I have topped all previous chapters again. I'm trying to make sure that every chapter is a bit longer than the previous. I've only had one review so far by Derathon. As it was anonymous I don't know who you are but thanks. You gave my ego a boost and I kept writing with renewed vigor. Read and review people. Enjoy.

I awoke early in the morning; I got up yawning deeply before heading for a shave. I had a bit of a beard growing but it was too hot that far south for a beard. I wasn't sure when we would have the manpower for a trip back up north so the beard was unnecessary. As I shaved, blonde hair falling in small clumps; all I could think of was that I needed a bath. It hadn't been two full weeks since my father's execution and for some reason my concerns were a smooth face and to not smell of dirt and sweat.

The Merchant said he would meet me at the inn we were staying at. I went down the stairs to find some of my men were also already up and drinking. Ymira was nowhere to be seen probably still asleep. The men and I were talking about what to do next. We of course needed more men. I was talking to the hulk of a man Balda.

"Ok we head north-west of here and check Epeshe, then north to Dumar," I said drawing a line with my finger on the map I picked up in the market.

"Well sir I suggest that after that, I have some friends up in Reveran, and I know that there should be some men who wouldn't mind joining up," he said pointing the town out on the map.

"That puts us pretty close to the town of Ilvia too," I said pointing just a little south-west of Reveran.

It took a while but eventually everyone was awake and drinking, eating and talking. I heard the door and went up to meet with the merchant. He was alive but had sadness written on his face. We went to the back to talk.

"Treda, things didn't go quite as expected. King Graveth couldn't quite find it in himself to overlook our little breach of the peace. Oh… trust me he is grateful that we ridded him of his crooked captain. A guard who lets bandits in will let in the enemy, if the price is right. But he can't have me running around. I'd be a lasting reminder that he couldn't take care of things himself," he said letting out a sigh.

"That hardly seems fair…" I started

"Fair? This is Caldaria lad! Kings do what they will, the rest of us do as they must. I'm lucky to not be hanging by a noose in the square. Instead he gave me time to sell my properties. He even put in a word with the other merchants to pay the best price too. That is very generous as far as kings go, but he is a weak king, as they all are, and weak kings must always look to their authority first, and justice second. I guess I would do the same in his shoes," he said scratching his thick beard, "anyways, I downplayed your part in this affair to the king. He has taken note of you, but decided that you're not worth hanging, and that, my boy is something to which I'd raise my glass any day of the week. Anyways I hope you've learned a bit about what it takes just to live another day in this land. I suspect that, that money won't go to waste. Good luck," he said as he turned and left.

I just sat there for a while. I didn't think things would go great but to be banished from your town. It gave me a pang of home sickness. The kings in this land all seemed to be weak and cowardly. I put on a smile and walked back to my men and decided I would need to talk to Ymira.

"Ymira may I have a word with you," I said interrupting her drinking solo again.

"Yes captain?" she asked mock serious.

"Well soldier," I said returning her mock serious tone and chuckling. We continued on like that for a couple of minutes. I sobered up as I remembered what I had to talk to her abouit

"We are good for provisions and weapons. But we need another horse and a covered wagon. You said that you knew the tricks of the trade. I was wondering if you could get us a deal," I said becoming serious.

She nodded also sobering up.

"Well Treda, If you can spare the coin I will do my best to get you the best price I can," she said standing up.

"Let us go," I said leading her to the door, "men we'll be back within the hour. I want everyone packed and ready to leave by then."

We left watching them began to slowly make their way towards their rooms.

It took a while to get to the market and things were quiet between us. We didn't have much to say. Arriving I handed her the pouch with 500 Denars in it.

She nodded and ran off. I lost sight of her in the crowd. For some reason I was afraid she would run of with my money. 500 Denars wasn't a huge sum, but one could live for quite a while on that much money if they were careful.

I breathed a sigh of relief to see her pulling a horse through the crowd. I wasn't exactly sure what had taken so long.

"And the wagon?" I asked curiously, seeing only the horse.

"Well the wagon will need both horses to pull so the wagon will be ready for us when we get back with the other horse," she said handing me the bag.

I was surprised at how heavy it was. I began to quickly count the coins.

"How did you manage to spend so little?" I asked without being able to keep the surprise from my voice. She smiled almost bashfully.

"I said my father is a wealthy merchant. He didn't get that wealth by being a bad merchant. As I said he taught me the tricks of the trade. It took a while but I managed to talk the man down quite a bit. I also had to talk to my contacts about a couple of things," she finished as we left.

I shook my head in disbelief. She hadn't even spent half of the bag. I expected to get 50 Denars back if I was lucky. We walked back talking; I just couldn't seem to stop praising her. It was only a simple thing but I didn't know it was possible to talk merchants down so low. I spent close to 200 on my lame horse. She didn't even spend 250 and got both a horse and a wagon.

We arrived to find everyone ready to leave. We both hurried to our rooms and gathered our belongings. We left as a group and headed to the market carrying all of the provisions we had. We loaded it into the wagon and got the horses into place. The wagon was large and had seats along the sides. We sold off all of the spare weapons and the furs we gathered from the bandit's hideout. Again Ymira came through. What I might have been lucky to get a hundred coins for, she netted close to two-hundred. She had almost made back the money that was spent on the horse and wagon. The men got in back and we headed out. Ymira insisted on sitting up front with me. I mounted up setting my shield up against the back of the seat. We had been going on for most of the day in silence say for the bit of chatter from the back of the wagon.

"So what made you want to run a company of mercenaries?" Ymira asked curiously, "You look a little young to be leading men into battle. How old are you, Twenty-one, Twenty-two?"

"Twenty-four actually," I stated, "and I am out for… revenge."

"Revenge on whom?" she asked. Apparently I had piqued her curiosity.

"A very powerful man up north in the kingdom of the Vaegirs," I said careful not to let it slip that I was planning on taking on a king.

"What did he do to have a young man after him? You seem like you are serious, I haven't talked much with your soldiers. But I have heard something about you single-handedly saved the village of Ruldi from a hundred bandits."

I laughed heartily.

"No, no there was half that many," I said still chuckling, "and besides I didn't do much. I only really came up with the plan. The villagers did most of the work."

"Sir you're being too modest," a voice came followed by a head popping out of the wagon's cover, "this man took out the bandit leader with a single crossbow bolt. He had everything planned it was amazing he came up with it only two hours before the bandits arrived. If he hadn't have been there, the bandits would have either stolen everything, or simply burned the village and killed everyone."

I was embarrassed at having someone speak so highly of me. From a young age I was running around for nobles, they would not praise anything I did; they didn't want it to go to my head. I was praised occasionally by my master who trained me to be a squire, but only if I managed to do something perfectly, which wasn't very often.

"I was just doing what had to be done," I said scratching the back of my head. I liked the praise, but I couldn't help but think that soon I would be ordering these men to do what I had prevented from happening at Ruldi.

"So please continue," she said going back to our first topic, "what did that man do to have you after him?"

"He killed my father," I could've said that he ordered it, but I felt that his men were just an extension of his will.

She became quiet. I wasn't sure if I should have told her that.

"I'm sorry I didn't know. When did it happen?" she asked suddenly quieting her volume.

"Almost two weeks ago," I stated bluntly.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"I'm doing fine," I said taking a small breath, "I just try to put it out of my mind."

After that, talking seemed to cease completely. I know that it was a bit of surprise but… I just couldn't let my emotions get the better of me; me falling into a bout of deep depression over my father would just be the same as letting Yaroglek win.

We were passing some of the huge mountains on our destination to see a sight. We saw at least five-hundred men walking in our direction. A banner was waving at the head of the army. The banner was blue and red stripes with a white winged serpent in the center.

"Ymira, who is that?" I asked to make sure it wasn't a Vaegir lord come for my head.

"That is the banner of Lord Tarchias, of the Rhodoks of course," she said unknowingly putting me at ease, "he is the lord of Maras castle and its village of Reveran."

The army got closer and we met with them. Halting our wagon and grabbing my shield. I hopped down and met with the lord.

"Well met sir," I said bowing a bit.

"Yes, yes who are you and what is your business," he said getting straight to the point

"My name is Treda. I am part of a noble family," I said motioning my shield, "what has happened to your army. Your men are battered and bleeding."

"I have never seen that heraldry before," he said referring to my shield. It was completely black, say for a thick white cross. My father always joked that our family heraldry meant we were the light in the darkness. "We have been at war with damned Swadians. I am on my way to Jelkala to rest my men and prepare for another attack."

"Well sir, do you have any tasks that you need completed?" I asked.

"Now that you mention it the people of Reveran, haven't paid their taxes in quite some time. I would go myself but this damned war is taking all of my time. How about you go and collect the taxes and bring the money to me. You can keep 15% of the total taxes," he said waiting for my reply.

I put some thought into it.

"I accept your offer lord," I said nodding, "where will I find you when I am done my task?"

"As you can see by the state of my men we will in Jelkala for some time. Two weeks minimum," he said giving me a good idea at how long I should have, "and Treda, if you take the taxes and run I will spend every waking moment tracking you. I will not eat or sleep until your head sits upon a pike adorning my castle walls. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes sir," I said gulping audibly.

"In that case off with you," he said turning and taking his leave.

We set off immediately after. Even by wagon we spent most of the day on the road. We arrived at the village of and bought new supplies. We tossed the remainder of the pork in a ditch outside the village. We had eaten most of it before it had gone bad, but the last thing I wanted was that rancid meat spoiling everything in the wagon. We found four men willing to join my cause. By the time we left we had almost filled the wagon to the brim with food, men and their weapons. We had one seat left in the back.

We managed to reach the town of Dumar before the sun began its decent. We found another five men to join us. When we left instead of forcing four of the men to walk we opened the back of the wagon and they hung off the end. We had been traveling for a while before we stopped and rested. We cracked into bread and cheese. Having over twenty men meant we were going to go through supplies fast.

Tying up the horses we stopped for the night. Setting up a couple of fires we readied camp. I came up with the list of how watch would work. Night seemed to drag on, even more so when I was on watch. When the sun rose we headed off again. Chatter had picked up yesterday after picking up more men. The men were swapping stories and laughing. I had Ymira, but after our talk the previous day, things had quieted between us. I hated to see that, I should have just kept my mouth shut about my father. I couldn't just lie about my motives.

We reached Reveran before nightfall. But we had spent most of the day on the road. The townspeople were happy to see us. I bought more supplies and paid with silver, which put a smile on the elders face. Of course those smiles turned to frowns when I announced we were here to gather Lord Tarchias' taxes.

"Why should we pay that bastard, we give him large amounts of food to keep his army fed. We also give food to his castle to keep the garrison fed. But when we were hounded by bandits we were turned down," the elder said becoming almost hostile, "why should we also pay a man who can't even keep us safe?"

I thought on this. I could skip gathering the taxes and get an earful from the lord and possibly punishment. Or I could force these men and women to pay.

The choice was obvious

We set up a table and Ymira sat at it. She had picked up a ledger, from where she got it I hadn't the slightest.

"Treda, this will take the rest of today and all of tomorrow, maybe even digging into the next. This will be hard work, I will have gather everyone's name and write up how much money they paid. There is more to it than that but I will not bore you with the details," she said breathing a sigh. I could see that this would be hard work.

The townspeople were unhappy at this. I was forced to pull the elder off to the side and talk sense to him. Of course by that I mean I lied through my teeth. I told him that if the townspeople didn't pay their taxes, Lord Tarchias, would arrive in force and take care of it himself, I through in some violent details to add to it. This changed his mind quickly. Before long a large portion of the village was lined up with small pouches of money. The money was put into a chest.

Things were going fine for the first day and night. The second day people were grumbling and the second night trouble struck. While I was out for a stroll several villagers attacked me. Six of them with staffs ambushed me, being a swordsman made this simple. But I had to be careful. If I killed them willy-nilly things would get complicated. As the first charged me a smashed him with my shield, as he stumbled I hit him hard with the pommel of my sword. It took a while and some fancy footwork, but I managed to take them all down without doing any serious wounds. I gathered my men who tied them up. The elder wasn't happy to be woken up so late, even less so when we through six of his fellow villagers in front of him. He apologized profusely; he promised this wouldn't happen again. He was very lucky I didn't just hang them by the table as a warning; I left that out of the conversation of course.
By the end of the three days we had gather close to five-thousand silver coins. I was never good with math but was told by Ymira, that, that was seven-hundred and fifty for me.

I asked the elder before we left if he had anyone who would like to make a fortune in battle. He shook his head, choosing instead to give me dirty looks. Balda apologized a lot to me. He said that his friends don't even want to speak with him. I felt bad; I didn't want to put a wedge in-between friends, but that had to be done. We needed the cash. Even thou it was beginning to get dark, we headed out. I feared for our safety if we overstayed our welcome. It wasn't much but I left close to fifty Denars at the elder's home. It wouldn't repay what we had to do, but it made me feel a little better. I believe that was what those Sarranid preachers were always going on about. I believe they called it karma. They said that you must keep it in check. Too many bad deeds without good and you would find yourself without friends quickly.

As we stopped for the night Ymira camped out next to me.

"Sir, are you awake?" I heard her calling after we had all eaten and headed to our bed rolls.

"Yes what is it Ymira?" I replied keeping my tone down.

"Sir are we always going to have to do that," she said following suite in quieting down.

"We do what is necessary to survive," I stated. I could have told her about the horrors she would probably witness before my mission was completed. But she was a rather innocent girl; I didn't feel it was my right to crush such a delicate flower.

"That makes me sad," she said with sorrow in her voice.

"I think I know what you mean," I replied.

"Did you pay attention to the villagers? Some of them didn't look like they had eaten in a week," she stated unknowingly hitting me in the stomach.

I had noticed but said nothing. I noticed the starving children. I had noticed that the fields were already picked clean. But I said nothing, did nothing.

"I think that you should put it out of your mind. I know that things are horrible. But I think that we can change things," I said trying to change the subject.

"What do you mean you can change things?" she asked curiously.

"What do you mean?" I asked

"You just said you think you could change things,"

"I did not; I said we could change things,"

"Right sir…" she said letting out a deep yawn.

"Ymira, just go to sleep."

To this day I still don't know what I said. Or what she heard for that matter.

Ilvia was a sight for sore eyes. We were welcomed by the townsfolk, this time we bore no news of taxes. Purchasing more food and gathering up more men. I was extremely surprised to find ten men who wanted to join up. Of course they wanted a fee; five Denars each. I paid it of course. It was payday anyways. My other twenty men lined up and received their two coins. I slipped Ymira ten, she deserved it. With the way she handled those merchants in Jelkala and the ledgers in Reveran.

"Treda, we need to make a stop in Yalen," Ymira said to me off to the side.

"Why?" I asked curiously

"Well we need a second wagon unless you want a third of your men walking," she started, "that and if my contacts in Jelkala were correct you can make a lot of coin."

This piqued my interest.

"How so?" I asked; she had me begging to find out.

"I don't want to get your hopes up in case my sources are wrong," she said keeping it to herself, "let us stop there O.K.?"

"Agreed," I said motioning for us to get going.

Yalen was really similar to Jelkala; its walls white and the people friendly. A difference was that there was no sign of bandits lounging about. Heading off to the market we bought a second wagon and two more horses. That is when Ymira disappeared for a while. She found me and pulled me off to the side; away from the crowded market place.

"Sir my sources are correct," she said with a broad smile on her face.

"What were they correct about, if I may ask," I replied curiously.

"Sir we are going to fill the second wagon with salt," she said her smile somehow getting bigger.

"Salt?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yes salt. Salt is currently being sold for less than one-hundred Denars a bag," she said quieting down.

"Yes. So?" I wasn't sure where she was going.

"It's being sold here for less than a hundred. But being bought for over two-hundred per bag in Jelkala," she caught herself from getting louder.

My jaw dropped.

"I talked to my sources. They heard salt was going down in a hurry here. We're going to spend all of the money we have on salt; then sell it all in Jelkala. We should make over ten thousand," how her smile got bigger I will never know. I was surprised it hadn't taken up her entire face.

"Wait how does that work? I don't even have fifteen-hundred Denars. What you are saying implies I have at least five thousand," I was wondering if she screwed up the math.

"Sir we have five thousand in that chest under the cart.

"You want me to spend Lord Tarchias' money?" I almost shouted my eyes widening. A couple of people looked at me before turning back to what they were doing.

"You want me to spend Lord Tarchias' money?" I said going back down to a whisper.

"Yes sir," she said nodding, "we make an additional five-thousand on top of the seven-hundred and fifty he owes you. He won't be the wiser. It's all profit no risk,"

"And if the price has dropped in Jelkala?" I asked trying to challenge her, "then we have a ton of salt, no buyers, no money and my head on a plate at Lord Tarchias' table."

"Sir you heard him he knows the job could take a while. If we go to Jelkala and the price has lowered we can just go to a different city. We make a huge sum of Denars and he still gets his money," she said winning the argument, "win, win."

I let out a deep sigh.

"Fine you win. I'll go get the chest and my purse," I said heading off.

We brought the second wagon over to the goods merchant and made our purchase. His jaw dropped when we pulled out sixty-five hundred Denars and bought sixty-five bags of salt. The men helped load up the wagon. We decided to stay the rest of the day before heading back. Even thou it hadn't been a week since Jelkala I wanted to sleep in another bed. I made sure to keep some coin. I offered to pay for everyone's room in the tavern; cheaper than and inn and less private, but more comfortable than a bed roll on the dirt.

Sitting and drinking with Ymira we began talking about random things.

"Treda, mind if I ask a question?" she asked curiously.

"Sure. What's on your mind?" I asked drinking back the last of a pint and signaling for another.

"Why did you help your men load up the cart?" she asked as if she thought I was crazy.

"Why not?" I said giving a question in return.

"Well you're the captain. You should be ordering them to do it," she said as if I had committed a crime. She finished her ale and ordered another.

"I don't know, I may be of noble blood but I wasn't privy to much special treatment. I was a page as a kid and a squire as an young adult. I was getting close to joining up with the Vaegir army as a higher up before my father was killed," I said stating the facts, "I guess I was taught to carry my own weight. Not just pass jobs onto others."

"If only kings thought that way," she said with a smile, "they spend most of their time sitting in a comfortable chair sipping wine and eating roasted pork, while they send thousands to their deaths. If only Caldaria could be united under a single banner. We could stop most of the wars and let the land and its people flourish," she let out a sigh her smiling fading, "instead we are too busy killing each other to do something like that. Even those who aren't doing the killing still profit."

"I once heard that money makes the world go round," I said nodding, 'it seems right now that that it isn't money, but blood that makes our world go round right now," I said as I finished another ale and looked up at the ceiling.

"There has to be someone who can change that," she said finished yet another mug of ale.

"Yes someone should change everything. But who could change this land of blood?" I asked looking back down.

She had her face pressed to the table.

"Ymira?" I asked puzzled, only getting light snoring in reply. I smiled at this as I walked over to her.

"Upsidaisy," I said hefting her up. I couldn't even tell she was drunk enough to pass out. For such a small women she sure could hold her alcohol.

I walked over to the counter and tossed down a couple of coins to the bartender.

"Your wife passed out, eh?" the bartender said with a smile.

"She's not my wife," I said my face feeling like it burning up a bit.

"Sure either way your a lucky man," he said keeping his smile as he went about scrubbing a mug.

Heading up stairs to the bed rolls, Ymira was mumbling in her sleep. I laid her down on one of the bed rolls. She was beautiful, flowing blonde hair and a gorgeous figure. Her cleavage was visible her breathing lifting her chest up and down. I turned away my face burning.

"You really are an interesting man Treda," Ymira mumbled yawning.

"Hmm, what do you mean?" I said quickly afraid she had caught my gaze.

"I'm sure any other man down there would have either left me there or tried something up here," she said eyes closed, smiling.

"Doesn't seem right to take advantage of someone. I guess I was raised that way," I said tucking her in and letting out a small breath of relief.

"Ya, thank you…" she didn't finish before I heard snoring.

I followed suite going to my own bed roll. The difference was she was sleeping; I was just staring at the ceiling thinking. I had thirty men under my command; I needed to get a lot more than that. I would also need a lot more than five-thousand Denars to get all the weapons, provisions, horses, wagons and soldiers I would need. I had some plans to get a lot of coin to fill our coffers.

The problem was I could think of nothing that wouldn't end in bloodshed.

I hope you guys (all what, ten of you) have enjoyed reading thus far. I have no ETA on when chapter five will be started. Probably soon but it won't be done for a while.