By this time, five knights had made their way to the rear of the column, leading a few dozen or so soldiers with them. The cavalry was almost upon the column now, with a long trail of fallen or dead horses and riders behind them. The knights barely had time to organize the soldiers, collect spears and mount them in the ground before the cavalry arrived. Half a dozen horses were killed or wounded on the spears immediately. Those behind them collided or were forced to stop, and several of the horsemen dismounted, charging the column's defenses on foot. Chaos now ensued as the knights and soldiers drew swords and engaged the men, who carried swords or axes themselves. The hostile bowmen stayed behind, firing blindly over the crowd of horses that were now trapped between the fight ahead and archers behind.
"Archers!" Dearn called to the Araluan archers below, who had stopped firing since the cavalry had arrived. "They have a group of bowmen behind that mess of horses. Get as high as you can, however you can do it, and take care of them!"
He didn't linger to watch their response; dashing across the carts, collecting up arrows from them as he did so. In the end, he had a good dozen or so and had to load them into his quiver to store them all. He began to fire them down on the archers at the rear of the horses until he'd emptied the quiver again. He repeated the process twice more, and then saw arrows arcing in at them from other directions. The Araluan archers had finally taken position, it seemed, and now the enemy bowmen were dropping like flies. Assured they could finish them off, Dearn turned his attention the ground fight going on below.
Two of the knights had already been killed and the rest were locked in combat with the enemies. The soldiers aided them though; and together they outnumbered the hostiles by a narrow count. Things began to look positive as fights turned more two-on-one that one-on-one, but suddenly there was a yell from the far side of the column and soldiers began clambering onto the carts behind Dearn.
A dozen soldiers had emerged from the treeline closest to the column; cutting down the guards almost immediately. They climbed the carts, expecting to easily break out the eight prisoners. What they weren't counting on was Dearn, standing opposite them. He raised his bow, drawing it back, and called to them across the space, "Get down."
One laughed. "Not a chance!"
Dearn shrugged. "If you say so."
Two of the men fell before the others could scatter across the cart, looking for cover. There was none. Dearn had taken down three more before he ran out of arrows. Three of the survivors jumped down to the prison cart and began desperately trying to break it. Dearn jumped down himself, careful to avoid arrow shafts that would trip him, and drew his two knives. He rushed over and slashed the closest man on the chest, shoving him toward his friends with his arm. He quickly blocked a sword strike from the second man, countering by lodging the smaller throwing knife into his stomach. The third and final man wielded an axe, however, and Dearn cursed before leaping out of the way of his first strike.
The double knife defense was useless against axemen, even if he had his throwing knife. It wasn't exactly shouted across Araluen, but at close range, axemen were lethally effective against Rangers. Dearn dodged around the cart and came face to face with the prisoners yet again.
"Not so arrogant now, are you?" one jeered.
"A nice, flat knife blade like this would make a good substitute for an arrow head," he grunted back.
The axeman approached round the corner, swinging the axe savagely, but all he managed to do was lodge it in the edge of the cart. Dearn rushed forward, but the man was stronger than he thought, and managed to dislodge the axe before he reached him. He began to swing it around, but before he could put the power into the attack, an arrow took him in the shoulder. Another swiftly followed it, hitting him in the thigh, and Dearn finished him with a swift blow to the chest. He nodded to the pair of archers who had taken position on the carts above, and they responded likewise.
By this time, the four surviving soldiers had forfeited their attempts to free the prisoners alone and were attacking the group of knights and soldiers who still fought the cavalrymen outside the defensive ring. Dearn clambered back up the carts and stood beside the two archers. The situation wasn't good - there were only two knights left and a third of the soldiers. Meanwhile, there was a good two dozen enemies, including the four who had attacked from behind. Now, the remaining forces were encircled and Dearn could do nothing but watch as they were struck down. He ordered the archers to fall back and turned to the remaining three knights and dozen soldiers only the other side of the carts.
"We have two dozen soldiers coming for us, and it's quite possible they have more on the way," he explained. "Our best chance is to shift one of the carts, get these prisoners out and try to escape on foot."
The knights got straight to it, with half the soldiers helping, leaving the rest of the Araluan forces to defend until they could finish the job.
"There's thick treeline on the right side, so they're unlikely to come through that way. You six soldiers, hold the right flank. How many archers do we have left?"
"Seven, sir!"
"Four of you hold with them; the rest of you fan out on the carts and tell me if they try to get around another way. Shoot at them if you need to. Go!"
The Araluans moved to do as they were instructed, but Dearn knew they had a slim chance of success. Each of these men had pledged to give their lives in service of Araluen if necessary, but he'd rather keep as many alive as he could. He knew it would be impossible for them all to survive, considering they were outnumbered as they were.
"Cart's clear!"
Dearn looked down at the knights, seeing they had indeed cleared the cart. One drew his sword and sheared the lock clean off the prison cart, and began to roughly clear it of prisoners. Once the eight were out, Dearn said, "Keep an eye on them. They're sneaky ones."
Turning to the three archers, he called, "We've got them! Come on!"
Dearn dropped down to the ground, calling his horse to him quickly. He ordered it run off down the path, to the nearest castle. As a Ranger horse, he knew it would be able to outrun the hostile soldiers, who had the barrier of the column to get around, and they would be searching for the prisoners, not a horse. He planned to bring the prisoners to the same castle he now sent his horse to - but not through the same route. He would take the remaining men and the prisoners through the thick woodlands to the right of the column, where the dozen soldiers had emerged in their attempt to free the prisoners. Turn out they got what the wanted, Dearn contemplated grimly, watching the archers withdraw to his position.
"Through the thickest of the trees over there," he ordered the remaining three knights, nine soldiers and six archers. He shook his head sadly, considering how many they had lost in their defense, only to have failed.
The prisoners were bunched up together, swearing at the soldiers as they roughly pushed them into the narrow gaps between the trees. Dearn again brought up the rear of the group, his quiver now stocked with arrows he'd scavenged in the previous few minutes. Looking back through the gaps in the trees, he saw the soldiers spilling into the gap in the carts, having not yet figured out what had happened.
It took several hours, but they made it out of the forest, not encountering any further attacks, and made it to the castle Dearn had sent his horse. It was past midnight by that point, the growing darkness likely having discouraged their pursuers from following them into the forest. He had sent the surviving men to rest and have their injuries inspected at once, and explained the situation to the fief's baron and castle lord, who had understood immediately and had the prisoners locked away until a message could be sent to Araluen explaining what had happened. Castle security was raised severely in fear of the surviving thirty-odd men who had attacked the column, but nothing came of it. The men likely melted out of their ranks after that point, disheartened that they had come so close to their quarry but failed to retrieve it.
The column had been devastated, losing nine of its original twelve knights, forty-one of its fifty soldiers and nine of its fifteen archers. But the prisoners had been secured and after two day's stay at the castle, a convoy from the Araluen fief itself came to secure the prisoners, and this time only the Ranger accompanied them to Castle Araluen; the men stayed to recuperate or return to the Fenway fief.
