2,289Chapter 45: Act 1: Chapter 35
Thirtieth day, Ninth Moon, 250 AC
By the time I returned to the meeting spot, I saw that Zane and Koryn were already there – and they were not alone. With them, was eight other men who all greeted me as I joined them.
I asked Koryn how it went, and he replied, "Good. We rounded up these eight here and sent another two men to accompany everyone's families to the cliff. We came across two guards to the north of the village, but we ambushed them. We also collected armor and weapons from the four dead patrolmen, and we did a quick raid on the blacksmith's place. No armor from there, but we got a bunch of spears and arrows."
"How many spears?" I asked.
"About twenty. Between all of us, we have six bows, nine wood axes, three swords, and a bunch of different kinds of armor."
That was a good haul.
"I got the layout of the Ironborn in the village, without issue. They are mostly in the village center, eating and drinking. There is just two at the barn, but they are out of sight from the main group. I think our plan from before will work. These eight can head down to the boats to attack there-"
"What?!" interrupted one of the villagers, Theon. "You want us t' split up?"
"Yes, we need to get both groups at the same time!" I replied.
"No, we don't! We just need t' scare 'em off! And get our people out!
"If we don't fight them off, they will take everything, and just keep coming back!" I retorted.
"Everyone knows tha' the Ironborn always come back! Ain't nothing we can do about that!"
"I don't think these are normal raiders. They came looking for us at the farms! They normally just hit a village and leave. They don't usually come in the night and attack, and then take prisoners!"
The other men grumbled their agreement to that last point. It was a weird thing for the Ironborn to do.
"Okay, so you eight men will head down to the shore. Find a good spot and wait until you hear us start to attack. If you can, kill any lone travelers that go from the village to the shore. You'll have three bows with you, so use those as much as possible. The rest of you guard the archers and stay together. Use the spears to keep them off you, while the archers kill them, okay? Once you finish up, head on back to the village and see if you can help."
The group all nodded in understanding, and with a final sour look from Theon, the group headed down to the shore.
After they had moved off, Zane asked, "So, we free the villagers in the barn first?"
"Yes," I replied. "We are going to have to get in close to the guards at the barn though. They have what looked like pretty good armor. I don't think we should risk our arrows not killing them quickly. If we can open up the barn, send the women and children away and arm the men before the Ironborn are aware, we will be in a good position I think."
We stalked back into the village, with Mimi leading the way, and I pointed out the two guards to Koryn and Zane. Their positions were unchanged, so I suggested that Zane and I sneak up on them to cut their throats, while Koryn climbed to the top of the nearby house to get a better watch over our surroundings.
Zane and I looped around the street, so that we could come up behind them, and pulled out our daggers as we did so. Zane's dagger was a typical dagger, in which it was a miniature sword. Mine, on the other hand, was a bit special. I had mine made to be a replica of a bowie knife, which, while not being as effective against a knight or someone fully armored, it was still good enough to do this job.
As we came to the corner of the last house on the street, I saw that the two guards were standing across the street from the barn, looking at it. Their backs were to the walls but weren't leaned up against it.
Zane gestured for me to take the lead, and we began to move quietly in behind the two of them. Without anything littering the road, and no recent rainfalls, our movements were silent, but we still moved as little as possible to make sure our armor didn't make any noise.
Then in a sudden explosion of movement, Zane and I moved our arms forward, tilting back the guards' heads and opening their throats with our knives. With our hands clamped on their mouths, their deaths were silent and drew no attention.
Lowering their bodies to the ground, Zane ran back to Koryn to grab our weapon stash while I went to free those in the barn.
I knocked on the door quietly and said, "Hello in there? It's Michael."
"Michael?!" A hoarse voice called out. I heard movement inside and the voice spoke again, this time closer to the door. "Is it really you?"
"Aye," I replied. "It is. I'm going to get you out. But you must be quiet, okay?"
Once I heard the voices inside quiet down, I moved off the beam that held the doors shut and opened the doors.
The sunlight displayed about eighty people inside the barn, in a rough state.
I stepped inside and addressed them. "Listen up. I've got Zane and Koryn with me and we've got a plan to get these Ironborn out of here. We've got weapons for everyone who wants to fight. But first, all the women and children are going to get out of the village and head to the sunset cliff, okay?"
The group began to separate as the men, and some of the older boys, came forward to help fight. Koryn and Zane distributed weapons and the armor from the two dead guards.
The women and children were led out of the village by two men armed with axes, while the men armed themselves.
Once they had finished, I looked over the group and saw thirty men in front of me, but not all of them were armed.
Looking at Zane, he mouthed that we were out of weapons.
Nodding to myself, I addressed the group again. "Listen up, men. We don't have enough weapons for everyone, but we outnumber these scum anyways. So, we're gonna be smart. Koryn, Zane and I are going to climb up one of the buildings around the village center. Then we're going to shoot until we're out of arrows, and then climb down and join you. You lot are going to stay together, with spears out front, and make your way to these scum slow and steady. Let the arrows do as much work as possible. Stay together, and let the unarmed arm themselves from the scum we kill. Trust in the men beside you, and let's get these fuckers out of our village!"
There was a muted cheer that went through the group, as we were all trying to keep quiet.
We led the procession to the village center, and then we began to climb a house that overlooked the area. We poked our heads over the roof, and I saw that the layout was mostly unchanged from my sneaking earlier.
We looked to each other, and then readied ourselves. I signaled to the men below that we were ready.
As soon as we rose from our positions, our bows were already drawn back, and we loosed our arrows.
We started to rain down as many arrows as we could, while the Ironborn were panicking and scrambling about. We each shot about ten arrows, which is all we had and had varying amounts of success. Our initial shots were successful, and we downed two men permanently, but once they began to react, our shots became less effective.
By the time we ran out of arrows, four men total were downed, with five more with minor wounds. We hurried back down to the ground and joined with the other villagers who were making their way into the center.
As the group of us advanced through the center, two Ironborn rushed our group but were easily killed by the united front of spearmen. After that, the Ironborn grouped up themselves but did not rush forward.
Our two groups stood at a standstill, neither wanting to advance and be killed.
After a moment of this, I shouted, "Forward!"
Our group advanced forward, and a shout from the Ironborn saw them do the same.
We came together in a clash, and the screams started. Our spears gave us an advantage, but unfortunately, the armor and martial skill of our opponents saw us get pushed back. We tried to give as good as we could, but as our spearmen started to fall, our group started to get pushed back with increasing frequency.
As our morale started to plummet, I looked about for something that may save us. The fire around us gave me an idea.
I moved to the back of the group and quickly rifled through my backpack while shouting for the group to hold the line.
I easily found what I was looking for. A few glass containers filled with high proof alcohol, which was for cleaning wounds. I took off the lids and grabbed a nearby jar of tar that was in the big pile of stolen goods. I mixed the substances and stuffed a rag into the bottle.
I stood up and lit the first one and then threw it into the group of Ironborn.
The explosion of it took me by surprise. The explosion itself wasn't like a bomb, but the rapid expansion of flame took me, and everyone else, by surprise.
Five Ironborn ended up covered in flames, and dropped to the ground, screaming. Their efforts to put it out was stymied by the stickiness of the tar.
"Kill them!" I shouted.
The villagers surged forward and killed the men on the ground, while I readied another jar.
My next jar lit more Ironborn on fire. This time their morale plummeted and their leader ordered a retreat into a nearby house.
We harried them as they rushed into the house, but they abandoned the last, slow few so that they could barricade the house.
I took stock of what had actually occurred during the fight. We had killed off 14 raiders by arrow, spear, and fire. But we had taken serious casualties: with ten dead, nine more grievously wounded, and a few others with minor cuts. Koryn was fine, but Zane had a large slash on his left arm.
I restrained a few of the men from deciding to rush the house, and instead set them keeping a watch on it.
Meanwhile, Koryn and I tended to the injured, all the while thinking of what was next.