The problem is that it will be pretty obvious when I am untied unless I continue to pretend to be tied up. Fortunately, it’s night now, so I may just be able to fool them until the sun rises. But that only gives me a short time to get out of here.
Kid, you have nothing but time. However, if you don’t start working on it soon, you might not have a chance. You are unlikely to get away with untying yourself in the daytime.
OK, well then come to me and let’s work on the knots.
With that the sword appeared next to me. What struck me as odd was that, instead of flying or moving, it simply appeared by my side. While this helped keep it from being noticed by my jailors, it also seemed weird to me. To ask why a flying sword seemed stranger to me than a magically appearing sword, did not occur to me. That it appeared without its sheath also didn’t bother me at the time.
As soon as it appeared I rolled over onto it to keep it from the eyes of my captors. Then, using the pommel protector I rolled the thing a little onto its side with my body so I could get an edge up enough to help cut my bonds.
It took what felt like hours to cut through the rope binding my hands and feet. Even then, I made sure to keep my hands together and held some broken rope to pretend like I was still bound. I then worked my way near to the cart’s door so I could study the lock and try and plan a way out. I kept the sword behind me, so that it would not catch anyone’s eyes.
Unfortunately, I was not having any luck figuring out how to open the door. Hitting it with the sword, or trying to pick the lock with the point was out. It likely wouldn’t work (since I had no idea how to pick a lock with a sword) and it would be too obvious given my captors were sitting only a few feet ahead of me on the bench seat driving the cart.
While I was working on my hands, my captors were busy talking to each other. Apparently, Raf was trying to avoid paying his debt to Mik, and an argument was well along the way. I wasn’t paying it much attention, obviously, as I was busy with my bonds and the door. But basically, there was some debate over when I woke up and what the stakes of the bet were. This went on for enough time for me to get free and into a sitting position near the door. Until…
“Enough!” said Rich. “Raf, pay Mik his 50 silver when we get back and shut up about it. You two are being so loud everyone within a mile can hear you. Need I remind you two idiots that we are in the east country, where there are very few patrols and we are far from both Caer Sud and Caer Dogmatorum. We actually have to worry about bandits and brigands out here.”
There were an assortment of grumbles in response to this from Raf and Mik, but they did stop their quarreling. It was just starting to get quiet again, as the road came near to the forest. I had never been this far south of the village before. There had never been any need to go elsewhere to sell our goods. So this was unfamiliar territory for me. I estimated that we were about a day’s ride south of the village.
I was still pondering the surroundings and trying to figure out how to escape when the sun peaked above the mountains on the horizon.
“Hey, boss, what’s that?” asked Raf.
At this I sat deathly quietly, sure I had just been discovered.
“Looks like a barricade across the road.” Said Rich.
“Why is the road barricaded?” asked Mik
“Don’t be stupid Mik,” said Rich, “It could be that a few trees were knocked over in a storm, it could be brigands. We don’t know yet do we?”
“Well, there’s no one out there boss,” said Raf, “so I’m guessing it’s probably just some fallen trees.”
“Don’t let your eyes deceive you.” Said Rich. “Better to be prepared and it be nothing than not prepared and get jumped by thieves.”
With that they grabbed their crossbows, wound the cranks and set quarrels behind the strings ready for firing.
The cart slowed as it approached the obstruction in the road.
When the cart got to the barricade, for barricade it was, a man stepped out from behind it. He had a longbow in his hand with an arrow knocked, a quiver on his back and a sword on his hip, still in its sheath. He was also wearing leather armor that was weather worn and discolored.
“What do we have here? I was hoping for tax collectors, but now that you are near, I see that you are mere jail keepers. Transferring a prisoner are you? We don’t much like jailers around here. So instead of merely asking for a toll, we are going to need you to drop your weapons, release the prisoner and give us all your coin,” said the mystery highwayman.
“Why you insolent thieving dog. Do you really think I’m stupid?” Said Rich. “You stand here by yourself, in front of a wood pile and you think you can make demands of us?”
As Rich said this both Mik and Raf grabbed and raised their crossbows at this mysterious fellow.
“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you where you stand right now?” said Rich.
“Ah, such tough words! You clearly have no idea the position you’re in. The woods are filled with my men, all with arrows trained on you. So while you might get a shot off, I assure you, you three would not survive the experience,” said the brigand.
“No you have no idea. We’re Inquisitors out of Caer Sud. Kill us and this forest will soon have visitors. An entire army of them to flush your lot out. It’s been too long since we sent patrols through here anyhow. Perhaps it’s time to renew the practice, maybe with an entire legion of heavy infantry?” Said Rich.
“You overplay your hand. First you threaten us with armies if we kill you, then you threaten us even if we let you live. Are you trying to convince me that you’re too dangerous to let live?” Said the brigand.
“I grow tired of this wordplay,” said Rich. “Boys, fire at will.”
With that there was an explosion of motion. Both Raf and Mik fired their crossbows, the brigand began to leap behind the wood pile, and the sound of arrows being shot from the forest followed. I immediately dove down low in the cage, hoping to avoid any stray arrows. The diving brigand was hit by a quarrel in both the shoulder and the thigh. Mik, who was sitting closest to the forest, got hit in the head, neck, chest and thigh with arrows, pitched forward and fell off the cart onto his crossbow. Rich, who was sitting in the middle, got hit in the shoulder and head with arrows and fell over in the seat. Raf, who was on the right side of the carriage seat, was missed entirely. He jumped off the seat after the first volley and took refuge on the other side of the cart, using it as cover from the arrows.
I took the reprieve from arrows to look myself over. I managed to escape being hit by any. Not surprising since I was not the intended target. But a few arrows had embedded themselves in boards of the cart near enough to me that I did not feel comfortable sitting upright.
As I was checking myself over, Raf drew his sword. The brigand who got hit with two quarrels was on the ground behind the barricade. But out of the forest came a group of people. All had bows and swords, though some of these weapons looked to be in better shape than others. They were all clad, to one degree or another, in leathers, some apparel more armor-like than others. Really, they looked like they were dressed in mixed and matched castoffs, either stolen, looted or made by them. The man at the barrier was obviously chosen because he was the most impressive looking. His armor at least matched and his weapons, which while weathered, were at least in good condition.
“You all stay back or there’ll be hell to pay!” Yelled Raf at the approaching highway robbers.
“Hell to pay is it?” Said a female voice from the approaching brigands. “Do you hear that boys? We’re being threatened. I hope you’re all appropriately scared.”
As they approached, two of the robbers nocked arrows to bow strings, while the woman and a third man drew swords.
“We finish this now! If we let him leave, we are in for a whole army of troops coming our way. We can’t have that,” said the female brigand.
As she approached the wagon, she motioned to the other man with a drawn sword. He and one of the archer
s started circling behind the wagon, while she and the other archer went around the front of the wagon. Their strategy was clearly to hit Raf from both sides.
Raf saw this, and not knowing what else to do, he started backing away from the wagon to avoid the flanking maneuver.
“You four stay back. I am an inquisitor of the holy empire of Pandanu. To strike me down is to tempt the wrath of god!” said Raf.
“More threats? Your only hope now is the troops housed in Caer Sud. Troops who will never hear your fate. We know how to handle your type,” said the woman.
As she said this, the two teams rounded the front and back of the carriage at the same time. Seeing this, Raf did the only thing he could do. He turned and ran.
“Don’t let him get far!” said the woman.
And with that the two archers took aim and fired. Raf took both arrows in the back. He took two more stumbling steps, then collapsed.
“Jarvis, go check on the boss. Bevan and Tiernan, you two make sure those three pious asses are dead,” said the woman.
“And what are you going to do, Sapphire?” Said one of the three.
“I am going to try and get the kid out of his cage. I don’t know who he is, but I’m not going to leave him in there,” said Sapphire.
With that I sat up. I figured there was no point in cowering anymore at the bottom of my cage now that the action was done. As I sat up, Sapphire reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a leather satchel. When she opened it up, it contained a series of small metal picks, hooks and other assorted small pokey devices I could not identify. She took a long look at the padlock to my cage and her tools. Then she laughed to herself and put them away.
“Bevan, Tiernan, either of you find a key on the corpses? As much as I need the practice picking locks, it’s probably best if we get the kid out, clean this mess up, and then get the hell out of here.”
“Sapphire, this one by the cart has a whole ring of keys,” said the one called Bevan.
“Good, toss them to me,” said Sapphire.
With that, Bevan tossed the keys to her, and she began testing the lock with them. It didn’t take her long to find the right one and unlock my cage. When she opened the cage, she also noticed my sword on the floor of it.
“Kid, how the hell did you manage to get a sword?” She asked.
“Um… Well… It’s mine. And they took it from me, so, well… I kind of took it back.” I replied.
“Good thinking there. Just hold onto that thing, we may need you to use it if a patrol comes by before we have cleaned this place up.” She said. “Wait, you do know how to use that thing don’t you?”
“Um… well… Sort of. I mean… You hit them with the blade and poke them with the point?” I said.
I didn’t mean it to sound like a question. But in truth, I had no idea how to use a sword beyond that. I grew up a farmer using farm implements. I kind of viewed the possibility of using the sword a lot like a scythe. Swing the blade, cut the enemy. Just like harvesting wheat! Except I knew there was more to it than that. But I didn’t want to appear useless to these people.
“I see…” replied Sapphire. “Maybe you should just stay hidden if we have any trouble.”
Well, mission failed on not appearing useless.
“Sapphire, we may need to keep that cart and horse!” Jarvis yelled from tending to the fallen brigand. “The Boss is ok, but the arrow he took to the thigh means he can’t walk very well. The good news is that his armor spared him from the worst of the shot to the shoulder. Just a flesh wound.”
“OK, Jarvis, we will bring the cart over in just a second.” Said Sapphire. “So this is where you get off kid. Run home to your family and be thankful that you narrowly avoided the tortures of Caer Sud.”
“But… But… I… uh… don’t have a family. I have nowhere to go.” I stammered out. “They sent an inquisitor to our farm and it got destroyed. My parents died. I was recovering at the town mayor’s house when these goons showed up, attacked me and threw me in the cage.” I said.
“So what am I supposed to do with you?” Asked Sapphire. “You’re a little young to go outlaw with us. If you have anywhere else to go, to resume a normal life, I suggest you go there now.”
“I’m not lying. I really have no place to go. My parents moved to Forsburg and bought a farm outside of town before I was born. They never discussed where they came from. All I ever got out of them was that my family came out of the far East, beyond the Eastern mountains. I have no other relatives. Some of the villagers know me but, well, if the inquisitors were able to capture me in the mayor’s house, anyone in that town I stay with is in danger. I need to disappear. I need to hide. I just… don’t know where to go.” I said, realizing I was babbling a bit.
“Enough of this. I’ll let you come with us to the base. There, when the boss is recovered, he can hear your story and decide whether or not to take you in or send you away. But we’ve wasted enough time on this already,” replied Sapphire.
And with that I got out of the cage, and stood out on the periphery while Sapphire and the crew cleaned up. The guy tending the boss was removing the quarrels and wrapping up his wounds in some sort of field dressing. The other two were stripping the corpses of the inquisitors of their weapons and armor and leaving them in their small clothes. When that was done, they dragged the corpses over to the forest, where behind the first couple lines of trees, they dug a pit and threw the bodies in. Then they covered the pit, stamped down the dirt as best they could, and covered it in leaves and pine needles so it sort of looked like the surrounding forest area.
Then, when that was taken care of, Sapphire lead the horses over to where the boss was sitting in the dirt by the barricade. The four of them loaded him into the back of the cart, in the cage I had been sitting in.
“Sorry about the accommodations,” she said to the boss as she laid him inside. “I know how you feel about cells. Still, we won’t be locking the door.”
“It’s ok, Saph, better to ride in a cage than walk with an injured thigh. You just get everyone loaded up on the cart and take us home. Also, before we leave, remove the barricade. It would be better if we never return to this particular spot. Once the patrols are sent out to find what happened, they will keep an eye on this area.”
Chapter 5.
The trip to the bandits’ home was surprisingly uneventful. I rode in the back of the cart with “The Boss”. The band quickly left the road after cleaning up all evidence of their having been there. We travelled what looked like a game trail back into the deep woods where I quickly lost track of our direction. “The Boss” was quiet and seemed to be sleeping. At some point along the way I think I fell asleep too because I was startled awake when I heard the door of the cart open and Sapphire announced “We’re here.”
I don’t know what I was expecting to find, but I was surprised by what I saw. We must have travelled a good distance because what I saw was a lake by the side of some hills and a decent sized building in a clearing. There were stables for horses and livestock, and a few outbuildings. Also in the clearing were some tilled fields that were growing various vegetables.
“Surprising isn’t it kid?” Asked Sapphire.
“Yes actually.” I replied. “The stories of bandits in the woods I read as a kid always made it sound like everyone lived under the trees out in the open and ate around a camp fire. This is much more… Uh…”
The word I wanted to say was civilized. But I stopped myself as that seemed a little insulting to my rescuers. Since my only real option was to see if they would take me in, I didn’t want to antagonize anyone.
“It’s nice is what it is,” said Jarvis. “Why give up the rudiments of civilization when you go Bandit? It’s nice living under the sun and stars when the weather is nice, but it gets old quickly when it rains. Besides, no one comes out this far into the foothills through the forest, so building a more permanent encampment makes a lot of sense. Especially when winter comes.”
; “How long have you guys been out here?” I asked.
“The Boss has been here for over a decade,” said Sapphire. “The rest of us have trickled in over the years.”
“How many people live here?” I asked.
“Quite a few actually, you will meet them soon enough. For now we have no time for introductions, we need to get the Boss into the longhouse and those wounds looked after.” Said Sapphire.
“Is there anything I can do?” I asked.
“For now, stay out of the way,” she replied. “But later we will have to have a meeting and decide what to do with you.”
So with that I followed them into the longhouse and found a seat out of the way in the corner. There was a lot of hustle and bustle as people came and went. Sapphire and a few others helped the boss into a back room where I assume they were doing more than just a field dressing on the boss’s wounds.
01 - The Price of Talent Page 5
