Caed decided that she was tired of the sun for today. It wasn’t so much that it was hot out, it’s that there was a big difference in the temperature between the sun and the shade. It hadn’t been so bad down on the ground, but Caed had climbed a tree to get a better view of the defenses. Situated in the top branches of a white birch along the treeline on the outskirts of Esterfield, there wasn’t a lot of shade to shield the sun. She found that she had to constantly shift her position a little at a time to stay in the shade as the sun progressed across the sky. To top it off, the late afternoon sun was behind her, and it was beating down on her cloak, making her back very warm. She had chosen to have the sun at her back, to help keep her hidden. Anyone looking in her direction would be getting the sun in their eyes, and it would make it hard to pick up details in the relative gloom of the woods. She had been up in the trees since mid morning, and her arms and legs were stiff and sore from the exertion of keeping her balance and holding still. For the thirty-second time that day she sighed deeply and tried to stretch her tired muscles without moving too much. “Next time Nasser will do the climbing.”
Caed and her scouts had been taking detailed notes about Esterfield since arriving this morning. The town had a population of around 2,000 people, but only 300 of them were real soldiers. That being said, it looked like way more than half of the locals were armed in some way, mostly hunting bows and spears. “They must have armed the women.” Caed had nodded subconsciously in approval when she had made that observation. There was a palisade that looked like it was quickly thrown up around the outskirts of town. “Looks like they know we’re coming. The Baron needed to be more subtle. Probably not his strong suit.” A ditch had been dug before the wall with pointed stakes facing outwards to break up a charge. The perimeter around the town was small and tight enough so that there would be a decent number of defenders at any one point. It would be hard to assault the walls and exploit a weakness. There were also four wooden towers placed in even intervals along the wall, and covered in leather hides to protect them from fire. “Someone in there knows what they’re doing.” She had noted the topography as well, with the ground sloping slightly from north to south. Nothing too steep, but it may give the Bannermen an advantage in a siege. There were no streams that could be seen from where Caed was situated, but earlier Nasser had reported that there was a trickle of water that came from the ground on the southern side of town.
All of these details were listed on a map that she had drawn in the morning hours. She and all of her scouts carried parchment or vellum and ink, and they all knew how to read and write. It was a requirement to run with her. On top of noting the enemy troops and their defenses, Caed and her scouts would each create their own maps, based on what they could see. On the ride back they would combine their maps to create a master, detailed map for Logaire and Barim to study.
People thought that fighting battles only involved brawny warriors swinging swords, wearing gleaming armor. An honorable clash of arms where everyone died heroic deaths. Caed smirked to herself. “What a load of crap.” The might of arms was only a small part of the equation. The much bigger part was all the stuff that went on before and after the battle. The logistics to keep the army moving and fed, the surgeons and medicine to keep the army healthy, and the reconnaissance to know where to march and where to place your forces.
It was these things which set the Bannermen apart. It wasn’t just the hours of training and the will and determination. The Bannermen had built up a reputation for infallibility because of the work of Caed and her team. Some people had thought that they had sorcerers on staff, using arcane means to know their enemy’s plans. Logaire was good, but he wasn’t a mind reader. He didn’t have to be. Caed knew where the enemy was, how many of them there were, where they were going, and the lay of the land. And therefore Logaire did too. The scouts thought of themselves as professionals. They knew how important their role as the Bannermen’s eyes and ears was. And the rest of the Company knew it too.
Caed was justifiably proud of her squad’s contributions. Though the skills were different, she worked her men as hard as Barim worked the infantry. And she worked herself hardest of all. She had learned the hard way that in order to lead men it wasn’t enough to be better than them. She had to train harder than all of them. And, more importantly, she had to be seen to train harder. No matter how often she proved herself there would always be men who would either look down on her abilities or resent them. In the first case she would disabuse them of the notion quickly, usually within the first few days of them signing on. In the second case, if any of her troops showed the least bit of resentment or hesitation they were usually corrected by their peers. If the problem persisted, they would be relegated to Barim and the infantry. There was no room for that crap in the scouts. Her men followed her with a confidence and outright devotion that showed itself in fierce loyalty to her and to each other.
Logaire and Barim were cut from different cloth. They had never judged Caed by her gender. Even when she first joined the company at the age of 17 they had found a home for her in the scouts, and she quickly rose through the ranks to be their captain. Her drive and skills had been rewarded, mostly because Logaire cared about results. If you produced, he let you do more. If you could lead, he let you lead. His philosophy was that people would naturally succeed at whatever they were good at, as long as you got out of their way. If the Bannermen could use your skills, he let you do them, no matter what they were. Even if those skills were grave robbing.
Speaking of, she hadn’t heard from Nasser and Jodan since she sent them to scout out the south side of town. This wasn’t too big a deal. She had told them not to risk getting caught once they were in position, so they probably wouldn’t be making their way back to the rendezvous until dark. She had been worried about those two at first, but they had quickly fallen into line. Even though their particular talents weren’t appreciated in wider society, those same talents made them excellent scouts. She had been sure to separate them at first. She had paired them with some of her senior troops so that they could learn the ropes, but it was obvious that they worked best together. On their suggestion, she had sent them out together with Rabbit, one of her best men. Rabbit would keep an eye on them.
The sun was now below the tree line, and the walls of the town were encased in shadows. A few fires were being lit to provide heat and light against the encroaching darkness. ‘It’s time to call it a day. Thank the gods.’ Caed’s muscles were tight and sore. It would be good to move freely again. With a smooth grace she gently let herself down from branch to branch, making sure to keep her movements small and controlled to keep the shaking of the tree to a minimum. Within seconds she was on the ground. She exulted in a luxurious stretch, arching her back and letting out a long sigh. ‘Heaven’. As she turned to head to the rendezvous she saw Nasser and Jodan jogging up to her, with an exasperated Rabbit trailing behind. Based on Rabbit’s face, Caed steeled herself. ‘This can’t be good.’
The three men drew themselves up in front of Caed. Nasser and Jodan were an absolute mess, with mud and some sort of slime caked on their clothes. They smelled awful too. Rabbit, who was much cleaner, blurted out “I told them to stay put and watch the walls, Caed. I never ordered them to…” Caed shushed Rabbit with a glare and turned back to Nasser and Jodan.
“Rabbit, we’ll talk about what happened when we get to the camp.” The grizzled veteran nodded but continued to fidget. She kept her gaze fixed on Nasser as she spoke in an ominously low and steely voice. “Nasser, you may report.”
Nasser gave a sideways glance at Jodan and then looked straight ahead. “Jo and I found a way into the town, ma’am.” Caed’s eyes widened in response, but she didn’t say anything. Nasser fastidiously avoided eye contact with Caed, looking at a spot just above and to the left of Caed’s head. “You may have noticed that the ground slopes toward the back of the town. Jo and I figured that there must be a way for water to drain from within the town walls. Since there isn’t a stream near the town, we concluded that there must be some sort of a drainage pipe or ditch. It took Jo around ten minutes to find it.”
“It’s easy when you know what to look for.” Jo added. “Usually the grasses are taller around the entrance to the pipe.”
Nasser nodded enthusiastically and went on. “So Jo and I sneaked to the pipe and wriggled in. It’s around this tall around.” Nasser motioned toward the top of his waist. Caed motioned for Nasser to continue. “So there was plenty of room for us to maneuver. There’s a metal grate about a foot into the pipe, but we got through that easily.” Caed gave a quizzical look and Jodan answered by producing a mini saw and a file from his satchel.
Caed arched her eyebrow and tried not to smile. “We’ll talk later about where you were hiding that. Probably when I decide how to punish you for disobeying orders. But for now, go on.”
Jodan’s face dropped a little and he hid the saw away while Nasser picked up the story. “So we followed the pipe for about half an hour, going real slow. We’ve done that plenty of times in our past life, so we knew how to do it all quiet like. The other end of the pipe comes out in a cistern located in a corner of the main square of the town. We stayed out of sight, but we listened, and the people inside know that we’re coming, and they are scared. They also have some leader who they trust. We couldn’t make out all the words, but we could recognize the tone, and the townsfolk just sounded better and more confident when this guy was around.”
Caed interrupted. “Do you think you could get access to the town that way?”
Nasser thought about it for a minute, but Jodan answered first. “Us? Yep. Our soldiers? Nope. They’d make too much noise. But Nasser and I could get in there at night.”
Nasser jumped in, “We’d need a diversion, I think. Don’t want anyone seeing us coming out.”
Caed nodded, and thought for a second. Finally, she broke the silence. “Ok, let’s get moving back to camp. Rabbit, you and your team did good work today. I’ll give all this info to the Captain. In the meantime, Jo, Nasser, you two are to report directly to Barim’s tent when we get back to camp. I appreciate the initiative, but you disobeyed direct orders and put us all in jeopardy, and I can’t have that, no matter what the result. We’ll see what he and the Captain say about what to do with you.”
The two thieves’ shoulders slumped, but they nodded and began the jog back to the camp. Caed nodded in satisfaction, and once the two were out of eye site she allowed herself to smile. ‘Talk about luck.’
