If Marryn had been an outsider for the last two years, when he walked into class the next morning he couldn’t have been made more welcome. Strawn made a point of going over to talk to him and so did Rhianna. If the two people who had belittled him the most were going to be nice to him, then Marryn thought that the beating wasn’t all bad. When asked to give his account to the others he told a tale similar to what had happened to Nedric and Rialto. Marryn had tried to run and had been tripped as he turned. He had half risen only to have one of the village youths put their knee to his nose. The impact of that had sent him backwards and he had landed awkwardly on his arm and for a while he had thought it was broken. When he started screaming out the villagers had run away.
The students were less than pleased with the situation that had arisen. It wasn’t their fault that the village apprentices had decided to try and pick on them and they didn’t see why it was them that were being punished. Over breakfast there was a lot of grumbling and muttering about the situation with several of the students suggesting that they went and sorted out the villagers themselves.
The ‘upper’ students were somewhat disinclined to do this as they had the trip to the boardways ahead of them and none of them wanted to be left behind. The upper middle group of students (the madders) were more bellicose but were unlikely to act without some backup from the older students. Of course both older sets of students ignored the opinions of the madders and lowers who were obviously beneath their notice. It was decided by group opinion that a more formal meeting of students should be held for that evening and a surprised Marryn was elected unanimously to chair it. The meeting would take place after the evening meal.
The day flew past quickly, the lectures were attended, notes were taken but very little information was absorbed. This was the first time that the students had acted as a body and it made for a lot of speculation, rumour and gossip. The lecturers acted as though nothing unusual was occurring but they all must have been aware that something was affecting their pupils and most lectures were shorter than normal.
When the lecturers left the hall after the evening meal there was an immediate buzz of anticipation from the students. As the maids cleared away the debris, the students moved the tables to the sides of the room, leaving just the one for Marryn to use. The benches were placed to face that table and arranged so that most students could see. Rialto and Nedric sat at the back, Strawn’s group were on the left of them and Rhianna and her friends were on the right. Before anything started, the whole group were quietened by Captain Tolbeck walking in through one of the side doors. He nodded to Marryn and headed to the back of the room, near to Nedric.
Marryn took his eating dagger and knocked the pommel against the table. The whole room quietened further. He looked both proud to be there and fairly nervous but sounded calm as he started the discussion.
“Fellow students, we are gathered here to decide our collective response to the attitudes and actions displayed by the villagers.”
With this he indicated his arm, which was now held in a sling.
“Can I first ask people to come up with some objectives for this meeting.”
Several of the students started to shout at once and were only silenced by Marryn banging loudly on the table.
“All right, I will try again, this time put your hand up if you want to be heard!”
Rhianna was the first to be recognised, she had a piece of parchment with her that she referred to as she spoke.
“I think I speak for everybody when I say that we want to be able to walk in the village in peace and that those ruffians who attacked Marryn and harassed others should be punished. I also feel that we are being punished in losing our opportunity to beat the villagers at Murderball and that we should have the game restored. I also think that there should be a legitimate way for grievances felt by villagers or keep dwellers to be heard and that we as students are not listened to by anyone at the moment.”
Rhianna stopped for the shouts of agreement to die down and continued.
“What we can do about most of those things I can not say but I have put into action something that might get the murderball match restored. We should find out whether it worked tonight or tomorrow.”
There was a murmur of speculation around the room as everyone wondered what Rhianna could have done to help. Nedric was in the minority as he was asking himself why Rhianna would put herself out to do this. Of course the increase in her popularity if the game was reinstated might be what she wanted. It couldn’t be for the love of the game she had always let everyone know how much she disliked it before.
“I don’t suppose you are going to tell us what you have done?” Marryn asked.
Rhianna just winked at him and held herself with a look that said that she knew something that others didn’t.
Strawn stood up and stated with force “I think we ought to spend some time thinking about how we can get our own back on the villagers. We can’t let them get away with this!”
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There was a cough from the back of the room and Captain Tolbeck stepped forward.
“I think you can leave the punishment of the guilty parties to me.” He stated in a firm voice. “For that matter, anyone taking revenge on any of the villagers will have to answer to me!”
With that he stepped back into the shadow.
Marryn coughed, “Thank you Captain. I think that we should concentrate on the other aspects of this business for now. Has anyone got any suggestions about how everyone can get their grievances heard?”
The debate progressed with suggestions for a committee of villagers, students and keep staff to settle problems. Their was a lot of side-tracking into the various grievances both real and imagined that the students felt should be heard and when the talking finally wound down there was little time to discuss how they would get the game re-instated. Nedric left the meeting feeling like they had achieved very little.
The following day brought several surprises. The first of which came at breakfast, which was attended by the Overmaster. This had never happened in the nearly four years the students had been at the keep. The students were all somewhat subdued because of his presence and the meal was eaten with lots of glances at the top table. When the meal was finished Lucern stood up and the hall instantly quietened.
“I spoke with the village mayor last night, he thought I might have been too hasty in cancelling the Murderball match and with some reluctance I agreed with some of his reasoning. Therefore the following students will be representing the keep in the match next week”
The hall broke out in cheers, which were quickly hushed as the Overmaster continued.
“Strawn as captain.”
“Well what do you know?” Nedric whispered to Rialto.
“Calim, Mirkin, Smeal, Arren.”
“And that’s all his cronies!” whispered back Rialto.
“Irun, Petur.”
A cheer broke out from the madders as two of their number were called.
“Rialto.”
“Well done!” Nedric patted Rialto on the back.
“Carenda and Callendra”
The two girls grinned at each other. Nedric privately thought that someone had trouble remembering which was which and had just picked them both to avoid embarrassment. In his private opinion Callendra was far too fastidious to play a dirty game like Murderball well.
“And last but not least, Nedric!”
Rialto turned and thumped his friend on the back. Nedric was elated until he looked over at Strawn who had a brooding look in his eye, which promised trouble for someone.
The lectures passed quickly that day as the youths spent their time discussing the forthcoming game and made only cursory attempts to pay attention. Only when Marryn was called away from one of their lectures for a few minutes and came back with a broad smile did the two switch from thoughts of Murderball to wondering what Marryn had been doing.
“Why did you disappear earlier?” Nedric enquired of Marryn sometime later.
“Never you mind!” the burly lad replied, “You’ll see this evening!”
“You can tell us!” Rialto chimed in.
Marryn just gave a knowing grin and saying “later, later” walked away.
As the two watched Marryn disappear, Strawn wandered over to them and informed them that there would be a practice that evening, this got them back to thinking about the game and Marryn was forgotten.
At the evening meal all appeared normal. The boys were still running through strategies and tactics, knowing that Strawn would have his own ideas and wondering if there was any way that they could suggest ideas to him or whether he would be closed to all thoughts but his own. Nedric could not believe that Strawn would consider anything that he would say and was wondering if they could get one of Strawn’s cronies to listen to them and pass on their ideas.
“Well we can’t ask Smeal!” Nedric stated, “he hasn’t got the brains to remember to tie his shoe laces without Strawn reminding him, so he wouldn’t remember what we told him.”
“How about Arren?” Rialto mused. “He might be a weasel but he is bright enough. Of course he would make everything sound like it was his idea, we wouldn’t get any credit”
“Which is what we want!” Nedric said firmly. “If Strawn thinks the ideas come from you or me then he will reject them out of hand.”
“You might be right, we shall have to see if we can get Arren to stop licking Strawn’s boots long enough that he will listen to what we have to say.”
“I have a better idea,” said Nedric with a grin, “what do you think of this…”
The boy’s conversation was interrupted by a commotion from one of the doors. Captain Tolbeck walked through and called for attention.
“If I could have everyone’s attention. You will remember that last night I said that the villagers who were causing trouble would be punished. Well I have found the ringleaders and have them here. It was difficult to come up with a truly appropriate punishment, especially when they denied that they had been trying to do anything other than scare you but I think I’ve come up with something that should make it fairly difficult to scare you in the future!”
With that the Captain signalled to someone outside the room and three of the village lads were dragged into the room. Each of them had been dressed in a maid’s outfit and was wearing a wig made of straw. Someone, possibly a guard, had made some attempt to put make-up on them but had not made a very good job of it. They resembled a five year olds attempt at female make-up rather than the real thing. The students had burst into laughter at the sight of the village lads and the Captain made a very poor attempt at concealing a smile as he continued.
“These are your maids for this evening, be courteous or they might not work here again. Now if you please ladies, could you serve the drinks.”
The students took full advantage of the village youths’ discomfiture, making suggestive remarks and generally annoying them. The villagers were forced to take everything, as they were each accompanied around the hall by a burly guard who looked to step in if there was so much as a hint that the villagers would retaliate.
Nedric and Rialto were extremely pleased with events as they headed over to meet Strawn and the other players by the butts. Strawn had picked the area as it was inside the keep and so none of the villagers would be able to watch them practice but was also less likely to have them in anyone’s way.
As the two got to the butts they could see they were nearly the first to arrive, with only the two madders there already. This didn’t surprise them as the younger boys were always going to be the keenest and Strawn always had to be accompanied by a group of other boys so it took him longer to get anywhere. There wasn’t long to wait until the other members of the team turned up and Strawn started to explain his ideas to them.
“Nedric, I want you and Callendra to act as our final defence, Calim, Mirkin, Smeal and Arren will stand in front of you and will be on both banks to provide defence or to help push forward. Irun, Petar, Carenda and Rialto will be up front with me and will be passing the ball quickly between us whilst also reacting rapidly to any moves the opposition might make.”
Nedric was less than happy with the proposed formation. Strawn had taken the people from his team and had them playing the passing game he had developed with them but with Strawn there as well, probably to take the credit. His four friends were there to help him if strong-arm tactics were going to be needed and Nedric was stuck at the back doing nothing if the team was winning. If the opposition scored, then Nedric would get much of the blame from failing to prevent them scoring. Worst of all was that Nedric was stuck with Callendra who wasn’t going to get in the way of some big, dirty villager if she could avoid it. Nedric hadn’t expected Strawn to come up with a plan that so effectively stopped Nedric from having any chance of glory and he could not see a way to gain from the situation. None of his plans with Rialto had anticipated this event.