Chapter 56

Gerald watched as his head knight pressed his lips, looking reluctant to speak. But it didn't take long for him to collect himself and begin.

"My lord," Robard said. "The ambush went well. The returning bandits never expected us, and our sudden appearance from every direction gave rise to panic in their ranks. Our losses were negligible"

Gerald nodded. He'd expected it to go this way. Harland didn't seem sharp enough to read an ambush before it befell him, and his men weren't as capable as Lucas's.

"We captured some of the bandits," Robard continued. "We questioned them, and we found that one of the two chiefs was missing. Edith, the woman, my lord. The captured bandits all agreed that she had no more than 200 men under her command."

"Did they lie?" Gerald asked.

"No, my lord."

"Then what happened?"

Robard cleared his throat. "We headed to the forest to wipe her men out and execute her. When we got there, we found the village northeast of the forest burned down, and its people slaughtered. It appears that the villagers had rebelled against the bandits, my lord. Their corpses were everywhere. Hanged on trees. Spiked on the border of the village. We even found some dead ones that seemed to have been burned alive."

Gerald glanced back at Gasper. The latter had told him that Edith hadn't joined the assault because of a supposed rising of peasants. It seemed to be true so far.

Lucas was nearby, listening to Robard's story. And so were Uncle Rudolf and Gasper. The latter frowned once he heard Robard's description of the villagers' deaths.

"Continue," Gerald nodded.

"We caught one of her scouts, my lord."

"And?"

"He said that Edith was attacking one of the northern camps."

This time Gerald glanced at Lucas, who snorted at the words with contempt. He had brought all of his men to the assault, after all. Likely, Edith had to vent her anger on the dead, hard wood of the empty camp.

"We marched north, my lord."

Gerald nodded. Attempting to catch Edith unprepared while she attacked the camp in the north seemed like the wisest decision.

"All that greeted us there was a burned camp," Robard continued, wincing momentarily, as if hating the memory. "We didn't find her. We tried to track her and her men, and the trail led us east."

Gerald realized what the wincing was about as he heard the last sentence. East was Viper's camp, but Edith had no grudge with him. Robard had also not known that Lucas's camp had been empty. A lot of knowledge had been obscured, and his head knight had had to make decisions without knowing what he knew. The wince from Robard was because the moment he had decided to follow Edith, he'd blundered. She had headed east because her scouts had spotted him and his men. Robard had likely assumed that she was attacking the other bandit camp in the north.

He didn't blamed his head knight. It was supposed to be much simpler. The two chiefs should have been returning from the assault together, and the ambush should have ended both of them. But Robard had been dragged into an unexpected chase, and he had also been supposed to return from this chase and meet Gerald in the south. It wasn't unreasonable that he would be hasty.

Gerald nodded for his knight to continue.

"We marched east, my lord," Robard said. "There, we came across the bandits from the other bandit camp. They were volatile. Most of them were alert and patrolling the outskirts of the camp. I would come to know later that they were chasing skirmishers from Edith's men. When the alerted bandits spotted us, we were forced to wipe them out as fast as possible. We also cleaned their camp in all due haste."

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"And you realized by then that she was leading you on a fool's chase, yes?" Gerald said.

"Indeed, my lord," Robard nodded, clenching his jaw. "That's why I decided to return to the forest right away instead of tracking her further. It was the safest place for her. She would have to return to the forest to take shelter eventually."

Gerald nodded in agreement.

"She returned to the forest before us though, and she hid within it," Robard continued, his face scrunching up into a wretched expression. "Even if Ard's whole army was there, surrounding the forest would have been impossible, my lord. So I sent the cavalry to patrol around the forest, and I led most of the infantry and some crossbowmen into the forest, hoping to outnumber the bandits in the forest. Even if they had the advantage of the woods, our numbers were too many for them to deplete."

The second blunder, Gerald thought. He would have stopped there. Going into the forest was too risky. But he understood that Robard had been in a hurry, and had just been fooled by the bandits into a pointless chase. Gerald didn't know what he would have done in Robard's place though. He would have been more cautious, yes. But he didn't know what he would do to flush Edith out of the forest. The only thing he did know was that going into the forest was a risk. And he didn't take risks unless there was an opportunity for gains that could not be replicated on another occasion. Perhaps Robard would have been as cautious had the circumstances been different.

"At first, we faced no resistance as moved deeper into the forest," Robard said, looking unfamiliarly forlorn. "Then there was smoke."

Gerald's face twitched. He'd suspected it, but he hadn't wanted to believe his thoughts. Edith had burned down the whole damn forest. One of the meager three woods he had in the territory was likely in ashes right now. That was aside from the loss of men that he would hear about in a moment.

The territory had had three forests, barely enough for timber to be harvested without depleting each of the woods. The timber had lacked quality. But now there would be a lack of quantity too.

"She torched the forest, my lord," Robard said. "After we had marched into its depth. There were too many men for a quick retreat. The escape from the fire was chaotic. I pointed the men towards the right direction and told them to run and try to keep themselves alive. Every man for himself. Trying an organized retreat would have spilled our deaths."

Gerald's lips were pressed. He was barely holding himself back from cursing at Edith and all her forefathers. A damn woman and her two hundred men had cost him too much. He could easily imagine the losses Robard's two regiments had suffered.

"Of the 1200 men that entered the forest with me, five hundred fell," Robard said with difficulty. He avoided Gerald's gaze and fidgeted slightly. "My lord, I—"

Gerald lifted his hand for Robard to stop. "We can discuss this mistake of yours later. What did Edith and her men do?"

"She told them to escape in every direction. We caught some, but a great portion of them escaped, my lord."

"And Edith escaped, yes?" Gerald said, knowing the answer.

Robard's eyes sharpened, and his face finally showed a hint of resolute fury. "I wouldn't have returned without her head, my lord." He reached to grab a sack from the side of his horse, raising it.

Gerald was pleasantly surprised. The sack contained two heads instead of one. He watched as Robard pulled a braided head from inside for him to see. The woman's savage face was bloodied and, apparently, beaten thoroughly. Robard hadn't followed the common manners of handling a woman, it seemed. But then again, common manners and beliefs forbade women more than men from bloody banditry. A man would simply lose his head for banditry. But a woman would be stoned to death and cursed for all eternity. For what reason was such judgment prevalent, Gerald didn't know.

"She tried to escape into the mountains," Robard said, his burning gaze on the bloody head in his hand. "I caught her before she could. I would have chased her into the depths of the mountains had she succeeded, my lord."

Gerald nodded with a faint smile. At least he'd finally wiped out all of the bandit crews. All that remained now were a few scattered brigands. Such remnants would be swept clean sooner or later. They weren't numerous enough to form a crew, and he doubted that they would be foolish enough to try after what he'd done to the previous ones.

He signaled for Gasper and Uncle Rudolf, and the two came closer. He looked at gasper. "You'll take your crew to the north and stay there for now. Make your presence known."

Gasper nodded. "Yes, my lord."

Gerald glanced at Gasper's numerous men in the distance. They were dilapidated, but they were many. "See to it that your men are calmed down after you make camp in the north. They seem anxious from all this." Gasper's men were likely only following commands out of fear of the unknown right now, but they would begin asking questions once they settled down. He would leave it to Uncle Rudolf and Gasper to handle it though. The two of them were more knowledgeable of the men they had trained themselves, after all.

He nodded for them to leave, and the two rode towards their crew. As Gasper's crew began moving towards the northeast, Gerald signaled for his men to prepare for the return to Ard.

His eyes fell on Lucas and he gestured for him. "Ride beside me."

They had a lot to talk about on the way back.