Kerric the Mercenary: Episode 4, A Contract Offered.
An open contract becomes available while Kerric and his men are taking their ease
Such couriers were always in and out of any Hammer and Shield in the Kingdom of Redrin, delivering messages or taking payment for stuff delivered to the mercenaries or their families. As such, the mercenaries ignored him.
Not Kerric. Not his men, either. That boy’s attitude was not that of someone carrying a simple message or bill from a merchant clan. That none of the other mercenaries picked up that the boy had something unusual to say, only further confirmed that the room contained nothing but trash.
The boy marched right past the captain’s table without a glance at it. That meant a general announcement. Kerric made the girl stop and refastened his trews.
The boy began climbing onto the bar. That got the attention of every man in there and the place went quiet enough to hear a twin snapping. The boy swallowed, then cleared his throat.
“Yesterday morning, On the road between DeSon and DarkGate heading for DarkGate, someone ambushed the DeSon Caravan carrying this season’s trade goods and tax. Only a few bodies were found. The rest of the DeSon people are missing. Among the missing are the three oldest DeSon children, the fourth eldest being among the dead.”
The boy paused and tried clearing his throat again. The bartender handed him a small ale and the grateful boy took a large drink. Pausing in the middle until given a drink, was almost a ritual, one Kerric had seen over and over in taverns all over this land.
The boy continued, “The Baron of DeSon is offering a reward for the timely return of his children, knights, and guardsmen before they are branded. He has determined that they are not headed to DarkGate or Wrenwood.”
Because of the young boy’s stance and manner of delivery of that last, Kerric concluded that it was the boy himself that had discovered the remains of the ambushed caravan and taken word of it to DeSon, but he had not seen any sign of the ambushers.
In theory, as a courier, he would have been safe had he come on them. Young trader-clan boys didn’t grow up to become full members of the clan by trusting in theory, so the boy would have run had he seen any sign of those slavers. He showed no sign he had run for it. The tall, two-legged tolar that all couriers rode, are the only things this side of the Black Sand that can outrun warcats over great distances. That meant whoever took that caravan had not used that road. That left a woodcutter’s track as the route the ambusher used.
The boy climbed down, and the other captains began talking excitedly.
“Who could have taken that caravan?” said one.
“And where were they headed?” said another.
To Kerric’s disgust, it took those captains half a candle mark to come to the conclusion that whoever did it had used the wood cutters track near DeSon to take their booty. Yet the question of who it did was unanswered. Even a nothing barony like DeSon would have had enough knights and soldiers to give most raiders pause. With four of the DeSon children there, likely every knight and most able-bodied arms-men they had would have been guarding it.
Only a handful of companies could have done it. A conversation in a Hammer and Shield two seasons ago and much further from the Black Sand than here came back to him.
“It was Corman,” Kerric said with utter certainty.
All the Captains shut up then looked at him.
“Good day gentlemen, I am getting a slut and heading to my room,” said the captain who had a job with Bromm covering his rear.
Bromm stood too. “I have work too, so I don’t need to tangle with Corman,” he echoed, then left, proving he wasn’t a total fool after all.
