Chapter Forty Two
My men waited inside the tree line, just deep enough that they could not be seen. The villagers stood facing them in a huddled mass, their eyes wide with fear and uncertainty. In truth my men were a fearsome sight, tall and strong, and heavily armed with bows and spears. Though my men were smiling and they talked to the villagers gently in their own language, the villagers were not reassured.
Arriving at the group I hurriedly addressed them, “Do not be frightened. You are safe with us, but we need to move quickly. They may follow, and I don’t want to fight them any more than I have to.”
I looked to my men, and with a grim smile and a nod I complimented them, “You did your jobs very well and I’m proud of you. I’m sorry that you had to kill, but hopefully we’re done with that.”
Finding Shadan in the group I said, “Take these people back to our camp. I’ll set up the rear guard and watch the village. We will meet back there later today. Now go!”
Shadan led off the rescued villagers with an escort of seven of my men. I stayed behind with three men to watch the village and insure we were not followed. I did not want any trouble on our return to the river, so we needed to make sure the remainder of this tribe stayed in their village.
We carefully made our way back though the trees to a spot where we could watch what was happening. The remaining men were gathered around the dead bodies of the two that had charged me. They had pulled the arrows out of the bodies, and there was a loud discussion going on. They shouted, gesturing and pointing the arrows at each other as they argued over what they should do.
Several of the more aggressive men wanted to follow us into the forest in defiance of my orders, while the majority seemed inclined to return to the village and let us go. As their argument continued the remaining women and children joined the group.
The children scattered about the outskirts of the men, with a few listening while most idly played. Most of the women remained silent, subdued and with their heads bowed, but a few of them were quite vocal and very strident in their protests.
From our vantage point we could clearly hear the discussion, and there was no doubt that these women were very angry. They began to shout insults at the men whose women and children had fled the village. They called these men cowards for letting their families leave.
I was amazed that they could get away with this, but I recognized these women as the ones that ordered around the others and told them what work to do. They must have been the tribal leaders of the women and children, and they were undoubtedly upset because many of the tribe members that had served them were now gone, and they realized that their workload would be much heavier.
When the women joined the discussion it became much more animated, and the argument was getting louder and angrier by the moment. I did not like where this situation was heading, and turning to my men I gave them brief instructions, “Spread out and follow my lead. If we have to fire, fire in front of them to start. Shoot to kill only if I do.”
They quickly ran a little way down the tree line, and just in time. Spurred on by the women, the crowd opened up and at least fifteen men emerged, determined looks upon their faces and spears ready in hand.
These men cleared the playing children out of their way as they walked quickly towards where I had disappeared into the forest, and after they had gone five steps past the children we fired. We each dropped two arrows just in front of the approaching men, hoping this would stop them. They paused and looked back over their shoulders, but the crowd had worked themselves into a frenzy and they shouted at the men, telling them to continue on.
I could hear people calling out that we were cowards and we would not hurt them. I was not surprised by their stupidity. I had realized that in addition to being lazy and prone to evil, they were a tribe which made thoughtless, bad decisions. As I feared, after a brief pause the men turned back to the forest and began to come at us again, now at a run.
I showed two fingers to my men, and then in quick succession I fired two arrows, this time showing no mercy. My men did the same, and in an instant, with a hum and a blur of motion four men fell, immediately followed by four more men. All were dead, arrows buried deep in the center of every chest.
We had remained silent and hidden in the trees, and it was as if the arrows came out of the forest on their own, fired by no one. The remainder of the attackers stopped so quickly it appeared that they were jerked backwards by an invisible hand. The survivors looked down in open-mouthed astonishment at the men that had fallen to their left and to their right. They actually seemed shocked by what had happened, as if they truly believed we could not harm them.
The crowd behind the attackers, the crowd that had been screaming for our blood just a moment before, was now silent. Not a breath came out of them; it was as if the world paused.
Then suddenly, as if waking from a nightmare, with a scream of fury one man rushed at the forest. I did not fire, but only watched. With a fierce cry he threw his spear harmlessly into the woods.
“You cowards, come out and fight us like men! You hide in the forest and kill us from behind trees. I challenge you to fight me alone!”
In a fury he shouted on and on, but we did not respond. Finally, spent and defeated, he turned and walked back to the tribe that waited silent and still. While he raged at us they had stood quietly, but now they collected the bodies of their dead and brought them away from the forest to where the other dead men lay. The women began to cry and wail over their bodies, wringing their hands and pulling at their hair, overcome with grief and sorrow.
After a long while the people trudged back to their village, carrying the bodies of those we had killed. As they slowly walked, encumbered by the weight of all they had lost that day, many cast looks over their shoulders at the dark, still forest.
We stayed there for the rest of the day watching the village, but no action was directed towards us. The remainder of the tribe spent their time gathering wood and building a huge pyre on the far side of the village.
I believed that the entire tribe was now in shock. They had lost half their people that day, either through death or desertion. As the reality of this sunk in, any desire to follow us disappeared.
While there might be one or two men motivated by an overwhelming desire for revenge who followed us, I no longer had any concern about a pitched battle. The tribe did not have enough men left to waste them in what they now knew would be certain death.
Late that afternoon they burned the bodies of the fallen. The wails of the women and children were audible to us, even though we watched from far away. As the flames roared and their mourning cries rose up to the sky, we stood. It was time for us to leave this place.
In The Beginning Page 42
