From Londoner To Lord

Soon, they reached the roof of the manor house, and seeing that there were three archers standing on three sides of the roof with their bows ready in their hands, he walked towards the man who was facing the western gates of the manor, which was also the location of the feast. While it was completely dark in most places, the area outside the gates was still well lit by a few burning braziers. It was also quite cold here, but at least it wasn't windy right now.

As he reached closer to the man, he realized that it was Yufim - one of the new guards with a very accurate aim - who had tied his long blonde hair in a knot behind him.

"Do you see that man?" he whispered to Lucem.

Lucem nodded, while Yufim gazed back towards them after hearing their voices.

"He is one of our best archers," Kivamus said to Lucem in a low voice, "and he can even shoot a flying raven accurately from two hundred yards away!"

"Really?" Lucem asked with huge eyes. "He can do that?"

Yufim started to say something in response, but Kivamus gestured to him not to say anything with a wink.

"Yes, he really can!"

"I wish I could do that as well!" Lucem spoke in a wistful voice.

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"You can do it too," Kivamus replied, "but only if you practice a lot."

Lucem looked delighted to hear that, with his eyes looking somewhere in the distance - perhaps daydreaming about the time when he would be able to do that as well.

Kivamus smiled after seeing that. At least the kid didn't look so scared anymore. He gently guided Lucem towards one of the nearby railings at the edge of the roof, and spoke in a whisper as if he was sharing a secret. "You can start practicing for it right now. Just keep an eye outside in this direction, and if you see any bandits, just let one of the guards here know about it. Can you do that?"

Lucem nodded excitedly. "Leave it to me! Nobody will be able to hide from my eyes!"

"Perfect!" Kivamus patted his back with a smile, and walked back towards Yufim, where Gorsazo was also waiting.

Before he could say anything, Yufim protested, "I never claimed that I could shoot a raven from that far, milord! Nobody can do that!"

"I know," Kivamus said with a laugh. "But I needed to give a purpose to Lucem to take his mind away from the thoughts of bandits coming to kill him and his family."

Yufim gave a sober nod at the mention of bandits.

"How is it going?" Kivamus asked the young archer.

"Can't really tell from here, milord," Yufim replied while looking back toward the manor gates where a few people were still keeping an eye on the children. "Feroy had just told us to be ready to shoot down any bandits if we see them nearby." He turned back towards Kivamus, "But shouldn't you be inside now, milord?"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Kivamus exhaled. "I didn't want to stay cooped up inside when you all are doing your best to defeat the bandits."

Yufim looked surprised to hear that, but he nodded with a smile, and turned back to keep an eye outwards.

For a moment, Kivamus wasn't sure what to do now, since he didn't want to keep talking with the archer and distract him from his duty. But he certainly didn't want to return back to the manor hall so soon. So after telling Gorsazo about it, he walked to an unoccupied side of the roof and took a position there to keep watch for any bandits rushing towards the manor. It was the least he could do to help the guards.

It had been a while since the horn was blown, which meant that Hudan would already know about the attack on the village. For now, he just hoped that the guard captain would return back along with the other guards soon to take care of the bandits before they did too much damage.

*******

~ Kigeir ~

~ Outside the gates of the Baron's Manor ~

~ A short time before the blowing of the horn ~

The feast was nearly over now, and Kigeir was glad that he had gotten to eat so many fancy things. And for free! That was the thing which mattered the most for a merchant like him.

He looked at the kids who were still eating, probably on their third or fourth helpings - since the baron had allowed them to eat as much as they wanted. He had thought about taking his family back home after the children had gotten to eat a third time so they wouldn't get a stomach ache, but when the kids - especially the youngest two - begged him with their overjoyed expressions to remain there for another helping of food, he hadn't been able to stop them. He snorted. It wasn't like he was paying for it himself, and if the baron wanted to feed the children so much, who was he to stop him?

The rest of them had been waiting for the children to finish eating, and by now it seemed like they were mostly done. He was thinking about telling them again that they had to leave now, when the gates of the manor opened and a guard with a small beard and a serious expression came outside.

Kigeir kept looking at the guard with curiosity, and saw that the guard went to one of the maids and whispered something in her ear. The maid looked shocked for a moment, before she controlled her expression and put a smile again for the children who were waiting in line to get food once again. But Kigeir could easily see that it was a forced smile.

And soon, he saw that the same guard muttered something in the ears of the other maids and servants as well, and he saw the same shocked expression on their faces as well. Or was it a panicked expression? After hearing whatever the guard was saying to them, they all had become tense for a moment, before they forcefully relaxed their faces.

Kigeir had no idea what could cause that, but then he saw that the maids who were serving the food until now, started to cover the wooden buckets, and began telling something to the children who were waiting in line. Although the maids were speaking to the children with a smiling face, he could easily see that the smile didn't have any joy in it. Not anymore.

Before long, he saw Elsie, Maisy and the two boys returning back towards him with a dejected expression. He thought of asking them what was wrong, when Elsie spoke for the group.

"There is no more food, papa..." she said in a depressed voice.

"The maids told us that we had eaten all the food - so they had to take back the buckets now," Maisy added as well. "But..." she hesitated as she spoke, "but I'm sure I saw that some of the soup was still remaining."

Kigeir frowned after hearing that. Why would the maids close down the stalls so abruptly, especially when there was food still remaining? It wasn't likely that the baron suddenly decided to be a miser after he had spent so much to feed all the village for free. Something wasn't right here.

"Didn't you all already eat enough though?" His older son Leif asked the kids with a laugh. "It's good that they stopped you, or all of you would be complaining about a tummy ache later."

"But I wanted to eat more..." Elsie whined. "I'm still hungry..."

"If the maids still have some soup remaining with them," his wife said, "should I ask them if we can take some of it to our home? Otherwise that food would probably get wasted anyway."

Kigeir thought about it for a moment, then addressed everyone in his family, including Maisy and Timmy. "No, forget about the food," he replied. "Something doesn't feel right. Let's return back to our home now."

"But papa..." Elsie whined again, while Leif frowned but didn't say anything.

"No, Elsie," Kigeir said to his daughter. "You have eaten enough for tonight. Let's go now," he said to everyone in his family.

And with that, all of them started trudging back towards their home, some of them happily - since they had gotten to eat a feast for the first time in their lives, and some of them reluctantly - since they hadn't gotten to eat even more.

Just before exiting the mostly empty area of the feast, he noticed that while the servants and guards had already started hauling the buckets and tables back inside the gates of the manor, most of the remaining people had also started taking their children back towards their homes now. That worried him even more, since it wasn't just him who was getting a bad feeling about this.

They kept walking through the dark streets with quick steps, and reached the market square of the village - where a single burning brazier was still lit - bathing the wooden houses surrounding the square in a flickering yellow light. A few stragglers had stopped there to warm their hands before they returned to their homes, but other than that, the market square was nearly empty at this time. Kigeir's home was located in a side street nearby, but as his family walked through the market square, he heard a commotion on the opposite side of the square.

Looking there, he was startled to see two men in fur coats entering the square from a side street there. For a moment, he thought that they were the manor guards on their nightly patrol - which was a new, but very welcome thing for the villagers - but then he remembered that the guards didn't wear fur coats, unless the baron had somehow gotten enough coin to buy such fur coats for all his guards?

While his brain was still thinking about it, he saw those men raise their naked swords in the air, and with a roar, they started running towards the men who were standing near the braziers.

And suddenly, he realized with a tremble that those weren't guards at all. They were bandits! The village was being raided by bandits again! His eyes widened in fear as the horrific images of the last time a raid had happened flashed in his mind. The burning houses, the sobbing children, and a grave fear for his life...

Immediately he screamed at his family, "Run! Run back to our home!"