CHAPTER XX
The next week was an extremely busy one for Marion’s crew. It had been touch and go for Robin, but he was now starting to mend slowly. They also had their first encounter with Cecilia’s men since they had gone into hiding. Pollyanna and Stella had been coming back from a scouting trip when they almost literally stumbled on a group of Cecilia’s men raping five women that they had taken from a local village. Since they had the element of surprise and there were only five bastards, Stella quickly made the choice to strike. While Pollyanna stayed hidden in the brush, Stella worked her way around the group. Once she was on the other side, which had only taken her five minutes, she signaled Pollyanna and she signaled back. With that the angel of death spread its wings over the men and within seconds they were all dead, for while neither Stella or Pollyanna were in Gabriel’s league; they were no slouches either and the range here was only about 10 meters. They then stepped out of hiding to make sure all the men were dead and to check on the women.
The women were so scared that a couple of them peed themselves. First, they had been taken for payment because their families couldn’t pay the outrageous taxes that Cecilia was charging. Then when their guards had stopped for lunch, the women were brutally raped for dessert. Then without warning arrows flew out of the woods, killing the guards. Then two very strangely dressed men came out of the woods and checked on the guards. They had to be men for they were wearing pants and had on strange green overcoats that had hoods on them that covered their faces. Then the older one spoke, these “men” were actually women and they removed their hoods. The women that had been raped started crying for they had hope that they might now be safe. Prior to Cecilia’s reign of terror, they had been part of successful families that usually didn’t have to worry about paying their taxes or putting food on the table, but now they were beyond dirt poor.
“Do any of you know who we are?” Asked the younger woman warmly. All five women shook their heads.
“Well then introductions are in order then. My name is Pollyanna and I am an engineer. My companion here is Stella, and she is my immediate superior. We are both followers of Marion of York”
All five of the women’s reactions were about the same. They were shocked beyond belief for they had thought that Marion and her followers had all died. In fact, nobody believed that they were still alive.
“Thank you for rescuing us” one of the younger women said quietly. The woman named Stella responded with a smile.
“No thanks are necessary. We do have a couple of small favors to ask before we escort you home.”
“What are they?” sharply asked the same woman that had spoken up before.
“Hey calm yourself if you please. We ask that once all of you have gotten dressed you help us get these bastards off the road. The other thing we ask that you quietly tell people just who’s group rescued you.”
Again, the women nodded their heads only this time there was no hesitation. They quickly got dressed and then helped Stella and Pollyanna get the bastards off the road and hidden. After the dead were hidden, Pollyanna brought their horses up and loaded all the looted gear up. Going through their loot, they found a total of five pounds ten shillings which Stella divided between the raped women. For Stella and Pollyanna this was no big deal but for the other five this was a godsend for them. They did suggest that the women hide the money so that it wouldn’t get stolen from them.
After making sure that everything was ready, they set off. Stella made the decision to give the women an escort back to their villages and since Pollyanna didn’t have too much to do for the rest of the day went with them. Along the way, the women were full of questions about everything it seemed but especially Marion. Stella and Pollyanna answered most of the questions but not all. They were silent about where they were hiding and they refused to talk about what all they had been doing since the attack. They did answer the questions that pertained to the group’s goals. The women had a hard time believing that Marion was aiming toward making all people equal in the law’s eyes and giving everyone the opportunity to prove themselves and succeed in life.
As the group was coming up to a bend in the road, Pollyanna suddenly stopped and quietly signaled the group to get off the road fast. Stella was the last into hiding:
“What’s up?”
“I heard horses.”
“Well, we know what to do with them. Ladies listen to me and listen well. You need to hide. If anything happens to us run and make sure to scatter so that if one of you are found then the rest will still have a chance.” Stella said as she was unlimbering her bow and making sure that her arrows were ready as Pollyanna quickly followed suit. Within minutes a troop of calvary came around the corner and they were wearing Cecilia’s colors. Stella counted twenty men and numerous pack horses as they drew back their bows. Both of them had a new type of bow that Luke had designed. It was far more powerful than anything else in existence and was capable of being shot rapidly.
They waited until the troops had pasted them before attacking. Pollyanna and Stella started shooting when they were about twenty meters behind the last of the soldiers. They were able to shoot two volleys before the soldiers even knew that they were under attack. As the soldiers were stopping to turn around Pollyanna and Stella dropped their third pair of targets. Now the odds were seven to one. Before the soldiers could charge the odds had become to six to one. As the soldiers started their charge toward the two women, they ran off the road and continued to shoot from the forest. Being in the forest allowed them to hide and shoot and the trees slowed the soldiers down. The odds were down to five to one by the time the soldiers had made it to the pair but now they were close enough to use their swords. Stella was the first to catch a blow when one of the soldiers struck her bow and cut it in half, but before he could strike again, Pollyanna shot him and Stella was able to draw her sword and cut down another passing rider. Now it was four to one but the problem for the women now was that the remaining eight were some of the best and most loyal men that Cecilia had. Stella had barely seen him but was able to yell out:
“POLLY BEHIND YOU!” As Pollyanna turned, one of the men drove his horse right over her and knocked her out. Normally, something like that would have killed Pollyanna but her armor saved her and now Stella was by herself. She continued the hack and slash at anyone who came close while working herself over to where she could protect Pollyanna. Stella hoped that Pollyanna was only knocked out and not dead, but had no time to check.
Finally surrounded, the troop leader demanded Stella’s honorable surrender. At first, she refused, but when she took in the full situation, she could see really didn’t have a choice. She was outnumbered eight to one and Pollyanna was out cold. Hopefully by giving her honorable surrender, Stella could buy herself and Pollyanna some time for Marion to bail them out. Thankfully Marion knew where the two of them had been patrolling and Stella knew that Marion would be looking for them within only an hour or so. They had left a note, written in the group’s code at the site where they had rescued the women explaining where they were headed. So, Stella surrendered.
Stella and Pollyanna were both searched while most of the men searched the surrounding forest where they managed to round up all five of the other women. Stella knew better then to fight at the moment but the other women were fighting viciously. This was deeply amusing for the soldiers. The commander wanted to just kill the five women and take the two captured back to York. His men had other ideas; they were not about to waste five good pussies before they could play some.
“Fine, you idiot’s have an hour and then we kill them.” The commander stated. His authority over these men was still a bit shaky for he was a very recent transfer from Richard’s former main estate plus an extra hour wouldn’t matter and maybe he could get some information out of his captives; so, while his men started to rape the women, he sat with Stella and Pollyanna to have a talk with Stella. By this time, Stella had checked on Pollyanna and could see that she was only knocked out and should be coming to before long. The commander had watched this and was impressed. Stella went through checking Pollyanna in such a way that suggested that she not only knew what she was doing but had nerves of steel as well.
“So, lass what be your name?” Stella just looked at him but didn’t answer. The commander had expected as much for this clearly was not a weak woman.
“Well, my name is Captain Hall, but you can call me Matt.”
“Why are you letting your men rape those poor women? Don’t you think that they’re been through enough already?” Stella asked with enough venom to kill all the men.
“Well, there are seven of them and only one of me, plus those men are mercenaries while I am not. Also, what kind of word is don’t?”
‘Shit, didn’t think that through’ thought Stella. “Where I come from that is called a contraction. It is a combination of the words do not and by using contractions it makes speaking more efficient.”
“Where are you from then? I have traveled widely in my many years and I have never heard speech like that.”
“Well, I am from a far-off land known as America.” Stella knew that she couldn’t tell the truth here so she made up a cover story using parts of Luke’s story as her own.
“America? I have never heard of such a land.”
“It is far away after all. It lays far to the West, across the sea.”
“Then how did you end up here then?”
“Like you, I have traveled widely and I have been travelling almost constantly for many years. I have probably been to more places than you have ever heard of.”
By this time Pollyanna was starting to come around so Stella went to her side to help. Matt quietly watched as Stella helped Pollyanna sit up and then do something with Pollyanna’s eyes. Stella then checked Pollyanna’s pulse and then checked her for broken bones. Eventually Stella decided that Pollyanna probably only sustained a mild concussion and she would be fine. While she was checking her Stella quietly told Pollyanna what was going on including the story that she was telling the commander. The other men were making enough noise to cover up their own conversation. Matt then started trying to get some information out of Pollyanna but all that she would say was that she was an engineer. Matt had heard of engineers, he had served with many large armies in his past, but he had never heard of a female engineer before. He guessed that it was possible after all one of his sisters had been very bright before disease had killed her and truth be told; it was his memory of her that had caused him to be so kind to these two women.
After an hour the men’s time was up.
“Hey idiots, when you finish up with your current woman, kill her. We need to get going.” Neither Stella or Pollyanna said a thing for they both knew that if these women were kept alive then their secret would be revealed and they would most likely be killed. Within ten minutes, all five women lay dead and the men had themselves dressed and ready to go. The men then started showing interest in Stella and Pollyanna but the captain claimed them for himself. These two amazed him and he wasn’t about to let them be used by some lowlife soldiers. When one of the men tried to grab Stella, she grabbed his wrist, flipped him over her body and stomped on his throat at the same time he was landing on the ground. Stella’s aim was true and she crushed the jugular, leading to the quick death of the arrogant soldier.
The other men, including Matt, took a step back at seeing this. Obviously, these were not women that you would want to piss off, and now with both of them awake and alert the odds were now three and a half to one and none of them were confident that they could win even with the odds in their favor. Matt quickly ordered that the women’s hands be bound and to the women:
“If you fight us anymore, I will have you ran through. Is that clear?” Both women nodded. “Good because the last thing I want to do is have you two killed.”
Once the women were bound, the group continued on their way. Matt had the women put on horses and had one of his men keep hold of the reins to keep the women from doing anything stupid. Another one of his men rode next to each woman with their sword out and ready to use at a moment’s notice. Matt wasn’t going to take any more chances that these women try to escape.
For hours, the group rode in mostly silence. There was some occasional talk between the men and Matt. Once in a while Matt would ask one of the women a question. Sometimes they answered, sometimes they didn’t. The answers that they did give were always very short. It almost seemed that the women were waiting for something or someone. Matt had quickly caught on to this and had sent two of his men ahead to keep an eye out.
Finally, the woods thinned out and they could see the city of York in the distance and Matt was relieved for these two women had been making all of his men and himself, for that matter, nervous as hell. Matt almost couldn’t wait to get the women back into his small house that he rented in town. Through Matt’s cloud of thoughts, a sound broke through, the sound of men being killed quickly. Matt snapped out of his thoughts and looked around. All the men with him were still alive, but it was obvious that they had heard the noise to for they all had their swords drawn and were looking into the woods. They had also sped up their mounts for right now all they wanted to do was to get back to the safety of town. Coming around the last corner, the group stopped in their tracks. There laying on the ground were their two advance guards and standing over them was a giant. The giant had a green overcoat on and the hood had been pulled over its face. Matt actually wondered if this thing might actually be capable of picking him and his horse up and slamming them both into the ground. Then the giant spoke:
“Those two women belong to me and I would appreciate their return.” The voice was very calm and under these circumstances very unnerving.
“They are mine now” growled Matt. Then speaking to his men: “Kill that bastard”
“I believe the gentleman asked for his women back and it will be in your best interest to return them” came a female voice. All the men including Matt stopped and looked. Stepping out from behind the giant was another person that wore the same long green overcoat. Now that Matt was thinking clearly, this was the same type of overcoat that is captives were wearing. Again, the female voice spoke: “This is your last warning; release them and I might let you live. If you refuse to release them, then I guarantee that you will be dead within a minute.”
“Who the fuck are you?!?!” spat Matt. He was getting pissed and he wasn’t about to release the woman that had killed over half of his men. Ahead of him the two looked at each other and them back to Matt. At the same time, they swept off their hoods and Matt found himself looking at a fairly handsome man and a woman that could only be described as an angel or the goddess of beauty. Behind him, he heard a gasp. “What?” he asked the man who had gasped.
“We should do what they say sir for that is Marion of York and therefore I bet the giant is the man named Luke. I am telling you now sir that we stand no chance against them.”
Now Matt knew who they were for he had heard the tales and seeing these two in the flesh didn’t doubt that the tales were true. Now knowing the two in front of him, he could guess at who his captives were. He also knew that if Cecilia heard that he released two members of Marion’s group that he would die a very slow and painful death. As he was deciding what to do, Marion spoke
“If you don’t release my people by the time, I count to five, then I will have you killed where you stand. Of course, if you try charging then you will only die faster. My best archer is hidden in the woods and she never misses”
This decided things for Matt and he told the men to put away their swords and untie the women.
“But Milord, if Cecilia hears of this then we will all be dead anyway. I know not about you, but I would much rather die at Marion’s hands then Cecilia’s. For you know that Cecilia will torture us and kill our families where if Marion kills us then it will be at least fast and our families will hopefully still have a chance.”
“You men know that you have a third option” said Stella. She urged her horse forward until she was in front of all the men and then she turned to face them. “You men can join us and serve Marion in her bid to oust the tyrannical Cecilia and bring peace and prosperity back to northern England.” All the men were staring at her like she was a ghost or had turned into a monster and their faces turned white as sheets. The seconds ticked by, the men under Matt’s command were paralyzed for they had never expected this. From what everything that was said about Marion, they had expected to be killed very slowly. Eventually Marion stepped forward and came to stand next to Stella.
“Choose now!” Marion snapped. This seemed to snap the men out of their paralysis. “The men who are willing to follow me need to get off their horses now. The rest of you will have ten seconds to get the hell out of here before I have you killed.”
Matt was the first one to dismount. Something in Marion gave him hope and it was like she was an angel, with a halo surrounding her, that screamed “Follow me”. About half of his men followed suit while the rest decided to run. They had family that still lived in York and without them there to protect them, they would be dead within a month. Marion true to her word let the men go, but before they rode off, she stopped them.
Handing them each a small pouch; she told them “Here, take this and make sure that your families get it before you meet with my sister. Make sure that when you report what happened that you do not mention it for, she will surely steal it from you. Now good luck and ride safe.” Marion stepped out of the way and let the men ride on. She then turned to check out her four new recruits.
CHAPTER XXI
The mood in Cecilia’s castle was bleak to say the least. It had been going downhill ever since the raid that had killed Richard had happened. If there was any rumor that Marion had been sighted, Cecilia sent off a group of her men to investigate but that was all they ever were was rumors. In the meantime, Cecilia’s grasp on reality started to slip. She was ever more fearful of the people turning against her. This fear lead her to institute loyalty oaths for all her men. She had also demanded that they all move their families into York. She made it clear that if any of them tried anything that went against her, that their families would be killed by either torture or being burned at the stake. She would use fear to keep everyone in line.
At the same time, she raised taxes even further. Any household that couldn’t pay were either forced to provide free labor for Cecilia’s estates, or had to provide a young man for her army, or had to provide a young woman to help entertain the soldiers. If the household couldn’t or wouldn’t meet these conditions then the household would be destroyed. The men would be worked to death on her estates, usually in the mines, while the women would be forced into sexual servitude. They would be sent to one of Cecilia’s brothels where their life span would be measured in months. For these women would be the ones to serve the customers that had social diseases or who had very kinky taste like murder or cannibalism fetishes. As long as they paid for the goods, Cecilia didn’t care what happened to the girls.
On this day, Cecilia was waiting on a gold shipment. It was money that she had made by selling the extra food that she had brought in with her taxes. The food was needed but she needed hard money even more. The shipment was under a strong guard and was led by one of her most trusted men; Captain Matthew Hall. He was extremely capable and extremely loyal. The only thing that bothered Cecilia about using him was that he had no family for her to have leverage over him. The captain was due back soon for he had sent a messenger ahead to tell Cecilia that he had the shipment under guard and was leaving London. He had even given her an approximate date that he thought that he would be back by. She got a message that said that some of the Captain’s men had returned but not the Captain. Cecilia went to meet with them and there was only three that had returned out of twenty that had left. Furthermore, none of the money had made it back and this outraged Cecilia. She managed to just barely hold her temper in check while the men gave their reports. It seemed that Marion was back and her entire group that had escaped, had survived. She had ambushed the convey and had killed most of the guards. The only way they had survived was that they had played dead while Marion and her followers had looted the money, the arms, and armor from the dead.
Cecilia exploded. Her damn sister was back and now had a lot of money. Cecilia had been expecting almost five thousand pounds from the sale of her extra food and other goods. The surviving men made their retreat while Cecilia was busy ranting and raving.
“Was that a good idea lying to her like that” one of them asked.
“You want to go back and tell her the truth? Plus, we did not exactly lie, we just left some things out of our report.” was the response “Besides with the money that Marion gave us, we can afford to buy food for our families for the next month.” This settled it for the three of them, after all Cecilia didn’t need to be bothered by the embarrassing details of how they had been ambushed by only two women and half of the survivors had joined Marion.
After Cecilia had worn herself out, with her tantum, she called all her commanders together. The survivors had given her the approximate position of Marion’s ambush and Cecilia was eager to get revenge and to get her gold back. It would take a couple of days to get the men ready to go. Cecilia gave her men just one day to get ready. She had almost three thousand men at her command and one hundred elite knights. She was going to send almost everyone out with the exception of about one hundred men that she used to keep order in town and guard the castle.
Everything in town was thrown into chaos. Soldiers were busy gathering food and fodder for the expedition. They had to get all the horses and mules ready as well. Weapons had to be sharpened and uniforms had to be repaired. Some of the horses needed new shoes and a few saddles had to be replaced. Every civilian in town was put to work in helping get the soldiers ready to go. Cecilia had also ordered the gates of the town to be sealed. No one was allowed in or out without her direct orders and there were no exceptions. The preparations went on through the night, no one in town got any sleep and that included Cecilia for she was going over her commander’s plans, gathering any and all intel on the forest in which it was said that Marion and her crew were hiding. She also talked to the armorers which she had tasked in recreating Tom’s gear; to see if they might be able to add anything new to what Cecilia knew about Marion’s likely hiding area. Problem here was that even after a month, her armorers were no closer to recreating the armor. Apparently, some mysterious process had been used to create it, and sorcery was suggested as the only way it could have been possibly done. After all, Cecilia had hired the most experienced armor makers around to make armor like Tom’s and none of them could even come close.
By dawn the next morning, everything had been done and Cecilia’s army marched out of town. Their orders were simple. Comb every inch of the countryside until they found and eliminated the threat that Marion posed. They were ordered that under no circumstances were they to return until Marion’s whole crew had been killed. Cecilia wanted Marion’s head returned to her on a pike. She no longer cared about taking her or Luke alive.
Within a day, the army had reached the final ambush site and they found plenty of evidence to show that Marion had been there. First there were plenty of tracks on the road that appeared to be from the right time. One of the men found a scrape of green fabric that appeared to be the same that Marion’s crew was said to wear as overcoats. They also found the dead guards scattered around the site. Some of them still had the arrows imbedded in them. The three that had escaped were really amazed for they had been actually ambushed several hours up the road. After all the only ones killed here were the advanced guard and yet the bodies of all their companions were here. It didn’t take them long to figure out that it was Marion actually cared about them, not Cecilia. After all Marion had risked detection to place the other dead men around so that they wouldn’t look guilty. All three decided separately that as soon as they could, they would take their families out of York and join with Marion. That is if this wild goose chase actually ever ended and if they weren’t killed by it. They privately acknowledged to each other that their chances of actually catching Marion ranked far below a snowball’s chances in the depths of hell.
The scouts had found five different trails leading away from the area and some of the tracks were from heavily loaded horses. That would be the pack animals. There had been fifteen of them in the convoy and none of them were found with the guard’s corpses. In fact, no dead horses were found. The commanders sent groups of their scouts to follow every track. They were to follow them for the rest of the day and return tomorrow, unless they actually found Marion; then they were to report back while leaving some of the men to shadow her while the army got into position.
The first scout was screaming within five minutes of leaving the main army. It was close enough that the commanders went to investigate for themselves. When they got there, they found that parties leader hanging by his feet from a tree and impaled on a bed of wooden spikes. A new leader was appointed for that group and they were strongly advised to stay off the trail and to keep alert. When the commanders returned to the army, they got word that one of the other parties had also walked into a trap. Only there, half the scouts had been killed for they had been bunched up and had walked over a camouflaged pit that contained a large number of sharp wooden stakes. Another group had lost two members to arrow fire. The arrows had come out of nowhere and no shooters could be found. This was going to be a very long and costly expedition, but they had their orders. They were not to stop hunting Marion until she was found and killed or Cecilia herself recalled the army.
This is how the next week went. Some groups of scouts would see nothing and other groups would be ambushed and annulated. For the night guards it was far worse, for in the morning half of them would be dead; their throats slit and their armor and weapons stripped. The mood in the camp was getting worse and worse. It didn’t take the soldiers long to learn that being assigned to night sentry duty was a death sentence. The disciple of the army started to break down despite most of the men having families back in York and being well supplied with food and drink. It got to the point where there would be groups of five or six men assigned to every sentry post.
Finally, they got a solid lead. One of the patrols had sighted a large camp near a stream. In the camp they seen a very beautiful female bathing. They also seen bits of armor laying around and a couple of men moving around. The patrol reported back as ordered and the commanders got the army underway within an hour, and they also sent a report back to Cecilia detailing what was going on. To move through the forest at speed, they had to leave almost all of their gear behind. The men were spread out through the forest so that they could move easier. Deeper and deeper into the forest the army went. Occasionally a man would scream and then there would be silence once again. The booby traps that Marion’s crew had set up were extremely ingenuous and very well hide; and they were taking a heavy toll on the men. After almost three hours, they reached the camp.
There they found two men still in camp and they were quickly captured. These were two of the men who had deserted from the money guard detail. They had been sick so they hadn’t been out on patrol with the rest of Marion’s group. It didn’t take them long to start talking. In fact, Marion had told them not to bother keeping secrets if captured. If there was something that she didn’t want them to know, she simply wouldn’t tell them. The army set about looting the camp as the two men were tortured. Everything from thin knives stuffed under fingernails to their balls being crushed didn’t tell the commanders anymore then they had been told when the men were first captured. The torture went on for hours and still nothing could be learned so the two were tied to a stake and burned alive. The men that had been looting the camp didn’t have any better luck. All they found were a couple of coins, some pots and pans, and an old horse.
The commanders kept the army there until the corpses were completely burnt. The reason for this was to remind the men what would happen to them if they betrayed Cecilia and to send a message to any others that were thinking of deserting that if caught, they would receive the equal treatment. Late in the afternoon, the army started on its way back to their original camp. This time they moved much faster for they had no reason to keep quiet. When they got back to their campsite, they realized that they had fucked up big time. Spread around were the bodies of the one hundred men that had been left to guard the camp. All the horses and mules were gone. Along with all the extra weapons, food, medicine, and drink. Anything that couldn’t be taken had been piled up and burnt. They did manage to find one of the men still alive and able to tell what happened.
CHAPTER XXII
“The attack started just after an hour after the main army left. It was as swift as it was brutal. The attack started with arrows coming in from every side. Every time one of the men had thought that he had found a good hiding place, he would catch an arrow in the back. Not very many arrows missed their marks either. Within fifteen minutes half of the men were dead or injured. The rest had found some shelter by drawing some of the wagons around them. If any of them even tried to raise his head to look out, he caught an arrow to the face for his efforts. Eventually I seen a couple of people step out of the forest dressed in green. They approached the wagons and lit something, they held in their hands, on fire. They then tossed those objects onto the wagons where the fires rapidly spread through all the wagons. The men caught inside found that they had been caught in a death trap. Some of the managed to get out but they were cut down by arrow fire or by the two that had started the wagons on fire with swords. After the attack was finished, more people came out of the forest, also wearing green. They went through the remaining wagons looking for loot or survivors. After they swept the camp, they loading everything they could carry onto the pack animals and piled everything else up in the middle of the camp and lit it on fire. They then melted back into the forest.”
“How many of those bastards did you see, laddie?”
“I seen at least six and five of them were defiantly women. I also seen the giant that we keep getting reports of, and there might have been another man or two around but I could not tell. I was too busy trying to pretend to be dead.” At this the man started crying for he had just admitted that he had been a coward and fully expected to be executed for being one. Instead, the leading commander patted him on the shoulder, told him to get some rest, and that he had done a good job.
“Why were you so lenient on that man sir? He obviously was a coward so why are you not ordering him to be killed?” Asked the second in command. He was a nobleman through and through and as such didn’t hold any of the lower classes in high esteem.
“Because you ignorant jackass; that man had watched as a group of one hundred men had been overwhelmed by a group that was less than a tenth their own strength. Plus, he has given us some really good and usable intel on Marion. Now a question for you: If you were her, where would you go after getting ahold of that much loot?”
The second in command thought for a moment, “Not back to my main camp. Hauling that much loot will leave an obvious trail and the last thing that I would want to do was to led the army which I had just humiliated back to my main camp.”
“My thoughts exactly. Now let’s go see if any of the men know these woods.”
After taking most of the evening to question the men, the commanders had a good idea of where to start looking in the morning. They made sure that the men had settled down the best that was possible and then they started writing the report to be sent back in the morning. That night, none of the sentries were killed; indeed, it seemed like the enemy had disappeared, but then again, why stick around when they had already gotten most of the valuable stuff.
The army set off first thing in the morning. This time they left nothing behind but some smoldering camp fires. They started moving toward an area that was known to have a number of caves in it. As they moved, they came across signs that they were on the right track. They kept finding bits of armor and clothing that had been looted from their camp. As they kept moving, they eventually came across a bridge. It was built out of timber and was much heavier built then something that one would normally find in such a remote area. Going across it they could see fresh wagon tracks, probably no more than a couple of hours old; for it was now about midday. The army formed up to cross the bridge, for the small river that it crossed was moving too swiftly and had too high of banks to be forded.
About half of the army had made it across when the bridge disappeared in a burst of light, sound, and smoke. The air then hung thick with the stink of sulfur, and the men that had been near the bridge were screaming in pain. Many of them had received nasty wounds from the wood that flew from the bridge during the explosion. Still more were now in the river and were starting to drown. The army then had to stop to not only rebuild the bridge but to tend to the wounded. This was going to prove extra difficult because the army’s surgeon had been on the bridge when it went up. The commanders quickly began to organize the men. Some of them would tend to the wounded while others would start to use whatever tools they had to cut down new trees to rebuild the bridge good enough so the men on the far bank could retreat and link back up with the rest of the army.
The army was working as fast as they could when men on the far side began to drop like flies for, they were being picked off by arrows. Every time they would rush to try and catch the shooter, more of them would die and they still couldn’t find the shooter. Time and again this happened. After almost an hour, a bridge of sorts was in place and the men started rushing back across. By the time the last of them had gotten across, almost two hundred lay dead on the other side. The men now had had enough and demanded that they be allowed to go back to town where they wouldn’t have to worry about being ambushed every time one of them would leave the camp.
As the army started to retreat, they heard a trumpet sound from across the river and a woman dressed in green stepped out of the forest and into full view. She spoke to the army through something that magnified her voice many times over.
“We thank you kindly for all the gear. I am truly sorry for all the men that we killed defending ourselves and I truly wish that we would not have had to kill any of you. To the commanders; be advised that if we capture any of you, we will execute you in the same manner that you executed my two men that you captured. Now in the interest of avoiding any more deaths, we have left for you a marked path back to York. There will be a red ribbon tried to trees about one hundred paces apart. As long as you stick to the path no further harm will come to you. If you leave the path for any reason you will be killed. I have any left enough tents in a clearing next to a stream for your wounded to spend the night in. The army will camp at that spot and then you will continue on your way as soon as the sun is up and your campfires have been extinguished tomorrow morning. If you leave the fires burning you will be killed. As long as you do what you are told, then you will be back at the walls of York be late tomorrow afternoon. When you get back, tell Cecilia that Marion of York sends her regards and thank her for the gear. Now good day gentlemen.”
With that the woman melted back into the trees. The men found the ribbons quickly enough and started following the path, just like the woman had said. When they got to the clearing, that she had talked about, they found tents, food, medicine, drink, and enough firewood for the night. The commanders didn’t even have control over the men at this point as the only thoughts of the men was to get back to York without pissing Marion off any further. When the commanders ordered foraging parties out, the men flatly refused, telling the commanders that if they wanted to forage then they should go out themselves. The next morning the men put the fires out as instructed and continued on their way. Occasionally they seen one of the green ghosts watching them from the trees but it was never more than a glimpse before they were gone. By late afternoon they had made their way back to York, just like Marion had said.
By the time they had got back they had been able to count their losses. Out of one hundred knights that started out, only thirty survived and none of them still had their horses. Out of almost three thousand soldiers, only eight hundred returned and almost all of them were terrified of the forest.
The army had lost almost all of their gear including their pack animals. This was going to cost Cecilia a very pretty penny for many of those animals had been loaned to her and now she would have to pay for them. To make the matters even worse, the army’s payroll had been taken when they lost their gear.
Cecilia was beyond furious. Her army had failed spectacularly and large amounts of gear had fallen into Marion’s hands. Furthermore, all of the men that had come back spoke admiringly of Marion. She could have killed them all but had given them a way out and had even given them food, drink, and a place to sleep for a night. As long as they did what she had said then they wouldn’t be harmed and they weren’t. Cecilia had the top commanders executed by impaling them. Some of the men that had spoken especially well of Marion were burned at the stake. The people in York then started to get rebellious and Cecilia had to crack down extra hard to keep order. She had only one option left to her and she took it. She called in her assassins. So far, she had avoided using them because they were expensive and their expense came directly out of her pocket. Furthermore, she had been trying to keep her reputation among the people of the upper classes intact. When her army was so soundly defeated; her reputation was shattered with the army. All told she had thirty assassins that she kept on retainer and she called all of them up. Their mission was simple, kill Marion and anyone that got in their way. The one who brought back Marion’s head would get a five thousand pound bonus.
CHAPTER XXIII
Marion’s team was relaxing after a hard week. They had beaten back her sister’s army, but had lost two of their own in the process. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the men had been killed in combat but they had been murdered after they had been captured. This had taught Marion that no quarter would be given and none would be expected in this fight. Luke was massaging her feet for she was starting to feel the weight gain from her pregnancy. She loved when he did this and she could feel the tension leaving her body. Matt and Pollyanna were sitting by a fire talking quietly. They had proven to be a very good team and got along well together. In fact, Marion had started teasing her about them getting a room. This was always good for a round of laughs, including from Pollyanna even though she always turned red when Marion did this. Gabriel was in the process of making more arrows. She had shot through almost all that she had made. In fact, her shoulder was sore from all of the shooting that she had done. Alice was reading more on Luke’s computer. She had gotten to where she could navigate through it without Luke’s help and she was taking full advantage of it. Stella and Robin were on guard duty. Even though they had just defeated most of Cecilia’s army didn’t mean that they could let down their guard and in fact Luke and Marion figured that Cecilia’s next move would be the try and hire assassins to sneak in and kill Marion. This left the last member of the group and his name was Bard. He had been one of those who surrendered to Marion when she had captured the money convoy. He didn’t much like the idea of serving a female leader, but Marion was many times better than her sister. Marion was calm, approachable, outgoing, and listened to everyone in the group and their resent triumph had been the result of that.
After all it had been Pollyanna’s idea to blow up the bridge using some kind of devil powder. Luke had provided her with the means to blow up the bridge from a safe distance and do it at command. Alice was the one who came up with the idea to kill only half of the night sentries. She had almost been captured with the two men. She had been there that morning to take care of them. She had even washed up in the stream after she had tended to their medical needs. She had left to rejoin Marion only fifteen minutes before the army struck. She had watched as the men were tortured and eventually killed. Gabriel had been responsible for killing most of the scouting parties and had been instrumental in building the booby traps as Luke called them. Matt had provided them with insight into the army’s commanders frame of mind and had allowed Marion to stay at least five steps ahead almost the entire time. Meanwhile Stella and Robin had kept the army under observation the entire time and provided Marion with hourly updates. Marion had the biggest role of all. She had held everyone together after her men had been murdered and it had been her idea to provide the army with a safe way out when they had gotten close to where the loot had been stored. They had moved it the night before. Bard was moved from his reminiscing by the sounds of horses entering the camp. Stella had come in and had a young man with her. He was also riding a horse but was blindfolded.
“We caught him riding through the forest alone” explained Stella to Marion “he says that he has important news for you.” Marion nodded and the man’s blindfold was removed. The man struggled for a minute with the light before he started.
“Marion of York I presume” he continued once Marion had nodded. “I have come to tell you that Cecilia has hired thirty assassins to kill you.” Bard was stunned, but Marion didn’t look surprised at all.
“How do you come of this information young man?”
“My sister is Cecilia’s scribe so I know most everything that Cecilia does. Although I should mention that for some matters Cecilia uses a special scribe who is almost never seen in the castle and when he is seen; he is surrounded by a large group of very tough looking men.
“When did her order go out?”
“The day after her army returned.”
“So yesterday” Marion stated. The man nodded “Is there anything else I should know? How it the town doing?”
“The people are getting rebellious. Cecilia has almost reached their breaking point and with the defeat of her army, I doubt that it will take much more before the people openly rebel against her.”
“Well thank you young man. Here is some money for your trouble of coming out here.”
“No money is necessary milady. We all want that witch gone.”
“Stella, Pollyanna, Matt” Marion said “See that this young man is safely escorted out of the forest.”
Stella retied the man’s blindfold and then lead his horse out of camp. After they had left, Marion returned to Luke and asked: “Well honey what do you think?”
“I think that we need to get going and observe our young visitor from a distance. Something doesn’t seem right. For starters, how many women do you know that can write outside of your group? Yes, he told us everything that we expected to hear but that’s what bothers me.” Marion had a confused look on her face “The fact that he told us everything that we were expecting makes me suspicious” Luke stated.
Marion thought for a second, “Bard” she continued when he looked at her “go with Luke to keep an eye on our young visitor from a distance. I don’t want him knowing that there’s extra eyes on him”
Luke and Bard quickly gathered their gear and took off. They had to hurry to catch up with the others. On the way Bard and Luke talked a bit because Bard was confused, after all Luke and Marion had apparently expected this to happen. Luke explained that yes while the man had told them everything that they had expected to hear some things were bothering him. How did this man get out of York? The last they had heard the town was still on lockdown. Why did he have such a nice horse? Most of the horses that they had captured from the army were nowhere near this nice. How did his sister become Cecilia’s scribe? Almost no woman knew how to write their name, never mind take dictation from someone. Granted all the women that had gathered around Marion could read, but that was because Luke had taught them and constantly encouraged them. Something here smelled rotten and Luke was going to get to the bottom of it. As they traveled, they would occasionally catch glimpses of the group ahead of them and this was close enough for Luke. As they were approaching the edge of the woods, they heard yelling and as they came around the last corner they could see why.