by Ken Johns
The soldier ran out of gas as he converged with their path. He slid in behind them and followed them down the hill.
Mila and Jess raced by an oak tree on their left.
John stood in its shadow, giving them a thumbs-up with one hand and holding a sword in the other. He must have relieved the third guard of it. When the guard chasing them ran past John’s position, he stepped out and clotheslined him.
Mila and Jess tried to decelerate gradually without falling.
Sandra came out of hiding and held out her arms to Jess. “I’ve got you.”
Jess skidded into Sandra’s embrace, and they both caught Mila. She and Jess bent over with their hands on their knees to catch their breath.
Sandra stood between them with a hand on each of their backs. “Are you all right?”
Mila straightened up and, without trying to interrupt her heavy breathing, just nodded. Jess stood and walked back toward John.
“Where’s the third one?” John limped away from the guard lying on the dirt. Before either of them could answer, the undergrowth crunched behind him and he spun around. The last guard leaped over his fallen comrade and dove at John, leading with his sword.
Chapter Twelve
April 27, 1341
Sandra stopped breathing and stared. There was nothing John could do. Just before his face was split open, he lifted his own sword. He deflected the incoming blade, but the guard crashed into him. John grabbed a fistful of chain mail, bent his knees, and let the man’s momentum push him down. He landed hard on his back and kicked out with both legs into the man’s hips, lifting him into the air.
The man flew, inverted, down the hill.
Jess had to dive out of the way.
The back of the soldier’s head caught on a tree root and snapped forward with a sickening crunch. He landed awkwardly, and didn’t get up.
They all converged on the unmoving form. The man lay on his back, but his head was bent so that his ear touched his shoulder. His eyes found each of their faces, but nothing else moved. There was no rise and fall to his chest.
“Shit. His neck is busted.” John said. “I’m sorry.”
The man’s eyes drifted away from them and settled on the sky. He was gone.
John shook his head. “I shouldn’t have thrown him. I should have held on and controlled his descent. I know better than that.” He sat down hard. He ran his hands through his hair slowly, undid his tourniquet, and started to tighten it again.
“Here, let me do that.” Sandra knelt beside him.
“Ladies, please strip these two men of all armor and weapons while we’re waiting,” said John to the girls.
“Eww,” said Mila, but she walked up the slope toward the other soldier.
“Mila, I would feel more comfortable if you would take the corpse. If that guy wakes up, I’m sure Jess can put him out again.”
“Forget it. I’m not touching the dead guy.” Mila bent over and started stripping the unconscious man.
Jess bent over the corpse.
“What have you done?” Sandra hissed at John while she retied his tourniquet. She had stuff she needed to say, and he was going to hear it. “You said non-lethal. The waiver said, if we kill someone in the past, we can’t go home. You knew that. You yelled at Mila.”
“Sandra—” said John.
She ignored him. “What were you thinking? We’re going to be stuck here forever.” Sandra jerked the ends of the bandage.
“Sandra.” John grabbed her hands and gently but firmly pulled them off the bandage.
“What?” She let herself look up into his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
She took a breath and glanced at the corpse. She knew she should feel something for this man, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the damned waiver. “What’s going to happen to us?”
John took too long to answer. “I don’t know, but we’re alive, right?”
She nodded.
“I’m going to keep us that way.” He touched her cheek. “I promise.”
“Are you going to get us home?”
“I’m trying,” said John.
That didn’t exactly fill Sandra with confidence, but she knew it was about all she was going to get at the moment.
John stood up and tested his leg. He walked over to the pile of armor and weapons that Jess had taken off the corpse. He pulled on the man’s chain mail shirt and the padding that went under it. “Sandra, you should put on the other set.”
“What?” Sandra screwed up her face. Why the hell would she need to put on medieval armor?
“Just do it,” snapped John. Then he said, “I’m sorry. We talked about this. Following orders? Please. Trust me.”
Sandra glared at him. John had never given her orders before, and she couldn’t say that she liked it very much. That definitely needed to come to an end as soon as possible. She walked over to where Mila had just finished undressing the other soldier, picked up the under padding, and sniffed it. “It stinks.”
“I know. But we need to blend in.” said John. “Okay?”
Sandra huffed, then removed her dress and threw it at John.
He caught it and tucked it into his newly acquired sword belt. Everything he wore was a little tight. He picked up the sword he’d been fighting with and handed it to Jess. That made Sandra wonder why he wasn’t dressing Jess in the armor. She knew it made more sense to prepare Jess for fighting, but she kept it to herself. She forced herself to trust John. As hard as that was, she had to give him the benefit of the doubt. He was a trained soldier—he had to have a plan.
“Was there any kind of a view from the hilltop?” John asked the girls.
“I didn’t really notice.” Mila shrugged.
Henri and Jean-Pierre stood over Hubert as he opened his eyes.
“How do you feeling?” asked Jean-Pierre in his best English.
Hubert lay there for a moment, touching his nose. His hand came away bloody. “Like I have just been through a battle.”
“C’est bon, no?” said Jean-Pierre. “You do alive.” He offered him a hand up.
“But why?” Henri scanned the woods around them. “They had your sword. Why would they leave you alive?”
“I know not, my lord, but I am thankful for it.”
“Can you keep up?”
“Of course, my lord.”
Henri mounted and nosed his horse up the hill. Jean-Pierre followed, helping Hubert. A short distance up the hill, Henri stopped his horse near Robert’s body. His dead eyes stared at the gray sky.
“You were right, Henri,” Jean-Pierre said in French as he bent over Robert’s body. “The heretics are more dangerous than I thought.”
Henri dismounted. Being right was no consolation when it came at the cost of the life of one of his men. If only Reginald had given him the ten men he had requested, maybe Robert would still be alive. But Reginald had insisted he needed the men to continue preparing for the tournament.
Henri drew his sword and turned it tip down in front of him so the hilt formed a cross. He lowered himself on one knee and bowed his head. “Lord, we pray you will accept Robert unto your glorious realm. Please forgive his sins. Amen.”
“Amen.” Jean-Pierre and Hubert crossed themselves.
Henri paused for a moment of silent prayer, but it was time to move on. The living needed him. He stood and sheathed his sword. “Put Robert on the horse.”
Jean-Pierre and Hubert wrestled the body onto the animal’s back. They tied the hands and feet together under its belly.
A groan came from up the hill. Jean-Pierre spun toward the sound and drew his sword. Stephen sat up from the undergrowth.
“Stephen, mon Dieu!” Jean-Pierre slapped his sword back in its scabbard. “I could have kill you,” he added in English.
“You would have been doing me a favor.” Stephen touched the side of his head. He stood and stumbled toward them.
“How did this happen?” Henri pointed at Robert.
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sp; Stephen saw the body and stopped. “Is he dead?”
Henri nodded. “Tell me what happened.”
Stephen stared up through the forest and told the story of how they had tracked the two women up the hill. Then when they tried to take them, the women had outrun them and led them back into a trap set by the other two strangers. Stephen’s gaze returned to Robert’s body. “Damn heretics,” said Stephen.
Henri would have to warn his men about the speed of their quarry. It was strange indeed when a woman could outrun a man. He checked the sky. It had to be getting close to none. They could no longer continue the search and still find their way out of the forest by nightfall.
“Our day is done. We will spend the night at Annie’s and tomorrow take Robert back to the castle.” To Jean-Pierre he said, “I’m sorry, my friend, but you must stay and track these witches. Get word to me when you find out where they are headed.”
“Oui, Capitaine.” Jean-Pierre ran up the slope.
“We go.” Henri led the horse away.
Chapter Thirteen
April 27, 1341
Mila, Jess, and Sandra stood on the hilltop watching John as he walked from tree to tree. The forest thinned out at the summit, but there was no clear view of the countryside. John said they needed to know the lay of the land, the proximity of settlements, and where they might hide or find help.
He limped back to them. “Jess, can you climb one of these trees and try to get a look around?”
“I’ll do it.” Mila said. She walked over and started climbing the nearest tree. Its trunk was the size of a minivan, but she had no trouble getting started.
“Okay.” John watched her for a moment. “You two keep an eye out. Find a tree or something to hide behind that will give you a clear view down the hill. I’ll try to catch Mila if she slips.”
“Try? Where’s your commitment, Sergeant? If she slips, you will catch her.” Sandra stood, fists on hips, glaring. “Is that clear?”
Mila smiled as she climbed.
“Yup. That’s what I meant,” said John sheepishly.
“Good.” Sandra wandered over to an elm tree and stood behind it, looking down the slope.
And then Mila was at the top. The sky was endless, and the green of England reached to the horizon in every direction. To the north there seemed to be a gray or a light blue that drew a line between the green and the sky. That had to be the sea. To the south a small hill grew out of the green, and on one side of it was a cream-colored square. It was too far away to make out any more detail, but it was too square to be anything but a building.
Mila climbed down to the lowest branch and dropped to the ground. “Trees. Everywhere. It’s like being lost in the middle of a national park.”
“I get it.” John grimaced and added, “Anything of interest?”
She pointed behind John. “That way is the ocean.” She motioned behind her. “This way there’s a big building on a hill. I’m guessing a castle, but I can’t make out any detail at this distance.”
“Okay, let’s move,” John said to Sandra and Jess. He took a few strides then stopped. To Mila he said, “You’re on point. Take us toward your castle. Jess, you’re with Mila. Stay low, stay quiet, and stay alert.”
Wow. Mila tried not to smile. Had John just given her a responsibility? She started off in the direction of the castle and let the smile spread across her face once John was behind her.
“Eyes peeled, ladies,” he said.
Sandra walked beside John. “Do you really think she knows what ‘point’ is?”
Mila rolled her eyes as she eavesdropped.
“Pretty sure,” said John, then louder he said, “Mila?”
“What?” she growled.
“Your mother wants to know if you know what ‘point’ is.”
“Tell her she’s an idiot.” Mila smirked.
John said, “You got it.”
Sandra said, “How’s the leg, asshole?”
“Hurts like a son of a bitch. And you?”
“All right, I guess.”
“Really?”
There was a long silence, and Mila thought they would finally shut up. Even she knew they had to be quiet in the woods.
But then John said, “Spit it out.”
“It’s nothing.”
“Dammit. Just say it.”
“You’ve shut me out.”
That was all Sandra said. Again, Mila thought they were done.
But then Sandra started up again, and it was like an open floodgate. “What’s your plan? What are you thinking? You haven’t told me why we’re going toward this damn castle instead of away from it. The way I figure it, the closer we get, the more likely we’ll run into more guards.”
Mila and Jess stopped and glared at Sandra.
John laced his fingers into her hand.
“What?” Her voice was sharp. She pulled her hand away and crossed her arms under her chest.
“We have a boatload of problems,” John said. “Not least of which are food, water, and shelter. But the highest priority is finding out what happened to the guide. Without him to send us home, we’re fucked. We need to find people we can talk to who aren’t trying to kill us. Then maybe we’ll meet somebody who can help us find the guide.”
“And you think there’ll be people like that at the castle?” she asked hopefully.
“Where there’s a castle, there’s usually a village or a town. If the castle Mila saw is the same one that’s on the SSTTC website, there’s a village. I remember the drawings.”
“Thanks for including me.” Sandra unclenched her body and reached for John’s hand.
“You’ve got to understand that in the heat of battle—”
“I get it. You’re in charge, baby.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Enjoy it while it lasts.”
“Are you going to be quiet now?” asked Jess.
Sandra scowled but nodded.
“Good,” said Mila.
About twenty minutes later, Mila stopped behind a giant beech tree and held up her hand in a fist.
Jess stopped next to her. “Nice one,” she whispered. “What movie is it from?”
Mila smiled. “Duh. All of them.”
John and Sandra came up behind them. John whispered, “Why are we stopped?”
Mila pointed ahead where the forest thinned out. “There’s a road over there, and I saw movement.”
As she pointed, a knight led his horse along a flat stone road about fifty meters ahead of them. A naked man hung over the saddle and two men walked behind, one naked, one not. It could only be the group that had been after them.
John sat down slowly and cradled his leg while he motioned for the others to join him on the ground. “We need to let them get well ahead of us. Then we’ll follow.”
“Where are the crossbowman and the other two knights?” Jess sat next to him, keeping her eyes on the road.
“The crossbowman’s probably tracking us,” John said. “It’s likely he’s watching us already.”
Mila glanced behind them. Jess and Sandra did the same.
“Easy now.” John smiled. “Don’t let on you know he’s out there.”
They all stopped looking that way and tried to look nonchalant about it. Sandra suddenly had to fix her hair, Jess had an urgent need to stretch her back, and Mila giggled quietly when she squatted as though she was taking a piss.
“Eee-ew,” hissed Jess. “Really?”
“What?” Mila smiled angelically.
John almost laughed. “Nice one, but I don’t think you’ll see him unless he wants you to. He probably has orders not to shoot, so don’t get too excited.”
“How can you be sure?” Sandra’s eyes drifted behind them as she continued to scan the forest.
“I can’t. But it’s what I would do. If more than half my unit was injured or killed, I’d try to keep the enemy in sight while I waited for reinforcements.”
“Do we try and lose him?” Jess asked.
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p; Mila knew that wouldn’t happen. Not while John couldn’t run.
“After dark there could be another option,” said John.
The knight and his men disappeared over a crest in the road. John pushed himself up. “Okay, ladies, time to move. Besides the crossbowman, we still have two other knights unaccounted for. They could be ahead, they could be behind, but they’re probably on the road.”
“Why?” Sandra always had questions. Mila rolled her eyes. When was she going to get with the program?
“They’re too loud,” John said with more patience than Mila could have managed. “A fully armored horse carrying a knight is not meant for stealth. It’s the fourteenth-century equivalent of a tank.”
“It’s just a question.” Sandra glared at Mila. “I don’t know why you’re getting so angry.”
“Just stop asking so many questions,” said Mila. “Okay?”
John stepped between them, eclipsing Mila’s view of Sandra. To Jess and Mila he said, “I want you two to stay in the trees at the side of the road. Move from tree to tree. Stay low. Keep your eyes open. Take turns. One of you moves ahead to a tree and stops, looks all around, and signals for the other to follow if it’s clear. Then you switch and the other one leads. Got it?”
They nodded and headed out.
Mila and Jess took turns following the knight and his injured men. It wasn’t difficult to keep them in sight because the road rarely turned. It was mostly straight and paved with stones, so Mila guessed it was probably one of the roads built by the Romans.
As the light faded, it became harder to see the knight, so Mila and Jess risked getting a bit closer. And then the road took one of its rare bends and they lost sight of the knight. Mila took off at a run to get to the bend and reestablish a visual with their target. She came around the corner and stopped.
When the rest of her family caught up to her, John said, “Why are we stopped?”
“They’ve gone over there.” Mila pointed to a pair of wooden buildings barely visible in the fading light. “The knight went inside the big hut. The other two took the horse around back.”
