<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style></style></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><o:p> </o:p><o:p> </o:p><o:p> </o:p><o:p> </o:p> Their next encounter with the troops from Midtown came just as the group was setting out for the day. Twenty knights on horseback stood in two lines blocking the road. Their lances were leveled with their razor-sharp points aimed straight at the Paladin and his group. At the front was a knight dressed in full plate mail armor and riding a horse similarly protected. Covering the animal was a bright yellow cloth. On it was the image of a stylized feline that might be a lynx rearing up on its hind legs. Below that was a pair of crossed swords. The shield in the riders left hand bore the same heraldic emblem Edmund didn’t recognize immediately.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "Do you think our meeting them is an accident?" The woman asked.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "No," Edmund answered calmly. "They want to show their dominance in this area by forcing us to turn back."<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "This is starting to become annoying," Terry muttered.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> “This already is annoying.” Edmund stood up in the saddle and turned to his soldiers behind him. "Be careful and do not let them provoke you. But stand your ground and do not give so much as one inch. If they want a fight let them start it."<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "They start it," someone in the ranks shouted. "We'll finish it."<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "Who is this?" Terrant asked. "I don't recognize his coat of arms."<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "A local noble," Edmund responded. "Probably sent out in haste. It's too soon for them to have come directly from Midtown."<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "You cannot pass without the permission of Lord Donel," the man said.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> Edmund didn't answer for a moment but seemed to ponder his next actions. From experience Terry knew her leader was trying to decide what to do next. Suddenly the feline paladin stiffened and she recognized that he had made his choice. "We of the order of Protectors have the permission of Duke Thomas himself," he said. "We don't need Donel's permission." He gave a flick of the reins and his horse started moving forward.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "HALT!" The nobleman ordered nervously and reached for the hilt of his sword.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> Edmund looked at the young man with the hardened gaze of a predator. "Do you want to do that? Not only will you die senselessly but so will all of your people. Do you want their deaths on your conscience? Do you want to shed blood here today? I don't think so. You go back to Lord Donel and inform him that the order does not like his silly antics and interference." Edmund slowly walked his horse past the nobleman and his troops.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p><o:p> </o:p>*************<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p><o:p> </o:p> The town was unnervingly quiet. Terry had been through many similar little villages in her travels. It was a cluster of a dozen huts and small houses all lined up on either side of the road. A small church marked the center of small hamlet. Next to that was a house that had a weathered sign hanging over the door announcing that it was also a small inn and store. The sign read simply "Inn," and nothing else. Not even a name. Why bother with a name when it's the only place in town? What unnerved her was the lack of people. The streets should have been filled with people; farmers working fields, herding cattle or just walking about. Instead the street was empty and all the buildings had their doors closed and windows covered with heavy shutters.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "Keep on guard," Terry said out loud to the soldiers she was leading. "But use restraint. "These people are our people now."<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "Where are they?" An archer asked. The woman had an arrow nocked as she looked about nervously.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "In hiding," Terry answered calmly. "What are they supposed to do when a strange army marches into their village. "It will probably be several hours before they realize we're not here to loot and rape any of them and come out."<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> The buildings fell away and around them was an open field tilled for planting but still empty as it was too early in the year for planting. The long road they were on ended in the stone wall and gate house of a small castle.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> Calling the structure a castle was an exaggeration. It was a forty-foot-tall round tower surrounded by a stone wall not even half that tall. The gatehouse that pierced that wall was merely a small square projection with a wooden gate, which at the moment was closed.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> Standing in the middle of the road were four wagons, all piled high with gear that was being guarded by a half dozen figures. Scattered in loose formations in the fields on either side of the road were a score of soldiers. Terry easily picked out blue tabards on all of them, marking them as brothers or lay brothers of the Order of Protectors.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> The column came to a halt just short of the closest wagon. Edmund and Terry dismounted and walked forward. The figures at the wagon came towards them and soon it was clear they were full knight-brothers of the order. They were wearing full plate armor over which was the blue tabard with a gold cross in the center.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "It's good to see you brother Nicholas!” Edmund said and hugged the knight.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "It's good to see you brother Edmund," Nicholas responded. He looked over the feline. “That is you Edmund?”<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> “It’s me,” Edmund responded. “A little furrier than before.”<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> Edmund hugged the other knight. “It’s good to see you Brother Giedrius.”<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> “It’s been too long Ed,” Giedrius responded as he looked his friend over. “So it’s true. You did go all furry.”<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> “I go where The Great One needs me,” the paladin responded. "How was the journey from Giftum?"<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "Fine," Giedrius answered. "We made far better progress then we expected. We've brought six brothers and twenty-four Lay brothers but we have a complication," the brother-knight said and pointed to the top of the tower of the small castle. There fluttering in the breeze was the flag of Midtown.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "Oh you have got to be kidding," Edmund snarled instinctively baring his teeth.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "Don't these fools ever give up?" Terry muttered.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "Now Terry," Edmund said calmly. "These soldiers are merely following the orders of their overlord."<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "You don't find this annoying?" Terry said. "This isn't harassment. It's outright theft."<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "Of course it's annoying but we are supposed to be above such petty emotions," Edmund responded. "But we can resolve this peacefully."<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> “You’ve had issues with Midtown?” Giedrius asked.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> “The entire trip,” Edmund responded. “It seems Lord Donel doesn’t want us here.”<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> “Any bloodshed?” Nicholas asked.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> “No,” the paladin responded. “Thankfully. But it was close. Have you had any interaction with the villagers?”<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> Nicholas shook his head. “No. They bundled themselves up when we got within sight.”<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> “How do we deal with them?” Giedrius asked and pointed to the castle.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> Edmunds tail whipped back and forth energetically. “I have an idea.”<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> Giedrius smiled broadly. “All those spots haven’t changed you.”<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p><o:p> </o:p>******************<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p><o:p> </o:p>The Next Day<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p><o:p> </o:p> The troops with Edmund had been busy. When they came out of the tree line the infantry were carrying battering rams and scaling ladders. At the back, defended by archers and a small palisade was a catapult resting in the middle of the road leading to the village.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> The feline paladin steered his horse towards the castle. The animal moved slowly and deliberately as her rider sat as still as a statue; eying the fortress with the cold gaze of a predator, whose form he now had. When she was within fifty yards, the horse stopped without Edmund making any obvious motion of touching the reins.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "You have stolen," Edmund stood up straight in the saddle. There was a dangerous light in his eyes. "STOLEN the property of the Order of Protectors the direct representative of the Patriarch and the Ecclesia. YOU DARE to deny us our rightful property."<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> “This castle is the rightful property of Midtown and we will protect it to the death,” came a voice from the castle walls. The speaker was trying to sound bold but Terry noticed a faint edge of nervousness.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> The paladin shook his head slowly making sure the gesture was overdone so all within eyesight would understand. “No. What you mean is that Donel decided to take what wasn’t his to take.”<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> “Lord Donel . .” The man started.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> “DONEL IS NOT HERE!” Edmund interrupted. “He is not going to come riding over the hill to your rescue like some child’s tale. You. Are. Alone.” Edmund said those last three words in cold, clipped tones that seemed to ring through the air.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "Lord Donel will come with an army." The nobleman countered.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "Good," Edmund said simply. "I can settle our issues with him face to face like a true knight. But that's for the future. Now we will deal with you and take back what is rightfully ours." He drew his sword making the movements slow and exaggerated so that it was clearly visible to everyone. He pointed the tip of the blade at the castle. "Now. Do you yield and give up the fortress and all in it or do we take it by the sword? Surrender now, honorably and you will all go home to your families. If you refuse and we have to take back our home by force and that will place you outside the Great Ones mercy." He paused a moment and then leaned forward. When he spoke it was in a surprisingly friendly tone. "Now what will your choice be? Life or death?”<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p><o:p> </o:p>****************<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p><o:p> </o:p> The column filed out of the tower and trough the small gatehouse in silence. No one spoke and they made few gestures. Last to leave was their leader. The man was dressed in his full platemail armor that had been cleaned and polished. The tabard over the armor had been cleaned and pressed. He rode a roan mare who had a caparison covering it completely. The cloth was dark blue and emblazoned with gold griffons. When the nobleman was even with Edmund the paladin held up a hand bringing the man to a halt.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> Edmund pointed to where Terrant was standing. With her was the captured scout who seemed to be none the worse for his captivity. “He is yours. Take him with you.” There was silence as the scout was helped onto a horse. Only then did the Knightbrother speak.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> "Tell Lord Donel," Edmund said slowly. "These idiotic interruptions are becoming annoying. If he wishes to discuss matters with us he can come here and we'll discuss this face to face. We will gladly talk to him and explain our rightful ownership of this place. If he wishes to dispute it more harshly, well then the order will deal with him. Permanently.”<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> The other noble didn't speak but simply nodded. Then he turned his horse to follow after his troops.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> Edmund waited till the column had passed through the village before speaking. “Stealth my friend. Please follow them and be sure they don’t try something bold and stupid.”<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> Stealth nodded his head. “I have my squad following them already.” He looked at the tail end of the retreating column. “They’ll be back eventually.”<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p> Edmund sighed and nodded. “I know.”<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p><o:p> </o:p>The End<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p></div></body></html>