Valkyrie's Shadow-Chapter 6Before the Storm: Act 11,

Chapter 6

“Easy? How do you figure?”

“Because…” Raul started, then paused. “You grew up in Fassett Town, right?”

“Yeah.”

“What about you, Lady Beaumont?” Raul asked.

“I was born and raised in Re-Blumrushr,” the Countess answered.

That probably explained their confusion. Anyone who lived in a farming village or logging settlement in Re-Estize would know exactly why Raul could confidently make his claim.

“You’ll understand soon enough, I guess,” Raul said. “Well, I need to check with headquarters to see if I’m allowed to do this first.”

Raul popped the last crust of bread from his meal into his mouth before heading out of the manor. He made his way over to the lawn off to the side of the building, to where there were four claw-shaped depressions in the soggy grass.

“Koro,” he spoke to the open air in front of him, “I need to check with headquarters about something. Lady Albedo instructed a local collaborator to disrupt communications in the area. Ask if we can help them out.”

He wiped the rain from his brow, regretting not putting his mantle back on as he waited for the unseen Elder Lich to respond. His Endure Elements item protected him from the hot and cold, but he hadn’t been issued a magic item that would protect him from the wet.

Ten minutes later, Koro’s disembodied voice rasped through the pelting rain.

“The general staff has approved of our participation. However, the original restrictions still apply.”

The general staff, huh…

His meeting with Liam was the first Raul had heard of the imminent war, but it sounded like he had already been transferred to the army group responsible for waging it.

“Just to be clear,” Raul asked, “what are the ‘original restrictions’?”

“Direct action is limited to assets controlled by the local collaborator,” the Elder Lich answered. “Our participation in the operation is to remain undiscovered by the opposition.”

“Alright,” Raul said. “I’m going back in to talk with the ‘local collaborator’. Any problem with staying here?”

“Negative.”

Raul scanned the garden before returning to the manor. In a place like Re-Estize, you could get away with a lot using an Invisibility spell, but landing a Skeletal Dragon in someone’s garden felt like a bit much.

“I got permission to help out,” he said as he rejoined Liam and Lady Beaumont. “I have to use what you guys have for anything people might notice, though.”

“Is that going to be enough?” Liam asked.

“It’s what I expected,” Raul shrugged.

While the situation might seem restrictive as Liam explained it, Raul knew that the Sorcerer King’s servants always wanted to be doing something. In his case, having Raul organise the local collaborators was a thing that the Royal Army could do without violating Lady Albedo’s conditions, so that was what they had him do.

“What do you require of us, Your Excellency?” Countess Beaumont asked.

Raul furrowed his brow.

“Your Excellency?”

“Liam just told me that you are a great Commander in the Sorcerous Kingdom’s Royal Army.”

“I didn’t say great.”

“Just Raul is fine. It’s not as if I’m a General or anything. As for what I need from you, Liam mentioned that you have three gangs working for you…”

“Yes, that’s right,” the Countess nodded. “But they are currently being employed to escort cargo shipments going to and from my territory.”

He pondered the young noblewoman’s readiness to admit that she had gangs working for her. It was true that the men-at-arms working for a Noble were often little more than gangs of toughs on a leash, but members of the aristocratic establishment generally insisted on referring to them as armsmen or retainers: sometimes violently so.

“Liam made it sound like you had a whole gang guarding each shipment,” Raul said. “From what I’ve seen of the region, you don’t need anywhere near that many.”

“I will have to consult with Mister Reed about that. Claire, have one of the men find him.”

The Maid detached herself from Liam’s side to speak with the guard posted outside Lady Beaumont’s solar. Raul examined the trade map as they waited. Though Re-Estize officially claimed that it controlled vast swathes of territory within its borders, reality did not reflect that. No place demonstrated this more than the Azerlisian Marches.

Human habitation in Marquis Blumrush’s territory was divided between three river systems that flowed north, west, and east, respectively. Agricultural development followed the valleys wherever the terrain allowed for it, while smaller fiefs focused on forestry formed a makeshift frontier that filtered out the threats dwelling in the wildlands hemming them in on either side.

While strategically sound on paper, House Blumrush and its vassals didn’t come anywhere close to maintaining decent levels of security. This was primarily due to two factors. The unspoken, but most well-known reason was that House Blumrush preferred weak vassals. Nobles were encouraged to scheme and undermine one another so long as they could never offer meaningful resistance to the Marquis. The second reason was Re-Estize’s overreliance on the Adventurer Guild, which encouraged the local authorities to further neglect military investment in favour of what they considered a more economical and expedient option.

The result of all this was that the prosperity and the people of the region were ripe for the picking. Be it criminals, tribal raiders, or hungry animals, the fiefs of the March were next to defenceless against them. It was this same vulnerability that Raul would exploit, though not in the same style as the usual predations.

A knock on the door sounded. Reed entered the room, stifling a yawn.

“You called, my lady?” He asked.

“Mister Reed,” Countess Beaumont said, “I believe you are acquainted with Mister Raul.”

“Sure am. What’s goin’ on?”

“He…well, I suppose it would be better for him to explain.”

Raul put the map back down on the drawing room table.

“Basically,” he said, “we’re going to stir up some trouble.”

“What kinda trouble?” Reed asked.

“Re-Estize and the Sorcerous Kingdom are getting into another war with each other soon,” Raul answered. “House Blumrush is calling for its banners. We’re going to mess with that.”

“Uh…why? Not like the Sorcerous Kingdom needs our help to beat Re-Estize.”

“Countess Beaumont was instructed to disrupt communications in the area. The easiest way to do that is to paralyse the local authorities.”

The forester-turned-bandit-turned-armsman stared, uncomprehending, in the wake of Raul’s explanation. Was his general strategy that hard to understand?

“You’ll get it once we get started,” Raul said. “How many of House Beaumont’s men are escorting shipments to and from the fief?”

“We got three gangs all workin’ their own shipments,” Reed replied. “Each’s got about a hundred men.”

“Each caravan only needs around a quarter of that number,” Raul said. “We can use the rest for this job.”

“If you say so,” Reed said. “Just one problem: all of those guys are out workin’. My boys are the closest to the city and they ain’t comin’ here.”

“That’s fine,” Raul said. “We can go and meet them. Splitting them up out there will attract less attention anyway.”

“Need anything done in the city?” Liam asked.

“How long do you think until the Nobles start to mobilise?”

Liam exchanged a look with Countess Beaumont.

“House Blumrush hasn’t even notified me yet,” the Countess said.

“From what I’ve seen of these guys,” Liam said, “they’ll sleep on it. They travel the old-fashioned way here, so no one’s going to go out in the middle of a winter night anyway.”

“How long do you think it will take for the city to learn about the war?”

“That’s a good question,” Liam replied. “House Blumrush was trying to keep the reason behind the levy a secret even from the other Nobles. By the end of tomorrow, the city will know that they’re getting ready for a fight, but I don’t think they’ll know who it’s with.”

Raul frowned.

“Who else would it be with?”

“The Nobles Lord Reginald spoke with assumed they were arming against an uprising caused by the famine,” Liam shrugged. “When you’re already in all kinds of trouble, you tend not to think about stuff outside of those troubles.”

He wasn’t sure if he agreed with that, but Liam knew more about the people here than he did. Based on his assessment, combined with what Raul had seen of the area, it sounded like they would have a lot of running around to do. Still, it wasn’t a difficult task: just a repetitive one.

“In that case,” Raul said, “we can get started in the morning. Liam, stay in the city and see how everyone reacts while we do this.”

“Is it safe for Lady Beaumont to stay here?” Liam asked.

“It’d be riskier if she left,” Raul said. “Keeping track of what goes on in the countryside is nearly impossible for these people. Conveniently leaving Re-Blumrushr at the same time we do this may invite suspicion where there was none before.”

“Alright.”

Early the next morning, Raul met with Reed in front of the manor. The woodsman travelled lightly, resembling the apprentice Rangers who trained all over Warden’s Vale. Raindrops flowed off the treated mantle covering him from head to toe and he carried a longbow in one hand.

“How long do bows last out here?” Liam asked out of curiosity.

“Uh, not long,” Reed said. “Best to replace ‘em every year if you’re outside all the time.”

“You’d think they’d sell enchanted bows with all the woodsmen around here.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Whaddya mean?”

“Um…never mind.”

It was difficult to believe how much his common sense had changed. Barely two years had passed since E-Rantel had been annexed and things didn’t really start to change for him until his family migrated to Warden’s Vale.

“How far is Illerand Barony from here?” Raul asked.

“A day northwest by wagon in this weather,” Reed answered. “Half a day if it’s just me…I think.”

“You think?”

The woodsman scratched his head.

“Been feeling more fit these days,” he said. “Might’ve been hanging around the local taverns too much these past few years. Anyway, it’s about twenty kilometres if you follow the roads. Our caravan’ll finish switching out its cargo by noon.”

“We’ll get there in an hour or so,” Liam told the woodsman.

Raul ignored the woodsman’s befuddled expression as he led him to the garden. The four claw prints in the grass were still there.

“Koro,” Raul said, “we need See Invisible enchantments. Invis us after that.”

Reed looked around nervously as the Elder Lich’s disembodied voice rasped through the air with its arcane incantation. He fell back with a startled cry when the first spell was cast upon him.

“You look pretty silly,” Raul said.

“H-Howdya think I’d react?!” The woodsman said as he wobbled unsteadily to his feet, “Wait, don’t tell me…”

“Yup.”

“…can I walk?”

“We don’t have the time,” Raul said. “Come on, let’s go.”

Raul grabbed Koro’s bony hand and mounted the Skeletal Dragon, then turned to offer a hand to Reed. The woodsman stared at it for a good, long time before reluctantly reaching out to take it.

“Koro,” Raul said, “take us northwest out of the city. Reed, tell us where we’re going.”

The woodsman clutched onto Raul tightly, moaning worriedly as their Undead mount slowly rose into the air. After they were well past the city wall, Raul looked over his shoulder.

“So, where is…you’re not going to be able to tell us where to go with your eyes shut.”

“J-Just gimme a minute here. I need to mentally prepare myself.”

A minute passed, and then another. Muddy winter fields and stands of bare trees passed under them in dreary sequence. Raul shoved Reed out of his seat.

“Should we turn around?” Koro asked as the woodsman’s scream trailed behind them.

“I guess.”

The Skeletal Dragon banked, gliding in a lazy circle as it descended upon the muddy field that Reed had landed in. They alighted beside the woodsman as he dragged himself out of the muck.

“Your minute’s over,” Raul said.

He reached into his pack for his Trooper’s Towel. Reed froze as the magic item’s effect washed over him.

“Does everyone in the Sorcerous Kingdom have magic items?” The woodsman asked.

“Everyone in my village does,” Raul answered.

“Must be some village.”

Raul wasn’t sure if he could describe it in a way that Reed could appreciate. Not only was Warden’s Vale visually different from the average village in Re-Estize, but the very thinking that drove the place was different.

“You can probably visit one day,” Raul said.

“Dunno ‘bout that,” Reed replied as he got back onto the Skeletal Dragon. “The Sorcerous Kingdom’s pretty far away.”

“People can get around quickly in the Sorcerous Kingdom,” Raul said. “A ride between Re-Blumrushr and there would take less than a day.”

“I’m afraid to ask what the hell they’re ridin’ out there.”

Once the Skeletal Dragon regained its altitude, Reed pointed to a brook coursing by several villages lined up in a shallow valley.

“That’s Illerand Barony,” the woodsman said. “The village at the top of the valley’s where our wagons’ll stop.”

They flew over the village in question, not spotting Reed’s caravan until they could see over the nearby ridge. Two dozen wagons snaked their way up the hillside, with most of their escorts opting to walk on the grass alongside the muddy road.

“Let’s stop them before the village can see us,” Raul said. “Reed, you need to do anything special down there?”

“I gotta hand off some paperwork to the magistrate, and…that’s about it.”

“Alright,” Raul said. “I’ll split off with the first group while you do that, then we’ll do the rest on the way back.”

“I think I missed the plan, somehow…”

“You didn’t. I just didn’t want to go over it every time we meet a new group of people. I’ll explain it to everyone once we’re all together. Koro, put us down about a hundred metres ahead of that caravan.”

The Skeletal Dragon’s claws squished into the mud as it alighted on the waterlogged road. Raul dismounted along with Reed, but stayed back a bit so the former gang leader could speak to his gang first. As he approached them, however, one of the men in the lead held up a hand.

“Hold up. Y’all hear that?”

The wagons rolled to a stop, their escorts nocking arrows as they cautiously scanned their surroundings.

“Hey guys,” Reed said.

“Who goes there?!”

“It’s me, you idiot!” Reed said, “Somethin’ wrong with your head?”

“Sounds damn suspicious to me.”

One of the men sent an arrow in the direction of Reed’s voice, scoring a hit squarely on his leader’s thigh. Reed howled and limped forward to deck the man, which dispelled his invisibility.

“Oh, it’s you. Where’d you come from?”

Reed directed a murderous glare at the speaker before hobbling over to sit on the grass. Raul had Koro dispel his invisibility before going to join them.

“Hey, Raul’s here too. What’s goin’ on?”

“We have some work to do,” Raul said while fishing a healing potion out of his belt pouch. “The Sorcerous Kingdom’s going to declare war against Re-Estize and King Rampossa’s called for his banners. House Blumrush has started to send their vassals out to gather the levy.”

The men stared blankly at him. People seemed to do that a lot.

“Why are they going to war?” The youngest-looking member of the escort asked.

“A caravan carrying food aid was attacked while en route to the Holy Kingdom of Roble by a few minor Nobles and their forces. I won’t pretend to know why they did it, but the fact is that it happened.”

The men seemed just as confused as Raul was when Liam told him about that part. The fact that no one seemed to know why it happened only seemed to make it worse or more silly or both.

“What’s this work you have for us?” Reed asked.

“We’re going to make it impossible for House Blumrush to meet its obligations,” Raul answered.

“You want us to go against the Nobles?” One of Reed’s men gawked at him, “The Eight Fingers have strong men for that, but we ain’t them. Their Knights’ll run us down if we face ‘em.”

“Fighting them directly is unnecessary,” Raul replied. “The first thing we’ll do is split up into groups. Each group will go in different directions and spread rumours along the way.”

“What kinda rumours?”

“Well, I call them rumours, but it’s just the truth. We’re letting everyone know that Re-Estize is going to war with the Sorcerous Kingdom and Blumrush and his Nobles are going to send their levies to fight.”

“Oh,” Reed said as a look of realisation immediately filled his face. “That’s mean.”

“I wouldn’t put it that way,” Raul said, “but you already know what’s going to happen. If you think about it a different way, what you do will save a lot of men from dying pointlessly by keeping them from reaching the battlefield.”

Every tenant household had levy obligations, but that didn’t necessarily mean they mindlessly fulfilled them. Over the past few years, when the Empire regularly challenged the Kingdom, there were so few losses that being conscripted for the levy was an inconvenience at worst. In lean years, some even saw it as a way to get regular meals.

Now, it was a different story. Everyone knew how badly the Sorcerer King had beaten Re-Estize’s Royal Army. Most would do their best to avoid what was essentially a death sentence or worse, and so the Nobles would need to resort to force to meet their manpower quotas.

A Knight might be a powerful actor on the field by the standards of the Kingdom, but a Knight and their retinue trying to chase down thousands of people fleeing conscription was a hopeless prospect. The Nobles’ only hope of raising a levy in a timely manner was to do so without their subjects learning why they were going to war.

With all of their resources focused on their futile effort, none could be spared for communicating with the rest of the Kingdom. The Nobles wouldn’t go out of their way to ask for help, either. Being seen as incapable of honouring their obligations would damage their prestige and thus their political standing.

The caravan continued on its route, leaving Raul alone with six of Reed’s men. He was familiar with all of them, having worked together to thin out threats in the wilderness near Beaumont County.

“So,” a boy named Steven asked, “where to?”

“Back the way you came,” Raul said. “We need to get to the villages around here that you haven’t passed through.”

Raul ordered Koro to follow them from the air before joining Reed’s men on the road. As with most woodsmen in Re-Estize, they didn’t seem to realise that they were Rangers but used their abilities nonetheless as they blazed a trail for him to follow. The details of the first village on their path resolved themselves less than fifteen minutes later.

“So what are we gonna tell them?” Steven asked.

“Well, we’re supposed to be a bunch of guys trying to avoid conscription,” Raul answered. “So tell them what’s going on and what we’re scared of.”

“What if they don’t buy it?”

“That’s fine. We’re just going around planting seeds. They’ll take our words a lot more seriously once they spot officials riding up the road towards them.”

As with the average farming village in Re-Estize, its residents were holed up snugly in their homes against the winter weather. As soon as the people on watch noticed them, however, more and more heads poked out of doors and windows to see what was going on. One of the watchmen raised his makeshift quarterstaff warily as Reed’s men reached the perimeter of the settlement.

“That’s as far as you go,” he said.

Steven raised his hands disarmingly.

“No need for that, friend. We’re decent folk.”

“Decent folk ain’t travellin’ this time o’ the year.”

“Not normally,” Steven said. “But…your people need to hear this, too. The lords are calling up the levy.”

The tip of the watchman’s staff wavered.

“The levy? What for?”

“For war,” Steven’s reply was grave. “Against the Sorcerous Kingdom.”

Gasps and cries of dismay rose from the gathering crowd. Steven gave them a meaningful look.

“Now you know why we’re runnin’. I don’t mind being paraded out in front of those damned imperials, but I ain’t gettin’ my soul sucked out by the Sorcerer King! Especially not for such a stupid reason.”

“What reason’s that?”

“Some stupid ass Nobles robbed some wagons in some other part of the Kingdom. I’m not gonna answer for that. It ain’t right!”

The rest of Reed’s men joined in with empathetic nods and persecuted shouts. Among the crowd of villagers, Raul spotted more than a few able-bodied men being visibly swayed by the growing atmosphere of grievance and fear.

“How long ‘til the magistrate comes for our boys?” An elderly farmer asked.

“Better to get goin’ while the goin’s good,” Steven answered. “The Nobles already got the city’s Blacksmiths churning out spears. They’ll be shoving them into your hands before long.”

I didn’t tell him about that part…

After leaving the village in a tenuous state, they continued their journey through the rolling farmlands of the March. Raul gave Steven a thoughtful look as he mentally reviewed their actions and the results.

“You’re pretty good at swaying people,” Raul said.

“Steve’s the best con man in the gang,” one of the woodsmen said with an odd sense of pride. “Kid’s been swindling Merchants and magistrates since he was nine.”

“I’m not a kid anymore,” Steven grumbled.

He was, by Raul’s standards, but followers of The Four were weird like that.

“How did you know that the Nobles were arming?” Raul asked.

“I didn’t,” Steven replied. “But it makes sense, yeah?”

He supposed that it might, but in the village Raul grew up in, the local lord simply bought equipment using funds provided by the Crown. It made sense that it all had to come from somewhere, but it wasn’t something people would give much thought to unless they were directly involved in the relevant industries or the logistics surrounding them.

“Have you considered becoming a Bard?” Raul asked, “It looks like you have a talent for performance.”

“A-A Bard?” Steven’s steps faltered, “I’m just a nobody from the woods. I can’t even read or write, never mind do all the other fancy things that Bards do.”

“Humans aren’t born knowing how to read and write,” Raul said.

“Money’s a problem, too. I don’t even know how Bards apprentice.”

“Maybe you’ll change your tune in a year or so. Things will have changed a lot by then.”

“Yeah? Whaddya think’s gonna happen?”

“Well,” Raul said, “since they want to minimise damage here, the Sorcerous Kingdom obviously has plans for this place after the war. If it becomes a part of the Sorcerous Kingdom, then all of the changes that have happened around E-Rantel will happen here, as well. Things are a lot better there than they used to be.”

Once again, he didn’t think that words could accurately describe the difference between his new home and his old one. Re-Estize was a place where the vast majority lived lives of subsistence from year to year. With few resources to devote to development: and what little there was afforded to the privileged few: it was a place that seemed frozen in time.

By contrast, the Duchy of E-Rantel had changed so much that it was beyond the imagination of those who dwelt outside of it. The application of Undead Labour and druidic magic had turned it into an agricultural juggernaut that no longer knew starvation. New industries were starting to pop up everywhere, and there was an insatiable demand for skilled labour. People had few issues securing employment so long as they were willing to fulfil that demand. If Steven wanted to be a Bard, then it was highly likely that he would be able to find a patron.

But first, they needed to arrive at that future intact. Doing so required them to carry out Lady Albedo’s orders, and Raul intended to ensure the survival of as many people as he could in the process.