Quoted By:
A dilemma for another time, you decide. You shove the slimy ball of cloth back into the woman’s mouth, before replacing her gag – her indignant shouts are soon muffled. The white linen sheet goes back over her head, and flashing hand-signals, you begin to travel once more.
Chabrianos asks with his hands –
<span class="mu-i">Who is she?</span>
You reply:
<span class="mu-i">Don’t know. Must confer with Pronax.</span> The heavily-scarred commoner shrugs, clearly mollified by your decision - he rejoins the honorguard.
As you set off, you listen carefully for signs of trouble on the Tegean estate, but there’s still been no change of affairs : the Tegean squadron horns have continued to sound at regular intervals, drifting east, and you’ve heard no Argive horn-blasts. Whether Pronax has successfully taken any cattle, you aren’t sure, but at the least, he must have escaped, drawing Archigeiros’ forces in that direction. You are still undiscovered – the blessing of Hermes Φηλητης is still upon your and your half of the <span class="mu-i">Inachian Honorguard</span>. The woman in the donkey cart occasionally attempts to scream and shout, but her bonds are tight and her gag secure – you can barely hear her muffled cries yourself, and so you have little to fear that she might spoil your raid. The cart itself is quite heavy, clinking faintly with gold, and cannot easily travel through rough terrain - it stays upon the trail, while you and your men can shadow its progress from a distance.
Darting southwest, you come across the next watch-tower – and find it abandoned. You’re momentarily confused by this, but you conclude that the Tegean unit you had ambushed on the road must have come from this sentry post. As to why they might leave their position – that question is answered when you take a moment to climb the watch-tower’s wooden ladder, to the top platform. The timbre groans in protest at the weight of you and your armor, but the wood is old – made petrified and strong after years of arid summer heat. There’s another sentry-post quite close to the northwest – it’s easily visible to you as you crouch to reduce your profile as best as you can. Based on the number of torches dotting the sentry-post and surrounding ground, it’s a double encampment – two separate Tegean squads are there, likely totaling 100 men. The Tegean troopers you killed earlier on the road must have joined the hunt for Pronax, given that three squadrons had been placed here.
Scanning south – you see your prize! There are many motionless silhouettes of sleeping cattle, bunched together within two neighboring pastures, visible under the moon and stars. Pronax’s scouts spoke truly, for you estimate that a thousand head of livestock are within sight. But how to proceed?
>vote post next