The next day at midday found me on a horse heading towards my new holding. According to Linus, confirmed reluctantly by Lily, we had a day and a half’s travel ahead of us. Up to four to five days for a filled wagon they said.

It had been years since I had last been in a saddle, but it brought memories back to be riding the powerful grey mare Hrothgar had found for me. Fond memories from my twenties of a young woman who liked to ride horses, amongst other things.

He had gotten me a saddle with a scabbard for the musket. However, it would still require me to get off the horse, pull it out, and load it before I could shoot it. I was much more fond of the other weapons I had found on the excursion the day before. Had a sabre on my left hip, a short sword and a dagger on the right. There was another dagger tugged into my boot. Also had two small bearded hatchets strapped to my back, held by a quick-release scabbard, which also held another dagger.

Even quicker for me, since I could make it unsnap with my power. It had only taken me the entire evening to figure out how to do that. An evening and night spend in the chair staring into the cold fireplace, with Lily sleeping fitfully in the bed.

My saddlebags contained little of value. It only had some extra clothes, some dried travel rations and the new temporary binding stone I had convinced Ethan to get from one of the priests in the city. A city that held almost five thousand freemen, and at least six times that in serfs.

Riding ten meters ahead of me were two of the soldiers I had taken with me. Like me, they were wearing the new uniform I had requested, my three linteomancers, or lint-mages as I liked to call them, had been highly effective. It turned out they were quite the seamstresses on their own. With help from their magic, they had managed to make fourteen sets of the uniform in an afternoon. Had to give them some of the extra mana from the other mancers.

A little behind me was Lily and Hope, followed by Nina, Saori, Mary, and Alianna. All the serfs and Nina had trouble riding for the first few hours, but with some gentle suggestions from Lily, they soon got a hang of it. At least enough not to fall off the horse. I just wished Nathalie was travelling with us as well, but Hrothgar and Ethan needed her to ensure all the new serfs were healthy.

Behind my serfs followed a platoon of Golden Northmen, who were followed by the last eleven soldiers I had taken with me as well as Linus, who was pulling the two packhorses. There were two more riders in the little merry travel band I could definitely do without, but necessity and caution demanded that Barry and Vernon were travelling with me. They rode on my left side.

Vernon mostly kept quiet, but his cousin did not. He was regaling me with war stories that sounded made up. Especially since I had gotten a look at what he called premium grade troopers. His troopers looked even more useless than mine did. Well, my troops were not entirely useless, however, they were out of shape. At least the shape I thought a soldier should be in.

The mercenaries looked pudgy and slovenly compared to my troops. A few of them rode around with large shiners from earlier in the day when they said some things about my wife and serfs that they soon wished they had never said. Barry and Vernon had looked miffed at my interference with discipline, which was non-existent, but Lily seemed even more scared of me. Which bothered me a lot, I had no illusion of her ever getting around to loving me, nor me her for that matter, however, the evil bitch had confirmed that her magic had worked before leaving. Meaning that Lily was carrying my child. I did not want the mother of my child to be scared of me.

We were coming up on a side road leading to a village a kilometre away from a large forest when Barry nudged Vernon with his elbow. “Say, cousin Vernon. Isn’t that the village where our uncle twice removed, lives?”

“I think you’re right, cousin Barry. We should go say hello to him,” Vernon said, sounding like a bad actor in a bad play. My eyes narrowed for a moment. They were up to something.

“Indeed we should. I have not seen the old man in ages, remember how he makes the best blueberry wine?” Barry countered, being almost as bad an actor as Vernon. He turned to me. “Lord Karth, do you mind if my cousin and I visit our uncle? We’ll ride fast and catch up with you soon.”

“Of course not,” I said, feigning disinterest. Doing a better job of lying than those two. I just had to figure out what they were up to, what their goal was. The platoon of mercenaries and the two cousins split off and started travelling towards the village.

There was a hill a hundred metres further down the road, one that would block us from view of the mercenaries. As soon as we were there, I called the scouts back. “We’re stopping for a meal.”

The troopers obeyed, all having a little bit of fear of me, and started dismounting. So did the serfs. Lily did not, but looked at me curiously. It was Linus who questioned me after he caught up with me. “We just ate only two glasses ago.”

“Those two idiots and their mercenaries are up to something,” I said.

“What do you mean?” Linus asked.

“Didn’t you hear how stiffly they were speaking? Providing a lot of unnecessary details. All signs of them lying. They’re up to something, I just don’t know what,” I explained with a frown.

Linus' sceptical look turned to a frown. “Milord, if you were to die within a moon of your wedding, Lily would have to marry the suitor that was before you.”

“Meaning Vernon,” I said. A look of worry flashed over Lily’s features.

“Indeed, Milord, but he can’t appear to have a hand in it, otherwise she can reject him.”

“So women do have some rights,” I muttered.

“Very few, Milord,” Linus said with a frown. Not because of the women and their lack of rights. It was his thinking frown.

I put my thinking cap on as well. If I was a semi-devious slimy toad with barely two brain cells to rub together, what harebrained scheme would I come up with? The goal was to get me killed. Without being implicated. It would have to happen soon, because they just exited stage left, making sure they could claim deniability.

‘Would they double back and attack us? No, too dangerous. Lily would see. She could tell someone,’ I thought. ‘Maybe they want her out of the way too?’

“Ethan, what would happen to the holding if both Lily and I were killed?” I asked without looking at Lily. I had to know.

“It would be the worst outcome for Vernon,” Linus quickly said. “Then the selection of the new lord would fall to the King, because the High Lord failed to ensure a stable line in one of the minor holds.”

“Okay, so they’re not going to attack us directly. Lily needs to survive. Would the serfs go with the hold?” I started throwing my thoughts out loud.

“Yes, Milord,” Linus said. “But are you sure they’re trying something?”

“Vernon is a schemer,” came the surprising reply from Lily. I looked at her and saw that she had a concerned look on her face. “There are rumours of bandits in the forest ahead, we lost our tithe of grain we shipped to the Church only four moons ago.”

‘Or so Vernon claims,’ I thought. Bandit infested forest ahead. Perfect spot for an ambush, then ride to the rescue, be the hero. Sounded like a plan a desperate man might concoct in a hurry.

“I need the three best woodsmen to join me. Everyone else, make a big production of settling down for a break. The ten troopers not coming with me will remain here. Five of you should be ready to saddle up and ride into the forest to help us when you hear musket fire, the other five will guard my wife and the serfs with their life. Muskets loaded and ready,” I ordered and turned my horse back the way we came. I removed my cloak and an irate cat, which I handed to Lily. She accepted the bundle without saying anything, nor did she flinch at me approaching her.

I saw that three men were back on horseback, so I told them the plan, not because they needed to know, but to inform the rest of the group as well. “We’ll ride back a bit of the way, then cut through the grassy fields for a kilometre or so, before we start approaching the forest.”

“Milord, if there really are bandits in there, is this wise?” Linus questioned.

“Maybe not, but we can’t take the chance of riding into an ambush, be on the lookout for the mercenaries, so one of you staying here, on top of that hill,” I said before riding off.

The three soldiers followed me as we set a quick pace. Deciding that it might become relevant, I asked the troopers for their names. I saw that all of them were amongst the older soldiers, and one of them was the first guy I had taken down in my demonstration back in the King’s castle. They supplied their names and I filed them away.

Ten minutes later we were approaching the forest well away from the road. I ordered Kaspar to stay with the horses at the edge of the forest. The trees and shrubs would make it difficult to navigate them in there. The two other soldiers followed me as we started making our way east towards the road. We made more noise than I would have liked, but it could not be helped.

When we approached the road, I saw someone sitting high up in a tree, near the edge of the forest. The person would have a pretty good view of the road. I saw no musket on the person, only a big dagger. There was however a ratty bow, a quiver of arrows, and a spear leaning against the tree he was in. The lookout. Now it was just a question about locating the ambush. There were no obvious places, at least to me.

The soldier I had demonstrated the shoulder toss on, Kiril, tapped my shoulder. I looked questioningly at him. He pointed towards a deadfall on the other side of the road. It was big enough to hide a crouching man behind, however, I saw no sign of that. If they lay down behind it, I suspected not even a rider would be able to spot them as they rode by.

After almost a minute of watching, I saw someone peek over the trunk in the direction of the lookout. Kiril held up two fingers and then shrugged. I took that to mean there were at least two there. The smart play would be sitting up a crossfire, meaning there would be someone on both sides. However, since I could not see anyone on our side of the road, I began to suspect that the men at the deadfall would attack from the rear.

Slowly I retreated further back into the forest, and I whispered to Marv, the last of my three musketeers, “Go back and get Caspar. Set up an ambush for the lookout and those behind the deadfall. I bet they come scurrying out when Kiril and I attack their other ambush location.”

He gave a nod and slipped back the way we had originally come from, while Kiril and I made our way further north. After five minutes of careful travel, we headed back towards the road. Primarily, because we could see that the terrain slanting upward indicating a hill.

I was right, there was a pretty tall hill, and on top of it, I could see a few people hiding behind the trees. There would most likely be a force on the opposite side of the road, and probably some ahead, making a box for us to be trapped in.

Motioning for Kiril to stay behind, I slipped forward until I could get a glimpse of the other side of the road. It seemed that a wide stream snaked down to run along the road for fifty meters, before sneaking away again. On a smaller hill behind the stream, I noticed that someone had put a felled tree trunk to use for cover. Because I was a bit higher up, I could see three men with muskets behind it.

I still had no idea about if there was a group further ahead to stop us from just riding off, but I believed there was. However, the hill on this side of the road seemed like the most optimal place to disrupt their plan and make a stand. High ground and all that.

I slipped back to fetch Kiril and together we slowly made our way up the hill. I had drawn my sabre and carried the loaded musket in the left hand. So did Kiril. I just hoped we could make it up there without needing to use them. As we got closer, we could hear the men complaining in low voices. They were unhappy about the hold-up.

“The lordling probably needs ‘is arse padded ‘efore ‘e sits in a saddle,'' one of them guffawed. I counted five. Four of them with bows, and one with a musket. They also had some form of polearms standing nearby. A spear here, a couple of pitchforks there. I got Kiril’s attention and pointed from myself to the man with the musket, then I pointed to Kiril to the man farthest north. He gave a short nod.

We were close enough that I was confident I could cross the distance before he could turn around and take aim. So I put the musket down next to a tree and slipped one of the axes into my left hand. The low sound of metal scraping against the leather drowned in the background noise. The birds and insects were still making noise, but just in our immediate vicinity, they kept away from humans.

A last look at Kiril confirmed he was ready. Slowly I stood up and started sprinting towards the musket wielding man. My hand pulled back, preparing to throw the axe. I was by no means silent, but the men in front of me just glanced back and looked dumbfounded at me.

I connected the axe with the front of the man’s tunic as he slowly turned towards me. The axe slipped out of my hand, and from the tugging on the link, I just knew it would hit. I ignored him and turned towards the nearest man. He was raising his bow and fumbled with an arrow. He was only a few steps away, so I focused on another man raising his bow. I created a repulsing link between the arrow in his hand and the string.

As the closest man brought his bow to bear on me, I heard the meaty thump of my axe hitting its target, followed by a gurgling scream. I came upon the man and jumped to his left side, slashing down at his wrist. The force and sharpness of the blade cut halfway through his wrist before becoming stuck in the bone.

The man went down screaming in pain. I kept moving towards the man I was using my power on when another arrow flashed in front of me. I turned towards the man who had just shot at me and instead rushed at him.

Shouts from the other side of the road could be heard, but none of them had fired yet. As I flashed towards my new target, I drew my short sword and the other axe. He threw his bow to the ground and drew his dagger, his pitchfork was out of reach.

I feinted a swing with my axe, and he brought up his arms to try and stop the swing. Instead, I kicked him square in the chest, sending him reeling backwards. I was quicker to recover than him, and was on him, pushing my shortsword into his stomach. The blood washing over my hand.

The backlash of my link being broken almost sent me to the ground, but it also served as a warning. With a mighty heave, I lifted the man I had my sword stuck in and turned both of us around. The sound of an arrow striking the man sounded, as I fell backwards, with the dying man on top of me.

With a grunt, I pushed him off me, but the shortsword was stuck in something, so as I got to my feet I concentrated on two things. Drawing a dagger from my left boot, and creating difficulties for the archer with my magic. Off to my left, I saw Kiril had killed one man and was fighting another. In an effort to end the combat quickly, I threw my newly drawn dagger at the archer, but he managed to parry. I rushed him and as I closed in, I jumped up, feet horizontally first, slamming into him, a stupid move actually, but it worked. He was sent tumbling down the hill.

I was near the dying guy with the musket, so I grabbed his musket and hoped it was loaded. I peered down at the men across the road and was rewarded with a volley of fire. Quickly I ducked back behind a tree, as I heard one of them hitting the trunk of the tree. The other two shots whizzed by.

Peering back around I lead with the musket and aimed the musket in their general direction and pulled the trigger. I heard the click of the flint striking the metal, but nothing happened for a couple of seconds. Then the musket recoiled and almost deafened me as it fired. Unfortunately, I did not hit anyone. The muskets were imprecise, and I had no way of seeing the ball to create a link.

I threw the musket off to the side and ran back to get my own. Since I had loaded it, I had created a small link from the ball to the musket, and I could still feel that link. When I got back into a position where I could fire at the three on the other side of the road, I noticed they had pulled back and were in the process of reloading. I also heard screams of pain from below me on the road, but I wasted no time checking.

I changed the link of the ball to be attracted to the tunic above the heart of one of the men down there. Again I tried to aim the best I could with the musket and pulled the trigger again. This time the gunpowder sparked immediately, and the musket fired, slamming into my shoulder. I would definitely need some healing and pampering in the tub. The musket ball struck true, sending the man sprawling to the ground, hopefully dead

As I heard shouts both to my left and my right, including the fire of two muskets, I could not help but chuckle. Here I was in a battle that could very well cost me my life, and I had just killed at least three people. Well technically only one, I think. The two others were still in the process of dying. And instead of focusing on the battle, I focused on the pampering I wanted to receive afterwards.

I shook my head and pulled out the gunpowder horn. I half-cocked the hammer and pushed open the frizzen I think it was called. Which let me pour some gunpowder into the pan. After closing the frizzen again, I uncocked the musket and put the stock against my calf. Next, I poured what I thought was the right amount of powder into the musket itself. I followed that by taking a ball from the small pouch on my hip, next to the horn and immediately creating a link with the ball. It went into the bore of the musket, followed by a small wad of paper. Then it was time to ram the shit out of it.

While using the ramrod, I heard a shot from my left, as well as two muskets returning fire. Looking over I saw Kiril leaning against a small tree, using the bush in front of him to stabilize the musket. He was holding it with his left hand, while he kept his right arm pressed against his chest.

After putting the ramrod back in place, I levelled the musket and peered out from behind the tree. I saw that the bandits were retreating. That did not prevent me from creating a link between my ball and the back of one of them. Before I could fire, there was the rapid fire of five or more muskets somewhere to my right.

I pulled my own trigger. The musket fire distracted me, and though I still had the link between the retreating man and the bullet, I could not correct the course enough. The ball struck the man in the arm, making him drop the musket but he kept running.

“Milord, to the North!” Kiril called out. I looked up the road and saw ten men come running towards the ambush spot. A couple of them were armed with bows, but the rest were carrying some form of polearms.

“Shit,” I muttered and started the slow progress of reloading. I had only done it a couple of times before, and not under pressure. Kiril had moved over towards me, and I saw that his arm had been slashed up pretty good, making him unable to use it.

“They’re starting up the hill,” Kiril hissed as he accidentally jogged his arm too much. I then heard the sound of hoofbeats to the south, which was followed by shouts of despair to the north. Looking out from behind the tree, I saw that four of my soldiers came riding fast down the road.

“Don’t pursue,” I shouted down to the men. “Dismount, reload and fire at will. Secure the position.”

Sure I wanted to kill all the bandits, but chasing them through the forest sounded like a bad idea. I saw Kiril give a slight nod. I finished reloading my musket as the first shot from below us rang out. I also heard someone shout, “Milord, there’s one alive down here.”

“Keep him that way,” I called back. The order almost drowned as two muskets fired at the same time. I looked at Kiril. “I’ll have someone fetch Alianna, she might be able to help you with that arm. Stay up here and keep an eye out.”

“Milord,” he said, looking a bit pale. I took the quick way down the side of the steep hill. More like a controlled slide down the slope. I arrived on the road, just as one of the troopers fired his musket, and a cry of pain echoed through the forest. Only three of them were shooting or reloading, while the fourth was keeping an eye on the guy I had kicked off the hilltop. His leg was twisted in an unnatural ankle, and he seemed barely conscious, whimpering weakly.

“Ride back and get the rest of our group, we need Aliana to take a look at Kiril,” I said to the trooper guarding the wounded bandit.

“Caspar is already getting them, Milord,” he said. Then looked at me, as if he had more to say but was afraid of how I would react. Bad news then.

“Spit it out,” I ordered.

“Marv got killed by an arrow to the neck, and as we rode up the fuckers also got Virgyl,” the ranker reported a little shakily.

“Fuck, anyone else wounded?”

“Only small grazes, nothing serious, Milord.”

“Dammit. Stop firing, reload and establish a perimeter. You,” I said and pointed to the trooper who had just informed me of the two deads. “I need you to go to the top of the hill and help Kiril down. His arm is fucked up.”

“Milord,” the soldier did their form of salute, by placing a fist to his chest.

“You two, go across the stream and retrieve the dead bandit there. Twenty metres further in there should be a dropped musket. Retrieve both,” I said. They repeated the acknowledgement of the other soldier. They had just retrieved the musket furthest away, when the rest of the group came riding up, but only with four troops.

“Caspar and Ren are retrieving packing up the bodies of Marv and Virgyl,” one of the newly arrived rankers informed me when I questioned where my last two troopers were.

Kiril came down from the hill at that moment. So I ordered Alianna to heal him the best she could, I also ordered the others to produce manacrystals for her. If she had anything left, she should take care of the bandit. I checked my own mana pool and saw that it was about half empty but filling quickly. I poured most of my remaining mana into the crystal I had been working on for a while, it was almost double the size of thumb’s nail.

I handed it to her and then set about to search the bandits. Besides the four we had killed at the top of the hill and the one across the hill, the others had killed six men back at the edge of the forest and two of the fleeing bandits. I collected the weapons. After conferring with Larimer, the trooper who had informed me of the deaths of my men, I broke the bows and arrows. They were inferior products. Did take the arrowheads, though.

Something disturbing, and almost half-expected, turned up in my search of the dead bandits. Each one had two marks and a different amount of thalers and bits on them. The muskets were all brand new it seemed. Either they were extremely successful bandits, or someone had paid them a lot of coins to stage this ambush. I leaned towards the latter, but could not prove anything.

Unfortunately, the last bandit perished before Alianna could get around to healing him. She told me that he had some internal bleeding that had gone into his lungs and he had drowned in his own blood. Something she was unable to heal.

We continued carefully through the forest, with two bodies slung over their horses. I was informed that bodies were usually burned, and that was it, no big funeral ceremony unless it was nobility or a wealthy person who had died. When asked about whether the men had families, I was informed that Marv was an orphan, his parents had died a few years earlier, and that Virgyl had some parents and siblings. They were far away though and would receive nothing, not even notice of his death.

I made a silent promise to myself to do better. I would bring the soldiers to my new estate and have a funeral there. I would have to get someone to erect some sort of memorial plaque or something, where their names could be added. I also decided to compensate each man’s family with two marks. Or in Marv’s case donate it to an orphanage or something like that.

We made our way through the forest and when dusk came around we found a place to settle down for the night. We did not have tents for everyone, but we did have some rolls of fabric that could be stretched out between poles to break the wind.

Hope, with the help of Mary, also enchanted some rocks to give up heat. It was fascinating to watch. Instead of forming a manacrystal in their hand, they formed one that was fused with the rocks.

“They should last the night, slowly drawing from the manacrystals embedded in them,” Hope informed me when I asked about it.

“Can they be recharged?”

“Only by the enchanter,” Hope informed me. “And usually only a couple of times.”

“The more you know,” I muttered.

“Excuse me, Milord?” she asked.

“Nothing, carry on,” I said and waved her away. After we had eaten our trail rations, and people were starting to bed down, except for the soldiers on guard duty, Lily came over to talk to me.

“You’re a violent person,” she observed, looking a bit scared, almost as if she was ready to bolt a moment's notice.

“I won’t deny that,” I said. I almost shrugged, but felt like that would be the wrong move.

“It scares me.”

“I’m sorry, I promise I’ll never hurt you,” I said with a frown.

“But you beat up those mercenaries for some comments,” she pointed out.

I nodded and took a moment before answering. “True, but they were disrespecting you and the others. I’ll not stand for that.”

“But that’s how society is, women are not worth the same as men.”

“Whoever says that should have their teeth kicked in,” I growled. Which made her take a step back from me. Quickly I got my temper under control. “Sorry, I just don’t like the way your society works. I’ll say again, I might be the Lord, but we’re equals. I’ll never hit or hurt you for something you say. I might get angry, but I would never hurt you.”

She was silent for a long time, before she said, “My father liked to hurt my mother, even when she had done nothing. The priests endorsed his action when I complained to them, and I was punished.”

“Listen, I hope you’ll learn to trust me. Yes, I’m an angry person, I use violence, but never against my own.”

“You did against Hrothgar,” she pointed out. She had a good point.

“At the moment, he’s tentatively my own. He signed a contract in my name without my consent, agreed to terms I would never have agreed to. He betrayed me,” I said.

“If I betray you, will you hurt me?” she asked, looking me straight in the eyes for the first time.

With a sigh, I hung my head. “In that case, most likely. Listen I don’t mind you telling me your opinion, or even disagreeing with me. Hell, you can call me names, and I wouldn’t hurt you for that. But I guess there’s always a line. Betraying me would definitely be one of them.”

She was silent for a long time before she stood up. “Thank you for your honesty, Milord. Good night, Milord.”

“Good night, Lily,” I said to her retreating back. I was not sure whether it was a good or bad conversation. I had lied to her when I said I would never hurt her. I already had, but more importantly, she had pointed it out to me. If the circumstances were right, I would hurt her. Was she right to be frightened of me?

I kept pondering the problem, long after everyone had gone to sleep. Except for Alianna, it turned out. When the others had fallen asleep, she approached me nervously.

“Milord,” she whispered.

“What is it, Alianna?” I asked with a smile, which was a bit forced. I was not in the best of mood.

“Your manacrystal—” she started but then trailed off.

“What about it?”

“When I was absorbing mana from it, there was no loss,” she whispered, her eyes wide. They held many emotions: Fear, wonder, bewilderment, and worship. Just to mention those I recognized. The last one had me confused. So had her statement.

“But I thought that there always was a loss if you got a manacrystal from another mancer?” I said, half asked, with confusion.

“There is, Milord, but not with your manacrystal. I’ve never heard about anything like that before,” she said.

“I need you to keep that quiet, between the two of us. Can you do that?” I asked and put my hand on hers without thinking. She looked down, blushed deeply, and then nodded vigorously.

I patted her hand. “Thank you, now go to bed, we’re riding out at dawn.”

“Good night, Milord,” she whispered and headed for her blanket.

“Good night,” I whispered absentmindedly. Yet another thing to ponder. I feared sleep would not come easy for me with all those things weighing heavily on my mind.