Read The Archer's Marines: The First Marines - Medieval fiction action story about Marines, naval warfare, and knights after King Richard's crusade in Syria, ... times (The Company of Archers Book 5) for Free Online Page B

trouble.  The same for the two knights of Baldwin’s who survived.”
           “Have the knights been making trouble?”
           “Not at all.  Not so much as a peep.  They’re afraid of losing their heads, and rightly so.  But they’re the only two left in Cornwall so take care of them permanently if they start. And do it immediately. The same for anyone who is foolish enough to try to take the place of the knights who fell trying to stop us.   Disappear them quietly as well.  Don’t make an example of them, mind you, just permanently disappear them without anyone knowing.” 
           “What do you want me to do with any new priests that show up?”
           “Do the same for all the priests who show up in Cornwall; question them first as to why they’ve come and who sent them - and then get rid of them quickly and permanently.  Later you can send a parchment to whoever sent them saying they’ve gotten religion and gone off to the Holy Land.”
           Another decision that has to be made is what to do with Helen.  I’ve been putting it off for weeks.  My problem is simple – I want her with me and I want her safe.  I finally decide when Thomas returns.  I don’t want to chance losing her; she stays. And she was very unhappy when I informed her of my decision last night.
           “Yes Master, I understand.”   Master? I haven’t heard that for a long time; she really is unhappy.
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           Three days later and the galleys and the muddy riverbank next to the galleys are covered with a hectic mass of people and supplies.   Bundles of squawking and struggling chickens with their legs tied together, women weeping and children running around excitedly, and cattle and sheep and pigs bawling loudly after the cords in their legs have been cut so they can be kept alive and unable to move on the galleys for as long as possible until they’re eaten. 
           Other sheep and pigs are now being killed and butchered on the riverbank so their meat can be stacked on board and eaten before it rots. How long it will take before their meat rots so much that it can’t be eaten even with lots of salt will depend, of course, on how warm it is on the galley decks when we’re out on the ocean. 
           We’re not taking any deer and boar carcasses with us; we would, of course, but we’ve been eating them as soon as our hunting parties kill them in order to save the coins that have to be paid for the chickens, sheep, pigs, and cattle.
           Only our galleys that will be heading for Cyprus are tied up along the riverbank.  All the others, those that will be staying behind, have been temporarily floated down to the mouth of the river. 
           Each of the galleys that are here is tied to the shore with a line from its bow to a nearby tree.  As a result, they are all pointed upstream and the river current pushes the right side of each galley as close to the shore as it can float. 
           And, of course, as more men and supplies are loaded on the galleys, they settle deeper and deeper into the river and sooner or later get stuck on the river bottom.  That means their swearing and cursing crews have to periodically wade into the river’s cold waters to push the arse ends of their galleys further out to where the river is deep enough to once again float them.
           Every spare inch of every galley’s hull is filled with barrels and skins of water and supplies, stacks of firewood, fresh carcasses of sheep, pigs, and cattle, and, most important of all, bales and bales of arrows for our longbows.  The galleys are so crowded that until some of the supplies are used up the rowers will have difficulty reaching the rowing benches where they will sit and sleep. 
           The galley decks are similarly covered with supplies and with large bundles of squawking chickens and squealing and struggling sheep, cattle, and pigs.  They