Chapter 2

Tom arrived at Paul's in plenty of time. As they sat in his lounge Paul asked him, "Do you wish to travel as a hero's companion or are you going on your own? You've been given a hero's ring and can travel by yourself, or as I understand it we can travel together. Remember, Eve won't be there. She's pregnant and will have returned to Cassandra with Leila."

"Yes, I know," he replied.

There was a knock at the door. It was Tony.

"Ah, at last. Now we can go," said Paul.

"Are we going together this time or will it be separate adventures?" asked Tony

"Why do you ask that?" said Tom.

"Well, since the appearance of the Brotherhood, they sometimes team heroes together for the more dangerous missions. They don't do it very often, but it has been known, we've been on a couple ourselves," said Tony

"Yes, and bloody dangerous they were too, I can tell you," said Paul.

"Okay, here goes nothing," said Tony as he stepped into the wardrobe.

"Right, me next," said Paul as he too stepped though.

Tom took a deep breath and stepped through the portal. It felt weird for a couple of seconds, and then, there he was standing next to Tony and Paul in the reception area on Crossroads.

Meria came running over to Paul and kissed him, saying, "It's okay, Tony, Silvie will be out in a moment."

Just then another vision of loveliness emerged and draped herself around Tony.

"Hmm! It's so good to see you again," she said.

The girls both looked at Tom and nodded.

"Tom," said Meria. "There's someone who wants to see you."

After disentangling themselves they took him by the hand and led him into another room. There, to his surprise, sat a tearful Eve.

"Eve!" he exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

"I lost the baby!" she cried, "I don't know what happened, but I miscarried."

Tom went over to her, and gathered her up in his arms.

"Oh, you poor dear. You must be devastated."

She broke down and wept. All her hopes had been dashed, and now all she could do was weep. Tom held her until her sobbing subsided. Finally she was able to speak.

"I," she gulped, "I must find you a caretaker. You're here as a hero in your own right, now. You need someone of your own."

"I already have someone: you. Why would I want anyone else?" Tom told her.

That brought more floods of tears.

"I failed you," she wailed.

"How? By losing the baby? Don't be silly. We lost one, Pam and me, between Lydia and Robert. She was only a couple of months along, but it still hurt like hell. We were just getting used to the idea, and then it was snatched away. It happens sometimes, and there's nothing you can do. There's no-one to blame, it just happens," he told her.

"You went on to have more though, didn't you?" she said, hope slowly rising in her eyes.

"Yes, we did. We had two more," he said.

He took her by the hand and led her out to the others.

"Eve!" Paul cried, "What are you doing here?"

Putting his arms around her, Tom answered, "She lost the baby; she miscarried."

Knowing what that must have meant for her, the two men took her hands and said, "We're so very, very sorry."

Tom held her as she smiled weakly at them.

"Thank you," she said.

She buried her head into Tom's shoulder, and started softly crying. She stopped after a few minutes.

"We need to tell you why you're here," said Meria. "It's been six months since you left. The people who sent the slavers have discovered what happened to them. They are preparing to send a large force against the island. They have already landed their advance party. They are attacking villages, capturing women and children, and killing the men. We know of three damsels in the area. They haven't been there that long. I think they went after Leila gave them such a graphic description of exactly how good Paul is as a lover. Fucked into unconsciousness several times a night was how she describes it. Several girls have now chosen the island as their destination on the strength of that recommendation."

Paul went bright red. The others smiled.

"Yes, with all the noise she was making, earplugs would have been a good idea," said Tom, laughing.

"Well, you and Eve didn't do so badly, either! You certainly gave us a good run for our money," said Paul.

They all laughed, and even Eve gave a slight chuckle.

"We need to plan, and we haven't much time. Those girls have to be got out, and the Islanders have to be organised to be able to defend themselves."

"Hmm," hummed Tom.

"You've already got an idea haven't you," said Paul.

"Not mine exactly, but it does seem similar to what faced Alfred the Great. England, or really Wessex, at the time was faced with marauding bands of Vikings, or Norsemen, to give them their true title."

Everyone looked at him with interest.

"Well, go on," they said.

"Alfred's solution was to build 'Burghs'. These were fortified towns, into which all the food was gathered, and stored. When Halsted the Dane came over to conquer Wessex, he found that all the food was behind well-defended walls that he could not easily breach. You see, the Vikings were raiders. They did not see anything wrong in admitting that a town was too strong to raid, and moving on to the next. It was this system that allowed Alfred to beat him. Halsted's army went from one place to another, but could never find enough food for his men. Very soon, the army was starving and disease ridden, and were defeated. I think that might work here. The problem is getting the locals to buy into the system.

"We also need you, Paul, to set up and train the men in basic hygiene. Far more men were lost to disease than were ever killed in battle. We will need proper medical facilities, or the best that we can make. Your healers that you trained last time will make a good start to that cadre.

"Food. We will need food. We are going to have to increase food production, and reduce the labour requirements. That means mechanisation. That's where you come in Tony, with your engineering skills, you can design and build better ploughs, harrows, threshing machines. We're going to need seed drills, rope making machines and all sorts of things. There's not much iron, so most of it will have to be made from wood. Most folk work the land. They work bloody hard all year. We must reduce the workload in order for them to have time to train," he paused in thought for a moment.

"Ahmed, the trader we met last time ... He seemed a decent chap. Perhaps we can get him to supply us with grain. Perhaps he also knows where we can hire some people to train our men. We are going to have to think this out carefully. Tactics. We will have to use hit and run strikes. Deny the enemy rest. Always keep them on their guard. Attack their supply lines, disrupt their camps, that sort of thing. Hmm, never allow them to dictate the battlefield. Don't be afraid to retreat if the conditions don't suit us. That's all I can think of at the moment."

Tony sat there with his mouth open, while Paul just smiled.

"You see why I just took care of the sick, and left him to plan the battle?" said Paul.