~ Kivamus ~

Kivamus had been pacing in the manor hall worriedly for the last hour, having woken up from sleep after hearing the sound of the horn. With Torhan's group of bandits having raided Tiranat much sooner than they expected, they had barely finished any preparations for it. The fourth watchtower in the northwest wasn't even built yet. At least with all the hunting groups back in the village, there would be no shortage of guards this time.

These bandits had also attacked some time after midnight, likely to make it difficult to spot them, but at least that was something the guards were already expecting. It also made protecting the villagers easier, since at this time everyone was already inside the walls. If the bandits had attacked in the day, most of the village people would have been out of the walls working one place or the other, which might have been more difficult to manage.

This was also the very first time they would be dealing with a raid after the construction of the three watch towers, and hopefully it would give them some good advantage in the defence of the village with the crossbow-women sitting ready up there. Still, it would have been much better if there was some way to make it easier for them to spot any approaching bandits instead of just relying on moonlight. Like electric power. He wished they had the capability to install some kind of electrical floodlights on the watchtowers around the village. Just imagine how surprising that would feel to any bandits! He sighed. It was only wishful thinking at the moment. They were a long way away from having the capability to generate electricity or manufacture light bulbs.

Nearby in the manor hall, Duvas had made himself busy checking all the numbers in the revenue and tax ledger once again, saying that he wanted to take his mind away from the raid, while Gorsazo seemed to have gone to talk with Madam Helga in the kitchen as she prepared some kind of midnight snack, with Clarisa and Lucem helping her, so the kids wouldn't have to worry about the raid. Syryne was sitting near the long table as well, since nobody could possibly be relaxed enough to sleep at this time.

He hoped he would get some report of what was happening soon, when the outer door opened and the ex-mercenary walked inside.

"Feroy!" He exclaimed. "How's it going? Why are you back here already when there are dozens of bandits out there? Where's Hudan?"

The ex-mercenary pointed towards the north. "He has gone to support the guards at the northern gate, but I've brought both good news and bad news with me."

"Out with it! Don't make me wait!"

"We were able to kill all the attacking bandits in the southeast, and even took one of them captive. We also haven't heard any horns from the other directions, so there can't be too many bandits out there, although Hudan and the others will be able to take care of them easily now that we are alert. The village should be safe enough for tonight. That's the good news," Feroy added with a wince. "As for the bad news, I'll interrogate the bandit properly after giving the full report to you, but I'm fairly sure that these bandits have nothing to do with Torhan."

"Wait, what?" Duvas asked. "I thought it was Torhan's men who had managed to reach here quickly."

The ex-mercenary shook his head. "For better or for worse, they haven't. Nokozal must not have found the clay mine compound that easily."

"What if he already met Torhan," Syryne asked, "but they decided not to attack us? We've managed to repel Nokozal's men twice already!"

"That's not very likely. Someone like Torhan with noble blood in him - bastard or otherwise - isn't someone who'll let his men be killed without taking revenge or he'll risk losing his standing amongst his own men." Feroy continued, "I'm quite sure that a raid is still coming, and we won't be able to rest easy until we have dealt with that bastard."

Kivamus sighed as he took a seat. "Just how many bandit groups are there in these forests..."

"More than you'd care to count," Feroy replied with a shrug. "They might not be as big or well organised as Torhan's group, but with a lot of people having lost their livelihood in the past year or two, many of them have resorted to banditry, and we must seem like the easiest target to them in this region of southern Reslinor. At least until they find out about the newly constructed walls and the watch towers."

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"We really will have to continue increasing our guard force as we get more immigrants in the future," Kivamus said, "if we want to keep sending hunters out while maintaining the village's protection. It may be fine to keep all the guards here for now, but we really can't go too long without them hunting and bringing meat to supplement our diets."

The outer door opened once again and this time it was the guard captain who walked inside, looking no worse for wear.

"We found eight men lurking in the forest outside the gates in the north-east after the female guard on the watchtower reported seeing some moonlight reflecting from something there," Hudan reported without being prompted. "So I sent enough guards mounted on horses up there. Two of the bandits died in the skirmish before the others gave up their swords. The guards are bringing them here for now. Still, it was easy enough to find them since everyone was already alert after the horn was blown in the southeast, although I don't understand how Torhan reached here so fast."

"It wasn't him," Kivamus told him with a grimace. "These were some other bandits, and Torhan must still be coming."

Hudan exhaled before smirking. "Don't worry, my lord. We'll show him what happens to anyone who dares to attack us." He looked at Feroy. "How did it go in the southeast? You standing here means the bandits must have already been dealt with, right?"

The ex-mercenary grinned. "Tesyb and the other guards killed six and took one captive, with barely any injuries."

Hudan laughed loudly. "Well, my horsemen did much better then. We caught eight of 'em alive! But we didn't get to see how effective the watchtower would be since we caught them far from the crossbow-woman's range. Not sure how well they could have done in the dark anyway."

Feroy smirked. "You better not say that in front of Hyola. Even with only moonlight to guide her, she took out two bandits before they even reached the walls."

Hudan snorted. "She never stops surprising me." He looked at Kivamus. "After catching the bandits I sent a dozen horsemen on patrol to take a few rounds around the village in case there are any more bandits out there, although I don't think we'll find any."

"That's a good idea," Kivamus agreed, "and a dozen horsemen can take care of any stragglers easily."

The door opened once again and a guard came inside, whispering something in Hudan's ear, who nodded and sent him back.

Hudan turned back towards the others. "The eight bandits we caught alive have been brought to the manor and they've been tied inside a coal barn for now, since the jail is already full with the refugee farmers. The guards checked and none of the captives had any coins with them, but at least we'll get some good leather armour from them, apart from a pair of warbows and quite a few swords, as rusted as they must be."

"Those swords won't be of any use other than as scrap iron," Kivamus said, "but Cedoron will be happy to get that scrap nonetheless."

"Send someone to bring the bandit who was caught in the southeast as well," Feroy said before looking at Kivamus. "I should go now and grill them. We might find out something interesting."

Kivamus gave a nod and the mercenary exited the manor hall. He looked at others. The mood had improved noticeably in the hall by now since the raid had been dealt with successfully. Duvas had closed the ledger once again, while Syryne also looked relaxed.

"It's good that we won't really need to use much losuvil powder this time, if at all," Hudan said, "since we are running really low on it."

Kivamus nodded. "Unless a guard has serious wounds, it's better to save the remaining medicine for when Torhan attacks. We'll need it then."

"I'll confirm with the guards once, but we should be able to do without it this time."

"The losuvil vines in the eastern hills should already have started getting new leaves by now," Syryne said, "so we can start gathering new leaves within a couple of weeks. It will take me another week after that to prepare more losuvil powder, but after that we shouldn't have any shortage of it until the winter."

"That's good to hear," Kivamus said with a smile. "We will also try to make a much bigger stockpile of it this time, so we don't have any chance of it running out when we need it the most. Of course, we plan to sell some of it to the merchants as well, but that's for later."

"What should we do with the men we caught?" Hudan asked. "We can't even lock them in the jail we built."

Kivamus looked at Duvas, thinking of a solution. "How's it going with the latest refugees who had followed Feroy from Kirnos? We only had the damaged huts and shacks to house them in. It's not that cold anymore with the snow already melted, but it can't be very comfortable for them even in this weather."