Chapter 16

It took them three days to make their way over the Kenty Ridge, slowed up as they were by the two cook wagons. The next day they looked out over the basin. Below them was scrub and grassland going down to the Balkat, and beyond that was dry desert scrub country all the way to the horizon.

Late in the morning of the fourth day they made their first river crossing. Rolly had the men strip naked, put their clothes into oilskin bags, and hold onto their saddles to let the horses swim them across.

They stopped long enough on the other side to dry and oil their gear, get dressed, and check the wagons. The interior of the high sided chuck wagons had been caulked and lined with canvas impregnated with bee's wax. It was the best thing Rolly could think of in an attempt to make a water tight hull out of them. There was some minor leakage but no damage to the food.

The men felt very fortunate that they had gotten to see Stephanie stripped down to shorts and a halter, which was just as scandalous as being naked in their eyes. They were also quite embarrassed that she had seen them in their altogether. Rolly felt that Stephanie's presence would serve as a bit of a bonus to the men, and would also get them to realize that you got the job done any way you had too. If that meant stripping down in front of a pretty girl, then so be it.

Stephanie acted as both squire and lieutenant. Before they had left Rolly picked three other men to act as officers, one of Sir George's sons, Sir Geodfrey, one of Sir Brinkton's sons, Sir Bryant, and a drover, Nikos, who the other drovers had elected. These men were needed for two reasons. The knights were fairly well trained and disciplined in Rolly's presence, but he was still their sovereign, and an outsider, so he needed people to yell at the men when the need arose.

When Rolly went scouting he would usually take two other men with him. He used that time to instill his philosophy on them. Rolly used examples of battles and events from "his land" as he said, and explained how different strategies had evolved and how larger armies had been defeated by smaller forces. He also explained to them the danger to them all. As Glen MacTynnen became rich off of the gold fields it became a target for kings, be them aristocratic kings from the nobility, or tribal kings from the steppes or fjords; case in point, Baron Nevin's greed. If Nevin had been smarter, or known that the miners would fight back, he could have easily overrun the gold fields and taken them for himself. Those wanting the riches of Glen MacTynnen would not make that mistake, and the nobility of the barony had no hope of defeating a king's army head to head. Rolly also made it clear that he had an obligation greater than the barony and would most likely not be there to lead them when the time came.

Several times after setting up camp Rolly would have Stephanie spar with him to keep both their hand to hand and knife fighting skills sharp. This was something the men had never seen before. Lightning fast punches, spinning high kicks to the head, and judo throws. The men had been trained in grappling and punching, often in combination with their swords. He taught them the basics in disarming and neutralizing another man, either bare handed or with a dagger, and had them practice every evening, along with calisthenics to keep trail weary muscles in shape.

Both Rolly and Stephanie practiced sword work with the men. It gave the knights some comfort to know that they could probably beat a girl in a swordfight. The fact that she knew her weaknesses and worked hard to overcome them served as a good example to the men.

Rolly kept tight discipline, and more than once he or Stephanie snuck out at night, and a sleeping guard found a dagger at his throat. After being chewed out in front of the whole camp by one of the officers the man then had to ride drag behind Wilven for two days.

After three weeks travel, averaging twenty miles per day, they came upon the first burned out ranch, where they found the remains of a family scattered in the ashes. Rolly told the men that he expected to reach the hacienda in a week, and that they might see bandits rounding up cattle at any time. So scouts were sent out to look for the rustlers.

After two days a scout reported that a small herd was being driven in the direction of the hacienda by ten men.

Rolly gathered the knights and explained that the rustlers would probably have three men with the herd all night long on staggered four hour shifts. The animals, as well as the riders, could sense someone coming if they were not very careful.

He wanted two teams of five to take out each night rider. They were murderers, and Rolly couldn't chance them getting word back to the hacienda. Rolly would lead the rest of the men into camp on horseback, and try to take at least one prisoner. Stephanie stayed with the wagons. They had to ride hard to catch up with the rustlers and he really didn't want his little sister seeing anyone killed in cold blood.

The plan went off without a hitch. They killed eight and took two prisoners.

After a brief one sided conversation with a red hot knife blade that had the two prisoners screaming into their gags, the men were willing to talk to Rolly. They told him that the gang was lead by a man, his two sons, and two crazy nieces. The nieces were in charge of the prisoners, and liked to be cruel to them. The man and his sons were the bloodthirsty ones, and seemed to enjoy killing the ranchers. They also would not hesitate to kill any of the other rustlers for disobeying an order. The other rustlers ranged from thieves that wouldn't hesitate to protect themselves, to men that liked to kill. The gang was split into five groups. The leader and his bodyguard stayed at the hacienda along with one group of herders, while three others went out to steal cattle. They had orders to kill and burn in addition to taking the cattle. The revised number in the gang was now closer to fifty.

The captain of the rustlers planned to take control of the whole area. He started by attacking the strongest ranch first, and now they were mopping up the smaller ranches. They had maybe a dozen women and girls as captives who would be sold along with the cattle. Legal or not, bad men could always find a market for women.

Now that Rolly and his men were close to the hacienda and facing three forces, one at the hacienda and two in transit, stealth became crucial.

After two days, his scouts came back. One of the bands had brought a herd in already, and another was on its way. It would probably be close enough to ride in support of the hacienda in two days.

That meant over thirty men at the hacienda, and another ten on the way. It was a fight Rolly wasn't looking forward to with unproven troops.

Rolly sent Sir Bryant off with the four best riders. They had orders to harass the ten bringing in the herd, and kill as many as they safely could. As soon as the Hacienda was taken more men would be sent to aid them.

Rolly scouted the hacienda and noted that the guard was fairly lax, but they did have sentries out to the south in case anyone sent a force from civilization after them. Other than that the rustlers relied on the eyes of the men that rode out every day to keep the stolen cattle from straying. Luckily for Rolly the rustlers did not ride night herd.

The whitewashed adobe hacienda was a large square, with an outer wall, a courtyard in the middle, and living quarters along three sides. The third side had stables and a wash area. Outside of the hacienda walls there were additional stables and a coral

The prisoners pointed out where the captives were being held when they weren't doing the chores of cooking and washing. The captives might be in danger from the nieces if things went bad. Rolly couldn't have that.

His plan was to circle a band of fifteen knights and five drovers under the command of Sir Geodfrey and come in from the south, looking like a posse come to carry out justice. Rolly would then take the remaining five knights and five drovers to storm the hacienda. That would leave Stephanie, five drovers, the cook and Wilven in reserve.

Sir Geodfrey led his band off in the middle of the night to circle around to the south. They had a long way to go to get into position, and they had to go slowly to avoid spooking the cattle.

Rolly waited until the pre dawn hours to move his men into position.

A half hour after sunrise a sentry rider came to the hacienda riding hard from the south, and raised the alarm. Some of the bandits had obviously still been asleep and it took them time to saddle their horses and ready their crossbows. They mustered and headed out under the leadership of the captain and his sons. One man was sent to the west, presumably to warn the band coming in with cattle. Three men and two women went back into the compound.

As soon as the five passed through the doorway Rolly started his men forward in a crouched run. When they got to the wall they split up and several with grapnel hooks climbed the wall behind the stables. Rolly and the rest tried the gate and found it to be unbarred.

Inside, Rolly quickly moved to where he thought the captives were. Drovers watched his back with lances in their hands while he and the knights broke in and held the two women bandits at sword point. Rolly continued on to the other rooms looking for the Damsel.

A woman was preparing food in a back room. She was facing away from him at an angle so he only got a partial view of her face.

"Rachel?"

The dark haired beauty turned to him. "I am Marisol."

"Yes, or course, I'm sorry, but from that angle you looked like someone I know. Anyway, Damsel Marisol, Pilot of Cassandra, I'm Hero Roland and I'm here to rescue you. – Stay right there."

Out in the courtyard were two bound men and two bound women. The drovers had killed the third man when he fought back.

Rolly ran to the gate and whistled for Stephanie to bring the horses.

When the horses arrived, Rolly sent the knights and five volunteer drovers out to join the battle, and he sent Stephanie and the rest of his men to watch over the prisoners and freed captives.

As the mob of bandits rode towards Sir Geodfrey and his men, the knights and drovers shifted from a double column into a battle line. When the bandits were a hundred and fifty paces off, Geodfrey ordered the knights carrying bows to fire. The hail of arrows coming from mounted men surprised the bandits, and their leader ordered them to charge. That order saved many knights because it reduced the effectiveness of the crossbows that the bandits carried.

Geodfrey's archers got off three quick rounds before the charge, and another before the bandits could close the distance. That substantially cut down on the number of enemy before the lines could be met.

The archers began to ride and shoot as the main enemy force contacted their own.

Meanwhile, the drovers, who had crossbows, and who had been ordered to hold their fire until the battle was joined, made their one shot count before they swung their shields off of their backs, pulled their axes and joined the fight.

Goedfrey's lancers took the brunt of the charge but did great damage against the remaining bandits, who were armed with swords and axes.

The drovers were not skilled enough with their weapons to do much damage, but they were a distraction that aided the knights. The drovers had been trained to use their shields first and foremost, and only use their weapon if they had an undefended target, such as the back of a man who was fighting a knight.

The additional ten men charging from the direction of the hacienda broke the bandits will, and for the rest of the day knights hunted down fleeing men and put them to the sword. Three of those were the leader and his sons.

Three knights and two drovers suffered serious wounds, and four horses were lost to the rustler's crossbows.

While the battle was raging south of the hacienda, Stephanie made the mistake of thinking that the bound prisoners were harmless. As her attention was focused elsewhere, the two bound women attacked her. The banditas knew that they were going to be hanged, or worse, and wanted to take someone with them, and who better that the leader's bitch, whoever she might be.

In a surprise move, one of the women tripped Stephanie. The other was on her in a flash, with her hands around Stephanie's neck trying to strangle her. The first went for a nearby clay pitcher to bash in Stephanie's head. The men had made the mistake of binding the prisoner's hands together in front of them.

Wilven was closest to the scene and acted quickly. He grabbed a milking stool and caved in the skull of the woman on top of Stephanie. The boy then found his hands full of a crazy bitch with a blunt object intending to do him harm.

He defended himself by grabbing the pitcher. A fully grown woman is a good match for most thirteen year old boys, especially when she is a psychopath, and has been riding with bad men.

Stephanie was on her feet as soon as she could untangle herself from the dead woman on top of her. She pulled her dagger, grabbed Wilven's attacker by the hair, yanked back and slit her exposed throat. Stephanie then calmly turned and kicked the lifeless body of her would be strangler in the face.

After wiping off her dagger, and straightening her clothes, and hair, she asked Wilven if he was alright. The shaken boy nodded.

Stephanie gave him a kiss, "Thank you for coming to my rescue."

As soon as he could, Rolly sent Stephanie, ten tired knights, and as many drovers, towards Sir Bryant's position to help. They had orders to drive back the cattle that the rustlers had with them.

Sir Bryant had been having fun. He and two of his men snuck up on the rustler's camp as all ten of them were eating dinner around a campfire. Once they were in position they began loosing arrows as fast as they could into the camp. That was a diversion to give the other two knights time gallop into the camp with lances. The three knights on foot then quickly drove off and/or stole the rustler's horses.

Seven of the rustles were casualties of the initial attack, but that left three who escaped on foot. Throughout the night Sir Bryant's men continued to ride through the area so that the remaining rustlers could not regroup.

The next day the knights were able to easily hunt down the surviving rustlers, who were on foot and in open country.

The man sent to warn the group arrived on a tired horse, and was ridden down and killed.

When the relief force arrived Sir Bryant's men were happy to make camp and get some rest, since none of the men had slept in over two days.

On the trail, Rolly had made it clear that both the knights and the drovers would get paid for every head of cattle and every horse that made it back across the Balkat. Once the hacienda was taken they were all cattlemen, and anyone that didn't pull his weight wouldn't get his share. That gave the young noblemen motivation to learn from Stephanie and the drovers, and follow their directions.