Hudan glanced at the surroundings for a moment, before he stopped walking.
Kivamus came to a stop as well and waited for the muscular man to gather courage, which was a rare sight in itself.
The guard captain looked around them once again, but there was nobody nearby to hear anything, especially with the constant sound of water falling through that small gap in the dam. Eventually, the huge man took a deep breath and looked at him. “It’s… It’s just something I’ve been hearing the guards talking about during their meal times.”
Kivamus nodded encouragingly. “What is it?”
“It’s… it’s about payment. I mean, their wages. Now that winter is basically over, some of them were wondering when they will start getting coins as their wages instead of the grain and coal which you provide to them.” Hudan hesitated for a moment. “A couple of them were even grumbling that maybe you had lied to them about it, and didn’t ever plan to pay them in coins.”
As Kivamus’ eyebrows rose in surprise on hearing that, Hudan quickly continued, “I mean, I know you have no plans of doing anything like that. I also understand that you have to save every copper right now to pay the tax collector, so I know why you haven’t started it yet. But when some of them asked me about when they will get to see real coins in their hands, I just didn’t have any answer for them.” He shrugged. “It’s just that… with everyone worried about a raid these days, some of them were wondering that after working for the whole winter as a guard for you, whether they would ever get to see a single copper in their hands from this job, in case they are killed by a bandit in a raid. In tense times like now, usually fighting men like us would go and drown our fears in the alehouse which would have taken the edge off their complaints, but the guards can’t do that without any coin in their hands, not that I would even allow anyone to drink when we have to worry about that raid.”
Kivamus exhaled loudly. “Yeah… I guess I should have expected some complaints coming about it by now, but like you said, we simply can’t do it until we have managed to pay the taxes and the merchants have started coming regularly.”
Hudan glanced at the guards once again, who seemed to be busy whispering to each other on the western bank. “What should I tell them?”
Kivamus thought about it for a moment. It was true that they were really short on gold these days, and couldn’t really afford any expenses they could do without, but it was also true that the whole safety of the village depended on the guards doing their best and their morale being high instead of thinking about desertion or mutiny. That was a real possibility if he kept postponing giving them their long overdue wages. The same went for the servants, grooms and maids doing their best in their tasks, not to mention all the labourers of the village working without any pay for months.
Not looking forward to the upcoming conversation with Duvas about their finances, he began, “Give me a couple of weeks. We should have managed to deal with the tax collector by then, and the merchants should also start coming regularly by that time. We should be able to do something about paying wages by then.”
Hudan smiled. “I’ll tell them they can expect at least some payment in fifteen to twenty days, just so you don’t have to postpone it again in case there are any problems. As long as the guards have a definite date to look forward to, they wouldn’t complain about it. Not too much anyway.”
“That’s probably even better. We need everyone’s morale to be high to deal with an attack by Torhan.” Glancing at the surroundings once again, and wishing he would be able to show his newfound sister Astela this scene of pristine natural beauty in the future, he looked back at the guard captain. “Let’s go now. It’s only the afternoon, but I need to get back and talk with Duvas about some things.” Google seaʀᴄh NoveI-Fire.ɴet
“As you wish, milord,” Hudan nodded and they started walking again towards the western bank.
******
~ Hyola ~
Hyola was sitting on top of the watchtower in the southeast of the village, gazing at the dark surroundings ahead of her. It was a half moon night, with the moon hanging somewhere directly upwards in the sky. With the snow season over, the skies were clear these days, which meant there was nothing to stop the light of the moon coming down, but she still wished it was brighter here.
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Looking at the location of the moon, she estimated that it must be approaching midnight by now, which meant she still had more than half of her watch duty still remaining. She sighed. What she really wanted was to be asleep on the upper floor of the servants hall with other female guards at this time, since going out to the eastern stream and that newly built dam along with Lord Kivamus earlier in the day meant that she was feeling the tiredness in her bones by now. Still, it wasn’t like she was going to complain about it. Being chosen as one of the personal protectors of the silver-haired baron – even for a single day – was a privilege, and it was the first time she had ever sat on the same wagon bed with a noble. Hah! She imagined what her past self living at the limestone quarry would think if she saw how far she had come from the hungry and fearful person she used to be there.
She thought about the baron of the village. Lord Kivamus had been… different. She had seen him from afar and he had even talked with him once in the past, but sitting on a wagon for an hour-long journey along with him and the other guards meant that they got a lot more chance to interact with him today. She had expected him to stay broody and complain that he had to sit on the same wagon as lowly guards, but he hadn’t spoken about that at all. He had spent most of the time watching their surroundings, with who knows what going on in his head, while the rest of the time he had been talking to the guards, asking if they needed anything, and looking for their opinions on how to improve the village’s defences.
She had immediately suggested that if guards were posted in pairs on top of the watchtowers, with both of them having crossbows, it would make it much easier to stay awake in the night and to deal better with any attack. He had agreed to it, but right now they simply didn’t have enough guards for that, especially since three more watchtowers would be built in the coming weeks, and then it would be difficult just to man them with a single guard for all three shifts. Still, she had been happy to see that her opinion was valued by the lord of their village.
The dam had been a surprise as well. She had never seen something that big which had been made by humans, nor had she expected to see such a large amount of water in one place, apart from the ocean in the west, of course. It had immediately made her want to swim in that reservoir for some reason, not that she even knew how to swim.
Coming back to the present, she looked ahead of her from the watchtower platform, and wished there was a way to see in the dark, which would make it easier to spot any approaching wild beasts, or even any bandits. Hah! Like she was an owl!
Feeling a sudden pang of loneliness, she turned around and looked at the village, which was nearly as dark as the surrounding forest in the light of the half moon, with only a few flickering fires burning in braziers in some places to give light.
Turning around to look at the forests once again, she wished Calubo was here. She grumbled thinking about that idiot, wishing he would man up one of these days. He still hadn’t popped the question, dammit! If anything, he seemed to be avoiding her these days. It couldn’t be that he had found someone else, had he?
Nah… that wasn’t very likely. He knew very well that if he even thought of cheating on her, she would stab him with his own dagger. No, it couldn’t be that. Maybe he was just too scared to ask her to marry him? Aargh… she growled. It wasn’t like she could ask him the question herself, damn it! She was a woman and it had to be him who asked her! That’s how it worked!
Grumbling about scaredy-cat guards, Hyola turned her gaze to the right, and what she saw there sent a sudden chill down her spine. Immediately, she stood up with her loaded crossbow in her hands, and walked closer to the outer parapet to check if she had imagined it or if there really were some people hiding in the forests there. She squinted in that direction for a moment, feeling glad that there was no fire burning up here to silhouette her and make her an easy target for any archers. She didn’t have to wait long before she saw the glint of metal reflecting in the moonlight.
That had to be a bandit! And there were many of them out there. Her heart started beating faster expecting a raid of the village, and she quickly looked down to confirm that the crossbow was loaded.
Wishing she had a horn right up here as well, but understanding why it couldn’t be so, since unless there were two guards on the watchtowers, Kerel didn’t want to risk the lone guard being taken out by an archer and not being able to blow the horn. That’s why the horn was always kept with the night guards who sat safely inside the gates, and couldn’t be taken out by a single arrow. She still thought it was a foolish order. In this case they should keep a horn in both places! Leaving the thought of whether they even had enough horns for that, she focused on the present and saw some more movement towards those trees under the moonlight.
Immediately, she walked to the other side of the watchtower platform, and leaning over the parapet, gave a quick whistle in a low voice, not wanting to speak any more than she had to, so she wouldn’t become a target of the approaching bandits. Without wasting a moment, the guard sitting on duty just inside the barred south-eastern gates jumped from his chair and looked at her. She made a certain gesture from her hands – which the guard captain had taught everyone to describe there was danger nearby in case they couldn’t speak openly – and then jerked her thumbs towards the direction where she had seen the reflections.
The guard nodded, and immediately picked up the horn which was kept hanging right next to the gates, and blew loudly on it. Knowing she barely had a moment before the bandits realised they had been spotted, she quickly walked to the other side of the tower platform and squatted down, with only her head and her crossbow visible above the parapet. Of course, the bandits would have heard that horn as well, but by now she was well prepared for arrows coming towards her, while the village had also been alerted. Now she just had to hope that help came fast.
Hyola knew that the other two watchtowers had a crossbow-woman on each of them, but by a stroke of bad luck, both of their good archers – Yufim and Nurobo – had been on duty during the day, which meant none of them would be available immediately.
She peered over the parapets, and saw a small group of bandits rushing towards the walls. Hmm… Forget about the archers. She was good enough to kill these bastards herself with the crossbow by her side!
As she brought up the crossbow to target the leading one, she counted the bandits as her mind worked in overdrive. Huh… That was just half a dozen bandits in total. Wasn’t Torhan’s group supposed to be much bigger than this? More importantly, was that bastard Nokozal with them? She hoped he was, since he wouldn’t be leaving alive again. She would make sure of it.
Wait, what if these low numbers were because they were attacking the village from the other sides as well? How had they even reached Tiranat that fast! They weren’t supposed to be here for at least another week!
Putting those questions for later, she found her target in a tall man who was leading the bandit group, and gently squeezed the trigger, letting the crossbow bolt fly at speeds unimaginable for humans to dodge. Within a moment, she pumped her fist in victory as the bolt found its target in the bandit’s chest and the man stumbled backward with a cry of pain before falling down. Yay for her! Just like another day at the shooting range for target practice!
She quickly picked up the goat’s foot lever to start loading the crossbow once again, while keeping an eye on the bandits, who had surrounded the dead man in surprise before they started looking all around them warily. They must certainly have seen that there was a watchtower inside the walls, but it seemed like they hadn’t yet realised that the bolt had come from up here. Good for her. Knowing that the surprise wouldn’t last long, she finished loading her crossbow quickly and putting a broadhead bolt in its groove this time, she brought another man in the crossbow sights.
By now, some of them were looking directly towards the top of the watchtower, probably having guessed how their partner had died, but they were still bunched together. Perfect! Without wasting a moment, she quickly shot the bolt which easily hit another bandit, going by a sudden shriek of pain coming from the group.
Awesome! Hyola two, bandits zero! She glanced at the wonderful object in her hands and grinned in triumph. She loved her crossbow!
As the man stumbled backwards with the force of the broadhead bolt, there was some muffled shouting from the other bandits, before they immediately ran some distance away from the dead man. Soon, one of them pointed directly at the watchtower while yelling something, while another of them seemed to be gesturing at the forests for some reason.
She ducked below the parapets as she began loading the crossbow again, feeling glad that these bandits hadn’t brought an archer with them here. However, in the very same moment when she was thinking about it, an arrow struck the outer parapet of the watchtower with a loud thwack. Shit! There was an archer out there!
She quickly scurried to the far side of the platform, her heart beating faster than ever. If the arrow had hit her, she would have already died! Taking a moment to slow down her breathing, she glanced around her for the offending arrow. While it wasn’t bright enough to be completely sure, she still didn’t see any arrowhead poking inside the parapets at a quick glance.
She grinned. Way to go, Taniok! It seemed that the old carpenter had made the double-walled parapets thick enough that they couldn’t be breached by an arrow! Perfect!
She quickly finished loading her crossbow again, but this time she knew that the archer would be waiting for her. So, she also waited for an opportunity, while hearing the sounds of bandits rushing towards the gates, before they started ramming the gates with their shoulders. Hah! Those idiots. Those gates were sturdy enough that even charging warhorses wouldn’t be able to break them!
Taking another deep breath to calm down her racing heart, she slowly crawled to the far edge of the platform again. Keeping her head below the platform, she gently raised the loaded crossbow in a single arm, and pointed it towards the general direction of the bandits at the gate, going only by her gut feelings. She knew it was very unlikely that she would hit any of them this time, but she didn’t want to risk her head being split open by an arrow, and maybe she would get lucky. She looked at the quiver of bolts kept in the corner. It wasn’t like she had to worry about running out of bolts any time soon.
She squeezed the trigger and immediately felt the force of the bolt flying away, but with no shouts of pain coming, it seemed only struck the ground this time. However, the bolt must have passed close enough to the bandits, since the ramming of the gates seemed to have stopped abruptly. That meant she was successful in what she wanted – which was to delay them and keep them worrying about a bolt killing them from above.
As she began to load her crossbow once again, she heard some raised voices coming from the north and gave a deep exhale in relief. Reinforcements had arrived.
******
~ Tesyb ~
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~ A few moments ago ~
Just a short while ago, Tesyb had been sitting relaxed near the gates of the manor while talking with a couple of guards there. His watch shift had already ended a few hours ago, and truthfully he should have been asleep at this time, but as much as he had tried, sleep still wasn’t coming. Not with so many guards present in the manor – which had the floor of the servants hall feeling way too overcrowded these days – not to mention they had been ordered to sleep in their leather armors over their usual tunics with their swords and shields kept by their sides.
Most of the other guards had also been just sitting with their backs to the walls and talking with others instead of sleeping. Only a few lucky ones, who had reached the servants’ hall early in the evening and claimed a full straw mattress to their names, were the only ones to have enough space to be able to sleep in this atmosphere.
After turning and tossing for nearly an hour, he had decided to take a walk to clear his mind. He had reached the manor gates where he was talking with the gate guards, when he heard the sound of a horn blowing from the southeast. His heart thudding heavily in his chest, he immediately ran towards the servants hall, and shouted loudly to wake everyone up. However, he didn’t have to repeat his warning since half of them were already awake and tying their scabbards to their waists, while the rest of them only blinked their eyes for a few moments before they realised what was happening and began doing the same.
Once it looked like everyone was awake, he sent a servant to the manor house to wake up their superiors there. Hudan should be sleeping there at this time after checking each guard post one after the other from morning to night, while who knew where the ex-mercenary Feroy was. That man was like a ghost, and seemed to be awake at all hours and appeared whenever or wherever there was trouble brewing. Kerel was also away on duty somewhere tonight, so Tesyb knew that he had to take the lead here for now.
It was the middle of night, so deciding that there was no point in waiting to bring horses from the stables, he quickly gathered nearly half a dozen men behind him who were ready to go, and started running towards the southeast, since that’s where the horn had sounded from. When the other guards claimed that they also wanted to come, he told them to wait for orders from their superiors, in case they needed to be sent to another side of the village.
Reaching the manor gates, he passed the alert guards and turning left, they kept running until they reached the southeastern gates of the village wall. The two guards already on duty here seemed to be getting more and more worried at every new thump sounding from the gates while holding their naked swords in that direction, their shields held protectively in front of them. Hearing their footsteps, the gate guards turned around and their faces broke out in relief, but Tesyb didn’t want to wait too long.
“What’s the condition here?” he shouted.
Before the gate guards could open their mouths, he saw Hyola leaning over from the parapet on the watchtower. Right… He had forgotten about the crossbow-women on duty up there. Hah! The bandits must have gotten a nasty surprise already!
Hyola pointed towards the gate, leaning over the inner parapet. “Six swordsmen attacked. Already killed two. Four ramming the gates now. At least one archer out there.”
Tesyb nodded. “Stay away from the outer side, but support us if you can.” Not waiting for a reply, he looked around himself and gave a savage grin. There were eight of them, and just four bandits outside the gate. It was going to be fun!
“We have a two-to-one advantage now!” He yelled with a grin, with the other guards giving similar grins in return. “Come on! Let’s put these bastards in the ground for daring to attack us!”
“For Lord Kivamus!” The guards roared back, before two of them jogged to the gates to remove the thick wooden beam barring the gates, while the six of them stood ready just inside, taking a reverse wedge formation on his command. Hudan had been teaching them some interesting formations in the last few days, and this was one of them which he found suited this condition best.
The moment the wooden beam had been lifted from its hook, there was another loud thump on the gate from the outside. But this time, the gates easily moved inwards instead of staying in their place, which caused the bandits to stumble inside from surprise.
Not wasting a moment, Tesyb jabbed his sword into the chest of the leading bandit, while the other guards slashed the others from the sides. The two guards who had opened the gates moved behind the bandits with their swords and shields, removing any path for the attackers to run away.
The leading bandit wasn’t a very big guy, but he was quick, and rolled to the side barely avoiding his sword. However, with their advantage in numbers, it meant there were two guards to attack every bandit. Immediately, another guard thrust his sword downwards towards the bandit, who was too late in realising that he was being double teamed. He barely had any time to move from the surprise attack, but somehow he still managed to avoid the sword from thrusting into his chest, while getting a nasty gash in his arm in return. Quickly jumping to his feet, the bandit was trying to look at both of his opponents at the same time, with Tesyb and the other guard standing on opposite sides of the bandit.
With the ringing sound of metal striking metal and the loud thwacks of swords hitting wooden shields in the background, Tesyb waited for another opportunity, and found it before too long. As the bandit turned his head around to look at the other guard in the light of a brazier burning nearby, there was a loud cry of pain from somewhere nearby, which distracted the bandit, who turned his head to look towards the new sound.
Tesyb didn’t waste a moment and quickly slashed his sword with all his power, the blade hitting the bandit’s side and making a spurt of blood flow outwards from the new wound on the side of the man’s stomach. The bandit screamed in pain, one of his hands going down to clutch his stomach, but it seemed like it wasn’t a fatal wound just yet. The man glared at Tesyb and yelled loudly with rage, before he angrily jabbed his sword towards him.
Tesyb jumped back to avoid it while putting his shield in front of him just in case, but grinned as he saw the other guard looking ready for an opportunity just like this. The guard immediately rammed his sword into the chest of the bandit from behind, the point of his blade exiting out on the other side.
The bandit howled in pain and thrashed around, with his sword swinging wildly in front of him, but it took only a few moments before he lost all his strength and slumped to the ground, his body slipping away from the sword of the other guard.
Tesyb quickly looked around and saw that one more bandit was already dead, while the last two were surrounded by six guards at the moment. He quickly moved to join the melee, gesturing to his partnered guard to do the same.
The remaining two bandits looked around in fear, while trying to stay alive despite being outnumbered four to one by now.
“Fall back!” One of the bandits shouted, probably realising how futile fighting against eight guards was, just before he got a sudden slash to his thigh from one of the guards, making him stumble to the ground. Another guard saw the opportunity and jabbed his sword into the bandit’s heart, ending his life immediately. The last bandit looked around for a moment, before throwing his sword to the ground.
“I yield! I give up!” He shouted while falling to his knees and raising both his shaking hands high above him. “Please! Spare my life!”
One of the guards still went to finish him off, but Tesyb called out, “Stop! Don’t kill him yet.”
“But he tried to kill us!” The guard retorted in anger.
“It’s up to the guard captain to decide what to do with him. Tie him up for now,” Tesyb ordered, his eyes looking out of the gates, just in case there were more bandits out there.
As two of the guards dragged the bandit away towards a pillar of the watchtower and started tying him there, Tesyb looked up at the platform of the watchtower. “Hyola! You fine up there?”
The redhead poked her face out over the parapet. “I’m good for now, but there’s still an archer out there. I can’t even climb down until you take him out.”
Tesyb nodded as he walked towards the gates, noticing that the bandit had already been tied up securely to one of the watchtower pillars. “Five of you, follow me. The remaining two stay here and bar the gates until we return.”
Immediately, five of the guards started jogging behind him with their swords in their hands and shields in front of them as he moved out of the gates doing the same.
Getting outside, Tesyb raised his sword hand up to make the others stop behind him, and looked around the dark cleared land in front of him, which stretched farther than his eyes could track towards the south. Seeing two bodies fallen not far from him, he gestured to everyone to follow behind him, just in case any of them were alive. Reaching there, he saw that the first man had a bolt sticking out of his chest, his body sprawled on the ground. With four of the guards covering the group with their shields in case an arrow was shot towards them, and another guard pointing his sword to the fallen man’s neck, just in case, Tesyb bent down and checked the bandit’s pulse. Not breathing.
“He’s dead.”
He stood up and jogged to the other body, but this time he didn’t even have to check. There was a large gaping wound on the chest of the man, a bolt sticking out of it. Huh… Must be the work of a broadhead bolt. Grimacing at the sight, he turned around and looked at their surroundings.
Their current location was near the south-east of the village, so it wasn’t likely that the archer had gone to hide in the forests towards the south-west. That meant he had to be hiding somewhere in the distant treeline in the south east.
He pointed directly in that direction. “The archer should be there. Follow me!”
As he started running towards the forest, he realised that it probably wasn’t a great idea to enter the forest to search a single man in this darkness. Still, this wasn’t like the ambush location near Kirnos, where there could be more bandits, bears or even adzees hiding there. This was home territory for them, and the guards going on their mounted patrols of the village surroundings in the evening had confirmed that no dangerous wild beasts were sighted today. That meant the only thing they had to fear was more bandits, but if there were more swordsmen out here, they would have already attacked the gate with the others. That meant it was very likely that the archer was alone. Good for them.
He grinned as he approached the tree line, remembering a kind of deadly hide and seek game which Nokozal’s lone archer had played with him in the very first raid on the village in the north-western forests. But it was different now. Today, he wasn’t the green recruit of that time, and all the guards with him were far better trained by now. He knew that none of them would freeze in case they found a boar or even a bear in front of them, like it had happened with some of them on the very first journey to Cinran before the winter. He had no doubt that he could trust every single guard to watch his back in case they met some bigger danger, and he was more than confident that with six armed and trained men here they could take out nearly anything.
As he and the other guards entered the treeline, they slowed down and walked with their shields held high in front of them, anticipating an arrow coming towards them at any moment. While the moon wasn’t giving that much light, the trees had barely started to get new leaves again, so there wasn’t any canopy above them to stop the light. This was also familiar ground to him, since Feroy sometimes brought the guards to train them in the forested hills in the east, so they would have practice defending and attacking in a different terrain as well. Only a week ago they had trained in this very region of the forest. It wasn’t like he remembered the exact landscape, but he knew that there was a small hill not far away from them. That had to be where the archer had run off to, so he would have a height advantage over any pursuers, since he hadn’t even tried to attack the guards by now.
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He slowed down further as they approached the hill. “Stay alert. He should be up ahead.”
Not waiting for any reply, he kept moving further, when he suddenly noticed some movement behind a tree only a short distance away from them.
“There!” He whispered. Holding his sword arm up to stop the others behind him, he rotated the arm in a full circle once, then stood facing towards that same tree with his shield held in front of him. The others immediately took his lead and took a defensive circular formation, their shields held outward, and their backs to each other.
Confident that they were safe from any surprise attack from another side whether by bandits or a wild beast, he spoke up, “Step!” and took a single step towards the hill, with every other guard following behind him while maintaining the circular shield wall. “Once more. Step!”
Others followed behind him again but he was surprised by the sound of a bird coming from somewhere ahead of him. Huh… That bird shouldn’t be making any sound at this time. The moment he was thinking that, there were too similar short whistles, followed by another long whistle.
“Wait!” That was the signal Feroy had taught them to identify friendlies in case they couldn’t see each other.
He returned the answering whistle which had been taught to them, hoping – but not really believing that there was another guard out here. There should only be the bandit archer here! It couldn’t be that one of the guards was helping the bandits, right? Either way, he couldn’t rest easy just yet. “Hold the formation!” He ordered the others, before squinting towards the hill.
“Who’s there?” He shouted loudly, his shield held ready in front of him, and his sword poking slightly outwards from the side of the shield.
There was a rustling sound ahead of them, before he saw someone slowly walking towards them with his hands held high. His heart beating loudly, he tensed his considerable muscles and got ready to attack, when the man called out, “It’s me, Feroy. Calm down you all!”
Tesyb took a breath of relief, but waited for the man to come closer, and didn’t give the order to break the defensive formation to the guards, just in case it was a trap of some kind. However, the man kept walking slowly towards them and before long he was close enough for him to confirm that it was indeed the ex-mercenary, who also had a warbow and a quiver slung around his shoulder.
“What the heck are you doing here?” Tesyb asked in surprise, his heart only slowing down now.
Feroy gave an approving nod seeing that the guards were still holding their formation. “There are no other bandits here. Come on! Let’s jog to the village. They might need help.”
Tesyb nodded, and the other guards started following behind the ex-mercenary who had already started running slowly.
“I was out to take a walk in the forests,” Feroy explained as they kept jogging. “When I heard the horn being blown, I stayed out here just in case there were any stragglers coming back, and that’s how I found the archer, who is biting the dust now. We’ll send someone here tomorrow to take care of the body.”
Tesyb nodded, glad that the archer was taken care of. “But why were you taking a walk out here anyway? How did you even know that bandits were going to attack tonight for you to wait for the archer here?”
The ex-mercenary snorted. “How the hell would I know that! I’ve been out here every night, waiting for the day when Torhan’s group attacks us. That’s a damned big group, and they might have the numbers to hold a full siege around the village if Baron of Kirnos provides more men to them, so any intel which I can bring from out here would help us a lot in dealing with that raid.”
Tesyb gave a nod as he kept running, wondering if this man really was a ghost or something. How did he even have the stamina to stay awake all night? He looked to the man jogging on his side as they approached the gates. “But… but what if there were more men out here? They could have easily killed you!”
Feroy laughed loudly. “I’ll be damned if some bandits can find me in the middle of a forest! I’ve lived in the wilds for more than a decade, ya know? I’ll deserve to be killed by them on the very day when I’m spotted in a forest.”
Tesyb just shook his head at the insane man, as one of the guards called out for the gates to be opened.
Before long, they were barring the gates from the inside once again, after dragging the bodies of the dead bandits outside the gates for now after stripping them of anything useful. Feroy immediately asked for a full report of what had happened here, and Tesyb recounted everything, making sure to tell Hyola’s contribution of killing two bandits before they even reached the gates, as well as the bandit they had tied up nearby, who was still looking at them in fear, his mouth bound up as well.
Feroy nodded. “Well done, everyone! Lord Kivamus will be proud of you all.”
The guards beamed at the praise before the ex-mercenary pointed at the watchtower platform. “Two more of you climb up there for tonight so there are more eyes on the tower to keep a watch around us. The rest of you stay alert in case there is another attack, although I think it will be quiet for tonight, since I don’t think this was Torhan’s group.”
Feroy handed over the warbow and the quiver he had taken from the bandit archer to one of the guards. “Take it with you to the top of the watchtower for now.” Gazing at the tied up bandit for a moment, he added, “I’m going to the baron’s manor to give the report to Lord Kivamus. I’ll send someone to bring this bandit for interrogation later on.”
With that, Feroy started jogging towards the north, while the rest of the guards settled in for a long night as they sat with their backs on the pillars of the watchtower. Tesyb ordered two of the men to climb up to the platform with the warbow – one of whom had some practice with a bow – while also sending a mug of water to Hyola from the barrel full of water kept nearby. Once everything was taken care of, Tesyb took his place next to a pillar as well, feeling glad that everything had gone well.
To be fair, he realized that by now, the village was simply not the same place as it was before the arrival of Lord Kivamus. Now they had a strong palisade wall around the village, as well as watchtowers to provide early warning. There were also more than enough trained guards now, and with new crossbows being provided to the guards every week by the carpenter Darora, he was confident they could take on anything! This was a completely new feeling after living in fear of bandits and wild beasts attacking his home in the night for most of his life, but he liked this confident feeling! A lot!
~ Kivamus ~
Kivamus had been pacing in the manor hall worriedly for the last hour, having woken up from sleep after hearing the sound of the horn. With Torhan’s group of bandits having raided Tiranat much sooner than they expected, they had barely finished any preparations for it. The fourth watchtower in the northwest wasn’t even built yet. At least with all the hunting groups back in the village, there would be no shortage of guards this time.
These bandits had also attacked some time after midnight, likely to make it difficult to spot them, but at least that was something the guards were already expecting. It also made protecting the villagers easier, since at this time everyone was already inside the walls. If the bandits had attacked in the day, most of the village people would have been out of the walls working one place or the other, which might have been more difficult to manage.
This was also the very first time they would be dealing with a raid after the construction of the three watch towers, and hopefully it would give them some good advantage in the defence of the village with the crossbow-women sitting ready up there. Still, it would have been much better if there was some way to make it easier for them to spot any approaching bandits instead of just relying on moonlight. Like electric power. He wished they had the capability to install some kind of electrical floodlights on the watchtowers around the village. Just imagine how surprising that would feel to any bandits! He sighed. It was only wishful thinking at the moment. They were a long way away from having the capability to generate electricity or manufacture light bulbs.
Nearby in the manor hall, Duvas had made himself busy checking all the numbers in the revenue and tax ledger once again, saying that he wanted to take his mind away from the raid, while Gorsazo seemed to have gone to talk with Madam Helga in the kitchen as she prepared some kind of midnight snack, with Clarisa and Lucem helping her, so the kids wouldn’t have to worry about the raid. Syryne was sitting near the long table as well, since nobody could possibly be relaxed enough to sleep at this time.
He hoped he would get some report of what was happening soon, when the outer door opened and the ex-mercenary walked inside.
“Feroy!” He exclaimed. “How’s it going? Why are you back here already when there are dozens of bandits out there? Where’s Hudan?”
The ex-mercenary pointed towards the north. “He has gone to support the guards at the northern gate, but I’ve brought both good news and bad news with me.”
“Out with it! Don’t make me wait!”
“We were able to kill all the attacking bandits in the southeast, and even took one of them captive. We also haven’t heard any horns from the other directions, so there can’t be too many bandits out there, although Hudan and the others will be able to take care of them easily now that we are alert. The village should be safe enough for tonight. That’s the good news,” Feroy added with a wince. “As for the bad news, I’ll interrogate the bandit properly after giving the full report to you, but I’m fairly sure that these bandits have nothing to do with Torhan.”
“Wait, what?” Duvas asked. “I thought it was Torhan’s men who had managed to reach here quickly.”
The ex-mercenary shook his head. “For better or for worse, they haven’t. Nokozal must not have found the clay mine compound that easily.”
“What if he already met Torhan,” Syryne asked, “but they decided not to attack us? We’ve managed to repel Nokozal’s men twice already!”
“That’s not very likely. Someone like Torhan with noble blood in him – bastard or otherwise – isn’t someone who’ll let his men be killed without taking revenge or he’ll risk losing his standing amongst his own men.” Feroy continued, “I’m quite sure that a raid is still coming, and we won’t be able to rest easy until we have dealt with that bastard.”
Kivamus sighed as he took a seat. “Just how many bandit groups are there in these forests…”
“More than you’d care to count,” Feroy replied with a shrug. “They might not be as big or well organised as Torhan’s group, but with a lot of people having lost their livelihood in the past year or two, many of them have resorted to banditry, and we must seem like the easiest target to them in this region of southern Reslinor. At least until they find out about the newly constructed walls and the watch towers.”
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“We really will have to continue increasing our guard force as we get more immigrants in the future,” Kivamus said, “if we want to keep sending hunters out while maintaining the village’s protection. It may be fine to keep all the guards here for now, but we really can’t go too long without them hunting and bringing meat to supplement our diets.”
The outer door opened once again and this time it was the guard captain who walked inside, looking no worse for wear.
“We found eight men lurking in the forest outside the gates in the north-east after the female guard on the watchtower reported seeing some moonlight reflecting from something there,” Hudan reported without being prompted. “So I sent enough guards mounted on horses up there. Two of the bandits died in the skirmish before the others gave up their swords. The guards are bringing them here for now. Still, it was easy enough to find them since everyone was already alert after the horn was blown in the southeast, although I don’t understand how Torhan reached here so fast.”
“It wasn’t him,” Kivamus told him with a grimace. “These were some other bandits, and Torhan must still be coming.”
Hudan exhaled before smirking. “Don’t worry, my lord. We’ll show him what happens to anyone who dares to attack us.” He looked at Feroy. “How did it go in the southeast? You standing here means the bandits must have already been dealt with, right?”
The ex-mercenary grinned. “Tesyb and the other guards killed six and took one captive, with barely any injuries.”
Hudan laughed loudly. “Well, my horsemen did much better then. We caught eight of ’em alive! But we didn’t get to see how effective the watchtower would be since we caught them far from the crossbow-woman’s range. Not sure how well they could have done in the dark anyway.”
Feroy smirked. “You better not say that in front of Hyola. Even with only moonlight to guide her, she took out two bandits before they even reached the walls.”
Hudan snorted. “She never stops surprising me.” He looked at Kivamus. “After catching the bandits I sent a dozen horsemen on patrol to take a few rounds around the village in case there are any more bandits out there, although I don’t think we’ll find any.”
“That’s a good idea,” Kivamus agreed, “and a dozen horsemen can take care of any stragglers easily.”
The door opened once again and a guard came inside, whispering something in Hudan’s ear, who nodded and sent him back.
Hudan turned back towards the others. “The eight bandits we caught alive have been brought to the manor and they’ve been tied inside a coal barn for now, since the jail is already full with the refugee farmers. The guards checked and none of the captives had any coins with them, but at least we’ll get some good leather armour from them, apart from a pair of warbows and quite a few swords, as rusted as they must be.”
“Those swords won’t be of any use other than as scrap iron,” Kivamus said, “but Cedoron will be happy to get that scrap nonetheless.”
“Send someone to bring the bandit who was caught in the southeast as well,” Feroy said before looking at Kivamus. “I should go now and grill them. We might find out something interesting.”
Kivamus gave a nod and the mercenary exited the manor hall. He looked at others. The mood had improved noticeably in the hall by now since the raid had been dealt with successfully. Duvas had closed the ledger once again, while Syryne also looked relaxed.
“It’s good that we won’t really need to use much losuvil powder this time, if at all,” Hudan said, “since we are running really low on it.”
Kivamus nodded. “Unless a guard has serious wounds, it’s better to save the remaining medicine for when Torhan attacks. We’ll need it then.”
“I’ll confirm with the guards once, but we should be able to do without it this time.”
“The losuvil vines in the eastern hills should already have started getting new leaves by now,” Syryne said, “so we can start gathering new leaves within a couple of weeks. It will take me another week after that to prepare more losuvil powder, but after that we shouldn’t have any shortage of it until the winter.”
“That’s good to hear,” Kivamus said with a smile. “We will also try to make a much bigger stockpile of it this time, so we don’t have any chance of it running out when we need it the most. Of course, we plan to sell some of it to the merchants as well, but that’s for later.”
“What should we do with the men we caught?” Hudan asked. “We can’t even lock them in the jail we built.”
Kivamus looked at Duvas, thinking of a solution. “How’s it going with the latest refugees who had followed Feroy from Kirnos? We only had the damaged huts and shacks to house them in. It’s not that cold anymore with the snow already melted, but it can’t be very comfortable for them even in this weather.”
“Oh, the refugees are more than happy just to have a roof over their head,” the majordomo replied. “Most of them were homeless when they left Kirnos, so getting regular meals and living indoors – even if it’s only in a shack – is something they aren’t going to complain about.”
“Good. That means now it’s time for us to shift those farmers who’d been living in the jail to the damaged shacks. Make sure it’s done tomorrow morning before they leave for work, so we can put the new captives in jail.”
Duvas nodded. “As you wish, although we’ll have to think of a better solution before too long.”
“Let’s get the sowing completed first,” Kivamus said, “then we will have enough free workers to start demolishing these shacks and to make another long house for them.”
“That takes care of where we will keep the captives temporarily until they are interrogated,” Hudan said, “but we have to think about what to do with them after that. I am pretty sure what Feroy would suggest us to do with them, and I don’t think I disagree. I suggest they be executed after the interrogation is completed.”
Kivamus grimaced hearing him talk so casually about executing people who had surrendered. It was true that this harsh medieval world had nothing like the Geneva Conventions – probably because they hadn’t yet seen the kind of brutality which men could dish out to each other during something like a world war – but it just didn’t feel right to him to execute men who had surrendered to him. “Let’s wait for Feroy and see what he tells us.”
*****
It had been more than an hour since the ex-mercenary had gone while Kivamus and Duvas waited for him to return. Madam Helga had made some baked cookies in the meantime, which Lucem and Clarisa had gladly devoured before going to sleep, with Syryne and their mother accompanying them. Hudan had gone out once again to get the latest report from the guards, while Feroy hadn’t returned either.
Soon, the doors opened again and both of the men came inside.
“I just met with the patrolling guards,” Hudan reported,” and they didn’t see anyone else out there. “It seems we caught all the bandits. If there were any stragglers, they must have already run away from here.”
“We can’t do anything about that,” Kivamus said. “We don’t have the manpower to go on a wild goose chase in the night.”
Duvas stared at him. “Uh… What do you mean? What is this goose you speak of?”
Kivamus shook his head. Some phrases probably didn’t translate well in this new language or maybe goose was known by a different name here. “I meant that it would be futile to try to search any other bandits in these forests right now.”
Hudan nodded. “I agree. I’ve already told the guards to return the horses to the stable so they can rest for a few hours before we send them to the fields for plowing again.” He looked at Feroy. “What did you find out?”
“Same as what I expected,” the ex-mercenary reported. “Many of them used to be slaves until a year or two ago. Some of them worked as farmers under their owners, but had to run away when their masters barely gave them anything to eat after grain prices started increasing, while others worked odd jobs here and there, before they were let go. They turned to petty stealing when they couldn’t find a job to earn coins and eventually moved into the forests to hunt for food there and began targeting small farms and villages to find food.” He shrugged. “None of them had heard of the name Torhan before I asked. What do you want to do with them?”
“I already suggested that executing them would be the best idea,” the guard captain said. “I am no more fond of taking lives than any other person, but I don’t want to post guards just to keep an eye on them when Torhan can attack us any time. Even though we have enough guards right now, usually we always have a shortage of guards anyway and once we start sending hunters out again, we will probably be short on them again. It’s not a good idea to waste men just to guard these bandits.”
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Feroy seemed to be thinking for a moment before he looked at Kivamus. “It is up to you, but these aren’t seasoned bandits who have been doing this for so long that they can’t make amends for what they’ve been doing. It might not be the case with Torhan’s bandits, or any other organised group which has been doing this for a long time, but from what I’ve seen, a lot of people who used to do honest jobs had turned into bandits in the past couple of years. Most of them live somewhere in the forests south of Cinran, and we might very well be attacked by them in the future, since they won’t dare to attack Cinran and Kirnos is probably too far away to travel for them.”
“They are still bandits,” Hudan shrugged. “Executing them now would likely save us a lot of trouble in the future.”
Kivamus shook his head in exasperation. If all those escaped slaves kept attacking them, then they would need a huge graveyard just to bury them, not to mention he just couldn’t bring it in himself to kill people who had surrendered. At this rate he might have to create a local version of Geneva conventions. Huh. Maybe they could call it Tiranat conventions.
He looked at the guard captain. “These people surrendered to us, Hudan. We should never hesitate in keeping our village safe from bandits and such, and I won’t stop to think twice about the men we kill while defending our homes, but those who have surrendered to us deserve mercy. You may be right that killing them would probably save us trouble in the future, but these people were just looking for food to eat because nobles like me couldn’t ensure that every person in their domain had enough to eat.”
Seeing that Hudan still didn’t look convinced, he added, “Just consider this. If we execute people who surrender to us, any future attackers would have no reason to put down their swords. That means our guards will have to fight them to the death, which means more casualties on our side as well – since it seems like bandits aren’t going to stop attacking us anytime soon in this place. So the best way to keep our village secure and our guards alive is to allow as many bandits to surrender as we can. But that will never happen if we execute everyone who does that.”
“I… can see your logic in that. But what should we do then?” Hudan asked with a frown. “We can’t just let them go!”
Kivamus thought about it for a while. “I do agree that we can’t just keep them in jail and feed them indefinitely. They need to do hard labour to earn their food and pay for their crimes, but that has to be done in a way that they don’t have any opportunity to escape. So how about sending them to work in the coal mines, now that they are active again? Their hands can be tied on the way there and back, with the other coal miners keeping an eye on them until they reach the mines, while they simply won’t have any way to escape when they are inside the hills mining coal. This way we get uh… nine more workers to dig more coal – and that will earn us more gold as well.”
“I do like hearing that we can get more gold in the future,” Duvas said while shaking his head, “but the way you keep changing everything in Tiranat, I don’t think we are going to have enough workers in the village any time soon, if ever.”
Kivamus snorted. “You have no idea… Either way, we need to keep increasing our labour force.”
Feroy began, “I think that can work. After these surrendered bandits have seen that they will be treated like humans here, even if they were slaves in the past, I don’t think any of them will have any reason to try to escape, since this is the first time they will know for sure that they are going to get food every day. I’m pretty sure that even as captives, their life in this village will be much better than how they lived as slaves under their previous owners.” He added, “Of course, there might still be some who will try to escape, but with more than a hundred reliable men of Tiranat working in the coal mines already, they won’t have much chance to run away anyway.”
“Good,” Kivamus said. “This is what we’ll do then. Shift them to the jail tomorrow after the refugees have moved to the old huts and try to find out who amongst these surrendering bandits is likely to cause problems in the future. We can go with Hudan’s solution for any troublemakers, while the rest of the captives should become good workers for Tiranat in due time. Eventually we can move them out of the jail if they don’t show any signs of causing problems for the village.”
Feroy nodded. “I’ll find out everything about them tomorrow.”
Hudan looked thoughtful for a moment before sighing. “Fine. The guards won’t like it, but they’ll do as I say. In case any of them become a problem, the guards will know exactly how to take care of them. It’s too dark right now, so tomorrow morning, we’ll strip the bodies of the dead bandits of anything useful and bury them in the eastern hills.” He looked at the ex-mercenary. “You should take some rest now as well, you’ve been awake for quite a while.”
Feroy snorted but agreed. And with that, the mercenary and the guard captain exited the manor hall.
Duvas stood up from his chair as well. “I should get some sleep. The tax collector will arrive any day now, and I need my mind well-rested to deal with him.”
The majordomo entered the inner door to go to his room, but Kivamus’ mind was too agitated for him to find sleep any time soon. Now that Hyola had proved that the watchtowers were very effective, he wondered what they could do if they had some more powerful weapons here, even if they were not fired by gunpowder.