I’ll kill them myself, Rebba, if you betray me.”
“Save your threats, Bantor. I know what must be done. Still, the women and children will be safer indoors for the next few days anyway. I’m sure Ariamus’s men will be wandering the countryside, looking for loot and women.”
“Then I’ll make sure they’re safe, Rebba,” Bantor said.
“And I’ll explain everything to my sons.” Rebba started toward the door, then stopped to stand directly before Bantor. “I’ll assure them you’re here to protect them. Remember that, before you do anything foolish. I think you would be wise to wait for Eskkar, if indeed he is coming.” Without pausing for a reply or approval, he walked past Bantor and stepped outside, calling to his sons and grandsons.
Bantor followed him and waved his arms toward the river. His men appeared, alert, with their bows strung, and moved toward the house.
As Bantor stood there, Rebba explained the situation to his family. His sons and grandsons, their women and the frightened servants, all glanced apprehensively first at Bantor, then at the dirty, hard-looking armed men striding past them, hands on their weapons. Every man’s eyes remained watchful and wary. Rebba, fi nishing with his sons, called the older women to his side and spoke to them as well. When he fi nished, the women gathered up the children and moved back toward the house.
Rebba, accompanied by two of his sons, began his journey toward Akkad. The city lay just beyond the curve of the river, little more than two miles away, but it would take them most of an hour to reach it, at the old man’s slow pace.
As he watched them depart, Bantor felt the helplessness that comes when another controls your fate. Then a young girl, barely old enough to walk on her own and oblivious of his frown, slipped away from her mother and ran up to him. The mother, carrying another child on her hip, looked at Bantor nervously as he scooped the giggling girl up and carried her into the house.
Inside, another girl, a few years older, asked him if he and his men had eaten this morning.
“No, girl. We’ve not eaten since last night.” Bantor lowered the little girl to the floor and let himself relax. He glanced down the trail through the doorway and took one last look at Rebba, walking south. Bantor had done all he could do, and would just have to wait. The last of his men filed into the house. The siege of Akkad had begun.
Bantor tried to rest as the long day dragged by. One of the women examined his shoulder, and declared nothing broken, though the pain felt as sharp as ever. He spent most of the afternoon pacing back and forth between the main house and the sentries he’d posted around the farm’s outskirts, watching the path to Akkad. He’d expected Rebba to return by midafternoon, but as the sun began to set, the noble hadn’t returned, and Bantor wondered if the old man had betrayed him. He met with Klexor; they spoke about what they’d do if attacked, and how they’d fight their way to the boats and cross the river.
His men, taking their cue from their commander, waited, weapons at hand. Worry spread to the rest of the household. Everyone grew more frightened with each passing hour.
As dusk descended, the dogs gave the first sign of someone approaching. They began barking before the sentry caught sight of the returning men. Bantor recognized the yapping of dogs welcoming their master’s return, not the deep growls that would warn of strangers prowling about in the night.
Nevertheless, Bantor ordered Klexor to take some men and scout the fields, to make sure no one followed Rebba. Bantor had been ambushed once. He’d not be caught a second time.
Rebba, slow of step and tired from a long day, reached his house, to the joy of his family. Bantor stood by and watched in silence as Rebba greeted his kin and accepted a cup of wine to refresh himself. At last Rebba told everyone to go inside the house. He and Bantor walked a few steps to the big willow tree that grew alongside the house. They sat on benches, facing each other in the gathering darkness across a table, its top scarred and rough from years of chopping vegetables and small game. Two dogs, their master’s favorites, arranged themselves at his feet.
“The news is bad, Bantor,” Rebba began, reaching down to stroke one of the dogs. He kept his voice low, though no one stood close enough to hear their words. The dogs would alert them if anyone tried to approach them in the darkness. “Korthac controls the city. His men have killed or captured most of the soldiers.”
Bantor expected that news. If this demon Korthac didn’t control the city, Bantor wouldn’t be here hiding in the dark. “How many men does he have, Rebba?”
“Not many, I think, though Ariamus claims to have hundreds of men under his command. Both Korthac and Ariamus are offering silver to any man who follows their orders, and already some have joined him, either for the silver or to take part in future lootings. That, also, Ariamus has promised to them.”
Bantor ground his teeth at Ariamus’s name, but then repeated his question. “How many men?”
“I’d say a hundred and twenty at most. Apparently you did kill many of them, and others died fighting the soldiers at the barracks. I think he had less than a hundred and fifty when he attacked. Of course, others have joined up with him.”
Bantor relaxed for the first time all day. A hundred bandits, even a few more, would not stop the trained soldiers who had beaten the Alur Meriki.
“Once Eskkar gets here with his men, if we can get into Akkad, we have more than enough to fight them. As soon as we begin, the villagers will join us.”
Rebba shook his head. “Don’t be so sure. The rumor is true. Eskkar is dead. He was killed a few days ago in Bisitun by Korthac’s men. Without Eskkar’s name to rally the villagers, few will join you.”
Eskkar dead! And Trella, what would happen to her? “What about Lady Trella? Is she dead, too? And Annok- sur?”
“No, Korthac captured Trella, along with your wife. His men stormed the house and killed the guards, except for a handful that escaped or surrendered. Now he resides there, with Trella and Annok-sur under guard and confined to the bed chamber.”
“And Annok-sur, is she…”
“I didn’t see her, but I’m sure she’s safe. Korthac has no reason to kill either her or Trella. That could be the one thing that might inflame the villagers to resist him. So he’ll keep Trella alive, for now at least.”
Bantor felt relief wash over him. He and Annok-sur had suffered many hard years together, and it angered him to think that her life depended on another man’s whim. If anything happened to her, he’d kill this Korthac himself. “What about Gatus? Is he dead, too?”
Rebba laughed in the darkness. “The old soldier slipped past his assassins, though one of his men was killed at his side. Korthac’s men claimed they wounded him, and that he must be dead by now. But they haven’t found his body yet.”
Bantor slumped back on the bench. This sounded bad. Eskkar’s house and Trella captured, the barracks stormed, Gatus wounded or dead, and Eskkar murdered. With Eskkar gone, the soldiers would not rally around any of the nobles. He remembered his wife’s words. The one thing Annok-sur had feared more than anything-an attack on Trella and Eskkar. Without their protection, Bantor and his wife would have no future in Akkad.
They would have to flee the city. Somehow he would have to snatch his wife away from Korthac, then slip away with his men. It would.. A new thought crossed his mind.
“Rebba, how did Eskkar die?”
The old farmer had to think about that. “I’m not sure. Korthac didn’t say much about it. I believe Ariamus said he was killed by a sword. Yes, that’s what he said.”
“And the men who brought word of this? How many men did Ariamus send to kill Eskkar?”
“Just a handful, I think. He didn’t say. Only that they had killed Eskkar a few days ago and just returned from Bisitun.”
Bantor’s smile returned. Eskkar had been declared dead at least three times before. “Well, Rebba, let’s talk about that. Korthac and Ariamus sent some men up to Bisitun. They slipped past Grond and Sisuthros, and all of Eskkar’s Hawk Clan guards, murdered him, then escaped back here with the news, without being killed or captured by Eskkar’s seventy men.
Did they bring back his head, as proof of their story?”
“Hmm, I see what you mean,” Rebba said softly. “Yes, that does sound too easy, doesn’t it. How good were the men with Eskkar?”
“Many of them rode against the barbarians. It would take more than a half-dozen bandits to escape those men, Rebba. Even if Eskkar were murdered, I don’t think any would get away from Sisuthros and his men to tell the
