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Turn 11

---Back-post: Turn 10---

Urkan shook his head. "We saw something out there - "

"-Something big -"

"- Something evil -"

"- But we didn’t get a good look." Urkan shot a pointed look at Junither and Aenarion. "Could have been almost anything…" Martha clearly didn’t believe it.

"You ran." Urkan couldn’t meet her eye.

"I’d best go speak to Vertan. Find out what’s going on."

"Your clothes are still wet!" Martha said, surprised.

"They’ll do."

"We could get dry clothes from Magden’s!"

"A little wet won’t hurt me." Urkan scooped up the clothes, wrung them out once, and stood up. The blanket fell to the floor. His tight, wiry body was criss-crossed with silvery lines, and a stylised black eagle was tattooed across one shoulder. Lucrezia squeaked in surprise at his sudden nudity and turned her back. Martha just stared at the lines. "I’ve been fighting longer than some." He nodded towards the girl, "and I’ve seen worse than this. Remind me to tell you about the siege at Karnal’s Corner sometime." Amos looked at him, started to say something, then thought better of it.

Urkan pulled his steaming clothes on, securing the heavy mail shirt with a thick leather belt. The pot-helm went over a leather coif tied under his chin, and a business-like sword in a plain scabbard hung from a sword belt crossing over the other belt. He left his sodden cloak draped over his stool, drained the remains of his soup in one, grabbed Amos’ cloak, flicked it over his shoulders, and left. The door banged shut after him.

---Turn 10---

Darmon twitched as if to follow Urkan, thought better of it, and instead hopped his stool closer to the fire. He thrust his hands and feet close to the fire until he was in danger of setting himself on fire. He looked up at the mention of the battle, accidentally catching Amos' eye. The old man grinned toothlessly.

"You'd like to hear that one, wouldn't you?"

"It's got the ring of a story of a good story, yes," Darmon replied sleepily, wondering idly where he could find a char coal and something to write on. His fingers and toes were still numb, and didn't want to move back far enough from the fire to get out his writing kit. It would have to wait for another time. Amos cackled.

"Karnal's Corner is where the Karnal meets the Old Reik. It's rocky up there, so the water flow's fast and rough. There's a bridge there now, a wooden one wide enough for a cart, but back then there weren't." Lucrezia draped the last piece of sodden clothing over the bar. A small leather script bag hung from one shoulder. Reaching inside, she fished out a scrap of vellum and a nugget of a black rock. Amos tried hard to ignore her note making.

"Anywise, it were spring, and the sheep had just gone back up into the hills. There were a lot of melt water that year, it'd been a hard winter on the peaks, and the river were running unusually high." Martha sniffed.

"I didn't figure you were a teller of farming stories, Amos." Amos shot her a look, then turned back to Darmon and the others.

"The local Duke took the opportunity to raise a peasant levy, and took 'em up into the hills to train. There are a lot of men free then, now the beasts were out of the stables. Any way, they marched straight through an old dry-stone shepherds' town." Martha pantomimed a yawn, and Darmon and Xavier joined her. Amos shot her another look.

Martha carried the soup-pot round the circle, ladling out fresh beaker-fulls.

The young student sighed happily as he pulled the blanket tighter around him and shuffled closer to the fire. "Beautiful soup!" he beamed sleepily, waving an empty bowl in an elegant but shaky hand. "I'm beginning to feel human again. And what do you kind folk call this delightful establishment? I presume we are in the township of Tents, which would explain why you are all looking rather tense, ha, ha. Ha." Accepting a second bowl of soup, he leant back and smiled wanly.

Martha smiled thinly and carried on around the circle. As she shuffled around Junither, she kicked the small keg and two satchels. The student drops his bag on the floor and rummages in it for a moment. Xavier straightened and looked at the bag then at Duncan. He looked embarrassed. "Er...thank you for your help, my good man." Duncan smiled sleepily. Martha gave them both a funny look.

"Come on, get to a good bit!" She said to Amos as she arrived by his stool.

"Humph!" Martha refilled Amos' beaker, and he continued. The coals were nearly out when she got back to the firepit in the corner, so she threw another handful of the black rocks on top of the pile.

"An outlaw band were holed up there, in that town. They'd figured that they could live off the sheep for a bit before heading over the hills into the Border Realms." Storm started to laugh, a loud barking, but cut off suddenly when Amos stared at him.

"The levies weren't in uniform, and since they were actually in the town when the outlaws tried to get out, well, it were a mess. The levies were walking up the hill; their kit slung over one shoulder when the outlaws burst out of the houses and into them. The levies didn't know what was going on, and they didn't know who was on their side, and who wasn't. Levy fought levy fought outlaw. It were a slaughter." He took a swig of soup, and swung his head sorrowfully. "Some of the outlaws took the opportunity to escape, and ran back down the hill, following the river towards the town."

"The Duke and his retainers were on horse-back, and they tried to ride the outlaws down. Problem was, they weren't very good on their horses, while their quarry was very good at not getting killed. Very good, but not so good at looking where they were going. The lead horse slipped on wet grass, and went over the bank, into the water. His screaming scared the others, and they threw their riders. Some fell hard, and some fell in the water. No-one knows how many outlaws there were when they started, but they found enough bits for six up there, mixed in with all the bits of levy that'd been hacked off in the confusion." He took another swig of soup.

"They say that less than twenty of the five score who'd gone up the hill came down again, and all of them were maimed or dying. Damn near killed the town, losing all their men like that."

A strange look crossed Duncan's face. Many of the levies would have been farm labourers, like he'd been in his past. The others sat quietly, each lost in their own thoughts. Lucrezia finished scribbling, and sat, staring at the scrap of leather.

Junither sat for a while, gazing into the depths of his beaker of warm soup. Turning his head to face Amos, he asked, "have you heard about anyone else seeing something outside?" Martha barked and adjusted her weight on the three-legged bar stool.

"Ha! He's seen and heard everything round here!" She levered herself up and adjusted her full skirts before sitting down again. "Some of them were even there!" Amos wasn't listening. His eyes had closed and he was leaning against the wall, snoring quietly. Lucrezia glanced up to a tall candle burning inside a glass cover, standing on a high shelf over the mantle. The candle was marked off into even sections with red lines. The flame had burnt half the candle, leaving just five whole divisions.

"It's four hours to dawn. We'd best be abed." Martha pulled herself to her feet, moved to the door, and cracked it open.

"It's still snowing heavily out there. Unless it blows itself out soon, it'll still be snowing come first-light."

"I feel sorry for the men out on the wall."

"I'm just glad they are there. The Goblins'll be desperate to get into town in this sort of weather."

"Do you think they'll try anything?" Martha looked at Duncan, then at Lucrezia and at Storm. Storm nodded.

"Hard to tell, especially with that thing wandering around outside. Odds on they'll rush the walls tomorrow, or tomorrow night. They might try something earlier than that, like tonight, but they didn't look like they were planning anything much when they were firing arrows at us. You know, before we went out after them." He nodded at Xavier who was dozing fitfully, his back propped up against the side of a small table, and at Aenarion, who stared impassively back. "Them and the dead guy." Lucrezia looked pained at the way he referred to Mund. "Barking dogs don't bite, so we've got some time to sleep, at least."

"Good idea." Martha slapped one fleshy hand down on the bar-top and stood up. "There are beds upstairs: help yourselves. There's no fire, though." She weaved her way past the huddled mounds of adventurer, traveller, old man, and sleepy initiate. She stopped briefly in front of Lucrezia. "You can share with me if you'd like. I know you've got your own bed in town, but on a night like this it's easier to stay here, and it'd be warmer to share." The young woman smiled gratefully.

"Thanks, I appreciate it." The two left, arm in arm, already half asleep.

The others spent the night in the taproom, warmed by the slowly fading fire and the warmth of the fire-pit. Aenarion was the last to fall asleep but even his Elven constitution eventually succumbed.

---Skip---

The door slammed open and blinding sunlight shone in, waking the sleepers. A swirl of powdery snow drifted in with Urkan as he stomped in, shaking the snow from his boots and cloak. Martha stuck her head around the doorjamb, her weight supported by a hand against the opposite jamb.

"They've gone." Martha let her breath out in a whistling sigh.

"Phew!"

"They'll be back when it gets dark. The snow's three foot deep in town, deeper in places, and it must be at least five foot deep on the slopes. There's no way the Goblins will just wander off, not now." He grinned ferally, the deep creases highlighting the dark circles under his eyes. "We got one. The was a break in the clouds and Genner got a clear shot." He shook his head. "God, I'm tired!"

Martha stepped down off the stairs and into the taproom. "There's a warm bed upstairs if you want it. You'll have to kick Lucrezia out, though." Urkan nodded wearily, and tried for a smile.

"Do I have to…" Martha snorted.

"You stink like a goat. If you let her stay, it'll ruin your reputation." Amos laughed.

"She'll tell every one that you're getting old, and that you can't perform any more!" Urkan shook his head, smiling, but didn't reply.

"Just make sure you wake me up if it gets dark, or cloudy." Martha gave him a push towards the inner doorway.

He disappeared upstairs. There was a short pause, and they could hear the sound of Lucrezia shrieking in surprise. Storm stood up and stretched. The blanket fell away. His undergarments were heavily creased and stuck to his body where they'd dried.

"Well, it looks like we've got a few hours, at least. What're we going to do?"

---End Turn---

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