The merchant who had fled, reached the Resting Lion Inn late in the afternoon. He burst into the common room and called for the proprietor. The man came running. When he saw the state of the merchant who had left just that morning, he asked. “What’s the matter friend? “
“We were attacked near where the road from the pass joins the River Road. I think I’m the only one who made it. There were thirty or forty bandits. They ambushed us and then came in with swords and pistols to finish the rest of us. I was near the rear, and when I saw most of our guards dead on the ground, I fled here.”
The proprietor quickly took charge. He got the man some refreshment and had his wife send a bird to inform the duke of what had happened.
Two hours later the bird arrived at Midport. The keeper read the short message and had a runner take it to the Duke with orders to disturb him if necessary. Duke Edwin was young for Cornu, just in his late forties. He was a tall man, lanky and well-muscled, with sandy hair and an approachable demeaner. The messenger found the Duke in his quarters talking with his wives. The duke read the message and then passed it to his wives. They immediately knew what to do and started to prepare the things he would need to take. While he was young, Edwin was neither indecisive nor stupid. The first thing he did was have a bird sent to Riverbend to see if any expected caravan hadn’t showed up yet. Another was sent to Nordport to let the king know about the attack. Finally one was set to the inn asking for remounts to be gathered. Then he called for the head of his guard.
When the man showed up, he was direct. “There was an attack on at least one caravan by a large band of brigands. I wouldn’t be surprised if this wasn't the only one. One man escaped, so they are probably heading to the pass. They aren’t going to wait around to see what we’ll do. At first light we ride out of here with sixty men. Make sure we’ve got extra mounts and supplies with us. We’ll set a hard pace. I’ve sent ahead to the Resting Lion and have them gather as many remounts as they can. I want to have passed the Inn by late afternoon. We’ll stop for a cold camp on the road and then ride as hard as possible towards Vinfarm and the pass. I know we must be careful of the horses, but they are burdened, so hopefully we can close the distance. If we’re lucky we’ll catch them before the pass. If not, we follow them out of the pass. Any stragglers, we capture and bring them back here and make them talk. I want to know who did this.” The man nodded and hurried off to get everything ready for the morning.
After he left, Edwin’s wives came up and told him. “You’ve got clothes and things packed for a hard ride. The kitchen has been informed to get field rations ready for a week to feed sixty men, we listened. Now you need to get some rest. Make sure you come back safe to us. We’ve got some more children to get out of you.”
Edwin smiled and hugged his wives. He then retired to get what rest he could. The next morning well before dawn, Edwin assembled his men in the courtyard. He gave them a short address. “Men, at least one caravan has been attacked by a large force of bandits. I don’t expect that we will find any survivors. The bandits are now probably heading towards the Nordia Pass. We need to catch them before they get to the pass. We’ll ride hard to try and catch them. Let’s go.” With that the Edwin lead his men out of the courtyard and to the west.
Meanwhile, Kornin was moving his men and stolen goods up the road to Vinfarm and then on to the pass. He had four wounded men with him, two of them were serious. He was unsure if the seriously wounded men would make it. They also had seven women captives. He wasn’t sure that he would keep them either. It depended on the pursuit. Duke Edwin would be the one closest to the ambush. Kornin didn’t doubt that he would lead any pursuit. The duke had the reputation for being decisive and smart. Kornin was sure that he would be after him quickly. It was a race. The Duke and his men could move quicker than Kornin and his group, who were burdened with stolen goods. The difference was he had a head start.
The proprietor of the Resting Lion had hired two hunters to go out and scout the ambush site. He didn’t want the Duke to ride into an ambush. When the two men got near the spot, they dismounted and approached silently on foot. The came across the freshly disturbed earth and assumed that those were graves. They soon found where Kornin and his people had camped and saw the tracks heading south. After conferring, they decided to split up. One would track the bandits, making sure not to get to close and the other would wait for the Duke.
The Duke and his men pushed hard towards the junction. They changed horses at the Resting Lion and pushed on. They had to cut the pace a bit as these were the horses that they would have to rely on to catch the bandits. Exhausting the horses just made it certain the bandits would escape. At dark, they organized a cold camp, got the horses fed and watered. The men got some rest and they were up and on the road before first light. As they neared the site of the ambush, they found the hunter sitting by the road.
He rose as he saw the party arrive and went over to the duke. “Your Grace, there are graves in the grasslands. There are more there than for the caravan we know about. The must have hit at least one other caravan.” He pointed to the area southeast of the road. “It looks like they left as soon as they finished the ambush of the last caravan. Their tracks say they are heading towards the pass. My partner, Steedman, is following them, if they turn off, he’ll leave a trail. If we are to catch them, we’ll need some luck. I expect that we’ll be several hours behind them when they reach the pass. The guards there can’t stop them.”
The duke looked at him. “Good man, you and your partner will be rewarded. I hope the guards don’t try and stop them, that will just be four more bodies to add to the total.” He then turned to his men, “They’re heading to the pass, let’s see if we can catch them.”
Kornin set the best pace he could. His animals were burdened with goods and he wasn’t going to leave them unless he absolutely had to. His best guess was that they would beat their pursuers to the pass and be through it and into the southern kingdoms. He doubted that they would follow him to much further beyond the pass. If they did, he’d set an ambush at a place he knew just beyond the pass. That would slow them up and give his people more time to escape with the goods.
It was a long slog, with little rest for either the bandits or their pursuers. After three hard days, Kornin could finally see the pass up ahead. It was a good day’s travel to get there. The two severely wounded had died on the trip and the bodies dumped by the side of the road. The next thing to go was the women. They were slowing him up and his pursuers would have to stop to take care of them.
Edwin could see the bandits up ahead of him. He didn’t think that he would be able to catch them before the pass, but he intended to follow them to the south of the pass. Damn, any diplomatic fallout. He was sure King Fredricke would back him on that. They’d already passed two bodies on the side of the road. Wounded bandits who died on the forced march. Nobody shed any tears over that. Then he saw a band of women walking towards him. “Captain, detail five men to take care of the women. The rest of us won’t stop and we’ll keep going.”
As they passed the women, one shouted out. “I hope you catch them and kill them all. Our men are dead, and they drugged and raped us.” That just added to the duke and his men’s determination to get them. They pushed on and as expected the bandits went over the pass a three hours earlier than the duke did. He was disgusted to see that they’d shot down the four guards at the pass. All the men were dead. The duke and his men pressed on.
Kornin looked back and saw the pursuers exiting the pass and keep coming. He realized that his pursuers were determined to catch them. Unless they did something, they’d have them within hours. He didn’t expect any mercy. The best he could hope for was capture, torture and then death. He needed to do something to slow them down. An hour further on Kornin knew that there was a good spot for an ambush. He detailed twenty men to set up and hold up their pursuers to the end of the day and then slip away. By that time, there were plenty of places where Kornin could hid
e safe from pursuit.
The two hunters who were with the duke became suspicious when they saw the rock defile ahead of them and they halted. The duke rode up and Steedman pointed to the rocks “that’s a good place for an ambush. They’ve got to do something to slow us down or we’ll have them in another two hours. If I were the leader, I’d set an ambush to slow us down and this is as good a spot as any. We need to investigate before we walk into a hail of lead.” The duke nodded and Steedman and his companion, went into the woods on foot and scouted ahead. It didn’t take them long to spot the trap. They went back to inform the duke.
“Your grace, there are about twenty men in the rocks ahead of us. If we come at them directly, it will be hell to pay to get them out of there.”
Edwin looked at the two hunters. “I can see that. Do you have any ideas?”
“Well we could take about twenty men and we’d lead them into the woods. I’d take ten to the left and Steedman could take the other ten to the right. We could work our way behind them and once that’s done, we’d have them. While we’re getting into position, the rest of your men move up under cover and start shooting at them. That will keep them occupied. We aren’t going to catch up to the stolen goods. “
The duke looked at the man, “That’s a good plan. I agree. The goods are gone, and the people are dead. But we can make this a very expensive for these brigands. Perhaps next time they’ll avoid Nordia.” He signaled to his captain and then explained the plan. Before the captain went to set the plan in motion the duke made it clear about prisoners. “I want a couple of prisoners to bring back for questioning.”
The duke’s men advanced warily towards the rocky defile. As soon as they saw a bandit, they opened fire. That was returned by the bandits and soon there was muskets being fired every minute or so as both sides shot at anything that looked like a person. Kornin could hear the distant muskets and knew that this would buy him the time to get hidden. Another hour and they would be on a main road. They would make better time and eventually they would be able to turn off and hide their tracks.
It took almost an hour for the hunters to get the men into position. Meanwhile it had been a stalemate. The bandits had wounded a couple of the duke’s men and they in turn had killed one bandit and wounded another. Once the hunters and their men were in position the whole fight was over in a matter of minutes. The bandits found themselves trapped between two forces. They tried to fight their way out. Only one man was able to escape, get on his horse and ride away. Two men were captured. Any of the wounded bandits were simply killed. Of the twenty men Kornin had detailed to ambush the duke, seventeen were dead, two were captured and only one had escaped.
Edwin gathered his men together and made sure that the prisoners were secured. They then headed back over the pass. The bandits’ corpses were hung by the side of the road before they left. They stopped to bury the four guardsmen who’d been killed by the bandit at the pass. Eight men were detached from his troop and detailed to guard the pass. When they reached Vinfarm, they rested and made sure that the wounded were cared for. The women were put on some of the spare horses for the journey to Midport. The duke vowed to make sure that they would be cared for. After a day of rest and some fresh food, they headed back Midport. Three long days later, when they reached the Resting Lion, the duke handed a bag of gold coins to the hunters. “This is for the excellent service you have rendered. I would have probably walked into that ambush if not for you and lost a lot of men. Thank you.”
“Our pleasure your grace. Anytime we can be of service.” Said Steedman. The two hunters walked off to split their reward.
The duke praised the inn’s proprietor and promised a suitable reward for him as well. “You did very well, you got us remounts. Although I’ve no idea how you did it and most importantly you recruited those two hunters who saved lives out there.” The duke and his men rested for a day at the inn and then refreshed moved on to Midport.
When they got back to Midport, Duke Edwin turned the prisoners over to have as much information extracted out of them as they could. He instructed the interrogators not to let the prisoners die before they gave up their secrets. Edwin had no illusions on how they would be treated, he also felt no mercy towards them. Back in his quarters he talked to his wives. They promised to look after the women from the caravans and then urged him to get a bath and then rest. Once he was clean, he went to bed and was asleep almost instantly.
The duke woke up about mid-day and set about writing a report to send to the king. Edwin had his wives review it and they asked question and made suggestions. After that he re-wrote it sent the report to King Fredricke on what had happened. He got back a short answer, pass on what you find out then execute the bandits. Edwin would have no trouble following that directive. There was a hill overlooking the River Road. He would have scaffolding erected there and then hang them and leave the bodies to rot. Their crimes would be detailed by the side of the road. A warning to all would be bandits of the fate that awaited them.
Kornin showed up at the valley with a spectacular load of stolen goods, but with only fourteen men. Once he was rested Kornin sat down with Bart. “Bart it went well, right up to the last when one of the riders escaped the trap. We packed up quickly and headed towards the pass. We couldn’t go that fast with all the animals burdened with loot. I assume it was the duke leading the pursuit. They were there even quicker than I thought. We made it through the pass, and they followed. I set men to stop them it worked, but they managed to kill practically everybody. I think they took a couple of prisoners.”
“We need to make sure that we cut off any escape from these ambushes. That was the key. If they’ve got prisoners, then they know everything that. I think our valley is safe, they’d pay dearly trying to force their way in here. We avoid Nordia for a good while. With the other raids we’ve got a lot of booty to dispose of over the coming months. Good job.” Kornin left and Bart reflected on the raids. He wasn’t too upset about the loss of men; to him this was a dangerous business and striking Nordia was extremely dangerous. The dukes and duchesses of the kingdom where smart and decisive. The lesson learned from this was to only go after one really rich caravan and to make sure nobody escaped. As soon as the caravan was captured head to the safety of the mountains. There were more trails through there than just the Nordia Pass. He did like the ambush site that Kornin had picked out, he’d remember it. The men would be happy with this haul; they were set for some time. They could buy women in the south, that always made the men happy.
The duke’s men had extracted as much information as they could from the bandits. They knew that the leader was Bart and what he looked like. They also knew that the bandits resided in an alpine valley that had a winding and easily defended entrance. The prisoners had detailed other attacks that they’d been on. Once the duke was satisfied that they wouldn’t get any more information, the men were hung. Duke Edwin compiled a report and sent it on to Nordport.
Fredricke and Randall both read the report and then met to discuss it. Randall started. “Well father, there is apparently a very well led band of brigands operating out of the Sud. Unlike most of these bands, this one plans and is able to make bold moves. We could probably find this valley that they’re in, but we’d pay the butchers bill getting our people in there. It is just too easy to defend.”
“I agree son. I’m angry about the deaths. But your right about the cost of forcing the entry to the valley. Hopefully Duke Edwin’s quick reaction, may make them think twice about raiding in Nordia.”
“Father, your correct, there may be nothing we can do. We do need to share this information with all the key people in the kingdom and stress the need for quick and decisive action. The most important is pursuit. Make them pay some sort of price. Duke Edwin made the point that the two hunters were instrumental in saving lives. I’m going to instruct the guard to recruit some people who can track and know the woods for occasions just like this. Oh, on a more pleasant subject, my wife Serv
erna is pregnant.”
“That will make three, two from Juliana and one from Serverna. That’s marvelous news. Your mothers and I are very pleased with your whole family. You’ve been very wise in your choices.”
“Also, very lucky.” With that Randall left to prepare the notices to all the key cities in the kingdom and to brief the key members of the guards. He had his father’s agreement that they needed to add trackers to the guards and maybe dogs to help track by scent.
Starting at MIT
After he’d been home to the funerals Mike got his head around it and concentrated on his studies. The meeting with Dr. Peterson was rescheduled for the next week. Mike was a little nervous as he went to the Dr.’s office and knocked on the door. He didn’t keep him waiting long. As he entered the small office, he noticed the clutter. Dr. Peterson was not a everything in its place type of guy. He was more of a spread it out so I can find it type. Dr. Peterson was in his late forties, still with a full head of hair, tall and trim. He sat behind his desk and indicated that Mike should take a seat. Mike moved a pile of books and sat down on a chair. Dr. Peterson got right to the point. “Mr. Mulvaney come recommended by your undergraduate instructors. And you are adjusting well to the pace and rigor of this place. This is especially true since you are a bit younger than many of your peers. Let me get right to the point. I’m putting together a research team for next semester, it will mostly involve lab work and getting your hands dirty. It will he challenging and like many challenging endeavors at time frustrating. To be honest it could extend into the summer months. I think you would be a good fit. You’ll get the normal salary, I’m sorry I don’t know what it is. I expect we may get one or more papers out of it. If we do, you’ll go down as a contributing author. On the off chance we patent anything you’ll get a small share of any royalties. But I wouldn’t hold my breath. Any questions?” When Mike shook his head no, he asked “Are you in?”
Through the Gate: The Chronicles of Cornu Book 1 Page 16
