Forged in Battle (16 page)

Sigmund called to Edmunt. The woodsman stopped and he rested
his hands on the pick. Sigmund waited until the men had moved off before he
spoke. “Those merchants we saved…”

“The Reiklanders?”

Sigmund nodded. “Did anything strike you as strange about
them?”

Edmunt thought, but he shook his head.

“I think they have some control over the burgomeister,”
Sigmund said. “What, I have no idea—but I am sure he has abandoned the town to
its fate.”

“What are you going to do?” Edmunt asked.

Sigmund may have only been a captain, but he was the only
person in a position to save the town. “Bring the sergeants to my room. I have a
plan.”

All morning the smoke continued to plume into the sky, a
constant reminder of the gathering danger. The numbers of people locked outside
the walls of Helmstrumburg grew steadily, until it seemed an army was camped at
the walls: an army of the desperate and the terrified. But the burgomeister had
spoken. The town watchmen looked to Roderick and he bristled inside his blue
velvet jacket and set his jaw firmly. Orders had been given. The refugees must
return home.

In the Jorg family mill, the mill-hands worked hard, but even
though they had promised to stay with their master, as the fires came further
down the mountain, and the procession of terrified country-folk hurried past,
their morning resolution began to fade.

They were not paid to risk their lives like this.

After a lunch of fresh bread, cheese and salami sausage, the
men did not get up to leave. Andres heard the silence and looked up and found
the men staring at him. He stared at them in turn as if they were deserters.
Their faces reddened. Andres took a bottle of kirsch and poured himself another
cup, drank it down.

“What is it?” he demanded.

The men shuffled uncomfortably. None of them wanted to say
what had been agreed among them.

“Speak up!”

“We want to go to town,” one of the men said nervously, “lust
for a day or so. Until the danger has passed. We heard that there was a fight on
the other side of town last night. Eighty beastmen were killed. It’s said that
there are free companies being raised.”

“Free companies!” Andres laughed and put his hands on the
tabletop and pushed himself up. “Apprentices, greybeards and fat-guts! Do you
think free companies will do anything to stop the goat-men?”

The men didn’t know what to say.

“Flee if you will—I’ll not stop you! I will not call you
cowards, but I tell you those beasts will never dare come here to the riverside.
And if they do,” Andres stumped across to pull the zweihänder down. “If those
beasts dare come to this mill then we will meet them with cold steel!”

Two of the men left immediately, but the other four stayed
on, their resolution shored up by Andres’ conviction. If their master said it
was safe then they would not leave him.

As the town bells rung three in the afternoon, Theodor wrote
a message on a piece of paper and summoned Josh to his room.

“Take this to Captain Sigmund at the barracks!” he ordered
and flipped the boy a penny for his trouble.

At the same time the barrack gates swung open and two units
of ten spearmen marched out. They wore steel caps, cuirboili breastplates and
carried their weapons in their hands. Behind them were ten halberdiers, led by
Edmunt. There was a grim purpose about the three units, and people stepped well
back to let them pass.

Hanz led one squad, Stephan, a scar-faced young Vorrsheimer
led another, and Edmunt led the last. Hanz’s men set off towards the east gate,
Edmunt the north and Stephan to the west gate.

At the east gate the town watchmen watched Hanz’s spearmen
approach, but the soldiers did not smile or nod. Hanz marched up to the four
watchmen standing at the bottom of the gate. Without speaking the spearmen
rushed the guards and wrestled the batons from their hands. The town watchmen
were too surprised to speak or protest as they were pushed flat against the
wall, cold knife blades held up against their throats.

At the west gate Stephan’s men took the gate in a similar
way, without violence, but as Edmunt approached the north gate a man stepped out
from the guardroom and stared at their approach.

“Welcome Edmunt,” Roderick smiled. “How can we help you?”

Edmunt halted his men just in front of the blue-jacketed
officer of the watch. Roderick smiled coldly. His men stood behind him, their
batons ready.

“We’re taking control of this gate,” Edmunt told him.

Roderick started to protest, but the halberdiers shoved his
men back and soon they were up against the wall, the points of the halberds
sticking into their chests.

Roderick told his men to drop their batons.

“Thank you,” Edmunt smiled, “for your peaceful
cooperation.”

When the gatehouses had been secured, the soldiers lifted the
heavy oak crossbars from the iron braces and drew the bolts that held the gates
in place.

When all was done, the soldiers pushed on the gates and they
swung open easily on the massive iron hinges. The refugees panicked, fearful
that the gates might be shut at any moment. Some left all their belongings
outside, others hitched their horses to their carts and lashed at them with
their whips. The carts lurched forward as the whips cracked. They pushed and
shoved, and now each family fought the others in their desperation—until the
soldiers came out and organised the people into orderly queues.

At the same time that the gates were being taken over, Osric
took twelve men and marched to the marketplace. They found Fat Gulpen, the town
crier, in the Crooked Dwarf. There was a cloud of pipe smoke in the air, a few
old drinkers were sitting with their steins, and Josh, Guthrie’s young lad, was
carrying a platter of beef stew out to the town crier, whose rotund form was
squeezed into the red velvet jacket that marked his office. His chins pressed up
against the high collar as he turned to glare at Osric. There was a
long-standing animosity between the two men that dated back to Osric’s time as
officer of the watch.

“Gulpen!” Osric said.

Fat Gulpen took a long swig of his stein and refused to look
up.

Osric took the piece of paper that Sigmund had given him and
slammed it on the table in front of him.

Fat Gulpen wiped the foam from his upper lip and glanced
towards it, and started to read. It took a few seconds.

“You want me to read this?” he said.

Osric nodded.

“Now?”

Osric put his thumbs in his sword belt and smiled.

“Yes, now,” he said.

As soon as Roderick was out of sight of the halberdiers at
the north gate he slowed down, but kept walking quickly, looking over his
shoulder.

The streets were full of nervous people, hurrying back and
forth in their panic. Roderick passed a couple of town watchmen and ordered them
to gather all his men and meet him back in the marketplace in half an hour.

Roderick kept hurrying along until he reached the docks,
where the guild hall stood. He was relieved to see that there were no soldiers
standing on the steps of the hall, and nodded to his men as he hurried inside.

Roderick crossed the inner courtyard and hurried up the steps
to the burgomeister’s chambers. He knocked and then tried the handle, but the
door was locked. Roderick knocked again. He could hear voices inside.

“Lord burgomeister!” Roderick shouted.

“Wait outside!” the shout came back, but the burgomeister’s
voice sounded strange.

Roderick stepped back from the door and waited. He had a
strong feeling that something was not right. When at last the door opened it was
not the burgomeister who came to see him to ask him what he wanted, but the
Reikland merchant that Sigmund had brought in a few days earlier.

“Yes?” Eugen snapped.

“I need to talk to the burgomeister,” Roderick began. “The
soldiers have broken his official decree and opened the town gates!”

Eugen frowned. “And this is the news with which you disturb
your master?”

Roderick opened his mouth but didn’t know what to say.

Eugen shut the door again, and Roderick stepped back in
shock. He hurried out to the steps of the guild hall.

“You two,” Roderick said, to the guards. “Wait here! You two
come with me.”

And then they hurried towards the marketplace.

Sigmund arrived in the marketplace in time to see Fat Gulpen
come out of the Crooked Dwarf, ringing his bell as he made his way to the centre
of the marketplace.

“Hear ye! Hear ye!” he called. “Hear ye! Hear ye!”

A crowd gathered, desperate for news of relief or
reinforcements.

“All men of fighting age are asked to join in free companies
for the protection of Helmstrumburg! Assemble at the barracks for free
companies!”

There was an excited buzz as Fat Gulpen rang his bell again.

“Hear ye! Hear ye! Free companies to assemble at the
barracks!”

It was some time after lunch when the door to the
burgomeister’s office opened and Eugen stalked out. He ignored the watchmen on
the door and strode through the streets to the market.

People were running back and forth. He could smell their fear
and the scent made him smile. They would all have reason to fear soon enough.

In the marketplace there were a number of crude banners
raised on poles, acting as rallying points for the young men of Helmstrumburg.
The inn signs had been nailed to the end of long poles and the regulars of each
establishment were coming together, ready to march to the barracks to be given
weapons.

The Crooked Dwarf sign had been nailed to a pole, and Guthrie
was there handing out free ale to all who enlisted. There was also a band of men
at the White Unicorn, and another at the Drayman’s Rest.

Free companies! Eugen snorted with derision. It was too late
to try and dam the flood that was coming. They would all be washed away in a
river of blood.

He hurried up the steps and ducked inside the Crooked Dwarf.
The bar was unnaturally empty. Eugen hurried across it and took the steps two at
a time. He turned right down the corridor and opened the door to their room.

Theodor was sitting on the bed, waiting. He had the window
open and was watching the commotion in the market square with interest.

“The fools are too late!” Eugen said with obvious delight.

“Have you heard?” Theodor said. “There were a hundred
beastmen killed last night at the sacred site!”

“Of course I heard!” Eugen spat. “But this will not stop our
plans. They disobeyed the orders. None were to come near the town until tonight.
For their impatience they will never see Helmstrumburg burn!”

“Do you think that there will there still be enough?”

Eugen laughed at his acolyte’s naivety. “There are more
beastmen in the woods than there are people in Helmstrumburg! Each one of them
is bound to this task by a force stronger than force—hatred! They have waited
so long for revenge. Nothing will stop that now!

“Now,” Eugen said after a deep breath. “We have important
business to attend to.”

Helmstrumburg was full or frenetic activity all that
afternoon. As soon as they heard that free companies were being raised, men
hurried to fetch whatever weapons they had. In the Crooked Dwarf band, there
were a number of old soldiers who bantered back and forth as if they were still
in the count’s pay, drew their sword and gave their sword arms another feel of
the weight of their swords.

There were farm lads who had kitchen knives strapped to their
belts, and pitchforks or blacksmith’s hammers in their hands. Whatever weapons
they could find they brought with them, and they stood feeling responsible and
nervous, looking at the other men’s faces, thinking that they would soon be
fighting shoulder to shoulder with these men.

Josh had been to the barracks but Captain Jorg was not there.
He had waited for a while and then he had got caught up in all the excitement
and had almost forgotten the note he had been paid to take. When he returned to
the barracks there were a couple of soldiers on duty.

“What, boy?” Baltzer demanded.

“I have a note, sir!” Josh said. “For Captain Jorg.”

“He’s busy.”

Josh looked frustrated. Guthrie would be wanting him back at
the Crooked Dwarf. He took out the note and held it in his hands, unsure what to
do. “It’s from the Reiklander merchants,” he said, as if that might gain him
entrance. “For Captain )org especial.”

Baltzer smiled. “Is it now? Then you give it to me and I’ll
make sure it reaches him!”

Eugen and Theodor made their way through the streets to the
western gate, where Stephan’s men were still on duty. As they walked up to the
gate two spearmen stopped them.

“You cannot go out,” they said.

“Why?” Eugen said innocently.

The soldiers laughed. “Have you seen what is happening?” They
gestured to the long plumes of black smoke that now reached as high as the
clouds.

“My mother is frail, she lives just a little way up the
river,” Eugen said. “We will fetch her and then come back. I assure you we have
no intention of putting our own lives in danger.”

The soldiers relented and Eugen and Theodor hurried along the
Kemperbad Road. The mill was a few miles outside of the west gate. They came off
the road a little way before it and spied out the land. There was a boat at the
mill, loading up with grain. They could see the men carrying sacks down to the
waterside and stacking them inside.

A one-legged man stepped out of the mill.

“That’s him!” Eugen whispered with relish.

Sigmund was busy all afternoon meeting the self-appointed
captains of the free companies. Of all his men, only he and Gaston were able to
read and write to any standard, so Gaston sat and recorded all the information
about the various bands.