The Rescue at Tralach
Fennec prowled through the blackberry bushes and nettles coiling beneath the hooded canopies of oak and elm. Fat globes of rain fell from the wide brimmed leaves overhead, splashing on the forest floor sending dirt and seed into the air. The rain had vanquished the pungent sting of acrid smoke blowing from the east; the direction they were headed. Now, without that draw, he had only his own instinct to guide him.
'You sure we still headed east, Fennec?' Colm murmured. The man gripped his short sword with his four fingered hand like he expected the trees to become ents.
'Aye,' Fennec said, barely audible.
The third man, Ermod, traipsed close, his breath thick with ale stench, 'They'll have bowmen, you know. Better to keep low and go in through the you know what.'
'Aye,' Fennec said, barely audible.
'I can't swim,' Colm said.
'Moat won't be that deep, just keep your mouth shut so you don't swallow any shit,' Ermod turned and spat through the rain.
A dance of leaves caught Fennec's eye and he signalled for the trio to halt, 'Ermod, what's ahead of us,' he ordered. Ermod could have taken offence, after all neither of them were leader, not really. Fennec had heard of a bounty the knights of Clamorga Castle were uninterested in and found the two roughest looking men in Clamorga town's alehouse. The pay was considerable, and better yet half up front. All for some woman stolen on the road from her castle to Prince Edwin's.
'Nothing but the rain,' Ermod finally answered. 'Can't be far now, Fennec. Let's find this wench and hurry home to find our own bed mates.'
'Pay for 'em, you mean,' Colm grunted.
'Aye, least I'm honest that I won't marry them. You leave a tangle of broken promises and broken hearts.'
'Quiet,' Fennec called. He didn't know the men well but he knew they knew each other enough to distrust the other, perhaps he'd have been better on his own. Richer too. Fennec continued on through the woodland following nothing but his instinct. His fur lined leather stuck to his skin, the rain soaking him through and the scent of wet animal cloying the air about him. Mud seeped through a hole in his boot.
The fort, an old ruin Prince Edwin had called Tralach, rose out of the woodland out a patch of earth thick with old roots and weathered tree stumps. The tower was half crumbled, the split stones dashing the earth providing nooks for insects and burrows for dandelions. Thick grass clung about the pale grey blocks and all around the edge of the fort wall. Fennec knelt behind an oak tree as wide as a carriage, twisted and gnarled from a century of winters, and searched for bowmen, or a moat. There was neither. Candle light flickered from the arrowslits on the ground level as the crescent moon rose in the sky still too bright for stars. Black-grey clouds spilt across the moon unleashing a sea upon the land. 'Rain will go off soon,' Fennec said. 'Need to hurry.'
'Nah, we should wait,' Colm said. His chin and jaw were pitted from blunt razors and pox scars.
'No one likes fighting in the rain. No one likes patrolling in the rain. These are some common bandits, like you last summer,' Fennec paused. Colm stiffened. 'No discipline, best do it now.'
'Alright, Knight-Commander,' Colm mocked. He snipped his thumbnail with his teeth and spat out the detritus.
Ermod exhaled loudly, 'What's the plan?' he itched a patch of dry skin on his neck, the flakes littering his sodden coat like snow.
Fennec scanned the length of Tralach Fort. There were eight arrow slits on the ground level and another either on the upper level, the wall had long lost its merlons like the tower had shrank two floors. There would be a courtyard inside, maybe, and a cellar. There were no well trodden roads nearby, no towns or farmsteads, and that caused Fennec to suffer a wave of doubt. 'We circle round to the front,' he said, less certain bandits had stolen Edwin's maid.
There were no gates on the fort, no barricades or palisades, only a couple of smoking braziers snuffed out in the rain. Candle light glowed from arrowslits. There was no courtyard, not really. The fort, barely two cottages shoved together with a tower to join them, sat to one side while a smithy and stables sat on the other, all built of granite. The thatch roof of the stables had long since rotten away and nothing spewed from the smithy chimney. 'Who is the woman Edwin wants us to save?'
'Dunno, can't be important though if none of his knights offered,' Colm said.
'But why wouldn't he order them to save her?' Ermod countered.
'Perhaps he's scared of them saying no,' Colm shrugged and bit off another curl of fingernail.
'Quiet,' Fennec growled. 'No more talk till we have the woman in sight.' Colm and Ermod grimaced and nodded. Fennec decided he was never working with either of them again. He didn't have a plan. The rain pounded the earth and stone hard enough to drown out a wolf's howl. 'Now,' he darted for the courtyard of Tralach. Colm swore.
The trio reached the courtyard of puddles and mudbanks to find no one outside. Fennec hurried to the nearest arrowslit without any flickering light and from there to the nearest door, hoping he'd found an empty room. The door creaked, the top hinge rusted through. The three men were inside, the rain steaming off them. A baby's shrill wail echoed against the stone of Fort Tralach.
Ermod caught Fennec's eye with a frantic glare. Fennec ignored the man's furious concern and headed in the direction of the noise. Soon enough shadows danced on stone bathed in warm tones and men's voices joined the chorus.
'How long must we wait?' one said.
'Until the Duke calls us back.'
'But we have her and the bastard, why not deal with the problem now?'
'The Duke wants the Prince to know. He needs it to be public.'
'Sir Calan, while we sit here soaked to the bone the Prince will mobilise. Shut that bairn up!'
'That is not our concern. Who would think to look in this old ruin far from any road or town?' Sir Calan assured. 'Go join the others and have your fill of wine, there's naught else to do.'
Fennec knelt in the shadows counting the other man's steps as they faded away. Sir Calan remained, his greaves clinking as he paced the room. The baby's wail lessened to a blubber. Fennec glanced to the other two, they were not warned of knights heavily armed and armoured with castle steel and training with meals of meat twice a day. But three on one was doable, maybe.
'What will the Duke do with me?' a woman asked, her voice faint, as if behind a door.
'Your father will make an example I should think.'
'The Prince,' she trailed off.
'The Prince what? He won't save you. This little problem will cost him dearly and the Duke will be richly rewarded,' Sir Calan said. 'But for now, be quiet.'
The Duke's daughter chose silence.
Fennec slipped the warpick from his belt with his left hand and gripped a dagger in his right. He ran into the small damp room with a rotting table and a barrel for a stool. He tackled Sir Calan round the waist. The table smashed under the weight of armour and man. Ermod and Colm were behind, axe and sword at the ready. Fennec slid his dagger between chestplate and pauldron and wrangled the blade as violently as he could. Ermod brought the blunt side of his old woodcutting axe down on the knight's shin, cracking the bone within the steel. Sir Calan screamed, blood gushing from under his arm. Colm watched the other door, four fingers working over the hilt of his sword. Fennec swung the warpick once, piercing Calan's skull, and the man fell still. A squirt of blood and brain escaped as Fennec freed his weapon. 'Quickly, the others will have heard.'
Colm and Ermod were at the door with the crying baby. The lock broke with a quick bash from Ermod's axe and Colm rushed in, returning with woman and child. Tears stained her face and the babe was puce, wriggling, and screaming.
'Let's go,' Fennec growled. He took off the way they'd came, the woman and child ahead of him. 'Out that door,' he barked. They burst out into a tumult of rain pounding a new landscape into the earth.
Shouting rang out behind them and two other doors of Fort Tralach flew open. 'That bitch is escaping!' One shouted. 'Find Sir Calan!' another said. 'He's dead!' said a third. 'After them!' ordered another in chainmail and feathered helm. 'Yes, Sir Olanor.'
'A second knight,' Colm grunted.
'Keep running and keep quiet,' Fennec grunted. 'Into the woods!' he pushed the woman along. She slipped in the mud and slid on her arse down the gentle slope to land in a blackberry bush. 'Get up!' Fennec barked, grabbing her roughly under the arm. Arrows whistled over head. His hair hung limp and stuck to his cheek dripping with rain as cold and hard as icy nails. Wet leaves slapped him and thorny branches tore at his trousers but he ran anyway, pushing the woman and child ahead of him. Ermod and Colm were behind, the latter swearing with every step.
Branches snapped as the men from the fort yelled behind them, tracking them through the woodland. Night had fallen and the rains had returned to blot out the moon and stars. Fennec ran until he found an old tree, wide as a cottage, and there he grabbed the woman and hid in a nook of thick roots and fallen leaves. Colm and Ermod darted past. Fennec whistled and then the five of them were nestled under the tree in a blanket of wet dark. The babe was sound asleep, clutching its mother's breasts.
Sir Olanor and his men traipsed through the wood, hacking at blackberry bushes and stabbing up into yew trees. From the yelling Fennec guessed at least ten had spread out through the woods.
Fennec remained stone still until the shouting and beating of shrubs had died down. The night still reined over the world and the babe, mercifully, had slept the whole time. A bone deep chill was spreading up his legs and into his knees and he'd long since lost the feeling in his fingers, yet he remained still while Colm slept as sound as the bairn and Ermod twitched at every sound the woods created. For good measure Fennec kept still for another watch or more.
Before first light crested the horizon signalling the downfall of night Fennec was up. He woke Colm and helped Ermod to his feet. Fennec was sodden head to toe, his skin slick with sweat and rain. The woman got to her feet, cradling her child in one arm. 'Boy or girl?' Fennec said.
'Boy,' she whispered, eyes downcast. She had an aquiline nose and a pair of sky blue eyes.
'Your name?'
'Lucinda.'
'We're returning you to Prince Edwin.'
Her expression brightened, eyes widening, for a moment before fear swept across, 'But then...'
'I don't care. The Prince paid us well and I've a mind to have the remaining half of that pay before sundown,' Fennec said. 'Clamorga's this way, get moving. All of you.' With that they were off as the first spears of sunlight pierced the woods.
'This better be worth it, if that damnable Prince tries to cheat us out of...' Colm grumbled.
'He won't,' Lucinda squeaked. She shrank into herself immediately.
'I didn't ask you,' Colm roared.
The baby boy began to cry.
'Quiet, the knight will be sending his men after us.' Fennec trudged through the woodland scouting for landmarks he remembered from the day before. He'd carved into the odd tree but now he realised that would only serve as a guide for their enemies so he had to steer clear of that as much as possible.
The baby continued to cry.
'Stick a tit in that bairn's gob,' Colm hissed. 'Or I'll have to silence him another way.'
'Colm,' Fennec whispered. 'I doubt the Prince would appreciate you killing his son.'
'Huh?' Colm grimaced.
'Let's get moving,' Fennec said, he guided Lucinda ahead of him and let Colm take the rear as he recovered from his confusion.
By midday Fennec's hair had dried but his boots still squelched with a mush of mud, leaves, and animal droppings that had wormed its way between his toes. It was then he knew it would be at least another day before they'd reach Clamorga. The ground was too wet to traverse quickly and Lucinda couldn't feed her boy while she walked forcing them to stop what felt like every half mile.
'Fennec, we're never going to make it,' Ermod bemoaned. 'We cannot keep stopping,' he bathed in a patch of sunlight filtering down between two ancient elms.
'Not to mention our pursuers,' Colm said. He sidled up to Fennec, 'I know we took this job but,' he side-eyed Lucinda and her boy. 'We could ditch the bairn, have our way, and disappear. We least got half our pay.'
Fennec ground his teeth, 'Clamorga's my home, I'd like to go back there.'
'Suit yourself,' Colm shrugged and bit off one of his nails. He spat, leering at Lucinda. The woman was none the wiser as she stared at her boy as he suckled her breast.
Fennec's hand fell to his warpick. It would be quick, he told himself. A branch snapped nearby drawing the attention of them all save the babe. 'Move,' Fennec whispered. He grabbed Lucinda by the arm and dragged her behind him.
'Wait... He has not yet finished,' she yanked at Fennec. The baby began to cry. Fennec continued to drag her along.
'Shut that thing up,' Colm hissed, a rusted knife flashed in his hand.
Shouting drifted on the breeze, it was still a ways off but close enough to set Fennec's heart racing. He had no desire to die in the woods, in fact he planned on dying in Clamorga at a grand age with a mug of ale in hand, so he ran, dragging Lucinda along with him. If he was going to live till old age he needed money and she represented a great deal of money. Ermod hurried after him, axe in hand. Colm was lagging as he checked over his shoulder every moment he could. There was no one there. Not yet.
Fennec reached a clearing he remembered from the day prior. If he was on his own he could have made it to Clamorga before dusk but he wasn't on his own and that meant he'd be spending another cold and sleepless night in the woods. He hoped the stars would be out as he limped to a halt. He breathed hard, the chill air stinging his lungs.
Ermod jogged up beside him, 'No sight of pursuers.'
Fennec slumped against the trunk of an elm tree, shirt now sodden with sweat and yesterday's rain. 'They know where we're going,' he muttered matter of factly.
'And? They wouldn't dare try and enter the town,' Ermod said. He gripped his axe in both hands till his knuckles turned white.
'We won't be in Clamorga until tomorrow.'
'Because of the baby,' Colm hissed.
'Yes,' Fennec said. 'We need to find a place to rest for the night, away from the direct route home,' Fennec stood up. He was still holding on to Lucinda's arm. He released her. The woman scowled at him and coiled around the boy in her arms.
'How long will we cower in these woods?' Colm stepped toward Fennec, sword in hand, his cheeks flushed. 'Do you think that knight will give up pursuit? We should do the land a favour and kill the woman and child here. Tell the Prince we found them like that. Then we don't have to die, the knight can tell his Duke the good news, and our Prince can forget all about her.'
Lucinda shied away from the three men, gingerly at first and then all at once. She flung herself into a sprint eastward. Colm burst into a run after her. The two vanished into a mesh of leaves and branches.
'Shit,' Fennec said. 'Come on,' he called to Ermod and the pair began their chase.
Fennec had ran until his lungs burned. Colm barged and bellowed his way through the wood in no particular direction, though Fennec couldn't yet see him, but it was clear he'd lost Lucinda. 'Colm,' he called, 'it won't do any good to kill her.'
'I'll gut you, bitch. You and that damned bairn. Serves the Prince right for fucking you under the Duke's nose. Those nobles care too much, you'd have done better in the whorehouse back in Clamorga. I know the mistress, she'll take you in. You'll make a killing. Be richer than a Duke's daughter in no time,' the drivel poured from Colm at once furious and calm.
There was no response.
'Think you're better than that? At least the whores know their worth, you gave it up for nothing. Gutter dogs have more sense than that,' Colm crashed through a blackberry bush somewhere on Fennec's right. Fennec turned to catch the rustle of leaves. He chased.
'You think you're clever, bitch, but I know you're here. I can smell you. I can hear that bairn breathing its last. I'll find you. Don't think I won't. Spent my life hunting game smarter than you,' Colm prowled through the woods.
Fennec could hear him but not Lucinda. Ermod was elsewhere but Fennec hoped he had circled round and the pair could trap Colm between them and kill him. There was no other path.
'Found you,' Colm snarled.
Lucinda screamed. Fennec rushed towards the sound ahead of him. She screamed again, overhead. Fennec looked up to Colm half up a tree, a wad of Lucinda's skirt in his fist. He pulled and pulled until Lucinda slipped, baby with her, and fell to the ground. She landed hard on her shoulder, the boy landing on top of her, screaming. Colm leapt to the ground. 'I deserve a little fun for that,' he groped at his belt and pinned Lucinda's arms to the forest floor. Lucinda screamed, from pain and what was to come.
'That scream was this way,' a man from Fort Tralach shouted.
Fennec shivered and glanced over his shoulder. There was no one in sight. He hurried to Colm as he grappled with Lucinda's skirts. She kicked and screamed while her babe kicked and screamed in a pile of leaves beside her. Fennec raised his warpick as a gout of blood sprayed from Colm's neck, soaking woman and child. Lucinda was shaking with rage, her eyes red and raw, her fist wrapped around a long silver hairpin covered in rouge. Colm teetered on his knees clawing at his neck. Blood bubbled up between his teeth to foam over his chin. Lucinda kicked herself out from under him, sobbing she rushed to her wailing child. Colm fell backward, dead.
'Get up, we need to go. Now,' Fennec slipped the warpick in his belt and held a hand out to Lucinda. She took it and the pair ran.
Lucinda shivered under the wools and furs one of the Prince's soldiers had brought. She cradled the Prince's son in her arms, covered in dry blood and mud. Prince Edwin sat upon his throne drawing his fingers over his head repeatedly. The Chancellor and a number of other nobles stood about him, dressed in finery. Fennec was surprised they hadn't been sent away given the state of Lucinda, yet the court was full of knights and courtiers, soldiers and servants. The knights and courtiers glared down at Fennec and Ermod while the soldiers and servants muttered behind their hands.
'How did you escape this Sir Olanor?'
'Lost him in the woods, m'lord.'
Prince Edwin nodded but there was something to his expression, a level of disbelief. His eyes fell on Lucinda and his child. 'Such good fortune,' he said. 'The third in your party? What befell him?'
'He died, m'lord,' Fennec stood with his hands resting in the small of his back. He stared lustfully at the bag of coin in the Chancellor's hand. It was his, he just had to engage in small talk for a while.
'How?'
'Fighting, m'lord,' Fennec lied.
'More coin for the two of you then, I guess,' Prince Edwin rose and descended his dais to kneel beside Lucinda, he ran his hand through her mud smeared hand and smiled genuinely. He turned and flicked his wrist from Chancellor to Fennec.
The Chancellor tossed the linen sack with both hands, 'His Highness thanks you for your service, now get out.'
Fennec caught the bag in both hands and began to dream of a new pair of boots.
Thanks for reading.
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Very gritty story. Well done.
That was tense! Whenever there's a baby or a child I'm like "please no." Great writing. I was fully in the forest with them.