No amount of warrior training or trouble in life had been able to remove her need to just stop once in a while and smell the flowers or admire the grandeur of nature surrounding her. Today she was marveling, however at a series of manmade creations the likes of which she had never seen before. Valley up and down covered in irrigated terraces, where rice bushels were growing.
"Little Dragon, if we're to make it back to camp before dusk, we should leave now," Master Fong suggested from his seat on the riding horse she had demanded he used as long as they were in the field.
"I guess," she replied and cast another glance out over the valley and the small village at the bottom. She spun Ghost around and tapped her sides twice. They set off on a steady gait, which made Gabrielle feel her sore bottom with every step. They had been patrolling the southern regions for nearly a month now and had seen nothing of the enemy. Every few days the couriers came with reports of the war, sometimes good sometimes bad, but none of it showing any sign that she would be able to do any good with her small regiment of cavalry and conscripted infantry, which they had picked up from this region's capitol.
"Aren't we supposed to receive another courier today?" Master Fong asked.
"Yup, but that can't really excite me anymore…" She paused for a while. "Damn it Fong I am going nuts waiting around down here. We're doing no good here and there is sure as Tarterus many other places and armies, which would be happy to be bolstered with a regiment of cavalry," she ranted.
Master Fong nodded. "True. And there is soon no reason to claim that you don't understand our army or military culture. You are a well liked commander, Little Dragon, whether you know it or not. Sure they aren't sure how you'll do in fight just yet? But I know from Chang that you're a very capable commander, when it comes to taking care of your regiment," he told her.
"Yes I know, but as long as I don't prove myself as a capable field commander in a battle there is no way the generals are going to let me help out. I am so sure that I could do some good. I mean, just look at last week, when we got the report on how that idiot General Bai got his ass kicked even while outnumbering his enemy. That fool completely ignored that his enemy's army is largely comprised of cavalry instead of footmen," Gabrielle said and grumbled as they rode towards the camp that she had set up just a day's wagon ride from the major coastal town in the area to discourage her men from going there too often.
Gabrielle had gotten used to focusing on her hearing and listening to what lay behind the sounds and did so unconsciously like had done so many times already this day. She heard hooves again the packed dirt of the road. A man's labored breathing was overlaid by the gasps of a horse ridden almost to death. A wounded man was riding for his life in their direction. Gabrielle turned Ghost and set off in gallop. "Follow me," she commanded and rode back the way they had come. Confused but trusting his young friend Master Fong carefully turned the horse that he didn't have so good control over and set off after the blonde warrior woman.
Gabrielle heard the man drop of his horse just before she crested the small hillock on the road. She saw the horse stop and shuddered at the sight of its sweating body and foaming mouth. The man was dressed like a Chinese soldier, but his scabbard was empty and he seemed to be clutching his side as he struggled back on his feet. Gabrielle had Ghost stop and quickly jumped out of her saddle to run up to the soldier.
"Please help me," he said and nearly collapsed into her arms as she put a hand on his shoulder.
"What happened?" She asked and saw that he was bleeding from a small wound in his back. It looked like he had been shot with a crossbow and had then just broken of the shaft of the arrow.
"We were falling back," he gasped in pain as she examined the wound with gentle hands. "But Djenga the general of our enemy's army had set up a trap in the pass that we had to use. General Bai was dying, but he still managed to command me to ride this way and warn the Warrior Bard. To tell the poor souls guarding the coast that the enemy is coming and they are taking no prisoners," he passed out. Gabrielle checked his pulse, then ran up to Ghost and got a small knife, needle and thread from her pack. Quickly she ran back and cut the arrowhead from his back and quickly sewed the wound shut. Then she tore some of her clothing for bandages just as Master Fong caught up to her.
"That looks like one of our soldiers," he commented.
"It is. I'm getting my wish. The enemy is coming this way. It seems that General Bai managed to get his army completely defeated," she said and while making a field bandage for the wounded soldier. Her eyes betrayed a weary sadness that could only be seen in the eyes of those having seen war.
"We need to get back this guy back to camp alive. He has a lot of important information in his head that I'm going to need, if we're to survive the next week or so. He should make it," she said after finishing his bandage and turned to regard his poor horse. It was barely standing and she could see that if it wasn't already a complete loss then it would not be able to get them back to camp quick enough. She took the wounded soldier and loaded him onto the back of Ghost after apologizing to her warhorse for the wear; she was going to put on her.
"How close are they?" Fong asked and looked in the direction the rider had come from.
"Depending on how hard he has been riding his horse and judging from his wound I'd say they're at least four days march from here. No army moves very far in a day especially not one, which has just been in combat with another army. We might even get as much as a week, but somehow I doubt it. Come on," she commanded and began riding back towards their camp again.
Fong looked after her then shook his head with a smile and followed her again. Sometimes he was amazed how well this woman handled sudden changes in her life. She seemed to take everything in stride. Maybe it was the effect so many years of adventuring, maybe it was just who she was.
The soldier was safe in the healer's tent as Gabrielle strode towards Chang's tent. "Captain, could I have a word," she asked before entering. Chang was sitting at the wooden table that he had gotten carted down here.
"Yes, commander," he inquired politely. Gabrielle couldn't quite figure out, if he had accepted her as his commander yet or not.
"I just found a wounded rider on my patrol. We can expect an army several times the size of ours to arrive within four days to a week. General Bai's army apparently got in the way of Djenga and unlike the last time they didn't get away with a bloody nose this time. Bai managed to get his army defeated and shattered. Maybe there will come some stragglers in over the next few days, but we can expect some of them to be spies or even saboteurs. So all in all I guess we're in a bit of a jam," she explained and waited patiently for him to recover.
Chang rose from his chair, got a map and unrolled it on the table. "We're here." He indicated a spot on the map. "The last reports on General Bai's army said that they were around here. Now his retreat probably took him in this direction and if Djenga and his army are heading this way, they'll probably take this route." His finger slid down a series of mostly dry valleys heading towards the city of Suzhou, which they were guarding.
"Okay then. We need to do several things. First of all there should be dispatched a messenger to Suzhou so that they can prepare for an attack or siege. In the mean time we need to come up with a way to defeat Djenga's army." Gabrielle sat down on one of Chang chairs. He followed suit.
"First of all we need information. We need to know more about which way he is going to come from, Chang. We also need to know his numbers and intent," she commented and studied the map once again.
"We can probably get control of Bai's spies, but if he was so easily defeated maybe we don't want their information. They could very well be traitors," he mused. "I will have our best scouts out before midday, Little Dragon."
Like so many others amongst her soldiers Chang had taken to using Fong's nickname for her as it seemed more personal than any of the other names she had given them to use. Gabrielle knew very well that speculation about her real identity was rampant amongst the officers, who dealt with her everyday. The soldiers were a bit more indifferent probably because they assumed she was just a figurehead for Chang or Fong. "Could you get the scouts and messenger on their way? I would like to sit here and study your maps for a little while," she explained.
Chang rose and walked to the door. "What should we do, if we manage to get hold of a spy?" He asked before ducking outside.
"If he is one of Bai's old ones, get his information and if he asks for anything on us give him something bogus in return. If they want to come here, bring them then I'll deal with them. In fact if you can, try to capture some of Djenga's scouts, I think they could tell us a lot. Oh and make sure to tell our scouts as little as possible about anything. To them we're not moving from this spot." Gabrielle turned her face back down to look at the map of the region.
"We are moving then," Chang asked after a few moments of thought.
"I don't know yet. If we are then I'll leave someone here to guide them to us. I don't know enough about this Djenga guy yet to try tricks like that. But give me a little time and we'll see," Gabrielle explained and rose to follow Chang out. "I'll go look over all reports we've had on this guy. Maybe I can figure him out," she said and walked towards the huge tent she shared with Fong.
Fong seemed to be writing in one of the books that he had brought from Chang'an. He had run out of fresh paper, for the reports that he diligently sent to the Emperor every week, just last week. So now he had begun recording the event as they happened in the back of a book on warfare that General Wu had begun writing and had asked for Fong's opinion on. Now he used the remaining paper for his reports instead. "Ah, my dear, I've talked to the healer and he said that the soldier you saved will probably wake up today or tomorrow," he commented as she began sorting through the scrolls and papers scattered throughout their shared abode.
"Good, I hope he can tell me more about what happened and how this Djenga fellow fights. The more we know of him and the sooner the better. If I can figure him out and maybe even choose and prepare the battlefield we may have a good chance of getting out of this more or less unscathed," she said and began reading one of the scrolls.
Her grasp of languages was astounding to Fong. He had seen many people struggle to learn to either speak or read their languages, but this woman seemed to grasp them even down to the nuances of the different dialects within short periods of time. He looked down at the page and took up his quill to write the next entry to his journal.
The midday sun was intense next day as Gabrielle ran out to greet the first of her returning scouts. The courier with her battle report hadn't arrived and so she assumed that he had been intercepted, however the soldier she had rescued, had woken up and been lucid already in the evening the day before and he had given her valuable information on the size and fighting style of her enemy. Both Chang and Fong agreed with her assessment that General Bai had been defeated by a combination of trusting his spies a lot, his own brilliance too much and underestimating the abilities of Djenga's cavalry. The cavalry seemed to be his greatest strength and the unit this general understood best if Gabrielle had figured him correctly. Now all she needed was some information on his route but it could take days before she learned. She approached the scout leader, who was talking heatedly with Chang.
"Why did they come back already?" She asked.
"They were ambushed by several foot soldiers from Djenga's army. My guess would be that he is seeding the hills and valleys with them so that he can approach more or less undetected. It could turn into a problem, if all our scouts and spies are met with so much resistance," Chang answered and looked to her for answers.
"It is just as well. All right Captain, I'm leaving you in command. I want you to get everyone ready to march within the hour I return. I need to go out and choose a battlefield anyhow, so why don't we turn it into a little scouting trip while we're at it. Get these men some fresh horses then we'll go," she commanded and turned on her heel to go get Ghost.
Gabrielle and the four scouts sat under a large tree, while their horses were tied to another one just feet away. Heavy rain pelted the area and turned everything wet and the ground muddy. "This is both good and bad. It's good, because this will hinder the approach of Djenga's army. It's bad, because I'm bloody freezing," Gabrielle thought and shivered so bad that her teeth nearly clattered. They had been on the road for nearly two days now and it had started rain earlier the day they had left the camp. They had seen neither hide nor hair of either Djenga's scouts or soldiers yet.
Gabrielle suddenly heard a horse snort and hooves treading through the heavy mud coming down the road towards them. "Hide the horses then yourselves," she commanded the four scouts and began crawling into the tree which had heavy branches reaching out over the muddy road.
The scouts had disappeared with all the horses into the heavy undergrowth surrounding the road and left Gabrielle alone. She glanced out over the road trying to pierce the veil of water created by the rain, her hearing incapable of breaching the sound of thousands of drops of water falling, she contented herself with waiting. Two men on horses appeared through the curtain of rain and rode towards them. Their differing appearance, armor and weapons marked them clearly as members of Djenga's army. Gabrielle for a moment wished she hadn't left the Chakram with Varia and Cyane and vowed to collect it as soon as she had finished this war, as they passed below her branch. Gabrielle grabbed the branch with both hands and swung herself down with both her legs cocked for a split kick. Just as she had picked up speed, she kicked each of the men in the back sending them flying out of their saddles. She dropped to stand, while their horses ran off spooked by the sudden disappearances of their riders.
One of the men staggered to his feet.
The scouts came running out of the undergrowth with their weapons drawn.
Gabrielle drew her sai, kicked the enemy soldier in his chest returning him to the ground.
The scouts surrounded the two men, who chose wisely to surrender. Gabrielle watched without glee, how her soldiers disarmed then tied up their two enemies. Gabrielle walked over to the two prisoners and the soldiers surrounding them. "Go get our horses, while I have a little chat with these boys," she commanded
Just as soon as the scouts were out of immediate earshot, she winced and put the Pinch on one of the prisoners. He immediately started choking. "I've cut off the flow of blood to your brain. You have 30 seconds left to live. If you tell me, what I want to know I'll save your life," Gabrielle said and tried very hard to sound intimidating in spite of shivering in the cold rain.
"How large is Djenga's army?" She asked slipping into the language of the northern plains that she had learned from Xena after telling about her and Borias' contacts with them.
"8-8000," he stammered through the pain.
"Good, now which way is he taking towards Suzhou?" Gabrielle grabbed his armor and lifted him closer as he whispered.
"He is going through these valleys," the choking soldier managed. Gabrielle knew she had still around 20 seconds left.
"How far behind you, is he?" She whispered the question, while holding the paling soldier closer.
"Three days at least, more probably with all this blasted rain," he sighed as blood flowed from his nose. Gabrielle felt the usual cold shiver in her bones as she remembered the times; she had been put into the Pinch. It was a painful and scary experience. She undid the Pinch then mercifully knocked him unconscious to save him from the hours of headaches that almost always followed a Pinch.
As the scouts approached with their horses she sauntered over and took the rein of Ghost. "We will bring them back to camp," she indicated the prisoners and waited until the scouts had secured them on their horses. "Let's go," she commanded and they rode back through the rain and continued even into the night.
Gabrielle paced back and forth before Chang's table. She had gotten back a few hours ago and just managed to get a little sleep before she had raced over to consider the map of the region again. Outside the rain continued to pelt her army. Gabrielle looked out the opening and watched the rain hitting the muddy ground. An inspiration came to her. Quickly she dashed over to the maps and looked at it, but instead of concentrating on the route that she had been told her enemy would take she looked at the valleys full of irrigated fields and the dams further up north that controlled the flow of the rivers in the area. Gabrielle smiled for the first time in days and quickly dashed out of the tent.
"Chang," she yelled as she approached the huge series of tents, where they kept their horses.
"Yes, Little Dragon," a voice answered from shoeing area.
"I got a plan," she explained. It was enough to coax him away from his horse and out into the rain.
"I'm going to need some, who knows the countryside around here like the back of his hand and the fastest rider we can spare in combat. You'll have to leave after you get me that. I want you to go out with a sizeable detachment of scouts and keep exact track of Djenga's army without getting caught understand. When they enter the Zhou valley I want you to light a signal that I'm going to make in a few moments. Okay? Okay," she decided.
Chang only nodded mutely and ran off to do what she had asked him to before getting his men ready to ride out. Just as he was about to saddle his horse his commander appeared at his side once again managing to get close to him without him noticing. "Here, when they enter the valley set fire to the cloth and throw it away. Don't go near it. Oh and here is a reserve if the first one fails to work. I didn't have time to test it," she explained and dashed off. He examined the strange bamboo tubes wrapped in paper that she had given him. His eyes widened as he realized what the black dust on the paper could be. He looked at the spot where his commander had been standing. It would seem this woman had knowledge that was now forgotten in this land, knowledge that had been forbidden for ages. Knowledge, he realized, which had not seen the light of day since the legendary Xena and her partner Gabrielle had defeated the last Green Dragon and his sister a generation ago. Chang suddenly swallowed as he recalled the legends of Xena. She was told to have been a tall black haired woman with sky blue eyes, an undefeatable warrior filled with the wisdom of the heavens. At her side a small blonde woman with green eyes, who fought wars with sadness in her heart and either a staff or Sais in her hands. Gabrielle the battling bard, she was named, a storyteller of legendary capacity, a warrior taught by Xena and friend to all good people. He had recently heard stories that those two legends had returned from the West as if no time had passed for them and gone onto the mysterious islands of the rising sun. There it was told, the mighty warrior princess had died honorably making the battling bard her successor. Chang swallowed the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat and swung himself into his saddle. It was only a suspicion, but it was possible, he thought as he rode out of the camp with his men.
Gabrielle was insanely busy. She had once again broken her promise to Xena and made black powder, but this time she wouldn't use it to kill people only to send signals back and forth and clear a few obstacles. Gabrielle stuffed the last black powder bomb into its bamboo tube and quickly set about destroying the ingredients and implements she had been using. Then she took the bombs and went out to talk to the Lieutenants and their small squads of riders that she had decided would be send out to do this job.
The days had seemed filled with fevered activity as her infantry dug ditches in the rice fields and put the sharpened bamboo spikes into them, while her cavalry prepared the fight that would be fought in the hills surrounding the valley. Now all they could do was to wait in their positions, while the forward scouts scuttled back and forth reporting the approaching army. Her luck was holding and the rain had continued on and off again until late last night. Now she hoped that everything would go down as she had hoped. Fong stood beside her in their carefully crafted shelter just like the hundreds of other shelters hiding her cavalry all through out the overgrown sides of the valley. Only the bottom of the valley where a shallow river had cut a path that was easily traversable by an army and Gabrielle had carefully seeded that river with underwater ditches just where it spilled out onto the plain leading towards Suzhou. She hoped it would be enough. Then far away she heard the boom of Chang's black powder signal. Hopefully it wouldn't alert the approaching army too much.
One of her lookouts came running. "Djenga and his cavalry are riding fast through the valley," he reported.
"Damn that man," Gabrielle said and looked out of the leaves. Her surprise hadn't arrived yet, but she had given strict orders that her troops were not to attack the enemy until they came up into the hills.
She watched in concentration as Djenga, a rail thin and muscled man, and nearly a thousand of his troops headed towards the mouth of the valley. The rest were only cautiously entering the valley. No matter what she did, they would discover the trap, when they reached the spikes. Suddenly a couple of armed soldier wearing the colors of Bai's destroyed army ran out of the forest into the middle of a fording of the river not far behind Djenga and his troops. They ran like possessed trying to avoid discovery just as a sudden thundering rang throughout the valleys. Gabrielle would've smirked, if she had been mean-spirited, as she imagined the huge wall of dirty water from all the previously dammed and rain filled rivers in the entire area suddenly refilling their old river bed. Her bombs had worked and now the dammed rivers would help her.
"Those men are most likely stragglers from Bai's army," Fong said after squinting his eyes.
"By the gods, how did they get down there without anyone noticing," Gabrielle yelled and vaulted into the saddle of Ghost. She set off in full gallop crashing through their covering, barreling at high speed towards the helpless soldiers, who were in a very bad place to be right then.
"What is she doing?" One of her officers asked in amazement.
"What her nature tells her to," Fong answered and kept his eyes locked on the progress of his friend.
A wall of water filled with dirt and timber thundered into the valley at high speed. It came from all the lowlands. It tore into the huge army of the Mongols like it wasn't there and thundered down the valley towards Djenga and his troops. And towards the helpless soldiers struggling with the fording meant for horses.
Commands were yelled and the formerly so ordered columns of Djenga's armies split into chaos as they made for the hills. They waded right into the arms of Gabrielle waiting army. But Gabrielle saw none of this.
She screamed: "Grab onto my saddle," as she raced with the approaching wall of water towards the soldiers trying desperately to leave the suddenly lethal place to be.
She rode across the bare stone. The brownish white wave headed down the final bend towards the ford.
Ghost spurted into the still shallow water of the stream.
The soldier finally saw her.
"Jump on," she screamed, but the noise of the raging river drowned out her voice.
The water was a couple of horse lengths away.
The men grabbed hold of her saddle as she passed them. Ghost's muscles strained and she slowed as their weight was added. Gabrielle spurred her on as they headed for the safer shore.
She looked over her shoulder.
The water was frothing at their heels.
And suddenly they were riding through undergrowth instead of river. Gabrielle breathed a sigh of relief and turned her head to survey the battlefield, while the men let go of her horse and the remnants of the enemy army passed by in the raging river still only a few paces away. Things were progressing almost as planned. The large army had been shattered and probably severely damaged by the flood, in fact only the force that had followed the general was still fighting.
Only problem was that most of them had chosen to ride to one side of the now raging river and so there was no way for half of her army to help the other half as they fought to keep the cavalry contained. She was stuck on the wrong side, so she and the officers she soon managed to gather could only watch with chagrin as Djenga and the meager remains of his army fought their way out of the valley and headed back out into the wilderness. "This will take a little longer than expected then," Gabrielle sighed and went to help her soldiers as they began constructing a sturdy bridge, so they could rejoin their comrades.