Reincarnated As A Peasant - Book 1 Chapter 32: A Good Kidnapping, Gone Horribly Wrong

Landar

“So let me get this straight,” Tomas said, as we all stood in our family’s living room. The table and chairs had been pushed out into the hallway to help the knights protect the stairs. “You’re going to take Tabitha to your uncle’s house and keep her there until this all blows over, and no one will touch her there?”

“Yes, kind of.” Roland looked as uncomfortable with the idea as Tomas did. “It’s a noble tradition called a bridle kidnapping. It’s used during wedding negotiations to sequester the bride, or groom, though that is less common traditionally, until a proper dowry can be negotiated between her family and the grooms. She’ll be kept safe until negotiations are finished and seen too by a neutral party. In this case, that neutral party will be the red priesthood.”

“And they’re willing to do this. Why?” Elsbeth asked, her eyes darting to the intimidating bald-headed men who stood menacingly in the corners of our small apartment.

“Your husband’s service to the coronet gives us the right to interpose jurisdictionally. As the red is over most military matters. But the real reason is, we need as many of these petty squabbles between the gray and the blue settled as possible, so we can force a peace. You are not the only such case we are intervening in, nor is the red the only organization doing so.”

“Exactly.” Roland picked back up the explanation. “Your and my engagement is just one of the most recent examples of situations where the gray and blue have butted heads.” His gaze fell on Tabitha and even now, I saw my sister melt and a soft smile cross her face.

Gah, that girl has it bad.

“The fact that more and more people are being recruited by the gray, and choosing to avoid the blue all together, including some noble houses, has been perhaps the greatest driving force behind this conflict.” Roland continued. “You add to that, the fact that the majority of fighting age blues are going to be temporarily conscripted and under the control of the red, while the gray will be able to operate independently due to the clerics already being integrated into the duchies military, and you have even greater reason for conflict.”

“They’re afraid they’re being replaced practically, diminished socially, and finally having no control over the fact their lives are going to be put in danger.” I said, nodding along with the explanation. “That would terrify anyone or a group of people.”

I saw the ballad red robed man’s eyes examine me, and after a moment he gave me a subtle nod of acknowledgement. “The blood spilled today will only make that fear and bitterness grow more sour I’m afraid.” The red-robed man I was beginning to think of as a monk said. “And right on the cusp of war. The duchy and the kingdom can not afford this. We can only pray Sigvald is able to get to and talk sense into, the Arch-Duke before this continues to escalate.”

So we are one tiny drama in a much bigger play. Interesting. Hopefully that means the blue won’t pursue us much more than they already have. They, like everyone, seem to have much bigger fish to fry than a few uppity peasants who won the genetic lottery.

“But you still have to get her to your uncle’s place. That’s on the other side of the city, near the west gate, isn’t it?” Tomas asked, concern crossing his expression. “You’d have to get through the center of the city, and the main roads are choked with fighting, or soldiers trying to contain it. Where I need to be.”

I could tell the fact he was here dealing with this issue bothered Tomas. His men were out there, in the chaos, doing their best to mitigate the damage being caused. As we sat in silence, several strings of light came through the window from the direction of the temple. One of the guard towers, its roof exposed over the rooftops of the other tenant buildings, exploded outward in a stream of bright white light.

A figure rose from it, wreathed in fire that it threw down at the source of that light. The second figure rose into the sky, trying to intercept the fire user, and after a moment the two sped off in a chase north, into the noble section of the city.

“The fighting has escalated to the low nobility among the orders. We have to move now if we have any hope of getting her to safety before we are needed elsewhere.” The red-robed monk said, as he moved towards the door. “If you want our help, Gaudhaus family, you need to accept it now.”

Tomas looked to Elsbeth, and the two of them held hands for a moment. “Alright.” Tomas’s voice was steady, but it was clear he was holding back his own anxiety. “We trust you Roland. Do what you have to do. What should we do, though? Stay here?”

“Sir Ezekial could use your help. He and his men can help you figure out what to do next.”

With that, Roland and Tabitha stood and left, the red-robed monks trailing behind them. An aura of controlled violence I had only felt a handful of times before in this world, palpable and real as a gust of wind, washed over me as they closed ranks and marched down to the streets.

A man in steel armor with a light shade of blue to it, as if it had been stained in the quenching process, took off his helmet. Golden hair and a very, very punchable face became visible. “I am Sir Ezekial.”

“You!” I hissed the word. “You backhanded me in the street!”

My father was on his feet, magical mace-club already up from where he had left it leaning against the wall. The room instantly filled with the humm of magic as the weapon activated, and my father prepared to kill something. Or someone.

My own axes were out and in hand. But I knew there was no way I’d survive if this went to an actual fight. The bastard would gut me, and then probably handle Tomas like he was a child.

“Peace, Gaudhaus family. Peace.” The handsome bastard said in a calm voice that only made me want to punch him in the face even more.

“Are you the one who laid a hand on my boy?!” Tomas’s voice made my ears ache as he roared his rage and question at the same time.

The knight grimaced, but he didn’t try to lie. “It’s true. I mistook your son’s ignorance for disrespect and acted rashly.”

“Noble or not, I’ll lay you flat and drag you back to your father for proper punishment! See how you like the taste of the Lord-Collectors boot in your ass, boy.” Tomas twitched, and for a moment I thought he was going to take things too far. But then a hand rested on his elbow, and he froze like a stone statue in winter.

“Calm down, husband.” Elsbeth’s voice carried that tone that some women, particularly mothers, have mastered. That ‘oh, so you think you’re going to get away with this, do you? Watch me find the worst possible punishment for you and make you think it was your idea the entire time.

Tomas lowered the club, and the tension in the room fell. The doomsday clock moved back an hour or so, so to speak.

Everyone seemed frozen in that stillness, as Elsbeth walked over to the knight. A crack reverberated through the small room as Elsbeth left a large red mark on the man’s cheek.

“That’s for laying hands on my son, and for terrifying my daughter.” Then she pulled him into a light hug and kissed the very spot she had left, red and angry. When she withdrew, her face was beet red. “And that is for helping us. Now, what do we need to do?”

He straightened, as Elsbeth returned to stand beside Tomas. “Right. I deserved that. My men and I have been assigned to this section by the watch commanders to help ensure the drama of this little play doesn’t spill over into the drudge and commoner quarters. You have two options. You can stay here, and hope to stay out of notice, or you can come with us as we do our work. If you wish my opinion, you’d be safer on the move, with a knight escort. What would you like to do?”

***

I found myself on the street with my father and a cadre of knights. Elsbeth and I were at the center of the formation, as the knights went from street to street, instructing groups of peasants to get in doors or to safer accommodations. Being on the street was not safe, even this far from the fighting.

Flaming debris fell from the sky on several occasions as we worked, and it was only the skills of the knights, using spells or abilities to extinguish flames, or block falling hail storms of stone that prevented the worst from happening.

I guess they’re not totally useless after all, I thought as I kept up with them. Elsbeth and Tomas were both instrumental in getting the larger, and usually angrier groups of peasants and drudges to seek shelter. On one occasion a knight had to use an ability to light his sword on fire getting the crowd’s attention enough, that reason and fear broke through the mob mentality that had seemed to grip nearly a hundred people who had gathered around a well.

Originally, they had organized to try to fight the fires. But at the sight of the knights, an easy and visible target for their anger at the nobility who were literally raining destruction on their homes and families, that anger boiled over. Questions turned into hurled insults and insults into rocks.

Luckily, no one was hurt in the mad stampede to escape the false wrath of the fire-sword wielding knight. But as I watched them run in several cases, it was a close thing.

“It’s like herding cattle.” One of the knights said. “You try not to use the crop, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.”

He wasn’t wrong, but his attitude about it rankled. “They’re just afraid. And angry.” I found myself saying before I could even think to examine the words. “You would be too, if the person who was meant to protect you and your family suddenly didn’t want to do that anymore.”

The leader of the knights, the son of the Lord Collector, gave me an appraising look, then nodded curtly. “The young boy is correct, Keirgard. The priesthoods, much like the knightly orders, have a duty that comes along with our station. And the Blue have decided that duty to be too heavy of a burden, and bulked at the last. Their actions shame the nobility. Their anger is righteous, even if we must contain it for their own safety as much as ours.”

“That’s your father speaking,” Tomas said, smiling. “It’s good to see you’ve learned a thing or two from him.”

The young man grunted and moved us along to the next street. The sounds of magical attacks raging came from nearby, and we whirled to meet it as a group. “You two stay back. Gaudhaus, you might want to watch your family. We’ll deal with breaking up the fighting.”

Tomas grunted, and ushered both Elsbeth and into shelter inside the entranceway to another apartment building, where we could still see most of the fighting.

Several dozen young men and women, all in gray robes, were being shielded from the attacks of blue robed priests by a trio of heavily armored clerics. One cleric raised a shield in response to a whip of fire; a blue lashed out against the group, and his shield shone like the sun. The bright white light engulfed the magic, and seemed to diminish it, only for the weakened spell to splash harmlessly against the physical shield.

Another cleric squared off against one blue robed man, and three knights who wore blue livery of various types. Are those nobles loyal to the blue, or mercenaries? Perhaps allied houses?

The knights encircled the largest and oldest of the three clerics who stood in the center of the fighting as a mountain against a howling wind. The man, despite his graying hair and scarred face, didn’t seem to mind the knights, as his focus was entirely on the blue priest in front of him whose ice magic had coated the ground, and forced the cleric into a defensive posture.

The last cleric was by far the youngest, and his fight the most desperate. Six knights with blue bands, and two priests using different binding spells, one that grew vines from the stoney ground, and another wielding ropes of fire, tried to bind him as he defended against the knights. His armor was the only thing keeping him alive, and that had clearly seen better days.

“Cease this disturbance at once!” the young Lord Collector yelled as his knights charged into the space between the two groups. “Under order of the Arch-Duke’s Knightly Orders, and the City Watch!”

“They’re red lackey’s!” one of the blue priests yelled. “All who oppose the High Priest and Arch-Duke’s orders are subject to arrest. Bind them too!”

At least this lot is trying to capture people, I thought. Though I don’t know if that’s better or worse.

The fighting didn’t take long. With the red allied knights joining the fight, the blues were quickly overwhelmed, and either driven off, or captured. After a few minutes of interrogation by Ezekial, one of the knights who had been captured was stripped, bound, and a trio of women from the group of young gray priesthood acolytes were brought over to identify him.

“You’re sure this is the one?” The trio were all in agreement. “Under my authority as a knight in the orders of the western duchy, and acting in the Arch Dukes sted as high justice of the land, with the witness of these women, and three clerics of one of the holy priestly orders of the kingdom to your guilt, I hereby sentence you to death for the assault of these women. To fight to capture in this political chaos is an understandable error. To do what you have done is a sin of the blackest kind. No matter your excuse.”

He tried to beg for his life, but his muwling’s didn’t last long. A moment later, a flaming sword took his head clear from his shoulders.

At the last second, Elsbeth covered my eyes and turned me away. “Look away, Landar. You don’t need to see this. You’re too young.”

I let her. I had seen far, far worse. But she was my mother in this world. To worry about my innocence was her right. Even if I had probably killed two men earlier that day.

Eventually, we made our way to the main road, where the most intense fighting was finally starting to calm. Craters pockmarked the solid stone of the road that lead up to the temple complex. The market was a war zone, stalls were burned to ash, others overturned and looted, and dead bodies from factions I hadn’t even seen in the city yet lay everywhere.

“Looks like the gray and the blue called in allies,” one of the knights said.

“The adventurers’ guild got involved?” another pointed out a corpse that was branded with a strange symbol on its exposed chest. “That’s not supposed to happen.”

Ezekial shook his head slowly. “I doubt they got involved officially. More likely one of them was here, and some moron mistook him for an enemy and tried to blast them. The brand is the warning not to interfere with them.”

A building halfway down the main road towards the temple complex, a four-story apartment complex with half its levels burning, collapsed into the street. The sound was deafening, but eventually it ended, and the entire city felt like it was holding its breath.

“Why isn’t the duke doing something?” I asked into that muted quiet.

“He is probably just being told about all this,” Ezekial said, shaking his head. “It takes a long time to get to the top of the silver tower. Even with a pass stone. He’s been on a training mission, and has only limited communication with the outside world.”

“Then who’s in charge while he’s gone?” Elsbeth’s voice was quiet, as if she was trying to be respectful of the solemn quiet the city had fallen under.

“The Count. But the high priest of the blue order says he has a message directly from the Arch-Duke supporting his demand for a sifting. Though no one else can verify it. Which is where Sigvald is now.”

“Is it a fake? The message?” I asked.

“Probably not. But the high priest is also probably not being entirely honest with the Arch-Duke, or with what the missive actually says. And very few people have a pass stone for the tower. Sigvald is one of them. By the mother’s grace, and the father’s honor, I hope he got through and is making the climb. That’s the only way this stops.”

“Sedrin!” One of the knights yelled. “It’s Sedrin! He’s injured, quick bring the potions!” Another knight yelled, and another knight with a pouch full of clanking potions ran towards the scene.

“This isn’t good,” Ezekial said. “Sedrin is the red high priest. His order is small, without him and his expertise, we don’t stand much chance of getting the army ready to support the eastern duchy in time. But it’s worse than that.”

“How?” Tomas asked, and ice ran in my veins. I was pretty sure both Tomas, and I knew already.

“He’s the one who went with Roland, and your daughter.”

A few minutes of stewing in the rubble of what had been a bustling market just half a day later, and the knightly medic came and gave a report to Ezekial. “Sedrin is stable. But he’s going to be out of the fight for at least a week. All his limbs are broken, shattered really but his body is already knitting itself back together. Whatever the Red do in their training, it would be very nice to learn their secrets.”

“And what did he say about his mission?” Ezekial asked, arms folded and impatient.

“He says Roland and the girl were taken in the fighting. Though he’s not sure by who, or where too. But he did say he overheard other blues talking about collecting the acolytes back at the temple. Apparently they have control of the main complex at the moment.”

“Good. Then let’s go save my daughter.” He hefted both his cudjul and his mace, one in each hand, and started down the road towards the temple complex.

“Woh, we can’t just go barging in there. ‘’ Ezekial put a hand on Tomas’s shoulder, and my fathers glare of pure hatred made the man take a step back for a moment. “We just need a plan. Otherwise we’re just handing ourselves over to them, and potentially putting your loved ones at risk.”

I saw Tomas’s internal struggle, saw that he was about to do it anyway. “He’s right, father. We need a plan. And help.”

Tomas calmed just enough to see reason. His shoulders slumped slightly, but the rage in his eyes never died. “Fine. Where next.”

Ezekial smiled. “My father might have some ideas.”