It was now two days since that first message had reached us from the captain and while things hadn’t all gone our way we had managed to whittle down the number of bandits in the distraction party by nearly half. Where once they numbered fifty-two or so now only twenty-eight remained at large, perhaps even less since that figure was based on the number we had captured and the bodies we had recovered.
Just before the light of that first day had begun to fade a small force of men on horseback, who had ridden ahead of the bandits, made themselves known to them. The force was comprised of Lieutenant Berger, four of our scouts, the seven best horsemen in the company not currently under my command and two of Sir Malcolm Haute’s guards.
They were by then near exhausted as were their horses and they had only managed to get into position to intercept the bandits a mere five minutes previously. Two of their number, the best archers amongst them had dismounted their horses a few yards back and hidden in a nearby thicket.
When they first sighted them the bandits weren’t quite sure how to proceed but soon enough twenty of them broke away from the rest and charged at the horsemen. The two hidden archers and those of the horsemen who had the mounted archery skill immediately opened fire on them. By the time the bandits were able to engage with them Hand to hand nine of their number were already out of the fight, though not all of them were dead. By the time it ended of the eleven survivors of their charge only two of them were in any condition to flee the fight and even they didn’t survive the rout.
Of course, if at any time during that fight or even shortly thereafter the other bandits had joined their brethren the fight would have turned out quite differently. But in the end, they were facing mere bandits and not even all that well-disciplined ones at that. Anyone else might at least have made use of their own archers but then again perhaps they didn’t have any.
Instead of joining their comrades, they hesitated until it was over and then began to flee. You might think that they would have stopped doing so and tried their luck once more upon realising no one was pursuing them but then again it was possible they were too panicked to bother looking back as they were fleeing.
And why were they not pursued, well it doesn’t take a genius to realise that no one was in any condition to do so. They were already tired enough at the start of the fight, you can imagine what condition they were in by the end of it. None of them had died, yet but even the one among their number with the highest Endurance stat was exhausted and in no condition to take prisoners. Why none of those potential prisoners made a break for it or otherwise tried to take advantage of their condition is hard to say, though most of them it should be stated were in no condition themselves to do so.
Anyway, by the time they were reinforced less than half an hour later, things had begun to look up for them. None of them were yet in any condition to help with the cleanup after the battle but they were all still alive, though none of them had escaped unscathed and one of the horses had perished. By that time, of the twenty bandits who had attacked only four of them were still alive and of them only one was in any condition to be hung any time soon. That was if he survived his interrogation, though as a general rule, only those who were likely to do so underwent such things.
“Alright Young bandit scum the next and possibly the last hour or more of your life can go one of two ways, the easy one and the hard one. Which you choose is up to you, though I must say no matter which one you pick I will gain no more pleasure from it than you. No matter what happens you will be hung but there is I think a great deal of difference between being hung today and being able to have it put off for a year. It’s unlikely that you actually know anything worth more than that but as they say, perhaps Telondian will allow the horse to learn to sing.”
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The bandit whose name was Russel Henck by the way spilled the beans on the bandits though much of it was more concerned with the past rather than the present or the future. He had no real idea about what they were currently up to, having only joined them relatively recently. He did what he was told, when he was told and that was about that.
The band had been more than twice its current size when he had joined but a disastrous raid the previous autumn had resulted in the death of over eighty bandits, including their leader Pencho Ogden. After a brief struggle with Pencho’s lieutenant his wife Eschiva had taken over and promised the men a big payday.
As far as Russel was aware the two halves of the band were supposed to meet up in a couple of days though he didn’t know where exactly this was to take place. Nor was he aware of any kind of contingency plan or how big a payday they were expecting. He was however able to tell us about the individual in command of the distraction force and the rest of its command structure.
After making sure the advanced party were comfortable most of the reinforcements went after the fleeing bandits but with most of the scouts being temporarily out of action and the cover of darkness both helping and hindering both sides in equal measure their head start meant most of them got away.
As for the rest of the bandits at that point, well no one except perhaps Young had any idea where they might be and the same could be said for him. Two of the three scouts that followed in his footsteps had rejoined the company but the third was still missing.
The second day chasing the distraction force wasn’t as fruitful as the first, three of them were killed and another captured but as to the whereabouts of the rest of them, well no one knew. Around midday one of the three scouts that were by then fit enough to carry out their duties spotted signs of a small party of five to six men having passed by his position but when he tracked them down it turned out that they weren’t bandits at all but rather a group of licensed hunters. By the time light had been replaced by darkness that night, not many were at all hopeful that the following day would be any different than the current one. Even Captain Walker was apprehensive but he trusted the men under his command and knew that they wouldn’t let him down, they never had.
While all this was going on myself and the men under my command were by no means idle. We were busy preparing for an eventuality that few believed would actually come to be, even I at best give it a twenty-five percent chance of occurring. Nevertheless, I acted at all times as if it was only a matter of when, not if and I made sure the men under my command gave their all to our endeavour.
We didn’t do anything to the walls or the gate and made sure that anyone approaching the camp wouldn’t be able to tell that anything had changed since they had abandoned it. At least not until it was too late, instead during that first day I had several holes dug to both sides of the path approaching the camp, well away from it mind you but still in bow range of course. Plus two within the camp itself, one between the temporary outhouse they had created during their winter stay and the crude armoury shed. The other I placed within the ruins of the right gatehouse.
These were big enough and deep enough for a single individual or in the case of the two inside the camp several people to comfortably stay in for a short period, at least without them being easily spotted, or so I hoped. Once they were complete I inspected them from a distance to try and determine their effectiveness as hiding spots and for the most part from what I could tell they were hard to find with the naked eye, though my perception wasn’t the best. Where I spotted problems I tried my best to find ways to fix them with varying degrees of success both in design and implementation. I even tried a few of them out to make sure they weren’t too uncomfortable and again where possible had them improved upon.
During the second day, I had the men build a kind of crow's nest in the left gatehouse and a platform inside the old well, both capable of holding a single individual. These weren’t our only preparations, I also had them prepare fallback positions within the camp and on both sides of the path, just in case we were in danger of being overrun. After all, while I didn’t think we would have any problem handling the bandit distractions force it was also possible but even less likely that they might be joined by the rest of the bandits.