Jack Whyte The Singing Sword

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back towards the beach. "We have just burned a galley on the beach back there.
There were seven men guarding it. One of them killed
Anicius, who was riding with us. He could not have known there were three of
us. Young Bassus here
killed him, and then we found the galley on the beach, burned it and killed
the other six guards. Now!" I
paused to let my next words reverberate clearly. "There was room on that boat
for thirty men, give or take a few. Seven of them are dead already. That
leaves twenty to twenty-five hostile Hibernian Scots roaming around here,
somewhere. They could only have arrived this morning. Not enough ashes in
their fire for them to have been here yesterday as well." I paused again to
let them think about that, before continuing. "These are not friendly people.
If they have gone inland, the chances are they'll find this village, if they
didn't go directly there in the first place. In this weather, they'll probably
stay there for shelter. D'you take my meaning?" They did. I kept talking.
"After they find the ashes of their boat, they are going to be very unhappy.
And the Christ save anyone they meet after that. Even if they wanted to go
home, they can't. They'll stay here, and they'll burn, they'll rape, and
they'll kill, and when they've had their bellies filled with that, they'll
stop for a while and march overland and then do it all again. They have to do
that, they must. There is no other choice open to them."
My men all looked very sober now, the discomfort of the pouring rain
forgotten. I carried on.
"If we can catch them at this village, we may be able to wipe them out before
they know what's hit them.
They won't be expecting soldiers. These people live on women, children, old
men and the occasional farmer. They're nasty animals, and they're brave
enough, but they're not used to disciplined opposition and they have no
discipline themselves. With surprise, we can sweep them up like a pile of last
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year's leaves and bury them or burn them." I paused again before going on. "Of
course, there is the chance that they may miss the village. Or they may have
been here longer than I suspect, and the men on the beach just didn't light a
fire. They may be hardier than I take them for. In either event, however, I
can't take the chance that they won't come back here while we're on our way to
the village, so we will leave half our force here to guard our goods. I want
fifty volunteers to come with me to take them in the village."
A hundred men stepped forward. I smiled.
"That's what I thought might happen. Fine! Ranks one and three, men on the
left stand fast. Every second man from the left comes with me. Ranks two and
four, alternate from men on the left. Wait for it!"
They swayed and held still as I continued. "Severus, you will remain in charge
of the defences here. We have a three-hour march ahead of us. By the time we
conclude our business it will be dark. We'll head back here at first light.
You will need a camp with a ditch and rampart. Site it carefully."
A groan went up from the men to be left behind. I grinned at them.
"That's enough! The exercise will take your minds off the weather and the fun
the rest of us are having, slogging across country through this long, wet
grass." I looked around them one last time. "Each man in the strike force to
take two days' rations from the commissary wagon. We leave in half an hour.
Fall out!"
We came in sight of the hamlet, for that's all it was, late in the afternoon.
It was obvious, even from a distance, that I had been right. A few of the
buildings burned sullenly in the heavy rain, and from our viewpoint in a copse
half a mile away, we could see men moving around. The marauders were still
there, sheltering from the foul weather.
I planned our moves carefully and we moved in just as darkness was falling.
And so, here I was, lying on a wood-framed cot and wondering how long I'd been
in this place. At least
the rain had stopped. I opened my mouth to shout, but nothing came out but a
croak, and suddenly I was consumed with thirst parched like a dry leaf. I
thought about trying to stand. I decided to count to ten and then make an [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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