Chương 326: 322. Conjectures

"Don't worry, everyone," he began, "Tiranat is not the same village as it was when that bastard attacked us before the winter. We had less than a dozen guards at that time, but right now we have more than 40!" Th e other guards nodded at his words, so he continued loudly, "We also have six watchtowers ready to spot them, and a dozen crossbows to slaughter any approaching bandits! You all have trained very hard in the winter - so trust me, those bandits stand no chance against you!"

Some of the listeners started to nod confidently at that. Finally, he gave a dangerous smile.

"Now it's time for revenge!"

"Hell yeah!" One of the guards yelled.

"We will show them what it means to attack us!"

"Nobody can win against us!" Another one bellowed, raising his sworded arm high.

"We'll send the bastards to the goddess!" Hudan roared.

"For Tiranat!"

"For Lord Kivamus!"

"For Victory!" Kivamus grinned seeing their confidence, knowing he had done his work. It wouldn't take away their worries, but it wasn't a lie when saying that this really was a different village now. Everyone realized how far they had come, and they all were willing to fight to the death to protect their home. He couldn't be prouder of his village and his people. Now all that was left was to deal with that bastard who had dared to attack his village twice!

A full day had passed since that guard had spotted some movement in the forest, but there had been nothing else of notice during the day and the villagers had been able to go to their work in the mines, on the farms in the south, as well as to the dam to check on the status of the fish in that reservoir. Although there was still nothing there, and it might take nearly a year by the time enough fish started to live in that reservoir for the villagers to use them as a food source sustainably.

Apart from the guards scouting from the watchtowers, Hudan had also sent a couple of Horsemen to go close to the surrounding forest during the day without entering them to prevent them from being outnumbered and to see if they could find anything, but there was still nothing. The news about a possible raid on Tiranat had also been announced to the villagers, so everyone had been keeping a wary eye out, not that they had seen anything.

It had made the atmosphere inside the village uneasy, but there was still no certainty of an attack, so the villagers hadn't hesitated to go outside the walls for work. Right now, it was the morning of the next day, and Kivamus was pacing near the gates of the manor, waiting with anticipation for Feroy and the other scouts to return with any news.

Duvas was talking to Madam Nerida nearby, asking about their remaining supplies of food, while Hudan was talking with the guards who had been on duty in the night and had just returned to rest, while those who would work the dayshift from eight to four had already left. Gorsazo was teaching Syryne at this time as usual, while others were also busy with their usual tasks.

Clarisa and Lucem, who were usually jumping around the manor at this time while waiting with anticipation for the villagers to go to work so they could start gathering sawdust with the other kids, were looking subdued today due to the news about bandits, which meant all the kids had been prohibited to leave the village walls for now.

So Madam Helga had sent them to play with their friends who lived in the longhouse blocks, since it was basically a leisure day for all the village kids until they were allowed to go outside again. Soon, Hudan waved at him.

"Milord, come on here." Kivamus walked to the guard captain and noticed that there were still a pair of female guards talking to him. Hudan pointed at the women standing in front of him.

"Isomi and Savomi were on duty at the south eastern watchtower last night." Then he gestured to the women to speak. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"But..." Isomi began, looking hesitantly at the guard captain.

"I am still not sure about what I saw..."

"Anything you can tell will help us in finding out more," Kivamus reassured her.

"Just tell me." The older sister Savomi began, "The treeline is way too far in the south across the farms, but in the east, it's still close enough for us to see things. Around uh... six in the morning I think, right when it'd started to get brighter, I saw some movement from there. None of the villagers had left for work by then, so it couldn't be them, but it was still dark enough that I couldn't be sure that they were humans and not just a pack of wolves or something.

We would have blown the horn and sent someone to alert the manor otherwise."

"Yeah..." Isomi nodded.

"My eyesight is pretty good, but I wasn't sure either. Although if they were bandits, they're smart, since none of them had any sword or dagger out at the time, or we might have noticed the reflection." Kivamus gave a slow nod.

"We can't be sure of anything from just this, but coming just after that other guard saw something in the hills the previous night, it might very well be bandits. Well, you both did good. Now go on and get some rest after your breakfast. We need everyone to be at their best right now." The sisters nodded and walked towards the servants' hall, before he looked at the guard captain to ask for his opinion.

That's when he noticed the former mercenary walking inside through the small eastern gate of the manor, with another three guards accompanying him.

"Feroy is here," Hudan muttered at the same time.

"Oi, walk faster, you slowpoke!" he called out. The former mercenary snorted, before he sent the other guards to the servants hall, and continued walking to them. Soon, Feroy was standing in front of them, with some small twigs and leaves stuck on his leather vest, although he didn't look harmed otherwise. The guard captain spoke with impatience as the ex-mercenary remained quiet.

"Did you see something or not?" Feroy kept gazing at the top of the trees visible over the manor wall for a moment, before he exhaled loudly.

"We are going to be raided. Perhaps even tonight."

"Shit!" Hudan swore.

"How's that?"

"Sometime before sunrise, me and my scouting partner saw a man in the northeast of the village between the trees there," Feroy reported.

"It's only one day before the new moon night, and that little sliver hardly gave much light. So it wasn't bright enough for us to recognize who it was, but there's no way any villager would have been there after the announcement that there might be bandits out there."

"We even tried to catch the lone bandit," the ex-mercenary continued, "hoping we could get all the information about his group from him, but we were flanked from another side and someone shot at us with arrows. We didn't get injured before we escaped, but we couldn't catch any of them either." Kivamus sighed.

"I'm just glad that you're fine. So there are bandits out there for sure... But we still don't know if this is Torhan's group or some other one. We can take care of a smaller group far more easily." Feroy shook his head.

"That wasn't the only sighting. The other scouting team saw three men in the southeast as well. They didn't give chase since they were outnumbered, but that makes it at least five bandits out there. Torhan's group is way larger than that, but I have a bad feeling about this. I think it's him."

"Damn that bastard," Hudan cursed.

"I hope you find him while scouting tonight and finish him off!" Kivamus immediately shook his head.

"No, there is no point in scouting in the forests anymore. We know for sure that there are bandits surrounding the village right now, so we'd only be risking the lives of our guards. Whether it's Torhan or some other group, they would've seen our watchtowers by now, and they would expect archers to be stationed there, so it's unlikely for them to attack during the daylight hours where they could be easily picked off as they run across the distance between the treeline and the village walls.

But they'd be far more alert during the nights, so our scouts can easily be surrounded and killed by them." The brawny guard captain took a deep breath.

"You're right... Then shouldn't we stop allowing the villagers to go outside the village walls as well?"

"Not yet," Kivamus replied after a moment of thought.

"The villagers go to the coal mines in a group of more than a hundred, and at least thirty when they go to the farms. These bandits are here to loot gold and food from us, not to exterminate us. So they wouldn't risk attacking such big groups. As for Torhan, he wants revenge against the guards, so it's not likely that he'd kill the villagers for that. If anything, he would like to take them as slaves, but those are big groups, and he wouldn't do that until he has at least tried an attack against us." Feroy nodded.

"We have still confirmed only five bandits out there, so they can't kidnap those huge worker groups, but if we see more bandits, we might have to reconsider this."

"I know," Kivamus agreed, "but we can't stop coal mining, and certainly not sowing seeds unless there is no other choice."