1014. Chapter 1014

After Much Ado About Murder

Episode 8.20

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: He who hath no stomach for this fanfic, let him depart, his passport shall be made, But no crowns for convoy will be put in his purse as I make no money from this. Rating: K. Time: See above. (and below).

Looking down, he spotted a short, obese woman with stringy grey hair grabbing a crossbowman who had been hiding. The woman dragged him to his feet and used a large iron soup ladle to send him on his way towards the fight. Huw drew a bead on the man and shot an arrow through his chest. Catching sight of the woman again, he saw her grab a man holding a sheaf of javelins. Although Huw doubted that even the strongest man could throw a javelin the two hundred or more paces between the ships, he put an arrow through the man's throat. Next, the woman grabbed a man with a short hunting bow. Although not as powerful as the English longbow, it was dangerous enough for Huw to kill the pirate bowman. Huw tracked the woman from one part of the deck far below to the other. The woman never seemed to notice that the men she sent towards the battle died soon after she caught them.

Suddenly, Huw saw her talking to a man he hadn't noticed before. He had taken cover behind his ship's thick mainmast, so Huw hadn't seen the well armored man whose armor was covered by an expensive looking surcoat. On his head was a broad brimmed hat with a fancy feather in it.

Huw cursed as the man remained mostly behind the mast. Huw tried to move out a bit on the spar to get a clear shot, but not being a sailor, he began to slip and quickly moved back to the mast, where he could get a secure grip. He kept watch on the man and the old woman. The man leaned forward to say something, and Huw saw his chance. He could only see part of his face, but he loosed an arrow. The arrow took most of the man's nose off, spraying blood onto the old woman. The pirate staggered and exposed his body to Huw. He pulled an armor piercing bodkin pointed arrow from his arrow bag and sent a second arrow into the man's chest.

The old woman looked up and saw Huw at the top of the English ship's mast. She screamed something at Huw and shook her fist at him. She looked around and saw a dozen more pirates coming from the unengaged ships as reinforcements. She grabbed a crossbowman and pointed to Huw. Before the man had located the archer, an arrow pierced his stomach. The old woman grabbed three more men, all of whom died before they could do Huw any harm.

There were no more crossbowmen, or any other pirates that could hit Huw, but he saw the old woman pick up a crossbow. Instead of aiming it at Huw, she dragged out someone who had been hiding in the rowers' benches. Huw saw that it was a woman, then corrected himself. Not a woman, but a girl. She was rather slender and blonde. Huw thought she might be a rather pretty girl. She wore a green dress that was too large for her. He idly wondered if it was a hand me down from an older woman, or loot. The old woman shoved a cocked crossbow into the girl's hands and pointed to Huw, high above them. The girl said something and got a clout on her ear for her trouble. She looked up at Huw and nodded. It seemed to Huw that she was crying. Huw knocked an arrow, drew and loosed, the arrow catching the old woman between her breasts. She flopped onto the deck, dead.

The girl remained looking at Huw, the crossbow in her hands. Huw took careful aim and put an arrow into the deck of the pirate ship, not an inch from the girl's toes. She threw down her weapon and scurried back under one of the rowers' benches.

Huw smiled and began looking for more targets.

Meanwhile, on the deck far below Huw, both Castle and Hamid were very busy. Hamid was trying to keep his six ships at a distance from the where the English longbows could do their work, but the pirates couldn't get close enough to board. Given the waves, wind and tide, it was not an easy job.

Castle was busy making sure his archers kept the enemy decks clear, and that they had a continuing supply of arrows. He also had to make sure that Kate stayed out of harm's way. As Kate was equally trying to keep Rick from harm's way, that caused problems.

"Will you just go below and let me run this battle?" He yelled over the exultant shouts of the archers and the screams of the wounded.

"No!" She yelled back. "My place is beside you."

The argument was interrupted by Alexis, covered from head to foot by a chain mail hauberk, pushing her way past the two, followed by her handgonners. Alexis and the women pushed themselves between the ranks of the archers, and at Alexis' command, opened fire.

At some two hundred paces, the volley of lead balls did little damage. Castle was sure that only two pirates fell. However, the noise, the smoke and the fire sent the pirates further back to the stern of their ship.

"That's the way, ladies!" Alexis screamed. "Now reload."

The women dropped to the deck to reload. When they fired again, something odd happened. A ball of fire shot from one handgonne and struck the bow of the pirate ship and began to smolder.

Castle saw it at once. "Archers, keep any pirates away from that fire." The pirates, seeing a wisp of smoke headed there with buckets of water. None of them made it.

Alexis ran to one of her handgonners. "Beth, how did you do that?" She yelled.

The tall, rangy brunette shrugged. "I dunno, Lady Alexis. It just happened."

"What did you do that no one else did?"

Beth thought for a moment. "The bore on my weapon is a bit bigger than the others. The lead pellet don't fit as tight an' you told us tight is good, like when a man is inside us, so that…"

"Yes!" Alexis interrupted. "I know what I said. But, what did you do?"

"I wrapped the pellet in a bit o' parchment, so it'd be tight like."

"Ladies, wrap parchment around the balls to make them tight." The women laughed, as did Alexis, but they found scraps of parchment and fired on the pirate ships. Only two pieces of burning parchment hit the enemy ship, but they fed the small fire.

The fire was soon blazing in the bow of the ship. Seeing that they couldn't get close enough to the fire to put it out, the pirates began to flee to the next ship. In spite of an arrow storm directed to the second ship, they managed to release the chains that had held the ships together. Much to Castle's dismay, the burning ship began to drift towards his ship.

Castle turned about to try to find Hamid, only to see that the Turk was already getting the oarsmen into position.

"Sir Richard, we need to order the San Angelo, to move as well." Hamid yelled, pointing to the next English ship in line. Luckily, the San Angelo's captain had seen the danger from the burning ship and was moving his own ship out of the way.

The destruction of one pirate ship, as well as the movement of some of Castle's ships away from the pirates, started a chain reaction. The pirate ships began to undo the chains that had held them together so that they could try to escape individually. Two of the smallest ships headed for shore, content to abandon their ships so that the crews could flee to the safety of dry land. The other ships headed out to sea, each headed in a different direction.

"Damn them!" Castle yelled. "They'll get away. We have only six warships to catch eleven pirate craft."

Hamid nodded but carefully watched the fleeing ships. "Sir Richard, we may have a chance. The ships are moving more slowly than is usual, and the oars are not moving in unison as they should." A smile split the Turk's face. "I believe they carried crews that were better at fighting than rowing to face us as they expected a static defensive battle, not a running fight at sea. We have all of our best oarsmen. I believe we can catch most of them."

Hamid began yelling orders to his crew and then turned to Castle. "If we get too close to them, they may try to board us. They're better equipped for close combat than your archers, I think. And there are more of them. I suggest we stay some two hundred paces behind them, and have your archers loft their arrows high so that they will fall on the oarsmen. What do you think?"

Castle nodded. "I'll handle the archers. You keep us two hundred paces away."

Castle ran forward, gathering his archers as he went. He gathered as many bowmen as he could in the bow of the ship. "The pirate ships are taller than our ships, so we need to shoot over them so the arrows will fall inside the ship and hit their oarsmen. Understand?"

The archers nodded in agreement and began selecting arrows for the fight. When they were two hundred paces behind the pirate ship, Castle roared, "Archers! Loose"

A good fifty arrows flew through the air and disappeared. No one could see their targets, but they could see oars suddenly stop moving, causing other oars to become entangled. As more arrows were shot, the pirate ship began to lurch drunkenly to the starboard and fewer and fewer oars were being worked.

Castle yelled at Alexis. "If we get a bit closer, can you set fire to the ship?"

The redhead laughed. "We can sure as hell try." She and her handgonners pushed their way through the archers as Hamid increased the speed of the oars. At fifty feet the ten handgonnes fired. Only one blazing scrap of parchment hit the ship, but it flew through the stern galleys and into a cabin in the stern. They could see a small fire started.

"Sir Richard!" Hamid yelled. "One of their ships is getting away. Should we leave this one to burn and go after the other?"

Castle wasn't sure the small fire was enough to destroy the ship, but he was sure that the crew had taken severe casualties. "Go after the other one."

Hamid changed course. As he did so, Castle scanned the area for his other ships. His five other ships were all attacking their enemies in the same manner that Castle had. He saw storms of arrows fly from the English ships to the pirate craft. One of his captains had thought to use fire arrows and had set one ship ablaze.

However, eight pirate ships had managed to run past the English and were headed rapidly away. Castle cursed. "With only six ships we can't destroy them all. Damn them."