A Balance of Dragons Chapter 3
I posted this over at AO3 yesterday, and am posting here as well for those who prefer Livejournal.
Chapter 3: Of Honor and Thieves
Summary:
In which we get a glimpse of life outside the court of Camelot.
Chapter Text
Kanen looked up as Rus and his scouting party returned to camp through the trees. There were several young men and boys stumbling to keep up with Rus’s horse, even though he kept it to a walk. Kanen surveyed them critically looking for one that seemed too fine or held himself too proud to be common.
It was over two years ago that Prince Arthur disappeared. At first there had been rewards for his safe return, but then the rumors of insurrection had started. It was just a year since the criers had read the King’s call for information leading to the capture or death of the usurper prince, but none had found the brat yet. Probably the princeling was dead, Kanen thought. It was said he was a spoiled, puling brat who could barely lift a sword. It was not likely that such a one would have survived this long on his own. However, the reward still stood, and if anyone were going to collect it, it might as well be Kanen.
Rus dropped the rope, made a gesture to Vere, one of the side guards, to keep an eye on the captives, and then dismounted. A few of the younger boys collapsed onto the bare forest floor, not caring for the early spring chill and damp. Handing the reins to Vere, Rus walked up to Kanen’s fire to report.
“Elsmere and its farms were attacked last night,” Rus stated and then gestured at the boys being loosed from the rope. “These were all turned off or left with nothing to go back to.”
“The dragons have been good for business, whatever the old king says.” Kanen smirked as he surveyed the new boys in his camp. “Well, good for my business at least.”
Rus, who was just one of the many men that answered to Kanen, snorted in something that might have been amusement. “Guess they had to bring good to someone.”
“No likely lasses, then?” Kanen asked, looking the boys over.
Rus shook his head. “There’s a new red house in Camelot lower town, according to the villagers. Several girls were sold there before the attack to pay for taxes.”
“Too bad, I could do with something fresh and soft to lie with at night. Could make use of the boys I suppose…”
“Never quite the same, though, is it?” Rus commiserated. “Especially as scrawny as this lot is. There’s no cushion to them.”
Kanen barked out a laugh, remembering how three years ago Rus had come stumbling out of the woods, black faced, brown hair singed off on one side, with a burn on his arm, and a story about a dragon attacking his father’s holding. He’d escaped with his life, his horse, and his crossbow. That was more than most managed, making Kanen wonder just how quickly he’d run. The horse was small, but a courser in its prime, especially fine for a younger son of a minor baron. Kanen thought it odd, until he tried to lay hands on it. The beast had a foul temper and a wicked kick. No one but Rus could ride him. Most likely it had been meant to be destrier for the eldest son, but had been both too puny and too unruly to send to war.
Rus himself had been just into his full growth, but knew his way with both sword and bow. He wouldn’t be alive now if he hadn’t, since Kanen wasn’t one to carry dead weight. Rus had proven himself that day as a fighter, taking on Eric, Kanen’s right hand man, and pulling out a victory by pinning the giant after clocking him in the head with the pommel of his dagger.
The cache of weapons he’d led them to back at the burned out manor he’d come from had also helped secure his place. Of course Rus had wanted to bury his dead, and Kanen had let him, after securing the armory. Kanen grinned and gripped the sword he’d worn since that day. It had been the beginning of greater things for him and his bandits. It was the arrival of Rus that had given Kanen the idea to set up here, just inside Camelot’s borders; Rus, and the others who had come fleeing from dragon attacks. The camp had a lot of advantages for a man looking to build up his crew of mercenaries: the trees were thick, so the dragons couldn’t easily find them from above, the river was nearby for water, and there were caves in the mountainside to retreat to if necessary.
Best of all, the camp overlooked the road out of Camelot into Mercia. That made it an easy ride into Mercia whenever they needed supplies, and no one pursued them back across Camelot’s border for fear of attracting old Uther’s wrath, or worse, notice from the Lady Nimueh. The road also took refugees out of Camelot, and that meant that every time there was a dragon attack in the area, Kanen had his pick of the refugees - either for their belongings, or as recruits. What had been a band of ten or twelve men, depending on the day and Kanen’s temper, had grown to nearly thirty. Instead of only Kanen and Eric, who’d been with him longest, being horsed, they now had a string of ten horses.
And today he would add a few more likely lads to his troop.
He looked at the newest lot of boys to be found in his woods and tried not to smirk. The seven of them stood scattered about the clearing in ones and twos not looking at each other, and definitely not looking at Kanen, except for when they thought he was looking away. Not a horse or sword among them, but that was to be expected. They wore rough, homespun wool tunics and trou. A couple of the less hungry looking boys had actual boots, the rest had the leather wrap shoes that wouldn’t last a season on the road. Most everything had been patched and re-patched. The ones wearing clothes without patches had mostly holes. It was a good measure of who had left their farms and who had been driven off. One too many mouths to feed on land burnt out by dragons, and then picked over by the soldiers and mages that drove the dragons off, meant that families had to make hard choices.
“What do you think?” Kanen asked without looking at Rus.
The smart boys had put a tree to their backs and were watching Kanen’s men. They stood up straight and tried to look strong enough to keep up with the horses. They knew the score. The foolish ones cowered and wrung their hands and tried not to be noticed. Two had come with bows and well made arrows, which were now sitting with the rest of Kanen’s takings, waiting to be divvied up.
“Four likely looking lads, the rest are small fry. Need to be thrown back, I’d say.” Rus sounded bored, but Kanen knew better. Rus handled all the training and was very picky about recruits.
“Don’t think the little ones deserve a fair shake at it?” Kanen prodded Rus with his elbow and grinned.
“Waste of time and energy,” he snorted. “Especially when I know how it will turn out.”
Kanen narrowed his eyes. “And if I say I feel like a bit of entertainment?”
Rus shrugged. “Let me know when your done and I can take them off to the caves. And if any of them get run through, then you can damn well carry them to the caves yourself. I’ve no wish get all over blood just because you’re getting bored, Kanen.”
Kanen caught Rus by the shoulder and pulled him in close. “If I say you’ll be the one hauling them to the caves, then that’s what you’ll do.”
He liked that Rus blanched a bit when confronted. He liked it more when Rus was the first to look away. Letting his eyes slide down and to the side.
“Fine,” the younger man kept his voice flat. There was no fear in it, but there was no defiance either. “Do you want me to take them now or later?”
Kanen let him go.
“Take them now. Take them all, and make sure that the likely boys understand that it could be them if they don’t measure up.”
“Aye,” Rus gave a nod and then turned towards the fires and called, “Vere, Aedlin, with me!” Kanen turned back to his fire and his evening meal of venison which he’d put aside when Rus had returned from patrol with the group of boys. The older boys would bring their numbers up, and Rus would take care of those too weak to train. If they’d been a little older, he might indeed have made them fight for their places in the group, but as Rus said, the outcome was obvious, and Kanen was hungry. Slitting the throats of the weakest would work just as well to serve as warning to the new recruits. The caves weren’t just a good place to hide, they were a fine place to dump an inconvenient body if it came to it.
“They’re too young to be of any use, Kanen.” Eric said as he joined his leader by the central fire. “I don’t know why you keep taking them in. They’re not fit for anything but gleaning fields and hanging on their mother’s apron strings.” Kanen raised an eyebrow as Eric joined him. The man had been with him a long time, and thought of himself as his second in command. It kept Rus from getting above himself, so Kanen allowed it. That didn’t mean he actually listened to either of the two men.
“With these four, we’ll have our numbers up to a company. That puts us in position for the kind of jobs that pay some real money, not just robbing the peasants of their grain and hunting the King’s deer.” Kanen pulled out his knife and hacked off a pice of meat from the haunch of venison.
“They ain’t trained.” Eric pointed out. Again. Kanen had heard this all before.
“We only need the head count. And they’ll be getting training.”
“Oh, aye,” Eric snorted. “They’ll be getting training. But not from you. What makes you think they’ll ever listen to to you over Rus, if it comes down to it.”
Kanen whipped out his left hand and grabbed Eric by his tunic. He yanked the man down until his face was almost in the fire, and held him there with the point of his knife digging into Eric’s cheek just below his eye.
“Rus listens to me because he knows that if he doesn’t, I’ll kill him,“ Kanen hissed. “And the baggage will listen as well, or I’ll kill each of them. Are you going to listen, Eric?”
Around them, at the five other fires and all through the camp, the men became quiet.
“Aye, of course, Kanen, I was just,” Eric swallowed and tried pull away from the knife. “Just trying to look out for your interests.”
Kanen snorted and shoved Eric back, away from the fire. “I look after my own interests. You just follow orders.”
“Fine,” came the response. “Just remember it were me that tried to warn you-“ Kanen jerked him a little closer to the fire and let his dagger draw a drop of blood. Eric stopped talking.
Kanen held on a moment longer, waiting for Eric’s muscles to loosen in the subtle sign of submission that would prove the point had been made. Eric was man that would say anything, but he didn’t know how to lie with face or body. His defiance was written all over him, until suddenly it wasn’t, and Kanen pushed him away to flop on the ground. Looking around the camp, Kanen made a decision. He gestured to Eric, and said, “Get the fires out and buried. Divvy up the take from the haul Rus brought in and get the camp packed up.” Kanen raised his voice so the camp would hear, “We’ve been sat here too long without any entertainment. Time to go find ourselves some comfort. I’m as tired of your ugly faces as you are of each other. As soon as Rus gets back with the new recruits, we’re going to head out and find ourselves some company. If we ride tonight, we can be over the border and in Mercia by daybreak.”
The answering cheer was ragged and had a vicious edge to it. The men got to packing quickly, with more than a few discussing the kinds of company they should look for and what they’d like to do with whoever they found.
Chapter 3: Of Honor and Thieves
Summary:
In which we get a glimpse of life outside the court of Camelot.
Chapter Text
Kanen looked up as Rus and his scouting party returned to camp through the trees. There were several young men and boys stumbling to keep up with Rus’s horse, even though he kept it to a walk. Kanen surveyed them critically looking for one that seemed too fine or held himself too proud to be common.
It was over two years ago that Prince Arthur disappeared. At first there had been rewards for his safe return, but then the rumors of insurrection had started. It was just a year since the criers had read the King’s call for information leading to the capture or death of the usurper prince, but none had found the brat yet. Probably the princeling was dead, Kanen thought. It was said he was a spoiled, puling brat who could barely lift a sword. It was not likely that such a one would have survived this long on his own. However, the reward still stood, and if anyone were going to collect it, it might as well be Kanen.
Rus dropped the rope, made a gesture to Vere, one of the side guards, to keep an eye on the captives, and then dismounted. A few of the younger boys collapsed onto the bare forest floor, not caring for the early spring chill and damp. Handing the reins to Vere, Rus walked up to Kanen’s fire to report.
“Elsmere and its farms were attacked last night,” Rus stated and then gestured at the boys being loosed from the rope. “These were all turned off or left with nothing to go back to.”
“The dragons have been good for business, whatever the old king says.” Kanen smirked as he surveyed the new boys in his camp. “Well, good for my business at least.”
Rus, who was just one of the many men that answered to Kanen, snorted in something that might have been amusement. “Guess they had to bring good to someone.”
“No likely lasses, then?” Kanen asked, looking the boys over.
Rus shook his head. “There’s a new red house in Camelot lower town, according to the villagers. Several girls were sold there before the attack to pay for taxes.”
“Too bad, I could do with something fresh and soft to lie with at night. Could make use of the boys I suppose…”
“Never quite the same, though, is it?” Rus commiserated. “Especially as scrawny as this lot is. There’s no cushion to them.”
Kanen barked out a laugh, remembering how three years ago Rus had come stumbling out of the woods, black faced, brown hair singed off on one side, with a burn on his arm, and a story about a dragon attacking his father’s holding. He’d escaped with his life, his horse, and his crossbow. That was more than most managed, making Kanen wonder just how quickly he’d run. The horse was small, but a courser in its prime, especially fine for a younger son of a minor baron. Kanen thought it odd, until he tried to lay hands on it. The beast had a foul temper and a wicked kick. No one but Rus could ride him. Most likely it had been meant to be destrier for the eldest son, but had been both too puny and too unruly to send to war.
Rus himself had been just into his full growth, but knew his way with both sword and bow. He wouldn’t be alive now if he hadn’t, since Kanen wasn’t one to carry dead weight. Rus had proven himself that day as a fighter, taking on Eric, Kanen’s right hand man, and pulling out a victory by pinning the giant after clocking him in the head with the pommel of his dagger.
The cache of weapons he’d led them to back at the burned out manor he’d come from had also helped secure his place. Of course Rus had wanted to bury his dead, and Kanen had let him, after securing the armory. Kanen grinned and gripped the sword he’d worn since that day. It had been the beginning of greater things for him and his bandits. It was the arrival of Rus that had given Kanen the idea to set up here, just inside Camelot’s borders; Rus, and the others who had come fleeing from dragon attacks. The camp had a lot of advantages for a man looking to build up his crew of mercenaries: the trees were thick, so the dragons couldn’t easily find them from above, the river was nearby for water, and there were caves in the mountainside to retreat to if necessary.
Best of all, the camp overlooked the road out of Camelot into Mercia. That made it an easy ride into Mercia whenever they needed supplies, and no one pursued them back across Camelot’s border for fear of attracting old Uther’s wrath, or worse, notice from the Lady Nimueh. The road also took refugees out of Camelot, and that meant that every time there was a dragon attack in the area, Kanen had his pick of the refugees - either for their belongings, or as recruits. What had been a band of ten or twelve men, depending on the day and Kanen’s temper, had grown to nearly thirty. Instead of only Kanen and Eric, who’d been with him longest, being horsed, they now had a string of ten horses.
And today he would add a few more likely lads to his troop.
He looked at the newest lot of boys to be found in his woods and tried not to smirk. The seven of them stood scattered about the clearing in ones and twos not looking at each other, and definitely not looking at Kanen, except for when they thought he was looking away. Not a horse or sword among them, but that was to be expected. They wore rough, homespun wool tunics and trou. A couple of the less hungry looking boys had actual boots, the rest had the leather wrap shoes that wouldn’t last a season on the road. Most everything had been patched and re-patched. The ones wearing clothes without patches had mostly holes. It was a good measure of who had left their farms and who had been driven off. One too many mouths to feed on land burnt out by dragons, and then picked over by the soldiers and mages that drove the dragons off, meant that families had to make hard choices.
“What do you think?” Kanen asked without looking at Rus.
The smart boys had put a tree to their backs and were watching Kanen’s men. They stood up straight and tried to look strong enough to keep up with the horses. They knew the score. The foolish ones cowered and wrung their hands and tried not to be noticed. Two had come with bows and well made arrows, which were now sitting with the rest of Kanen’s takings, waiting to be divvied up.
“Four likely looking lads, the rest are small fry. Need to be thrown back, I’d say.” Rus sounded bored, but Kanen knew better. Rus handled all the training and was very picky about recruits.
“Don’t think the little ones deserve a fair shake at it?” Kanen prodded Rus with his elbow and grinned.
“Waste of time and energy,” he snorted. “Especially when I know how it will turn out.”
Kanen narrowed his eyes. “And if I say I feel like a bit of entertainment?”
Rus shrugged. “Let me know when your done and I can take them off to the caves. And if any of them get run through, then you can damn well carry them to the caves yourself. I’ve no wish get all over blood just because you’re getting bored, Kanen.”
Kanen caught Rus by the shoulder and pulled him in close. “If I say you’ll be the one hauling them to the caves, then that’s what you’ll do.”
He liked that Rus blanched a bit when confronted. He liked it more when Rus was the first to look away. Letting his eyes slide down and to the side.
“Fine,” the younger man kept his voice flat. There was no fear in it, but there was no defiance either. “Do you want me to take them now or later?”
Kanen let him go.
“Take them now. Take them all, and make sure that the likely boys understand that it could be them if they don’t measure up.”
“Aye,” Rus gave a nod and then turned towards the fires and called, “Vere, Aedlin, with me!” Kanen turned back to his fire and his evening meal of venison which he’d put aside when Rus had returned from patrol with the group of boys. The older boys would bring their numbers up, and Rus would take care of those too weak to train. If they’d been a little older, he might indeed have made them fight for their places in the group, but as Rus said, the outcome was obvious, and Kanen was hungry. Slitting the throats of the weakest would work just as well to serve as warning to the new recruits. The caves weren’t just a good place to hide, they were a fine place to dump an inconvenient body if it came to it.
“They’re too young to be of any use, Kanen.” Eric said as he joined his leader by the central fire. “I don’t know why you keep taking them in. They’re not fit for anything but gleaning fields and hanging on their mother’s apron strings.” Kanen raised an eyebrow as Eric joined him. The man had been with him a long time, and thought of himself as his second in command. It kept Rus from getting above himself, so Kanen allowed it. That didn’t mean he actually listened to either of the two men.
“With these four, we’ll have our numbers up to a company. That puts us in position for the kind of jobs that pay some real money, not just robbing the peasants of their grain and hunting the King’s deer.” Kanen pulled out his knife and hacked off a pice of meat from the haunch of venison.
“They ain’t trained.” Eric pointed out. Again. Kanen had heard this all before.
“We only need the head count. And they’ll be getting training.”
“Oh, aye,” Eric snorted. “They’ll be getting training. But not from you. What makes you think they’ll ever listen to to you over Rus, if it comes down to it.”
Kanen whipped out his left hand and grabbed Eric by his tunic. He yanked the man down until his face was almost in the fire, and held him there with the point of his knife digging into Eric’s cheek just below his eye.
“Rus listens to me because he knows that if he doesn’t, I’ll kill him,“ Kanen hissed. “And the baggage will listen as well, or I’ll kill each of them. Are you going to listen, Eric?”
Around them, at the five other fires and all through the camp, the men became quiet.
“Aye, of course, Kanen, I was just,” Eric swallowed and tried pull away from the knife. “Just trying to look out for your interests.”
Kanen snorted and shoved Eric back, away from the fire. “I look after my own interests. You just follow orders.”
“Fine,” came the response. “Just remember it were me that tried to warn you-“ Kanen jerked him a little closer to the fire and let his dagger draw a drop of blood. Eric stopped talking.
Kanen held on a moment longer, waiting for Eric’s muscles to loosen in the subtle sign of submission that would prove the point had been made. Eric was man that would say anything, but he didn’t know how to lie with face or body. His defiance was written all over him, until suddenly it wasn’t, and Kanen pushed him away to flop on the ground. Looking around the camp, Kanen made a decision. He gestured to Eric, and said, “Get the fires out and buried. Divvy up the take from the haul Rus brought in and get the camp packed up.” Kanen raised his voice so the camp would hear, “We’ve been sat here too long without any entertainment. Time to go find ourselves some comfort. I’m as tired of your ugly faces as you are of each other. As soon as Rus gets back with the new recruits, we’re going to head out and find ourselves some company. If we ride tonight, we can be over the border and in Mercia by daybreak.”
The answering cheer was ragged and had a vicious edge to it. The men got to packing quickly, with more than a few discussing the kinds of company they should look for and what they’d like to do with whoever they found.