The Black Sword Trilogy: The Poacher

by VanMeter, Jeffery

  “As you can see,” Grail continued. “There is now no hope for any help coming from post number one or from anywhere else for that matter.”

  Krall felt angry and sick at the same time. His own brother, he thought; at the command of those foul beasts threatening his fort. Had they killed men at his command? The very idea made him nauseous.

  “Why are you doing this?” He said gritting his teeth.

  “Change,” Grail answered simply. “The change we’ve both known was needed for a long time is finally coming to this land.”

  Krall gained control over his mount and calmed himself as best as he could.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” He demanded. “The Causton Wars are over.”

  “This has nothing to do with Causton or his crusade.” Grail answered. “Real change is coming; the kind that has been needed for five hundred years.”

  At this Krall was even more astonished.

  “Five hundred years?” He questioned. “Surely you’re not referring to The Great War. What has that got to do with anything?”

  “Unfinished business,” Grail said in an even lower voice.

  Krall finally got complete control over his emotions after a few heavy breaths. He still couldn’t believe what he saw before his eyes; but now he was thinking clearly again. He started to think tactically and began to see plans in his mind.

  “So what’s the purpose of this conversation?” He asked calmly.

  His brother smiled a cruel smile.

  “I see the gears in your mind are turning again.” He said, almost proudly.

  “Answer my question,” Krall demanded.

  Grail sighed almost sadly.

  “I have nearly five thousand Wolfen at my command,” Grail said. “By my calculation, you have less than sixty men at yours. Unless I’m greatly mistaken, you have evacuated Calderon and burned the bridge several days ago. You’ve done your duty to King and country. The people of that city are safe by now.”

  “If that’s true, how did you manage to get the head of my messenger?”

  “I’ve managed to get a few of my creatures over the wall secretly. But as you know, it’s not something I can do with an entire army.”

  “That’s why you need to take the gate.” Krall added.

  “Yes it is.” Grail continued. “But I’m a unique position now. I can take life or I can give it. It’s up to me.”

  “Are you asking for us to surrender? Is that it?”

  “No,” Grail said with a grave emphasis in his voice. “I have no desire to kill my own brother, Krall. Nor do I desire to slaughter more brave men. I therefore give you a choice.”

  Grail then stretched out his hand to his brother.

  “Join me brother.”

  Krall was shocked and outraged; but he kept his composure. Here was a chance to buy more time, he thought. Here was a chance to make even better preparations.

  “What about my men?” Krall asked.

  Grail took a moment before answering. Krall knew his brother was thinking of something; but whatever it was, he knew Grail would not tell him his real thoughts.

  “Those that wish to join us will be officers in my army.” Grail finally answered. “Those that do not may go home.”

  Krall knew this to be a lie and the same time, he came to understand the meaning of the meeting. Krall knew now that, not only did Grail intend to wipe out the garrison; he wanted Krall to know that it was him that had done it. At the same time, he did believe what Grail had said about not wanting to kill his brother. Where would be the satisfaction in that? Grail wanted Krall alive, he concluded; and that would be a way to buy more time.

  “I shall have to consider it.” He told Grail. “I will also need to consult with my men so that they may make their own decisions.”

  “Of course,” Grail said. “But do not take too long.”

  “How long will you give me?” Krall asked. Whatever Grail answered would give away his time table for attack Krall thought.

  “I will let you know when I am ready to hear your decision.” Grail answered to Krall’s disappointment. He must have guessed that was the reason for the question.

  “Know this though,” Grail added. “I will have your answer soon or I will do what I must. I don’t want to, but if I have to, I will kill every man inside those barracks…even you.”

  Grail then turned on his horse and rode back to his encampment. When Krall was satisfied that they were away, he also turned and returned to his barracks.

  For the rest of the night, the men stood waiting for a battle that did not yet come. Lack of sleep made Kenner’s sight blurry, but he tried his best to concentrate on his task. Both he and Terri continued to kill Wolfen and the animals continued to send barrages of arrows over the wall. When night came, Captain Krall finally ordered the men to stand down, but he insisted that more men stood watch at night.

  Most of the men sensed something was coming after the meeting between the Captain and the enemy General (Captain Krall did not let anyone else know that the General was his brother). They felt deep in their bones that the attack that would likely take all of their lives could now come at any moment. That night, very few ate and there was no friendly conversation accompanied with the ale. The barracks was as silent as a tomb while the soldiers all contemplated their deaths in their own ways. Some of the new recruits shook visibly and their faces were pale. The “regular” soldiers mostly looked sad and tired. Some wished that the attack would come as soon as possible so as for it all to simply be over and even Terri stopped smiling.

  That evening she spent even more time with Shela as she had before. The huge cat seemed to sense Terri’s fear and seemed to be trying to comfort her. She looked around carefully to make sure no one was watching her, buried her head in the cat’s thick fur and allowed herself to cry.

  Even as tired as he was, Kenner could not sleep that night. He stared at the boots his father had made for him with his own hands. It was all he had left of his father. After he had died, the village, as was their custom divided all his belongings and what little money he had evenly among all the villagers. His clothes were taken and given away, cups and dishes, his bed, his pipe and tobacco, even what little coffee he had left was divided among the villagers. And his sword, the weapon with which he’d fought for many years was taken by the village elders and given to the Chieftain.

  Kenner couldn’t help but think what his father might think or say if he saw him now. Here he was, sitting on a bed of straw and wearing the uniform of the land he’d been taught to mistrust, ruled by a King he’d been taught to hate. His father never explained to him the reason for this hatred. He only told stories of the King’s hypocrisies and how Philas’ form of justice was better for some than others. Here was his son, Kenner thought about to die for that same King. What would his father think?

  There, standing at the foot of his cot, closer than he’d ever seen it before was the familiar shadow. It was a clearer shape now; whereas before it had seemed only a loose form of a person. The lines of the form were more human than before; more real. It appeared almost as a real person wearing a hooded cloak and he thought he could almost see a face beneath the hood. Studying the outline even closer, it almost looked like the body of a woman underneath the cloak. As he studied and peered closer, he wondered if it were only a dream. Had he fallen asleep? Then he heard a soft whisper of a voice coming from under the cloak. He could barely hear the voice sounding like a deep sigh. It seemed to be repeating the same sounds; possibly the same words, he thought. It sounded like two words close together. He focused. He listened as close as he could. When he thought he could hear them clearly, they didn’t seem to make sense at first. Then it hit him like a thunderbolt.

  He jumped from his bunk and nearly ran across the courtyard to the Captain’s quarters. When he burst in the door, Sergeant Bobbra put the blade of a short sword to his neck.

  “What the bloody hell do you want?” Bobbra shouted at him.

&
nbsp; “I must speak with the Captain.” He said, nearly out of breath.

  “Anything you want to say to him, you’d better say to me, poacher.”

  Kenner tried to push past the Sergeant only to have the blade pushed closer to his neck. Captain Krall then rose from his own bunk.

  “What the hell’s going on?” He asked gruffly.

  “I know when the attack is coming.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Captain Krall was tired; far too tired, he thought to deal with any nonsense.

  “Go back to bed and back to your dreams, soldier.” He ordered.

  “But I know when the attack is coming, sir.” Kenner insisted.

  “Did you not hear the Captain?” Sergeant Bobbra growled. “Get your ass back to the barracks!”

  Sergeant Bobbra then began to shove Kenner back through the door. In a smooth, quick motion, Kenner grabbed the Sergeant’s wrist and then wrestled the short sword out of his hand. Bobbra was surprised and backed away from the young soldier. Kenner then threw the weapon to the ground.

  “If you’ll just give me a moment, sir,” Kenner insisted.

  Captain Krall rubbed his tired eyes, then the back of his neck hurting from stress.

  “You’ve just assaulted a superior, young man. If what you have to say is really important enough to risk a flogging, then you’d better go ahead and tell me. When are these beasts coming to attack?”

  “The new moon, sir.” Kenner answered.

  Krall’s first reaction was that the young soldier’s warning was nonsense. He’d probably had a bad dream and was claiming it to be a vision, he thought. As he thought for a moment, he then changed his mind.

  “Wait outside.” He ordered Kenner. Kenner obeyed.

  “Fast little bugger, isn’t he?” Bobbra asked, still astonished.

  “I probably should have warned you that he’s a better fighter than you.” Krall added. He then sat behind the map table and began studying again.

  “You think he might be on to something?” Bobbra asked.

  The Captain looked over the map on his table almost like he hadn’t seen it before.

  “It makes perfect sense.” He finally answered and then motioned for Bobbra to study the map with him.

  “Look here.” He said pointing to the fort on the map. “According to legend, those creatures can see better at night than men during the day. If that’s even half true, then they would have a clear advantage over our soldiers who would be nearly blind on a night without moonlight. Even with torches, our men would only be able to see a few yards in front of them.”

  The Captain then pointed at the river on the map and ran his finger down the map towards Mobrey.

  “If they attack on the night with no moon, they would sweep past our defenses easily. More than that, once on this side of the wall, they could reach and attack Post One by the full moon with no warning; and then Mobrey by the next new moon. With only the forces they have now, they could penetrate the Wall, destroy Post One, take Mobrey and then control the river. They could virtually cut this nation in half all within the space of only one month.”

  Sergeant Bobbra was astonished. The Captain was right. It did make sense.

  “What about the evacuated civilians…?” He began to ask.

  “He doesn’t care about them.” Krall answered. “This is a tactical move and a brilliant one. It’s a dagger thrust along the river to eliminate the forces along the Northern Wall and then take control of the river by taking Mobrey. Once that’s been accomplished, he can bring more troops down the river route and mass them at Mobrey. At some point, the King would have to respond and by the time the King had an army ready to counter attack Mobrey, he could have massed as many as one hundred thousand of these beasts.”

  Sergeant Bobbra was grudgingly impressed by this plan; and it had to be true, he thought to himself.

  “What can we do?” He asked in a tone of desperation.

  “Slow them down.” Krall answered.

  “There are only a handful of us…” Bobbra tried to say.

  “Even if we can only slow them for one night, we can still disrupt this plan.” Krall interrupted. “This plan is entirely dependent on timing. Disrupt it even for a day and it may fall apart.”

  Sergeant Bobbra nodded. The Captain was right.

  “So what do we do now?” The Sergeant asked.

  Captain Krall thought for a moment.

  “Let the men sleep for another couple of hours; then wake them up before day break. We have a lot of work to do.”

  Captain Krall came out of his quarters and then addressed Kenner, who was still waiting outside.

  “Grab yourself an extra ration of ale, soldier.” The Captain said to him.

  “If you insist.” Kenner answered.

  Two hours later, Sergeants Bobbra and Holly began waking the rest of the company. Although it was still dark, they could see by the campfire in the center of the barracks complex. By the Captain’s orders, they started spreading straw all over the ground. They spread it up to their knees along the wooden wall, but not the gate. Kenner and Terri also worked at this task, but when the sun had risen, Captain Krall ordered the archers back up to the platform. It was important to Krall’s plan that for that day it did not seem as he knew when the attack was coming and having the archers continue to shoot gave an appearance of normality, he thought. For the rest of the day and into the night, the soldiers continued to spread straw while still ducking under incoming arrows.

  Knowing when the attack was coming did not make things easier for the soldiers in the barracks. With no straw to lay on, they propped themselves along the wall, sat on the dirt floor and ate hard tack for dinner. Captain Krall had ordered that no campfire be lit because of the dry straw spread all over the ground. The torches had been lit on the ramparts and small candles were permitted to be lit inside the barracks so the men could see a little. That night, the Captain ordered an extra ration of ale for the entire company to steady their nerves as best as possible.

  That night was even more quiet, even though they had more to drink. Most of the “regulars” prepared their weapons; sharpening their spears, hatchets and short swords to pass the time and ease the tension. Some of the recruits tried to copy the “regulars” by doing the same and it helped a little.

  “I’m not the first woman soldier in the Army.” Terri said. “There have been many in the last five hundred years. It has been said that even Farraday had a lady General commanding troops.”

  “I’ve heard that.” Kenner added. “It was rumored that they were lovers and that she bore his child after the Great War.”

  “That’s one story. Another story is that she was gayer than I am and slept with Farraday’s sister.”

  “I heard that story too. Personally, I prefer the second story. Has more of an edge to it.”

  “You’re both going to burn in hell!” Broddick grunted at them.

  “If you’re going to heaven,” Rosta barked back at him, “Then I think I’d rather be in their company than yours.”

  Even Broddick laughed at that.

  In the middle of the night, Sergeant Holly woke the soldiers. Guided only by the torches on the wall, they took horse carts and started rolling them out of the front gate.

  General Grail was awakened by one of his Captains and told of this. He burst out of his tent and then grabbed one of the Wolfen.

  “What do you see?” He asked.

  “They build barricades.” It answered in its rough half animal voice.

  Grail peered through his telescope to look and saw that Krall’s men had overturned several carts and were using bags of beans to build a defensive wall just outside of the gate.

  “Do you think they know when we’re attacking?” The Captain asked.

  “It looks that way?” Grail answered. He then smiled and nodded. His brother was a clever one after all.

  “Should we attack now?” The Captain asked again.

  “No.” Grail said simpl
y. “We keep to the plan.”

  By dawn, Krall’s men had built a barricade that was shoulder high to most of the men and two feet thick. This barricade was also long enough along the wall for almost all of the infantry to stand behind it. Although he knew it would then give away his knowledge of the impending attack, the Captain ordered that the archers not shoot during the day to conserve their arrows. To the company’s surprise, the creatures did not shoot at them during the day either. Most reasoned that the creatures were also conserving arrows.

  It was strangely still throughout most of the day. There was very little wind and the enemy army was quiet as well. Still on his position on the platform, Kenner could see the creatures preparing for battle in much the same way the soldiers had the night before.

  “Do you think they’re afraid?” Terri asked.

  “They’re not supposed to be capable of fear.” Kenner answered grimly.

  Suddenly a thought occurred to Kenner and he climbed down off of the platform.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Terri called after him.

  Kenner didn’t answer. Instead he hurried along the line of the stables to Shela’s pen. When he swung open the gate, he saw a look in her eyes as if she were expecting him. He went into the pen and then cut the rope on her back paw. The enormous cat turned and then looked at him in the eyes. He then thought he heard her say, “Thank you.” After that, she raced out and bounded over the back wall of the barracks in one leap.

  “That’s a flogging offense.” Sergeant Holly told Kenner as he returned to the platform.