They trooped into the Southern Hall and each grabbed a quarterstaff from the barrel of staves, before making their way back to the refectory Sir Henrik and the other knights were still there, but the Preceptor had left. They made their war down to the little courtyard where Jemryn had met the bullies and Vann said ‘wait here’ before disappearing in the direction of the royal apartments. He came back a few minutes later, tucking a small coin purse inside his tunic. ‘Money for food or whatever’ he grinned.

The guards on the gates saluted Vann and Bria as they passed through, but after that, they were pretty much ignored. Quarterstaffs were fairly tame compared to the hammers and hooks carried by the local tradesmen and there were plenty of guards working for traders that wore chain and carried axes or even swords. As they merged with the bustle of the city outside the gates they saw the Preceptor sitting at a table outside an inn talking to a huge man in a leather apron. The inn was made of thin wooden planks nailed to upright timbers with a thatch of reeds, as were most of the buildings beyond the palace wall. Even the tables in front of the inn were better made than the building itself, although not by much. On the table in front of the Preceptor was Nia’s poleaxe and the inevitable leather jacks. He was watching the gate and nodded as they came through, beckoning them over. ‘Quarterstaffs, a good choice. Nia, Lars tells me you drilled relentlessly with this thing every time you stopped whilst you were on that trip. Karhu here thinks it’s still too heavy for you. Do you care to prove him wrong?’

Nia looked at the Preceptor carefully, then handed her staff to Bria before picking up the poleaxe. As it started to spin in her hands, an empty circle rapidly formed around her. She worked through the forms that all the other students recognised but with a grace and speed that they hadn’t expected from her. The demonstration came to an abrupt end when she brought the spike down hard and nailed the bottom of Karhu’s drinking jack to the table with about two inches of spike sticking out of the underside of the table. There was applause and cheering from many of the bystanders and for the second time in less than an hour she was aware of the open mouths of the other recruits. She shrugged. ‘It’s better balanced than the staves and guides you through the moves.’

Karhu stood up, grasped the haft of the weapon just below the head and wrenched it free of the table. As it came free, there were even more cheers as a gush of ale emptied his jack all over the dirt under the table. ‘Next time lass, don’t get it stuck. Swing it as prettily as you might but it’s little use wearing a table.’ He looked at the Preceptor ‘Changed my mind, she has. I’ll make copies but fancy they won’t be.’ He looked down at his jack ruefully. ‘I would say more ale, but even I can’t out-drink that hole.’

The Preceptor waved to a barmaid to attract her attention and asked her to bring a replacement jack and a fresh pitcher of ale. ‘Fancy decoration, we can live without but get the weight, length and balance the same. Sacrifice temper and edge on the first ones if you must. We need something for them to train with.’ He turned to the recruits and threw a small coin purse to Nia. ‘Buy your food in the city but be back in the Southern Halls before they shut the palace gate and try not to get into a brawl.’

Nia thanked him, then retrieved her quarterstaff from Bria and the recruits headed down the hill towards the Minstrel’s square.

As the street opened out into the square, they could see the food market was beginning to wind down for the day. Most of the farmers had either sold out and gone home or were packing up. The pie stalls were still open and busy and the braziers for the meat skewers had just been lit. The cleaners had started clearing up the worst of the dropped produce but most of the square was still covered in squished fruit and rotten vegetables. On the far side of the square, the recruiters stood, calling out their prices and offering the chance of adventure. Mostly they were looking for specific tradesmen to fill a role on an estate, guards for merchants or sailors for traders’ ships but one or two were looking for mercenaries to go and work for the Kingdom of Gathos or the Areetan empire. All, without fail, made their venture sound like a grand tour with no risk and huge rewards.

The recruits bunched up into a circle and discussed what to do next. All were in favour of waiting till night had fallen and buying hot skewers but that wouldn’t be for a couple of hours. The story tellers and minstrels wouldn’t be out until night had fallen and there seemed to be an absence of acrobats.

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While they were talking, a short thin man with pasty skin walked over. ‘You lads. There’s a life of adventure out there, if you have the hands to grasp it. I’m looking for…’

‘Oi! I saw them first.’ Everyone turned their heads to see a second man hurrying over from the far side of the square. ‘I can offer you far more than this cheat. His ‘adventurers’ have a bad habit of coming to an untimely fate’ He pushed through the group and turned to face them, blocking the first recruiter from seeing them. ‘I am Narfi. I can offer...’ He got no further before the first man grabbed his shoulder, spun him round and punched him. Within seconds there was a whirlwind of punches and kicks from both men.

Vann watched for a moment, wondering why the first punch hadn’t felled Narfi, and then understood. He turned and saw a young boy, hand reaching out for the purse that Nia was holding.

He jumped and grabbed him by the forearm, before bellowing ‘Grab those two!’

The first recruiter, seeing their distraction hadn’t worked, fled across the market square and out of site but Narfi wasn’t so lucky. His foot slipped on a cabbage leaf and he crashed to the ground. Four of the recruits grabbed him before he could escape. ‘You let me go. I’m an honest citizen in good standing’ he cried.

Vann was not amused. ‘Stealing from a noble carries a sentence of twenty lashes and a fine of two hundred silver teeth. That was one of the penalties we learned this morning. Any good reason for us not to pass that judgement that right now?’

‘You can’t pass judgement on me.’ Narfi blustered ‘anyway I stole nothing, and you couldn’t prove nothing to a herald.

‘Yes I can, you were an accomplice and I don’t need to, in that order.’ replied Vann.

Heikki raised his hand. ‘Vann, I’ve pulled duty down here a few times. We can hand them over to the squad who drew the short straw today.’ He pointed at a squad heading towards them at a run.

‘We’ll take this from here’ said the sergeant leading the squad as they arrived. ‘Caught again Narfi’ he chuckled.

Vann glowered at him ‘Do you have a salute for the crown prince, sergeant?’

The sergeant turned his head and looked at Vann and brought his fist up to his chest very smartly. ‘My apologies, your highness. I didn’t recognise you. What is your will?’

Vann nodded at the now thoroughly cowed Narfi. ‘Accomplice to attempted theft from a noble. Sadly we didn’t catch his other accomplice. Twenty lashes and a two hundred silver teeth fine. Any problem with that?’

The sergeant’s mouth twisted into a grin. ‘Oh Narfi, you’ve stepped into the big league this time. Mebbe we halve the punishment if he tells us who his accomplice was and where to find him?’

Before Vann could speak, Narfi shrieked ‘It’s Ulf. He’s got lodgings above the Green Eagle tavern’

Vann nodded. ‘Such cooperation with the guard should be rewarded. Half the punishment for Narfi. Anything they can’t pay in teeth can be made up in the gutting sheds – one week per tooth.’ He looked down at the boy, still in his grip, who stared back defiantly. ‘And this one?’

The sergeant scratched his head. ‘The law don’t care about age but the older ones force the younger ones to do their bidding. He’ll have no money and twenty lashes would kill him. Mebbe we could get him signed on as a boy aboard a ship, give him a chance. They recruiters were looking for lads.’ He gestured across the square to where the recruiters were still barking out for people to join them.

Vann looked down at the boy ’twenty lashes and years gutting fish or the recruiters, boy?’

‘I’ll chance the recruiters’ was the surly reply.

Vann handed him over to the sergeant. ‘I’ll let you take it from here. Make sure that you get Ulf before you let this one off with half measures. If you take them to the burrows, put them in both in the spike chambers. I don’t want them sleeping alone, the ghosts can keep them company.’

The sergeant saluted again, and the squad dragged the silent boy and the still-wailing Narfi across the square towards the recruiters.

Vann and the others watched them leave the boy with a tall recruiter wearing the garb of a trader from far-off Areetan before dragging Narfi out through the far gate and out towards the wide ramp that led down towards the burrows. No-one knew who had dug the original tunnels through the hard rock under the city but there was no way Narfi was escaping once its massive doors crunched shut behind him.

Bria twitched the coin purse out of Nia’s hand. ‘Well that’s killed the afternoon. Let’s buy shred pies and head back just in case Narfi and Ulf have any friends that want to settle a score.’ She walked over to a pieman who had a tray still fresh enough to have steam coming from it. ‘Ten shred pies please.’ She took the still hot pies in their tough pastry cases and passed them around the rest of the group before opening the purse and handing over twenty copper scales to the pieman. ‘Let’s eat as we head back’