The Knight's Blade (Realm of Lords Book 1) by RG Long

Author:RG Long [Long, RG]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Retrovert Books
Published: 2020-11-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

THE NIGHT WENT DEEP, and the sky was dark with clouds. Down in the fortress yard, the bandits held a light, noiseless revelry. Their gathering had all the same energy as the day after a harvest, where a town of hard and honest workers would band together to get the last of the hardest work done and haul loads of freshly grown crops to the town storehouse.

But there were no farmers, current or former, working in the bandit camp. They were brigands and outlaws and men of fortune. Instead of whittling away their lives with idle work and family matters, they practiced violence as their trade and plundering as their sport. Each and every bandit in the fortress was armed. Some had hatchets blunted from woodcutting or pickaxes, but none were armed for work or toil. They only wore things on their belts or across their backs for battle.

Up in the keep, the leaders of the camp kept themselves away from their own employed riffraff below in the fanciest lodgings. The highest room of the keep was meant for a general or a king, though it had been long since unfurnished. Instead, they kept it as a storehouse for their more luxurious goods, including rugs and blankets fashioned into a saggy throne that the bandit leader sat on.

He was a huge man, with an incredibly strong chest and a thick gut. He had the look of a fieldman, one who could rival an ox in plowing strength with his arms alone. He was all strength, but with his level gaze and stern expression, his face spoke of patience and thoughtful concern. Those among him were his lieutenants, ones good with money, and with clean appearances. Negotiators and speakers for the outsourced work they did.

"Has it started yet?" he asked.

One of his men took out a spyglass and poked it through one of the rampart windows in the room. He gazed off into the night, but his view was obstructed by smoke.

"I'll check and report back," he said.

The leader sighed a deep, grumbling sigh and slid forward on his pelt throne to a table where a line of documents was prepared.

"They mock me with this," he said. He picked one up and turned it around. "They send so many words to a man who cannot read."

"Does anything else confuse you?" a woman asked.

She was the most austere of them all, and hardly a bandit by any definition. She was elegant and composed, not strong but did not seem misplaced. She wore dark clothing with a feathery hem, Raven-black from end to end, and had bright auburn hair tied back in a braid that was slightly loosened from the wear of days.

"If you'd like, I can read through it again."

"The plan is sound," he said, "and the payment is fine. I know what games these royal men play. Can you admit that they sent you for no better reason than to play a nurse or nanny to a man like me?"

"I

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