Baladin: interlude

 

Interlude  Baron’s men

 

The squad rode into the village of Olivepress around dusk.  Circuit duty was one of the chores that the Baron Olivestone had set for his men.  He did not have many men but the ones that he had he used to police the small forgotten barony.  Twenty-five cavalry, fifty infantry and twenty-five archers.  It was more than this little chunk of the nation needed at the worst of times, or so thought most of the men.  They all had family locally their meager par supplemented their families’ earnings, and they knew that all their wages came from the taxes levied upon the people here.  The squad was one of five that had been on patrol through Barony, all cavalry.  Each squad would leave from one village in the morning and arrive at the next just before nightfall.  This continued for eight days and the ninth they spent at Olivestone with the baron.  There were six villages if you excluded Olivestone where most of the troops resided, so the most protected.  The patrols had begun a year ago and they were told to bring back information when ever it was thought to be more important.  When they arrived in a village one would get some rest and the other four would head out and canvas the people in the farms about anything strange going on and they would all then get some rest and oust the fifth member who would be on watch the rest of the night.  If anything happened, they were to wake their fellows and head directly to Olivestone with the news that they had to report and leaving three of the patrol in the village.  There were five roads that joined Olivestone to the other villages and if the Baron thought the threat great enough, he would two squads immeadiately to each village.  There had been many drills, but no alarms.  There were lots of youths that regularly left the barony, they met them regularly enough on the road, youths that were dissatisfied with the lives of their parents and were seeking excitement in the city.  but there were more stories of people leaving than reports of people on the road many of these left without telling anyone.  But most of the people they met on the road said that too. 

The patrol that arrived in Olivepress discovered a minstrel playing in one of the inns.  There had not been a minstrel in these parts for years, at least not one travelling alone, and now one and so close to the troupe of players that had passed through here a month ago.  Squad leader made the decision to let the four junior members to do the canvasing while he rested.  They could enjoy the music and talk to the villagers.  It looked like all the villagers were coming to hear the minstrel, so it would be easy to find out what was happening recently.  The crew woke him up and told him that he had missed a rare performance and that it would likely be a quiet night as all the people were tired and might sleep late. 

Watch duty was indeed light at first, but then as he finished another circuit of the village, he thought that he saw someone heading off towards the temple.  This sometimes happened, it could have been an injury or ailment needing the priests to cure or aid them.  Later he saw what looked like a flash of light, it was intense enough to see it reflect off the temple and the gold dome.  He went and roused his fellows telling them that he needed two of them to follow him up to the temple to investigate something suspicious and to get the other two to prevent anyone from leaving the village and to send word if they did not return.  It took some time to get them sorted out and when he did not notice the figure coming down from the graveyard. 

The three climbed the rise and entered the graveyard.  They saw the three bodies that lay on the ground.  They raised the lights they had brought and opened the tomb a little wider.  The sight of the ghast splattered everywhere and the remains of the old Baron who had been laid to rest five years previously.  He and his men took a brief look around and discovered the three disturbed graves and then headed back to the village.  He told the two men had been left in the village to not engage the minstrel and he left one of the soldiers behind to reinforce the order with the tale of what they saw above.  He then took the last soldier, and they mounted up and rode from the town to Olivestone.  The Baron would want to know that someone had desecrated his father’s remains by turning them into a foul undead servant and a travelling minstrel had fought and killed them.  He was not going to be happy, but the undead might be something of an explanation to the mysterious happenings in the Barony.