We didn’t have much trouble getting on the trail of those men. Anyone who is trying to hide their tracks doesn’t take a couple of donkeys with them, especially through a forest. They left a track that anyone could follow but they were moving at a fair pace and they did seem to know where they were heading.

It took us just over the three days to catch up with them. We were tracking them through all the daylight hours and expected them to be stopping for longer than they did. They must have felt an urgent need to get somewhere but they still lit fires when they camped.

We came to the conclusion that they weren’t worried about what lay behind them but rather were trying to get somewhere. When we finally caught up with them, they didn’t even look behind. Perhaps they thought there was little chance of pursuit after the first day.

Anyway they were travelling along, with Elsebeth on one of the donkeys, one of the men leading it and one following and leading the second donkey. From what we could see she didn’t seem to be to be in too much difficulty but she was tied on to the beast.

The part of the forest they were travelling through was too overgrown for us to get around them and set up any type of ambush and the trail was too narrow for us to easily take one of them off guard. That donkey blocking our route through didn’t help. We decided to hold back until either the trail got wider or they decided to stop and make themselves an easier target. If the girl hadn’t been there we could have got them easily but we didn’t want her hurt.

We’d been following them for about an hour or so and they’d shown no sign that they knew we were about so when the ground started rising significantly we knew there was a fair chance of getting to them.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been that far into the forest but at points the hillside is fairly rocky and there tends to be less trees. This means that it is easier to find a trail and therefore quicker travel. It also means that it is easier to spot someone following, so we fell back a little when they first emerged.

It was just as well that we did. From the opposite direction came a group of nine men. Eight were clearly military types, at first we couldn’t determine if they were soldiers or mercenaries, the last was a priest. It was clear that the brothers were expecting them as they shouted greeting and chose an appropriate place to stop.

We did our best to get close to hear what they were talking about but the area was fairly exposed and we could only catch some of it. The priest was the first to speak and he was fairly loud.

“What are you doing here? We were meant to meet you.”

One of the brothers replied and all the other party looked in our direction. For a second I thought they’d seen us but the trees must have hid us. It was clear that the priest wasn’t very happy as he started suggesting that they were totally incompetent. I was quite impressed by his use of language.

It quieted down after that for a while. We couldn’t catch what they were talking about but it was clear that the brothers expected to be paid for what they had done. They were talking to one of the guard types. I wasn’t sure who was in charge of the other group, the priest or this soldier, both seemed to give orders to the others but not each other.

I think the brothers were after payment and were either asking for more or making suggestions about what they would do if they weren’t paid. Either way it upset the lead soldier who shouted a command. The whole look of the group changed in a flash. Instead of being fairly relaxed, the soldier types went instantly alert and moved out of our sight. We heard something, I couldn’t say what, followed by a piercing scream that was abruptly cut short. Then we could here them moving off. The men weren’t making a lot of noise but they kept the donkeys with them.

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When we moved to a position where we could see where they had stopped, all that was visible were two bodies. We took our time moving down to them, as anyone that quick and able at overpowering the mercenaries might be a little more alert than the brothers had been. By the time we got there the group was out of sight.

The two men had had their throats slit. They had made a good job of the larger one and he must have been killed instantly. The other brother must have got some sort of idea as to what had happened, it had taken them two goes to kill him. The first time they had got the side of his neck instead.

What surprised me was that they had left the bodies as they were. They hadn’t been rifled. They even left the weapons the men carried. It told me that this group of men couldn’t be mercenaries; they must be elite troops.

We were pretty cautious as we followed them. If they suspected they were being followed they might lay a trap. I’m fairly sure that the two of us could have taken any of them in a fair fight but two against eight, I wasn’t counting the priest, didn’t seem like a fair fight.

We tracked them sufficiently well that we got to where we could occasionally hear them moving ahead of us. Not that they were making a lot of noise but a group that size can’t move quietly. The animals were extremely helpful. The iron shod hooves hit stone every so often and in a quiet forest the sound carries. We didn’t want to get any closer until they made camp.

We weren’t holding out much hope of rescuing Elsebeth. Against a group of well-trained and well-armed men there is only so much that you can do. We had some inkling of their experience when they didn’t light a fire. When they had settled down we tried to get in close.

They had found a small clearing in the forest and as we got closer we could hear them cutting something. It took a few seconds to identify that they were sharpening stakes. They placed them in a ring around their campsite with the donkeys and themselves inside. They tied the donkeys to a pole at one end so that they could browse.

One of the men dug a trench at the far end of the site. When the stakes were all in place, two men stood guard whilst the others ate. There was no fuss and everyone seemed to know what they were doing. The ones on lookout didn’t even look at the others back at the camp. There was no idle talk and although the guard leader and the priest talked amongst themselves for a while it was so quiet I couldn’t catch a word.

When the group finished eating, the two lookouts were replaced and had their turn. When they were finished the whole group made ready to sleep, apart from the lookouts. Elsebeth seemed resigned to her fate rather than anything else. I think that the killing earlier in the day had been rather a shock. She raised no protest and lay down to the side of the others.

The lookouts started to move around when the others were asleep. There was no real pattern to their movements other than that the two men went in opposite directions. Sometimes they stopped and looked out into the forest, sometimes they moved briskly around the inside of the barricade. We were looking for an opportunity to get them apart long enough to kill them both but it didn’t happen.

When they had been on their own for about an hour one of them went and woke up another guard and stayed with him until he was acting alert. I’ve known people who’ve been caught out when their new sentry was still half asleep but they weren’t giving us that opportunity either.

It was about the coldest part of the night when there was an unexpected movement. Elsebeth was suddenly sprinting towards the barricade. I’ll give those guards their due, they were as far away as they could get within the confines of the camp and they still got to her before she could squeeze through a slight gap in the barricade. What’s more the whole camp was up and alert before we could do anything to help her out. I reckon they were an elite squad.

At no time during the night was there a chance of us doing any good. We might have killed the two sentries, although that would have been chancy. If we had done that they would have known we were there and then they would be after us, not the other way around.

We tracked them all through the next three days and nights. They didn’t give us one good opportunity in the whole time. What’s more I don’t think they even realised we were there, they were just that good. The only difference to the first night was that Elsebeth slept in the middle of the group after that. I saw her try to get away a couple of times but they caught her before she really had a chance to move.

Anyway, by this time we were getting close to the border with Nothering. We had been fairly sure they would head that way when we first saw the priest. The soldiers could have been from anywhere, although they probably were from Nothering as well.

We had to make a decision. Once we passed over the border we were outside our jurisdiction. Our government might support us if we got caught or they might not. We knew there was no chance that they would go to war with Nothering over one woman, especially one from Setherland. They might make a formal protest and some diplomat would get told off and that would be it.

We decided to split up. Scabad is the better tracker, he could follow a group for months and they’d never know. Someone had to let you lot know what was happening and the choice was simple. We followed them until they had clearly moved into Nothering and then I departed to come back here. We still haven’t a clue as to what they intend to do with her or why.