the creek bed trick a couple of times. That usually works pretty well at foiling pursuers. What do you think, Vince? Should we move on, or take a chance and rest today?”

“We sold the extra horses here last night,” Vince reminded them. “That means we’ll have to be more careful of our own horses. That means we should stay and rest ’em some more. However, I agree with Horace that putting some more distance between the brigands and us is a good idea.”

“There’s a problem with staying here,” objected Betsy, looking out the east window at the distant hills. “I just thought of it now seeing those hills. I should have paid more attention on our way here, but I was to busy looking behind us. If I had noticed our route as a whole, I’d have seen that we’ve been in a big valley since we escaped those guys. All roads are going to lead here, no matter how we try to hide our trail. This is the first city we’ve come to, and they’ll come here, too.”

“Hoo boy!” exclaimed Vince. “Not what I wanted to hear, Betsy, but thanks for the warning anyway. Anyone else want to add an idea. We’re all in this together, so all of us need to suggest things. Ben, I know you don’t want to lead the band, but you’re a member, too. You have a right to have an opinion on this. What do you think?”

“I think it’s rainin’, and hard,” Ben pointed out the window. Walking over and looking at the sky, he added, “Might clear later, but it’s gonna rain fer a while this mornin’. Might as well stay dry.”

***

It had been a restful day, watching the rain make puddles in the street below, talking about whether their pursuers had reached Hythe. The discussion continued intermittently, should they leave when the rain stopped, or wait until a drier morning. The rain settled that argument by continuing into the early afternoon. Packing up their gear would delay their departure until evening, so staying until the morning was an easy decision.

Horace took advantage of this to walk around the town. He always liked to view towns he hadn’t visited before, admiring their distinctive architectures, the way they decorated their buildings. He went down to the west gate and looked out at the road they would be taking in the morning. A large forest stood on both sides of the road, starting about a mile from the town. Between the woods and Hythe was a river crossed by a wooden bridge.

Carpenters swarmed over the near end of the bridge. Horace could see they were widening the ten-foot bridge, adding another five feet to each side. Two massive beams spanned the river, matching the long beams Horace could see exposed under the current bridge. The carpenters were adding smaller beams to join the old beams to the new ones on each side. A stack of planks stood near the gates, ready for laying as a new surface.

Horace had never seen a bridge being built, and was fascinated by the sight. He was surprised, however, to see a wide grassy area between the gate and the bridge.

“Why’s there all this here grass between the gate and that bridge?” he asked a guard at the gate.

“Can’t build anything there,” answered the man. “My name’s Willie, old timer here, know almost as much about the town as the priests of Grasilos do, I reckon. Like to talk about it, too. I’ll tell you all you want to know if you’re willing to listen to me ramble on.”

“Talk away,” replied Horace, “Ah’m just out for a walk to see the town. Ah don’t mind hearing it’s history.”

“Well, this town goes way back in history, founded right after the Big War. There didn’t use to be walls but there were lots of brigands in those days, so they built the walls. They found that here, where these walls are, there’s bedrock not too far down, so the walls have support. Right out there, where that grass is, the bedrock is so far down, no one’s ever dug deep enough to find it. Can’t build anything heavy there, and it’s been tried often enough. Town finally outlawed any building there. We use it as a place for a farmer’s market now.”

“What time does this gate open in the morning?” asked Horace. “Ah got some friends and we’d like to git an early start on our traveling tomorrow.”

“You’ll have to wait till full sunlight,” Willie told him. “Logan, he’s the captain of the watch, can give you permission to leave at dawn, if you ask him nicely. Once or twice, he’s allowed us to open even earlier, but not often. Logan likes to keep the town locked up tightly till there’s light enough to see trouble.”

“That’s too bad. We was hoping to git out while it was dark. We’re concerned about being robbed by brigands on the road, and that forest looks like a good place to ambush us. Ah reckoned we might sneak past them before light. Even if they got a guy on watch, we kin take him out before he kin warn anyone that we’re there.”

“Take him out? Do you mean ‘kill him’?” asked Willie.

“Well, Ah don’t want to be quite so clear talking to a member of the town watch. But, yeah, they’re brigands, and they’ve been chasing us trying to rob us. So we’ll kill any we run into.”

“We don’t like brigands here in Hythe. Kill all you want, and we may give you a pat on the back. Want some more town history?”

“Sure thing, go ahead,” answered Horace.

“Hythe was pretty near destroyed by brigands about twenty years ago. I was a young fella then and it was a really bad time. The old baron, Happalondo, was too old to lead his men in battle, and refused to let his son lead them. So the bandits and brigands ran all over the barony. Happalondo finally died, and his son led his army out to get rid of the brigands. He failed. He got killed, and so did most of his men. The brigands took over the town and stole practically everything. Burned some houses, killed a lot of people.

“His son, Zinarro, was just fifteen, taking part in his first battle. He wanted to stay and die avenging his father. An old sergeant pulled him out of the battle by force. Told him, you’ll avenge your father by staying alive and coming back, not by dying now. Two years later he had rebuilt his army, and trained a good militia for Hythe. Zinarro led his men out to destroy the brigands, and asked the Hythe militia to join him. We wanted vengeance as much as he did.

“The same band of brigands was still in the barony, bigger, stronger because they had been so successful. They weren’t afraid of us, they’d already beat us badly once. Another time wouldn’t be so hard for them. That’s what they thought. Zinarro set the militia in place to block their escape from their camp. Then he charged into it from the other side with his men at arms. The brigands held for a while, then tried to break out. They ran into us and got slaughtered. I was there that day and I’m glad I was. Guys who weren’t in the militia were ashamed to have stayed at home.

“Zinarro made us like him with that victory. He made us love him by giving Hythe all the loot in the brigands’ camp. Everything they had stolen from us and not yet spent. Everything they had stolen from other towns, and passing merchants. He kept nothing for himself, despite his expenses in rebuilding his army and helping us build the militia. We were able to rebuild the town properly thanks to him.

“He’s rough mannered, comes from losing his father so young, from having to run a whole barony with no real training. But he’s good to us, so we don’t mind his brusque behavior. We know he’ll protect us no matter what happens, against any enemy.”

“Well, thanks for the interesting history,” said Horace. “I oughta be gitting back to my friends now. Been nice listening to you.”

***

When evening came, Ben and Polly went down to dinner first. The tap room had a dozen people eating and drinking, and no one paid any attention to the two young rogues.

Vince and Jenny came down for their dinner when Ben and Polly were back upstairs. Horace and Betsy were the last couple to eat. On the way back upstairs, he bought a small keg of beer to help pass the time.

It was too early for sleep so the rogues sat around the table and chatted. They had set the table at the west end of the room, convenient for whoever was on watch, since the door was in the west end of the north wall. Beer and small talk was a pleasant way to pass the time. They felt safe enough to leave their armor in the back of the room with their loot. Jenny had trained them all to always have weapons of some sort within reach, but none were actually on the table.

The inn was not very quiet in the evening. They were far enough up in the building that the songs from the tap room were faint, but still audible. The opened windows let in other noises from the street below, including an argument about someone’s mother’s virtue. They ignored the sounds. They had heard such things too often in too many towns to pay attention now.

“The rain stopped three hours ago, and the sky cleared completely,” commented Betsy. “I think we should consider leaving early tomorrow morning, which means getting to bed now. I doubt those brigands have followed us here. Just in case, we can keep a sharp watch out for signs of an ambush on the road.”

“That’s a problem I don’t have an answer to,” countered Vince. “Ambushes are, by definition, always going to be a surprise. If we get caught on the road we might get surrounded and cut to ribbons. When we left Syke I was countin’ on our wearing armor over our clothes to make us look tough and discourage thieves. I wasn’t thinking of a huge gang. I was hoping to mislead ’em as to where we were going. Betsy says she saw dozens of tracks. We only killed maybe one dozen in that box canyon. How many more are there still after us? We can’t fight dozens.

“Anybody have any ideas of how to survive if we get attacked on the road? Ben, you’re lookin’ like you want to say somethin’, but you’re afraid we’ll laugh. Go ahead and tell us your idea, and we won’t laugh, I promise.”

“We need a bag o’ rocks,” Ben blurted out, awkwardly. “In one of my grampa’s stories, Scarnigaro was carryin’ this big bag of gold ’cause,… well, why ain’t ’portant. But he had this bag of gold, ’n’ was bein’ chased by these bad guys. He hadda git to the river where a ferry could git him across, but the bad guys was too close. So he dropped his other bag, that his clothes was in. The bad guys stopped to git the bag, thinkin’ it was the gold. By the time they larned they was wrong, he was halfway to the ferry.”

“Ben, your granddaddy was just full of good advice,” Vince praised him. “That’s a very good idea. Drop a bag that looks like it might be full of money and distract ’em while we get away.”

“Naw, that won’t do,” objected Horace. “Sack of clothes’ll drop and bounce. Bag full of gold will drop and not move. We need somethin’ heavy, like the rocks Ben suggested. Where kin we git rocks here in town?”

“Worse problem, one bag won’t be enough,” countered Jenny. “They want all the loot, and may not be satisfied with just one bag. Give them our pack horse. They’ll grab it and run the other way, happy to get the prize without a fight.”

Betsy thought about that for a while, then made a slight change to the plan. “We have the money on our own horses now. Safer that way. The pack horse has our clothes, camping gear, food, other supplies. I don’t want to lose any of that stuff. So, let’s spend a couple of hundred moons to buy another horse. Load it up with sacks full of rocks, bricks, old metal pots, anything heavy.

“If we get ambushed and can retreat or push through, we do so, leaving the one horse for them to “capture.” The only problem with this is, what if we can’t get away from them?”

“I got another idea fer that,” volunteered Ben. “Watch this.”

Ben stood and walked five feet from the table. He held his arms straight out from his body, shut his eyes in concentration, and became engulfed in flame. Fire was covering his entire body, from the top of his head to his feet. And he was calmly smiling. He cancelled the fire and sat down again.

“I’ve expanded my fire to cover all of me. I was thinkin’ about what Polly did to those bandits on the road north of Syke, and how fire is skeery. A man all on fire oughta really skeer people, ’n’ mebbe give us a chance to get away from someone attackin’ us.”

“So, let’s put this all together,” Jenny considered their plan. “If we get caught and can’t get away, Ben covers himself in fire to distract the brigands enough for us to flee. Whether we’re caught and get away, or we get away easily, we let them take a spare horse carrying nothing of value. I like this. It’s good. But what do we do ten minutes later when they check out the horse and find we fooled them? A ten minute lead isn’t much.”

“If it was me planning to rob us,” conjectured Vince, “I wouldn’t want to wait any longer than I had to. These guys’ve already been after us for days, and they’ve taken some losses. I’d find a good spot near the town to lay in wait for us, then attack hard. Woods are always a good spot for an ambush, ’cause the trees hide your men. Someplace in the mountains, though I think we left most of those behind already.”

“There’s a forest just west of the town,” offered Horace. “Ah saw it earlier today while out walking around the town.”

“Well, that’s where they’ll be waiting,” said Jenny. “Can we avoid being trapped there? What if we can retreat back to the town? We’re safe inside here.”

“What do we do then?” asked Vince. “We can’t stay here forever. If nothing else, those guys may try to break into the town and get us. I know our limits. We need help from outside, and I’m not too proud to ask for it. We asked for help from Amos. We can ask for help from Hythe. The town watch might give some support to our line. Maybe there’s a nobleman somewhere nearby who’ll come to our aid. We can’t ask for help until we know the brigands are still nearby. That’s unfortunate, but unavoidable.”

“So we go out tomorrow expecting trouble, and hope we can come out alive. Is that the plan?” asked Polly.

“That’s about the size of it,” answered Vince. “We go out the gate before dawn, the same way we left Syke, and trust that the brigands don’t have anyone watching the road that early. If they do, Betsy or Ben can try to take him out quietly with an arrow or sling stone before he can wake ’em. We go down the road slowly, quietly. No galloping, that’ll wake ’em up. We move quietly for at least two miles of forest, that might be enough. Then we run as fast as we can. If we can sneak past before they’re awake, they may wait all day for us to leave Hythe. A day’s lead will be all we’ll need now.

“And if they still follow us, I have another plan. There’s still some mountains ahead, and we can use ’em to hide from these brigands, maybe. If we can find a rocky enough side trail goin’ up into the mountains, we can use it to get out of sight high up. When they follow us, they won’t expect us to have gone up. They’ll look for us up ahead. After they pass, we can come down and follow after ’em. Once we get out of the mountains, we note their tracks, and go some other way.”

“What if we cain’t sneak past ’em?” asked Ben. “S’pose they’re thinkin’ we might leave real early, ’n’ are already awake when we come by.”

“We sacrifice the spare horse with the bags of rocks,” decided Jenny. “We turn back to Hythe and try to get back inside. If we leave early, we’ll have to ask them to open the gates for us. They may not open them again if we come running back right away. But the bridge is defensible. I saw it today, too. Ten feet wide isn’t too wide for a bridge but I wish we had some people behind our line. Six of us in one line are going to have a hard time of it.

“Still, we can fill the width without leaving gaps in our line, and they can’t push all of their numbers at us at once. Four of us across the bridge. Betsy on the left, Vince, Ben, and me on the right. Horace and Polly behind, as usual.

“Ben, Polly, there’s a new danger for you here, on foot facing horsemen. Even with our good armor, they’ll be able to cut you. The force of their blows, especially a straight-armed sword thrust, will be increased by the mass of the horse. Try to avoid getting stuck by such a thrust. Once the charge is over, they lose that advantage, but until then they do have an edge.

“Ben, your flame idea is good, but I’ve got an improvement. People don’t like fire, but they can control their fear. Horses fear fire just as much as people do, and they can’t control that fear. Put your magic fire on their horses. You told us you can put it on stuff you’re not touching, right?”

“Yeah. Oh, yeah! That’s a great idea, Jenny! Polly, you kin do this, too. The fire won’t hurt the horse we put it on, but the riders clothes will catch fire, and the other horses will see the fire ’n’ git skeered. They’ll git real spooked ’n’ start running wild all over the place.”

“That’s what I want. A serious distraction that’ll give us time to get back to that bridge and dismount. If we can get into the town, so much the better. But I want to be able to defend that bridge if we can’t get in. We can’t let them make a strong mounted attack on our line. There aren’t enough of us to stand up to horses charging us. If they’re dismounted, they’ll still be a serious threat and we’ll have to work hard to hold our line. Don’t give an inch of ground. Not an inch.”

“I’ll go see the captain of the watch, what’s his name? Logan? I’ll talk to him now, and ask him if we can leave before dawn,” decided Vince. “I’ve got enough moons in my pouch to help persuade him if words aren’t enough.”

***

Jens had camped his men on both sides of the road through the forest, each camp far enough back from the road so as not to be easily seen by travelers. He left the right hand camp to repeat his orders to the men on the left.

“Get to sleep early tonight. I want three men awake and watching all night long. These guys we want to rob are tricky. According to Paul, they left Syke before dawn, it seems, trying to avoid being seen leaving. If they try that here, I want us to be awake, armed, armored, and ready for ’em. They’ve slipped past us too many times already. Have a man with a horn to sound the alarm. He’ll alert both camps. When they come between our camps, rush out and surround ’em. I don’t really care if we kill ’em all. What I want is the treasure. Git their horses, and let the people go. The horses’ll have the money on their backs. Git that and we kin take off.”

There was a faint glow to the sky, although the mountains to the east hid the glow of the sun’s approach. First light in the mountains was not the same as first light on an open plain, but the rogues were used to telling time by subtle changes in the night sky. They had risen earlier and gotten ready for their trip. Pack their gear, get their horses from the stable, saddle, load the packs. Walk the horses to the west gate. Logan, the captain of the watch, met them at the west gate himself.

“I thought you were timid travelers when Vince asked me to open the gate for you so early,” Logan remarked. “But looking at your armor and weapons, I wonder that you’re concerned about anyone attacking you. You look capable of handling most dangers of the road.”

“Usually we can,” replied Jenny, “but we’ve been chased for several days by a large gang of brigands. We don’t know how many, but assume more than even we can handle. The early bird may get the worm, but the worm can avoid the bird if he’s even earlier.”

Rather than opening the large gates that protected the town, Logan used a key to open a smaller door set into one of the gates. The rogues led their horses through the small wicket gate and mounted on the road leading to the bridge. Logan closed and locked the wicket behind them, chatted briefly with the men on duty, and went back to bed.

The rogues rode quietly across the bridge, and Jenny paid more careful attention to its width. Two horses easily rode side by side, and three might be able to pass but only if they were walking. Three charging horses would bump into each other taking this bridge shoulder to shoulder. Without the normal side wall to the bridge, this would be dangerous. This reassured her somewhat, but what she saw next made her smile.

Three farmers were already lined up on the road, waiting for sunrise and the opening of the gate. First man into the markets got the best spot to sell his goods, and these were all hoping to get good spots. Jenny knew that these wagons would block the road to the bridge very well. If they got chased back to Hythe by the brigands, these wagons would impede their pursuers more than her friends.

The sky was cloudless this morning, and the sky was getting lighter overhead as they approached the edge of the forest. Betsy and Ben rode ahead of the rest of the band. Betsy had her bow strung and an arrow nocked, ready to shoot any watchman she saw. Ben had a sling stone ready, and was leading the spare pack horse with the fake sacks of gold.

As they entered the woods, the early gleams of dawn disappeared and they rode in darkness. Their eyes quickly adjusted to the dark, but it was deep enough to hide much of what might be hidden in the forest. After about a mile, they heard the sound of ox horns booming from both sides of the road. Riders began rushing out of the dark woods, but the rogues hadn’t walked far enough into the trap to be surrounded.

The rogues wheeled their horses around and began to ride hard back toward Hythe. Betsy turned in her saddle and fired the arrow she had ready into the dark, hoping it might hit someone. Ben waited until they had left the cover of the woods to release the spare horse. The growing brightness made it easier for the brigands behind them to see the horse, and its packs, and they stopped for it.

A few minutes later, cursing at the trick played on them, the brigands resumed their chase of the rogues. The rogues were now getting close to the bridge, and Ben called to Polly to join him at the back of the band. They had to stop a hundred yards from the bridge so they could do their magic. Ben was sure they could do this trick, but they hadn’t tried to work magic while moving before.

The two young student wizards thought about fire enveloping horses, and fire sprouted out over horse after horse. They each did three horses, then turned and raced back toward the bridge. They dismounted there and took their places in Jenny’s line.

Jens was startled to see his horse suddenly burst into flame. He couldn’t believe it at first, thinking it must be some sort of illusion, or dream. But it was hot to his hands, and his tunic was smoking where it touched the horse. He looked around and saw other horses on fire. He panicked. So did many of his men’s horses. His men started to lose control of their horses, some riding involuntarily away from the road, some being unhorsed by bucking mounts.

Jens jumped off his horse, as did several others, beating at smoldering clothes, and screaming in rage. Some of his men kept on toward the rogues, but were stopped by a line of wagons which blocked easy access to the bridge. They wanted to charge the thin line of rogues at the end of the bridge, but couldn’t build up enough speed to manage a breakthrough. A few arrows and sling stones made them more cautious and they dismounted and stood around waiting for orders from Jens.

***

Declan looked out from the top of the gatehouse. The sky was getting lighter and lighter. Soon the sun would be fully up and he could go home and sleep. It had been half an hour since Logan had ordered them to let some early travelers leave. He thought it odd to be on the road that early, but it wasn’t his business.

Now he saw them coming back, riding hard. A large mass of other riders was following them just as fast, shouting loudly enough for him to hear noise, if not words. He was too young to have fought the brigands eighteen years earlier, but he had listened to his father’s stories of that battle. He thought these other riders must be brigands. And they were coming toward the town.

“Julio, look out there!” he called to the other guard on duty. “Lots of riders, tough looking guys, coming toward the town. They’re chasing those people who snuck out earlier. The ones who were worried about brigands. Run down to Logan’s house and tell him. I’ll ring the bell here to alert the other guards.”

Julio looked and saw what Declan saw, and it scared him just as much. Dozens of armed men, at least as many as the whole militia put together. Then he got another shock as the horses of those men started to burst into flame. He didn’t know what to think about that, but knew he had to tell Logan at once. He ran down the stairs and through the streets as fast as he could.

By the time he got to Logan’s house, the alarm bell in the gatehouse was ringing loudly. He knocked on the door and it opened almost at once. Logan was standing in his nightshirt, not very happy.

“I just got back to sleep,” Logan complained. “What the hell is going on that you’re ringing the alarm and knocking on my door? What sort of trouble can’t be held off by the town walls?”

“Those travelers you let out are back, chased by what looks like dozens of brigands,” answered Julio. “I know those people aren’t from Hythe, but brigands are brigands. I don’t want to see them attacking people if we can help those folk.”

“Brigands? You did right, Julio. Now go to my stable in back, saddle a horse, and ride fast to tell Baron Zinarro. We’ll need his help if there’s dozens of brigands attacking. Hurry!”

***

The wagons lined up to enter the town kept the brigands from riding down the bridge en masse. The farmers had run off, hoping their goods and animals would survive. Jens ran up to the bridge and surveyed his challenge. Six rogues lined up across the other end of the bridge, four across, with two in back. I got almost fifty men with me, twenty with iron scale armor, most of the rest with decent studded hard leather armor. Good fighters. We kin send in five men against their for man line. It’ll be a little tight, but an extra sword will help. If we rush ’em hard, we might be able to break that line and then our numbers will finish things off perty fast.

“I want you twenty men here, you guys in scale armor. Five across, four men deep. Run down there and hit ’em hard. I want you to break that line so the rest of us can mop ’em up. Some of you men, git these wagons out of the way. We kin go in on foot and beat these bastards, but I wanna make a quick escape. The horses we want are right there, behind ’em. We’ll grab their horses, with the loot this time, and run. I want the road clear for that. Then git lined up behind this first bunch. Do it now!

Jens moved his chosen twenty men around the wagons and onto the bridge.

“Break that line, it’s not deep, and they ain’t trained men at arms. Don’t matter what their armor looks like, they ain’t. Remember, you got friends behind you to help you out. Go to it now, at a run!”

As they came running up, Horace placed the shaft of his axe across the backs of Vince and Ben, and leaned hard against it to hold them in place. Jenny yelled out, “Brace yourselves! Don’t budge an inch!”

Jens was right about the bridge being tight for five men attacking in a line, and the center man got pushed forward just enough to get in the way of the men on both his sides. The rogues were badly jostled by the crush of their opponents, but the uneven attack helped them hold their positions. As soon as the initial shock was over, Horace swung his axe overhead and brought it down on a helmet.

Ben’s magic made the axe extra sharp, but not enough to slice through metal easily. Still, a heavy axe wielded by a large, strong man will do a lot of damage. The helmet took the blow, but there was now a gash near its top, and the man wearing it staggered from the force of the blow. This made him miss a swing of Vince’s sword that sliced his right arm. He wasn’t badly injured, but he dropped his sword from surprise. He slipped out of place, trying to get to the back of his gang to find another sword.

The men on either side were slightly uncovered by his retreat, and Vince and Ben struck quickly, their swords hitting hard scale plates. Polly’s spear also snaked into the opening, wounding one man in his leg. The battle had just started and already two of the leading men of the brigands’ attack were wounded and retiring from the fight.

The brigands ignored Jens’ orders and made a four man line to face the rogues. A five man line was too tight to move freely while four men gave them room to swing their swords and parry with their shields. It was also easier for a wounded man to work his way out, or for a fresh man to move up to the front.

Ben was frustrated by the scale armor. He hadn’t yet fought against any armor that hadn’t had a lot of leather in its construction. Even metal studs were attached to a leather jerkin, with a lot of exposed leather for his magically sharp blades to cut through. The scales were riveted to leather as well, but the leather was protected under the metal scales. He swung harder, and sometimes found a weak scale that would split, making a hole, a weak spot ready for another blow later.

The brigands were just as upset. They knew they were fairly tough fighters. They could see they were hitting the rogues. But they couldn’t break the tiny mail the rogues wore. The rogues were also better at parrying than ordinary travelers should be. The brigands were landing blows, but not as many as they expected.

After fifteen minutes of inconclusive fighting, Jens called his men back. They weren’t sure they could disengage from the battle, but their opponents didn’t try to follow them down the bridge. Back on the far bank, they gathered around Jens to learn what he wanted to try next.

“Paul said he thought these guys was real good, and I reckon he’s right,” admitted Jens. “They ain’t killed any of us yet, but we got three men wounded and ain’t touched any of ’em. We’re still chasin’ down the horses. When we git ’em back we kin try chargin’ ’em on horseback, the way we planned in the first place.

“Until then, let’s try a wedge formation. Ivan, you’ve got scale armor, you’re the biggest, you take the point position. Two more, one on his right, one on his left. As he hits their line, lean into his back, helpin’ to push him through. Three more guys behind ’em, doin’ the same thing. The rest just help push the whole bunch through. Don’t stop movin’ or pushin’. Okay, go at it.”

The brigands formed up in a triangle formation, taking a little time to get set up and agree on how it would actually work. Jenny recognized the wedge formation and considered her defenses. She took a close look at the man on point.

“Polly, see that man by himself in the front of that formation. They’ve formed a wedge, trying to break through our line. Good formation, but the first man is important to its success. If he breaks through, or is pushed through, alive or dead, our line is broken. The rest follow through behind him. Now look at his chest. There’s a loose scale dead center. It exposes a small patch of leather under the metal. That’s your target. Do that trick Toothpick Sam taught you, putting your foot on the butt spike. Aim for the loose scale and hold tight.”

Polly got close behind Vince and Ben, keeping the point of her spear hidden for the moment, ready to stick it out as their enemies got nearer. She thought back to playing billiards with Barnabas, hitting the small ball just right to send it where she wanted. I won’t have much time to aim, but if I hit a bit low, the point might slide up and into that little gap. Hit that spot and stand firm. I can do it because failure means death for all of us.

Ivan led the wedge at a fast run, aiming himself at the spot just between the two men in the line. Women at the ends of the line, how silly. That’s where we should be attackin’, where the weak women are. Still Jens thinks this wedge’ll break a big hole in the line. Good enough for me.

Ten feet from contact, Ivan saw a spear point sticking a little ahead of the line, but didn’t think much about it. Two steps closer, he noticed it was definitely poking out in his direction. He wasn’t worried because he had good armor. Another step and he felt a sharp pain in his chest as the spear found the small gap in his armor he hadn’t spotted. The point pierced through his leather jerkin, and his chest. His momentum carried him forward until a very large man from the back row kicked him hard on his pelvis, turning his body and dropping it in the path of his friends. They tripped over it and their attack stalled.

Once again the brigands were facing the rogues one on one, line to line. This time the brigands were more apprehensive, seeing Ivan dropped so easily by someone behind the line. Another man suddenly fell by that same invisible attack. Polly had seen a man who was careless with his shield and thrust her spear into his face.

The fighting intensified, with little more damage done for a while. Some of the brigands were taking wounds, but others came up to take their places. They couldn’t see any damage they were doing to the rogues, and that bothered them. They tried double-teaming one or another of the men in the middle of the line, but their defense was too good. A woman on the right end of the line was small, but fought harder than any man they had ever faced.

Jens called them back again. Once again, the rogues stayed in place. The brigands didn’t notice Ben going from one of his friends to another, checking for wounds, and healing the small ones they had taken. Vince realized that Ben’s healing them wasn’t obvious to their foes, but the result would be. They were imitating an invulnerable army. A force that couldn’t be harmed. That should scare em a lot.

***

While they waited for the brigands to attack again, the gate behind them opened and ten members of the militia of Hythe marched out in heavy brigandines, coats of metal plates enclosed between two layers of leather. The outer leather layer could be cut, but the metal plates weren’t dislodged by this. More flexible than scales, they also protected better. The militia was armed with halberds, long-handled axes with a tall skinny spike at the end. They were designed to stab men on horses, or pull them down to the ground.

“You’re a welcome sight, Logan,” Vince saluted him in greeting as they came up to the bridge.

“I was told brigands were attacking you at the bridge. Hythe hates brigands. Men like these once almost totally destroyed Hythe, and we will fight them every chance we get. This is just the men on watch over night, and their morning replacement. More will come as they wake and dress. If you don’t mind, I think we should move your horses and treasure inside. Stone walls will protect them better than steel. Where would you like us to stand?”

“Thank you for coming,” said Jenny, coming up to offer her advice. “The best place for you is here on the banks of the river. Your halberds are ten feet long. Nice and long, I like that. Your men will have enough reach with them to attack people standing on the bridge from places on the bank. It’s good that the construction work has removed the wall on the bridge. Probably two or three men on each side will be able to reach, no more.

“Stab with the spikes, try to grab legs with the hooked blade and pull them into the river. They have no real defense against that. They’ll become worried about your attacks, and will start to ignore our attacks. They are determined to get our wealth. It’s unlikely they’ll go away, unless we can kill enough of them first. That may take all day, but we have the town to retreat into if we have to. They have no place to shelter.”

“How many of them are there?” asked Logan.

“Maybe fifty or so, near as I can tell,” answered Vince. “We’ve wounded several and killed a few. Their armor is good enough to take some serious damage without letting ’em get wounded. Their legs are a better target, but only Polly and her spear have had any luck wounding ’em there. Maybe some of your men can try to jab the spikes of their halberds into some legs, too. Wounded men are almost as useful as dead men to us.”

“Baron Zinarro should be here within the hour, I think,” announced Logan. “I sent a messenger to rouse him when I heard about the brigands. That’s maybe half an hour ago. It took me some time to get these men gathered and in armor. The baron’s castle is two miles away. He should be waking his men by now. It’ll take them some more time to arm. Servants will saddle their horses, but all this takes some time. Another half hour before he arrives, at least. Maybe an hour. With our help, do you think we can hold out that long here?”

“We’re quite good fighters, not just simple travelers,” declared Jenny. “We could hold this bridge on our own against ten men easily, against twenty with a bit of difficulty. They have forty or fifty men still uninjured. That’s more than I’d like to have to face without help. We’ve done all right so far, but the day is still young. Your halberd men will make it a lot easier to defend this bridge.

“But take a look at them over there. We drove off a lot of their horses earlier. They’ve been gathering them up again. They’ve moved the wagons that blocked the bridge on that side. Now they can mount up and charge straight down at us. Even with your halberds, that’s going to be a serious attack. The sooner your baron arrives, the better.”

“Kin we git a wagon, sir?” asked Ben, who’d been listening to the conversation. “A wagon we kin place in the middle of the bridge, to block it off agin.”

“They’ll be able to pull it out their end, and open the bridge again,” countered Logan.

“Not if looks like it’s on fire, ’n’ I kin do that. I’m larnin’ how to do magic, and that’s one trick I already know,” explained Ben. “I put fire on some of their horses as they got close to the bridge and skeered a bunch of ’em away. I had to dismiss the fire after they ran off. I was skeered they might burn down the forest. The fire won’t burn up the wagon, but it’s real ’n’ it’ll burn ’em if they touch it.”

“Magic? Really?” asked Logan, bewildered.

“Magic. Really,” replied Jenny. “It’s hard to believe that magic is still around after all these centuries. But we’ve seen what he can do and believe in Ben.”

A few minutes later an empty wagon was pushed through the gate and into position halfway down the bridge. Ben walked up to the town end of the wagon and waited for the brigands to try to move it.

***

“We’re still missin’ some of the horses, Jens,” complained Jorge. “The ones that were on fire ain’t flamin’ now, and don’t seem hurt by it.”

“We’ve got a few men dead, and a bunch too wounded to ride easily,” Jens replied. “All we need is enough to ride down that handful of damned bastards. Half our men’re more than enough to do that, and we should be able to mount more than forty of us.”

“Yeah, but they’re gittin’ help now,” Jorge pointed to the militia coming out of the gate.

“Damn! Still, we got the numbers to ride ’em all down. Everybody get ready!” Jens ordered.

He watched the other end of the bridge as his men got mounted. What’re they doin’ now? Bringin’ out another wagon? What fer? We’ll jist pull it away, too. They ain’t got much of an idea how to fight us.

“Kane, take a couple of men and haul that wagon off the bridge. We cain’t charge with it in the way.”

As Kane and two other brigands approached the wagon, Ben concentrated and the wagon suddenly seemed to burst into flame. Kane reached out a hand and pulled it back quickly. He turned and looked at Jens for an idea of what to do now. Jens gave him no order, being just as astonished.

Kane and his partners walked back to their horses and were about to mount when Jens stopped them.

“That wagon ain’t straight on the bridge. The far end’s aimed more to the side than this end. Hack a couple of wagon poles off these here wagons and use ’em to push that wagon off the bridge.”

Soon half a dozen men were chopping the wagon poles from two of the wagons they had removed earlier from the approaches to the bridge. They had a pair of eight foot long poles and brought them onto the bridge. Two men grabbed each pole and set it against the apparently flaming wagon. Two other men joined each pair, adding their weight to the effort to push the wagon off the bridge.

“Remember Windleby?” Betsy asked Ben and Polly. “We can interfere here the same way. They’ll find the same way to protect their men, but they’ll lose a few in the meantime.”

She went back into the town to find her horse, and her bow and quiver. When she came out with the bow strung and the quiver on her shoulder, Ben and Polly were ready with their slings and a helmet full of stones in Horace’s hands.

Kane and two other men dropped before they had hardly begun. Three more of the eight men on the poles fell half a minute later. The last two ran off.

“May the Gods blast those damn, blaggin’, filthy, cornisizin’ frenckers!” Jens swore in a frenzy. “Come on, we need eight more men to push that wagon out of our way! Give me some men with shields to give ’em cover. Don’t just stand there lookin’ at each other! If you wanna git a share of the treasure, you gotta help git it. Nobody gits a share who don’t earn it. That’s better, now push!”

The wagon hid some of the men with the poles, and the shieldmen helped the others, so only one more was killed. The wagon moved slowly because Ben had asked the townsmen who brought it out to set the brakes before they left. Even so, it did move, scraping across the bridge and finally tipping off the edge. It fell between the large new support beam and the old beam, and plunged into the river.

Jens gave a heartfelt sigh of relief. That’s fixed. Good. Nothin’ else to go wrong. Nothin’ else in our way. Mount up and charge down on ’em. Time to put an end to this nonsense and git paid fer our efforts. Sun’s already up, peekin’ over the mountain tops. Wasted too much time here. Damn!

***

Baron Zinarro hurried through his castle, waking his men and hustling them into their armor. Servants were ordered to saddle the horses his men would ride. He entered his sleeping son’s room.

“Get up, Erpidanio” he shouted as he kicked the fifteen-year-old awake. “There are brigands attacking Hythe and it’s time you learned about battle. Get armored. Sword and shield. No lances today, just hacking and slashing. Get moving, boy!”

He descended to the courtyard to supervise his men. Fifty men and horses crowded the space, making it difficult for anyone to move. He thought again about adding another bailey outside the main gate, with more space for marshaling his forces. No time to worry about that now. How many are ready? Thirty? This is taking too long. There comes Erpidanio, that was quick. Good boy. I’ll count the men as we head out the gate.

“Come on, you sluggards! We’re going to a battle, not a picnic! Forty of you. That’s better. Where’s the rest? Hurry up now! Finally, all fifty! There’s brigands attacking Hythe and we’re going to destroy them. No quarter. Kill every last one of them!”

He led them south on the road to Hythe, crossing the river at a ford, because Julio had told him the brigands were at the bridge. The road to Hythe was better on the east side of the river. The west side had only a cart track for the benefit of the farmers there, rutted and not too wide. Zinarro didn’t care, he raced his men as fast as they could go for the two miles to Hythe.

As they approached the town, he could see a large number of mounted men at the west end of the bridge. He saw footmen at the other end, the town militia he assumed. He gave the order to blow his battle horn, its booming sound warning everyone around that his army was coming.

Vince and the rogues heard the horn blast and looked north to see dozens of armed men whose livery meant they served some nobleman. They felt relieved at the sight of a rescuing force. Logan and his militia men, numbers growing by the minute as more men came out of the town, cheered their baron and his men at arms. “For Hythe and Zinarro!” The cry rang out loudly across the river.

Jens looked to his left as he heard the sound and froze. Oh, no! I’m ready to charge now. Why did they have to come now? Another few minutes and we’d have smashed ’em and gotten their treasure. Damn it all! That bunch on the bridge ain’t goin’ anywhere, better take care of these newcomers. Probably typical baronial troops, careless, ill-trained, sloppy. Gotta keep ’em from attackin’ us, anyway.

“Turn to the left, all of you!” he shouted to his men. “We’ve got company! Smash these warriors, we’ve got numbers on ’em, and their horses look winded.”

The brigands turned their horses and began riding hard at Zinarro’s men. The two forces met in a confused melee, two hundred yards from the bridge. Men from each side were mixed into the other formation, friend and foe were intertwined, swords flashed in all directions.

Logan told Vince, “Let us through, that’s Baron Zinarro come to help us. We need to support him. It’s our duty to him, and our pride that we’ve never deserted him, nor him us.”

“We’ll lead you, then,” replied Vince. “If he’s here to fight these brigands, he’s not merely helping Hythe, he’s helping us. We owe him our thanks too.”

“Zinarro’s livery is green and white,” advised Logan as they ran down the bridge. Ben paused a moment to dismiss the fire on the wagon hanging off the bridge’s edge. In a few minutes they reached the tumultuous battle, horses moving erratically as their riders tried to find an opening to attack someone.

“How do we fight this mixed up mess?” asked Ben.

“Green and white are our friends, kill the rest,” answered Jenny. “Nice and simple.”

Polly had already figured that out and thrust her spear at a mounted brigand. He had raised his arm to swing a blow at one of the baron’s men and the spear point went into his armpit. His scale armor had saved his life often before, but the scales didn’t cover the armpit, and he fell from his horse badly wounded.

Halberd wielding militiamen were pulling brigands from their mounts with the curved hooks on their halberds. On the ground the brigands were attacked by the rogues. Even a well-armored man found parts of his body exposed as he fell. If his head fell back with the weight of his helmet, his throat was open to a slash; if he landed on his back, his legs would spread open and expose his groin to a thrust; the rogues didn’t miss any chances.

Jens’ best men had scale armor, but all of Zinarro’s men had mail, and the difference in armor began to have an effect on the fighting. Jens began to worry about surviving the battle, himself and his gang. The bandits’re dyin’ fast, never should have let ’ em join us. We’re outnumbered now by these new guys, some baron’s men, I guess. Damn! How did everything go so wrong so fast? I’ve still got enough of my own men left, and some of Jorge’s, to do something.

He regrouped his men as much as he could, and pointed to a target. “Attack here!” Jens cried loudly, indicating a weak spot in the baron’s force. He spurred his horse toward the place and swung his sword down hard on Zinarro’s shoulder. Zinarro fell off his horse and ten of Jens’ brigands poured into the hole in the line. They were hoping to break out of the encircling forces against them, but they were brought up short by some other mounted men-at-arms coming up faster from the sides. The militia gathered around them and made sure that none survived. The militia’s halberds were well-designed for pulling mounted men out of their saddles. The rogues attacked the mounted men directly, slashing any part of their bodies they could reach. Polly’s spear and Horace’s axe did especially good work.

Polly felt a hand on her shoulder, stopped, and saw Jenny smiling at her.

“You can stop now, dear, the battle’s over,” grinned Jenny. “You’re a wonderful fighter, but you do need to learn to look about and see how the fight is going. You don’t want to stab your friends because you’ve run out of enemies.”

***

“Horace, kin you give me a hand with the baron’s byrnie?” asked Ben, tugging at Zinarro’s armor. “I cain’t heal his shoulder if I cain’t touch it.”

“Get away from me, you dopey looking lout,” yelled Zinarro, resisting Ben’s efforts to pull his armor off. “Get me a proper healer. Someone who worships Lesopatia, not some goofy looking peasant.”

His protests were ignored by Horace who manhandled him out of his byrnie. Horace also ignored Zinarro’s cries of pain as his mangled shoulder was twisted and turned in the process. Ben looked at the wound thoughtfully. That hadda be a real powerful blow to cut through his mail armor. It slashed his shoulder ’n’ upper chest. The cut’s just a cut, bad as Vince’s was that time, but I kin heal it. But I kin see a broken bone in there. How should it go back together? This’ll take some time.

“Stop fussin’, Your Lordship, or I cain’t do anythin’ fer you. Jist sit still, please. Polly, kin you do somethin’ to distract him?”

“Like what, Ben?”

“I don’t know. Hold his hand, kiss him, tell him a story. Jist distract him.”

Polly chose the safer options and took the baron’s hand in hers. “Ben is really good at healing wounds, Your Lordship. He really is, it’s amazing. No one knows how he does it, but he can heal cuts without even a scar to remind you where you were wounded.” She continued talking while Ben worked.

Half an hour later Ben stood up shakily and smiled at the baron. “Your shoulder’s healed, My Lord. Thank you, Polly, fer keepin’ him from interferin’.”

Zinarro flexed his right arm and was surprised to feel no pain in his shoulder. He looked in awe as Ben walked away to talk to Vince and Jenny. I insulted that young man and it didn’t stop him from healing me. I can’t just apologize to him, I need to do something to reward him properly. What? His friends may know what he wants. I can give him anything, and will.

“You look worn out, Ben,” commented Jenny. “Too much fighting? It was worse than Windleby, but not Ochtrup.”

“No, the fightin’ I kin handle. Zinarro had a bad cut to his shoulder, with a broken bone. I jist healed that now. Healin’ takes a lot out of me.”

A few minutes later he got up again, then sank back down, exhausted. Polly came up with a flask of brandy, and Ben took a healthy drink from it. “Oh, that helps a lot! Thank you, Polly. Where’d you git the brandy?”

“Zinarro saw you collapse and gave it to me. He said it’s the beginning of his thanks.”

“He don’t need to thank me,” Ben started to say when Jenny interrupted him.

“You were asleep in Ongar for three days and missed most of the excitement over what you did. I needed to thank you, and you let me. All of us have thanked you for saving me, and you let us. But you didn’t see all the other people thanking all the Gods that someone existed who could heal really serious wounds. They may have thought you brought me back to life, but even just healing a beheading was something that impressed them.

“This baron has never seen anything like this, and to him this is a miracle. Not thanking you would be the same as not thanking the Gods for a favor. Who could ever be so ungrateful as that?”

“All right. I have trouble seein’ me as somethin’ special. I should do somethin’ to help these other wounded men. I ain’t ever seen a battlefield ’cept when we’ve killed everyone. I warn’t ’spectin’ to see so many injured people.”

“Now, come with me, Ben, and get some rest,” ordered Polly. “Stop looking at all the wounded men around here. They’ll still be wounded tomorrow, and you’ll be rested then and better able to do them some good.”

***

Ben woke late in the afternoon, rested and embarrassed at becoming so weak every time he healed people. Mebbe I’ll larn how to git stronger mentally. If’n I kin larn that, I’ll be a better wizard, I bet.

He joined his friends as they went to the Temple of Death to justify their killings to the God. Then he went on his own to the Temple of Lesopatia, Goddess of Healing, to check on the men wounded in the battle. There were ten men lying on cots in the recovery ward in the back of the Temple. Two had serious wounds, and all had been bandaged by the Temple healers.

He went up to one of the wounded men, one with a long slash to his right thigh, and unwrapped the bandages around the wound. A male healer came rushing up to stop him.

“What are you doing? That man’s wound must be kept wrapped to let it heal. I will change the bandage when it is necessary to do so. Who are you? You aren’t one of our healers. Are you a healer from elsewhere?”

“I ain’t a healer, but I kin heal,” Ben replied cryptically. “Jist ask Lesopatia if She thinks it’s okay if I help heal some of these men.”

Some of the priestesses also came to interfere with Ben, and he sent them off to pray as well. Fifteen minutes later, they all came back, red-faced.

“Lesopatia told us to let you do whatever you want with these men. She seems to have a very high opinion of you, even if you aren’t one of her worshipers. Is there anything you need? Herbs, special ointments, cleaner bandages?”

“It’s true I don’t worship Lesopatia, but I hold Her in the highest regard. I’m a student wizard, and healin’ wounds is one of the few magical things I kin do. I cain’t explain how I do it, but I kin. All I need is a clean wound. It’s tirin’ to do, so I cain’t do all these men today. I’ll take keer of these two with the nasty wounds, and mebbe one or two more. I’ll do the rest tomorrow. These men risked their lives fer me ’n’ my friends, so I gotta help ’em.”

The next morning Ben got up early and went back to the Temple of Lesopatia. The remaining wounded men had less serious wounds, but still enjoyed, and wondered at, Ben’s healing them so easily. The healers watched in amazement as man after man got up and walked out, whole and scarless.

When he was done, Ben asked the healers to lead him in prayers of thanks to Lesopatia.

“I don’t worship Her, but She has helped me some with the magic healin’. ’N’ I respect Her fer that. I want to thank Her today fer Her help here, and fer giving me permission to help Her work.”

Ben was on his way back to the inn when Polly stopped him.

“They’re having a big celebration in the main square,” she announced. “They meant to have it yesterday but there was so much to do after the battle. Burying the dead, even the brigands, collecting their loot, tending to our wounded, which I see you have finished. Anyway, the party is just getting started today. Everyone’s waiting for you.”

She led him to a large building in the center of town. Banners fluttered over its roof, colored bunting decorated its front. Crowds of people were sitting at tables that filled the square. A table at the top of the steps into the grand building held the rest of the rogues, Baron Zinarro, and his son Erpidanio.

Zinarro greeted Ben warmly, took his hand, and led him to a seat next to his own at the table. Turning to fact the crowd, Zinarro loudly announced “Here he is now, my benefactor. I insulted this young man, and he healed a crippling wound. Ben, I apologize to you here, publicly, to all the people of Hythe. You have been too good to me, when I was so rude to you.

“I wanted to give you some great reward, something to show my gratitude, something to atone for my behavior. Your friends said you wanted nothing. Can this be true? Is there nothing I can give you?”

“Your Lordship, you’ve already given me, and us, the one thing you could give, the one thing we needed more’n anythin’. You led your men into battle yesterday on our behalf. You saved our lives, and our wealth. No one else coulda done that. If I healed you, it was to thank you. You did the first favor, I jist returned the favor.”

“Ben’s right, Your Lordship,” added Vince. “Without your help, and the help of the people of Hythe, we couldn’t have survived that fight. We want to thank you and all these good people for all you’ve done for us. You owe us nothing, we owe you everything.”

Servers brought out platters of food and tankards of drink, for those at the high table and for the crowd in the plaza. Everyone turned to eating, drinking, and taking with their neighbors.

“Tell me, dear Ben, will you please stay here with us?” asked Zinarro. “Your friends say you are looking for a place to settle down and learn all about magic. Why not Hythe? I will treat you as well as you deserve now. The town will love you as much as I do.”

“Your Lordship, I ’preciate your kind words ’n’ offer. I like the people here, ’n’ they’ve showed their likin’ to me. But, well, I want a big house, a mansion sort of, someplace where all of us kin live. ’N’ I want to start a fam’ly, ’n’ mebbe the others do too. That means a real big house. I’ve walked through the city a bit, and Horace’s been all over it. We don’t think there’s any place big enough, ’n’ there ain’t a big enough piece of empty ground to build on, either. I’m sorry, but I think we gotta move on.”

“I’d offer to tear down a piece of the city walls to expand it enough to accommodate you,” suggested Zinarro. “The city council might even agree to do that, even though rebuilding the wall around that spot would be really expensive. Would that make you change your minds?”

“I’m ’fraid not, Your Lordship,” answered Ben. “I said we like Hythe, but we want to live somewhere off to the west of here. You see, I angered the Duke of Phada, who’s now taken over Ghanal. He hates me, ’n’ I want to be as far from him as I kin git.”

The next morning the rogues packed up all their gear and road out the west gate of Hythe. Somewhere up ahead they would find a permanent home.