Chapter 16

After a tough week, Marion’s team was relaxing in a raiding camp. They had beaten back Cecilia’s army but had lost one of their own in the process. It wouldn’t have been so bad if he had been killed in combat, but he had been murdered after being captured. This had taught Marion an important lesson: no quarter would be given, and none would be expected in this fight. Luke was massaging her feet because she was starting to feel the weight gain from her pregnancy. She loved it when he did this, and she could feel the tension leaving her body. Luke knew he was doing an excellent job because he could feel the joints in Marion’s feet pop as they moved back into place. Matt and Pollyanna were sitting by a fire, talking quietly. Despite their rough introduction, they had proven to be a perfect team and got along well. After all, it had been Matt who ran her over with his horse. Marion had started teasing them about them getting a room. This was always good for a round of laughs, including from Pollyanna, even though she always turned red when Marion did this. Gabriella was in the process of making more arrows. She had shot through almost everything she had, and her shoulder was sore from all of the shooting that she had done. Alice was reading more on Luke’s computer. She had gotten to where she could navigate through it without Luke’s help and was taking full advantage of it. Stella and Robin were on guard duty. Even though they had just defeated Cecilia’s army, that didn’t mean they could let down their guard, and in fact, Luke and Marion figured that Cecilia’s next move would be to try and hire assassins to sneak in and kill Marion. This left the last member of the group, and his name was Bard. He had been one of those who surrendered to Marion when she had captured the money convoy.

Bard didn’t like serving a female leader, but Marion was many times better than her sister. Marion was calm, approachable, outgoing, and listened to everyone in the group. Their recent triumph had been the direct result of that. It had been Pollyanna’s idea to blow up the bridge using some devil powder. Luke had provided her with the powder, the means to blow up the bridge from a safe distance at command, and had trained everyone in close-quarters combat. Alice was the one who came up with the idea to kill only half of the night sentries. She had almost been captured because she had cared for the sick man that morning. She had even washed up in the stream after she had tended to his medical needs. Fortunately for her, she had left to rejoin Marion only 15 minutes before the army struck. She had watched as the man was tortured and eventually killed. Gabriella had been responsible for killing most scouting parties and had been instrumental in building the booby traps, as Luke called them. Matt provided them insight into the army’s commander’s frame of mind, which allowed Marion to stay at least five steps ahead almost the entire time.

Meanwhile, Stella and Robin had kept the army under observation the whole time and provided Marion with hourly updates. Marion had the most significant role of all. She held everyone together after her man had been murdered, and it was her idea to provide the army with a safe path back to York when they got close to where the loot was stored. They had moved it the night before. Bard was dragged from his reminiscing by the sounds of horses entering the camp.

Stella had come in and had a young man with her. He was also riding a horse but was blindfolded.

“We caught him riding through the forest alone,” explained Stella to Marion, “he says he has important news for you.” Marion nodded, and the man’s blindfold was removed.

The man struggled for a few seconds with the light before he started:

“Marion of York, I presume,” he continued once Marion had nodded. “I have come to tell you that Cecilia has hired 30 assassins to kill you.” Bard was stunned, but Marion didn’t look surprised at all.

“How do you come of this information, young man?”

“My sister is Cecilia’s scribe, so I know almost everything Cecilia does. Although I should mention that for some matters, Cecilia uses a special scribe who is seldom seen in the castle, and when he is, he is surrounded by a large group of very tough-looking men.”

“When did her order go out?”

“The day after her army returned.”

“So yesterday,” Marion stated. The man nodded. “Is there anything else I should know? How is the town doing?”

“The people are getting rebellious. Cecilia has almost reached their breaking point, and with the defeat of her army, I doubt that it will take much more before the people openly rebel against her.”

“Well, thank you, young man. Here is some money for your trouble of coming out here.”

“No money is necessary, milady. We all want that witch gone.”

“Stella, Pollyanna, Matt,” Marion said, “See that this young man is safely escorted out of the forest.”

Stella tied the man’s blindfold and led his horse out of camp. After they had left, Marion returned to Luke and asked:

“Well, honey, what do you think?”

“I think we need to get going and observe our young visitor from a distance. Something doesn’t seem right. For starters, how many women do you know that can write outside of your group? Yes, he told us everything we expected to hear, but that bothers me.” Marion had a confused look on her face. “The fact that he told us everything we were expecting makes me suspicious,” Luke stated.

Marion thought for a second: “Bard,” she continued when he looked at her, “go with Luke to keep an eye on our young visitor from a distance. I don’t want him to know that there are extra eyes on him.”

Marion might not have known what Luke was hinting at, but she trusted Luke’s instincts.

Luke and Bard quickly gathered their gear and took off. They had to hurry to catch up with the others. On the way, Bard and Luke talked a bit because Bard was confused. Luke explained that while the man had told them everything, they expected to hear some things bothering him. The last they had heard, the town was still on lockdown. How did this man get out of York? Why did he have such a healthy horse? Almost none of the horses they had captured from the army were that healthy. How did his sister become Cecilia’s scribe? Virtually no woman knew how to write their name, never mind taking dictation from someone. Granted, all the women gathered around Marion could read and write, but that was because Luke had taught them and constantly encouraged them.

Something here smelled rotten to Luke, and he would get to the bottom of it. As they traveled, they occasionally caught glimpses of the group ahead of them, which was close enough for Luke. As they approached the edge of the woods, they heard yelling and coming around the next corner; they could see why.

As Luke and Bard came around the corner, they saw that Stella was already down. They didn’t know if she had just been dismounted or was hurt. The young man who had brought the message was in the process of wrestling Pollyanna’s reins away from her, and several men were coming out of the woods with bows drawn. Matt’s horse had been shot out from under him, and he was trapped under it.

Luke and Bard quickly dismounted. Bard wanted to ride straight to their rescue, but Luke was worried about secondary traps.

“Bard, think of it as fishing. You use some worthless bait to catch some small fish. You then take the biggest of those small fish to catch much bigger fish. That is what our people are at this moment. They are the small fish that would be a meal on their own, but I think they’re fishing for a banquet and planning on using Stella, Pollyanna, and Matt as bait. So, we will sneak up either side of the road while staying in the forest and looking for more men hiding. If we don’t find any, then we’ll free everyone.”

Bard wasn’t convinced but did as Luke had instructed. One of the things that Bard had already learned was that not trusting Luke’s instincts was beyond foolish. Luke had been proven correct within only minutes when he and Bard found other men in the woods. Fortunately, their attention was on the road, where Matt was pulled from under his horse, and Pollyanna was brought under control. Luke and Bard worked the way up the road, silently eliminating men as they went. Finally, they got to where they could rescue their people. Together, Luke and Bard had killed ten men, and they hadn’t even gotten to the men holding Pollyanna and Matt, who were tied up by this time. Stella hadn’t moved by this time, and Bard could see why; she had an arrow through her throat.

Bard was ready to start shooting these bastards with his bow when Luke stepped out of the forest with his handgun at the ready. This was the first time Bard had ever seen it in action; he had heard the tales but thought they were just tales. Within seconds, Luke had taken out all ten men on the road except one; he only wounded the man that had first come to their camp. Before Luke went to untie Pollyanna and Matt, he checked on Stella.

Before he even checked her pulse, he could see she was dead. The color was gone from her face, and Luke could see the pool of blood under Stella. Additionally, the fact that she was no longer bleeding was proof enough that she was dead. Luke knew he would be crying his eyes out later, but he now had more important things to do. Bard was untying Matt and Pollyanna, so Luke took the job of interrogating the prisoner. Luke had only wounded him on purpose; he wanted the man to sing:

“Okay, this is how things are going to be; you are going to die, but how you die will be up to you. If you tell me everything I want to know, you will be killed quickly, but if you don’t tell everything or lie to me, your death will be excruciating and will last for days. I’ve traveled the world, so I know how to torture a person in ways you have never imagined. Also, if your answers satisfy me, I will make sure that you get a church burial, but if you don’t, your body will be left for the wild animals to eat. You have until I get back to decide.”

Luke went over to check on Pollyanna and Matt. While Pollyanna was just shaken up, Matt was in bad shape. When he got trapped under his horse, it had broken his leg badly enough that his leg wasn’t straight.

“Luke, what about Stella? You have to help her!!” screamed Pollyanna. Luke just gave her a sad look.

“No, NO, NO, it can’t be!!! SHE CAN’T BE DEAD, DAMN IT!! Tell me that she will be fine!!!!”

“Pollyanna, I’m sorry, but there’s nothing that can be done for her. She was dead almost as soon as that arrow hit her in the throat. It looks like it also took out her spinal column. Even in my time that would be an instantly fatal injury.”