Chapter 9

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

By the third day, I had helmets for everybody, and I was working on a kind of armor that consisted of small area overlapping plates sewn to a leather jerkin. I planned a similar kilt to match the jerkin. This outfit was going to be kind of hot, but it was not nearly as heavy as the corresponding outfit would have been in bronze. Once we had some experience with this outfit I might be able to make it a bit cooler. I wouldn’t know until I had a chance to experiment with it.

Meanwhile, Hippolyte was training the men on the proper way to use the club. Most people just swung over hand and tried to bring the club down from a high arc. Hippolyte demonstrated that it worked much better with a side-arm swing. They had been practicing by swinging against tree trunks, and Hippolyte thought that they had a pretty good grasp of the best way to swing a club. They would be converted to maces at the next armorer we found.

I was also working on a small shield, somewhat larger than a buckler, but smaller than a full-sized shield. At Hippolyte’s suggestion, I was going for something that would be easy to maneuver in a fight since most of our fighting would be one-on-one and not in a phalanx where your shield had to cover both you and the guy next to you. I was working on a hardwood shield about 18 inches in diameter with a facing of casein plastic to stop penetration. I might add a ring of soft wood around the rim if we started running into more bladed weapons. More on that if it came up.

The club and mace were fairly easy to teach, but we planned to go for the long sword as our major weapon. The long sword would give us more reach than a short sword (obviously), but it still could be easily used with one hand. She wanted the shield hand and arm to be free to shift as necessary to block a spear thrust or an opposing sword.

The sword was a long term project, and it was possible that not everybody could master it in the time available. Well, a mace or war hammer would serve quite well against brigands who were only armed with a crude club. Our plans might change as we acquired more men; only time could tell on that score.

We had spent two weeks at our camp getting the men into fighting condition and making the armor. We had all worked on the armor so that it was ready by the time that Hippolyte thought that we were ready for our first battle. The general idea was that Hippolyte would fight from her horse with me using the mace as the opportunity presented itself, just as we had been doing. Janos would fight from the wagon with his crossbow and direct the three infantrymen to where they were needed. Hippolyte thought that would work, so that was the scheme we planned to follow in our first battle. Further adjustments would be made as needed.

We made a few practice runs to see how well things would work. Of course, it was impossible to simulate a real battle, but we kind of walked through our tactics to catch any major flaws. The first effort was a fiasco, but we were working together by the third try. It was hard to hear Janos when he shouted directions, so I made him a simple megaphone from the plastic, and that seemed to help some.

Also, he gave up on trying to keep track of a battle and use his crossbow, so he set the crossbow aside and kept his trusty mace handy if he needed it. We packed up and set out from our camp to hunt for brigands. Hippolyte was still not completely satisfied with the conditioning of the men, so she had them trot along beside the wagon and only ride in it for about 15 minutes of each hour to catch some rest. I had the best sense of time, so I was the time keeper.

We went the whole morning and past lunch without any contact with bandits. I mentioned to Hippolyte, [Maybe we are scaring off possible attackers because we no longer look like a soft target with the three armored men running beside the wagon. Do you think that we could attract some attackers if the men rode in the wagon where they would not be so obvious?] Hippolyte agreed, so that was what we tried for the rest of the day.

As it turned out, we were not attacked, but we did come upon a robbery in progress just about the time we were ready to shut down for the day. Six bandits were attacking a short train of donkeys that were being used as pack animals. Two men in armor were fighting the bandits, and one of them fell before we could render any assistance. There was another man, whom we guessed to be the owner, who was trying to hide between the legs of the largest donkey. He was only partially successful.

Janos drove as fast as he could get the wagon to move toward the battle, and the men jumped out and ran the last few yards to join the fight. Meanwhile, Hippolyte had couched her lance and was charging toward the fight. She had been covering our rear, so she had the greatest distance to go to reach the fight. I had not taken up the mace because I did not want to chance distracting her as she used her lance.

Hippolyte did make the first kill as she ran her lance into the back of one of the bandits. He fell, and her lance was stubborn about releasing from the back of the dead man, so she was momentarily distracted by trying to pull her lance loose.

This gave our three men time to enter the fight, and they completely outclassed the fighting abilities of the brigands, just as Hippolyte had predicted. Each of our men engaged a brigand, and the other two tried to run away. They had no chance as Hippolyte put arrows into them, and they fell as soon as they were hit.

Our men quickly took care of their opponents, and they were barely breathing hard when the fight was over. Most of that hard breathing was less from the exertion of the fight than the effect of the adrenaline that the ex-slaves had not felt for many years, if ever. They were immensely proud of themselves, as they should have been, and Hippolyte praised them lavishly for their sterling performance.

The caravan guard who was still alive was now sitting on the ground nursing some minor wounds and trying to catch his breath. We would probably hear from him later.

The caravan owner crawled from his place between the donkey’s legs and turned to Janos. The men-at-arms were obviously not the leader, and a woman, no matter how many bandits she had killed could not be the leader in the eyes of a man steeped in the tradition that women did not fight. “Good Sir, thank you for rescuing me and my caravan from those vicious thieves. May I ask your name so that I may know who saved me?”

Janos answered, “My name is Janos, but I am not the leader of this band. The woman behind you is our leader. Say hello to Hippolyte, the erstwhile queen of the Amazons. She is the one who led your rescue.”

The man turned around and bowed to Hippolyte. “Thank you, Madam Hippolyte for saving me and my caravan. Please forgive me for not recognizing who you were. I have never before met an Amazon, and I am honored to meet you now.”

Hippolyte and the man, Jason by name, talked for a few minutes before the man asked what sort of reward would be appropriate. Hippolyte said, “We killed six bandits, so I think that 72 silvers would be the appropriate reward. Do you think that is fair?”

Jason blinked because, admittedly, 72 silvers was a lot of money. “That is a lot of money, but I value my life as worth more than that, so I agree to pay that much, and still thank you for the service that you have rendered. There is a town about three miles down this road, and I would like to increase the reward by paying for your supper tonight. Of course, that includes all of your party.”

“Thank you, Sir. We will accompany you to the town and gratefully accept your offer of supper for us. Your guard must be tired from his fighting, so please allow him to ride in our wagon to the town. None of us know anything about managing a caravan, so you will have to be responsible for the animals.

“We will be ready to leave as soon as the men have stripped the bandits of anything of value. Janos, see to that, if you please. By the way, Sir, please give Janos the 72 silvers we agreed to. He is in charge of our finances.”