Chapter 12

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

Unfortunately, the rest of the women began to shoot somewhat willy-nilly, and, as could be expected, they did not hit anything in the process. Well, they did hit the ground, some defenseless trees, and the sides of a couple of wagons. The men at arms were riding horses, and they turned to escape as soon as the first shooting started.

Janos shouted at the women, and Agathon joined in, for them to stop shooting. Some did, but a couple had to be swatted in the butt to get their attention. Hippolyte managed to shoot three of the escaping men on horseback, but the others got out of effective range before she hit any more. As it happened, the fence was riding in what amounted in that era to be a fancy carriage, and he could only dive from the carriage and hide under it.

Janos ordered two infantrymen to stay where they were until the damned crossbow fire could be halted. Then they charged, but all they found were the fence and the wagon drivers. The latter were cringing under the driver’s seats and just hoping to survive as slaves. They already were, and they hoped that would save them from being killed.

Hippolyte did not waste time berating the women with the crossbows; she left that to Janos and Agathon. The women were being verbally lashed like nothing they had ever before experienced, and their stupidity was pointed out in many choice phrases. Agathon said, “If it were up to me, you would all be flayed and left to die where you are because you have nearly gotten everybody killed. Had it not been for Hippolyte’s shooting, you might well be dead by now—probably raped to death!” This chastisement got to all of the women, and they began to cry. They were ignored from then on.

Meanwhile, Hippolyte sent the men to gather up the slaves driving the wagons and bring them to her. She took personal charge of the fence. When the men returned, the fence was stripped and tied in a standing position between two trees. The slaves were told to stand quietly while Hippolyte questioned the fence. However, they were allowed to watch the questioning. He was not a popular owner.

The first thing Hippolyte asked was where she could find the money. That took a couple of painful tries before she got a useful answer. Inor was sent to check, and he found the strongbox where he was sent. It was fastened to the floor of the fence’s carriage under his seat.

Hippolyte spent nearly an hour asking other questions before slitting the fence’s throat to put him out of his misery. She just left his body where it was. The scavengers would take care of him in a day or so. The same was done for the three dead men-at-arms.

We now had nine wagons with draft horses and drivers, three spare riding horses, and a rather useless carriage carrying a fantastic amount of money with its driver and draft horse. We had accomplished what we had in mind out here, so we collected ourselves and headed back to town. On the way, Hippolyte refused to acknowledge the existence of the women.

When we got back to town, we headed directly to our warehouse. There, Hippolyte read the women the riot act! She verbally stripped the skin from their bodies and said that she was ready to kick all of them out. “I will not sell you back into slavery if I do, but you had better have a very good reason for me to keep you. Well, what do you have to say for yourselves?”

There was dead silence for about 30 seconds, and Hippolyte was obviously getting madder and madder. Finally, one woman put up her hand. “Okay, Sophia, why should I keep you?”

“Yes, we women did mess up spectacularly today, and we are all sorry for that. But, there were mitigating circumstances. We were all excited to be in combat for the first time, and we all wanted to do something to help win a victory. You must know as well as we do that we were left without adequate supervision so that we reacted the way our nerves pushed us. It is obvious that we also need a lot more training, both on following orders and on shooting accuracy. I am begging you to give us another chance following more training. I am also asking that you put a man in charge so our orders will come from a source that we are used to.”

“Very well, Sophia, you have made several good points. You may all stay with us, but I will throw out any woman who screws up that badly again. From now on, Agathon is you captain and leader. Take orders from him and learn to obey him as exactly as you can. Yes, I know exceptions do come up in battle, but I will not tolerate any more freelancing. Okay, dismissed.”

The women kind of melted into the floor in relief as Hippolyte walked away. She said to me, [I was worried there at first. I was afraid that I would have to get rid of the women, and that would have been bad for everybody. Thank the gods that Sophia lived up to her name of “wisdom” and spoke when she did. She gave me the excuse I needed to ignore this incident.]

“Agathon, did you hear my lecture to the women and the answer?”

“Yes, Hippolyte, I did. I will try not to let you down, but I am going to need help from Janos to carry out your orders.”

“Okay, I will speak to him. Let me know if you have troubles that you cannot resolve yourselves.”

Hippolyte called everybody together and said, “I have had to make a major change in plans as a result of the fiasco this morning. We are pressed for time, so we will have to split our forces. Inor, can you ride a horse well enough to join me in a dash for Coronis where the fence operated from?”

“Yes, Hippolyte, I am sure I can.”

“Very well, you and I will ride to Coronis to keep the warehouse there from being looted. I expect that one or more of the men who escaped us this morning will try to steal whatever they can from the warehouse. I expect them to be especially interested in the vast sum of money the fence had hidden there.

“Janos, you will follow us in a wagon pulled by Hades. Bring Damon with you. You two will have to move as fast as the mule can manage, but remember that the mule cannot run as fast as a horse, so you will have to make some allowances for him.

“The rest of you, including the slaves who joined us this morning, will stay here to continue to get ready for the big sale coming up on Wednesday of next week. I know that does not give us much time, but we have to do our best. Agathon will be in charge while I am gone, so take orders and direction from him.

“Janos, Damon, Inor, we will grab some jerky to eat on the road. The rest of you can eat at the inn. Eat all you want, but not too much of the watered wine. We will be back before dark.”

The trip to Coronis was one of madly pounding hooves and wind in our face. Frankly, had I been riding with anyone but Hippolyte, I would have been frightened to death. Somehow, I trusted her to get us safely through any sort of mishap, and I actually enjoyed that wild ride!

We arrived in Coronis just after the normal lunch time, and the streets were nearly empty. We had no trouble finding the warehouse formerly owned by the fence. When you come right down to it, it now belonged to Hippolyte by right of conquest, which was a legally recognized form of acquisition at that time. Of course, the property generally under discussion was land, but that didn’t really make any difference: it belonged to you if you were strong enough to hold it.

That was why we had been in such a hurry. Anything removed from the warehouse before we arrived to take possession was lost as far as we were concerned. The other things were important, but we were mainly interested in the money at the moment. We were just in time. The main loading doors were open and a couple of men were inside going through the stock.

Hippolyte and Inor dismounted and ran inside. Hippolyte had her bastard sword ready for action, and Inor had his Inor’s tooth and his shield. Two men were madly tossing valuable items right and left. They were obviously searching for something, and that had to be the strongboxes containing the gold and silver. They did not hear us come in, and they were quickly dispatched.