Stalking Darkness - Chapter Forty
Jan. 6th, 2024 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kalinara posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
i_read_whatSo last time, we caught up with Seregil and Micum, who are sailing to Plenimar. We also caught up with Alec, who is also heading to Plenimar. No one's having a great time, admittedly, but Alec's got it pretty rough right now.
Egads.
We're back with Beka here. Her troop is deep into Plenimarian territory at this point. They're following a convoy of horse drawn wagons - apparently a supply train for the Plenimarian side of the conflict.
At night time, they raid. They take "firestones" (weapons captured during a previous raid) and scatter them throughout the crates and bales of the wagons as the wagoneers are cooking their evening meal some twenty feet away.
As they're finishing that up, they signal a fellow, Rhylin, who was likely mentioned earlier, leads his decuria to drive draft animals into the camp, scattering the soldiers and drivers. With the flames now shooting up in the wagons, everything is quite confused.
Then Braknil's decuria charges in with bows. I'm slightly bothered by the term "decuria" here because it sounds close enough to latin that I feel like it should be plural rather than singular. This may be a "me" problem.
The raid is not without casualties: a fellow named Zir gets an enemy arrow in the shoulder. Another fellow, named Tobin, gets one through the heart. Poor guy. (Tobin is a name that recurs in the series and the spinoff series, as I recall. Different fellow though.)
Overall though, it's a success, and Beka's men get a new nickname "Urgazhi" or wolf demons. This makes Beka happy.
So they've basically doing guerilla warfare right now: night attacks against weak targets, disappearing before the enemy can see how few they are. They intend to follow the coast north until they reach friendly forces.
Beka's leg is doing well, but she's been having some weird dreams. She doesn't remember, but per her men, she's been thrashing and muttering.
This time, she's woken up by her men, as scheduled, to find out that two have been captured. The Plenimarians don't seem inclined to keep prisoners (which makes Alec's situation even more ominous), and so they're likely dead.
We get an idea of their numbers:
Getting to her feet, she glanced around the clearing. In Braknil’s decuria only Kallas, Ariani, Arbelus, and one-eyed Steb were left. Rhylin had Nikides, Syra, Tealah, Jareel, Tare, Marten, Kaylah, and Zir. Of those, Tealah had suffered a sword cut during the third raid and couldn’t use her left arm. Zir and Jareel had festering wounds, and Steb, still recovering from the loss of an eye, had a bad case of the scours. Now Mirn and Gilly were gone.
Rhylin, we're told, is doing really well for a replacement sergeant, and while Beka would rather no one notice her night issues, he's a better choice than some.
But there's happier news. As they're gearing up for the night ride, "Steb" comes back, letting them know that they've found the missing people! They've been captured by a Plenimarian column - fifty soldiers at least, and have been "planked".
Braknil cursed, then spat angrily over his left shoulder.
“What do you mean, planked?” Beka demanded.
“It’s an old Plenimaran soldier’s trick, Lieutenant,” the sergeant scowled. “You take a man, tie a plank across his shoulders, and then nail his hands to it.”
...ow.
Thus far, they haven't left anyone behind. Steb, apparently, is very close to missing Mirn. Beka wonders how they got separated.
It's new for the Plenimarians to take prisoners, and this group has a couple of hundred. Where did they get them, Braknil wonders - especially within their own borders?
It sounds like getting them tonight isn't an option, but Beka notes that they planned to trail the coast anyway: they'll follow and haunt this group and wait for the chance to get their men back.
Our chapter ends here.
Egads.
We're back with Beka here. Her troop is deep into Plenimarian territory at this point. They're following a convoy of horse drawn wagons - apparently a supply train for the Plenimarian side of the conflict.
At night time, they raid. They take "firestones" (weapons captured during a previous raid) and scatter them throughout the crates and bales of the wagons as the wagoneers are cooking their evening meal some twenty feet away.
As they're finishing that up, they signal a fellow, Rhylin, who was likely mentioned earlier, leads his decuria to drive draft animals into the camp, scattering the soldiers and drivers. With the flames now shooting up in the wagons, everything is quite confused.
Then Braknil's decuria charges in with bows. I'm slightly bothered by the term "decuria" here because it sounds close enough to latin that I feel like it should be plural rather than singular. This may be a "me" problem.
The raid is not without casualties: a fellow named Zir gets an enemy arrow in the shoulder. Another fellow, named Tobin, gets one through the heart. Poor guy. (Tobin is a name that recurs in the series and the spinoff series, as I recall. Different fellow though.)
Overall though, it's a success, and Beka's men get a new nickname "Urgazhi" or wolf demons. This makes Beka happy.
So they've basically doing guerilla warfare right now: night attacks against weak targets, disappearing before the enemy can see how few they are. They intend to follow the coast north until they reach friendly forces.
Beka's leg is doing well, but she's been having some weird dreams. She doesn't remember, but per her men, she's been thrashing and muttering.
This time, she's woken up by her men, as scheduled, to find out that two have been captured. The Plenimarians don't seem inclined to keep prisoners (which makes Alec's situation even more ominous), and so they're likely dead.
We get an idea of their numbers:
Getting to her feet, she glanced around the clearing. In Braknil’s decuria only Kallas, Ariani, Arbelus, and one-eyed Steb were left. Rhylin had Nikides, Syra, Tealah, Jareel, Tare, Marten, Kaylah, and Zir. Of those, Tealah had suffered a sword cut during the third raid and couldn’t use her left arm. Zir and Jareel had festering wounds, and Steb, still recovering from the loss of an eye, had a bad case of the scours. Now Mirn and Gilly were gone.
Rhylin, we're told, is doing really well for a replacement sergeant, and while Beka would rather no one notice her night issues, he's a better choice than some.
But there's happier news. As they're gearing up for the night ride, "Steb" comes back, letting them know that they've found the missing people! They've been captured by a Plenimarian column - fifty soldiers at least, and have been "planked".
Braknil cursed, then spat angrily over his left shoulder.
“What do you mean, planked?” Beka demanded.
“It’s an old Plenimaran soldier’s trick, Lieutenant,” the sergeant scowled. “You take a man, tie a plank across his shoulders, and then nail his hands to it.”
...ow.
Thus far, they haven't left anyone behind. Steb, apparently, is very close to missing Mirn. Beka wonders how they got separated.
It's new for the Plenimarians to take prisoners, and this group has a couple of hundred. Where did they get them, Braknil wonders - especially within their own borders?
It sounds like getting them tonight isn't an option, but Beka notes that they planned to trail the coast anyway: they'll follow and haunt this group and wait for the chance to get their men back.
Our chapter ends here.