Chapter 6 Bandits
The day wore on and the cicadas
began their whine. The weather would
only get worse, but she reflected that the interior summers were cooler in the
beginning. The late start and the
dawdling with the soldiers made for a longer day. Villages were typically closer together
except on the edges of a barony.
<insert Name> used the time well, trying to scrape up every piece
of information she had on the Olive Stone Barony.
Before the Succession Wars Olive
Stone was a very wealthy and important Barony.
it was in the name actually; they had massive groves of olive trees. The olive trees spread over the countryside
with only low walls separating the groves of the different villages and
towns. In addition to the olives there
were nut trees and other fruits a plenty, the wide grassy boulevards between
the trees were filled with grain fields and sometimes grape crops. The barony capitol was a city and the
periphery towns bigger than Bridgetown each with a cluster of villages around
them. But in the opening salvos of the
wars, the city was laid siege to, and the ravaging army laid waste to the
groves in surrounding lands, destroying the livelihood of the people
completely, even though the attack was repelled. Now the barony was a barony in name
only. The other interesting fact was
that the Baron’s family survived the wars unseated, almost all the other ruling
families date from the end of the wars.
So, old family but poor.
The daydreaming and the unseasonal
heat made her drowsy and drowsy people don’t keep their horse at the pace that
she needed to get to the next village by sundown. So, when twilight was beginning to come on
strong, there was only the welcoming sign of an open fire at the bend in the
road against a copse of trees. As she approached,
she saw there were four figures nearby and the fire was a cook fire; they were
roasting some game animals. “Hey, ho,
stranger. What are you doing out on the
road at night?” The sound of the voice
was melodious and friendly, but her eyes made out the swords that lay by the
log they were resting on and the two bows that were still strung. She was suspicious. “We are four woodsmen from the nearby
village, won’t you come and share our fire for the night?” He was gesturing to the food and the fire,
and she saw they had a pile of axes leaned up against the log. “we have plenty of food tonight, Naustal a small
wild pig and it will just be going to waste.”
“You certainly are well armed for
woodsmen,” she responded and instantly regretted it. Pointing out the obvious might lead to a
conflict if they intended one and it was four to one odd with two with bows.
“Aye, we are. There are bandits in these parts,” he said as
explanation, which got a chuckle from the group, “they are mostly for show, my
lady.” She had gotten close, or they
heard her gender when she spoke. “The
next village is still three hours away and the road is rougher just past
here. We would hate if your horse turned
a leg.”
That settled it, while she might
risk travelling at night on her own, her horse might indeed get injured. She could fix any injury she would just as
soon not have to. “Good points, and
perhaps your offer of hospitality would be most welcome.” She came forward leading her horse and cart
while the men moved their stuff to make room for her. “I have some fruit, gathered at the
crossroads and I can play for meal,” she said, and she retrieved her lute from
her bag. They were most gratified
suggesting that you could not be worse singer than Evid and your stories should
be better than Mattax’s. The last
woodsman introduced himself as Yatter. The
leader of the group was Evid and despite the suggestion he had a pretty good
voice and he joined in a few of the songs she played. The meat was passable but considering the
setting, it was excellent. For sleeping
she brought down her shield so that she rest her head on something dry. They remarked on her rapier, and she said as
they had said it was mostly for show and she had practiced the right way to
make a proper flourish for show with it.
They told her that they would be setting a watch against nighttime
beasts and for her to rest after the great time of this evening. When asked they said there was nothing
dangerous around these parts, but it is best to be safe.
She drifted to sleep slowly,
although she was tired because it is never good to sleep in an unknown
situation. She was tired and she did
drift. She woke and the fire had died to
coals and from her position she could not see the watchman. Drogath had risen and he was waning, Hestuim
was still close to full, so there was enough light to see by. She could see where the others had laid out
their bedrolls, they were empty. She
leveled her breathing so as not to alert anyone who might be watching. She listened intently. There were sounds behind her where she had
parked her cart with her horse beside it.
The horse was well trained to be around others and not to kick, very
useful when there are small children playing around but less useful when
someone is intent on robbing you. She
tensed each of her muscles before moving and alerting her hosts and prepared to
right herself. She mumbled a little
enchantment under her breath, humming a brief musical bar to produce the sound
of a tree branch snapping beyond the cart away from her, “Snap.”
She rose and drew her rapier in a
less than showy flourish and a rather more direct and business type way that
was completely wasted as her distraction had worked so well. “Hey, you, Out of my stuff!” she
bellowed. And she inwardly winced, clearly,
she was out of practise, drawing to attention to yourself is better done when
you are closer to your quarry and not out of threat range. Two had bows and they were at the ready her
announcement brought those arrows up for inspection and firing on her. She raised her shield and one thudded into it
and the other struck her side and bounced off her concealed mail coat. Evid was close to her, and he raised his
sword to her in a manner that suggested, as she expected, was used not for
show. He moved forward and struck at her
with his sword. She dodged to the side
and brought up her blade and skewered him while calling on the vengeance of Cyr
Astra and the wound that the rapier made glowed ripping his side apart and a
silent clap of thunder rippled outward ringing with a single harp string
plucked. The other men were aghast. Bows and swords clattered to the ground and
the three turned to run as fast as their legs could carry them.
I did not want them coming back
when they found their courage, so I raised my shield with the symbol of Cyr
Astra, god of Music and sang a clear note that wavered like a seductive
calling. The two closest stopped in
their tracks and came back when I called them.
I asked them if they could be so kind as to tell me what they were
really doing out here in the woods. They
responded that they and Evid had been friends for years Evid suggested since
the four of them were the biggest boys around we could find better work for
less strain. We agreed and he showed
us. He has a ring that makes people
think good things about him and he could use it to charm people and when they
were charmed, we could kill them and steal from them. We didn’t really like doing it, but after the
first time we felt that there was no more choice. I asked them where their treasure was and one
of them went to go get it. I told the
other that he should start digging a deep hole for Evid. When Yatter returned with the loot, he joined
Mattax digging. When the hole was deep enough,
I told Yatter to bring Evid and drop him in the hole. Mattax went to help, but I said to him, “I am
sorry,” and slit his throat.
I bless you, said Drogath.
When Yatter laid Evid in the hole,
I slit his throat too.
I bless you said Drogath.
I would say that it was not
Murder said Hestium, I think Scoria would say it was justice would you not?
It might be justice, but she
chose to kill them and that is murder and I applaud her actions said Drogath
I shovelled the dirt from the side
of the hole into the roadside grave and in the waning of the night I fashioned
a grave marker from the wood with their names, “Evid, Mattax, Yatter. Bandits.
May they fare better in the next life.”
I sang a brief song in prayer over them for anyone they knew who still
loved them. People are not born bandits
and there was someone out there that would grieve their loss.
I looked over the loot that they
had piled before me. There was Evid’s
ring that was gold with a small gemstone, when cleaned it looked bright and
shiny and I sensed that when directed it could charm unsuspecting people, but
if used carefully it could be used subtly to influence them. There was a pile of coins made mostly out of
silver but with a few gold coins and a lot of copper and copper bits. The traditional copper coin is a bit larger
than the silver one and it is scored so that it can be divided into ten equal
bits. Some of the copper was full but
there were a lot of bits included. There
was a lot of trade goods as well. Pans,
knives, bowls, a few bottles of wine, a small tun of olive oil and a sack of
candied nuts. There was an assortment of
gentleman’s swords some matching the ones the bandits had. There were a few gems too, some quite
fine. Nothing that could be identifiable
to loved ones. I repacked the gear and
the loot and headed back on the road.
Naustral, wherever he was probably would wait until night to see what
was left of his friends. I would let the
authorities know about him at the next villages.
As promised, the next village was
three hours down the road, but the road was in great shape.
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