Chapter 11

The team had a long ride ahead of them to return to their campsite, and they were exhausted. As the team put distance between themselves and the town, the injuries became known. Not one of them had managed to escape unscathed. Luke had numerous cuts, especially on his legs and near his hands. Pollyanna had a twisted ankle and was now missing two fingers on her left hand. Gabriella still had the arrow sticking out of her leg and had numerous other cuts. Marion was cut up badly and had a sprained ankle. Stella was missing a finger on her right hand and was an emotional wreck after losing Tom. Alice was now missing part of an ear and had a very dramatic cut running down her jawline. Just before daybreak, the group finally had to stop; they picked the thickest woods available to have some cover until they recovered a bit.

Since Alice was the most talented medic in the group, she tended to the wounds while Luke was her adviser. It took Alice almost two hours to tend to the team’s wounds while Luke tended to hers. As soon as Marion was taken care of, she started cooking food for everyone. It wasn’t much, just a bit of stew that Marion made with the food from their saddlebags.

“Well, Marion, what is going to be our next move? We cannot go anywhere near York now,” asked Stella.

“I don’t know, Stella. I don’t know.”

Luke could see and feel the group’s mood get even darker now and knew that he would have to step in, but he had to be careful because he wanted Marion to grow into the leader he knew she could be. But right now, he had to keep the group together long enough for Marion to learn how to lead.

“Excuse me, ladies, but I think we need to get back to our campsite and hunker down until things calm down a bit. If Cecilia’s forces catch us, it’s pretty much a sure thing that we will all be killed as painfully as possible.”

When the rest of the group was far enough away, Luke pulled Marion to him and whispered:

“Marion, never say “I don’t know” when asked what to do. Do you hear me?” She just stared at Luke numbly. She had never seen him this frigid. “Those three words will destroy a unit faster than any kind of enemy action. As the leader, it’s your job to know what to do, even when you don’t. If you truly want to be a leader, you must take this advice to heart.” With that, Luke helped Marion onto her horse and then mounted his.

With the thought of Cecilia chasing them to keep them company, the group set out again. Luke was worried about Gabriella’s leg, but currently, he had more important worries because Cecilia’s troops were starting to get out this far to look for them. The team slipped away as quietly as possible and kept moving throughout the day. As one member would sleep, another would guide that person’s horse. Finally, they returned to the camp from which they had set off just a few days before.

The mood was somber at camp because they had lost their friend and comrade, Tom. Emotions ran from Luke being sad to Pollyanna being furious. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time Luke had lost friends in combat, and he knew it wouldn’t be the last. Stella, in the meanwhile, was dealing with a bad case of survivor guilt.

Everyone else in camp was between these two extremes. Since it was late in the afternoon, Luke started cooking supper. Meanwhile, Marion was trying to figure out her sister’s angle. Seeing the confusion on her face, Stella stepped in:

“We were all used, Marion. Your sister used us. She knew you would eventually attack Richard in the castle, so she got in with Richard and waited like a fucking spider for you to attack; then she would then strike and hopefully kill us.”

Marion then looked at her with sad eyes:

“I’m so sorry, Stella. I know what Tom meant to all of us, especially you. I don’t know if I could even survive if I ever lost Luke.”

“Marion, shut up. Tom knew the risk just like you do, just like the rest of us do. Did that stop any of us? No. Why? It’s because we all believe in you, and like you, we want to give the people of this land freedom from oppression.”

With that, the two women embraced each other and sobbed freely. Yes, it was time to mourn, but things still needed to be done, like cleaning weapons and mending clothes. As Luke was cleaning his Sig, Alice came up to him and asked:

“Luke, are you going to tell us about that thing and yourself now?”

Luke looked at the others and saw they also wanted the answers.

“Can we eat first, and then I will show you everything after dinner? I promise.”

“I guess,” Alice replied melodramatically.

“Thank you.”

Dinner that evening was quiet. The only talking was to ask for food and to say thank you. Luke had managed a hearty venison stew for supper, and there were enough leftovers for breakfast the following morning. After cleaning the dishes, Luke pulled all his gear out of hiding. This was the first time that even Marion had seen all his gear. She had seen the cases but had never seen Luke open them before.

“Ladies, before I show you what I have to show and before I tell what I have to tell, I must demand that you swear an oath of absolute silence. If the wrong people, like Cecilia, get ahold of the information I know, the world as you know it could come to an end. If you cannot do this, you must leave now.” All of the women nodded their heads, agreeing to his terms.

Luke started with his rifle. It was one of his most prized weapons, even before getting thrown back into the Middle Ages. It was a .338 caliber bolt action rifle with a Leupold scope. With this rifle and the Lapua ammo he was packing, he could shoot someone between the eyes at almost 1,300 meters. Gabriella was intrigued by this weapon, and Luke could see that she wanted to try shooting it in the worst way.

“Gabby,” Luke continued once she looked him in the eye, “I promise that I will teach you how to use this weapon as soon as I can start making ammunition for it. You will understand that part in a little bit.”

Luke then pulled out his computer and powered it up. He had charged it with his solar-powered charging station. During the last few months, he had taken it out periodically to ensure the battery stayed charged. When his laptop finished booting up, he started explaining:

“Now, this device is called a computer. This one, in particular, probably holds more information than if you combined all the current knowledge on this planet. There are texts on medicine, engineering, mathematics, geography, economics, general science, and physics. I also have a large selection of music and many pictures of my past life.”

“How can all that be stored in that little thing?” asked Marion.

“Well, it’s kind of hard to explain, but let me see if I can massively simplify it so that you all can hopefully understand. The information is stored in bytes, the basic building blocks of all computer languages. A byte is kind of like a letter. Computers like mine can store trillions upon trillions of bytes. Does that make any sense? Computer science was never my strong suit.”

“Not really,” the women responded.

“Sorry, but I never did understand the inner workings of computers that well. Okay. Now it’s time I tell you all my biggest secrets. Before I tell the rest of you, I will tell you that Marion already knows. Okay, here it goes.” Luke took a deep breath and closed his eyes briefly before continuing. “You know this to be the year 1065 AD. Where I am from, it was the year 2021 AD.” All the women, except Marion, had the same stunned look. “Yes, I am from almost a thousand years in the future, and as such, I not only carry vast amounts of scientific information, but I also know the general outline of European and world history for the next almost thousand years.”

When the ladies heard this: Alice fainted, Stella and Pollyanna gasped while Gabriella looked thoughtful. Only Marion didn’t react.

“So that’s why you have been so quiet about yourself!” exclaimed Gabriella. “And I agree with you as it happens. If the information you possess ever got into the wrong hands, the world would change in every way possible and most likely not for the better. Every king and petty noble would want to get their hands on you to learn about their future and then try to change that future to suit them. The problem is that if you start changing the events, then you change the history too.”

Luke just nodded at her; he was thankful Gabriella understood and pleased that his instincts had led him to her. When Luke looked at Marion, he expected to see anger, but he saw unconditional love because she now understood why Luke had been so quiet about himself.

“Now gather round, ladies,” Luke said after everyone recovered. “I want to show you all some of my previous life.”

Over the next two hours, Luke showed everyone pictures of his previous life. Everything from his time in the Marines, growing up with Mackenzie’s family, images of his company, and some of the many projects he had worked on worldwide. He also showed them pictures of the places he had been to and the people he had met. Then, after promising that they would take the utmost care of it, Luke loaned his computer to Alice and Pollyanna. To Alice so that she could study his medical text, and Pollyanna so that she could study the engineering text stored with the provision that they only study for about an hour a day so they wouldn’t suffer eye strain. Luke would help them when they needed help navigating his computer.

“Okay, ladies, time for a brief history lesson, well, my history, that is. There is a storm coming, and it will start this coming January when King Edward dies. He will name Harold Godwinson as his successor. There are two problems with this, though. Herold’s brother believed he should have been named king and got Norway’s king to support him. Ironically enough, the Vikings would invade England near York but would be almost annihilated by King Herold’s forces at a battle known as the Battle of Stamford Bridge. The other problem came from Normandy, and his name was ... well is, William, Duke of Normandy. Apparently, Edward had also promised him the throne before he gave it to Herold, and William has a claim on the English throne through his mother, if I remember correctly. William would also invade England and rout Herold’s troops at the Battle of Hastings. During the battle, Herold died from what legend says was an arrow to his eye, and William would be forever known as William the Conqueror. This would be the last time England would ever be successfully invaded.

During the 12 and 1300s, England would control almost all of France but eventually be driven out entirely. England would then turn their attention North and, after nearly five hundred years of intermittent and bloody struggle, would conquer Scotland through an economic and political union in the early 1700s. Eventually, they conquered Ireland and became known as Great Britain. There will be at least two civil wars that I can remember being fought over the English crown. The first was in the 1400s and was called the War of the Roses. It was fought between the houses of Lancaster and York. Eventually, the Lancastereans would win, but it was a very long and bloody struggle. Sorry, Marion. The second civil war would be in the mid to late 1600s, and this one would cement the power of Parliament over the King. The winner of that war was the forces of Parliament, under the command of a man named Oliver Cromwell, and the King lost his head. Eventually, the monarchy would be restored, but they would remain, at best, equal with Parliament. Ultimately, the monarchy would become not much more than a figurehead with Parliament having all the power. After this civil war, Britain would eventually rule over one-quarter of the global landmass and be one of the most influential empires the world has ever seen.