Chapter 17

Author’s note: [ and ] delineate mind-to-mind dialog.

The accurate shooting of the crossbow bolts resulted in the collapse of the attack, and the remaining seven bandits tried to run away. The bandits stayed together, which was very foolish, because it made them better targets for the crossbows. The women were shooting at individuals, but the fact that the escaping bandits stayed together made it easier for a miss of one man to become a hit on another man.

There were three bandits left by the time they had run out of effective range, so the platoon leader and the scout took off after the running men. It took less time than expected for the horses to catch the running men, and two were killed by the lances wielded by the scout and the platoon leader. The last bandit made it into the woods where it was impractical to follow him on horseback.

The platoon leader sent his men on foot into the woods to try to follow the escaping bandit and to find their camp. Surely, there would be some loot there worth recovering. At last, the men had something interesting to do, so they took off after the escaping bandit with considerable enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, the scout returned to his duties riding up and down the road, while the platoon leader talked to the caravan master and the merchant who owned most of the goods in the caravan. Hektor, the platoon leader, said, “Well, gentlemen, you have seen an example of the kind of protection we are offering to the people who use this road. I assume that you were suitably impressed.”

The merchant answered, “I was certainly impressed at the way you were able to eliminate those brigands who were trying to steal my goods. I thank you very much for the service.”

“You are welcome, but that service does have its cost. Just as the Spartans do, we charge a toll for our protection. You are currently a little more than 19 miles from Coronis, and we will protect you for the first 20 miles you travel past Coronis.

“When you pay, I will give you a pennant to display so that everybody will know that you are under our protection. All you need to do after that is to turn in your pennant as you leave our protected zone.”

“That is an excellent arrangement. How much do I owe you for this protection?”

“We charge the same thing that the Spartans charge, one gold piece per hundred gold pieces of value of your goods. I will inspect your items and estimate the value of your goods. You will then pay me, and I will give you the pennant to use. If you disagree with my estimate, you may discuss the matter with my superiors when you arrive in Coronis, but I do feel obligated to warn you that you will be debating your position with Hippollyte, the former queen of the Amazons. Shall we get started with the inspection?”

The face of the merchant assumed a very sour demeanor, but he did not argue. The platoon leader accepted seven gold pieces from the merchant and gave him the promised pennant. At that point, the platoon leader resumed the patrol with his wagons.

Hippolyte and I agreed that an encounter with the Spartans at the southern end of our territory was a total enigma. First of all, we might be too far from Sparta to make a meeting likely. In that case we had nothing to worry about.

On the other hand, we could run into the Spartans on a good day and nothing more would happen than a courteous exchange of greetings. Ha! If you believe that, then you know nothing of Spartan psychology. It would be much more likely for the very militant Spartans to take it into their brains that our patrol of the road was just being done to antagonize them. If that were the case, then there would be a fight, and war would be the result, no matter who won the first battle.

We came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea for Hippolyte to be there in case of a fight. We should try to wipe out the Spartans so that they could not report back to Sparta that there was a military force belonging to an upstart town that was going to make trouble for Sparta. Hopefully, the rulers of Sparta would just assume that their patrol had run into a gang that had wiped them out. Had that happened, the Spartans could well reason that their patrol had been inferior fighters and deserved to be killed. Stranger things had happened when it came to the Spartans and their soldiers.

We were certainly in no position to get into a stupid war with Sparta. Maybe later we could afford to fight them, but we were certainly not yet ready. Therefore, if we found a few Spartans, Hippolyte was going to order our people to run away. If there were many Spartans, Hippolyte was going to order our people to run away very fast! Anything to avoid a war with Sparta at this time.

Hippolyte and I were mounted on the best horse in our stable, and Janos was along to back us up. He had become an excellent fighter on horseback—dammit, not that I was complaining, but Janos had become as skilled in the military arts as he was at sex! That made me wonder if Janos might be a god in disguise. Anyway, it was a comfort to me to have Janos guarding my back.

Hippolyte led us to a spot roughly 20 miles from Coronis and began looking for Spartan patrols. She had us stay in among the trees to make it easier for us to see the Spartans before they saw us. After about an hour of wandering around, we found a Spartan patrol. Well, actually, it was Janos who spotted them, but I am not going to quibble over that point.

The Spartan patrol consisted of six soldiers and an officer. The peculiar thing was that they were marching at a steady pace as if they expected to go all the way to Coronis. Oh, dammit, this called for an immediate change of plans. We rode out to meet the patrol because we had to know what was going on. This could be the opening move of a full-scale war by Sparta. To them, a force of six Spartan soldiers and an officer was enough to defeat up to 30 ordinary soldiers, so they would not be worried about being attacked.

Hippolyte rode out of the woods and was immediately identified as a potential threat by the Spartans. They formed a defensive line and she was challenged by the leader. “Stop where you are and identify yourself!”

Hippolyte stopped and said, “I am Hippolyte, the erstwhile queen of the Amazons. Currently, I command the troops who defend Coronis and are patrolling this road to eliminate brigands. Are you from Sparta?”

The patrol leader’s demeanor changed immediately, and he said, “Yes, we are from Sparta. I have been sent from Sparta to talk to you, Hippolyte. You and your operation at Coronis are well known to us, and we salute you. I am to relay to you that we fully support your efforts to rid this road of bandits, and we will not interfere with those efforts. We ask that you extend to us the same courtesy.”

Wow, who ever heard of a Spartan being so polite? “Thank you for your courtesy. We will treat your people the same way. We can identify you by your helmets, and you can identify us by our white armor. We will avoid attacking any people dressed as you are. Thank you for working with us. As far as we are concerned, there is no need for you to continue to Coronis, unless we can feed you and provide a place for rest before you return to Sparta.”

“Thank you. No, we will return to Sparta immediately. Goodbye for now.” Hippolyte said goodbye and the Spartans turned toward home and departed.

[Thank the gods that we did not have to fight. We could have won against that small group of Spartans with our arrows, but that would have started a war. We surely don’t want that until we have more soldiers and have more time for training.]

[I agree wholeheartedly. One battle at a time is enough for me, but I expect that they will attack us in the future. No city likes to have a potential enemy parked so close to their doorstep. I wonder how long it will take for us to hear from Corinth?]

Janos joined us as soon as the Spartans were out of sight. We turned back toward Coronis to find our people. Hippolyte gave them the word on our meeting with the Spartans and warned our people not to start a war. We headed home at the end of that conversation. Nikon was leading this group, and we were sure that we could count on him to behave responsibly.