Desperate

7th Day of Harvest,

766 Karloman’s Peace

He sniffed her hair.

The scent was heady, mostly sweat and dirt, but there was still a hint of fragrance hidden deep beneath it. Cloves and cedar oil, sweet and fresh, fighting to linger under the overpowering scent of body odour.

Ekkehard held his wife under the canopy of the tree.

She had finally calmed, but the night tunic was still damp from where her tears had fallen.

A light approached from behind the tree, startling Auriana, who shifted fretfully in his arms.

‘It’s okay,’ Ekkehard whispered to her, ‘it’s just Audomar.’

His brother, carrying a lit torch in one hand and his spear in the other, rounded the tree, the rest of the survivors in tow.

Looking down at the two, Audomar asked, ‘You two all right?’

‘We’ll be fine,’ Ekkehard responded, nodding.

It was hard to tell if Audomar really cared. There wasn’t much concern in his voice. He had always been an impassive man, but recent events had made him harder and colder than ever.

Audomar nodded in return. ‘Otbert and Bavo are dead,’ he said curtly, referring to two of the farmhands who had been traveling with them. ‘No sign of Gisla and the others.’

‘They ran?’ Ekkehard asked.

Audomar shook his head. ‘Taken,’ he said.

‘Taken?’ Auriana interjected, ‘what do you mean taken?’

‘Kidnapped,’ Florentin explained, in a tone much softer than his eldest brother managed. ‘Dreux here believes he saw some of the attackers carrying someone off.’

Auriana and Ekkehard both turned and looked up at the short farmhand expectantly.

The young man cleared his throat and said, ‘That’s right, milady. I’m not certain if it was Gisla or Liauld, but a girl they took. Otbert died trying to save them.’

‘Why would they take them?’ Auriana questioned, turning to Audomar and then to Florentin.

When it was clear the elder Reubke wasn’t going to answer, Florentin provided one. ‘We can only speculate,’ he said, ‘they took Leger as well, so perhaps ransom is their aim.’

‘Ransom to who?’ Ekkehard asked.

No one replied to that.

That was all Ekkehard needed to hear to know that his brothers had already concluded a far more sinister intention. The lie was for Auriana's benefit, and so he decided not to press the subject, allowing her the bliss of ignorance.

Ekkehard nudged his wife, and she rose off his chest, and both got to their feet.

‘What now then?’ Ekkehard asked his family.

‘We need to look for them,’ Gerwald answered sullenly.

Florentin sighed in response. ‘We’ve been over this, brother,’ he said, ‘it’s dark, and we don’t know these hills. They go on for miles. We can’t track them. Not till morning at least.’

Clearly, his brothers had already discussed this, Ekkehard thought to himself.

‘I have to admit, I’m with young master Gerwald on this one,’ the farmhand Dreux interjected, ‘I mean, we just lost half our number if we don’t get them back. It's no good traveling so light.’

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‘A fair point,’ Florentin replied with another sigh, ‘but how many more will we lose trying to find them?’

Dreux shrugged a burly set of shoulders. He was a sturdy man in his early thirties, broad and tall for a commoner, as wide as Gerwald and a few inches taller. Still much shorter than Audomar, Ekkehard, and Florentin, though, who were tall even by noble standards.

‘We can’t just leave them to these hill fuckers,’ Gerwald protested, eyes fixed on his feet as he spoke.

His youngest brother must have argued fervently for the pursuit of their attackers and been firmly dismissed, Ekkehard concluded. He could see both the frustration and the submission in Gerwald’s expression. It must be hard for him, Ekkehard thought, he has had to accept so much loss in such a short time, and he was so young. It is hard to swallow such dispassion and pragmatic truth at that age, Ekkehard remembered.

‘What do you think?’ Ekkehard asked, directing his question at the eldest Reubke.

Audomar looked at Ekkehard bitterly and shrugged.

Ekkehard was taken aback. That was not the response he had expected. Before Ekkehard could press the issue, Audomar handed his torch to the farmhand and walked away from the group a few paces.

Ekkehard looked to Florentin, who pulled a face in response. Clearly, he had been having a hard time getting anything out of Audomar as well.

Had his elder brother finally given up? Ekkehard wondered. Had this journey taken too much from him at last?

Before Ekkehard could explore the thought any further, he noticed that Gerwald, Florentin, and Dreux were all staring at him.

Why were they looking at him like that?

Then Ekkehard realised that they were waiting for him to decide what to do.

His throat went dry at the thought.

‘We have to do something,’ Gerwald pleaded with him.

Ekkehard nodded. His little brother was right. They had to at least try and rescue those taken. They couldn’t just abandon them. Florentin was right as well, however, and they could not take risks that would get the rest of them killed. They needed to see if there was a reasonable means of saving their sister and the others, but they had to accept the reality that there may be no such path.

‘Florentin,’ Ekkehard addressed his brother, ‘you’re the smartest of us. I know you think it is a bad idea, but if we were to look for Gisla and the others, what’s the best way to go about it?’

‘I’m not sure there is a best way,’ his brother replied.

‘Humour me.’

Florentin sighed and rubbed his forehead with one hand. He turned and looked around into the darkness of their surroundings.

‘Okay,’ he said after a few moments of pondering, ‘so we didn’t make a campfire last night, just as Audomar told us to.’

‘So?’ Ekkehard asked.

‘So, they didn’t see a fire in the dark, they already knew we were here, and night had already fallen when we crested the first hill.’

‘Meaning they must have seen us approaching before sunset?’ Ekkehard hypothesised.

‘Exactly,’ Florentin confirmed, ‘which means they had a camp near enough that they could spy on us and prepare a raid.’

‘So, they must be nearby then, right?’ Gerwald asked eagerly, suddenly enthused.

‘Not necessarily,’ Florentin sighed, ‘from what little I know of hill tribes, they are large. Far larger than the group that attacked us. That was probably nothing more than a hunting party, scouting the edges of the hill range for unsuspecting victims. Now they have their prize, they will make their way back to the main tribe, somewhere deeper in the hills.’

Gerwald’s shoulders dropped as he listened to Florentin, and his gaze fell back on his feet.

‘But that isn’t the end of it,’ Florentin continued, placing a comforting hand on Gerwald’s shoulder.

Ekkehard had never really noticed how much Florentin took responsibility for Gerwald before. The two were so different. Florentin was studious while Gerwald enjoyed the simpler sides of life, and the former was only a few years older than the latter. Yet, Florentin cared for Gerwald in a way that reminded him of the way Audomar had taken care of him in their younger days.

‘How so?’ Ekkehard asked, encouraging Florentin to continue.

‘Well,’ his brother began again, ‘at the very least, when the sun rises, we may find the hunting party’s camp. The attack, while simple, came from all sides and was strategised, meaning they had enough time between spotting us and attacking to plan effectively. So, that camp isn’t far. They could have been at that camp for a long time waiting for prey to stumble into their reach. It’s possible that there will be clear tracks there. It may at least indicate to us which way their main tribe resides.’

Florentin looked hopefully from Gerwald to Ekkehard and then shrugged, finishing his theorising with a final comment. ‘Who knows,’ he said, ‘perhaps we will even get lucky and they will still be at that camp.’

Ekkehard considered Florentin’s words and concluded it was a sound enough plan.

‘It’s settled then,’ Ekkehard said, ‘when morning comes, we hunt for this camp. If we can find it, maybe we find Gisla. If not, we push onwards, north.’

‘What do we do until then?’ Dreux asked.

‘Sleep,’ Ekkehard answered, ‘if you can. We are going to need our strength.’

‘I will not be able to rest until we find her,’ Gerwald mumbled.

‘Try,’ Ekkehard commanded.

Gerwald shook his head, ‘I'll take the first watch,’ he offered.

‘Okay,’ Ekkehard sympathetically accepted.

‘Florentin,’ Ekkehard addressed his other brother, ‘go find and tell Audomar.’

Florentin nodded and turned to search for their elder brother.

‘Dreux, put that torch out, in case they come looking for us again,’ Ekkehard ordered the farmhand, who did as he was bid.

Sometime later, as the group tried to sleep, Ekkehard heard his wife whisper in his ear.

‘Is this our life from now on?’ she asked, ‘Cold, pain, death? Is this all that is left for us?’

Ekkehard feigned sleep, and Auriana did not press further.

Soon, pretending turned to reality, and Ekkehard got a few restless hours of sleep.