Chapter 7 And you Never go Back
And when
The Rider's ending
His quest for
Justice true
He finds it never ending
This search for Haven's truth......
It was a hard three days of riding cross country for the two men. Rannel didn't want to risk the roads this close to Timmersdale. He was tired, he just wanted this done, he missed his family and the anguish was still as strong now as it had been when he first found them. The mornings were the hardest, every time he awoke, for a moment he didn't remember, then then he would realize where he was and everything would come crashing back.
Now they were in the area he had been told the bandits were living, there was an abandoned town about half a days ride from where they were. They wouldn't have any men watching from this direction, there was no trade road or towns here, just scattered woods and rocky meadows, not the kind anyone would consider farming. They were alone.
"Gerril" he said.
"Yes" Gerril said looking over at Rannel.
"This is where we'll camp" he said pointing at the nearest stand of trees.
"Why here" Gerril asked.
"We're far enough away they won't find our camp and close enough that we can do what we need to do easily" he said.
They started the routine they had worked out on the way here, only this time Rannel gathered larger stones to make a more permanent fire pit. He picked a spot among the trees where they could set up some crude walls to hide the firelight at night. For himself he wouldn't have bothered, but it wasn't fair to Gerril to go without the comfort of fire at night.
"So what do you have planned" Gerril asked after the camp was almost finished.
Rannel looked up from the bags he had unloaded from his pack horse "I'm just one man, I won't be able to confront them directly, so I intend to pick them off a few at a time. If I'm careful they won't even realize that someone is after them at first". He looked down at his bags again for a moment before adding "I want to take them to justice if I can, death would be too quick for them".
He was quiet for a time pulling out smaller bags and setting them in small groups together as he sorted them.
"Whats that" Gerril asked, pointing at the thin rope and hardware Rannel had pulled out of one of the bags.
"It's going to be a trap" Rannel said absently, he looked up to see Gerril's surprise. "Not very heroic, huh" he said as he measured the lengths of rope.
Gerril shook his head "I'm not sure you can do anything else. They would kill you quickly if you just rode in".
"Well, before I actually set any traps I'll have to scout their place. I need to know how many there are" he said.
"You're not just going after the ones who killed your family" Gerril asked.
"I can't I gave my bond to Dherick, I have to take all of the men, if I can find which of them actually killed my family, those would go back to my father for justice. The rest would go to the townsfolk they had been preying on. He said, putting the components of the first trap into a small bag.
The next morning he told Gerril to watch the camp and rode into the direction of the bandit's town. Once fairly close he tethered his horse and made his way on foot. On a hill over the town he pulled out an item he had picked up at the horse fair, it was a long distance glass. He had originally meant for his son to have it. Now it was something he could use to watch his quarry.
For the rest of the day he watched trying to get a feel of their routine. He counted about fifteen men, more than he had been expecting, but he had the feeling there were more he hadn't seen yet, he decided to wait another day before starting with the traps.
For most of the next day nothing much happened, then when he was getting to the point of leaving for his temporary camp another group of three men joined the others. He couldn't get a close look at them at first because the men mobbed them, milling about. They passed full bags to their friends and even from where he watched he could hear the faint shouts that drifted up from the town.
He frowned, something sounded familiar. One of the voices, he was sure he had heard it before. Then he caught sight of the three newly arrived men. Cold shock froze him in place, he almost dropped the viewer as he started to shake.
His brother Merrol. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. His own brother, then the sickening thought came to him, he knew then why a band of men based so far from his home would come and only attack his home and no other. It was almost a joke in his family that he had his money hidden somewhere on his land. If they only knew. Gedrun must not have told them about the secret chamber, though Merrol knew about Gedrun's penchant for building hidden chambers, and guessed it was for storing money. He shook his head feeling sick, if only. He wished he could go back and tell his father about keeping up his membership with the guild, if he had his family would probably still be alive.
The cold settled into his heart, he felt hollow, now it didn't matter if it was his little brother down there he had chosen his fate.
The next morning Rannel started setting his traps, he had watched to see which trails they were apt to take and started on three. The first traps were set to look natural, hopefully they wouldn't realize it was anything but bad luck.
Then he rode back to his base camp to check in with Gerril and pick up some more supplies.
"Where's Yorick" Merrol asked the scouts as they came in.
"Dead, some rocks came down a hill and got him" the man said, walking to the pot of stew they kept going for the scouts.
"That's the third one this week" he shook his head in disgust.
"Ever since we struck yer brother's place tis been bad luck" one of the men grumbled.
Merrol frowned "You weren't supposed to kill them, common blood or not, the boy was still my nephew".
"What bout the man that took the others" a voice came from one of the old buildings of the town.
"My father probably sent him, I'm sure you lost him at the caravan" he said.
"Probably, I didn't see him on my trail" the man from the building added.
"I doubt father would try hard, perhaps for the boy" he frowned at the men. "Not for Graella though, he never thought she was good enough".
"What's wrong with her blood, my folks come from the same parts as she did" the outrider at the stew pot asked.
"Nothing really, but my brother was second son and as such could possibly have inherited if anything had happened to Joran, father wanted to leave open the possibility of an alliance with the neighbors" he said kicking at a stone.
He had always felt that he should have been born eldest, as youngest son there was no future for him at his father's holdings. And Rannel had gotten the land he had been hoping for when he married the bard. He shook his head, everything had always come easy for Rannel, sometimes he could almost hate him for it, but Rannel had taken him under his wing as a child and he still felt a bit of the hero worship he had felt then. He did regret Graella and the boy's death and hoped Rannel never learned of his part in it.
She should have told us what we wanted to know, he still didn't understand why she hadn't, if she had they would be alive now he thought with disgust.
He walked into the building nose wrinkling in disgust at the state his men had left the building in. They would have to bring in some girls from that village, Timmersdale I think it is he thought, they would clean the place up. At least as long as they lasted.
Rannel put the distance viewer down as his brother disappeared into the building. He looked into the distance, planning his next move a cold expression on his face.
Over the next week he picked off five more men, at least one of which he had captured, that one was with Gerril, keeping him company and waiting his fate. Ten men left to go, it appeared that his brother was their leader and he knew that he would probably be dealing with him last. He didn't want to be seen, if his brother realized it was him stalking them he would know their true danger and it would be that much harder for Rannel.
On his way back to Gerril he checked a couple of the traps, now that the men had realized that there was a person after them, he had stopped hiding the nature of the traps. Once sprung it was obvious that they were deliberate. Once he had crept into the edge of their town at night and got their sentry, he left the man with his throat slit and watched from safety as they found the man the next morning, let them deal with the dead he thought coldly.
He heard some movement ahead, silently circling he came from the high ground and looked down upon the creek he had trapped. The man looked up at the faint rustle of leaves.
"Help me, my legs caught under these logs" he said faintly thinking Rannel was one of his friends. Tears of pain ran down his face. His eyes widened in horror as he caught sight of Rannel "you're him" he said hoarsely.
Rannel nodded.
"Why, why are you killing us" he asked in despair.
"You've killed my family" Rannel said focusing on the trapped man.
"You're his brother" he almost whispered.
"Yes" a cold look passed over his face as he tried to decide whether the man was worth carrying to camp.
"He talks about you" the man's voice penetrated his thoughts.
"What"?
"He talks about you all the time" the man said weakly.
"Then why did he set you on my family" he asked.
"For the money you've got stockpiled, never did find it" he said.
"There was no money" Rannel said, pulling the first of the logs from the man's legs.
He walked leading his horse with the bandit tied to the saddle. It took longer but he did make camp before dark.
"How many more" Gerril asked as they walked into camp.
"Nine" he said wearily.
"What will you do then" Gerril asked him.
"If they live, take them in for justice" he said pulling the injured man down from his horse.
"No, I mean after when this is done".
"I don't know, I'll think about it then".
Merrol frowned at his men "You can't leave, we need to keep together".
"Why so he can pick us off" the man asked.
"He'll pick you off anyway if you leave by yourself" he pointed out.
"He doesn't want me, I just joined ye a couple weeks ago" the man said.
"You don't know that I bet those villagers in Timmersdale hired him" Merrol said.
"Naw Fen said they couldn't find no one" another of the men said.
"Then who is this man" Merrol mused.
The next day Rannel watched from his vantage point as two of the men left, heading in the direction of the trade road. Good he thought, the trail they picked was blocked, they would be herded into one of his traps, seven left after these two were taken care of.
Later that day he joined Gerril in camp yet another man to add to his collection, just six more to go.
Merrol sat at the old table brooding three more gone, the first two left on their own but the third had gone out on watch and disappeared. Now they were at the point that he didn't dare send any of his men from the town, there were so few left.
All the next day Rannel waited but no one left the town. Time for phase two he thought to himself and pulled out his bow and looked through his quiver for his best arrows.
A scream woke Merrol from his nap. He stumbled out of bed as one of his men stumbled in and collapsed an arrow breaking off in his chest. He called for his other men, he needed to know if anyone else had been hit only two voices called back. A cold wave of fear ran through Merrol. Trapped, they were trapped and now there weren't enough to stop whoever was hunting them.
Three, he got three of them, now was the time to ride into town before they recovered from this latest attack, he was weary it was time to end this.
Merrol watched from the doorway as the dark rider entered the main street of town, he frowned something was familiar, then a cry and one of his man ran screaming his sword raised to strike the stranger. A flurry of motion and the man choked and fell a dagger in his throat. Merrol stepped out he had the feeling he was doomed.
Rannel watched as his brother stepped out from the dark doorway and came to stand in the middle of the road.
"What do you want of us" he said.
Rannel dismounted and pulled his helmet off and stood staring at his brother with cold and empty eyes.
Merrol turned white, it was Rannel and he knew. "I'm sorry" he said.
Rannel nodded "It doesn't matter" he put his helmet back on and pulled out his sword stalking silently towards his brother.
Gods Merrol thought he had never seen Rannel like this, he backed up slowly.
Rannel cocked his head "Do you really want to face father's justice" he asked walking faster towards Merrol.
No Merrol thought to himself, his heart breaking he pulled out his own sword and walked towards his doom.
Jendry watched from the roof across the road as Merrol backed away from the man in dark leather and mail. He was shocked he had never seen Merrol back down from a fight.
The two men clashed, steel ringing as they made contact, he saw the fight flow as the two seemed evenly matched at first, then he noticed that the stranger was the better fighter and there seemed to be something of the berserker about him as if he didn't care what happened to him as long as he took his opponent out. It was unnerving to watch. Finally Merrol faltered and the strangers sword broke through his guard and into his side. Jendry winced, the wound looked fatal. The stranger stepped back and watched as Merrol dropped his sword and clutched his side, falling to his knees.
"Rannel" Merrol said weakly.
Rannel just looked at him dully, still not quite believing the brother he had almost raised himself was dying at his own hand.
"Rannel, I just want you to know I'm sorry, if she had just told us right away where the money was, they both would still be alive" he said his voice getting weaker as his strength fled with his life's blood down his side.
"There was no money there" Rannel said flatly.
"What" Merrol started to laugh then fell to coughing, blood coming to his lips.
"What a waste" he said his eyes dulling in death.
At the sound of the last man scrambling down from the roof Rannel whirled his sword up and ready.
"Don't, I'm surrendering" Jendry said his hands up and open all weapons left behind. He knew there was only death in fighting the stranger.
After making the last bandit dig his brother's grave he tied his hands and made his way back to Gerril and the base camp.
Sometime later Rannel stood looking out at the fields from the stable door.
"When will you take over the farm again" Gedrun asked.
He turned at his brother's voice "I don't think I can, I still see them" he said softly pointing towards the house he hadn't set foot in even after being back for two weeks. He closed his eyes then looked at his brother again "Could you stay here".
"Yes, but it's yours" Gedrun said.
Rannel shook his head "I can't stay here now, there's no reason now that they're gone" he said a defeated tone to his voice.
"This will always be yours, I'm just holding it for you" his brother said fiercely.
"Thanks" said Rannel then mounted his horse and left without looking behind him once.
Gedrun sighed and turned back to the house.
I do intend to eventually write some more stories with some of these characters