The Legacy of the Rhino~First Resistance by John Williamson

Author:John Williamson [Williamson, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781792805530
Published: 2019-01-06T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

The ride back to the village surprised Jimmy. It had seemed to take hours to get to the little bridge, where he had left his brother, yet with the weather behind him and urgency in his mind, he was soon back to what people were now calling the battle field.

As he approached, he first saw two old ladies, supposedly picking blackberries, though their actual purpose was to watch for either spies or the main raiding party. This was a lesson learnt from what could well have been a fatal mistake.

“You’d better get back to the village ladies, they’re only about three miles away,” Jimmy warned them.

“Not until we can see the whites of their eyes,” one of them replied defiantly.

“Not even then,” the other snarled, brandishing a club shaped log of wood that she had found in the hedge.

“Nobody can help you out here, you do know that don’t you,” Jimmy argued with a sugary tone, as if he were talking to small children.

“Young man, we are not stupid, nor are we hiding from those cocksuckers,” the oldest of the two snapped.

“Let them waste their arrows on us,” her friend added, pulling a rusty calving knife from her fruit basket, as if to demonstrate her combat readiness.

Jimmy huffed and drew his horse away, bewildered by their logic. He dismounted to walk his horse through the narrow passageway between Charlie’s many traps and spikes.

Petula stood at the archer’s pits, waiting anxiously for news of the spy.

“The Returners are only three miles away. Those old dears need to move,” Jimmy said with genuine worry.

“They’re not going anywhere. They’re our lookouts,” she explained with a mournful tone. “They won’t expect we plan to fight them here if they meet old ladies in the field.”

“They’ll be killed.”

“They know, they’re counting on it,” she said, as her eyes began to well up with tears. “Sandy was waiting for a hip replacement when the uprising came. She’s been in agony ever since, and Sally has had unbearable stomach pain for months. Probably cancer, but I just don’t have anything to help them, not even pain-killers.”

“You’re mad, you’re all bloody horribly mad,” Jimmy snapped, flustered by the idea of what the old women were planning.

“Report to Charlie shanks, he’ll want to know everything,” Petula said sternly and bluntly, pointing to Charlie who was already hurrying across, focusing his view on Jimmy as he walked.

“What’s the news, boy?”

“They’re coming, thirty-seven of them, three miles away,” Jimmy replied obediently.

“What about the spy?”

“We found his tracks heading off in the other direction. Billy’s following him, just to keep him away from the others.”

Charlie stared him in the eye, as if he was trying to read his mind. “Good,” he said, after a long pause. “How do you know there is only thirty-seven of them?”

“We, we rode out to them,” he stuttered while his eyes danced around in his head, desperately trying to avoid making eye contact.

“And your brother’s sure he can keep that spy at bay?”

“Yes, sir,” he said turning his head sharply before hurrying away.

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