Portals of Infinity: Book Four: The Sea of Grass (18 page)

I noticed that the soldiers and the guards were keeping to themselves; I guess they didn't get along.

"So what's the plan, Sir?" Johan, the senior non-com asked.

"Ride up close, then we make a lot of noise, shoot a few guards or oxen if you can as we get them all excited, then we ride away when they start shooting back and watch what they do."

"And then what?"

"In a couple of hours we do it again, all night long."

Johan laughed. "They're not going to like us much, are they?"

"That's the general idea. Just make sure that nobody gets too close. We're just harassing them."

"Yessir," he said and spread the word. Five minutes later we rode down in the darkness, and approached slowly, until one of the sentries raised the alarm. At that point we all galloped around the perimeter, shot a few arrows, made a lot of noise, and then rode off when they started to shoot back at us.

The tried to chase us that first time, but they were on foot and we were mounted, so they couldn't keep up. Also they were smart enough not to split their numbers by following us too far away from their camp, where they would become vulnerable.

We did that three more times that night. One the third and last time for the night I rode in closer than I had before, and several of the better archers in our group followed me. I attacked one of the groups of oxen that were not as well guarded as the others, shooting as many of them as I could, the others following my lead.

That really got their attention! Half of the soldiers charged out of the camp towards us, pushing us back from the oxen, so we turned and rode off before they could get close enough to attack.

When morning came, we rode off a ways and made camp for the night; one of the scouts would spend the day trailing them, and would tell us how their day went.

We slept until a few hours before sunset, and then made our way onto the next camp.

"How many of the oxen did we kill?" I asked our scouts.

"I'm not exactly sure, I think they butchered them and are keeping the meat, but they're down to only three spare oxen today."

I nodded and thought about that, we’d need to do a lot more damage if we were going to slow them down. Five, even ten more oxen wasn't going to do it.

Night had fallen when we made it to their new camp, we started off the same as we had last night, riding around, making a lot of noise, and shooting at targets of opportunity. I know we wounded a few of the men, but I don't know if we killed any. What I had noticed was that they set their camp up differently tonight. All of the oxen were in the center of the camp, in one group, with the caravan guards watching them. The soldiers were spaced out more evenly now, guarding the wagons.

"Looks like we won't be killing anymore oxen tonight, Sir," Johan said to me as we sat around comparing notes on what we'd seen, waiting to make our second attack of the night.

"If we could get one man in among them, I bet we could kill a lot of them," I said thinking.

"I'm not sure how much damage just one of us could do, Sir."

"Well, I know I could do quite a bit," I said thinking about that.

"You'd be dead before you could get to them, Sir, there are over a hundred fighters in the camp."

I nodded, and thought about it some more.

"New plan," I said after thinking about it for a few minutes. "I want everyone to attack the north end of the camp. Concentrate on the soldiers; let's see if we can't kill a few before all the rest come around to drive us off."

Everyone nodded and agreed, so after we finished resting we rode off and attacked again, doing just that.

The attack was probably our must successful so far, as we killed five soldiers and wounded at least as many before the rest of the soldiers in the camp were ordered to give up their posts and come and attack us.

The probably thought our attack was a feint, and eventually it would be. But not so yet. We got away with only two of our own wounded, and I had enough magic to heal both of those. I'd have to be careful and conserve my abilities however, as I wasn't a priest, I did not have a large store of spells. Champions are usually expected to take care of themselves after all.

On the second attack, we hit the south side, and they were a lot faster to respond, though they still hesitated long enough for us to kill one of the soldiers and wound several more.

On the third attack they responded almost instantly, and while we wounded several that I could see, I didn't see any kills.

"Okay," I told everyone as I had them all gathered together, we had maybe another half-hour before the sun would start to rise.

"I want all of you to attack from the north this time. Stay as long as you can, because once the guards from the southern side of the camp move away to help, I'm going to sneak in on foot and make a dash for the oxen."

"Sir! That's suicide!" Johan and several of the others protested.

I nodded, "Possibly, but as Feliogustus's champion, it's only a temporary problem."

They all looked at me kind of funny, I wasn't sure how many knew that champions could come back, as dying was incredibly painful most champions avoided it. I'd done it more than enough times already to know that I sure didn't like it, but I didn't really see any other way of slowing the caravan down enough so that the others could get here and finish it off.

Plus, I was pretty sure that in the confusion that would follow I would be able to get away. It's not something that anyone would expect after all, right?

"I don't think you should do this, Sir," Johan said, and the rest all nodded. Even the scouts were looking at me a little dubiously.

"Remember what I said about expecting my orders to be followed?" I growled.

"But, Sir! You can't be serious!"

"The queen has made it very clear that these shipments can not get through. Feliogustus has made it very clear that he opposes slavery." I looked them all up and down, "Now which one of those two, do you want to go tell that you didn't do as you were told, and didn't follow my orders?

"You may just be able to avoid her Royal Highness, but you are not going to avoid Feliogustus! Now, I'm not asking any of you to die, just keep those damned guards as far away as you can, as long as you can, and I will go take care of business.

"Am I
clear
?" I growled.

All of their eyes were wide, their ears were down flat, and several of them were shaking.

"Ye... yessir!" They all replied quietly. I was thinking about making them say it again, louder, but remembered where we were, and decided against it.

"Now, let's go!" I said and we rode off to attack the camp.

I split off before we got there, and rode around to the other side, and as the others attacked, I dismounted Tom and told him to stay. Then I slowly snuck in closer to the other camp.

Not being mounted made me smaller and harder to see and the guards were mostly looking towards the attackers, and not out towards me, which made it easier for me to move a lot closer, using the cover that was there.

When the order came and they all started to move to support those fighting at the other end of the camp, I took off running.

They did leave a guard behind to watch for an attack, but he was too busy watching the fighting on the other side of the camp, so he didn't even know I was there until I ran my sword through him from behind as I leaped up onto the wagon he was standing on.

I looked up as I jumped off the wagon, and I could see my squad was attacking the other side of the camp, and they were attacking furiously! I had told them to draw the enemy and make a good show of it, I hadn't told them to jump up on the wagons and engage the Barassan soldiers!

But they were, and they were doing a lot of damage, as well as taking it.

Swearing to myself I jumped down and ran as fast as I could for the makeshift corral in the center of the camp, noticing the shocked surprise on the faces of the slaves, who were the only ones that saw me run by.

The oxen were milling about when I slipped inside with them, they were uneasy from the noise, but nothing yet had gotten them upset. I had to shove them away to keep from being crushed several times; my champion's strength was the only think that helped me there. Once I was far enough in to keep from being seen by those in the camp, I started to attack, hacking off legs, and stabbing them in the body.

I had seriously wounded about three of them, which had started to bellow in pain, when the rest started to bellow in fear, trying to get away. The problem was, they didn't know what they were trying to get away from, as I was just a single lone attacker, and only the ones nearby could see me, and they were all still inside the corral.

I got two more, when things started to go crazy. The oxen were running back and forth at first, and I was having to spend more time dodging and trying not to get trampled, then I was killing or maiming any of them. Then there was a sudden shift, like you see a flock of birds make when they're all flying in the sky, and the oxen started to run around the inside of the corral, in a circle, with me now in the center of it.

I could barely see, because of the dust, but I did notice that a lot of the guards and the soldiers were now running towards the oxen.

And that was when I heard it, Tom's howling.

As one, every single oxen stopped and turned as one, away from where I guess he had run into the camp and stampeded towards what I guessed was the north end of the camp.

All I could think of was what had happened to Dezba at that point, as the oxen were no longer afraid of me. They knew what Wolats were, and being already in a state of panic they charged right into me, knocking me down, stepping on me, breaking my bones, crushing me, and after a couple of painful moments, I guess one stepped on my head and that was it.

"So that didn't go too well, did it?" I groaned and opened my eyes. The complete lack of pain told me were I was.

"I don't know, Will, the oxen destroyed two of the wagons as they stampeded out of the camp, and your men are riding after them now, driving them further and further from the camp."

I nodded and looked around the bar. "How many of my men died?"

"Four, and one more won't survive his wounds."

I shook my head, "I shouldn't have been so hard on them."

Fel shook his head, "Don't be so hard on yourself, William. Sometimes you have to crack the whip. King Stivek is hurting; he doesn't have the money in his treasury to keep such a large army. Even if this shipment had made it through, he was going to have to cut the size down. Without this? Without the hope of more shipments like it? He's going to have to cut his army in half."

"Well, that's good I guess."

"The other slave trading ports are going to seize on this opportunity as well."

"How so?" I asked.

"They're going to make sure that those who come to Barassa to buy slaves know that their ports still have plenty to sell. They're going to tell the merchant houses whose people you are slaughtering, that travel to their cities is still safe."

"So, does that mean Barassa is going to fail?"

Fel shook his head, "No, they'll still be in business for years to come, and if Stivek is smart and moves out of the slave business, they'll survive.

"But right now, tides are turning against him and Barassa. Because of Tantrus's actions, a lot of his neighbors will not help him. The only thing that was keeping the trade going was Barassa's status as the major slave trading port on the continent. If Barassa loses that, none of his neighbors will be inclined to trade with him at all, until the insult that they suffered from Tantrus's hidden temples is forgotten."

"Do you think he'll attack us?" I asked.

Fel shrugged, "It is a possibility, however, none of those surrounding him right now are willing to let him march his armies thought their lands without a fight. Marland is probably the shortest route, and the weakest country, therefore that is the cheapest and easiest way to get to Hiland. So he would probably go that way, however it would be very costly for him, and anything less than a fast victory would ruin him."

"What about going through the Mowok's lands?"

Fel laughed, "They tried that once several decades ago. Winter and spring, the weather is too harsh, during the summer only the Mowoks know where to get water, and they have this nasty trick of driving narzhum herds through your camps at night and raiding your supply lines.

"Marland is a much easier fight."

I nodded, "I guess I should go and apologize to the men that died tonight, and thank them for their sacrifice."

Fel smiled and shook his head, "William, those men fought as hard as they did because you reminded them that they were fighting for both their queen and their god. It's better for both them and you, if you didn't."

I looked up at Fel, "Is that a 'no'?"

Fel nodded, "Sorry, Will."

I sighed and leaned back in my chair, and picked up the mug of beer on the table taking a drink. I thought about the way they'd all looked at me when I'd read them the riot act. Had I been too hard on them? Probably. Had I expected too much from them? Apparently. I had gotten them killed, but wasn't that their job after all? To die for queen and country?