Dark Age Maiden

She falls to the ground, hurt.

Chapter Sixteen

        Two days had passed and Carina looked down from her narrow window at the throng of people in the courtyard. It was the day of the mock battle, the one her father and Giancarlo had orchestrated to prepare the fortress against siege. Carina had a bad feeling about the conflict, a foreboding she couldn't explain. She turned away from the window but soon turned back.

        She saw the knights directing the peasants to take positions either inside or outside the stockade. Every able bodied man and woman of the manor would take part in the battle including herself. Carina waited awhile longer before joining those in the courtyard. She knew all the women would remain inside, defending against the attackers. She didn't know where Uberto had been assigned. She hadn't stopped thinking about him. She thought about him too much.

         She went downstairs and out the door into the courtyard and immediately saw her brother, Renzo. He was hurriedly kissing his wife, Antonia, goodbye and saying farewell to his two children, Lucio and the baby. Then he rushed off to join the knights.

        "Are you with us or against us?" yelled Carina to his backside.

       "I'm with you," he turned back to answer, "unless Tiberio sticks me on the outside for being late."

        "You should make sure he gets up on time," said Carina, smiling at Antonia, who was holding her baby in her arms. Carina raised the corner of the bunting to peek at the child.

        "I try," she answered. Changing the subject Antonia added, "I don't know how I'm going to be able to do anything today with him," she nodded toward the baby.

        "Mommy, mommy, look!" cried Lucio at her side. "See, the men are all going out the gate with their huge poles."

        "I see them, honey. I'm glad they don't have sharp metal points on them."

        "Darn," said Lucio. "No one will get killed."

        Carina laughed at him. "Look, there's more of them," she pointed. "They will probably stay inside and defend us."

        "I wish I had a real sword," grumbled Lucio.

        "You will get one soon enough," said his mother.

Skipping a part here to get to Giancarlo, Carina and Uberto

        On the other side of the barrier Giancarlo was thinking. He had called back all those who had attempted to climb the ladders and was glad the defenders had met the challenge. Still, he had never lost a battle since his youth, and even in this mock battle he wanted to find a way to win.

        He looked at the pikemen and knights who were milling about, waiting for his direction. He noted the length of the long poles the peasants were carrying. Then he glanced at the wall of timber before him. He knew the pikes the peasants carried were approximately twelve feet long and the stockade was just over twelve feet high. An idea came to him.

        "Ruggiero!" he called out to his stalwart soldier.

        "Yes, sir," he answered, riding toward Giancarlo.

        "I'm thinking that if we tied one pike to two others it would give us the length we need to extend across the trench and over the top of the stockade."

        "Ruggiero eyed the timber wall and answered, "that would definitely make them long enough."

        "We need rope but if necessary we could use vines from the forest. We have sixty pikemen. We could make as many as twenty scaling posts."