Tales of a mercenary
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A fancy book lays on the shelf, in the Bardic Academy. It is a bit dusty, and has some scratches on its cover, the marks of many fine adventures. At a glance the book doesn't seem to be a tale of great knights, and no one saves the world in it. Not of ancient artifacts, nor mystic riddles. Just some interesting tales about a bard, who lived and fought side-by-side with luck…and triumphed even in the most difficult situations.
The tale of the war that didn't happen
We had an ill omen.
The sharp-faced Doc hadn't complained as much as he used to, while he treated the injured wounds of our brothers, nor while he stirred that stinky, gritty thing that he called "soup". And THIS was a bad sign, because it was deeply ingrained in us, that if Doc sensed trouble, by the gods themselves there would be shit on us ... it s happened too many times before.
The filthy streets of Katafalk - the most vile and cruel part of the city, where the fortress of the Black Company stood, were humming with secret meetings. Of course we were aware of most of them, but the Mutes - elite headhunters of the Company - were hammering away at this matter, surely they deserved all the writings in the soldier's small book. Near the Fortress we doubled the patrols by order of the Captain, so what else could we do? Just swear when no one listened, and do the useless patrolling...what little good that did us.
The damn conspiring rats saw us coming; vanishing as quickly as my money when I played tonk with Gnome, our most gifted sorcerer. At that time I had been the leader of the cavalry, not the big timer officer I was to become later, so I wasn t concerned with the bigger problems. But we were simple soldiers, and could smell that something big was going to happen something big and ugly.
After the Monarchy had fallen, the Assassins, Thieves, Mercenaries, and other guilds didn t have much to do. Just sitting around and plotting against each other...well mainly against us. Croaker was serious when he said: "We against the whole damned World", and it was no wonder the nobodies began to revolt. Old hatreds cropped up, old enemies came back. We didn t give a damn about them. We just followed our motto: "You pay, we get the job done, and that's all".
It wasn't a special day when we went to Kevin's tavern, the open bar-fights and murders in the ally were common. Karakhas, the big-mouthed mountain barbarian and the former corporal of the Howlers, Narkissoss, and I were assigned to the same crappy job. So we figured we deserved a beer for sure. The room was full with smoke, philanders and ladies accepting the wooing.
Nark with a single sentence gave us his opinion about the trifling public:-Apes...-
The barbarian grinned, and battered the counter shouting for a beer. I took a rumpled deck of cards, and started shuffling to practice my favorite "from the below" trick. Thanks to the huge muscles and brutish appearance of Karakhas, and my hostile grin we took our favorite table from a pair of drunks.
~The mood is good here, maybe we will have some entertainment here...~ I thought as I watched a courtesan. She gave me some expecting glances from the other side of the room. We got our beers, except Nark who guzzled milk as usual. It is a moronic habit, but we hadn't managed to convince him to be a man, and drink something that fits the idea of hard-tough mercenaries. A knight, and his two lady next to us, who probably had a death wish, quipped to us.
For a time we just began a peaceful tonk game, because we weren't looking for trouble. Not after clearing three buildings from sappers; who tried to undermine a part from the Fortress wall. It was more like a massacre, but they had a few though guys on their side that made us break a sweat. But in the end, we finished off the resistance, and returned to the Lieutenant to make a report. We washed the blood from our armor and faces and made for the bar. We were tired like hell.
In between rounds Karakhas would grunt:- Hey Jaqen, if you dispense another card from the bottom of the deck, I will break your arms...-
Regardless I excised them from all of the money, so it was no surprise that they were in a fowl mood. After examining their gloomy faces, I decided to let them win a round and held back my cards. Ace, ace, king, a ten, and a nine; a plain forty-nine tonk.
~This would win me a couple of punches to the face~ I said to myself as I tried to cover my shifty smile.
The crowd in the tavern changed for the worst, some of the braver ones started making comments on our snow-white morals. I'll admit it; we aren't nice-guys. We take jobs that require hacking people up, even innocents ones, who were just involved accidentally. But we still have a code; we kill only when we must. Karakhas started to stare at the knight, his henchman, and two ladies. I understood him; his money was laying before Nark, so he was looking for some other fun.
He shouted loud enough for the knights to hear, Long live The Company! and hit his bucket-sized cup, to ours. He winked at me, and I knew there would be trouble. Kulgar the barman of the Throwing knife, and the head of a big thief guild had taken his plate, and beer, and moved to a table, near the exit.
I could hear them mutter to themselves:-Every time he says that a damn fight breaks out...Every damn time...-and he was damn right.
One of the armored men quipped to his buddy:-Hear me my ladies, these Hessian filths are like moist fistula on the body of the city. We should burn out the infestation sooner or later...-
After this like a real smartass, he winked in a conspiring way, and laughed with confidence. At that time he hadn't realized that he just committed the biggest mistake of his life.
He kept going:-Just look at them! All of them are barbaric, primitive and always up to violating a woman, or robbing some monastery, killing all the innocent monks...-
I turned with a grin on my face to the barbarian, who snuffed heavily next to me.
I replied easily enough:-Hey, this guy truly knows us. He just forgot to mention that we kill egoist bastards as well...-
The two ladies gave us an unfriendly grimace and murmured back to the armored man.
-Good sir, don't bother with them, our guards will deal with this...matter...-and we got another confident smile.
-Hm...Jaqen do you know those two? I had some ideas on my mind...asked Nark who had been sitting in silence until now. In a brown study I eyed the ladies, for a second.
-Well one of them is the leader of the Cullote, guild for female knights and paladins, a bunch of iron maidens in big armor. They are do-gooders, and servants of the light, or something like this crap. In reality, they run the two big courtesan organizations, and they are the owners of the Cat-yay. You know that place what we burnt down to ashes once. If you ask my opinion, they are more likely to stab you after a good wrenching in the bed, than to challenge you face-to-face. The other one...-I stopped for a moment, because my tongue got twisted, too much beer.
-... is an Amazon, seen her couple of times before here. They re probably sisters.-
Meanwhile the barbarian got on his feet, and approached the table where the troublemakers were sitting; he didn't appreciate threats.
-Okay Rat. I will give you some options. You will shut your pie hole, and get the hell out of here, or stay here, say some other funny things about the Company, and I will kick your face until it breaks open, while they...-he pointed at us over his shoulders-...will laugh their asses off.
Karakhas was very good at intimidating people. When I was told he would be my fencing teacher, I was frightened for a good reason. He was a brute, no doubt about that. The other patrons of the tavern started to shift back from us. Legs of chairs scratching the floor, as some people made to escape with haste. Without hesitation I had begun to down the rest of my drink, letting the beer dribble on my chest.
-So what do you say you gutless piece of metal?-asked the barbarian leaning on the table.
The knight reached for his weapon quickly. Mistake, a big one. The table made of thick hard deadwood fell on him immediately as the large barbarian flicked of his hands. None of them were fast enough to evade. They were fools to ask for a bar-fight wearing heavy armor, slows the reflexes down. Some lesson should be learnt through blood, and pain, and we were happy to teach them for free.
Karakhas started to laugh, as he waited somebody to stand up, with a wild grin on his face. With a resigned sigh I threw my half-full cup at a man who wanted to load his crossbow. I would place a big bet that he was a bodyguard of the dames. Two other bodyguards stepped out from the remaining crowd, but I left them to Narkisszossz who got to his feet slowly. He was a big idiot too; to come here in a heavy armor, when he knew our constant "reputation" in this city.
-Oh hell to you all...- I grumbled as I drew my sword and charged the newcomer who was wet from my beer. On my way to the surprised crossbowman I kicked the head of the amazon who was just standing up. That time I didn't have any moral limits; after all I wasn t a knight, what did I care?
The henchmen standing in the door, gathered his strength, and gave me a hard time as I parried his attacks. A few slashes with the blade, and my "dance partner" fell back with a bleeding chest. Nark took his chances with the other two bodyguards as I watched two men in the crowd strafe towards the back of Karakhas. Maybe they were thinking about unbalancing the fight, six against our triumvirate, didn't matter it was their mistake.
Well they can get their fight, if that is what they want...-I murmured, and hurried next to the barbarian to welcome the eager allies with some sword swinging. Nark broke half the furniture on the heads of his guards, making them a little quieter.
~I hope there isn t any more of them~ the thought popped in my mind as I struggled with my two though guys. After a few passes it had turned out that I had more experience in bar fights and fencing. Some tricky slash and thrust and I finished my part as Karakhas whacked the face of the knight with his head for the last time. He released him with a spit and the man crumpled to the ground at his feet. He knocked down the amazon I kicked in the face, and the last woman was left alone in the silent bar. She looked at us blinking mouth agape; Nark showed his teeth to her, as he brandished his sword. Karakhas grinned with a bleeding nose, cracking his knuckles. I just stood there, watching the back of my brothers. It wouldn't be nice to report to the Captain that someone died because of a roaming, stray arrow.
In a teaching voice Karakhas addressed the woman:-Next time you should consider what you should and shouldn't say, and especially think about who you are talking too. -Stupid woman folk...-he finished by kicking out the legs of the knight maiden.
The complaining mutters and frowning of the crowd were getting louder and louder but Narkisszossz just laughed louder. For the last time I just gave a pitying glance to the beaten men and women on the floor, then I put my sword away.
-If somebody wants to complain about something...bite me!- I had said with a big grin and left the room, the barbarian and the armored brother on my heels. Distant shouts and the sound of footsteps quickened our pace. The city guards were coming.
-Better hurry up! - I said and rushed ahead of Karakhas.
-We will get two weeks of latrine-shoveling for this...-complained Nark.
Karakhas replied cheerily:-But it's worth it! You don't beat the shit out of guild leaders everyday!
-Shut up you two, the guards will hear you if you keep laughing and shouting...-I hissed at them and gave them a glare.
-Don't command us like, we re some damn regular army. You don't want me to punch in your pretty face, do you? - Karakhas glared back and said it with a serious face, but I could tell that he still laughed inside. We were brothers, soldiers of the Black Company, together in good and bad.
