The Jongurian Mission (43 page)

They rested for a few minutes and ate some more of the cheese, salt pork, and the last of the bread.
They drank sparingly from the water skins, not knowing when they would find another source of fresh water. When they were done eating they got up and left the forest behind. The plains were covered in short grasses and wiry brush. They started out at a quick walk, but when Halam looked back and saw how open the land was compared to the forest they left behind, he ordered them into a slow jog. It was hard on Fess, as his stretcher bounced along the ground sending pain shooting up his leg, but the others didn’t complain. They knew the alternatives to tiredness just by hearing the grunts of pain coming from the man behind them.

The hills in the distance grew larger as the morning wore on.
They got into a rhythm of jogging for most of an hour then walking for ten minutes and then jogging again. Rodden and Dilon took over carrying the stretcher during that first hour, then handed it to Flint and Willem when they all took their break to walk.

“Do you think it
’s just those seven men, well six now, that are after us?” Flint asked the others as they jogged through the grasses.

“Let’s hope so,” Pader replied.
“If it comes down to them catching up with us, we have a good chance. Anymore than those six, however, and our odds decrease.”

“Why do you think they
’re following us in the first place?” Bryn asked after a few more minutes of silence passed.

“That
’s the ultimate question, Bryn,” Willem replied ahead of him. “Are these men some of the same that might have seen us in Weiling? Did that representative Yuan send these men after us when his ships didn’t come back that night? I don’t know.”

“We have to entertain the possibility that these men are acting alone,” Pader said.
“I still can’t believe that the emperor would allow this to happen.”

“Nor can I,” Halam replied
, “but perhaps he doesn’t know. Jonguria is a large country, larger than Adjuria. There are many things bound to happen that the emperor doesn’t know about.”

“So there’d be no cause for war when we report this back in Baden?” Rodden asked.

“Aye, if we make it back,” Iago said with a laugh.

“If we make it back to Baden and tell the king what has occurred here, we have no proof that it was anything other than some pirate ships that attacked us at sea and a group of local brigands who hunted us through the woods.
The same happens to ordinary citizens in Adjuria all the time and no one hears of it,” Pader said

“The difference is that we are in Jonguria and members of a royally sanctioned trading expedition,” Halam pointed out.
“There
will
be consequences.”

The talk stopped after that as the men grew tired from jogging and saved their breath.
There was some wisdom in those words, however, Bryn thought. If they did make it out of this and back to Baden, they’d have no way to prove that this was anything other than a random attack. If they were to drag the whole empire into this, they would need some proof as to its involvement.

They pressed on
, their pace slowing as their lack of sleep caught up with them. The morning turned to afternoon and they neared the base of the large hills that took up so much of the horizon. The grass tapered off as the ground began to rise, turning instead to looser dirt and brush. There were a few small stands of trees but more bushes and brush as they started into the hills. Further up the trees began to grow in small copses, thickening with elevation until the top of the hills were covered by them. Large rocks were strewn all around them and quite a few boulders dotted the rising landscape. They chose a rain-washed gully to make their ascent. The grade was too steep for them to continue at a jog, but Halam still kept a steady pace. They wound their way along the narrow passage and soon the grassy plains stretched out below them, the large forest they’d come through now just a large blot of green far behind them. The clouds parted and the sun beat down on them causing the sweat to roll off their faces in rivulets. Their shirts were soon stuck to their chests and backs. Halam called for a rest when they’d made it to a level amount of ground.

“Tossed about in the sea, running through forests, and now hiking up hills, this is really quite the outing,” Rodden jested after they
’d eased out of their packs and began to pass the water skins around.

“Fun isn’t it?” Pader returned.
“Remind me to do it more often.”

“What’s that,” Millen said, breaking the light moment.

He pointed out onto the grassy plains near the edge of the distant forest.
The men squinted and held their arms up against the sun.

“Bryn, hand me your spyglass,” Willem said.
Bryn reached into his jacket pocket and handed the glass over. Willem put it to his eye and stared for a moment, then passed it to Halam. “They’ve found our trail.”

“What!
How could they?” Pader said, jumping to his feet to stare out at the land below them.

“Well, thirteen men going through a
dark forest while dragging a stretcher will tend to leave traces,” Iago said as Halam handed him the glass.

“How many are there?” Pader asked.
“Still just six?”

“Yes, still six,” Halam replied.
“They’re coming on strong with their horses.”

“At that pace, I’d say they’ll be at these hills in no more than an hour,” Iago said, turning to look at Halam.
“You’re still not set on the non-violent approach, I hope.”

“No, that hope vanished whe
n they killed Sam. Now we do whatever we can to survive.”

“So we make a stand here then, right?” Millen asked.
“If there’re only six of them and thirteen of us, it shouldn’t even be a contest.”

“Aye, and we have bows,” Dilon pointed out.
“We can hit them while they climb up to us.”

“They’ll have to leave their horses at the base of the hills, either tied up or with someone to watch them,” Willem said.

“Could be also that they have more men coming up the other side of these hills as we stand here now,” Trey offered.

“That could be, but I don’t see how they could
’ve gotten word out so quickly,” Halam replied. “No, I think for now it is just these six.” He thought for a minute before going on. “I think that we should climb higher and try to get up more into those trees toward the top. There’ll be more cover for us up there and our chances’ll improve.”

“Aye, that
’s good thinking,” Iago agreed.

“Alright, then let’s move,” Halam said, shouldering his pack once again and taking the lead.

They climbed higher and were soon surrounded by the small copses of trees. They would provide some cover, but after another hour they’d be near the thicker trees of the summit. Every few minutes they’d turn and look down at the plains. The horsemen continued to ride hard, covering as much distance in a few minutes as had taken them an hour. They’d reach the hills and begin the climb sooner than any of them had previously thought. Sensing this, they moved faster.

By the time the copses thickened into groves and then swelled to woods, their pursuers had reached the base of the hills.
Instead of dismounting and continuing on foot as they’d thought, however, the men rode their horses right up the same narrow gully they;d taken earlier.

“They’ll be on us a lot quicker than I realized,” Iago said when they saw the men still ahorse.

“Let’s get ready then,” Willem suggested. “The trees’ve thickened enough. We can take up positions with the bows and hope to shoot a couple of them out of the saddle before they’re upon us.”

“Alright,” Halam agreed, “Let’s make four groups of three.
Those first shots with the bows’ll be decisive. Make them count. Let’s hope that only one man comes to each group. If not, aid the men nearest to you. Bryn,” he paused to find his nephew, “you stay close to me.”

Willem, Millen, and Conn took up a position on the far right amidst a thick stand of trees with several large bushes in front that provided good cover.
Pader and Rodden dragged Fess over with them to a small copse to the left of them. Halam, Bryn, Dilon, and Flint took up a middle position around some trees growing thickly together while Iago, Trey, and Jal found a spot on the far left amidst a few large boulders and some trees. They were all spaced about ten feet apart from each other and the area in front of them was a largely open space with trees interspersed throughout; overall an ideal place to make a stand. They hunkered down to wait, their blades and bows at the ready.

After what seemed a long wait but in actuality was only minutes, they heard the sound of horses
’ hooves on the dirt and rocky ground. The horses would have to wend their way between a thick copse of trees and a few boulders to come through a narrow path that the archers could focus in on.

The first horse came through at a quick trot and its rider was quickly taken by an arrow in the right breast just below the shoulder while a second later another arrow landed in the horse’s left flank.
The animal reared up and spilled its rider to the ground before it ran off toward some trees. The man was only wounded and grasped the arrow with his hand, breaking the shaft off close to where it’d entered his chest. He quickly yelled something in Jongurian and another rider came through the narrow passage at a gallop, with yet another close behind. Two arrows sailed out to meet the first rider but both missed and he continued on toward them as a third arrow struck his steel breastplate and harmlessly bounced off. The second rider was not so lucky; an arrow struck him right in his unprotected chest and sent him sailing off the back of his horse to land with a loud thud on the hard ground, dead.

After that
Bryn had a hard time keeping track of exactly what occurred. The rider that made it through rode up to the trees where Pader, Rodden, and Fess were and proceeded to swing down at them with his shortsword. Two more riders made it through unscathed, but the third was unhorsed when an arrow went through his leg and into his mount, causing the animal to rear up, throwing the man as the arrow snapped off in the beast. The Jongurians shouted out to one another and quickly identified the four areas that the men were hiding at. The other two horsemen fanned out to their right and each rode toward a group of men. The man that took the arrow in the chest came on toward Willem, but he put another arrow next to the first, and this time the man fell to the ground and didn’t get up. The man with the leg wound came up behind the other man fighting on foot, taking his own bow out.

To the right, Halam pushed Bryn to the ground behind him as the man on horseback savagely swu
ng his longsword down at them. Halam parried as best he could with his shortsword and tried to return some blows, but his shorter blade was no match for the man ahorse, and his blows fell short. Flint came up with his hand-axe and tried to slash at the animals legs, but the horse was bred for war and kicked and bit at him while the Jongurian knocked his clumsy blows aside. Dilon raised his bow and knocked an arrow, taking his time to aim carefully. His first shot had landed harmlessly on the man’s breastplate, so he wanted to get a shot at the man’s exposed throat or face. He was about to let loose when an arrow took him in the stomach and he fell to the ground clutching at the arrow in pain.

Iago was having more luck blocking the attacks of the mounted Jongurian in front of him, his longsword being more equal to the task.
The Jongurian swung at them with a shortsword. Trey and Jal were not much help with their daggers, but they tried to slash at the animals legs, to no avail. Iago yelled for Jal to take the bow at his feet and try that, but as Jal lifted it up from the ground the Jongurian caught it with his shortsword and sliced it in half.

To the left, Pader swung his dirk as best he could to block the swings from the Jongurian’s shortsword.
The man was still ahorse and swinging wildly with no concern for accuracy. Rodden cowered behind him and tried to block Fess, who could only lie by helplessly and watch. Willem, Millen, and Conn rushed over from their position to help. Willem had better luck blocking the wild blows of the man and even getting a few return thrusts in while Conn swung away with his hand-axe. He managed to slice the man in the leg, but it was as if he didn’t feel the cut or didn’t care, for he kept swinging wildly, although he appeared to slow somewhat. Willem blocked another few swings then managed to slice the man’s arm above the elbow, causing him to yell out in pain. Seeing an opening, Millen rushed in with his dagger to stab the horse, but the Jongurian was quicker. He swung down with his sword and sliced Millen clear through the shoulder and half-way down his chest before the blade stopped and the man pulled it free. Millen toppled to the ground, blood pouring out around him.

Angered, Willem and Conn came on faster.
Conn was able to hit the man in the leg again, nearly taking it off below the knee. That gave Willem an opening, and he slipped his shortsword up between the man’s ribs. All of the strength left the Jongurian at that point. He gave a few more feeble swings with his sword, then kicked his horse away, returning the way he’d come.

Rodden bent down to see if there was anything that could be done for Millen, but his wounds
were too grievous and he was dead, his lifeless eyes staring up in silent surprise. Rodden and Conn grabbed hold of Fess’s stretcher and pulled it further back from the fight while Willem and Pader ran to help out the others against the two Jongurians still attacking from horseback. Willem made it over to Halam and Flint and began to block the swings of the horseman there.