Chapter 26

Tony continued his report:

Once the townsfolk realised that they were finally free, there was the biggest party you had ever seen. It got a little out of hand and we had to protect the prisoners from their excesses. We took an inventory and found that we had enough supplies for three months. All the harvests from the farms around the area had been brought into the town. The barns were full.

I spoke with Admiral Peters about what to do next. The plan was just to grab all the families of the sailors and head back to Bridgetown. But as usual, 'when men make plans the gods laugh.' The situation was that the Brotherhood had at best a very tenuous hold on the people of the area. In fact most of their own troops would probably rebel, if only someone would stand up and give them leadership. That was exactly what we intended to do.

We had made a thorough search of the area when one of the prisoners, a very helpful young man named Castra, told us of the dungeons under the prison. We searched and found, chained to a wall, young Hugh. In another room, we found Adrianna. We freed them, and then brought them up to the main house. Once we were there, both Adrianna and Hugh looked over towards Castra.

"I take it you told them where we were?" Adrianna said.

"Yes m'lady, I did."

She went over and kissed him.

"Thank you. You were always trying to help. I noticed all the little things you did when you thought they weren't looking."

Hugh shook Castra's hand. "I thank you, as well. There were times in there when I thought I was never getting out. You gave me hope that there were still people here with some goodness in them."

The young man started to tear up as he replied, "I did what I could, but there was so little I could do! My own wife and family are here as well. If I had openly rebelled, then they would have been at risk."

I sat there pondering what to do next. We could just grab everyone and leave, but that would just give the Brotherhood chance to learn from what we had done and rebuild, or we could take this region from them and give the people hope and a reason to fight.

Admiral Peters noticed the faraway look in my eyes as we sat there.

"Okay, what is it?"

"What?"

"I have been with you long enough to know that look. It's the same look as King Tom gets when he has his ideas'. It normally means total chaos for those on the receiving end!"

"Well, it's just that from what we have seen from both here and Verilanium, the men are serving under duress. They do not believe in what they are fighting for, and if someone could give them new hope and a reason to fight, I think most of them would actually change sides. Imagine that! Their entire army, or a good portion of it, turning against them. If they then had some decent officers plus some viable tactics and some new weapons, we could throw them a real curve ball. Really give them something to think about. Anyway, we're getting ahead of ourselves. First we need to find out who these folk are and why they were chained up in the dungeons."

The young man spoke first. "I'm Hugh Blackstaff, Lieutenant Hugh Blackstaff, Household Cavalry."

"I'm Adrianna, damsel," the woman said.

I threw back my head and laughed.

"Another hero and damsel! I wonder how many other surprises we will have, today. Well, both of you must have one hell of a tale to tell, and I'll enjoy listening to it. Right now, though, we have an awful lot of work to do. I have made my decision. We are going to throw that curve ball!"

I turned to one of the men next to me and said,

"Carlos, I need you to assemble several squads and ride out to all the farms and villages around here. You need to collect every man, woman and child and bring them within these walls. I have a feeling that we will be facing an army from Verilanium within the week. I expect the first lot of farmers here in a few days.

"I want that army. I intend to turn that army and use it against its former masters. It will not be safe for the villagers in the area. I have a bad feeling as to what will happen to any poor unfortunate who is caught outside these walls."

"Yes, sir!" said Carlos.

He saluted and he left with the biggest grin on his face.

Admiral Peters stood there shaking his head.

"You have been spending far too much time with King Tom. This is exactly what he does. Are you sure you two are not related? Okay, as I see it, we need to sort the wheat from the chaff. We already know that many of the men here are reluctant warriors. We need to find those who are willing to fight for us. We only want volunteers, no conscripts. I wouldn't want a pressed man on my ship. I only want willing sailors."

"Very well. What are we going to do with those who are not willing to fight?"

He thought for a moment and said, "There must be hundreds of jobs that need doing. There will be blacksmiths that need helpers and farmers that need labourers. There will be plenty for them to do."

"I think you have also been spending too much time around King Tom. That's just the sort of thing he would have come up with."

Hugh and Adrianna just sat there and looked at us in amazement.

"You're not serious are you? Are you really going to turn the armies of the Brotherhood against each other?" Hugh said incredulously.

"Oh, yes. They are a case of several big men with clubs who come up and tell you to do something. You do it because you think you have no choice. We are going to give them a chance to organise and fight back. We're going to give them bigger and better clubs to fight with, and with friends who'll stand by them. Once we have organized them, the leadership of the Brotherhood won't know what hit them."

"Very well," Hugh declared. "Where do I sign up?"

"You already have. I'm going to need you to train these people in basic infantry tactics. You know an awful lot more about things like that than I do. We only know what Tom told us, and he only knows it from studying history."

"What is he, a history professor?"

I smiled and said, "Not quite. When you meet him, I'll let him explain."

There followed two days of frantic activity. Patrols were sent out in all directions to warn the local populace. People and livestock flooded into the town. The former soldiers of the Brotherhood were interviewed and three quarters wanted to fight. The others just wanted to go home. It was chaos.

It was on the second evening that we were sitting in an inn just trying to take a break from the mayhem we had created for ourselves. I was sitting with Frank, the owner of the inn where I had prepared the chips. We were preparing some more when I asked him,

"Tell me: what were things like before the Brotherhood arrived?"

"Well sir, things were good. We are a merchant city. This is on the main trading route from the wheat-growing area to the south and the fishing ports on the coast. We have several trader caravans that normally arrive either every year, or every other year. The one that we look forward to the most is Ahmed. His caravans are full of such wonderful goods, exotic spices and perfumes, fabulous fabrics and amazing foods. When he arrives in town, every man knows his purse is going to be significantly lighter, but his women are going to be so much happier. It is a foolish man who is parsimonious with his wealth at that time. We were an open city," he continued, "with no walls or gates. All were welcome to visit and trade. Yes we had the occasional problems with bandits, but the Merchants Guild paid for constables to patrol the town and a roving patrol to chase off bandits. When the Brotherhood arrived, they built — or rather ordered the townsfolk to build — the walls and gates. There were simply too many of them for us to stop them."

It was on the morning of the third day that scouts came rushing in and reported a column of horsemen approaching from the direction of Verilanium. The enemy had arrived.

I ordered the gates closed and the walls manned. The scouts reported twenty horsemen. We allowed them to approach the town. We hastily erected barricades just past the gate. When they reached the gate, they found it closed.

Their commander called out,

"What is the meaning of this? I am Captain Zolthar of the Brotherhood. I demand you open these gates at once, or face our wrath!"

I smiled and ordered the gates opened. As they rode in the gates were closed behind them and they faced armed men manning the barricades. On the walls behind them archers stood ready.

I looked down at him.

"Captain Zolthar, welcome to the free city of Belariak. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Sir Tony of Gronhinne. We have liberated this town, and you and your kind are no longer welcome. In order to avoid unnecessary bloodshed please order your men to lay down their arms. You may now consider yourselves prisoners of war."

"Zolthar drew his sword. "I have only one reply to that: Men! Charge!"

As they began to move forward arrows flew from every bow in range. Men fell dead or dying from their horses. They never reached one of our men. Zolthar lay in the dirt. Several arrows were sticking out of him.

I walked over and looked down.

"Your time is over here. It's our time now."

He looked up and tried to say something, but he just gasped and died. We went around the rest of them and found two survivors. They were taken off to the hospital. We questioned them and learned that they had been ordered to find out what happened to the scouts that were sent out. They were supposed to report back in two days or the army would be mobilized and would march on the town. That gave us almost a month before they would arrive.

We worked as hard as we could. We trained the army as best we could given the time we had. Again more people were gathered in as well as livestock and even more food. We had emptied the countryside of all supplies. When they came, they would have to bring everything with them. I went into the blacksmith's shop and together with all the engineers in the town we built some really powerful crossbows. These were mounted on the gatehouses and the walls. Arrows were prepared, swords sharpened and shields made.

In point of fact, the scouts did not report the army's appearance until more than a two weeks later. It had taken them longer than we had thought to get organised. This was good as it had given us longer to train. We had nearly 600 troops behind high, stout walls. We also had all the food inside, enough for four months.

They finally arrived, and nearly 2000 troops started to surround the town. General Ediscor himself headed the army. He rode up to the gates to demand our surrender.

"Give up now, and I'll only punish the ringleaders. Resist and you all will die."

I stood up on the battlements where he could see me. "You, messenger, open the gates and you will live. I'm sure you have nothing to do with this."

I burst out laughing, and said, "General Ediscor, I am Sir Tony of Gronhinne. I am the man who has masterminded all of this. I'm also the man you gave all your secret messages to. I freed the prisoners you were going to impale. They are now fighting for me. Also fighting for me are the men stationed here. I have arrested Hagrith and he will, along with his criminal band, be tried for his crimes. The rest of his men decided to join us when they heard what we had to offer.

I raised my voice and shouted out, "I make the same offer to all you men as well. Leave before the battle is joined, and we will grant you land to start afresh. Your crimes will be pardoned and you will be free men. However, after the first shots are fired and the battle is joined, any prisoners will have their heads shaved and will serve ten years as indentured servants. Ten years as slaves just as you would enslave the people of this land. These people are now free. You can join them. Leave the battlefield and live your lives in peace and security or die on this battlefield for a cause you already know to be wrong!"

I knew that only a few could hear this, but I also knew that word and rumour would spread like wildfire throughout the camp.

Ediscor was furious. He shouted, "You? Sir Tony? You're just a messenger boy. No more and no less! No more of this nonsense. Open the gates and be done with it! Let us in!"

"You don't get it do you? You gave your most secret information to me. The information on how you intended to replace Fedor on the Isle of the Hunters. How you intend to replace Vladik. The island is King Tom's land. You have no chance against him. He has thwarted your attempts to take Bridgetown, and as we speak he is riding to reinforce Dampford. Your friend Fedor hasn't taken that yet, has he? You have lost the island, and now I'm going to make sure you lose here as well. These people will live in peace and freedom. You and your kind will be driven back to wherever you have come from. Your time is over. You have lost!"

He screamed in frustration, wheeled his horse and rode off. His army retreated well out of bowshot and made their camp. We could see men riding off into the surrounding countryside. They were obviously looking for men to force to work or food to steal. They found neither.

That first night I sent a small group of hunters out to cause problems. They killed or captured the sentries where they could then sent fire arrows into the supply wagons and the tents of sleeping men. Chaos ensued with men running in all directions. It was obvious that discipline was not their strong point. It was not lost on us that during the confusion several men could be seen running from the camp. The desertions had begun!

We tried to continue these harassing tactics, but they started putting four men at a time on sentry duty, never leaving one or two men at a time on their own. This did not always work for them, as sometimes all the sentries would surrender at once. It did however make our lives more difficult. We could also hear them building something in the forest. We continued to probe their defences with small forays drawing them out and then retreating before they could marshal a proper response. We also used the time to continue to train our new recruits.

Matthew, the young scout we captured on the way here, was busy training with the shield and spear.

"How's it going, young man?"

"Very well, sir. We hardly ever did things like this. We did some marching, but no one ever taught us how to fight together, to fight as a team. We were worried at first, sir; I'll not deny it. But with this training and the new weapons, well, I can't see how we can lose! We can drive them out of here, and maybe drive them back over the mountains where they say they came from."

"Good! I'm glad to hear that you are all feeling a lot more confident."

I went over to where Hugh was training his officer cadre. He was explaining infantry tactics, how to work in small groups, rather than a mob charging forward just getting in each other's way. Each group would be given a task and its job was to carry out that task, be it running messages or defending a stretch of line or a position. Each man would know his part in the battle, and each would depend on the other. They would know what was going on, why it was going on, and how important a part he would play. It became apparent that none of them had ever fought in a pitched battle before. Previously they had simply arrived and, through sheer weight of numbers and intimidation, taken over. There had been a few who resisted, but it was more like a barroom brawl rather that an organised defence. Ediscor was in for a shock.

We knew they were up to something as we could hear axes at work and the curses of men as they struggled with heavy timber. They were building siege engines. It took them three weeks to finish them. We saw them struggling to bring them towards the town. We had prepared defences in the form of caltrops, dead falls and numerous traps.

We too had been building weapons. We had constructed catapults and other war engines of our own.

We could see their army forming up, and we knew that this was it. It was just after dawn when the machines started their advance towards the gate. Men were pushing these engines towards the walls. There were six towers and eight catapults, they must have figured that we would never be able to defend against so many. We could see that their plan was to attack simultaneously, but it started to fall apart when they encountered some of our little surprises. One of the towers got stuck when one corner fell into one of the hidden traps we had dug. Men rushed round with long poles and tried to lever it back up. The catapults launched rocks, which thudded against the walls.