In the middle of the third day's journey, as the terrain ascended and the Nordic Mountains rose before them, Pavel and Hals began to look at their surroundings with increasing interest.
"Either this is the road to Nordlangen, or I am a goblin." said Hals.
"And there are the Three Witches." said Pavel as he pointed to a trio of distant mountains that, seen from that angle, looked like three stooped old women. "My father's farm is not half a day's ride to the south."
Hals sniffed the air.
"I knew we were home just by breathing. Lady Peace, I could swear I smell my mother's pork and cabbage stew cooking in the pot right now."
Gustaf chuckled unpleasantly through his teeth and spoke for the first time that day.
"Don't be so cheerful, you lout. Most likely it's your mother being cooked in the pot."
"Son of a Bitch!" shouted Hals as he awkwardly tried to turn his horse toward Gustaf. "Either you take that back or I'll turn your guts into garters!"
Captain Barrister got his horse between the men before Reiner even realized he was moving.
"Calm down, pikeman!" he bellowed at Hals, then spun around to face Gustaf. "And you, leech, if you open your big mouth just to say idiotic things, you'd better keep it shut." He stood up in the stirrups and looked scowlingly at all the soldiers. "You won't lack opportunities to fight before we're done. I guarantee you that. But if any of you want more, let him come to me. I will test your courage. Do I make myself clear?"
"Perfectly, Captain." replied Gustaf as he rode away on his horse.
Hals nodded with his head bowed.
"Yes, captain."
"Good." said Barrister. "In that case, ride on. We have another thirty miles to cover today."
At dusk, they passed through a town in ruins. The houses, taverns and stores were nothing but charred rubble. Against the crumbling stone walls the ash-blackened snow was piled up. Pavel and Hals gazed at their surroundings in petrified dismay.
"This is Drauger." said Pavel. "My cousin lives in Drauger."
"Lived." Gustaf corrected.
"We used to sell our pigs at the market down there," said Hals as he pointed toward a crossroads. There was no market anymore.
Pavel was shaking with fury and wiping away tears.
"Barbaric bastards! Filthy, demon-worshipping pigs, why do they have to come and bugger the south, can't they just stay in their fucking frozen land and fuck their mammoths?"
On the outskirts of the village they saw an orange glow through a grove of trees, and heard distant shouting and clattering of guns.
"To arms!" ordered Barrister, and drew his sword. The men imitated him. Giano drew the spring of his crossbow, and Franz put an arrow to his bow. Reiner checked that their pistols were loaded and cocked.
"von Heisenberg, Blackbrick!" bellowed Barrister. "Protect Lady Roselyn."
Erich and Reiner ran and stood on either side of Lady Roselyn. Barrister stood directly in front of her. Through a gap in the trees, they saw that a small group of stables were on fire. Silhouettes of huge men with horns, it was impossible to determine whether they adorned their hooves or grew directly from their heads, were running through the flames chasing smaller silhouettes. Others were carrying sheep and cows. A few were carrying humans. Reiner and the others could hear the high-pitched shrieks of the women above the crackling of the fire.
Pavel and Hals awkwardly spurred their horses forward.
"Captain." said Hals. "Those are our people. We can't..."
"No." said Barrister fiercely. "We have a job to do. Carry on." But he didn't sound happy.
Erich coughed.
"Captain, for once I agree with the pikeman. The village is not too far off our route, and we could..."
"I said no!" bellowed Barrister. So they went on. But before they had gone four hundred yards, Barrister struck one leg with his gloved fist. "This is all the fault of those priggish idiots who surround the King and fill his head with cowardice disguised as caution!
'We've overextended ourselves,' they say. 'The treasury is exhausted,' they say. 'We can't afford to prolong the war.' Imbeciles! What they can't afford is not to have a new front!"
The detachment looked at him in surprise. From the short time they had spent with him, they knew Barrister was a taciturn man who kept his emotions to himself, but there he was, bellowing like a tavern orator.
"We gain nothing by having pushed the Imperial legions across our borders only to return as if the mission were accomplished and watch our land be ravaged by Norse raiders. It is as Baron Ulburt says. We must destroy all our enemies completely. Otherwise, what you are seeing will happen: a little raid here, a little raid there, without our mothers and sisters ever being truly safe or the Kingdom ever truly sovereign. Unless we want to be forever fighting for a land we have called our own for centuries, we must go find the invaders in their own dens and kill them to the last man, woman, and child; smash the imperial legions, raze the Norse barbarians, eradicate the greenskins from the mountains, and extinguish the beastmen of the forest; when all our enemies are gone, we will have peace."
"That's it, that's it," nodded Erich. "Well said. But then..."
"No." said Barrister. "The relic that Baron Ulburt has ordered us to retrieve is more important. It could finally reverse the course of things. It could mean the end of the curse of the north forever and it could build the foundation for defeating the Empire of Kaleth once and for all. When my lord Ulburt has it, he and his brother Herlmann will be able to take back Nordheim, the capital of the duchy of Nordland, from the despicable Norse barbarians who seized it while my lords were fighting at the front against the imperial legions. Then it will become a bastion against the scum hiding in the north, and the Dragon Heart will be the symbol with which the Baron at last..."
"Captain." interjected Lady Roselyn in a curt tone. "This is a secret Quest."
Barrister looked up at her and visibly regained his composure.
"Forgive me, my Lady. I have allowed my tongue to run wild."
Barrister brought his horse back beside her and they set off once more.
"Quite a speech." muttered Reiner as he struggled a bit.
"You bet." nodded Hals with a smile. "Old Barrister is quite the firebrand."
"Have you served under him?"
Pavel shook his head.
"I wish we had. He's the sort who doesn't run away in the midst of battle."
Hals burst out laughing.
"He doesn't. That's why he's here, trying to win Ulburt's goodwill back.
"Has Barrister fallen out of favor too?" asked Reiner, surprised.
"Worse. He's sticking his neck out on the scaffold. Direct disobedience of orders," Pavel explained.
"He was under Ulburt's brother Herlmann during the defense of Nordheim. Herlmann told him to hold his position." continued Hals. "But Barrister saw that horrible Nordic beasts were wiping out a flanking detachment and he couldn't take it. He charged."
"It lost him about a hundred men." added Pavel.
"But Barrister's pikemen didn't back down at any time." said Hals proudly. "They killed every last one of those nightmares. That's a real captain."
"Yes." Pavel nodded.
Reiner chuckled.
"A squadron of convicts with a convict in command."
"That's not funny at all." commented Erich, sniffling through his nose. "I had no idea. He's a degraded man."
Reiner spotted more torches moving across the crop fields just north of the road.
"Captain. To your right."
Barrister looked where he pointed and cursed under his breath.
"Okay. Turn west. von Heisenberg, in the vanguard."
The company reluctantly moved out of the way. With a last longing glance over his shoulder to where the barbarians stood, Erich moved the horse forward until he was fifty paces ahead of the group. They rode through fields of crops and scattered groves of trees in a wide semicircle until they lost sight of the torches, and all they saw of the burning farms was a faint orange glow reflecting off the underside of the low clouds.
At last Barrister led them northward again. Between them and the road stretched a long strip of trees. Barrister pulled Erich back to stand a few feet ahead of the group, handed him a dull flashlight that emitted a narrow wedge of light but hid its flame from observant eyes, and they began to advance through the forest.
Although it was narrow, the strip of forest became thicker and abundant in tangled thickets, so they had to slow down to a crawl. The horses went through the bushes as if fording a river, and it was necessary to cut the overhanging branches to prevent them from knocking the riders off their mounts.
"Captain." said Erich. "Might I suggest we try a detour to avoid this briar patch?"
Barrister nodded.
"Half a turn. Let's go back the way we've..."
"Captain." interjected Lady Roselyn. "I think my horse has got a hoof stuck. I can't turn."
Barrister grunted and tucked the sword into the scabbard attached to the saddle.
"One moment, my Lady." He dismounted, grabbed Erich's lantern and crouched beside Lady Roselyn's horse. After a moment, he sat up. "Ulf, she's got a hoof wedged between two roots. I need your strength."
The burly engineer dismounted and rejoined Barrister. As they tugged at the roots, Oskar's head jerked up.
"Don't you hear something?" he asked in a tremulous voice.
The others froze and listened. There was a sound that was almost lost among the creaking of the leather and the movement of the horses, a rhythmic murmur, like waves on a pebble beach, like... a breath. They looked out into the blackness of the forest. All around them, gleaming yellow eyes reflected the light of the lantern.