Chapter 7

Gwen was upset when I described the attack to her, but she relaxed when I told her how effective Granny Eltman's spell had been in protecting me. Gwen was so relieved that nothing bad had happened to me that she chased her maid into the carriage with the other women and engaged in a full sex session with me. Both of us knew that she could not get pregnant from our activities, but she insisted that she loved me so much that she had to demonstrate the fact in the best way that she could. Anyway, the session lasted for almost two hours, and I got knowing looks and grins from the men and winks from Rolf and Elbert. Hell, I did not care! I was ready for that kind of thing from Gwendolyn whenever she was in the mood!

Two more days went by without any attacks; however, the next time was a real full-scale battle. We had stopped for lunch in a relatively open meadow. There was a large stream near the campsite, so it made it easy for the cooks. We had just finished eating when the lookout shouted that a gang of horsemen were charging at us from the treeline. We only had seconds to prepare to meet the onslaught.

I ordered the women to take refuge under the wagons while the men, all of whom were dismounted, grabbed pikes from the supply wagon. We lined up with our backs to the stream and lowered the pikes into the standard defensive position. No horse was going to charge a line of pikes if he had any choice in the matter. Horses are dumb beasts, but very few of them are really stupid!

A few of the horses did run onto our pike heads and were killed immediately, and a few horses did break through, but the majority refused to charge the pikes, and that broke the charge. The horses that did manage to get through our fence of pikes wound up knee-deep in the stream and could not move very fast. That was their death knell. My men stabbed the horses in the side with the pikes and killed them all before they could escape the water.

The men mounted on those unfortunate horses were then at the tender mercy of the pikemen, and they did not last long. Most of the riders had been dumped into the water at the death of the horses, so they were lying in the water mostly on their backs and struggling not to drown. They were such easy targets that it was almost embarrassing how easy it was to kill them.

On the other hand, the horses that had refused to come within range of the pikes were still a problem. Their riders had swords and maces, but no missile weapons and no lances, a stupid oversight!

I ordered my men to form an arc and try to keep the attackers away from the women. I was not worried about Gwendolyn's life, but I was worried about her being captured. Gwen had a knife, but that would do her very little good if several men all jumped her at the same time.

Rolf and Elbert had rallied to me and I told them what I wanted to do with the pikemen. They agreed to follow my plan while I ran to protect my wife and her maids. What I had in mind for the pikemen was a standard maneuver from Roman times or earlier. I wanted to collapse the center of the line and sweep the two ends around to envelope the attackers. The pikemen were already in an arc, so all that Rolf and Elbert had to do was to control their movements so that they did not become disorganized.

Of course, there was no way to keep riders from escaping before the envelopment was complete, but that was acceptable. Loose riders running away were no danger to us. It was only those who were foolish enough to stay and fight who could do us any harm.

Rolf and Elbert were familiar with the maneuver, so they were quite competent to carry it out. Meanwhile, I ran to where the women were sheltering. To my horror, I saw that four horsemen were riding toward the same place I was running to. I could not outrun a horse while I was still wearing armor, and I never had the foolish thought of stopping to discard my armor.

The horsemen all rode to the same side of the wagon, so Gwen moved her maids to the other side. All four men rode to that side of the wagon, so Gwen moved her maids back. There was no way the men were going to catch the women as long as they stayed together on their horses, and the women had their entire attention. It is amazing to me how stupidly people can act in the heat of battle, but the men no longer paid attention to anything else but the women.

The first man to the ground did not wait for his companions, but tried to crawl on his hands and knees under the wagon. That was perfect for Gwen's purpose: she reached out and stabbed the fool in the throat. Blood gushed everywhere, and the man fell where he was.

That further helped Gwen in her defense because his body blocked the wheels of the wagon and it would have to be moved before the wagon could be moved. Moving the wagon was the best way to reach the women, but the three male fools were thinking with their cocks and not their brains, so that never occurred to them.

I finally arrived and distracted the remaining three attackers. I was carrying my bastard sword and the attackers were using conventional long swords. That meant that I had both weight and length of my sword as an advantage over them. Plus, I was bigger and heavier and stronger in my own right, so it was like three mortal men fighting an ogre or a troll, especially now that they had attacked my wife.

The first swing of my sword knocked aside the sword of the closest man and took off his head in the follow through: I told you I was strong! I did not try to stop my sword, but spun around on my heels and stabbed the second man in the gut. His fall and my wrenching jerk of my sword cut his bowels to mincemeat.

That left only one man for me to fight. He threw his sword down and begged for mercy, but it was way too late for that. No man who threatened my wife with rape and death was going to survive our meeting! I grasped my sword with two hands and used it like an ax to cleave him from crown to bellybutton. His body fell away in two parts connected at the waist or a little below. Maybe I was kind in that I killed him so quickly.

By now, I was so enraged that I grabbed the foot of the man Gwen had killed and jerked him out of the way. I did not bother with the horses but pushed the wagon out of the way all by myself. Then I dropped my sword and embraced my wife to convince myself that she was safe and sound.

Approximately two-thirds of the attacking force was killed by the pikemen, either at the stream or in the enveloping maneuver. Why were these attacks still being made? Then it dawned on me: I could be charged with treason if I were late for my appointment with the King. Theoretically, being late by one minute was as damning as being late by one month. These attacks did not have to kill me, they only had to delay me for a few days! Dammit, how was I going to get around this problem?

That evening, I talked it over with my three co-conspirators. We wrestled with the problem and could come up with only one solution: I had to leave the caravan and make sure that I was in King's Home before the appointed day. We decided that Rolf and I would ride ahead as fast as we could go to reach King's Home. Once I was there, I could jump back to the caravan and transport Gwen to be with me.

Elbert would take my place in running the caravan and taking it to King's Home. We hoped that the attacks on the caravan would stop as soon as it was apparent that I was not with it. To make sure that we had covered all of the possibilities, I used the belt to jump to Springfeld Keep to consult with my father. He agreed with our plan and asserted that he could not think of a better one. That was good enough for me. I returned to the caravan and proceeded to make the necessary arrangements.