Disclaimer: This is a work in progress as part of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). You are reading the work product of a first draft writing session and not a finished product. Comments are welcome, but bear the first draft nature of the work in mind. Thank you and enjoy!
Chapter 17
Cori and Shelby escorted their charges through the forest to the west. The Legionnaires knew that if they continued west they would reach the road on which the rest of their company were camped. The challenge they faced was keeping the two noblemen from bickering like two fishmongers about every aspect of the journey. Cori rolled her eyes as they argued about who should hold brambles out of the way for the other to pass without getting scratched. If her father had heard one of his vassal noblemen acting in such a manner, he’d have taken them out to the practice green and drum some sense into them with practice swords. She knew he had little patience with such behavior.
She was also concerned about keeping them safe from any enemies who might hear them arguing in the forest as they walked. Cori and Shelby took turns walking with the men while the other Legionnaire scouted to the rear of their track, watching for signs of pursuit. They reached the road in the late afternoon, as the sun was sinking into the west.
Count Deran stood on the road, looked north and then south. Then he turned to Cori. “Where is your army? You said you were leading us to the rest of your company.”
“We are going to meet up with our company, but first we had to strike west to this road,” Cori explained. “Now we can travel south until we reach their campground.”
Shelby, who was trailing their march at this time, exited the forest and said, “You should be glad, My Lord. The travel will be much easier than the trek through the forest.”
“I do not need two young girls to tell me the difference between a road and the forest,” Count Deran said, dismissing them with a wave of his hand. “Come, Lord Aleran, let us lead to this supposed camp to the south.” The two bedraggled noblemen turned and set off to the north along the road.
Shelby looked at Cori, exasperation showing on her face. Cori shrugged and then called out after the two men. “Is there a message you’d like me to impart to my commander to the south?” She asked. “We will make sure to report it to him once we reach them along the south road.”
The Veronans stopped their trudging march north and turned to each other. Cori could not hear what they were saying. They turned around and started back down towards the two legionnaires.
As they passed Cori and Shelby, Lord Aleran snapped, “Your impertinence will be reported to your superiors.”
The two Legionnaires watched them for a moment and then trotted after them. Cori passed them and took the lead while Shelby trailed a few yards to the rear. They expected to reach the rest of their company soon. The camp couldn’t be too far to the south by their reckoning.
It ended up being only slightly farther than they thought. Cori was challenged by the first Legion sentries about two hours after dark. She could see the campfires beckoning in the distance. The two sentries from Panther Company recognized Cori as she got closer and passed them through the lines to the camp’s interior. Cori and Shelby led the two Veronan noblemen to the center of camp where they located Captain McAffrey. He didn’t hide the relief in his eyes or voice when he recognized Cori and knew she had returned safely. She could understand. He would not have looked forward to telling Logan that his sister was missing.
“Ah, Captain,” Count Deran said, stepping forward and pushing Cori out of the way. “I am Lord Count Deran of Veron. Your rude little soldiers were rescued by Lord Aleran and myself while they were stumbling around in the forest. You should know that they were rude and ignorant, and one of them even impersonated the personage of a noblewoman for a time. I trust you will discipline them appropriately.”
“I will talk with you in a moment, sir, I must consult with my legionnaires first,” Captain McAffrey said turning to Cori. “Lady Corinne, would you like to give a report and recommendation regarding the disposition of these rude gentlemen?” He winked at the last.
Corin would remember the shocked and horrified looks on the two Veronan noblemen forever, as they realized they had given offense to a foreign noblewoman of high birth and connections. She met the earnest eyes of her Captain. “These gentlemen were under extreme stress, Captain. They were found wandering in the forest north of our engagement with the Imperial forces on the road. I believe it is essential that the information the hold concerning the Royal Family of Verona be sent to the commanders of the Allied forces as soon as possible.”
Captain McAffrey nodded in agreement and turned back to the disheveled Veronans. “Gentlemen, Lady Corinne has decided not to take offense from your ignorant behavior. She seems to think the information you hold outweighs the importance of decorum. What news do you have of the Royal Family?”
Both men offered deep bows to Cori before turning back to the Legion Captain. Count Deran addressed the question. “We were part of a breakout from the City of Veron by the Royal Family. They decided that the city must fall and that they face extreme danger if they remained. King Aran and Queen Christina organized a counterattack to the north of the city where the surrounding forces seem weakest. During the attack, the King, and the Queen along with their children, the prince, and princesses, all broke through with some of the attending nobles like ourselves and rode off to the north into the mountains. We were separated from them and were seeking help from anyone we could when we encountered Lady Corinne and her companion. The King and Queen are still out there, without any support and in need of assistance. You must send a rescue force to find them.”
“We will take that under advisement, My Lord,” Captain McAffrey said. “We are returning to the central camp of our forces and will take you to our commanders to determine the best course of action. Please accept our hospitality in the camp here. Sergeant Verell will see to your needs while I attend to my duties.”
The captain turned to Cori as the sergeant led the two noblemen away. “Cori, I know you don’t like to trade on your noble birth, but I thought it was appropriate to put them in their place.”
“That’s alright, sir,” Cori said. “Shelby played on my nobility in an attempt to get them to listen to us and take our advice while we brought them here. It didn’t work, but it was nice to see the shock on their faces when you backed up the claim.”
“You and Shelby should go and get yourselves cleaned up,” he said. “We will be heading out at first light. We return to the main camp to the south and reconnect with the rest of the Legion; We will get new orders once we get there and talk with your brother.”
Cori and Shelby nodded and turned to find the platoon and their own gear, left in camp two days before. The greetings were subdued when they returned, and the two of them learned of the losses to the platoon and to Stag Company. They knew that Gil was dead, but the platoon lost three others in the battle or in the chase through the forest afterward. There was still hope that one or two of them might straggle into camp, just as Cori and Shelby did.
Sergeant Neale came over when he returned from an errand in the camp and clapped Cori on the shoulder. “It’s good to see you, girl. I knew you’d find a way to get out of there safely.”
“Thank you, I learned to find my way in the forest from you, you know,” Cori replied.
“You and Shelby should get some rest,” he suggested. “The captain want us moving south to the main camp at first light.”
“That is the plan, Sergeant. I feel like I could sleep for days.”
———
Morning arrived too quickly, and Cori still felt drained after the escape through the forest the day before. She and Shelby packed up their gear and joined the rest of the platoon as they fell in with the company march south on the road. It would take them several days to reach the main encampment to the south. Cori could see Count Deran and Lord Aleran walking with Captain McAffrey. They appeared to be still arguing some point between themselves, as they had been doing since Cori and Shelby found them two days before. She figured it was their way of dealing with the stress and horror of what they had seen in their escape from the capital city before it fell. The Legion group had also gathered their share of camp followers from among the farmers they rescued on the road. Some of them had decided to stay with the rescuers and offer their help around the camp.
A few had asked about joining the Legion, and Captain McAffrey had discovered that most had the necessary skills to be allowed to join. One such former refugee was a boy of perhaps fifteen named Enrique Kearton. He had been raised on a farm and had been out hunting when the raiders attacked his farmstead, killing his entire family. He was quiet and seemed resolute in his desire to inflict revenge on the Empire and the troops who had killed his family. Cori couldn’t say she blamed him for wanting revenge.
The trip south was uneventful, but they passed more refugees along the way. Many asked the passing Legionnaires for news of the war, but there was little news they could offer. A few said they were not retreating but meeting up to receive new orders, and that seemed to give the fleeing farmers and townsfolk some confidence and heart. After two days of travel, as predicted, the two Legion companies encountered the outer pickets of the encamped army. The small squads of sentries passed them through to the center of the encampment, and they soon trudged into their assembly area with the main army. Wolf and Hawk companies were already there. They looked as bedraggled as Stag and Panther companies and Cori learned in passing that they had only reached camp earlier that same day.
Sergeant Neale had the platoon set up their tents and make camp. Once that was done to his satisfaction, he detailed a squad to collect more arrows from their stores. They needed to resupply, and Cori didn’t want to run out of arrows, realizing that the missile attack from a distance was one of their strengths as a unit since they weren’t as heavily armored as many of the Imperials they were likely to meet. The resupply squad returned with bundles of arrows, and each of them filled their empty quivers until they each had at least ninety arrows each. Cori settled by her tent and began to work on her tomahawk blade. There was a nick in the blade from the battle, and she needed to file down the notch in the surface before she could hone the steel back to the desired sharpness. Declan saw what she was doing, and the former blacksmith’s apprentice offered some suggestions to her technique. He was patient and a good teacher.
“Are you going to go back to being a blacksmith when the war is over, Declan?” She asked.
“I think so,” he replied. “I’m only an apprentice, but old Harrison back in Gladestown has two sons who are apprenticing with him as well. He will likely hand over the business to one of them before he offers the position to me.”
“There are other frontier towns who will need your services I’m sure,” Cori countered.
“That’s true. We’ll see. I like traveling with the army. Perhaps I’ll find an armorer to apprentice with and work for your father or another lord someday to help maintain his weapons and equip his forces.”
“I think that you can do whatever you set your mind to,” she said in support. “No one thought I could go to war and become a Legionnaire, yet here I am.”
“Yes, you are quite capable as a member of the squad and platoon,” he said. “We are lucky to have you, and Sergeant Neale, too. He wouldn’t be here to whip us into shape if you hadn’t been here first.”
Cori thought about that last statement. She had initially resented Vernon Neale’s presence since she thought it meant he was here as her bodyguard. But he had taken a different approach to ensuring her safety, by essentially training the entire platoon to be bodyguards. The stronger the platoon was, the safer she would be.
Declan helped her finish honing her blade and removing the nick. She found that she liked his company, and his strong hands were gentle as he guided hers to do the necessary work. When she was done, she offered a thank you and he nodded and left. She watched him go and wondered at her feelings.
“He likes you, you know,” Lissa said from nearby where she was repairing a rip in her cloak. “If you gave him a sign, he’d be yours for sure.” Cori looked up to see tears welling in Shelby’s eyes. She was still in shock over Gil’s death in the roadside ambush. She shot Lissa a look and nodded towards Shelby. The former bandit looked at their comrade and shrugged, then got up and walked away.
“Don’t listen to her, Shelby,” Cori said. “I’m not looking for a guy right now.”
“You shouldn’t change what you’re doing just because of what happened to Gil,” Shelby choked out through her quiet sobbing.
“We have all been through a lot, Shelby,” Cori said. “You and I have been together since the beginning of this. I’m not going to abandon you now just because some boy flexes his muscles in front of me.”
Shelby laughed a little at that last remark and Cori was happy to hear it. Since the battle on that wooded roadside, Shelby had lost some of her light, no-care-in-the-world attitude that made her so endearing. Cori had been affected, too. She was having trouble sleeping at night. When she closed her eyes, she saw the faces of the Imperials she killed. Some of them looked no older than she was. Had they known what they were doing when they marched off to war in a foreign land? She had killed them without thinking about it, and now that she did, it bothered her. She thought about the dead and wounded Legionnaires, who had been left behind when they had to retreat. There would be others like them in future battles, she knew. Maybe she’d be one of them. That thought sent a chill through Cori as if someone just walked across the site of her grave. That was what the old legend said.
Kieran and Kat walked into the firelight of their campfire and laughed out loud together. Shelby and Cori both looked up startled. “What was that all about?” Cori asked.
“Lissa just came by and said to stay away from you two,” Kat said. She was still cradling her broken arm in a sling. “She said it was the capital of ‘Mopetown’ or something like that. She said it would just bring us down and depress us, too. We decided to accept the challenge and come over anyway.”
“Yeah,” Kieran said. “You two looked like the saddest two people we’ve ever seen.” He pulled out a small wooden flute from his belt pouch and started blowing a tune on it. It was a jaunty one and Cori caught herself smiling as she listened. Shelby even grinned a bit.
“My ma told me once that misery might like company, but good company could scare misery away.” Kat settled herself on the ground between Cori and Shelby. She started humming a light harmony to the whistling tune of the flute, her alto voice blending with the soprano of the instrument. By the time they were finished the tune, Cori had discovered she was tapping her foot along with the syncopated rhythm of the song. She didn’t know the name of it, but it had lightened her mood.
“What is the name of that song, Kieran?” Cori asked.
“‘The Merry Tavern Wench,’” he replied with a grin.
Shelby let out a roaring laugh at the title and soon they were all laughing along with her. The tension was broken and, as was often the case with sadness, sudden, surprising laughter lightened the mood in a way nothing else could. The former tavern wench went from sad to merry with the utterance of a song title. Their mirth shifted the mood and soon they were reminiscing about the happier times with lost friends, including stories of Gil during their training that brought smiles to their faces. Cori thought he would have preferred it that way.
She slept better that evening. The dreams she remembered were of better times and she woke the next morning with the memory of Gil’s loud bellowing laughter in her ears. She was still sad when she thought of him, but that sadness was tinted with the color of happy memories from the short time they had known each other. She hoped it would stay that way.
—-
Disclaimer: This is a work in progress as part of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). You are reading the work product of a first draft writing session and not a finished product. Comments are welcome, but bear the first draft nature of the work in mind. Thank you and enjoy!