CHAPTER ONE
Villagers were loading carts with goods ready to take to the
Hippolyta’s port the following morning.
Queen Hippolyta would pay them for their trade before sending it either
east or west, depending on what the trade was.
It was mid afternoon when a young runner rushed out of the
thin strip of forest to the east of the village. He was twenty paces from where the carts were
being loaded when an arrow struck him in the back. His momentum carried him forward, bowling him
over as he crashed to the ground.
From that same forest two hundred mounted warriors appeared,
the like of which had not been seen before in that part of the Queen’s
Realm. The horseman headed straight for
the runner’s body, making sure that he was dead.
The villagers turned and ran, leaving their half-loaded
carts and their goods and making for their little hovels where they closed and
bolted their doors.
The mounted warriors stopped near the carts in the centre of
the village, and the leader shouted orders to his warriors.
“We will take what these peasants have loaded and return
east. There is a long way to travel
before we meet the rest of our army, and these supplies will help feed us until
the General arrives.”
He turned to the two horsemen to his left. “Organise the warriors to tether the carts to
our horses.” At that moment, an arrow
hit each of the two horsemen in the chest and they fell from their horses. It looked to the leader as if the arrows had
each struck at the same moment, which made him think that there were at least
two archers in the forest and quite possibly many more. For a moment, he was frozen, and indecisive, but
before he had made up his mind what to do his horse dropped from beneath him,
and he went crashing to the ground. As
he stood up to look around he saw many of his men falling off their horses with
arrows in their chests, and now he was convinced they were dealing with a
substantial force hidden in the forest.
Hiding behind the carcass of his dead horse, he looked
towards the forest that surrounded three sides of the village. He pointed to one end, shouting, “There is a
group of archers in the forest north of the village. Attack them and leave no one alive.”
A few of his warriors who were still mounted and uninjured
rode over to the northern edge of the village, drawing their swords, but
another twenty fell with arrows in their backs and many of those by the carts
also fell. The leader was unable to
pinpoint where the arrows came from, and he shouted, “Leave them. There are too many for us, and leave the
carts. We must get away from this
village of death before we all perish.”
The leader grabbed hold of a loose horse and mounted, and
then he galloped out of the village with his army following. There was a silence. Even the birds had stopped singing. As the sun went down, a shadow came out of
the forest. He walked over to the loose
horses, and within a few minutes he had tethered most to the carts. He then went to two of the dead archers and
relieved them of their full quivers of arrows, and then he silently returned to
the darkness of the forest.
* * *
* *
It was morning before the villagers plucked up the nerve to
step out of their houses. They saw dead
bodies around the centre of the village.
Their carts were still where they had left them, and most had horses
tied to them. The villagers checked all
round the village, looking into the forest with caution, but whatever army had
killed all these men was long gone.
On returning to the carts, the peasants were looking towards
one person, and one of them asked, “What shall we do with the dead, Milo?”
The person they asked the question of was the village elder
who was standing with a staff in his hand.
The top of the pole that had once been a gnarled lump of wood had been
crudely carved into head of a growling wolf.
“Take all the weapons from the dead and put them in the
carts. We will use them as trade at the
port, along with the other goods. Take
the bodies to the hole in the top of the sea cave and throw them down, making
sure there is no one left. We will
inform the Queen of this new threat to her realm when we arrive at the port.”
* * *
* *
Hippolyta walked over to the council room with
Hippolyte. Inside, the commanders and
Echephyle were already seated, with Alexius and Andromache in their seats near
the Queen. Hippolyta had just sat down
when the lookout shouted, “There are villagers coming from the north western
trail. They have at least a hundred
horses with the three carts. It’s Milo
from the northwest.”
“Toxis, you had better tell Milo to come here and tell us
how he got hold of that number of horses,” Hippolyta said. “This should be interesting. He is a village elder from the northwest,
south of the lake with the island. They
have never had that number of horses before, and I wouldn’t think there are as
many wild horses as that in the whole of the west of the realm.”
The door to the council room was pushed open and a giant of
a man walked through behind Toxis. He
saw the four queens and bowed. “I am
humbled, my Lady.”
“Welcome, Milo. It
has been over a year since you came this way and it is a pleasure to see you
again. It is unusual for you to arrive
here with the trade goods, so I am sure that this is more than just a trade
visit. We are just about to eat. Sit down while Toxis cuts you off some meat
before we talk business.”
After everyone had finished eating, Milo told the story of
the killing of the thieves. “There are
one hundred and ten horses that we have brought with us. We counted the same number of dead warriors
spread about the village. During the
attack their leader shouted to his warriors that they were being attacked by an
army. There was no one there when we
went outside, although we did not leave our homes until it was daylight. There was no one about and no sign that
anyone had been there except the thieves.
“When we removed the dead, we found that all the bodies
still had their swords, bows and axes.
Two of the archers had no quivers, but two empty ones had been left in
their place. We know that the quivers
did not originally belong to the thieves because they were a different design,
and so were the arrows in the bodies.”
Milo lifted his hand and showed Hippolyta the arrow he had brought with
him.
“There is one other thing, my Lady. Just before they rode off, I think their
leader shouted, “We are outnumbered. We
must escape and go back to the main army.”
The following morning, their horses had been tethered to the carts to
stop them wondering off. I walked the
outside edge of the forest but I could see no tracks where any army rode out,
whether large or small.” Milo then stood
up and said, “I must go and see to the trading stores, my Lady.”
“Of course, Milo, and your news, although bad, has been
useful. I will be sending an army to
that area to keep an eye on that part of my realm. I would think that they will be there before
you get back to your village. It will
give you safety from this strange army of thieves.”
Milo bowed once more.
“Thank you, my Lady. When I go
near the other villages I will pass the word of safety to them.”
Hippolyta watched Milo leave, and then she asked, “Has
anyone any views on this invading army?”
“Which one are you talking about, Hippolyta, the one
attacking the village or the one that savaged them?”
“I think we had better talk about both, seeing as they are
both in my realm, but we can start with the ones that were attacking, Echephyle.”
“By what Milo told us, although only about one hundred
escaped they were escaping to a bigger army.
We have no idea how big that army is or where they are. Like so many times before, until we have
information on those two points, there is no safe way our army can go about its
business, Mother.”
Hippolyta faced Hippolyte and smiled. She knew that over the past few years
Hippolyte had matured, and she had Vlad, Hippolyte’s barbarian warrior, to
thank for that. He had taught her much
the same as Danilo had taught Echephyle.
In doing so, the two barbarians had made both the queens the most
dangerous royal warriors for tens of thousands of paces in any direction.
“I thank you for those words of intelligence, Hippolyte, and
you are correct in all that you have said.
As this is taking part in my realm, the realm that is yours to oversee,
then it will be up to you and Scyleia with your armies to put this army to
death or send them back to where they come from. I think that while this is taking place
Scyleia had better take Omeed with her army.
It might be best if Vlad went to Milo’s village first to see if he can
find tracks that might give us a clearer picture of what happened.”
Hippolyta turned to Vlad.
“Will you need a horse, Vlad?”
“Thank you but no, my Lady.
I think it might be best if I am not seen by either army. It might be best, also, if I leave now. The sooner you know every detail about these
armies the faster you will be able to destroy them, my Lady.”
“Thank you, Vlad, and you may go, but always remember that
speed is not important but your information is.”
The queens and commanders waited for him to leave before
carrying on with the meeting. “These
armies must be camped en mass, Danilo.
Do you think you might see them from the top of the mountain?”
“I need to set snares, my Lady. If I set them in the eastern forest, I could
go over the mountain while I am waiting.”
“That will be fine, Danilo.
Omeed, I would like you to go west as far as the old burnt out
port. I doubt very much that you will
find any armies, but you might find fresh tracks of moving armies. At the moment we know there is an army in my
realm, but we have no idea where they are or where they arrived from.”
Speaking to the commanders, Hippolyta said, “Until my wolves
return here with information, our army can do nothing.
“Alexius, have you any news from the Emperor or any of your
spies?”
“I am expecting a galleon to arrive sometime today or
perhaps tonight with news from Constantinople.
The Hun has been crushed and there is peace in the east with
Sangiban. I don’t think the Goth army
has entered war with you. I have another
army in mind, but until I get word I will not place them on the battlefield. I have not heard from any of the traders that
they are worried or have been attacked.”
“I believe it might be best to be patient until we have
whatever information you find out. I
think that in the next few days we will know all there is to know about this
invading army, once my wolves return.”
* * *
* *
Omeed had been running west for half a day and was now not
far from the burned out docks. She
turned south, stepping into the thin forest that was hiding the sea. It took her hardy any time at all to walk
through and step out onto the shore. She
journeyed west once more, and she soon arrived at the pile of rocks where
Danilo had camped for the night. The sun
was going down and the shadows were getting longer.
Omeed could see the place in the rocks where the large
stones formed a small cave, and decided she would hunt for food then go there
to sleep for the night, but as she was in the forest setting snares she heard
the sound of horses’ hooves. They were
not galloping but they were moving quickly, and the sound was of many and they were
heading towards her.
She walked closer to the northern edge of the forest, and
was just in time to see more than fifty horsemen riding west. Omeed watched as the leader headed for
another forest five hundred paces northwest of where she was standing. The small command dismounted and walked their
horses into the edge of the forest.
Omeed sat for a while to see what they were doing, and as the sun
eventually went down she could see the flicker of sparks from a few fires.
Omeed realised that by the noise they was making they were
sure that they were not going to be bothered by anyone. The smoke from the fires was drifting her way
on the gentle coastal breeze, and she could also hear the odd word being
spoken. She knew from her experience of
some of the traders who spoke the same language that this army was from the
distant west.
It was midnight before she broke cover of the forest she had
been waiting in. The time was late
summer and the grass was high, with the soil underneath dry. Some of the tufts of grass were almost as
tall as she was, and although there was a small plain between her and invading
army there was also a few low shrubs scattered about. She took her time walking over to where the
army was camped, stopping frequently to listen to the sounds of the night.
She was lucky that the tall grass grew right up to the small
evergreen shrubs that surrounded the forests.
At those shrubs Omeed went to ground, and crawled forward until she was
close enough to hear what was being said.
For a short time she could only hear a lot of nonsense talk, and then
she heard someone ask, “When is General Leopold’s army going to be here, Timo?”
“He should have already been here, and in fact he could
already be here but we have no way of knowing.
We ourselves are still too far west of where we should be.”
“Why are we here? And
what are we going to do now we are here?”
“You ask too many questions, Oswin. Our army in the west needs paying, because
all our battles in the last few years have been costly. There are rich pickings here in the east,
which are just waiting for us to steal.
East of this sea there are mountains, with a trade route running for
tens of thousands of paces. We are going
to attack the rich traders along that route before we go back to the south of
the sea.”
“I heard there is a village here somewhere this way with an
army of fierce women.”
“You worry too much, Oswin.
We have had battles with the Romans and defeated them. Do you think that a few women with sticks are
going to bother the great Vandal army?
We will push them aside as we pass through their village, but not before
we have had our fun with them.”
“Do you know how big the Generals army is, Timo?”
“I have been told by our own commander that he is bringing
thirty thousand warriors with him. With
the ten thousand in our army I don’t think we have a need to worry about those
whores in the village. It has been a
long time since we have had women, and I cannot wait to see this village. We had better rest, because we have to leave
early in the morning.”
The camp went silent and Omeed moved back out of her
cover. As soon as she was a good
distance from the evergreen shrubs she stood up and walked back towards her own
forest. She knew that because this army
was close she would risk sleeping little through the night. She killed the only rabbit that was snared
and picked up the other snares before making her way through the thin forest to
the shore and the piled rocks. There,
she made a small fire and cooked her catch before she sat looking out to sea
while she stayed warm. She thought, ‘I
will leave in the morning once I have heard the army ride away.’
* * *
* *
Vlad arrived at the small village and he was walking between
the houses. On seeing him, three of the
village hunters came out of one of the houses.
All three had bows and their arrows were pointing at Vlad’s chest.
“Who are you and what do you want here?” one of the men
asked.
“I am Vlad, one of Queen Hippolyta’s barbarian warriors and
hunter. I have been sent here to look
for signs of the army that was here attacking you, and also the one that saved
the village.”
“How do we know that you are not one of them, and returned
to carry on where they left off?”
“I was in the council room with the Queen when Milo told her
about the army yesterday.”
The three hunters spoke between themselves before lowering
their bows. “You are much too late,
barbarian. Those armies disappeared
during the night.”
“Yes, I understand that, but there will be tracks which will
lead me to the armies. Queen Hippolyta
is sending a big army to look after all the villages in this part of her
realm. She believes the realm is under
threat once more, and on the edge of another war with invaders.”
“We will leave you to go about your business, barbarian.”
The three hunters went back into the house they come from.”
* * *
* *
In the forest, a figure walked silently through the
darkness, making no sound and leaving no trace that he had ever been
there. There was a sentry no more than
fifteen paces away, an even darker shadow in the darkness. The bracken was at its tallest here, and
still green, and that aided the almost invisible person as he glided through
soft, supple plants while bent forward at the waist. No sound of his movement could be heard over
the slight rustling of the leaves on a few deciduous trees in the light breeze.
At the last moment the dark form stood up straight and
rapidly stepped closer to the sentry.
Before the sentry had time to make a noise, the almost invisible warrior
had his hand over the sentry’s mouth and had slit his throat. The warrior held the sentry and lowered him
to the ground without making any noise, and then, as silent as a ghost, he
stepped forward towards a sleeping body next to a burnt out fire. He squatted down and silently pressed his
hand over the man’s mouth before he plunged a knife through his chest.
The warrior repeated this many times, and no one saw
anything until shortly before the dawn.
By then there was a bow in his hand, and he fired twenty arrows into the
dusk light with speed, striking a target every time. He looked around him, but his work was
complete. To make sure there were no
others that he had missed, he remained where he was until the light filtered
into the forest, comfortably hidden behind a wide laurel bush to check there
was no more movement.
* * *
* *
Vlad walked round the perimeter of the village just inside
the forest. He examined the ground
carefully, also checking the lower branches of the trees – particularly those
that were dead and brittle. He moved
silently as if hunting, pushing branches out of the way with his hands before
releasing them slowly so as not to make a noise. All the time he looked around him, searching
for anything out of place, but all was as it should be. He was near a huge, thick fir tree when he
suddenly stopped and went down on one knee.
He looked at the pine needles that were thick on the ground, and there
were definite signs of footsteps, leading to the west. He followed them, and soon found the heavy
imprint of where someone had been standing for a while. There was something lying on the ground in
the low bracken, and he bent down and picked it up.
* * *
* *
Omeed waited for daylight, and then she doused the fire and
walked back into the forest. She moved
cautiously. She had been waiting for the
sound of the horses and warriors leaving, but she had heard no movement. She was now asking herself if she had heard
correctly the talk the two men had had the previous night.
As she reached the edge of the forest, she had her first
shock. Out on the small grass plain were
all the horses belonging to the Vandal army, but instead of being tethered up
they were just walking free. No army
would allow their horses to graze like this, and there would be sentries even if
the horses were tethered.
She still could not hear anything, and with her sword across
her back and bow over her shoulder she walked out of the forest with her spear
at the ready. She realised that this was
a dangerous thing to do, but she had little choice if she intended to find out what
was going on. She had no intention of
staying where she was all day and waiting for darkness.
Omeed kept as concealed as she could, moving from one lump
of tall grass to another and using the small shrubs in between. The grazing horses took little or no notice
of her because they were used to warriors walking near them.
Finally, she crawled though the small evergreens, and then
she was able to see the army of Vandals.
They were silent, many of them lying on their backs, and many of those
with an arrow sticking out of their chest.
She remained where she was for a long time, looking for any sign of
movement. There was none, nor any sound,
and eventually she broke cover and walked into the camp. There, she saw the warriors with throats cut
and with their own knives in their chest.
As she walked incredulously around the camp, finding nothing
but dead Vandal warriors, she had no idea she was being watched by someone, or
that someone had a bow with an arrow ready, although not yet with the arrow on
the string or the string pulled back.
A voice startled her: “So, girl, you have made a
mistake. I think it is time that you are
tested with your other weapons. Do you
know how to use them as well as you use that bow?”
Omeed turned about to see a warrior standing with a shield
and an axe. The warrior lifted his bow
and was about to put the arrow on the string when Omeed spoke and he lowered
the bow. “Whoever killed all your friends
must have known I was in need of practice, and left you for me. I will just get the weapons. I need to send you to hell in a short time.”
There was an axe near a dead warrior, with a shield, and
without taking her eyes off the Vandal warrior, Omeed dropped the spear and
picked up the axe. She removed her bow
from her shoulder before picking up the shield.
“It is going to be my pleasure to kill you, whore. I might just wound you first, so that I can
have my fun with you before I go with my friends and tell them you are dead.”
Omeed stepped closer to the warrior, speaking as she
advanced on him. “We have only just met
and you are calling me names without getting to know me. You are a pig, and I hate pigs. Now, are you going to do something with that
axe, big boy, or is it only there to frighten young girls?”
The warrior lurched at Omeed with his axe high, and swinging
wildly at her, but her shield was up and stopped his strike. He then swung his axe sideways, but she
stopped him again. Omeed smiled at the
look of frustration on the face of the warrior, and that made him even angrier
than he already was.
The warrior tried a backhand but the move was telegraphed
and Omeed stepped back, allowing the axe to pass her harmlessly. Once the warrior’s shield was to his front,
covering his chest as his momentum pushed him round, Omeed struck his shield
three times with such speed and such force that he fell to the ground. She walked forward to finish the fight, but
he was fast and rolled to his left, and her killer strike missed.
Omeed stepped back as the warrior rose to a standing position
once more and faced her. He gave a
laugh, and said, “So you think that you have this fight won, you whore. I will now show you what I can do with a
sword.”
“I hope it is more than you can do with an axe, because I am
getting bored.”
“That’s right, whore, you keep making jokes, but only I will
be laughing at them when you are dead.”
He then threw the axe on the ground and withdrew his sword.”
Omeed laughed. “You
will not be alive to see my death, you ignorant pig. You seem to keep getting my name wrong every
time you open your filthy mouth.” Omeed
then threw her axe on the floor and withdrew her sword. The warrior swung his sword, striking her
shield, and he lifted his arm to take another swing. Omeed quickly jabbed him in the shoulder of
his sword arm.
She saw his look of shock and smiled, which was like showing
red to a bull. The warrior rushed at her
swinging wildly, so she stepped aside to let him past. As he went past she stuck her legs between
his and watched him trip over, falling head first. While he was face down, Omeed jabbed him in
the buttocks with her sword. The warrior
shouted abuse at her as he rolled over and stood up again.
“This is no time to sleep, you pig. Night time is the time to sleep. Get up and stop playing the fool. You are supposed to be trying to kill
me.” Omeed gave him another jab in the
ankle before she stepped back to let him stand up. He stood, and she saw the way his leg trailed
as he swung his sword, showing her that he was in pain from the wound in the leg. She stepped back and let the sword glide past
her.
Once his sword was the other side of her with his body not
covered by the shield, she thrust her sword forward, pushing it deep into
him. She stopped in that position as he
stared back with the realisation of death in his face. As she withdrew the sword, the lifeless body
of the warrior dropped to the ground.
Omeed sheathed her sword before walking back to her spear to
pick it up. She took one more look about
her before she went deeper into the forest beyond the camp. She looked on the ground for signs of another
army, but she could see none. She
stopped for a moment listening for any sounds but there was only silence. She turned and walked back to the edge of the
forest, and then out onto the grass plain once more.
The person who had been lurking in the bracken stood up and
put the arrow back in the quiver he was carrying. He then turned and walked in a north-eastern
direction, but at no time did he look as if he was in any hurry. A pheasant flew up from its hiding place,
heading east over the camp of the dead Vandal army.
Omeed mounted one of the stray horses and was heading east
when she heard the cry of a bird. She
stopped the horse and looked back at the forest she had just left, and she saw
the pheasant fly out. She waited a while
longer but nothing more happened. She
kicked the horse forward as she headed towards the east, returning to the
village.
