The Lord and Lady in the White Tower
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I own none of this. No, really. Rating: K Time: This is a sequel to the Lady in the White Tower and begins some months after that story ended.
"You're landing the entire army to fight a bunch of pirates?" Kate asked.
"You have no idea how hard it would be to say no to anyone. I need no more than my own regiment for this, but the commanders would be hounding me all day and all night with reasons why their units should go ashore as well."
"It'll take the rest of the day and all of tomorrow to land everyone."
Castle nodded.
"Agreed. But Deese says he can use the time to do some repairs on the former pirate ships and select his crews."
Eventually, everyone was landed. This time the men wore their armor, those that used armor, and carried all of their weapons.
Castle drew his army up on the beach and rode along the lines, examining every unit. Behind him rode Lady Kate, Duchess Ann and Duke Ranald II. Lotus was very upset that she had to remain aboard ship.
"Sorry, but horses will get frightened by tigeries." Kate said softly.
"All the more reason to have me along. What if the pirates have cavalry."
Kate smiled.
"I'm sure we'll manage."
Behind Lord Castle rode his Companions, arrayed as cataphracts, the most heavily armored of all cavalry. Not only were the men protected by chain mail and scale armor as well as some plate armor, but the horses were all protected as well. A close-fitting helmet, called a chamfron, protected the horses' heads, and their bodies were protected by either chain mail or a coat of plates. Their legs were not armored, however.
When he had ridden in front of his army, he turned and rode behind them. Sometimes soldiers who lacked necessary equipment were "hidden" in the rear ranks by their officers so as to disguise any failings in the unit. He found none.
When he was done, Castle rode out in front of his army. He turned to Lady Kate.
"Never in the field of human conflict have so few been attacked by so many."
Kate giggled.
The island was not at all hilly nor did it have any rugged land. Small groups of pirates were hunted down and killed. They fought to the death since they knew they'd be hung if taken alive. Some tried to pretend to be innocent farmers, but they were soon discovered and killed by the inhabitants of Xocho.
A courier rode up to Lord Castle.
"Baron Jomini's compliments, Lord Castle. There's a band of men on one of the few little hills they have here. They appear to be armed with farm implements and a few may be soldiers. They are led by a man in chain mail who has a sword. Baron Jomini doesn't think we should attack them, but they won't lay down their arms. They say they'll die first. Oh, and they have women and children with them."
"I'll see if I can talk some sense into them. Lead us to them."
Castle and his regiment were led to Baron Jomini's regiment. Things were as the courier had said.
"I'll ride up under a flag of truce and see who they are." Castle said.
"I'll go with you." Kate said. "They won't be as suspicious if you have a woman with you."
"We can…" Duchess Ann began but was cut off by Rick.
"No, Ann. You and young Ranald stay here. One woman foolishly risking her life is enough." Rick said.
Kate stood in her stirrups and looked around.
"There's s woman here abouts foolishly risking her life? Where?"
Castle, wisely, said nothing.
Someone found a piece of white cloth and tied it to a spear. Castle and Kate rode slowly towards the people on this small hill.
"Greetings," Castle said, "I'm Lord Richard Castle, Viceroy of all of Emperor Paulus' Auracanian lands, including this one. This is my wife, Lady Kate. May I ask who you are, sir."
The soldier nodded.
"Captain Orton. Do you work for that bastard Slaughter?"
"No. He works for me, at least until I get back to New Port. May I ask what you want here?"
"We want not to be robbed." Said an older man, carrying a scythe. "We want to live in peace."
"And Slaughter prevents that?" Castle asked.
"He taxes us mercilessly. All of the food on those pirate ships was taken from us and sold to the pirates to feed their families while ours starve." Said the older man.
"And the soldiers enforce this?" Castle asked, looking at Orton.
"No! No," Cried the crowd. "Orton and his men are good men. They would help us if they could."
"And why can't Orton help you?"
"That bastard Slaughter took our weapons and armor and locked them up in the armory. For safekeeping, he said. Then he sold them to the pirates. The weapons those pirates had are my men's weapons and armor." Orton said.
"You have weapons and armor."
Orton laughed.
"I've been a soldier for many a year. I know a trick or two."
"What happened to the gold be received for the food and weapons." Asked Lady Kate. "None of it has been sent back to the emperor."
"The bastard has it locked up in a strong room. Only he has the key." Orton growled.
"If he disarmed all of his soldiers, how did he steal from the peasants and fishermen?" Kate asked.
"He has fifty or so bully boys to do that." Orton replied. "Not a soldier among 'em, naught but killers and thieves."
"Just based on his drunkenness, I plan to remove Slaughter as governor. If what you say is true, he'll be sent back to the Capitol as a prisoner."
"What should we do now?" Orton asked.
"I'd suggest you all return to your homes." Rick said.
"How do we know we can trust you?"
Rick smiled.
"If I wanted you dead, my horse archers could have reduced all of you to mere pin cushions. Of course, you can stay up here on this hill until my men, and I are gone." He looked at the sky. "It might rain, you know."
Orton sheathed his sword.
"I and my men will return to New Port with you. I advise the others to go to their homes."
"My husband will see to it that you are paid for the excess food taken from you. And, Captain Orton, you can begin rearming your men by stripping the arms and armor from the dead pirates."
Orton looked at Rick.
"Agreed."
When Castle returned to New Port, Slaughter was no longer there. Appreciating that his days as acting governor were almost over, he opened his strongroom and gathered his four mistresses. Each woman carried a large bag of gold to a small fishing boat. Slaughter carried only wine. When they returned for the next load of gold, Slaughter heard his bully boys coming. They knew the game was up and would want their share of the loot. Slaughter locked up his strongroom and headed for the boat with his mistresses.
The bully boys cursed and ran after Slaughter, but by the time they reached the docks, he was long gone. They went back to the strongroom and battered it with sledgehammers, axes and prybars, but couldn't get it open.
Some years later, an Imperial ship exploring south of Aurum found a small city dominated by four wealthy young women who had arrived in a small fishing boat along with four bags of gold. They had had a manservant with them, but he had gotten drunk, fallen overboard and drowned. The Imperial ship's captain didn't think this was important enough to put in his report.
The bully boys stole other boats and fled. Most died violently, either being killed in back-alley brawls or by being hung.
One who survived was called Abelard the Strong. He arrived at a small city on the coast, filthy, starving, penniless, unarmed and nearly naked. Luckily for him, there was a monastery in the city that would provide strangers passing through with a meal of bread and cheese, and some well-watered wine along with a hard and lumpy cot to sleep on. The monks wished to encourage passersby to keep on moving.
However, Abelard begged to be allowed to stay, noting that he was quite strong, even in his depleted state and could do much hard work. The monks, having much hard work that needed to be done, agreed to keep him around.
Abelard did more than work hard, he also studied. He began by reading religious books for children and moving on to more weighty tomes and eventually reading quite esoteric books and debating religious principals with the monks. Soon, he was Brother Abelard.
The monks were quite happy with their success with Brother Abelard, at least until Brother Abelard absconded with three young nuns and all of the gold, silver and valuable items the monastery had. The monks never saw Abelard, the nuns or their valuables again.
Castle and his army returned to New Port to find Slaughter gone as well as his thugs. He also found that the strongroom was locked.
"Elben!" Castle yelled at the man who had been Slaughter's scribe. "Where is the key to the strongroom?'
"I assume with Acti…I mean with Slaughter, Lord Castle. He always kept the key on his person. On a chain around his neck, it was."
"Is there a spare?"
"No, Lord Castle. Just the one key."
Castle examined the damage that the thugs had done to the strongroom door. They had worked very hard and had accomplished very little.
"The steel door cannot be forced easily. Can we chop through the walls of the strongroom?"
"It would be as difficult as cutting through the door, Lord Castle. The room is made of thick concrete, reinforced with many bars of steel. The same with the ceiling and floor, of course."
"It could take us days to see what's inside, if anything."
"Rick," Kate said, "the townsfolk said that Slaughter only had time to remove four bags of gold before he was chased away. But, if you'll allow me to send Alyssa to the ship for one of my bags, I'll try to open it for you."
Castle agreed and Alyssa was soon back with the bag.
"If you could keep everyone away, lover, I wouldn't want anyone to discover my secrets."
Lord Castle's troops were happy to give Kate all the room she needed.
"How will she open it?" Asked Marko, a young horse archer who had only joined the Norren Heavy Cavalry just before they had left for the Golden Coast.
Alvaro, an older cavalryman leaned in and spoke softly.
"Don't say that you heard this from me as Lord Castle doesn't like such rumors about his wife, but I'm sure she'll conjure up a demon straight from the bowels of Hell. He'll rip the door right off. And with one hand."
Petro, another cavalryman, spat.
"Not her style at all. She doesn't go for brute force. She'll call up some demons, all right, but they'll just walk through solid steel and open the door from inside."
However, Lady Kate had opened the door to the strongroom without any such help.
"All done." She said, handing Alyssa her bag to take back to the ship.
"You opened it?" Rick asked.
"Of course. There's quite a bit of gold in there. Not just coins, but all manner of gold plate and jewelry, as well as silver and other valuables. We should be able to pay the local farmers and fishermen quite handsomely and still have most of it left."
Castle had Brother Ryan and a group of scribes inventory the loot and evaluate it. It was quite a tidy sum.
When that was done, he called Captain Orton to the governor's mansion.
"Can you read and write?" Castle asked. "And do math?"
"I have my letters and I can do sums."
"In that case, I'm appointing you the new governor of the Islands of Pelicans. The Emperor will have to confirm it, but I doubt that'll be more than a formality."
"I know nothing of being a governor." Orton protested.
"You know what'll happen to you if you steal from the people or oppress them. I can't leave any of my officers here. I'll need every one of them when we reach the Golden Coast. The money and other loot that Slaughter stole will be divided into fifths. One fifth will be sent to the emperor as taxes. That should make him happy. Unexpected money always makes people happy. One fifth will go to the people who had their goods stolen. They can buy food from the mainland until they can plant crops next spring. And they'll have a bit left over. One fifth goes with me. I have expenses as well as the emperor does. The other two fifths stays here with you to run the colony. You need schools, hospitals, and many other things. Do not waste the money on foolishness."
Orton bowed.
"I shall do my best, Lord Castle."
"I'll know if you don't."
TBC