Both elected to have a cold meal. They didn’t want to make the same mistake as last night and send up a signal fire to anyone. They sat in the first floor above the mill in the kitchen and soaked some of the dried food in water but left the hearth unlit. They did light a lantern after they shuddered all the windows they could find and blocked the cracks.

Delta worked on her glaive with a whetstone, muttering about having to trim hedges with it. Zipper poked about the room, examining the depths of all the cabinets and cupboards. She froze each time the wind blew and something, somewhere in the building creaked.

Zipper eventually came back and sat down heavily at the table. She idly chewed at some of the semi-soft dried food.

“Find anything”, asked Delta, who had finished with the fine grade whetstone and was now finishing up by oiling the blade.

“Mouse turds”, said Zipper. “Plenty of flour.”

“Hopefully not in the same place”, said Delta, with a quirk in her lips.

“Nah. Millers, better than anyone, know how to mouse proof their stores”, Zipper said glumly.

“Maybe we’ll have cakes in the morning”, said Delta. “Won’t be an issue, lighting a fire then. We should have an easy run of it tomorrow to the fort.”

“Hmm”, said Zipper, looking more positive. “I hadn’t thought of that.” She chewed more of the food. “I found a pot of grease. That, and maybe some of the cheese I kept from the last place… I can whip up some hearth cakes, no problem.”

Delta propped her glaive up and stowed her oil rag in her pack. She washed her hands and then set about her own portion of dinner. “Leave some of the fruit to soak in our wine ration overnight. That should do well.”

“I like how you think!” said Zipper. There was then a creak and a scrabbling noise. She froze, then cursed. “Sorry. I can’t help it. This place has got me jumpy. It’s probably just branches being blown up against the outside.”

“There aren’t any trees close enough”, said Delta, who had also frozen.

They put their food down and got up slowly, and quietly. Delta was moving towards the shuttered window when they both heard the noise again. It did sound like something brushing against the shingles on the outside of the house.

Delta pointed at the lamp and Zipper blew it out quickly. Delta put her ear to the wall and listened intently. They heard a creaking again and Delta pointed upwards.

Zipper grabbed her spear and they cautiously went up the stairs to the second floor. The central well surrounding the vertical shaft was built of stone, and they didn’t have to worry about creaking. “The windows on the upper floors aren’t plugged”, said Delta to Zipper in a whisper, as they ascended.

“Who would have thought?” said Zipper back.

They each took a side, Delta the work area and Zipper the bedroom. The bedroom window had a shutter, but it was unmounted, to the side. The window was narrow, but it was possible that someone small and thin could squeeze through. Zipper crouched just inside the doorway, and to one side, watching. The moon was a long way away from rising and would be even weaker than the previous night. All she could see through the window was the cloudy sky, and patches of stars.

But, there, she saw something, or rather the absence of something. A band of darkness had risen from the bottom of the window slot. Zipper swore it looked just like the silhouette she had seen the previous night. She set her jaw, gripped her spear, and waited.

Slowly, cautiously, and silently the shape moved. It filled more of the slit and then moved from side to side, like it was scanning the room. Zipper held her breath and tried to remain motionless. The figure froze. In the silence Zipper could hear Delta moving. She must have seen nothing on her side and was coming back. The time to act was now.

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From her squat, Zipper rose suddenly, and stepped forward with her leading foot. Pivoting at her waist she used that momentum to thrust her spear forward. With a double handed grip, it had just enough range to make it through the window. There was a yelp, and a scrambling noise that descended down the side of the building.

Delta came running in as Zipper was recovering to guard position. “Did you get it?” she asked breathlessly.

Zipper shook her head. “It would have yelled a lot louder if I got a good blow”, she said. “As it is, I think I just scared the water out of it.”

“What was it?” asked Delta, sidling carefully up to the window, and looking out.

“I don’t know”, said Zipper. “I want to say it was the same thing I saw last night.” She shrugged. “Hard to tell for sure though.”

“Let’s get up top and see what we can see”, said Delta.

Zipper picked up the shutter. “How about we close these first?”

“Good point”, said Delta.

The got the shutters in place and bolted down, then did the same on the third floor. Once done they clambered out onto the platform. The view wasn’t so impressive at night. It was very dark, but their eyes were mostly adjusted already. They walked around the edge looking down the side.

“There” hissed Delta.

Zipper came over and looked cautiously over the edge. A dark shape was huddled on the ground next to another one, lying out prone. Zipper chuckled and the shape looked up suddenly, glinting in the dark hood. It grabbed the prone one and pushed it to its feet. The two stumbled off, the dazed one held up by the other.

They got to the low wall and were joined by two other long, low shapes.

“Vargr!” swore Zipper.

Delta shook her head. “No, they aren’t big enough. They’re just wolves.” The uninjured one flung the groggy one over the back of one of the wolves, leaped on the other one, and they sprinted off towards the woods. “Not that ‘just wolves’ is a good thing.”

Zipper snapped her fingers. “You were right about the woods.” She put her fists on her hips. “I bet those are the two who were watching us last night. I hope he broke his back.”

“Goblins”, said Delta, watching the woods closely. “Goblins ride wolves.”

Zipper digested this for a while. They were just characters in stores where she had grown up. “Have you fought them?” asked Zipper, curious.

“No”, said Delta. “But the brigade had, before my time. They got hired to clear some out up north near the mountains. They’d come raiding down on wolf back to snatch and grab what they could, when the winter was bad.”

“It’s spring” Zipper pointed out.

“Yep”, said Delta. “Which means they aren’t desperate. Which means there are probably a lot more than two.” She hadn’t taken her eyes off the forest.

Zipper looked back to the woods, dubiously. “So how did they tackle them?”

“They skipped trying to protect the town. Infantry can’t out-maneuver cavalry. So, they tracked them back to their base camp. Set upon them during the light, which they didn’t like. The goblins were poorly armed and armored and couldn’t really stand up to an organized attack. The brigade’s aim was to do enough damage to them before they scattered so they would reconsider which village they raided.” Delta pursed her lips. “I’m not sure that helps us here.”

“I think it helps plenty”, said Zipper. “They’re wimps. We just have to bloody their nose a bit, and they’ll run off and leave us alone.”

“Well, I think we’re going to get a chance to find out”, said Delta. Several shapes had detached themselves from the trees to meet the ones coming in. A discussion was clearly taking place. At the end of it, one of them took out a horn and let sound a few notes in a pattern.

“That can’t be good”, said Zipper.

Delta grimaced. “They’ve decided they don’t need stealth anymore. It also means there are more.”

“Crap”, said Zipper. The mounted shapes moved out, heading to take up station on their perimeter. “We’re silhouetted up here. Shouldn’t we hide, or put up fake people?”

Delta looked around the platform. “If they’ve been following us, they know exactly how many of us are here. That’s probably why they’re being so bold.”

They circled the platform, testing the boards for sturdiness. The windmill’s axle could be turned to face the wind, and it pivoted on rollers that rolled across the platform. So, the platform was quite sturdy.

“We’re actually in a pretty good position”, concluded Delta. “We’ve got good sight lines in all directions. If they try to climb up, they’ve got the same problem as the one you knocked off.” Zipper chuckled again. “The bottom is stone so they’re going to have a hard time if they try to fire us out. It would take a while to burn through the big door downstairs.” She tapped her lip. “Let’s get anything heavy we can find up here, to thrown down on climbers. Also fill any tubs we have with water. If they do try to fire the door we can make it tough.”

“I’ll get the bow as well”, said Zipper.

“I thought you said you were terrible at it”, said Delta.

“I am!” said Zipper. Then she tapped her nose. “But they don’t know that.”