Wolfe Pack (12 page)

“Watch out!”

But it was too late as crossbow bolt flew into them hitting Kane in his arm, piercing it through and continuing on. He called out in pain and gripped his arm, falling forward into his saddle. Solynne dug her heals in attempting to spur her horse on to attack but Keera was faster grabbing her by the shoulder and shouting,

“No! Don't! It's a trap, run!”

Solynne didn't hesitate, wheeling her horse around and grabbing Kane's reins she bolted off back towards the gates. Keera was turning too and she heard a man in the darkness calling out in derision,

“I hope the Lord sleeps well tonight, ha ha ha! We'll be back!”

Keera was filled with anger, she wanted to turn around and charge that man down wherever he was. But she knew better and kept her horse galloping back to the gates.

As she came through the guards slammed the gates shut and threw the bar across. They turned and came over to Kane, Wollfen and Solynne were easing him off his saddle and laying him on the ground. It was only a flesh wound but he was losing a lot of blood. Wollfen looked up,

“Do you have a healer in town?”

The soldiers both nodded,

“Yes you will find him in the red brick home by the town hall, my companion will escort you there.”

He gave instructions to the soldier next to him and they were on their way. Keera stayed behind and mounted the rampart looking out over the area where they had run into that sole assailant. Yes she was right in calling them back, her instincts had proven to be right. There in the distance she could just make out the silhouettes of six people on horseback moving away.

Wollfen came walking out of the infirmary after they got Kane to be looked at, Solynne stayed with him which was fine. Tonight had turned out to be a disaster, they had managed to hurt the bandits in that attack and rescue the Lord but the bandits had struck back killing two soldiers and the Lord, now Kane was wounded too.  He was angry, very angry, those criminals were too bold by far. Looking around Wollfen then walked back to the south gate and found Keera there,

“What did you see?”

Keera looked up from her thoughts, she had been considering too how things had gone down the past day,

“There was six of them hiding in the darkness, if we had pressed on they would surely have killed us too.”

Wollfen put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed a bit to comfort her, she placed her own hand over his and looked up into his eyes,

“You did right in pulling back Keera, I commend you.”

Without thinking she kissed his hand and he retracted it more out of surprise than anything. She sighed and looked away. He paused for a moment looking at her then offered to buy her a drink,

“Come on, let's go down an ale together, I know I need one.”

She nodded and they walked side by side to the tavern they had been staying in, there they sat in a vacant booth each with an ale in front of them but not drinking. The two of them stared off into space for awhile, so many thoughts were going through their minds.

They did eventually down their drinks and it helped a little, they were very tired, so many days of hard riding. The two of them approached the barman and requested rooms,

“Sorry milord there is only one room vacant but it does have a double bed if that works for you.”

Wollfen looked to Keera who shrugged,

“I just wanna sleep.”

Wollfen turned back and nodded, paid the two coppers and they walked off.

In the room Wollfen kicked off his boots and tunic, then washed his hands and upper torso in a bowl of water on the table, there was still some dried blood on him. Once he was done he turned to see Keera already under the covers and appearing to be sound asleep. He carefully slid in beside her and lay on his back staring at the ceiling, would sleep claim him tonight? He was thinking too much that was for sure.

Sleep did claim him, faster than he realized. It was exhaustion that did it. Towards morning he awoke to find Keera cuddling him, he also noticed she was naked, it gave him an instant erection. Oh crap, what should he do? Thoughts of Darkling immediately came to mind, oh this is not good. He tried easing himself out of her embrace but in her deep sleep she cuddled closer. He didn't want to wake her, with a sigh he relaxed and started thinking about other things. Come on Wolf, get your mind off of her.

Luckily for him she stirred and opened her eyes, she smiled a little with a yawn rolling off and facing the other way. Man that was a close call. Yeah a powerful reminder he had needs, damn, how long had it been? He turned his back to the center of the bed and tried to go to sleep but it was to no avail. Dawn was breaking and he lay there watching as the sun's rays grew stronger by the minute and illuminated the room.

Finally he decided to get up and go for a walk to the infirmary, he wanted to see how Kane felt this morning. Upon entering the building he found his way to a room on the right and saw Kane asleep in a cot, Solynne was under a blanket in a chair beside him and she lifted her head as he entered. He spoke in quiet tones,

“Sorry, did I wake you?”

She shook her head and gave a big yawn, then stretched out before looking across at Kane. He appeared comfortable enough and his color had returned, the man had looked quite pale the night before when the surgeon had to stitch him up. She turned back to Wollfen,

“So any news?” He shook his head,

“No, I haven't spoken to anyone other than Keera, she is asleep back at the tavern.”

Solynne sat up pulling her boots on and then standing,

“Come on let's go talk to someone about what is happening.”

The two of them walked over to the town hall where two guards were on duty at the entrance, one of them was from the wall the night before and recognizing the two spoke up,

“Sargent Dunn wants to see you please.”

“Oh? Where is he?”

The soldier simply pointed inside and the two of them walked in looking about, there was some noise in an antechamber to the left and they headed in there. Inside was Lord Hales body laid out on what looked like a door removed from its hinges, the door was sitting on two end tables. Sargent Dunn was sitting by it at a desk looking out a window beside him, he turned when he saw the two enter.

“Are you Wollfen?”

“Yes, we met once before but you were, uh, indisposed.”

“Oh.” The man sighed looking at the body, “I heard all about what transpired, how you went out to rescue the Lord and brought him back safe only to see him die inside the gates.” Wollfen simply nodded.

“All I want to say is thank you for your efforts, I know it has proven futile, but it was more than anyone else here would have done. Even if I was sober I couldn't have mounted a rescue.”

A look of shame came across his face at the last part, he knew he wasn't doing a good job and his conscience was kicking in. At least he had one Solynne thought. Wollfen on the other hand had other ideas,

“So tell me Sargent, what are you going to do about it now? If you do nothing it will only embolden the bandits to become even more daring.”

The man looked up with his hands open,

“What would you have me do? I have maybe six men to guard the entire town, normally it is self regulating and up to now it has worked, but we face a threat from a well organized criminal organization that knows we are easy pickings.”

“Who is left in charge? Who can you turn to that can organize and hire more personnel?”

The man simply shook his head,

“You don't get it do you? This is a back water that the Kingdom doesn't give two shits about, Lord Hale there and Oberon were all the authority that we had. They are both dead now. I am a simple soldier expected to take orders and that's it. You get posted here it's because the Kingdom is either punishing you or you are incompetent.”

Wollfen looked at him sternly gathering an understanding of the situation, this man was all there was in the way of an authority figure in the town.

“So tell me Kane, which one are you? Punished or incompetent?”

The Sargent looked away while speaking,

“Punished.”

He made a drinking motion with his hand so Wollfen understood what the punishment was for.

“Well now's your chance, time to take it on the chin and stand up for the people of this town.” The man looked up in surprise and Wollfen went on, “I personally don't care if you care for them or not, you have a duty to them, you are a soldier first. To protect the people is your charge and right now all of them are in your care so you better forget about losing yourself in a bottle and start thinking about what you need to do to turn this situation around. In the meantime I am going to go off and do some stuff, I will come back after lunch and we will sit down and discuss your options alright?”

He simply nodded and stared.

“Alright, you also had better organize a burial ceremony too, get the undertaker in here and start getting things done.”

Wollfen turned on his heel and walked out without another word, the Sargent staring after him as they left. Solynne caught up next to him and spoke up,

“That was a bit harsh don't you think?” She could tell he was angry.

“The Lord of the town is dead, there is no one else to take care of things, he is it and he better pull his finger out otherwise this place will go down the tubes so fast it will be shocking to see. Do you think this place is going to hold together without any leadership?”

“Surely the Kingdom will send replacements?” Wollfen laughed,

“Come on Solynne do you really think the Kingdom is going to act quick on this? Kassandrea the capitol is two weeks ride from here and then they will take how long to find a replacement? A week? A month? Six months? Who knows? No, that Sargent is all these people have right now and like it or not he has to step up and start taking action. I'm sorry Solynne but this town doesn't have the luxury of time to wait for him or anyone else.”

She sighed and thought about what he said, she wasn't one to think much about politics or government administration or how it worked. She could see he was right though, they were all out here alone.

“So what are we doing now?”

“I'm having a bite to eat I haven't had anything since yesterday morning.”

At the mention of food her stomach grumbled and she realized she too was famished. The two of them went back to the tavern and found Keera in a booth munching away on a big bowl of food, she motioned for them to come over unable to speak with her mouth full. They sat down and when she managed to swallow she spoke up,

“I got the cook making up more food it will be ready soon, I knew you wouldn't be able to stay away without anything in your tummy for too long.”

“Thanks Keera, it's much appreciated.”

“So what's going on?” Wollfen sighed,

“Not sure how things will go yet, we will find out after lunch I suppose, if things don't go well I imagine there will be quite a number of people leaving soon to head west to the coast.”

“Really? Is it that bad?” Wollfen gave it some thought before going on,

“Let me explain, right now the gates are closed and everyone's feeling basically safe, but I am sure the bandits on the outside know just how weak this outpost really is, they would have to know how few soldiers there are here. I doubt it will take long for them to figure out that they can waltz right in here and sack the place for whatever they can find. There wouldn't be much resistance at all.”

Keera shook her head, Wolf was right, six soldiers would be pushed aside quite easily by them. Then the townspeople would be at the mercy of the bandits. This wasn't good at all.

“So what do we do? Leave or fight?” Wollfen had an idea,

“Kane is the key here, if he is up and about in the next twenty four hours I think he will be able to organize a good defense, he will be able to get this town to hold out until I get back.”

“Wait what? Get back? Where are you going?”

“I think it best I head directly west to Port Cholandra with a written appeal from the Sargent explaining the situation, I am sure they will dispatch an expeditionary force in the short term to defend the place until Kassandrea can send relief and a new Lord.”

“But Cholandra is almost a week away?”

“Yes Keera, you lot are going to have to hold out for two weeks, then the soldiers will be here. Also I will head to Comberwell and go pick up Darkling from there before returning here so I will be gone four weeks. In that time I want you all training up as many willing recruits as you can find. Make sure there is a defense here that can hold their own in the short term.”

Solynne was wondering why Wollfen would want to bring Darkling down here and she said so,

“What's the point of everyone rendezvousing here?”

“Oh, I have an idea about that and I will tell you after our meeting later with Sargent Kane okay?”

“Fair enough, well, I am going to go check on Kane and see how he is doing, I have eaten enough out of Keera's bowl to keep me going for now. I'll see you all at lunch.” She smiled and left.

Keera looked back at Wollfen,