It was late afternoon the next day and the caravan was slowly rattling along the Great East Road. They were passing the marshlands of Frogmorton and Bywater, where they intended to sleep over, was only a couple of hours away. The scenery was breathtakingly beautiful, but Hellrien didn’t have an eye for the beauty nor time to reminisce the sinful pleasures of the previous night in Stock.
She was on a mission, and this strip of the road was especially dangerous. On the left side of the road there arose a high, steep, wall-like hill blocking their view to the south. To their right the land sloped abruptly downwards to the wetlands below. The drivers needed to be careful not to drive the carts too near the edge. If the side of the road would collapse under the weight of a heavy cart it would roll and spin against the hillside until crashing to the ground a hundred yards below.
”That’s far enough, I think!” somebody called out.
Hellrien halted her horse and looked around, making a gesture for the carts behind to stop. She had almost bypassed the steep hill to their left. A man and a woman walked down the slope on the far end of the hill and stepped to the road, blocking their way. They were heavily armed and attired in dirty and ragged but functional clothing. Hellrien knew there had to be more of them out there. A pair of brigands would never attempt to rob a caravan this heavily guarded on their own, no matter how crazy they were.
”What is the meaning of this?” Hellrien demanded to know, but she received no response from the ominous pair. The man in red shirt and leather vest wore two swords on his belt. The hooded woman in red cloak and blue shirt had a mace attached to her hip.
”I advice you to step aside”, Hellrien continued. ”We’re well guarded. What you see is not the half of it.”
The cloaked woman sniggered and moved past Hellrien while the man remained by Hellrien’s horse, blocking her horse from moving. She knew she should make a move, stop her, do something, but where were the other brigands? Events were unfolding really fast, and the brigands worked quickly and expertly. They knew exactly what they were doing.
The woman took hold of the reins of the horses and cut them with her dagger. Then she stepped aside, still holding a bit of rein in her hand.
”Awww, seeing as she asked soooo nicely”, she cackled, looking at the man in red shirt and leather vest.
”I’d say we’ve a few you can't see too, missy. So how about you make this easy on us all, eh? Wouldn't want to hurt that pretty face of yours”, said the man, looking past the carts at Taraborn in the back.
”Too late for your companion on that score…”
