Robber

Robber

                Somehow Mavnen began beating Tadyel when they sparred inside of two weeks. Vanna had been impressed with Tadyel's progress; Mavnen's left her flabbergasted, and Tadyel kind of embarrassed. It wasn't even as if Mavnen had been trained before - she simply took to fighting like a natural (and with great interest).

                Her aptitude for their day work was similarly good, but her interest far less. Whether she surpassed Tadyel depended on the task in question. It was enough for Tadyel to feel less resoundingly outdone, at least.

                "I think she's far more suited to my style of fighting than you," confided Vanna one evening, after she returned from a mid-session trip to her room. "A style leveraging off your strength would suit you better."

                Before them Mavnen was moving gracefully through an advanced drill - she was nowhere near as precise as Vanna, and her movements lacked strength, yet she had progressed significantly further than Tadyel. Tadyel had mostly won in sparring matches through strength alone for the past few days.

                "Which you can't teach me," said Tadyel, softly. She frowned. "There aren't any other options though, right?"

                "Unfortunately you're correct. We might have some more options soon, however," answered Vanna.

                "Done," said Mavnen, finishing the last of her exercises. "Another spar, Gel?"

                "Maybe," replied Tadyel.

                "After this," said Vanna. "We've been given orders. Some refugees further north were convinced to send weapons down here for various agitator groups, including Ormgus's people. We found out about it when the Higgins groups became well armed overnight."

                "There's more than one group over there?" asked Mavnen, curious.

                "Yes. Three, in fact. All three were armed, so this may be a primarily charitable move instead of one against us. Putting that aside, the shipment headed here is drawing close. Our orders are to eliminate those travelling with the shipment, take anything of significant value, and withdraw before the town guard arrive. It should only be lightly guarded - four people at most, likely just two," explained Vanna.

                "The shipment should arrive around noon in three days’ time, so we shall ambush it two days from now, in the morning. Horses have been arranged - do you know how to ride?" asked Vanna.

                "A little," answered Tadyel.

                "No," answered Mavnen, her reply almost simultaneous with Tadyel's.

                "Then we'll leave late tomorrow night," said Vanna, her decision made. "Back to training. Gel - go through the last set of exercises again; Ven, you're soft-sparring against me."

                "Got it," came the simultaneous reply.

                The rest of the evening was spent training, followed by some clothier-work. Vanna hoped that waking later than usual would help them all be awake when they ambushed the shipment. It had sounded like a solid plan, but Tadyel felt exhausted after eight hours of sleep. That's more than the six I normally get, she wondered at the time, why am I sleepy...

                Despite the late start the rest of the day passed normally. Sewing, joining, cutting patterns out, deliveries; the usual business of the general clothier shop. It was only after the sun went down that things diverged from normal.

                Rather than beginning training after their evening meal the three women headed to a house on the edge of town that belonged to Vanna's brother. "The cover is that we're going there to ensure it's still in good shape, and also to stay overnight in case the rumoured squatters appear," said Vanna, before they left. She told the story to the handful of people they ran into on their way over as well.

                Vanna's brother's house was a little way out of town, and was luckily out of town in the direction the trio needed to head. After a couple of hours in the building (partly spent giving it a quick once over) they left, heading through the overgrown garden and to the road. All three wore clothes they had never worn before (and would not again), and had hoods to conceal their identities when necessary.

                Walking in the dark was a little difficult, but it was not long before the trio reached what they were looking for. Just a short distance off the road, tethered to a tree, was a pair of horses. Tadyel would ride one, while Mavnen was to sit behind Vanna on the other.

                Although Tadyel barely knew how to ride, the horse chosen for her was a calm animal used to poor instruction (in Vanna's words). The choice was good; Tadyel had no trouble riding the animal at all. At least, not while they travelled at a medium speed.

                "Where'd the horses come from?" asked Mavnen, during their journey. Tadyel had been wondering the same, but knew it was unlikely that Vanna would give a proper answer.

                "Several people have lost horses each week over the past month. They don't get far, it just seems that 'someone' has been letting them loose. When we get back near town, we'll just let the horses go loose ourselves, and none will be the wiser," explained Vanna.

                "Clever," murmured Mavnen. Tadyel barely caught it as she rode alongside them. The conversation made her wonder where the saddles came from if the horses had been pinched.

                It took a fair few hours of riding, but soon enough Vanna said "We're getting close."

                "We know exactly where they are?" asked Tadyel, curious.

                "Yes. We know where they camped, at least," answered Vanna. "See the dip just ahead? They camped off to the right, behind those trees. There were only two of them when they camped - one driving the wagon, the other a hired guard."

                "Do we have a plan?" asked Mavnen.

                "We'll head off the road and leave the horses tied in the dip, then sneak up through the trees. They're probably both asleep - there aren't any threats out here. We kill them and their horses, then dump the weapons on the road," said Vanna.

                "Should we really kill them?" asked Tadyel. "They're not part of Ormgus's group - just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

                "The driver is a member of one of the other agitator groups. The guard admittedly has no allegiance, but letting them flee will give too much evidence of our identities and potentially result in the weapons getting to their intended destination. Their life isn't worth the risk," said Vanna.

                Tadyel sighed. "Alright," she said.

                "Sure you're cut out for this?" asked Mavnen.

                "I'll be fine," replied Tadyel.

                "Actions matter, not words or worries," said Vanna.

                The group entered the dip. Vanna slipped off her mount gracefully, and said, "We'll tie them off over there." She pointed at a nearby bush.

                Tadyel clambered off her horse somewhat haphazardly as Vanna helped Mavnen down. "Quiet from now on, unless we need to plan," said Vanna after they tied the horses to the bush. Mavnen and Tadyel nodded their understanding.

                The trio crept up the other side of the dip, and into the copse of trees on the other side. There was little light beyond the stars above (barely enough to see by); it seemed the camp had no fire - if it was there. Tadyel was slightly worried about that. Her worries passed when a horse brayed nearby, just before the group reached the far side of the copse of trees and peered out.

                The area looked like a fairly frequent campsite; grassless and marked at the edges with several rocks. In the centre was a ring of stones that had been used countless times as a fireplace. Seeing it made Tadyel recognise the smell she'd picked up walking through the copse - it seemed the nearby trees served as an outhouse.

                A large cart was parked at the far side of the clearing, a pair of sleeping horses tied to a post nearby. Rugged up and leaning against the cart was a woman wearing chain mail, sound asleep. Pacing nearby (and frequently rubbing his chin) was a worried looking man. Unarmed and shorter than average, he was remarkably unthreatening.

                Vanna signalled for the group to put their hoods up, and unhooked her crossbow from her back. "Go when I shoot," she whispered, loading a bolt.

                Against Tadyel's expectation, Vanna took aim at the sleeping guard and fired. The guard awoke with a scream. As she ran out from behind the tree Tadyel was pretty sure she heard Vanna mutter "Shit."

                The guard was on her feet in moments, sword drawn. Her shield lay beside her untouched - Vanna's bolt was sticking through her left arm. She winced as moved into a fighting stance. "Come on then!" she yelled.

                As for the driver, he was already running away. "I'll catch him!" shouted Mavnen, rushing after him. So much for keeping quiet, thought Tadyel.

                Tadyel drew her sword and edged towards the guard. Despite her wound she held her sword as if it was an extension of her body. She also looked very tough, and was sizing Tadyel up as well.

                What the guard saw made her immediately start attacking, putting Tadyel on the defensive. For someone with a bolt through one arm she was remarkably fast and strong - she winced a bit, but was easily able to push through the pain. Tadyel would have been quite impressed if she had time to do anything but react to the barrage.

                Luckily Tadyel had one advantage - mobility. She backed up, keeping out of the guard's proper reach and deflecting rather than blocking her blows. Then she saw an opportunity - an opening - and took it, slicing her blade up and across the guard's torso.

                Nothing happened. Tadyel's blade slid across the links of the chainmail the guard was wearing without any effect beyond pressing it into the guard, nicking a few links. If the guard hadn't instinctively jumped backwards (the slash ended rather close to her face) Tadyel would've been in a bind.

                After jumping backwards, though, the woman smiled. Tadyel was fairly sure about why she smiled: she had realised that her foe had no knowledge of armoured foes. It was weird to see her smile with an bolt through her arm.

                The smile left her face immediately when a second bolt slammed into her chest. She coughed and gently touched it with her sword, almost as if she was checking whether it was real. Then, with very little noise, she fell to her knees, then forwards.

                A furtive, sword forward check for a pulse let Tadyel know she was unconscious. She did what Vanna was almost certainly about to order her to do - jam her blade through of the guard's neck, killing her.

                Vanna nodded with approval as she approached. "Help me with the wagon," she said.

                A quick inspection of the wagon found nothing of interest - it was packed full of practical but low quality weapons. Even the blade Tadyel wielded, which was quite plain compared to Vanna's, was a vast improvement over the gear within the wagon. With the check done, Tadyel and Vanna quickly trashed the wagon completely. They emptied its contents, shattered its wheels and even managed to remove one of the axels. The horses were cut loose - killing them was pointless with the wagon destroyed.

                Mavnen returned just as they cut the horses loose. She looked at them, but seemed to quickly pick up the idea behind it. That, or she didn't really care.

                "What happened to the driver?" asked Vanna, tossing aside the warhammer she had used to break the wagon.

                "I caught him," said Mavnen, holding up her bloodied blade.

                "Show me the body," ordered Vanna. Mavnen wiped her blade and sheathed it before beckoning the other two agents to follow her.

                The driver was a fair distance away. It seemed that Mavnen had managed to outlast him in the chase, catching up only when he had tired. He was also very definitely dead - he had a very large number of bloody stab wounds.

                "Looks like he took a lot of killing," said Vanna, as she checked the pulse.

                "Y-yeah. He just wouldn't die," stammered Mavnen.

                Vanna stood up, apparently satisfied that the man was dead. "Next time just stick your sword in his spine, or brain, or heart," suggested Vanna. "Time for us to leave. Follow me - we're heading straight back to the horses."

                Mavnen and Tadyel followed Vanna silently back to their mounts. Their mission was completely, and it was scarcely past midnight. We might even catch some sleep when we get back, thought Tadyel, happily. Finding it strange that she could be happy, she tried to think about the killing but her tiredness stopped her from forming any coherent thoughts.

                Stymied, Tadyel decided that she'd ask Mavnen about it once the group were mounted. Seeing as she was halfway mounted when she had the thought, she didn't have long to wait.

                "Ven, do you... Do you think we really needed to kill both of those people? I mean, we could've taken the guard by surprise at least," Tadyel muttered after mounting her horse.

                "We could have, if we were lucky," said Vanna. "But it would've been risky."

                "I don't want to take risks for people we're working against," added Mavnen. "So they needed to die to achieve what was best for us."

                Tadyel frowned at the responses, and said, "I guess it would've been very risky." She sat glumly on her horse as the trio made their way back up the road. Mavnen's response worried her a little - would she be so cold about doing what was best for her alone?

                I hope not, Tadyel thought.