Chapter 17

This is Rolof's story: <blockprotect>

We left early that morning, and at first we made good progress. The weather was still fairly mild, and the going good. We had travelled for about half a day when we came across the first set of refugees. They were hungry and quite frightened by us; they had hidden from all groups of armed men after seeing one group catch a family. They had seen the group kill the men and then rape and kill the women. They were terrified that this would be their fate as well. We approached their camp and offered them some food. This seemed to calm them a little. Their leader, a man named Charles, stepped forward to take it. He quickly stepped back and gave it to the women and children.

"Thank you" he said. "We haven't eaten for three days. We've been on the run, trying to get to Bridgetown.'

"Well, you haven't got much farther to go. When you get there I'm sure that work will be found for you. Tell me, what happened?"I asked.

"We lived in a small village near the coast when these men arrived," Charles recalled. "At first they seemed quite friendly, asking about the land, the harvest, who lives where and the like. After about two weeks they told us that they were taking over and we now had to pay taxes. They intended to take half the harvest and a quarter of the women and children as slaves.

"We, of course, objected and some tried to fight. Those that fought were killed, but during the fighting some of us managed to escape. We made our way to Dampford but we found that the food stocks there were low, so we decided to move on to Bridgetown. Have you come from there? What's it like?"

"King Tom is in charge, and he is building defences to protect the town from the slavers," I replied. "He has collected all the harvests, and is rationing the food. He has set up feeding stations, and no one is going hungry. You have to work for your food, but with all the building work going on and clearing the land for next year's harvest, as well as training up the militia ... Well, I can't see there being enough people alive to do all the things the king wants to do."

They all seemed to brighten up at hearing this. After eating, they packed up their things and made their way on towards Bridgetown.

We carried on towards Dampford, stopping at farms along the way. At first the farmers were wary of us, but as we were prepared to pay for anything we needed, they very soon became quite friendly. They told us that they hadn't had any problems with folk calling themselves The Brotherhood, but had seen lots of refugees who had told them of their troubles. They had done what they could for these people but for the most part they wanted to keep moving. It would seem they wanted stout walls between them and any trouble that was coming.

It had been a week after we left that we encountered our first trouble. We had set up camp. Calith, Mark, and I had gone hunting. We were just on the trail of a young deer when we heard a scream. We crept forward and saw three men standing over the body of a young man. A young woman was backing up towards a tree, and these men were advancing towards her. Two of the men held clubs, while the other one held a knife in his hand, waving it towards her.

"Now, my dear, you don't want to join your friend here do you? Now just come and be friendly to us, and we'll let you go," he said as the men advanced towards her.

I signed to Calith to take the centre one and Mark to take the right hand one while I took the man on the left. We drew our bows, and on my nod we loosed our arrows. The three men never knew what hit them. One second they were moving towards that young girl with evil intentions, and the next they were lying on the forest floor with arrows in their backs.

The girl screamed again as the men collapsed, and we stepped into the clearing. I went over to the young man. He was still breathing. He had been hit from behind by one of the men with clubs. He was unconscious, but still alive.

The girl ran to him and threw herself into his arms, crying and screaming his name.

"Michael, Michael don't die, don't leave me. I love you, Michael! Don't leave me!" she wept, clinging to the young man.

I slowly lifted her off him, and bathed his head wound with water. He groaned, and slowly roused. He promptly rolled over, and was violently sick. I sat him up, and got him to drink some water. He slowly came to. When he had recovered his senses, he sat bolt upright, and then groaned as pain washed through his head.

"Who are you? What are you doing here? What happened?" he groaned.

"You were attacked by three men. We stopped them before they could do any more damage," I said. "I'm Rolof, and this is Calith and this is Mark," I said, pointing to my companions. "We're from the Hunter Tribes. We came here with King Tom. He has sent us to patrol the area between Dampford and Bridgetown. We're on our way to Dampford, but we heard your girlfriend scream, and came to see if we could help. We're glad we got here in time."

He looked over towards the girl. "Ruby, are you all right?"

She flew into his arms.

"Yes, thanks to these men here. They saved us both." To us she said, "I don't know how we'll ever repay you. Thank you."

She then came over to each of us and gave us a kiss

"Ah, a kiss from a beautiful maiden is reward enough," I said. "Now, tell me what you are doing out here on your own?"

Ruby blushed deeply at this, and the other two just smiled.

"We are running away," she said. "My father wants me to marry the miller. He's a nice enough fellow, but he's old — at least forty. Anyway, I love Michael and he loves me, and I don't want to marry a man who's old enough to be my father. We were trying to get to Bridgetown, but after being attacked by those men, I wonder if we shouldn't go home. I won't marry the miller, though. I'll tell my father that I'll only marry Michael."

"Did you tell him that before you left?" I asked

"No. We just packed a few things and left. I guess I should have told him. But the idea of marrying that man and never being with Michael again ... Well, we just left," she said, hanging her head.

"Tell me, how old are you both?" I asked

"I'm fifteen, and Michael is sixteen. He's the only boy I've ever wanted to be with, but my father doesn't approve. Michael's family doesn't own much land, and Michael's father drinks most of the money away," she said.

"It's true. I've had enough of running the house, farm and looking after my brother and sister just to see my dad spend all the money in the tavern. It's been like that since my mother died three years ago," he said to us.

"Let's go back to our camp. All this commotion will have scared any game away, anyhow. We'll have to eat what we have," I said.

We stripped the dead of anything useful, Michael taking the knife and Ruby the few coins the men carried. The rest of what they had was rubbish. We recovered our arrows and then set off.

As we made our way back to the camp, both Michael and Ruby would stop and pick plants, berries, and mushrooms. They stopped by one group of tall grasses and Michael fashioned himself a digging stick. Intrigued, we watched as he dug down and extracted several tubers from the ground. He placed these into the bag with all the other things they had collected.

"As it was saving us that caused you to lose the deer you were tracking, it only seems fair that we make it up to you," he said

"Well, you may need more than that. There are twenty of us in our party. We split up each day and search in different directions, but we meet up each night. That way we have the safety of a well protected camp," I said.

We made it back to camp, and I must say, those two youngsters managed to put together a fine meal, with nothing more than what they had collected from the woods, and a couple of rabbits that just happened to run under our bows.

Next morning we set off to these young people's home town. As we approached, we were met by a group of men who barred our way.

A large belligerent man stepped forward.

"Who are you and what do you want?" he said, holding an axe across his chest. He looked at the large group of well-armed men, and they could sense his nervousness.

It was then he spotted Ruby and Michael at the back of the group.

"Ruby!" he shouted "Where have you been? Michael! you little shit! If you've touched my daughter, I'll skin you alive!"

He moved forward to grab the youngsters. I stepped forward to stop him. He raised his axe, and twenty nocked arrows were immediately pointed at him.

"I really wouldn't, if you know what is good for you," I declared. "If I were you, I'd ask us into the village. Then I'd sit down and listen to what these young people have to say, without interrupting. Then, and only then, would I open my mouth.

"The same goes for you lot as well" I said to the rest of them as they looked like they, too, were getting ready to heft their weapons.

As he stood there you could almost see the steam coming from his ears. He wasn't a man who liked being thwarted, and hated being crossed. I could see he was nothing but a bully.

He took a deep breath.

"Very well, then. Follow me."

We all moved into the village and headed towards the largest house. As we entered, a timid looking woman came over and hugged Ruby.

"I'm glad you're back, we've been so worried. Bartholomew will be so glad. We can arrange the wedding for a couple of weeks," she said.

"I'm not marrying Bartholomew. I'm going to marry Michael," Ruby declared.

"But your father has given his word! He can't go back now! He'll lose face. No, no, you'll have to marry Bartholomew. It's been arranged," the woman replied.

The man stepped forward. "What's this nonsense about marrying Michael? He's just a poor peasant, with a drunkard for a father, and no idea of how to run a farm! If you think I'm letting a daughter of mine throw herself away on a useless wastrel like him, you've another think coming. You'll marry Bartholomew like we've arranged, and that's an end to it! If you don't, then you can leave now, and never darken our door again!" he bellowed.

Michael stepped forward and let me tell you, it was the bravest thing I have seen since Talbath faced down that bastard at Battle Valley!

"Portha," he said, "I may be poor, but I am not a wastrel! I love your daughter, and I intend to marry her and she me! If you try to force her off on Bartholomew, then we'll run off after the wedding, and then think of the scandal! The entire village will be laughing at you! I will tell you this: If you throw her out, now, you'll never see either of us again ... or your grandchildren! Is that what you want?"

Portha's face went purple! I thought he was going to explode! "Grandchildren! Do you mean to tell me you've got my daughter pregnant? I'll kill you!"

"She isn't, yet; but after what happened today, I know that my life is worthless without her, and hers without me. Let me assure you that very soon she will be, and if you wish to see your grandchildren then you had better start getting used to the idea!" Michael declared.

Portha lunged towards the lad, but the lad stood his ground. Unnoticed by any of us, he had one of the clubs taken from the bandits. This he jabbed into the big man's belly. Portha doubled up in pain. Michael then ducked underneath his assailant, and grabbed Ruby by the hand as he headed towards the door.

Pandemonium reigned. Portha's wife was screaming, the children started crying, several of the townsfolk stood with their mouths open. No one had ever stood up to Portha before, let alone hit him!

I stood in front of Portha and declared, "Enough! Stop this now! We need to sit down and discuss this, or it will end badly for everyone."

Portha growled and came straight at me. Well, I remembered what you and Sir Tony had taught us and waited until he made his first move. He swung a roundhouse punch at me; I ducked inside, grabbed his arm, and used his own strength and momentum against him and rolled him over my hip. He crashed to the floor, cracking his head as he landed, knocking all the wind out of him. I then drew my sword; placed my foot on his chest and my sword at his throat.

"I said, 'enough!' This will end in bloodshed, and there's a good chance it will be yours. Now get up and be civilised, or I'll ensure that you never get up again! It's your choice."

My men drew their swords as well and covered the villagers. Slowly, Portha got to his feet, scowling. His wife was standing wringing her hands, torn between her husband and her daughter. Ruby stood there open-mouthed looking in admiration at Michael. Portha and the rest of the villagers sat down, and we resheathed our weapons.

"Now, I think we all know why these two left," I began. "It's obvious to all that they love each other, and to deny that would be foolish. What we have to decide, is whether this couple remains here with you as members of this community, or whether they accompany us as cooks and helpers. That is the choice you have to make. Make it!"