"Very well." Ulburt said when all the prisoners gave their consent. "Now, we will tell them what your mission is." He pointed to the grizzled veteran who stood beside him.
"Under the orders of Captain Barrister, you will escort Lady Roselyn, a priestess of Radiantus, the god of light, to the convent of the Mother goddess at the foot of the Nordic Mountains. There there is a sacred relic kept in a hidden crypt. Lady Roselyn will open the crypt, and then you will escort her and the relic back here at the greatest possible speed. Time is of the utmost importance." Ulburt smiled.
"It is an easy task to explain, and I see fit to remind you that, although the lands from Norland to the border of the frozen Kingdom of Raiter are officially the Kingdom of Lothal, the truth is that the lands stretching between where we are now and the mountains do not belong entirely to the kingdom, and that the mountains are the refuge of many tribes of greenskins or worse. We have news that the nunnery has recently been ransacked by orcs, so they could still be in the area. The situation will be very dangerous but for those who survive and bring the priestess and the relic back to my presence, they will get great gifts from the crown.
Reiner heard little of Ulburt's speech. He had stopped listening after "Priestess of Radiantus." Another religious woman? He had barely managed to survive the last encounter with one of them. True, she was a witch in disguise, but... another dog with that bone, as he always said. He wanted nothing more to do with religious women. They were not to be trusted.
Besides, there was something odd about that woman; Lady Roselyn was a priestess of Radiantus, the god of light. Why would a priestess of one of the six great gods be sent to retrieve an artifact found in a temple of the triumvirate cult?
Weren't the cult of the six great gods and the cult of the triumvirate rivals?
Erich, the blond knight, also seemed to have objections to the plan.
"Do you want to tell me?" He burst out, indignantly. "That we are to be at the command of this..., this soldier? I am a knight. My horse and armor are worth more than he's earned in his entire life."
"Damn fool!" Hals mumbled. "My lance has killed more things than your horse and armor will ever kill."
"Captain Barrister also surpasses you in skill." Ulburt said. "He has thirty years of experience on his shoulders, while you, what, carry standard?"
"I am a knight, a nobleman. I cannot take orders from a commoner. My father is Federich von Heisenberg, Baron of..."
"I know your father, my boy." Ulburt interrupted him. "Do you want me to tell you how many young knights you have murdered and maimed during the jousts of honor? You deprive the kingdom of good men and call it sport."
Erich clenched his fists but dropped his head.
"No, my lord."
"Very well. You abide by Captain Barrister's orders in all things, is that clear?"
"Yes, my lord."
"Good." Ulburt contemplated the whole group. "Horses await you at the rear gate. You will march at once. But first, your commanding officer wants to tell you something. Captain?"
Captain Barrister took a step forward and looked them all in the eye, one by one. His gaze pierced Reiner like the arrow from a longbow.
"Tonight you have been chosen for a great honor, and you have been offered clemency that none of you deserve. So, if anyone tries to abuse this kindness by attempting to escape, betraying our company to the enemy, killing other comrades, or sabotaging the mission, I give you my personal guarantee that I will make the rest of your very short lives a hell on earth of such magnitude that it will make the depredations of the demons look like a country feast." He turned toward the door and limped toward it. "That's it."
Reiner shuddered and then joined the rest as the guards began to lead them outside.
♦ ♦ ♦
At least Ulburt made sure they were well equipped. They led them through the castle and outside through the back gate, where a narrow wooden drawbridge was stretched over the moat. On the other side, on a strip of cleared land flanked by fallow fields, awaited them a pack mule and ten horses whose breath steamed white in the frigid night air.
The horses were saddled, harnessed and loaded with military packs that included a rolled-up blanket, rations, frying pan, flint, canteen and other essentials.
Reiner was given back his cavalry saber, a beautiful weapon custom-made for him, the only gift of any value his stingy father had given him. There was also padded leather armor and sturdy boots to replace the ones taken from him in prison, as well as a dagger, a boot knife, saddlebags full of powder and bullets, and two pistols in saddle holsters, though they were neither loaded nor cocked.
Ulburt was no fool.
A cloak, black leather gloves to protect him against the cold, along with a breastplate which was strapped over his pack completed Reiner's inventory.
Almost everyone seemed satisfied with the equipment. Only Ulf and Erich protested.
"What is this?" asked Ulf, angrily, at the same time raising a huge iron-lined wooden mallet. "Is this a joke?"
Captain Barrister smiled wryly.
"It's the only weapon we know you're competent with."
"You ask a knight to ride a packhorse?" interrupted Erich. "This beast is barely fourteen spans shorter."
"We're heading for the mountains, baby girl!" replied Captain Barrister sarcastically. "Your warhorse might find the road difficult."
"He looks tall enough to me" commented Hals as he contemplated his horse uneasily.
"Yes," nodded Pavel. "Can you make them kneel so we can climb up?"
"May the father protect us and the son guide us!" exclaimed Erich. "Are we going to have to teach these filthy peasants to ride?"
"No, they'll get the hang of it pretty quick," interjected Reiner. "Learn from his lordship, boys. If you ride like you're carrying a pike up your ass, you'll do fine."
Pavel and Hals burst out laughing loudly. Erich shot Reiner a venomous look and turned to him as if he intended to go further. Fortunately, at that moment Ulburt came through the door. He was holding a black horse by the reins, and on it was a woman dressed in the robes of a priestess of Radiantus; it was a white robe with golden details, the torso part being somewhat tight, while the sleeves were loose, in the abdominal part she wore a golden breastplate with some marks that shone slightly, revealing the fact that it was a magical armor; Finally, to complete the priestess's equipment, she wore a silver chain with the symbol of a six-pointed star hanging from it; it was the sacred symbol of the cult of the six great gods.
Reiner's fears were somewhat allayed by the sight of her, for Lady Roselyn was a stern, sedate-looking woman, middle-aged, rather attractive though cold and haughty, but by no means the kind of moist-eyed, forlorn-looking temptress who had been his undoing so recently; in fact she seemed quite the opposite, he would venture to say that Lady Roselyn looked like a saint.
It was only when Ulburt led her to the position she would occupy, next to Captain Barrister, that Reiner saw her manifest anything resembling human feelings. When the baron handed her the reins, he took her hand and kissed it. She smiled and stroked his cheek tenderly. Reiner smiled affectedly. After all, there was some fire in the cold priestess. However, that moment of affection made him think.
Why would Ulburt leave a woman he loved so dearly in the company of such undesirable people?
It was curious.
When they had all mounted, Albrecht faced them.
"Ride swiftly and return soon. Remember that riches await you if you succeed, and that I will kill you like dogs if you betray me. Now, go, and may the eyes of the gods watch over you during the journey."
He gave a military salute just as Barrister spurred the horse and gave the signal to march. Only Barrister, Erich and Reiner returned the military salute to the Baron.
♦ ♦ ♦
As they started down the wagon-marked dirt road, between tilled fields in the direction of the dark strip of woods that stretched into the distance, it began to rain. Reiner and the others turned to unfasten the hooded cloaks in their luggage and throw them over themselves.
Hals grumbled under his breath as the rain fell on his forehead.
"There you have a good augury, no doubt about it."
It rained all night and the road turned to mud. Spring was coming to Nordland, cold and wet as it did every year.
He party rode into the moonless night, all cowering under the cloak, teeth chattering and water dripping from their noses. The throbbing pain of the hand mark was now only the first in a long list of misfortunes that Reiner mentally increased with each passing hour. They saw little of the terrain through which they were advancing. The forest was very dark. Only when they passed open fields where the previous week's layer of snow was melting into gray slush did they have enough light to see anything around them.
They were in wild territory. Smallhof was on the border of the far eastern edge of the Duchy of Nordland, where there were many forests and few towns. However, it was a fairly safe area. The offensive of Kaleth's empire had reached its climax and then retreated eastward.
But there was something odd, the few huts they passed were merely empty, blackened structures.
It was impossible that they were the result of an Empire attack. The main battlefield was in the duchy of Riverland, many miles southeast of their current position.
What caused the destruction of these farms?
Just before dawn, when Reiner's head was bobbing and he was balancing on his horse, Barrister ordered a halt by the river. Nearby was a dense grove of tall pines into which he led them. Inside the grove it was pitch dark, but the ground was almost dry. Barrister dismounted with agility.
"We will rest here until dawn. No tents. And sleep with everything you have on you."
"What?" asked Reiner. "But it's only an hour to dawn."
"His lordship stressed that time was of vital importance," replied Barrister. "You will sleep well when we make camp tonight."
"Another day's ride?" groaned Hals. "My ass won't stand it."
"Would you rather have your ass hanging on a rope?" asked Barrister, frowning. "And now, let's get to work. Ulf, help me."
While the company tended to the horses and rolled up the blanket to use as a pillow, Ulf and Barrister pitched a neat tent for Lady Roselyn, which included a folding cot. When it was ready and she was settled in, Barrister lay down before the entrance to the tent.
"Don't worry, Captain," Hals said quietly. "We don't want nuns...I mean, wet." He laughed and hit Pavel with an elbow. "Ha! Get it, we don't want to dunk!"
"Yes." replied Pavel in a weary tone. "I get it. Go to sleep, you fool. By the bones of the gods, I don't know which hurts more, my hand or my ass!"