Amazonian Support 6

Lancelot looked to the sky and said as he stood up, "The day grows darker and I still have to speak with Arthur. When we celebrate our victory, would you do me the honor of your company tonight?"

Sarmatia gave him a sly look from her violet orbs and said with an over exaggerated sigh, "If I must!"

Lancelot chuckled, placed a small kiss on her cheek, next to her lips, and left.

When he found Arthur, he sighed. That bloody man was one again bent over his maps and rubbing his eyes.

"You know, you'll ruin your eyes that way."

Arthur sighed, sat down in his large chair warily, and said as he rubbed in between his eyes, "Yes, I know. You only tell me every other night."

Lancelot crossed his arms and said teasingly, "You should take my advice then. I am hardly every wrong."

Arthur barked a laugh at that. There were a great many times he could remember right off the bat when his second was wrong about something. Lancelot's brown-black eyes twinkled at him. That blasted man! He did that on purpose!

"Arthur, what are we going to do? Even if this device of the Princesses work, we still have the larger Saxon army approaching from the north. I do not mean to sound harsh but we are leaving this land in a few days. When the time comes, we will not be here to protect Hadrian's Wall. What will happen to all those that live here?"

Arthur sighed and said warily, "I do not know. I struggled with this too just a while ago. I tried to think of something else like…"

"Like what, battle plans! Arthur, you as well as I know that such things are a waste of time, and yet you continue to do so. We can only plan for so much. In battle, things change. You must stop putting all this pressure upon your shoulders. You will collapse from the load if you do not share the blame. I am just as much apart of the planning as you are, and yet you do not let me take my part of the blame. I am not without fault. You know this best of all. Please Arthur, as your second, as your best friend, nay as your brother, let me take some of your pain." Pleaded Lancelot earnestly as he placed his hands upon his brother's broad shoulders.

Arthur sighed and said, "Come, we will discuss this later. The ladies, I'm told, have finished their little project."

Lancelot sighed but followed his friend and captain loyally.

As the twelve fighters converged in the courtyard, they saw the wandering Roman troops entering through Hadrian's Wall.

They paused at seeing the unfamiliar, beautiful women, but quickly moved on as those very same women eyed them dangerously. Arthur nodded in approval of the Roman's actions. He knew his Knights were already taken in by the Amazon Princesses, and he didn't want to get in the middle of a fight concerning which man got to bed the women.

When the last Roman soldier came through the large wooden gate, Arthur started, "You have been called back from leave because a group of one hundred Saxons are marching upon us from the south. We received this warning from our newest allies, the Amazon Princesses! I want all of you armed and ready within the hour. The Saxons should be arriving within two! When our scouts return, we shall know more and I shall explain our battle strategy to you then. I expect each and everyone of you to be ready for battle within thirty minutes, understood!"

Each Roman soldier placed their fisted right hand over their heart, and bowed. When Arthur dismissed them, the soldiers ran to their chambers to ready for battle.

Sarmatia nodded in approval and said, "They follow you well, but many will die in this battle, my King."

Arthur glanced at her, still a bit unnerved with her usage of the title 'My King', and asked, "How is that?"

She gave him the full power of her vibrant violet eyes and said strongly, "I was watching three of them earlier with Lancelot. They are good, don't get me wrong, but they will not last long against the horrors that is the Saxon army. The Saxons are large and carry with them brute strength. While they do not use armor, their blows are powerful enough to damage your soldier's armors. Plus, they depend too much on their armor. I witnessed all three of your footmen, let five powerful strokes hit their armors, when they could have just as easily sidestepped, attacked, and won the scrimmage battle. They do not account for their weaknesses because they do not think they have any. This is something that needs to be discussed with them."

As Arthur opened his mouth, Sarmatia added, "I can almost guarantee that 25 of them will die or be wounded when this battle is finished."

Arthur made to argue, but closed his mouth and sighed. She was right of course. He knew it too. He had even been talking to his Roman Legionar captains about the soldiers and their dependency on their armors, but the captains wouldn't hear of it. One even had the gall to tell him straight out, 'Our army is the greatest in the world! Our armor is the toughest ever created. I think you've spent too much time with those Sarmatian conscripts, Artorius. It has made you weak and disgusting!'

Arthur smirked. It was good to be Commander. He sent his captain to the boot barracks, and that same captain was still there working on fixing all the broken down and beaten leather boots that his fellow countrymen had discarded.

He nodded and said, "Yes, unfortunately this is true. It saddens me to say this but, my fellow Romans have grown too complacent with the Empire's power in this world. They do not think that anything can bring them harm. It is this arrogance that will be the Empire's undoing. And I have tried to talk to the captain's about this, but nothing short of a direct order will change things. Unfortunately, while I can order them to change, I cannot make their ways of thought change. They will continue to think as they do until they find proof otherwise."

The group grew silent. Even the Knights felt bad for their fellow Roman soldiers-just a little. While many of the Roman officers were evil men and bad to interact with because of their arrogance, some of the lowly foot soldiers were actually all right to be around. Some of them the Knights could actually claim to have some warm feelings for.

Arthur continued, "Well, enough of this, tell us about these rigs you've created."

Sarmatia looked at the Knights and started, "Well, for every one man needed to protect the wall, two bows are needed. We've gathered over sixty bows and connected them with over one thousand feet of rope that span the entire wall."

Areia interrupted, "We've placed the bows in a standard standing position using some grain bags we found in a storage room. Each arrow has already been placed into the bowstring and pulled back into firing position. With some twine, we have connected the arrows tail to a firing mechanism that is also connected to a lever and pulley system. When the Saxons reach a specific area, marked by bright white marble stones, the string will be pulled by the men closest to it, therefore, firing the arrows. When the first set of arrows are released, the Saxons will go under their shields for cover. When they do that, the second group on the east wall will release their arrows. If by some miracle, the Saxons have some intelligence and go to cover their northern side, we think it would be best for the west wall to release their arrow barrage, followed lastly by the north side."

Romana ended, "If this is successful, we should either wound or kill a minimal of thirty Saxons and a maximum of sixty. More than likely, we should hurt or kill no more than forty-five though."

Sarmatia looked to her king and asked, "Is this to your liking? Or should be change things up a bit?"

Arthur and Lancelot shared a look. This was even more than they could have hoped for! If the women's plans went as they strategize it, their losses from battle would be next to non-existent! But, there were the new weapons to worry about.

Just then Tristan and Theaia rode into the Wall and dismounted. Both of them looked grave. Tristan was also pulling a large wooden object that looked very dangerous.

"Tristan, what do you have to report?" asked Arthur worried.

Tristan looked at his commander and said blandly, "They have no more than one hundred men like the Princesses told, but they have ten of these armor piercing weapons, not including this one. Lady Theaia and I had to kill nearly ten of the Saxons just to claim this one. We were lucky that the ten men assigned to this weapon were isolated from the rest of the army or we would not have this to study from. They are also using tactics used by the Woads. They are hiding themselves within the forest and not coming through the towns and main roads. If it weren't for Lady Theaia, I would have overlooked them simply because I was looking for them on the roads. I did not think to look for them in the forest."

Arthur and Lancelot both gained worried looks. This wasn't good. Saxons were actually using smart battle tactics…they needed to look the weapon over quickly.

Arthur cleared his throat and said, "Okay, this is the plan. I want Sarmatia and Lancelot to study the weapon. I'll have Jols bring you both your battle armor. I want Areia and Galahad to debrief Theaia and Tristan on the battle plans, and I want the others to join me with the courtyard with the other Roman soldier when you have readied yourself for battle. Is this clear?"

Everyone nodded in compliance as the two curly raven hared warriors moved to inspect the Saxon's weapon closer.

When the courtyard was empty, Sarmatia said, "He is a good leader, no."

Already knowing whom she was talking about, Lancelot nodded distractedly and said, "Yes, he is. Arthur is one of the best men I have ever known."

"Even greater than your father?"

Lancelot snorted and said, "I can barely remember what he looks like let alone how he acted, but yes. If I had to rank him against my father, I'd say he falls very short of the mark."

"But why?" asked the High Princess of the Amazons curiously.

Lancelot sighed and said, "My father, from what I do remember, he was a very stubborn man. Whatever he thought must be the right of it, and if you were to tell him wrong, he hit you. Don't get me wrong, he was a gentle man to my family and I, but he was a right devil to others. If someone disagreed with them, he'd do everything he could to eh…persuade them to his point of view. I remember a friend of mine, his father disagreed with my father, and the next day, my friend's father was black and blue and dying from infection. My friend never spoke to me again, which wasn't very long since the Romans arrived two days later and I was brought here against my will. I loved my father, and perhaps I still do, but I know this for certain-Arthur is the best man that I know. He maybe only a year and a half older than I, but he guided me to be the man who I am today-not my father."

Sarmatia looked up from her scrutinizing, smiled, and said, "That's good. I also agree with you. Arthur is one mad that we Amazons will willingly follow to the death. As a matter of fact, our entire population-all ten tribes, comprising of two hundred men, women, and children each-will be joining us within the week. I know, your freedom is to be soon, but this place and its people need to be protected. I know this is Arthur's wish, so we will stay and help fight off the main Saxon army."

Lancelot stared at her for a good long while with his mouth open. He couldn't believe it! This woman, who had no allegiance to Briton or them, was willing to stay and fight a battle that they themselves were thinking of abandoning! She truly was a dream-come-true!

She straightened out as Jols arrived with a wooden carriage. Inside the wagon was there battle armor.

"Here you go Lancelot, Princess Sarmatia." Exclaimed the squire softly as he stopped the wagon just before them.

Lancelot smiled at the squire and said thankfully, "Thank you Jols. Go tend to Arthur. We can handle armoring ourselves."

The short slightly overweight squire nodded and rushed back inside the fort.

The two glanced at one another and Sarmatia said, "I'll help you prepare since my armor is more light weight and I have less of it to put on. While we do this, we can discuss what we've both learned from this weapon, agreed?"

Lancelot nodded and said, "Agreed."

As she helped him to put on his shin guards, Sarmatian started, "I saw that there is no permanent metal workings. This means that this weapon is probably a prototype and this is likely to be a test run. But they must need real world testing to see how effective they are in battle environments."

Lancelot grinned and said, "I agree. Did you also see that there were no locking devices? That probably means that they are meant to be used only once, maybe twice, before they become useless."

The violet-eyed princess nodded and said, "Yes, and there are only two arrow-lances on it. That also supports your theory about how many times it can be used."

Lancelot grimaced as she helped him to put on his chest plates and said sarcastically, "Arrow-lances, this will be fun."

Sarmatia bopped him on the head lightly with his helmet and said in a fake scolding tone, "Don't you take that tone with me mister! These lances are dangerous. We need to be fully aware of them, or the consequences could be dire."

He stuck out his tongue and was surprised when she winked at him and kissed him tongue and all. He moaned in approval as her tongue rubbed his, but groaned when Galahad and Areia appeared. They were fighting about something and Galahad looked like his was clueless as to just WHAT they were fighting about.

Sarmatia giggled and said scolding, "Have you confused the poor, lad Areia?"

The red-hared blue-eyed beauty smirked and said, "I just told him that all the world's a stage and he's got to find his role."

Galahad protested heatedly, "But that off-handed comment was after you invited me into your room and kissed me!"

Lancelot groaned and said, "Galahad, you louse, just think about it for a minute and don't let your temper impede on what little brain power you have!"

Galahad glared at the second-n-command and crossed his arms. He would have said something too, but Arthur and the others had arrived.

Arthur watched as Lancelot helped Sarmatia into the last of her battle gear, and asked, "Well?"

The two shared a look-it didn't look good to Arthur one bit.

Here you go, Saxonlover! I hope you like it! 

Those of you, who want another chapter in The Sun and Moon of House Lyon, just be patient. I still have to think up a suitable punishment for Lancelot. It'll be posted either tomorrow night or Saturday-PROMISE!