FreeHolds Adventure, Cycle 3 Part 6d
Tipper woke up to find Adwin sitting beside her. He smiled when he noticed her looking at him, “I’m glad you’re back with us Tipper, I’ve really missed you.”
“I hear you’ve been doing well enough without me.” Her voice was croaky, she looked for something to drink. Adwin reached behind him, took a cup and offered it to her.
She sat up, accepted the cup and drained it in a couple of gulps, water dribbled down her chin, “Thanks. So… Did the army pack up and go home?”
He shook his head, “No, I’m afraid not.”
“Oh, that’s too bad.”
“We did manage to delay them a bit. They’re a day or two out from Lekas now. The raiders and most of our scouts have returned.”
“How are things here?”
“Pretty good I guess. The earthworks along the eastern side of the village will not be completed before the army gets here, but Andisal’s dwarven friends have promised to hold that end of the defences. They brought some war-wagons and seem to think that will do the trick.”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
“I’m just not sure how a few wagons are going to stop any concentrated effort by the army to breech that area.”
“Well, dwarves are very inventive and tend to be good fighters.”
“So I keep hearing.”
“There might not be a battle at all. When you guys were attacking the wagons I was able to abduct Lady Sharlok.”
“Andisal had mentioned that to me, with clear instructions not to talk about it. She doesn’t want that fact to become common knowledge. Not until she is needed.”
“Well that makes sense.”
“Sure. What I want to know is how we’re going to actually win the battle. They are way better armed, armoured and trained.”
Tipper could see Adwin was more upset about this than he was letting on, she did not know enough about what had been happening here to give him any real reassurance. She held out a hand, after a moment he took it, “Look Adwin, I’ve a lot of faith in Andisal’s abilities, she seems to have put a lot of thought into the defence of Lekas. By the sounds of it, half the countryside showed up to help, the dwarves came, you’re here with your friends. We may even outnumber the army by this point.”
“Yeah, but three quarters of our army are youth with slings, old women looking to die and farmers better equipped for tilling the land than killing a foe. There are enough arrows and bolts for one battle, maybe, and less than three score who are so armed. The core of our fighting forces are outfitted in leather armour, most with light weapons and only one in five have previous combat experience. Almost none of us have ever faced a battle like this.” He looked away, trying to keep his emotions in check.
Tipper sighed, “Well, leave then.”
Startled, his attention snapped back to her, “What!”
“No one is forcing you to stay and fight.”
He ran a hand through his hair, clearly taken aback by her suggestion, “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“It’d be wrong. That’s not who I am.”
“Then maybe you need to be thinking about the advantages we have and how those might be used to help us win. From what I understand, you are well respected by many who have chosen to stay and fight. They’ll be looking to you. If you are confident, they will be too. If you have hope, so will they. And, if you wallow in your fear and show your doubts you will do more damage than the enemy ever could.”
He looked at her for a long moment as he thought about what she had just said, when he spoke it was more calmly, abashed, “I guess I knew all that, Tipper. Maybe I just wanted to hear you say we were going to win this war. Maybe… I just needed to know you had hope.”
Tipper laughed, “I always have hope, Adwin. After we help clean up this little mess, I have to go dig up a lost artifact that may or may not be where I think it is, then go help my kin slay a drake. I’m hopeful that you and the others still want to come with me, I’ll need all the help I can get.”
Adwin sighed, “Alright. I certainly intend to help you.”
“Good.”
From the lower level the sound of Del and Calathy singing proceeded their arrival. They had baskets of freshly gathered food. When their song finished the two of them curtsied to one another and then, in unison they turned and curtsied to Andwin and Tipper, laughing.
They set their baskets by the ladder, Del waved Adwin from the chair and sat down to look Tipper over, “Let me see your hip. Any pain?”
“No. Though I am feeling cooped up.”
Calathy grabbed Adwin in a big hug, “I’m so glad you made it back. I was worried.”
“Everything went well. We managed to kill a few of them, I think Gweth took out as many as the rest of us combined. Mokha was able to burn over half their wagons and the twins were able to take out a few of their horsemen with Sefla’s help.”
Del poked at Tipper’s hip, “Any pain?”
“Nothing, you did a good job.”
“The Goddess did most of it.”
“Sure, I’m thankful.”
“Your colour is much better. If I let you out of bed will you take it easy on yourself?”
“I don’t think you could keep me in bed, Del. Short of stripping down and joining me.”
Del gave her a considering look. Calathy giggled, distracted from her conversation with Adwin, “That sounds fun. Can I get in on that too?”
Del huffed, “Ladies, there are other things that need our attention today. I’m serious Tipper, if you promise not to overdo it, you’re free to get out of bed. If you have any intentions of being able to fight in the next few days, you will have to take it easy on yourself.”
“I promise.”
Del stared her with a gaze she must have picked up from Andisal. Tipper held eye contact, eventually Del nodded, “Okay. Calathy and I are going to make some lunch. Your weapons are under the bed, Andisal took your armour to the dwarves, it’ll be returned to the keep when they are done with it. Until then, you can borrow my old robe or a blanket, if you need.”
Del and Calathy went up to the kitchen. Tipper rolled out of bed, gathered her belts, weapons and pouches, she stood and slung her weapons over her shoulder and looked to Adwin, “I take it my stuff is somewhere around here?”
“Yeah, we’re camped beside the wagon, not far from the keep. I’ll show you.”
They went outside, Tipper was impressed with what she saw. There was a hall on the green now and many dozens of people had set up tents or temporary shelters. She was not the only one walking around without clothing, she hardly attracted any attention in that regard. Her companions were camped close by, but no one was around the wagon or either of the adjoining camps.
“I’ll get your stuff.” Adwin climbed up into the wagon.
“I see people bathing in the pond. I take it the animals are no longer watered there?”
“No. Not since we’ve been here. No one’s been sick that I know of.”
“Good, I’m going to go clean up. Watch my weapons for me.”
“Sure.”
Tipper was surprised by the number of people who were around, it was a little disconcerting. She waded out into the deeper water then floated on her back, enjoying the warmth of the sun on her flesh, eventually she rolled over and swam to the bottom of the pond, it was too silty to see much of anything. She swam towards the shore until the water became too shallow, then she stood, ran her fingers through her hair a few times and watched the people come and go.
It felt more like a summer festival than an army preparing to face its foe.
She waded around the edge of the pond to a point where there were fewer people. She braided her hair as she walked back to the wagon. In the time she was gone half a dozen people had come to the camp. She recognized Hidge, Whyse and the dark haired woman she had spotted when she was abducting Ethie. The other three were unknown to her, but they were all paying attention to Adwin, who was in the process of updating them about what had happened while they had been out raiding the enemy.
Tipper dug a strip of leather from one of her pouches, tied off her braid then dressed. Adwin had finished bringing them up to date on the local situation, he gestured towards her and said, “For those of you who don’t know her, this is Tipper.”
At the mention of her name, Hidge stood up quickly and turned towards her. Tipper could see the rage in her gaze and noticed that the woman’s hand had come to rest near the knife on her belt. Whatever else Adwin had been about to say was left unspoken as he took note of Hidge’s anger.
Tipper smiled, “Something you wanted to say, Hidge?”
“I ought to to gut you where you stand you stupid bitch.” Everyone stood, Adwin moved towards Hidge.
“Your Andalee has greatly improved, Hidge. I think we’d be better off trying to kill Sharlok’s soldiers, rather than each other.”
“You killed Lord Sharlok, and completely undermined the company’s operations.”
“Well, I’ll accept the first part of that. As to the second, I wouldn’t think it is more than an inconvenient delay.”
Adwin tried to say something, but Hidge was louder and certainly angrier, “People died because of what you did!”
“Yeah, that seems to happen a lot. Though it was Sharlok’s men who killed your associates. Not me.”
Hidge drew her knife, there was a mix of reactions from the others, mostly confusion about what was happening. Hidge shrugged off Adwin’s hand, but little Whyse suddenly put herself between Tipper and the larger woman, “Stop this.”
“Out of my way, princess.”
“It’s alright, Whyse. Hidge and I were just going to have a little conversation about a letter I read from Mr Roburns of the GreensBridge branch of your company, to Mr Kite Hollen, a recently promoted, now deceased, field operative for the company’s eastern line… What do you say Hidge? Do you think there’s anything in such a letter, regarding you, that Adwin might find interesting?”
“What’s she talking about?” Adwin and Whyse asked in unison.
Tipper continued, “Just the reason for her insistence that she keeps travelling with us.”
Adwin looked confused. Whyse asked again, “What does she mean?”
“Master Merchant Roburns sent me to keep Adwin safe. As an insurance on his investment.”
“What?!” Adwin was clearly shocked.
Whyse said, “I think Adwin is a good investment. So, I don’t see how killing Tipper is going to be protecting him. Put the knife away.”
Hidge looked down at her associate, “How can you be so dismissive of what she did?”
“I’m not being dismissive, just practical. If you kill Tipper then most of these folks here would likely want to put you in a hanging tree. There’s also the fact you and I are the only ones of the company who know of this. After things are resolved here, one of us, likely you, should return to GreensBridge and make a full report. If the company decides to take action against Tipper, it should be someone from management who makes that call.”
Hidge said something in Maldorn that Tipper took to be a curse. She gave Tipper another angry glare, sheathed her knife and walked away.
Adwin was rather flustered “Can someone explain to me what’s going on?”
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