N’dori nodded.
“But how…you were surrounded by hundreds of Knights?”
N’dori smiled, suddenly very sleepy. Her eyes closed briefly then she forced them open. “I killed…many.”
“Many?”
“Thirty, forty…maybe more,” she answered and her head dropped down again. “I will not be able to ride alone.”
Kerr nodded and then with apparent ease he reached over and pulled her from her horse. She was surprised by his strength and he was surprised at just how small she was for being so deadly. He maneuvered her into a sitting position in front of him and slipped one arm around her, holding her in place.
“Sleep,” the Captain said as he signaled his men to ride again. They moved down the road at a much slower pace now. N’dori was thankful for the support and for the man’s warmth against her back and she was only vaguely aware that the young Captain was cupping her right breast with his supporting hand before she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
?
Captain Gaston finally pulled his mount to a stop near the top of a rise almost three miles to the northeast of the battle. The Knights were no longer pursuing the cluster of Massi cavalry in his immediate area and the sound of the distant battle was lost in the trees.
Gaston glanced around at those near him, feeling disheartened and beaten. The Knights somehow managed to surprise him once more and this time with disastrous results. The cavalry was gone…destroyed. He performed a quick count and could see maybe two hundred men and horses on the ridge around him, though he could hear others apparently climbing to the south. He hoped they were friendly but to be sure he quickly sent out a rider to check on them. He would be a fool to be caught off guard again.
“Do you think any others escaped?” The young Sergeant Hawser asked and waited patiently as the Captain continued to scan the area without bothering to answer. Finally, Gaston glanced at Olney, who’d grown very large but still owned a baby face with skin that looked as soft as any girl’s.
Gaston shrugged. “There’s no way of knowing, but if any were so fortunate they would head back to the southeast and try to regroup…the northwest is unknown.” The Captain raised his hand as another group of perhaps fifty Massi came into view climbing the north slope of the hillside.
“You did well today Sergeant,” Gaston added, knowing that he would in all likelihood be dead if it wasn’t for the young man. In the midst of the chaos, Olney shot two Knights with his bow…one took an arrow in the mid- section and he hit the other through the neck just below the jaw; both Knights were attempting to skewer Gaston while he was fighting off a third. Olney had organized a group of perhaps seventy-five men just up the hill and off the road and they used their bows to cover the retreat of many others. If the Sergeant and his group had just fled, hundreds more Massi would have been killed.
Olney just nodded, taking the compliment in stride. Gaston was immediately struck by how much the young man had grown in the past few years, and though he was still young, Olney was now a man in every respect.
“Your father would be proud,” the Captain added, but again Olney remained quiet. “Now go and scout our way out of this place. We need to find a safe way back and around to Claymont…with whomever we have left.” Gaston’s heart fell as he said the words and he did not look forward to reporting back to General Bock. But Lonogan had to be warned and soon. The plan was to bring the army out of Manse and lure the Temple Knights into a pitched battle, once engaged the Massi cavalry would swoop down, trapping and surprising the enemy. Gaston was now sure that any such attempt would be folly. The Knights were too good and deserved their reputation completely. They were a fearsome opponent who would without a doubt destroy any army of infantry they faced. The Massi had lost and it would be best to hold up behind the walls of Manse and try to wait out the Knights, any other action was now unthinkable.
Gaston watched as Hawser rode away, angling to the southwest. Ten minutes later a scout returned leading approximately one hundred and fifty men, some riding double, but Gaston was somewhat relieved that so many seemed to have survived the attack…perhaps others had as well.
The men around him looked shaken but no one showed any sign of panic, a few asked for directions and he sent another small squad of men back toward the battle to check on the movements of the Knights. He would be very cautious. How the Knights found and surprised them was still unknown and the possibility that they had their own captured Traveler flitted about in the back of his mind.
He set up a wide perimeter and assigned men to guard the easy approaches to the ridge line. They did so without any sign of a lack of confidence with his leadership, a fact that left him slightly gratified.
An hour later Sergeant Olney Hawser returned with the Speaker Sarbeth and another fifty-seven Massi horseman in tow.
“There’s a trail to the west that leads down out of the hills and into flat farmland,” Olney reported. “It will be easy to circle back around south to the road from there. Once we’re out of the trees visibility is good. The Knights will not be able to surprise us again.”
Gaston nodded and gave orders for the group to beginning preparations to move out. He wanted to be out of the hills and in the lowlands before dark.
“Any sign of na Gall?” He asked Sarbeth, who was dirty and ragged from the ordeal. She shook her head. “I’ve not seen or heard from her or Monde since the…the battle,” she stammered, clearly confused. “They should not have been able to surprise us like that…they may have a Traveler of their own.”
Gaston smiled. “My worries exactly…but nothing we should dwell on, after all we had a Traveler and look what good it did us.”
“Should I try to contact General Bock?” The young Speaker asked, but Gaston shook his head.
“When we are out of the hills,” he answered and noticed that the Speaker edged her horse closer to the Hawser boy. Olney seemed not to notice.
The column got under way within ten minutes but had not gone far before three men rode quickly up from the rear. Captain Gaston turned and pulled out of formation, nodding for Sergeant Hawser and Sarbeth to do likewise. The approaching men were part of the scouting party he had dispatched to eye the Temple Knights and Gaston was hungry for news.
“The Knights have moved off,” said the first scout to reach Gaston. He was covered in scratches and slick with sweat from his hard ride through the thickly forested hills.
“What direction?” Olney asked before Gaston had the chance.
“Back off to the southwest toward Claymont,” the scout answered, pulling his canteen from his saddlebags and taking a quick drink.
“Toff and Scraylan moved off to track them,” another scout informed Gaston.
“Any survivors?” Sarbeth asked in a quiet voice and at first neither man answered. Instead they glared at her as if the entire episode was her fault and then one of them shook his head.
“They’re all dead…hundreds of them,” the man said solemnly, but then smiled. “But we saw just as many dead Knights. They surprised us…but paid a high price for their victory.”
Gaston frowned, watching as the column of men he was leading slowly rode past. “Are you sure?” He asked, thinking that the man must be mistaken, probably deluded, his mind attempting to cast the best light on a very bad situation, but then one of the others spoke up.
“There were many Knights down…maybe not so many as Massi…but many,” the man added. He was older, bearded and had a steady look in his eyes that revealed little pleasure in the facts he was reporting.
Olney smiled, but Gaston only nodded.
“Let’s get out of these damned woods,” he finally said and they joined in with the line of horses heading to the east.
?
Captain Hothgaard did not have a clear picture of the outcome of the battle against the Massi cavalry until they moved out of the hills early in the afternoon. They were positioned just to the north of the town of
