By the Lust of Men
Chapter 11: The raid
Despite being afternoon, Calradia was as dark as any night. Black clouds made of smoke covered the skies where the crows patiently waited for a fresh meal cooked by war. Sultan Hakim tricked Swadians and Vaegirs into fighting his own war by the use of strategic Alliances, and the Nords and Khergit were having the worst of it.
It was May 20th, only 2 months after Alissa's first arrival to Praven, but Calradia was already in a completely different stage.
Their lords' banners were raised with pride just to be replaced by a different one once the town fell into their enemies' hands every few days. All this fighting and all this blood impoverished the Swadian Towns, whose King held two fronts simultaneously.
"People in these towns can't afford the price of our goods and if we sell at the market price we will lose much money" - Marnid commented - "I know Marnid, I know. We will run out of food in a few days and we do not have enough money to buy any at the moment. I'll have to take the loss of selling our goods in Praven, so we can buy some food anywhere around here" - Alissa said with concern and, after thinking for a minute or two, Marnid replied - "Well, we could make good profit if we risk travelling across the mountains. Yes, Rhodoks. They are not at war and currently have a strong economy. If we can make it to Veluca we will be able to earn a decent profit. However it is a path full of war and bandits, and our worst enemy will be time. We will have to hurry if we want to get there before we run out of food, my lady" - he said while pointing the montains in the landscape with his finger. Alissa followed Marnid's advice and ordered her men to get their gear ready.
Travelling from Praven to Veluca takes 2 or 3 days normally and that was the amount of food our heroes had in their reserves for the trip. However, after 3 days of travel our heroes were still one day away from Veluca. All nearby villages were abandoned because of looting, food started to run low and Marnid had to reduce the rations. But luckily Alissa's men understood the situation and supported such action.
As they crossed through the burned village of Nomar, Alissa saw a group of bandits who followed them for the last days and that started to get closer and closer. After a couple hours the group of bandits reached our heroes. Alissa tried to break contact with the enemy - her main objective was getting to Veluca and not defeating the bandits - but she was outnumbered and her men were fatigued, and quickly they started to fall.
"Take the wounded and the bodies of our fallen men, and fall back!" - Alissa ordered as she stayed in the front with Marnid to cover the retreat. At least 10 enemies fell by the deadly shots of Alissa's crossbow, until she felt a warm feeling in her crotch - it was her blood coming out of a severe injury in the zone. "Marnid! I'm hit!" - Alissa warned her friend in the heat of battle - "My God! I am no doctor, but it seems the arrow went through your leg artery" - Marnid said terrified by the bloody scene as a volley of arrows landed around them. With his limited first aid skills, Marnid applied a field bandage to stop the bleeding. "I can't walk anymore and they are almost here. Go!" - Alissa ordered, but Marnid disobeyed - "I am truly sorry, my lady, but paying your ransom is not good for business" - he said while taking her in his arms and running where the rest of the caravan was retreating. Marnid was just steps behind them when a deadly arrow struck his neck. He fell immediatly and dropped Alissa to the ground, but luckily, Alissa's men were able to take both of them and put them in the caravan to fall back to a safe zone.
At that point everything started to turn blurry for our young lady because of the blood loss and the last thing she remembers before losing consciousness is her fellow men applying pressure in Marnids neck to stop the bleeding.
Unfotunately 6 of her men died and 4 more including Alissa were wounded that day. But if these 6 men would not have died, they would had never made it to Veluca due to the lack of food.
With haste Alissa's men searched for a doctor in town. "What is the problem young man?" - a man in his middle fifties asked to a young recruit looking for help at the tavern - "We were raided by bandits on the road and 4 of our companions were severly wounded!" - he said in despair - "Bring them here. I might be able to help" - the stranger replied with a calmed voice.
"This will be easy" - the stranger said while looking at 2 of the wounded - "But this won't be" - he added when he saw Marnid and Alissa, who were still uncounscious. Marnid received treatment first, since he was still alive by miracle and the most urgent.
Marnid was sent to a room in the tavern to rest and recover once he received treatment and Alissa was received by the stranger in his room to heal her injury. Due to the location of the wound, he had to remove her underwear to operate. Any man and any doctor would have fallen by the lust of men to Alissa's naked body, but not him. He was the most professional doctor in Calradia and our lady was blessed by crossing his way.
When she regained consciousness she asked to greet the doctor who, along with Marnid and her men, saved her life. "There are no words to thank you for your help, but please accept my gratitude" - Alissa said while offering a bag containing thousands of denars, earned by the sold goods they protected with their life all the way to Veluca - "I can not accept it, my lady. It is my duty as a doctor to help the wounded" - "Then please let me be of help in anything you need. It will be an honor, Mr..." - Alissa said when the man interrupted "Jeremus. Call me Jeremus. Well pherhaps you can help me" - "And how is that?" - Alissa asked - "I shall tell you. I was hired by a merchant of this city to cure his son. I succesffully treppaned the patient's skull to reduce the cranial swelling, but the family ignored my advise to treat him with a tincture of willow bark, and the boy died. The father charged me with sorcery and the lord of this castle is reluctant to place me under arrest, but I am anxious to move on elsewhere" - the man replied - "Well, you could travel with us, but you'd have to be able to fight in our battle line" - "I can get my hands dirty" - the doctor said as he accepted our lady's offer - "Welcome on board!" - she said - "But don't expect us to move soon, we still have to recover from our wounds" - "I know, and I will do anything I can to ensure you guys have a pleasant recovery".
Alissa spent the following days in Veluca until they all recovered from their injuries. Little by little Alissa learned to love the Rhodok ways, their land and their people, who received her when she most needed it. In exchange she showed her gratitude to such nice people by helping them with bandits, trade and all kind of tasks during her stay.
She was back on business thanks to the help of his loyal friend Marnid, who risked his life with the rest of the group to take her to safety, and to Jeremus the kind doctor who now was her brother in arms.
Finally they went their way back to Swadia, but they would one day come back.