‘Enslaved’, Chaper Seventeen
Wagon Wheel
Chapter Seventeen
Bandits on the trail
The men were only two days into their journey to find Jen, with still at least four more days of travel to get there. They had done as Max had suggested and kept to the south road. They had crossed paths with a few merchants taking the same road, stopping only for polite hellos, and some small purchases, but did not dally with any of them for long to avoid any questions that might be asked about who these strangers were and why they were traveling in that part of the country.
By nightfall on the second night the party came across a small village along the road. They found a small Inn at the end of this tiny village and decided to stay there for the night.
“James it’s a good thing we found this Inn, or we would have all drown in the rain tonight, spoke Max.”
“What rain Max, I think you’re just getting a bit too soft to sleep on the ground anymore,” laughed James.
“Who said anything about being too soft, I’m just as tough as you any day James Masterson, and its going to rain tonight, just you wait and see, these bones of mine have never failed to warn me of it coming.”
“Ok, Max, if you say its going to rain then I guess it will, we can all stay here at the Inn tonight, if we can keep you away from the bar old man,” replied James
“Ha, I could drink all night and still beat you to the horses in the morning,” grumbled Max
“Just you all remember how important this mission is to me and Jake,” spoke James
“Don’t worry my friend, I don’t mix pleasure with business at the same time,” replied Max.
All the men just laughed as they stepped inside the Inn to get rooms for the night . They sat down at one of the tables and ordered up food for all the men, including James’s two slave’s hands. Everyone seemed to be quite hungry and devoured the food quickly. Thankful to be eating a hot meal cooked by someone other then Jake or Max on the trail.
After they had all finished eating James tossed some coins to his slave Sam to pay the stable fee, and gave orders to him and Tom to take the horses and wagons down to the stables, feed and water the horses and stay with them for the night.
The men chose one room with several cots. They wasted no time in scrambling into the cots as all seemed to be a bit exhausted from the journey. Not long after they had lain down to sleep it began to pour down rain, beating heavily on the roof of the Inn. Everyone rose up on their elbows and looked over in the direction of Max, who was just laying there as if nothing unusual was happening, and did not look up with surprise at hearing the rain on the roof. Max grinned to himself as he could feel all the eyes of his friends staring at him.
“Next time maybe you will believe me when I tell you it’s going to rain,” snarled Max.
The men roared with laughter and lay back down to sleep.
Next morning the men rose just before daybreak and headed downstairs to the tavern in the Inn to get some black wine and breakfast. James found his two hands waiting outside with the horses and wagons ready to go. He motioned for them to come inside and get some breakfast.
The party wasted no time in finishing their food as they were all anxious to get back on the road. They all mounted their horses and headed back out down the south road towards their destination.
“Well Max from the looks of those clouds we are in for more rain,” chided James.
“Nope, it’s going to be a sunny day today,” answered Max.
“With all those clouds you think its going to be sunny,” remarked Jake
“Just you wait till the sun is fully up then you will see I’m right, these bones of mine never lie to me,”
“There you go again about your old bones, old man,” chided James again.
“No one said you had to believe me, you can find out for yourself in another half hour or so,” blurted Max
All the men laughed loudly and shook their heads listening to old Max snapping at all the non-believers, and spurred the mounts on trying to make up for some lost time.
They made good time that morning traveling the south road. Near mid afternoon James and his party were forced to leave the road and take cover in the nearby woods. A huge column of bandits was coming towards them; this was an odd site on the south road. Most of the bandits and thieves stuck to the north road which was heavily traveled by merchants and rich people. The column stopped just past where James, Jake and the rest of the men were hiding in the woods. They waited for a good while hoping the bandits would move on but it now looked as it they were going to camp there for the night. James did not want to risk trying to slip around them, for they had no idea how far down the road the bandits were stretched out. These types had a reputation for spreading out in areas where they camped and infesting the local farms and villas with spies.
“Jake, I think it would be better if we slip back deeper into the woods and wait them out. You can’t be too careful around these types”.
“Yea James, I think your right, from the looks of that bunch they are spread out pretty thin, which means there are most likely more of them further up ahead of us, most likely in the next village a few miles south of us”.
“Yea you’re probably right Jake. Will post a guard here to keep and eye on them, the rest of us will make our way to a safer distance in the woods where we can camp and wait them out”.
“Alright let’s get the hell out of here James”.
“That sounds like a good plan fellows”, replied Max, “normally I would take them on and get rid of the lot of them, but I don’t want to take the risk of fouling up our mission”.
James and Jake look over at Max and grinned tying hard not to burst out with laughter and their brave friend’s remarks.
“Yes Max, that is a good idea, we don’t want to do anything that could jeopardize our mission,” Replied James.
James motioned for one of his slaves to work his way over to him. Sam, one of James’s best hands crawled over to his boss.
“Yes, boss, Sam whispered to James.
“Sam, you and Tom fix yourself a good hiding place where you can keep an eye on this bunch. The two of you can take turns watching them and report back to me every couple of hours. The rest of us are going to work our way back a good distance further into the woods and get a good place to camp, out of site. I want to know the minute this bunch leaves the area”.
“Yes Boss, we will keep a good eye on them”.
“We will take yours and Tom’s horses with us to make sure they don’t get spooked and make any noise. I’ll have to leave the wagon here, it would be too noisy to try and take it with us. Will unload it and leave it sitting as if it had been abandoned. You and Tom take the wheels off the wagon quietly and hide them in the brush. Anyone who comes across it will be less likely to steal it without wheels. You two take turns watching and one of us will relieve you before daylight. When you make your way back to report I will send some food back with you for you and Tom”.
“Yes Boss, I will report to you in a couple of hours or so”.
James motioned for his group to make their way further back from the road a good distance where it was safe to mount their horses and proceed further into the woods. They grabbed the packs out of the wagon, placing them over the saddle horns and made their way deeper into the forest. They came to a nice think stand of trees with a small clearing in the center of them. A good place to make camp and the thick trees would help to hide any firelight they might have. The men dismounted and quickly unpacked what they needed to camp for the night.
“Lets get a cook fire going now fellows, I’ll feel safer if we cook up some food before dark and put the fire out by dark just in case. I don’t think they will be able to tell our cooking odors from their own camp fires, but if they see the fire light after dark this far back into the woods they might just decide to investigate”, stated James.
“Good Idea James”, replied Max.
The men wasted no time in getting a fire and some food prepared for supper along with a pot of fresh black wine for all. After they had finished eating James arranged the fire so that there were no flames only a few hot coals in the bottom to keep the black wine hot.
“Well this is a delay we didn’t plan for”, remarked Jake.
“Yep, we should have gotten some recent information about this road before we started out, but don’t worry Jake, will get there and rescue Jen”, Replied James.
“I know James, I’m just so dammed tired of all the delays we’ve had since this all started”.
After they had all finished eating, James told everyone to try and get some sleep, it was going to be a long night. James waited up for Sam to make his way back and report to him. Everyone else seemed to be resting well, all except Jake who was still sitting staring at the few glowing embers left in the fire.
A couple hours after dark James heard some movement in the woods close by. A second later Sam appeared in the clearing.
“Evening Boss, It was not safe to get away until now. Those fools are all over the place, wandering around the edges of the forest in their drunken stupor, but I still don’t trust them even drunk. They appear to be quite a dangerous lot, even when drunk”, Stated Sam.
“Yea Sam, I got that feeling too”, replied James.
Jake walked over from the fire and sat down next to James and Sam.
“Well, what else did you see, is it possible for us to slip around them”, questioned Jake.
“I wouldn’t try it Boss, that bunch is way too crafty. I don’t trust them”.
“Is that all you know Sam, from watching them all this time is that you don’t trust them”, barked Jake.
“Oh, no Boss, I’ve got much more to report. Me and Tom inched our way up pretty close to one of their camps and overheard some of the men talking. They seemed to be some of the leaders of this bunch. They were talking about a big raid they had been planning and from what we gathered this is the place where they intend to pull off their raid”.
“What kind of raid are they going to do out here in the middle of no where”, asked James.
“From what we heard Boss, whatever it is, they are expecting it any day now traveling down the south road, and from the sound of them it’s a big one”.
“Then that’s got to be some sort of merchant caravan traveling this way”, Stated Jake. “But why would a large caravan be taking the south road, surely they know this route does not have the guard protection the north road does”.
“From what some of them were boasting about Boss, the guards on the north road are running scared and refusing to work, it seems the bandits have been targeting guards on that route lately, so none of them want to work that area”, Sam further informed them.
“Well this is just great James, were liable to be stuck here hiding for several days”, retorted Jake.
“Yes Jake I know, but I can assure you that if they are planning on raiding a big caravan then you can bet they have lookouts posted up and down the road. It would be simple too risky for us to try and slip around them, and if we try to make our way through these woods, there no way in hell we will make it. There are just too many rivers and cliffs to navigate around, besides we would not be able to take the wagon and could possible even loose the horses in this think jungle”, replied James.
“I know your right James, you don’t have to explain, it just does not make it any easier on me having to wait longer”, sighed Jake.
“Sam, there’s food over there by the fire for you and Tom. Grab it and head on back, I will sneak up to you just before daylight. Depending on how long they plan to wait for this caravan, there may not be any need for you two to stay up there waiting. I’ll wait till morning and see what’s going on before I pull you two back. It might just be a good idea to send one of you to look for the caravan and warn them if we can get you past those idiots”, stated James.
“That would be just too risky James, there bound to be watching the road all the way back to that caravan. Trying to warn them would be suicide”, replied Jake.
“Yea, Jake, I know, I just hate sitting on my hands when I know something bad is going to happen and can’t do a dam thing about it”.
“Sam, get going, I’m sure Tom is starving by now”, ordered James.
“Yes Boss, on my way, see you in the morning Boss”, replied Sam.
Sam gathered food and drinks for him and Tom and disappeared back through the thick woods heading to his look out place. The rest of the men tried to stretch out and get what rest they could. Early morning creped up slowing on James and his party hidden deep inside the forest, James drank down a cup of coffee and headed off in the direction of his two men keeping lookout.
A half hour track trough the woods found James within sight of his men’s hiding spot. He crawled up to Sam and peeked up over the small rise where Sam was watching the bandits.
“Looks like you found a good spot to watch Sam”, noticed James.
“Yea Boss, this little rise is a good place to watch them, with just are heads exposed when we look over the top”, answered Sam.
“What’s been happening, anything”, James asked.
“No Boss, not much since I reported to you last night, this bunch here seems to be the main party waiting in the middle of this whole thing. It’s a good bet from what I’ve gathered that the raid is going to take place right here with this bunch, but from their actions last night the caravan must still be a day or two away. They all passed out drunk last night and so far none of them have stirred yet this morning”, reported Sam.
“Yea, I see, looks kind of quiet”, remarked James. “Ok, you two pack it up and make you way back to camp and get some rest. When it gets closer to night fall again will see if we can work our way further back down the road to try and get a better look at what’s going on”.
“Right away Boss, I sure could use the rest” replied Sam.
All three men crawled back from the ridge and made their way quietly back through the woods to the camp with the rest of the men. Sam and Tom grabbed a bite to eat then quickly found a place to sack out for a few hours.
Asha`di
Posted on April 15th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
wonder what`s going to happen next……….Be careful guys (whispers rosemary)