Hope and Darkness

Chapter 5

An archer rose out of the vegetation. The archer carefully nocked an arrow onto her string and pulled it back. She sighted on the hidden man’s centre mass and fired. The unseen observer collapsed against the tree he was hiding with. “Good job, Lucy,” Toby whispered. She nodded back, and Toby rose up his hand, bringing it to a clenched fist. A dozen camouflaged volunteers from the village guard also rose up. Before, Toby had found the hideout and discovered another man dressed in black robes like Amaro’s, the wolves and archers, and he had also discovered a whole party of forest bandits. In fact, he recognised one of them as one of the forest bandits who had wiped out his party of mountain bandits. When he had told Jeremy, Jeremy had reluctantly agreed to send with him a dozen men and his daughter. On a signal from one of the section leaders a group of 3 moved around the man to search him, and then they slid back to the tight circle Toby had made. One of the section commanders spoke quietly. “Remember, we’re here to capture the man in black robes that Toby saw. Wiping out the wolves and archers are only to be done if possible, but we will try to kill the bandits, using arrows. Let’s go.”

The small group slunk toward the camp. Lucy stalked ahead by herself, regularly checking her back. She suddenly raised her hand, and the rest of the group slunk into cover. A bandit was whistling, walking along the rough track. “Kev!” he yelled out. “Dinner, mate!” When there was no reply, he grew impatient. “Kevin!” He got no further as suddenly one of the archers shot him in the chest. Lucy crawled from behind and stabbed him in the chest. Before he had even hit the ground the group was already off again, moving with more urgency. Toby pulled up the group. “They’ll be expecting the 2 bandits to return,” he said. “Kill the guards outside, and then break in. Kill as many of the wolves as you can first, then take out the archers. Once done, take out the bandits. Remember, we don’t have to kill all of them. We can get reinforcements and come back, but we have to take the black robes.” The 2 section leaders nodded at his assessment. The group quickly made up for its lost time, and as soon as they approached the camp they were ordered to stop. Soon Lucy and 2 of the men returned. “What happened?” Toby asked. Lucy shrugged. “Oh, they got a little surprised, tried to run away. Nothing a couple of arrows couldn’t fix.” One of the other men nodded confirmation. They kept on moving forward. When they reached the door an axemen raised his axe, about to bring it down to try to break it down. Anton, who was with the group, held up his hand and drew his sword, 2 spearmen went directly behind him, while an archer drew back his nocked arrow, ready to fire into the building. Anton slid his sword into the hinges, and he broke down the door. One of the bandits poked his head out. “Kevin? Is that you?” The archer fired directly into his chest, and the 2 spearmen rushed inside, killing the other bandits in sight. The rest of the men stacked up inside the cave, ready at the door to break it down, and as soon as the axemen cut it down, the others rushed inside. The first thing Toby realised was that instead of bandits in this room there were wolves, and most of them sleeping. Lucy shot at one of the wolves awake, and as soon as it died, the spearmen went around systematically dispatching the sleeping wolves. Suddenly one of the spearmen at the door was knocked unconscious by a half armoured bandit with a club. A spearmen thrust at his face, and the bandit sidestepped the long weapon. Anton stepped forward and swung his sword in an overhand strike. The bandit’s body had barely hit the ground before another bandit burst inside. Toby thrust his sword and the man twisted to avoid the weapon, but he stepped straight into the path of a spear. Toby yelled out, “Let’s get out of here!” The axeman slung his axe around his back and picked up his unconscious comrade. As soon as they stepped into the main chambers which lead to the exit, they found 3 dozen bandits around them. A black robed man was waiting with the bandits. “Surrender,” he declared, “And I will give you a quick death.” The desperate group were silent. Toby gestured to Lucy. “As soon as we start to fight,” he whispered, “Take out black robes. If we can’t win, at least we can kill our target.” One of the forest bandits stepped forward. “Let’s kill them now!” The man in the black robes shook his head. He turned back toward them. “Surrender now!” Anton looked around the cave, then spotted something and grinned. “Not likely, your highness,” he said sarcastically. This time, black robes nodded to the bandits. Growling with pleasure, they slowly advanced toward the group. Toby placed Lucy at the back of the group. She was carefully nocking an arrow, and she slowly aimed at the man’s chest. Before she could release, a volley of arrows scythed through the bandit’s ranks. Anton led a few men around, capturing the men who looked relatively uninjured and putting the men who were dying out of their misery. Jeremy walked down from his spot up high inside the cave. “Toby! Anton! Lucy!” he grinned. Toby smiled in return. “Thanks for the save, Jeremy.” Lucy frowned. “Did anyone see where the guy in black went?” The rest shook their heads. Jeremy turned to one of the section leaders. “Look through the caves until you find him. Take a large amount of men in case you find anyone still ready for a fight.” The man nodded and ran away, calling out the names of 20 men. Jeremy dusted off his chainmail armour. He smiled. “I say the rest of us head back to the village for a late dinner.” Toby frowned. “Dinner?” The others were equally confused. Jeremy nodded. “Yes, dinner.”