Chapter 3
Marauders
We were awakened by cries and screams. They were not far off. We leapt to our feet and ran to the road. Such a ruckus could only mean one thing – marauders. It was just on dawn and there were people up ahead on the road. As we hurried towards them we could see that they were all hurrying our way.
“Keepers. Go back the way you have come.” We were told by a man half dressed but lugging a large pack strung on his back. “Marauders - but not of our lands. They are strangers and they are very many and they are killing.”
I could see with the gaining light that these people were fleeing in a hurry for many of them were hardly dressed. Looking into their faces I could see something I had never seen on the face of a people before. Terror. It was frightening just to recognize it and I felt its infectious power on myself almost before I was aware of it. This was not something that had happened to our people for a long time. Marauders were usually small bands of young men roaming the countryside doing nothing much more than stealing and moving on. Occasionally there might be bigger bands that might steal more but it was very uncommon for them to kill. The risks were too great.
“Sir, how many do you think there were?” asked Con.
“I do not know but one of my sons here had gone off at the first sound of trouble to see what was amiss and he says there are hundreds of them and that they are all carrying weapons and many are on horses. You had best not linger here.”
With that he and his family and the rest of them were off back the way we had come. We stood and wondered what we should do for our road led onwards to the Keep.
“We’d best be careful but we must go on” said Con. We agreed and moved off, carefully, constantly staring ahead for signs of trouble. We met a few other villagers fleeing. One of these was a young man sporting a hunting bow.
“Keepers. I’d not be going on if you have any sense about you. It is not a pretty sight. There are people dead at the cross road ahead and there are strangers holding the road.” He made to hurry off but Con held up his hand.
“Stop sir, what is your name?”
“I am Tol.”
“Tol, the marauders are at the cross road ahead?”
“No Keeper, only about fifty are ahead. The rest of them have taken the west road.”
“The west road? To the Keep?”
“Yes Keeper. They have taken the Keep road and you know there are no exits from that road unless they leave it to go cross country or take the side roads that lead only to farms.”
Con looked shocked and worried.
“Tol, I must beg a favour of you. I suppose that you know these lands well?”
“That’s for sure Keeper. I have hunted all over these lands from here all the way to Keep Mountain
“Tol I must make for the Keep across country and I must try and get to the Keep before the marauders do.” He turned to Jot and I and added “you two need not come. You may stay here and if the strangers leave you can wait for me at the Hold.”
At that Tol spoke again. “I’m sorry Keeper but the village Hold was burned to the ground last night and the Keepers were murdered or taken. I was there this morning long enough to see and to shoot one of those strange looking marauders with my bow. I don’t think I killed him but I bet he’s not going to be able to sit down for a while. Your companions should either come with us, for sure I would be happy to take you, or they should head back the other way.”
Something inside me was screaming “go home Pit” but instead somehow my voice lied and the words that came out were “I’ll go with you”.
Jot added “Me too. I’m not frightened of anyone that I can outrun.” His grin was enough to suggest he could indeed run.
Tol did not wait for any more. He headed west off the road where we had been standing and we had to hurry to catch up. We were walking along the verge of a very large paddy field still full of water. Soon we were winding our way between fields. We walked for some time before Tol stopped and turned to us.
“We are about four thousand strides from the west road here and safe enough I guess. I assume you three have not eaten since yesterday. There are plenty of fruit trees about a thousand strides to the north, towards the west road. Unless you want to eat meat that’s the only place we will be able to find food for a while.”
“We have no time to waste Tol. The vows do not prevent us eating meat at need even if the meat has been killed for us and Pit here has yet to even take his vows.”
Tol smiled at that and moved off again to the west. He moved at a steady pace, almost a run and it was hard work to keep up. He led us to a small dam where we drank from a cistern while he waded in the damn using his hands to look for giant snails. He soon had a fair few in his string bag.
“We can stop for a feed up ahead. I can cook these snails and they will be enough for us to keep going this afternoon.”
Not long after we came to a small stand of trees where wood cutters had taken some of the stand but had left enough dried branches for us to make a fire. Tol was deft with the flint and soon had a hot little fire going over which he draped the snails to roast. Fresh water snails are not the greatest food but they are edible and our stomachs were not complaining at all at the smell of them as they cooked.
As we sat waiting Con spoke about meat. “This will be the first meat I have eaten in a long time. I missed the last two Bhut Days for fear I would taste meat and not ever want to go back to the Keep.”
As we ate we questioned Tol about the strangers. He had been to the north of the cross roads waiting for sunrise so as to catch rabbits in a field he knew that had them in plenty. He had not had time for a kill when he heard the screams from the village. He’d rushed to investigate and had hidden behind a clump of bamboo. From there he had witnessed two killings and worse.
“They were taking the girls and young women too. That’s how the men were killed – trying to save their kin.”
“You know, the strange thing about these fellows is that they look nothing like us at all. They are all big men and have rough beards and fair skin and they speak with each other in a language that is full of sounds that I can not make.” He tried to make a sound like clearing his throat to spit but all he managed was to choke and spit.
“I wander what they are after” Jot said. “There is not much at the Keep worth stealing.”
“Ah Keeper” Tol said “you are young and just a worm so perhaps you do not know of the treasure they say is buried in the mountain where only the most senior of Keepers have access.” At this Con looked up as if to say something but instead glanced towards the Mountain that was now clear to see in the distance.
I’d heard such things in the past of course but my father had told me that the only true treasure in the Keep was the Keepers. Still, the word Keeper suggested that something was being kept. I had asked what was kept by the Keepers and the answer had always been “our way and our hope” but that was just a line form many of the versings and it never really meant anything at all to me.
Tol doused the fire and we were off again. This time he jogged. The rice fields were larger and there was more space between them with less need to make turns. Before long we came to a track.
“This leads back to the west road and we might take it for a while till we get to another I know that runs west closer to the road. We can make good time now so let’s run for a while.”
We ran. For about three hours we ran or jogged taking this track or that, sometimes passing abandoned farms and once hearing a call from the distance but we did not stop. And all the while the Mountain of the Keep loomed larger.
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