The Jongurian Mission (42 page)

“I was worried about you, lad,” he said when he let go.

“It was easy,” Bryn replied with a smile.

Willem told them what Bryn had seen and they began to formulate a plan.

“We’ll have to wait until they go to sleep,” Pader said.
“More than likely they’ll place a guard or two at the tent’s entrance, and perhaps inside as well.”

“And you’re still set against using force,” Iago said to Halam.

“Aye, not unless they use it first,” he replied.

“What do you call beating two men whose hands are tied behind their backs, then, if not force?” Sam said angrily.

“The force I’m talking about won’t let you wake up in the morning with bruises,” Halam replied. “Until they do anymore than use their fists, then we’ll do the same.” He turned to look at the camp for a moment. Besides the moon and the glow of a lantern from inside the center tent, the fire was the only light around for leagues. “We’ll need to wait for these men to go to sleep and then hope that they put out that lantern. If they do decide to post guards inside the tent, then it will be easier to subdue them in the darkness.” He looked to Iago. “Do you have any ideas on that?”

“Besides killing the men you mean?” he mockingly asked.
“Driving the butt of a dagger down atop their head will knock them out for some time, I’d think. Then it’d be an easy thing to tie their hands and gag them. If we’re lucky they won’t be discovered until morning.”

“We’d better have the bows trained in front of that tent in case something goes wrong and the others wake up,” Willem said.
“I know you don’t want any killing, Halam, but if it’s us or them, we can’t hesitate.”

“I agree.
Willem, Iago, Pader, and Dilon, you men stay here with your bows trained on that tent. If those Jongurians wake up and move in, take them out.”

They nodded their heads and fingered their bows.

“I figure we’ll need at least two men at the tent,” Halam went on. “One’ll have to go inside and untie Millen and Trey, the other will need to cut a hole in the canvas and serve as a lookout. Do you all agree?” No argument came, so Halam continued. “Now we just have to decide who it will be. Any volunteers?”

“I’ll go inside,” Sam said.

“I’d like to go too,” Fess added.

“Alright, Sam. You’ll have to be very careful once inside. If you can manage it, get them untied without waking the guard, if there is one. If you don’t think you can, then you’ll have to knock him out cold. You have a dagger, right?”

Sam nodded that he did.

“I have this dirk that you can use as well,” Pader said, handing it to Sam.

“I like the butt of this dagger better.
Give the dirk to Fess, he’s got nothing,” Sam said as Pader offered him the weapon.

“Don’t you think that I’d better crawl up to the tent with them, uncle?” Bryn asked.

“You did well the first time Bryn, but the chances of something going wrong are just too great to risk it a second,” Halam replied.

“I think the boy has a better chance of crawling up to that tent unseen and unheard than any of us,” Willem said.

“Aye, he’s got a point there,” Iago added.

Halam stroked his beard and thought for a moment.
“Alright, Bryn, you go too, but stay outside the tent. At the first sign of trouble you get back to the forest. We’ll have men on that side of the tents as well.” He looked up at the sky then back at the tents. “Now we wait.”

* * * * *

Halam broke the men up shortly after they’d made their plan. Pader, Willem, Iago, and Dilon found positions that gave them a clear view of the center tent, taking out their bows to wait. The rest headed around the clearing to the rear of the tents. When it was clear that all the Jongurians were asleep, Halam would head over to give the men the go ahead. When they’d gotten Trey and Millen out, they were to run back into the forest and meet up, then move as fast and silently as they could further into the forest while still following the road. The bowmen would circle around after Halam came back to tell them that all’d went well, or after a time they deemed sufficient if something went wrong.

Soon after they
’d gotten into position two Jongurians that had been in the tent came out to join the men around the fire. They took some pulls from the wineskins, but then quickly got up to head into one of the side tents. They said something to the men before going in, and one of them got up and went into the center tent. It was another couple hours before the other men tired of their wine. Three of them got up and headed to the empty tent, leaving one man to sit outside on watch. It wasn’t long before they heard loud snoring come from the tent the three men had gone into, and shortly after that the man they left outside fell asleep as well. Things couldn’t get much better for them, so Halam headed around to inform the others that it was time.

Bryn headed out into the clearing first, getting down on his hands and knees like before, Sam and Fess close on his heels.
When he got within ten feet of the tent he began to crawl on his belly again, even though it probably wasn’t necessary with all of the men asleep, but he didn’t want to take any chances.

A glow was still coming from inside the tent when Bryn got up next to it.
He lifted the flap up a bit and peeked inside. Trey and Millen were stretched out on the floor as best they could manage with their hands and feet tied. They appeared to be sleeping. The guard that Halam had told them about was also asleep by the entrance, snoring softly. Bryn waved his hand for Sam and Fess to come up and have a look. They nodded to one another after doing so, and Fess took out the dirk Pader had given him and slowly slid it through the canvas and sliced upward, the sharp blade moving smoothly. When he was satisfied that the slit would be large enough for them to come out of standing up, he nodded at Sam, who took hold of his dagger and slowly crawled into the tent while Bryn and Fess watched.

He moved to Trey first, who quickly awoke when he felt the rope being cut from his hands.
Sam quickly put his hand over Trey’s mouth, and when Trey nodded, moved down to cut the rope at his feet, then motioned for him to head out of the tent. Millen had also come awake by then and stared over at Sam pleadingly. After taking a quick look at the guard to make sure he was still asleep he waited for Trey to make it out of the tent, then moved to cut the rope from Millen’s hands. Millen moved to sit up and kicked his legs out for Sam to cut the rope from his feet, but his boots made a noise as they scraped together. The guard stirred and opened his eyes for just a moment, and then, realizing what he saw, jerked up and went for the shortsword sheathed at his belt. Sam moved quickly to thrust at the man with his dagger, but the Jongurian proved quicker, dodging out of the way of the incoming blade while yanking his sword from its sheath. Sam was thrown off balance by the unexpected move, and stumbled forward. The Jongurian didn’t hesitate. As Sam turned to face the man, ready to thrust again with his dagger, the Jongurian stabbed him through the stomach with his shortsword. Sam let out a gasp as he looked down at the man’s sword, then fell to his knees, blood pouring from his mouth. The Jongurian removed his blade, his gaze falling on Millen as Sam toppled to the ground, his life pouring from him.

Millen’s
feet were still tied, so he began to crawl frantically with his arms toward the slit in the tent. The Jongurian took a step after him and was reaching down to grab Millen by the hair when Fess came through the slit in the canvas. The guard caught a glimpse of movement and began to look up, but Fess was already swinging the dirk in front of him. The blade caught the guard full in the face, slashing a deep red gash where his nose was and sending a spray of blood over the walls of the tent. The Jongurian dropped his sword and fell to the ground, whimpering in agony as he clutched his face. Fess quickly bent down to slice the rope holding Millen’s feet. He helped him stand up then ushered him through the slit in the tent. He was following quickly behind when he let out a cry of pain. The Jongurian had picked up his shortsword and slashed the back of Fess’s leg below the knee. Fess turned and parried a thrust from the man who was still on his knees, then drove the dirk straight down into the top of the man’s head. When he pulled it loose it was wet with blood. The guard slumped over dead as Fess limped out of the tent. He stopped for a moment to pull Bryn to his feet. He’d watched it all happen in what seemed a blink of an eye. Fess put his arm around Bryn’s shoulders and they hurried as fast as they could to where the other men were standing in the forest.

“Is he dead?” Millen was the first to ask.

“Aye, he’s dead,” Fess replied gritting his teeth in pain.
“Not before he slashed my leg, though.” He showed them as best he could in the moonlight the gash on his leg.

“Can you walk?” Conn asked quickly.

“I’ll manage,”

“And what about Sam?” Jal said.

“Dead,” Fess replied.

“What happened in there?” Halam appeared with the bowmen close behind him.
“When I saw the blood spray inside the tent I knew something had gone wrong.”

“The guard woke up and put his sword through Sam’s belly,” Fess replied, obviously in shock as he went over the details.
“I charged in before he could get to Millen and slashed him across the face. That was the blood you saw. We turned to run, but he got my leg, so I drove my dirk into his head. He’s dead now, same as Sam.”

Iago came up and took Fess’s arm, giving Bryn a break from supporting the man.
“We’ve got to get out of here as fast as we can. West is it?”

“Ay
e,” Halam replied, “we head west and hope that the rest don’t wake until morning.”

TWENTY-FOUR

There was no more talk of heading to Bindao after that.
They trudged west without complaint, save for Fess who continuously groaned at their pace. It wasn’t that they were moving fast; the darkness and the trees wouldn’t allow that. It was just that they were moving.

The cut on Fess’s leg was deeper than they
’d earlier thought. After moving for less than an hour Fess yelled out in pain and they were all forced to a stop. He crumpled to the ground and Iago knelt down to get a better look at the damage. The loose cotton trousers around the wound were wet with blood, and Fess’s boot was filling with it as well, so that whenever he stepped on that foot it made a squishing sound.

“It’s worse than I thought earlier,” Iago said as he peeled away the piece of canvas they had wound around the cut.
“You’re still bleeding heavily. How do you feel?”

“Tired, and a bit dizzy,” Fess replied.

Iago turned to look up at Halam.
“He won’t be able to walk much longer.”

Halam looked at the others in the darkness.
“A crutch from a tree branch won’t serve?”

“It might’ve an hour ago,” Iago replied, “but not now.”
He looked up at Halam for an answer. They all knew full well that with each passing minute dawn grew closer and their chances of escape diminished. As soon as the rest of the Jongurians awoke to find one of the number dead and their captives missing they’d be combing the woods looking for them.

“We’ll have to fashion some type of stretcher from tree branches then,” Halam replied to Iago’s stare.
“Let’s find some suitably strong limbs and get them tied together with the rope we have.”

The men began to look around for branches as the forest grew lighter.
The sun was coming up somewhere behind them which made seeing easier but would also mean that they’d have to move that much faster. After several minutes they’d gotten two thick tree branches tied together with some length of rope at one end and another thicker branch tied to each end so that they were joined. The branches were long enough that two people could grab the ends and haul it while the other end dragged against the ground.

“That will have to do with the materials and the time that we have,” Halam said as he looked over their work.
“Hop on Fess and let’s see if it supports you.

Fess gingerly limped over to the makeshift stretcher and sat down, raising his injured leg up as best he could so that it would
n’t drag. He looked up and nodded that it would serve. Jal and Conn took up the two ends and they all moved out again.

The morning light made it easier to see and the forest was not as thick as it had been.
There were more small clearings between trees and less undergrowth. After another hour the forest ended entirely and a large grassy plain stretched out ahead of them. The ground rolled as small hills formed so that the terrain was not completely flat. Larger hills loomed on the horizon.

“The going will be faster, but our chances of being seen will increase,” Willem said when they stopped at the edge of the forest.

“We don’t know that they have followed us in this direction, either,” Pader pointed out. “Could be they chose to follow the road in either direction, or even head east.”

“It’s just as likely that the
y’re moving through that forest behind us right now,” Iago said. “They know that we need to head west to get home.”

“We’ll just have to pick up the pace and hope that the rolling landscape will obscure us some,” Halam said.
“Once we get to those hills on the horizon we’ll be good.”