In the Shadow of Mountains: The Lost Girls

by David George Richards

Chapter Eighteen

  Skirmish

  Rowena, Sophia, Vanessa, Jemma, Karen and Jane were all captured and thrust into the same cage wagon. Anne Jenkins was in the next wagon. She was still unconscious. Samantha was holding her in her arms. With them were Debbie, Linda, Jo, Christine and Paula. All the girls were crying, and some of them looked far more battered and bruised than they had been after the crash. But they weren’t the only occupants of the wagon.

  In the same wagon as Anne Jenkins were six more children, four boys and two girls. The girls wore grey uniforms while the boys were in maroon. All of them looked scared and bewildered, and they were just as battered and bruised.

  All around the wagons, men hurried about, shouting and securing the ropes. A Knight on horse-back shouted orders to them all. He seemed to be in charge. Everywhere there was noise and commotion. The horses snorted and stamped their feet in agitation, causing the wagons to move and sway.

  Vanessa looked around as the men hurried about. They seemed busy enough, so she pressed herself against the bars of the cage and shouted across to Linda in the other wagon.

  “Who are the other kids? Do they know anything?”

  Linda shook her head. “Christine is the only one who’s French is good enough to understand them,” she called back. “They don’t know any more than us.”

  Vanessa looked surprised. “They’re French? What are they doing here?”

  “Same as us. They were on the road when it happened. But they weren’t together. The boys are from a different school, but it wasn’t even in the same city. The girls are from Paris, and the boys are from Lyon.”

  There was a sudden shout. “My Liege! My Liege!”

  Everyone turned and stared as a man ran up to the Knight. He threw himself to his knees in front of his horse and saluted by thumping his left breast with his fist.

  “My Lord L’Roth!” he said breathlessly. “Sir William is dead!”

  L’Roth looked astonished. “What is this you say? Dead? How so?”

  “We heard Sir William call out that Destroyers were in the forest. But when we reached him, he and two others had already been slain.”

  L’Roth pulled his horse round, almost knocking the man to the ground. He shouted to the men by the wagons, pointing at the one with Anne Jenkins inside.

  “This wagon is full! To the castle with it!” he shouted, “Go! When the last of our quarry is captured we will follow with the rest!”

  “Aye, my Liege!” one of the men shouted and saluted with the same thump of his chest.

  Men jumped on the wagon and the horses strained forward.

  As the wagon moved off, the girls stared at one another through the bars, and began to reach out and shout and scream in dismay at their separation. L’Roth ignored them, and continued shouting his orders.

  “You men, stay and guard this wagon! You others, follow me!” He drew his sword and galloped off.

  Other men began jumping on their horses. Some went with the departing wagon, while others galloped after L’Roth.

  The girls stared at the other wagon as it disappeared, crying in despair. Only Vanessa didn’t cry. She was watching the man who guarded them. As the sound of horses and men faded, Vanessa moved closer to the bars again.

  “Hey, you!” she shouted.

  The man ignored her.

  Vanessa stared at him through the bars of the cage. “Bastard!” she shouted. “My dad will cut your balls off when I tell him what you’ve done!”

  This time the man spun round and smacked the bars of the cage with his pike. Vanessa had to move back quickly, her fingers narrowly escaping a good bashing.

  Rowena was terrified. “Stop it, Vanessa! You’ll make them angry!”

  “Make them angry? I’m the one that’s bloody angry!” Vanessa went back to the bars. “What have you done with my sister, you rotten bastards?”

  Her shout brought the same response from the man. As he struck at the bars he shouted, “Quiet, wench!”

  “Who are you calling a wench? You mad-arse!” Vanessa shouted back.

  The man began to poke the blunt end of his long pike through the bars at Vanessa. Vanessa tried to grab it, but it was thrust into her stomach, knocking her over. As the man drew his pike back to jab at her again, Sophia and Karen quickly grabbed it and began to wrestle with it. Jemma joined in, and soon even Rowena had grabbed the long pole and begun to tug it from the man.

  As the guard tried desperately to retrieve his pike, he found himself lifted off the ground by the weight of the girls at the other end. He shouted for help, and more men came running.

  This time the business end of the pikes were used. But they were used carefully, and sparingly. It was obvious that the men didn’t want to kill the girls, but that was as far as their concern for them went. Rowena was poked in the back, Vanessa in the chest, and Karen in the leg and hip. The wounds were not deep or serious, but they were enough to draw blood. With three men poking at them from all sides, the girls soon had to give up. But the men wouldn’t stop poking and jabbing at them.

  The girls began to scream and wriggle about in the cage, trying to avoid the sharp points of the thrusting pikes. The men were beginning to enjoy this game when another horse galloped up to the cage wagon. Its rider was a woman dressed in red and with red hair that was tied into a long plat, and she struck at one of the men with a sword she carried. The man’s head flew off. Karen saw it. It just popped off, and the man’s body fell over. Blood went everywhere.

  All the girls saw the blood and felt the hot spray, and they immediately fell back screaming in shock and horror.

  The men also panicked. They were trying to remove their pikes which were still stuck in the cage, but with the girls screaming and jumping about in terror inside, it took too long. The woman sliced another of the men across the back, and he fell in another welter of blood. The third man gave up, dropped his pike and ran. The woman chased after him on her horse.

  The man ran in panic, looking over his shoulder in terror at the woman who chased him, her sword held out. He was running towards the minibus, and as he ran passed it, Becky popped out of one of the broken windows with her hockey stick in her hand. The man didn’t see it until it was too late, and she walloped him. The stick broke, and the man was felled in an instant.

  The woman reined in her horse and stared at Becky in surprise.

  “What is your name, girl?” she asked.

  “Becky,” Becky replied, climbing out of the minibus. She pushed her glasses back up her nose and asked, “What’s yours?”

  “Soo-Kai. Come, there is no time to waste.”

  Soo-Kai replaced her sword in her back then reached out her hand to Becky. Becky didn’t respond. She was too busy staring and wondering where the sword had gone. Soo-Kai shouted at her.

  “Get on the horse!”

  Becky was startled but then grabbed Soo-Kai’s hand. Soo-Kai pulled her up on to her horse and the two of them galloped back to the cage wagon. As soon as they were there, Soo-Kai jumped down and pulled Becky down beside her.

  All the girls stared at Becky and Soo-Kai in surprise. They began to calm down when they realised that Soo-Kai was helping Becky, and that the girl wasn’t her prisoner. Vanessa stared at Soo-Kai in desperation.

  “Let us out!” she shouted.

  “There is no time for that!” Soo-Kai shouted back. Then she turned to Becky and ordered, “Get on the wagon!”

  She didn’t wait to see if Becky obeyed, she climbed on herself, leaving her own horse behind. She picked up the reins on the wagon, released the brake, and urged on the horses. Becky just managed to clamber on to the roof of the cage when the wagon lurched forward.

  As Becky lay on the roof, hanging on to the bars, Karen stared up at her in wonder.

  “Have you been hiding in the minibus all this time?” she asked.

  “Course!” Becky replied. “I wasn’t going to run about like a twit just to give them some
fun.”

  Jemma leaned forward. “Smart-arse!”

  Becky made a face at her.

  Soo-Kai drove the horses hard, and the wagon began to pick up speed. As the girls screamed and were knocked about, Vanessa moved to the front of the cage. She reached through the bars and pulled at Soo-Kai’s long platted hair.

  “Stop! You have to stop!” she begged.

  “To stop is to die!” Soo-Kai shouted back, pulling her hair free.

  “But you don’t understand! I have to find my sister!”

  “Was she in the other wagon?”

  “No!”

  “Then she is still free! Have hope! If she lives, my sisters will find her!”

  The wagon hurtled through the forest, winding its way through the trees. It bounced and rocked, causing the girls to scream as they were thrown about. Vanessa fell on her bottom. She wanted to talk to Soo-Kai, to get her to explain what she meant about her sisters finding Bernice. But it was no use. Soo-Kai shouted at the horses, urging them to go even faster.

  Becky hung on to the roof for dear life, bouncing up and down. She kept looking back, trying to see who was chasing them. There had to be someone chasing them, why else would Soo-Kai go so fast and risk hitting one of these trees?

  Yes! There they were! Some of the men chased them on horses. Four there were. Galloping like mad. They were going to catch them.

  Soo-Kai drove the wagon dangerously close to some of the trees, the wheels bouncing over the roots, and threatening to overturn it.

  The wagon had shot passed another tree when Nan-Po and Hai-Fam stepped out from behind it. They stood in full view of the approaching riders. Nan-Po held her bow at the ready, an arrow in place and her arm drawn back. Hai-Fam held several arrows in her hand. Nan-Po released her first arrow. Hai-Fam handed her another. Nan-Po drew back her arm and fired again. Again, Hai-Fam handed her another arrow. They did the same thing four times in as many seconds. All the pursuing riders fell. The last caught his foot on the stirrup and was dragged behind. Nan-Po and Hai- Fam stepped aside as the horse shot passed, the man bouncing over the grass as he was dragged behind it, an arrow stuck in his head.

  Becky saw it all from the roof of the wagon. She saw the men fall and the horses scatter. Then she saw the two women running among the trees. Nice trap, she thought. Sure enough, the wagon began to slow down. It still went fast, but the chase was over.

  Soo-Kai brought the wagon to a halt. As soon as she jumped down, a man appeared from behind a tree. He was leading a horse behind him. He let the reins drop and ran to her. They both hugged and kissed.

  “You did it!” Rolf shouted excitedly. He felt the blood, still wet on her waistcoat, and became alarmed. “Are you safe? You are not injured?”

  “No. All went as we planned, my husband. Now help me free these girls.”

  “Girls?” Rolf stared at the wagon.

  Becky stood up on the roof of the wagon, her hands on her hips. “Well, if we aren’t girls, we’re the strangest looking boys you’ve ever seen!” she said sarcastically.

  Soo-Kai drew her sword from her back and walked round to the cage door. She sliced at it, knocking the wooden door from the cage. “All of you, out now. You are safe with us.”

  The girls piled out, happy to be out of the cage at last. Becky climbed down from the cage roof.

  Rolf stared at them all. Their garments reminded him of the ones warn by the little boy, Daniel. They were all wearing the same outfit. A grey skirt, white blouse, and blue jumper. The skirts they wore were quite short. Some shorter than others. Their legs were bare or covered in hose, hose that was now torn in places. Around their necks the girls all wore some sort of long, thin ribbon. It was striped red and blue. They were all battered and bruised, their clothes all disarranged and ragged. Some of them were stained in blood. They were all young, but by their shape, they were obviously in the early years of womanhood.

  “They are almost women,” he muttered. Then his eyes fixed on Vanessa, and he stared.

  “What are you staring at?” she snapped at him.

  “I beg your pardon. But the darkness of your skin is quite astonishing. Where are you from?”

  “Manchester,” Vanessa replied in an angry voice. “Where are you from? Where is this place? Why are men chasing us? Why did you kill them? And where’s my sister? What the fuck’s going on?”

  Rolf stared in amazement.

  Soo-Kai replaced the sword in her back. “Come, we can talk later. First we must go from here. When we are safe, we will answer all your questions.” She began to urge them all forward.

  Jane pointed up at Soo-Kai’s neck. “Where did that go?” she suddenly demanded. “The sword? It just went. Where did it go?”

  “Later,” Soo-Kai told her. “First we must survive, then we can talk.”

  The girls started to move forward, but Vanessa stood her ground. And when she wouldn’t move, all the rest of the girls stood with her.

  “What about my sister?” she demanded. “I’m not going anywhere without my sister!”

  “Where we go is where we all agreed to meet,” Soo-Kai said. “If your sister is safe, then you will see her there.”

  Vanessa gave in. “Alright, but if she’s not there, I’m going to look for her. And no one’s stopping me. Okay?”

  Rolf smiled at her. “Don’t worry. If she isn’t there, we’ll help you look for her. We only want to help.”

  Vanessa stared at him and Soo-Kai for a moment. They looked genuine enough, and they had rescued them.

  “Who are you two?” she asked.

  Rolf smiled again. He spoke in as calm and as friendly a voice as he could, trying his best not to frighten them. “I am Rolf. This is Soo-Kai, my wife. As I said, we only wish to help you. Come with us. Some of you are injured. We have ointments and dressings. We have food and water. Come, you will be safe with us.”

  All the girls stared at Vanessa. Vanessa glanced at Becky. Becky nodded, and Vanessa said, “Alright then, let’s go.”