952. Chapter 952

After Captain Kate and the Hurricane

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Not only do I not own Castle, but there never was a Castle episode called Captain Kate and the Hurricane, but you knew that. Rating: M Time: The 18th century.

Ahead of them were several hundred dead men. Scattered among the corpses were prides of lions feeding, as well as animals Rick described as hyenas and jackals, as well as the vultures they had seen arriving.

The group moved slowly to one dead man.

"He's armed much as my people are." Queen L'Anie said. "The sword is longer and the shield bigger, and these men wear ostrich plumes tied to their heads."

"Why don't they carry throwing spears or bows and arrows?" Castle asked.

L'Anie sighed. "We believe that war is the chance for a warrior to display his bravery. To show that bravery, a warrior must attack his foeman at close range."

"I can see a musket ball hole in his shield." Rick said. "Courage did him no good."

Kate nodded and edged closer to a body being worried by a group of hyenas. They growled at her, but otherwise ignored her. "This one was killed by a musket and I can see other shields with holes shot through them. This is the slaver's doing, all right. Why would they kill these people?"

"We may never know." L'Anie said. "But if we needed any more proof, we know that the slavers and ruthless and bloody."

Kate ordered everyone to form a column and continue.

They found themselves still on the open plains at the end of the day.

Kate pointed to a small stand of trees not too far away. "We'll camp there tonight. Cut down enough wood so that we can keep fires burning all night. I didn't like the way those lions were looking at us today."

"I'd not be worryin' aboot the lions as much." Ryan said. "In the dark, people could sneak up on us and rush us before we could get more than a volley off. Then it would be swords and spears against empty muskets. The locals'll see us an' think were more of yon slavers, I believe."

"He's right." L'Anie said. "We should put fires well outside of our camp so that we can see anyone coming."

They set the fires and Kate made sure every man armed with a musket had it loaded and primed to fire. Then she ordered the guards doubled. She slept very lightly that night.

"We have company." Rick said, waking Kate at sunrise.

She sat up, reaching for her musket. "Where? Who?"

She got up and followed Rick to the perimeter of their camp. He pointed to a long line of men who stood silently a good five hundred yards away. Kate raised her telescope and looked at the men. Their weapons and shields looked the same as the dead men they had seen earlier. And they wore ostrich feathers in their hair. She counted them carefully. There appeared to seven or eight hundred men, just standing there, looking at them.

"I'm sure it's the same tribe whose dead we saw yesterday." L'Anie said.

"They didn't tried to rush us in the night." Rick said.

"Perhaps they just got here."L'Anie replied. "I'll go out and talk to them."

Kate took her arm as L'Anie began to walk out of the camp. "L'Anie, I'm not sure that's a good idea."

L'Anie smiled. "Not am I, but if I can prevent a war, it's worth a try."

L'Anie began walking towards the men, but she had gone no more than a few yards when the men gave a shout, turned about and began to trot away.

L'Anie came back. "They're afraid of our weapons, I suspect. They don't know their range and are being cautious."

Kate and her people ate and then broke camp, following the trail of the slavers. They found a few dead animals along the way, but no more dead men. However, they were followed by small groups of scouts who stayed a good five hundred yards away from them. Every once in a while they could see the mass of armed men in the distance, following them.

At noon they found a small stream, drank and filled their canteens and water barrels. Their shadows had stopped as well. This time they could see a mass of men wearing ostrich plumes, just sitting there and looking at them from far away.

Kate took out her telescope. "I've counted them the best that I can and I don't think there are any more of them today than there were yesterday."

"That still means that there's enough of them to rush us once dark comes and over run us." Ryan said.

L'Anie got up and looked at the warriors shadowing them. "I'll try to talk to them again. Maybe this time they'll stay."

"Be careful." Kate said as her friend walked out of their camp.

As soon as the warriors saw L'Anie, they stood and moved together so that each man's shield overlapped the man beside him. They began chanting a slow, dirge like song. L'Anie kept walking to them. The men gave three shouts, turned and began to slowly trot away. L'Anie watched them go, then turned and walked back.

"They stayed a bit this time." She said to Kate.

"What was it they were singing?"

"Their dialect is different from mine, but I think it was a war chant."

"If they be smart, an' they do be warriors, they'll attack us tonight an' overwhelm us." Ryan said.

They stopped early that night and Kate did her best to set up defenses. However, lacking shovels to dig trenches or saws or axes to cut down the few trees in the area, the defenses were not going to hold back a horde of warriors.

This time there wasn't enough wood around to set fires that would last the night around the perimeter. But when the sun set, Kate ordered the smaller fires lit. Then she walked over and sat with Rick. "I'm sorry, Rick. It looks like I got us all killed. You should have just let me leave and you'd be safe."

He kissed her cheek. "I'd hardly be safe scouring the whole wide world looking for you. And Bracken knows me well. Do you think he'd let me live? Now go to sleep. I'll take the first watch."

Kate tried to stay awake so she could give orders when the attack came, but she was very tired after the long day and soon fell asleep.

"Kate?"

She came awake as soon as L'Anie said her name. "What?"

"We have a visitor."L'Anie pointed outward.

There at the very edge of the firelight was a huge figure, difficult to see in the dark. He said something in his own language.

L'Anie replied, then turned to Kate. "He wants to come in to talk to us. Is that acceptable?"

"Of course. Of course." Kate raised her voice. "No one shoot or make any moves for your weapons. He wants to talk to us. Understand?"

There was a chorus of yesses and L'Anie spoke again, inviting the man to join them.

Once well inside the firelight, the man was truly huge. Kate thought he might be just under seven feet in height and quite muscular. He wore only a leather loincloth but had a lion's mane draped around his head and shoulders. Kate thought it might even be several lion's manes, in fact. He had an axe as a weapon with a handle at least six feet long. The blade was crescent shaped and a good two feet in length. On the other end of the blade was a long, narrow blade. He began speaking, again in his own language, and L'Anie replied.

After several minutes of conversation, L'Anie turned to Kate. "His name is Umslopogaas. He's the nephew of a king who lives far to the south of here. The warriors we've seen and the dead ones we found earlier are part of Umslopogaas' impi, or regiment. They came far to the north to hunt elephants for their ivory. I've told him we're not part of the slavers ahead of us, but we're their enemies. He doesn't really trust us, I think but he's seen the damage firearms can do and is willing to give us the benefit of the doubt. He says as long as we follow the slavers, he won't attack us. But if we do anything unfriendly, he'll attack, even if it kills his whole impi."

Kate nodded and smiled at Umslopogaas. "We agree, of course. Can you ask him where the slavers are going? They seem to have a definite goal in mind."

L'Anie and Umslopogaas spoke, then L'Anie turned back to Kate. "He says he doesn't know from personal experience what's ahead, but one of the old men back at his homeland came this way many years ago. The old man said there was a very rich tribe that lives in the mountains ahead. Very rich and very powerful."

Umslopogaas said something, then rose and walked out of the camp and into the dark.

"Not very talkative, is he?" Ryan muttered.

"He said all we needed to hear, Kevin." Kate replied. "He won't attack us."

"We hope." Ryan muttered.

For three more days they marched towards the mountains. As they had to stop to hunt for fresh food, they gained no ground on the slavers. And as they marched, they could see Umslopogaas' scouts keeping track of them, from both the left and right and behind them. However, they could see no scouts in front of them. The impi commander seemed happy to let them take the lead.

Rick mentioned to Kate that he seemed to be in no hurry to get his own people to the slavers.

Kate nodded. "He's got no reason to trust us. If we head into the mountains, we're not his problem anymore. If we catch the slavers down here on the veldt, we may kill each other. One side or the other may be so weakened that his impi can over run the survivors. It's cold blooded and ruthless, but you don't rise to lead a regiment by being nice."

"You're not cold blooded or ruthless." Rick said, putting his arms around her.

She leaned into him. "Perhaps if I were, we wouldn't be here now."

One of L'Anie's scouts came running to the head of their column. He spoke rapidly to L'Anie and pointed ahead of them.

"He says there are dead men ahead. Not Umslopogass' people. These are unarmed and weren't killed by muskets."

They moved forward rapidly and after a mile, sound several dozen dead men, with empty boxes, baskets and bales around them. They examined the dead.

"None of them were shot to death." Kate said. "All were stabbed or bayonetted. But why?"

"I can answer that. "Rick said. "These are their slave porters, carrying their supplies. When the supplies they were carrying were all used up they had no need for them. The slavers saw them as useless mouths to feed."

"But why kill them?" Kate asked. "Why not just let them go."

"Dead men tell no tales."

"Who's out here to tell tales to?"

"Us. They can probably see the dust raised by us when we march. There's also Umslopogass and his impi. We were told there were local mercenaries with the slavers. The porters might have heard something from them."

"I'm really starting to hate these people." Kate said, then ordered her little column to continue.

As they drew closer to the mountains, they could see that they rose up almost perpendicularly from the plains. In addition, the white on top of the mountains was definitely snow.

"What is this snow?" L'Anie asked.

"Frozen water." Kate replied.

"Frozen?"

Kate tried to explain the concept of snow and freezing to her friend, but having lived all of her life in either Africa or the Caribbean, L'Anie had trouble with the concept.

"I'm worried about the snow." Kate said to Rick that night. "L'Anie and her people are totally unprepared for it, and so are we. We have no heavy clothing or footwear. Some of our people have taken to wearing sandals. We could freeze to death up there."

"If it gets too bad, we'll go back down. Besides, the slavers aren't any better prepared for cold than we are. Maybe we'll find them all frozen solid and we can go home." He put his arms around her and held her close. "Whatever happens, I'll not let anything happen to you."

"Nor I, you." Kate replied. "But we may not get the opportunity to just go home."