Freedom Fighters of Trelandar

A Tale of Adventure in the Second Dark Age

Book Nine of the Warlady Series

By Jerome B. Bigge

Chapter Twenty One

      The rain was "cold", a fall drizzle that chilled one to the bone, the wet grass through which I crawled now soaking me to the skin as I worked my way up to the brush behind which Carl had hid himself. The Imperials on sentry duty no doubt thinking more of getting under shelter than so concerning themselves with whatever laid out there in the "darkness" of this miserable October night. We were quite high up, in the foothills of the Sierras, our task being to teach the enemy that no where he went was there safety. The dark boles of the trees only dark shadows here in the night. The Imperial encampment itself just barely visible before us now.

      "Must be fifty of them," he whispered to me, well aware that we were outnumbered by almost two to one here. A dark figure now slithering through the grass towards us, Marta Satel, my faithful officer, who had in the last month seen so many die in battle...

      "We have the `advantage' of surprise," I whispered back now, aware too of how many had died following their Warlady's command. I tried never to "close" with the enemy, my task here being more to "harass", but even so often we took casualties, paying with my own people's lives for the souls of the Imperials we sent to Lys.

      "Should have been a whore," Marta whispered, crawling up. It being a classical joke among Warrioresses that it is better to be a whore than a Warrioress as whores do all their work in bed.

      "Too fucking far for your bows," Carl muttered to us then.

      "About a hundred, hundred and twenty," Marta ventured now.

      "Fear can be as much a weapon as a sword," I pointed out.

      "We need to kill them, not just `scare' them," she breathed.

      "Those you can hit, you can kill," I hissed, not in the best of moods. "We will surround them on three sides, shoot arrows into their camp. They will not be able to see where the arrows are coming from, only sense that they are surrounded on three sides by a foe whose numbers they have no way of `knowing' here." I suspected that terror would do the rest. Those who charged us we could shoot, those who fled we could hunt down if we wanted... If I'd had larger forces I would have posted archers hidden in the path that those escaping would take, but my force was far too small for me to be able to do this now. Although we were killing far more of the enemy than they were of us, the odds seemed to be such that no matter how many we killed, there were always "more"! It was a lot like killing insects. You never seemed to win here!

      "Hold your fire until I give the signal," I breathed, the crossbowman next to me nodding. The crossbows would shoot fur- ther than would bows, but their rate of fire was far slower too. These were the more common military crossbow, drawn by belt hook, and didn't shoot a bolt even as far actually than my compound bow would shoot arrows. It is possible to fire such weapons from a prone position, but you must roll over to recock the weapon then. On the other hand it is hard to shoot a bow from prone and aim well, the usual requirement being here to kneel while shooting if you are using the usual composite military bow or a compound like mine, which is quite rare, although Darlanis thinks highly of her own, which she has used to such effect that there is a sort of a legend about her, it being claimed that she could shoot arrows to a range of three hundred yards, which is I suppose possible here. Darlanis being a very strong woman, strong as many men might be.* * The compound bows designed by Lorraine perhaps represented the most advanced ever designed with their oddly shaped design, which allowed the use of an arrow shorter than normal, a lighter arrow which could be shot further. Darlanis once shot a number of ar- rows a number of years ago to a distance of about three hundred and fifty yards (light target type arrows) with a compound bow of Lorraine's design drawing about 85#. Lorraine herself used a compound drawing 70# and could often shoot three hundred. (Sanda)

      "Now!" I cried, drawing the arrow back to my cheek, releas- ing it, the missile only a blurred streak lost in the darkness... My people firing, yells of surprise from the Imperials leaving no doubts that they were being awoke from sleep to find themselves under fire, which tends to add to one's confusion in such cases!

      I saw a man hunch over, grab for his leg, obviously hit. I could see others running about, my second arrow firing off here. One could not aim effectively at such ranges at individual tar- gets, but such barrage fire was extremely effective never the less against an encampment of this nature, especially at night! The crossbowman beside me rolling over, hooking his bowstring to his belthook, getting a foot into the stirrup and straightening his body, drawing the string back to the catch. My third arrow now being shot as I knelt there on one knee beside him, another woman, only a shadow in the darkness, firing there on my left as I reached into my quiver for a fourth. Under such conditions as this I can fire an arrow fairly well aimed about a dozen times a minute, with the maximum "cast" of my bow being about 250 yards.

      I saw a group of Imperials dash out from the camp towards us, making targets of themselves, several falling to arrows as we shifted aim, the enemy of course having little idea of where we were. Our weapons, unlike those of the past, having no "muzzle flash" to guide the eye of the enemy, a "point" that was clearly brought home here to Lorraine herself when Carol Simmons lead the attack upon her estates in 2567. One of the few times when the famous Warlady found herself being "out generaled" by another... Tactics that for all I know Carol might have learned from me too! My activities in this war against Darlanis having been carefully studied by those who knew they might someday have to fight here.* * As has been noted elsewhere, the Free Trelandar Movement was in "communication" with Dularn, and knowledge of my methods and tac- tics were known to the Dularnians, who used me as an "example" in their own militia training of what to "do" when invasion came. I should write here too that I obtained many of my tactics from old books written back when firearms were in use, and adapted these to our own tactics based here upon the use of bows and crossbows.

      Lorraine's poor performance as commander of the Athena when she "lost" to the North Star and the North Wind were due more to her anger at being "outwitted" by Carol Simmons as the Athena was not a good choice. In this it was more a matter of her opinion of Carol that counted here, as Lorraine felt "insulted" that she, Warlady of the Empire of California, could be so humiliated by a woman like Carol here! Carol having burned several of Lorraine's first rates, as well as having made a successful attack upon Lor- raine's estate from the forest to the south after making a land- ing further southwards here. It is "ironic" too that Lorraine died there only feet from the same "place" that Carol led her at- tack from, the outlaws that attacked us having used the same tac- tics to a degree that Carol had then. What perhaps separates me from Lorraine, or Darlanis here too was that both of them were personally "courageous" in a way I never was or never will be. They were both truly of the Warrioress caste, they both planned to die with swords in their hands, and both of them wished to die too in battle, not in a bed of age or disease. In a way they were both "legends in their own time", and I recall that Lorraine said when she learned of the death of Darlanis that a thousand years hence her name would still be honored among Men. Just as I know Lorraine's will be now upon a world a dot of light in the nighttime sky. She and Darlanis were two of a kind that will never be seen again. Legends of a world that once was... (Sanda)

      "Die!" the man screamed, taking my arrow from only feet away into his chest, staggering back in the darkness, falling, another now running up as I dropped my bow to whip out my blade. Greet- ing the steel of his sword with mine as we engaged now in a dead- ly duel there in the darkness, his blade cutting my right arm as we fought furiously before my slash to his throat put an "end" to this bloody battle here! The Imperial trooper staggering back, the woman next to me now putting an arrow into him just to "make sure" as more came out of the darkness like some flock of ghosts!

      "Keep `firing' on them!" I yelled, dropping my sword to grab for my bow, the cut on my forearm stinging, bleeding as I grabbed another arrow and got it nocked on the string. Something going "zip" over my head as some Imperial crossbowman chanced a shot... Others now fleeing, running off into the darkness away from us!!!

      "I haven't been `married' to you that long that I want to start looking for another wife," Carl said to me as he bandaged my wound. Fortunately it had been across the top of my arm, and although the blade had cut me to the bone, it wasn't "serious".

      "My swordsmanship is rusty," I admitted, knowing it was.

      "You're taking too many `risks'," Marta said to me now.

      "If we `ease up', then Paula has to face these," I said.

      "And when you're killed?" Carl retorted right back at me.

      "Then you fight on, see that Trelandar remains free," I re- plied, shivering in the cold, aware of how close it had been now. Thinking of how "easy" it would be to change my tactics, stop do- ing the things I was doing, stop taking the risks that I was now. Leading this little force of mine in these attacks upon an enemy who seemed to come swarming over our country like some plague...

Next Chapter