When my breakfast was eaten, I went with my two bodyguards to just outside the temporary camp and started my usual training regime. My two bodyguards, one of which had been chosen by me and the other by Erdal were Sir Stilbor Destry my former squire, and the much older Sir Justine Nedina who had faithfully served my family for many a year. You can guess which of them was chosen by whom, but you can be sure that both took their jobs very seriously and were extremely competent.
Once I was done with my training, I then headed off for a meeting with Erdal.
“Alright sire I have sent for reinforcements and they should be here sometime late tomorrow. We may or may not need their help but better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them, anyway it will of course be good training for them.”
“Have you informed Kincarn about what we have discovered?”
“Yes sire, I have sent three messengers, one to the lord of Kincarn, one to his nearest military force at Kincarn River Watch Tower East, and the last directly to Count Zayat at Neudon Town. Not that I can be sure he’s there at the moment, but it should reach him eventually no matter where he is, though by then it will all be over and done with, I hope. Still, he would no doubt be pissed with you if we didn’t inform him anyway, his reputation being what it is.”
“Good work Marshal, not that I imagine there will be more than one or two lookouts and perhaps a messenger at River Tower East. Isaac is nowhere near as bad as people claim he is, other than that one time anyway, it’s his daughter that’s the problem, not him.”
“Milord that’s not actually the case according to Hanhold Tower ever since your brother’s death they have been reinforced by a small detachment of calvary. Only two or three of them at a time but they get rotated every other week or, so I am reliably informed. As for that other matter, I wouldn’t dare to comment on it which holds true for most people I would care to mention.”
“So what actions do you think they will undertake once the news reaches them?”
“Well the Watch Tower will send off two messengers, one to the lord and the other to the nearest large military force which I imagine are in the same place, New Kincarn Castle. By then our messenger to the lord will already have caused him to mobilize a force and send it to his side of the border. From what I know of him he won’t come himself but rather send his son and heir Darrell.
A bit on the young side but with a good reputation, he’s engaged to the daughter of the lord of Urchola and is they say a fine houseman. How big of a force they will send is hard to say but it shouldn’t be less than a dozen men or so. Hopefully, when they arrive they should send someone over here to try and coordinate their response though they will want to act independently of course.
How Issac will respond is anyone’s guess and may depend on whose messenger reaches him first but personally, I don’t think he will do anything but wait and see how it goes down and then send a messenger to thank us for our swift response and perhaps ask us what the interrogation of any prisoners we take turns up.”
“My thinking as well, Darrell must be only twenty these days?”
“Yes and he was only knighted last year so he has something to prove or thinks he does anyway but hopefully his father sends someone sensible to advise him and he listens to him.”
“Who does at that age?”
“Hopefully that won’t happen but as long as he doesn’t get himself killed I don’t really care.”
“Pray to the gods that doesn’t happen, his father has never been my biggest fan.”
“Whys that?”
“It’s a long story that I would rather not tell you and hopefully everyone has forgotten about, isn’t that right Justin?”
“What Sire.”, he sneered.
“Exactly.”
After that meeting, I took my bodyguards and squire to visit the yeomanry of Outleck and its yeoman Darian Fiske. It was the biggest yeomanry in Membe proper, and Darian Fiske was perhaps one of my least favorite people in the world or at least he was when we were both younger. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, I think, I had after all not seen him in over fifteen years long before I left home. His father Adrian had been a brute of a man and last time I had seen him he seemed to be following the same path but you never know.
I had sent someone ahead to inform them of my arrival and thus the entire population of Outleck it seemed had come out to greet me.
“Welcome to Outleck Milord to what do we owe the honor of your visit to our humble settlement?”
“I was in the area on other business and so decided to pay you a visit while I was here.”
“Yes your search for the lost mines, found them yet?”
“No not yet however we did come across what we think is either a bandit camp or perhaps an illegal settlement, know anything about it?”
“I haven’t heard even a whisper of such a thing, we’re is it exactly if you don’t mind me asking, and does it have anything to do with that missing shepherd.”
“Not as far as we know and it’s deep in the forest about an hour from here.”
“And how are things with you, I was sorry to hear of your fathers passing?”
“You must be one of the only ones, he got much worse towards the end and burnt the few bridges he had left.”
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