Chapter 8

The night passed quietly. I had the first shift, so I got a good six plus hours of uninterrupted sleep after that. Having slept in a bed gave me a much better disposition the next morning. We cleaned up the best we could. With so many days in the wild, we were in need of a bath.

It was mandatory as far as the women were concerned, so after breakfast we made all the arrangements. We went everywhere as a group to pick up the supplies needed as we continued the journey. There were eyes watching us as we went about our business. Last night’s little exhibit, still fresh in their minds, no doubt kept them away for now.

Now was the key, as I knew that we would not be underestimated again, and they would come after us in greater numbers. I don’t know if Chaos was becoming more predictable, or I was just growing accustomed to the way it played out here.

Returning later, we stood guard outside the women’s room where we had set up the baths. I would have liked to soak some more in the tub, but the realities of our situation didn’t allow for it. It was still nice to be clean again. Kristi cleaned up very nicely. Her new clothes and light leather armor looked good on her. I noticed that Boland looked her over quite a bit.

She came over and kissed me without warning, “Thank you for saving me and for the new clothes.”

“Did I mention that I freed you too?”

She kissed me again. “That’s for freeing me.”

“I wonder what else I did ... Oh yes I fed your Mother and family, and I, and I...”

She gave me another kiss and said, “I’ll kiss you anytime you want me to.”

“Well I may just take you up on that, but we would never get to the mission, and Joan is waiting to be rescued.”

“I won’t want Joan to spend another day in captivity because of me.”

“Well we still have to find her.”

“Are you two done playing kissy face?” Tina asked.

“Actually, I am enjoying it although it has to end because we need to rescue my Damsel.”

“Yes we do.” Kathy said.

“We might not want to kill all of them that they send after us,” Boland said then.

“Think they might have information about Joan?” I asked.

“They might. They are likely the type that would be in bed with the pirates.”

“What can I do to help? It seems that I am just watching you fight all the time,” Kristi said.

“You helped on the road. If you had not been the one making their alarm sound, one of us would have had to,” Kathy said.

“That wasn’t very much.”

“We survived and your doing that was one of the reasons.”

“Could you teach me to do more? Use a weapon maybe?” she asked.

“If we have time, I will see if we can get some crossbow training in. But you helped, just being an extra set of eyes,” Boland said.

We stayed the night in the inn, and Boland, true to his word, instructed Kristi about the crossbow. She didn’t get to shoot it yet, but she was learning all about its use and how to reload it. We were up early the next morning and out the door just after sunrise. The eyes scampered off; no doubt to tell the others we were on the move.

We had discussed what we wanted to do while Boland was showing Kristi the crossbow. We tried to think how they would be able to attack us. Oh it would be an ambush no doubt, and since they didn’t know which way we were heading, they would likely have some men just outside town in both directions and a group to follow us. Boland thought they would have had a few men follow us and then send one back to get the others once we chose a path. Their plan was likely to keep us held up in place so they could bring their numbers to bear against us.

It was another pincer trap; therefore, breaking past the pincer was our priority. We would be only as fast as our slowest mount. Boland and Kathy evaluated the horses, and we traded for some better ones. The problem would be how to get past whatever roadblock there was ahead.

No doubt they would use some rope to either block the horses’ progress at the last minute or to try to unseat us from them. That would give the ones following time to catch up to where we were. The problem was we just couldn’t let ourselves be caught between them. After a lot of planning and some debate, we came up with a plan. It had some risks, but if we executed it as we’d planned it, we might be able to produce enough confusion to escape and at least have them all coming at us from one direction.

We got lucky because as we headed out of town, we saw one of them break and head back the other way. I’ll take lucky over good any day. As soon as he did, we took off hell-bent for leather. I always liked the sound of that phrase from the old westerns I had watched growing up as a kid.

They gave chase, and just as we got outside town, we swung the horses around and charged right at them. It was quite the trick, but we had tied everything down tight and had no plans to fight them. We simply wanted to get past them.

When you’re chasing at full gallop one way and suddenly the ones you were chasing are now riding straight at you, it must be quite unsettling to say the least.

We of course were shouting out about killing them and shooting their horses, which just added to their confusion. A horse was simply too valuable to them to even think we would hurt it. So we rode past with them moving out of the way as we did. They might send a rider back to get the others waiting for the ambush or not. It didn’t matter. What we needed to have happen was for them to not have left a man behind to spring the trap with us going this way. Of course we would not know if they did or didn’t until we got there. That was the one unknown in the plan.

They regrouped and started to chase after us. We had gotten through town when five riders were coming fast toward us. We yelled out about shooing their horses as we got close again, and they parted just like the others. Their partners in crime came up behind them then, and it was a chase.

They rode as a group, their slowest mount keeping them at that pace. Our slowest was faster than theirs, so we were pulling away from them. We were a mile or so out of town, and the rope we’d feared had never appeared across the road. That was a relief.

We pressed the horses on for another few miles. It was good that we had rested ours and had better mounts. Finally, we looked back and saw that five of their riders had broken away from the pack.

We didn’t stop, and they didn’t catch up either. The distance separating us was just too great, but our mounts would not keep this pace forever, so we needed to pull a Houdini and disappear for a while. We got past that little bend and near the hidden camp. Our Houdini was right there. We got to the second entrance and made our way quickly down it. Down the path, Tina was back in a tree and heard the first group go past. A little while later the others did the same. Now we had a place to rest the horses, as we got busy so we could set our trap.

Kathy and Kristi went back and covered the tracks of our horses down the path. It was three hours later when Tina dropped the rock that let us know they were riding back our way. We had spent our time setting up an ambush in case they came down the path. Their leaders would no doubt be in front so we planned to kill them first and then shoot the horses of a couple of them. That, we thought, given their previous actions, should be enough to get them to run for it. It wasn’t a guarantee, but it was about all that we could do.

We did use the alarm ropes on the other path, so we would know if they split up into two groups and were trying to sneak up on us. They rode past our tracks obviously covered enough for them not to notice, and then they rode past the other path also. We didn’t kill them but we didn’t have to fight them either and risk us getting hurt or killed.

Now we still needed to find Joan and didn’t have any more clues about where she was. It was simply too late to start going once they had gone past us. We ended putting the alarm on the path and then spent the night at the camp. It was a cold camp, as we didn’t want to give our position away with a fire, just in case they were watching.

Up early and in the saddle, we rode to Kristi’s mother’s place. It was the only base of operations we could think of that was secure for us at the moment. Kristi and Tina took point again, and Boland took drag as we made our way back there. Hazel and the kids greeted us when we rode in, and we had a warm dinner that was much appreciated.

That still left us with the problem of finding Joan. We were discussing her at the table when Hazel overheard us.

“Who is she, this Joan yer talkin’ ‘bout?”

“She is the Damsel I am here to rescue,” I said.

“What other names might she have?”

“I have heard them called cock burners,” I replied.

“Oh her! Bill found that one, went and put his cock in her, he did too. Wouldn’t tell me why he wouldn’t be with me for over a month afterwards. He sold her to the pirates that stopped here last time. I heard they got tired of her and sold her to the innkeeper.”

“What innkeeper?”

“The town in the opposite direction of the way you went,” she answered.

It was good to know where she might be but damn frustrating to know if we had just taken one turn the other way she would be rescued already. So we planned to leave in the morning and go to find her.

Before we left the house Hazel asked us, “Will you be coming back here if you find her?”

“No, I have to get her back,” I said.

“Can I ask you a favor?”

“Yes.”

“Would it be okay with you if the kids and I went along? It won’t be safe here for us now. We have just gotten away with Bill being gone too many times.”

There was no way I could leave her here to face the pirates. And if she tried to leave by herself, they were certain to be caught since they had no man to protect them. The downside was that we wouldn’t be traveling fast until we could get some additional horses.

“You’ll have to travel light,” I said.

Hazel came over and gave me a kiss, followed by one of Kristi’s.

“You are a true Hero,” Tina said.

So the next morning, with Kathy supervising the load, we got everything together and headed off to town. I could see tears in Hazel’s eyes as she was leaving the only home she had come to know. The kids would ride double with one of us, going from horse to horse whenever we stopped to take a break.

It took us two days to get to the town. For a welcome change, the trip was uneventful. When we walked in the inn, there was Joan standing behind the bar. You could tell that she was a Cassandra woman. We got our rooms, three this time, and went down to eat. I was getting tired of stew by now. Oh, when you’re just starting out it can be great food, but after the journey we had been on, it was just stew.

Joan brought us our food and then went back to the kitchen. She was then back with the watered wine.

“Could you send the Innkeeper over to us?” I asked her.

A short round man came over and introduced himself. “I’m Robert, and this is my inn. I understand that you wanted to speak to me.”

“Hello Robert. I’m John and I am interested in buying your serving woman.”

“She isn’t for sale.”

“Would you have a seat please? I would like to talk it over with you if I could.” Boland put his monster of a hand on Robert’s shoulder, and he sat right down.

“Robert, you’re a businessman and I know you want to make a profit. So here’s what I am willing to do for you. I will give you twenty percent more than you paid for her. Right now, no questions asked.”

“But I have had to train her, and I will be without her services if I do sell her to you.”

“Robert, I will tell you a secret. I have been looking for her at the request of General Samuel. It has been a long time and I still have to take her all the way back with me.”

“I have heard of your General Samuel. But that is of no concern to me. She isn’t for sale.”

He started to get up and Tina took out her dagger.

“I can either buy her from you at a profit, or I can take her as mine after you’re dead. I would rather not have to kill you but either way, she is coming with me.”

“I have friends in this town.”

“You’re still going to be dead.”

“You would kill me, wouldn’t you?”

“I have killed to find her.”