He tumbled into the bed and fell asleep in seconds, to be awoken hours later by a very surprised knight with an even more surprised wench, who was quickly shooed away with a coin for her time, her discomfiture, and her silence. Continue reading Thune Runner XVIII →

Two days after they’d taken to Cake Rock, the victim being slowly and painfully executed was the messenger they’d sent to call for a relief force. He’d been brought in with a returning force of Thune who brought the surrounding army to an estimated eleven hundred warriors. The mood of the Argentain camp turned black. The weather was dark and dreary, the occasional arrow lofted randomly by a passing rider kept them under cover, and screams of their dying comrades slowly surrendering their life force to the fiendish devices of their tormentors kept everyone on edge. Continue reading Thune Runner XVII →

The attempt to slip out silently was not anything like quiet to Jispin’s ears. He said as much, and as much as it pained the optio to agree with him, there wasn’t any point in leaving behind men to make the camp look occupied. They just packed up as fast as they could, linked up horses into strings, and made as much speed as they could by torchlight. Continue reading Thune Runner XVI →

The Thune raiders had been crushed. Some had escaped, fewer than one in ten the centurions  guessed, but many of those were injured and would die slowly from their injuries in the coming days. The encampment was also thoroughly destroyed – more dead family there than warriors. On that account, the Argentain cohort’s mission was a resounding success. Continue reading Thune Runner XV →

It was full daylight before they heard the first hoofbeats of a rider. Everyone was called to silence. A pair, then a second pair, of riders galloped into view, Thune in dress and riding their ponies hard. Jispin smiled. “I hope they can see the path,” he said to Centurion Vergilius Gaius. Continue reading Thune Runner XIV →

Many dead littered the little valley, but the Thune still greatly outnumbered all the infantry in sight. Once out of the valley, in the slowly growing daylight, and with range to properly use their bows, it would be easy hunting. With primal screams of rage and anguish, now that they could see them retreating to a nearby hillock with the horses to make a last stand, they charged again, screaming curses and vows to make the survivors wish they hadn’t. Continue reading Thune Runner XIII →

Another wild hack came at Jispin, and he countered with a sharp slash of his own, cutting her arm to the bone. One-handed she attacked again, and once more Jispin blocked and countered. Shortly, it was over, and he had a chance to cut another slave free of his restrictive bonds before he had to fight off another revenge-minded Thune. Continue reading Thune Runner XII →

Centurion Maximus Aelianus worked beside his men in the dim moonlight, moving more by feel than anything else. He took another break to listen. He could hear horses in the distance. “QUIET!” he hollered. The sounds of chopping, digging, and armor halted. Silence fell about the draw they labored in. The rapid beat came clearly to everyone’s ears. “TIME! To the hill!” Continue reading Thune Runner XI →

Jispin, Eut, and Sil pondered what to do. The third picket guard didn’t have a horse as they’d expected. They needed to move in three different directions fast, though, and very far, too. Continue reading Thune Runner X →

“How accurate do you think he is?”

“Ah, that is the hundred gold crown question…. Jispin! Come here, boy!” Continue reading Thune Runner IX →