King of Crows

Chapter 6

Daren pressed his face closer to the ground, his cheek brushed a crushed fern. Kera was to his right, large green eyes staring ahead.

"So many." She mouthed, voice scarcely audible. The castle was a bowshot away from their hiding place, a thin stretch of dirt and rock rested between them and the castle walls. Daren could hardly call it a castle compared to the walls of Alindas and the king's palace. A stone wall, twenty feet high, circled a large mound of earth. Atop the mound squatted a square tower, a yellow and blue banner flying from its top. The noise inside drifted to Daren across the plain. The rumble of cattle and people mingled with the shouts of soldiers preparing for a siege. But that collection of noises was dwarfed by the growl of soldiers outside the walls.

A caravan lurched through a throng of tattered tents pitched around the castle walls. Masses of men, dark cloaks worn over filthy leather breastplates surged and wavered. The clatter of spears and the thump of boots overpowered the stench wafting from the camp. A single flagpole jutted from the camp's center. A red flag fluttered from the top, a black phoenix blazed across it. Fraleth's royal standard.

"These are not regular foot soldiers", Daren noted the tattooed faces and mix-match of weaponry.

"They're outlaws", Kera whispered.

Daren stared at her, "How do you know that?"

Kera inclined her head to a group of enemy soldiers assemble around a bonfire, "The tattoos on their faces. In this part of the kingdom outlaws mark half of their face with a certain tattoo. It integrates them within a bandit clan or brotherhood." Kera shuddered.
"I count over a hundred footmen and archers." Daren peered at the collection of tents and ragged soldiers. A troop of arches caught his eye as they tramped from one huddle of tents to another. A large cart trailed the archers like a wounded beast, a wooden cage surmounted on top. Kera stifled a gasp and pointed, "Do you see..."

"I saw it", Daren muttered, his head throbbed with dread. The troop of archers halted and the cage cart rattled to a stop. Some of the archers proceeded to unlock the cage, with the doors open they started to drag out men and women. Most of them were young or appeared healthy, their heads were bowed in defeat and arms tied. A single archer, his dull black cloak blending in the failing light, barked orders. The prisoners were lined up shoulder to shoulder. The troop stood at attention, bows at their sides.

The flap of a large nearby tent opened. Several robed figures, faces completely obscured, filed out before the company of archers. The handful of robed visitors stood a head taller than the tallest archer. Their robes hung over thin bodies, bony shoulders protruded through their cloaks. They appeared to be upraising the captives. One of the figures leaned forward to sniff at the collection of prisoners.

"Did he just...smell them?" Daren whispered, disgust filtering past his teeth.

Kera grimaced, "Yes. Yes he did." A mysterious tone filled her voice. Daren wondered at it. Was it fear? Familiarity?

"Who are they?", Daren hissed, "What does Fraleth want with slavers?"

"I don't care", Kera whispered back, "If you're done sightseeing lets leg it to the nearest garrison and send some soldiers to lift the siege."

~~~~

"Keep your big noggin down", Kera murmured into Daren's ear. "If they spot anything that looks remotely human they will shoot at it." The two huddled side by side, wedged against the broad side of a fallen oak tree. Dead branches hung over them like demon fingers, grey against the dark heavens.

"Two archers walk back and forth just across the stream", Kera looked up at the moonless sky, "Once we hear them pass we run for a small cave hidden between two boulders."