The Archer's War: Exciting good read - adventure fiction about fighting and combat during medieval times in feudal England with archers, longbows, knights, ... (The Company of English Archers Book 4) by Martin Archer Read Free Book Online Page A

took before and set himself up at a tavern or stables. 
          Thomas and his guards will stay in London; the recruiters he takes will spread out through England from there and send the archers they find back to him in London and he will send them on to Cornwall.  Evan, an archer sergeant from Wales who seems quite dependable even though he can’t read or do sums, will take a smaller number of men to Cardiff and do the same throughout Wales.
           Our recruiters will be two dozen or so of our veteran archers who have already received prize monies.  I hate to part with some of our best veterans even temporarily, but they are the ones most likely to know who has potential as an archer.  Even better, they will be able to talk personally about our company and the substantial rewards our new recruits will have a chance to earn if they make their marks to join us.
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           Fourteen archer recruiters and my ten guardsmen will be traveling to London with me and Peter Sergeant in the morning.  So will about forty swordsmen to act as the recruiters’ guards to keep them safe from the outlaw bands that plague the roads.
           We’re going out on one of our newly caulked galleys, the one commanded by Simon from Ditchling.  They’ll ride out from there and begin working as recruiters in the counties around London.  An additional six of our veteran archers with three guards apiece will be going to Cardiff under the command of Evan.  He’s one of our Welsh archers who seems particularly dependable. 
           Of course I’m sailing on Simon’s galley - he was the sergeant captain on my recent trip to London; he knows the Thames and the London docks.
           And because it is so dangerous to travel the roads alone each of my archers and those of Evan will be accompanied by two or three men at arms who haven’t yet qualified as archers.        
           Our archer recruiters seem enthusiastic about our plan.  And they should be - those who weren’t already sergeants have been promoted and they were schooled all day yesterday by William and me on what they are to do.  Perhaps more importantly, they’ve been promised “prize money” for every longbow archer they find who makes his mark on our agreement and every archer trainee they bring in.
           We’re hopeful for our recruiters’ success, of course, but we expect some to run with the bags of coins they will be carrying and others to fail for one reason or another; we just don’t know who will succeed and who will not.
           In any event, our recruiters are more than ready to go and I’ve finished drafting the parchments they and their companions will carry from fair to fair and from church priest to church priest.  And, of course, wherever possible our recruiters will join with the merchants who travel from town to town to attend their fairs. 
            Many of the fairs have archery contests and those that don’t will soon have them if our archer recruiters and their coins have anything to say about it.
           Our archer recruiters can’t read, of course, but the parchments each carries explains in Latin that he is recruiting archers and men at arms to help protect Holy Land pilgrims and refugees - and that he will be conducting archery tournaments and awarding prizes in order to find the archers and other men he wants to talk to.
           What the parchments don’t say, but each of our recruiting sergeants will offer if he thinks encouragement is necessary, is that the local priest or fair will also get a payment that could be as large as the winner’s prize. 
           The parchments additionally say that the archer sergeant and his men are also looking for very quick and healthy young lads whose families are interested in having them study for the priesthood and seeing more of the world. I added that so we can get some more lads to learn to scribe and sum with