Bonus Spin Offs, Mir’s Autumn Part C

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Lef had been correct in his assumption that more people would be willing to go with Milla and Thern having thrown their support into taking action sooner rather than later. Upwards of two-thirds of the village and most of the guests from the surrounding homesteads were willing to do so.

Both Del and Alfi were also going to go, Lef had said he would stay and see to the well being of those who remained.

Thern had eliminated those who were too young and the older folk from the volunteers, “We’ll need to travel quickly and will have little need for non combatants on the way there. We need people that are willing to fight and people that can handle a team of horses.”

It took all morning to sort out the details, to choose who would be part of which groups and what those teams would be doing during the raid. Mir and Gweth had volunteered to be part of the team who would most likely be involved with a direct confrontation with the witch. Thern also wanted her to contact her uncle ahead of the anticipated action to see what information or aid might be available. He gave everyone the rest of the day to make preparations and to say their goodbyes. They left for Aramy early the following morning.

Nearly eighty people left Lekas for Aramy. There was little in the way of ordered marching, and while they did have a supply wagon following, that included Del and others willing to help with the situation after the raid, there was a decided lack of support for the trip. So, while many would not have considered the diverse collection of people an actual army, Mir felt that they were in fact such an army, marching onward to save her home and loved ones.

Thern had Mir and Gweth ahead of the force, scouting for hazards along the road. Alfi moved between the main force and the supply wagon that trailed behind them. The weather remained fair, though there was a bit of rain over three of the days, the group made good time. It took the better part of five days for the main group to get within striking distance of Aramy. Thern held them back, giving them a half days rest as the supply wagon closed the gap towards the main force. He sent Mir and Gweth ahead to make contact with her uncle.

Mir’s uncle was not at the old homestead when they arrived, but they did find him at the mine. In the intervening time since Mir had last seen him, her uncle had gathered three more people from the village and the first group of people he had sent off to Willik’s Hold with the two older lads as escorts. He expected the lads to return any day now. After Mir filled him in on what was going to be happening, he decided that he and Ajax would sneak up to the hanging tree, free the people who were there and then burn the damn thing.

Gweth and Mir circled back around to Thern and the rest of the raiding party. After informing Thern of the small amount of support that was available and what their intent was he adjusted his plans and brought the group leaders together to go over the plan one final time. After that the various groups moved off to their positions around the crossroads. Mir and Gweth, along with four others, were going to be positioned outside the doors of Town Hall. They had moved up to the brook, less than a half yat from the tavern and waited in hiding for darkness.

Mir followed Thern’s advice and had half her people sleeping, while the other half kept a lookout for trouble. Near sunset the wind picked up considerably and dark clouds could be seen far to the north. She thought there would be rain the next day. With the coming of night the temperature dropped a bit, it was still well above the point of freezing but the winds made it feel much colder.

As expected the village became rowdy after sunset. Mir and her people moved up carefully, along the bank of the brook until they were within a rock’s throw of the tavern. Then they had to wait for folks to settle for the night. The winds came and went, gusting strongly at some points, while moments later there was hardly a breeze.

The moons rose, Kallen was near its highest point in the sky, nearly full but still mostly a smudge of green behind the cloud cover. Masri appeared to be directly above them, close to half full and occasionally obscured by the southward tracking clouds.

Well into the night the sounds of a woman screaming in fearful rage disturbed them, a couple of her people nearly broke cover, driven to assist someone in need. Mir moved out of hiding and placed herself between her two would-be heroes and the village. They settled back down and after a quick glance towards the village she returned to her position along the brook’s bank. The screaming had disturbed her more than she let on, thoughts of her sisters or her mother being the person screaming troubled her. She was also starting to question whether or not she would be able to shoot someone.

Thern had warned everyone not to attack indiscriminately, in the dark it would be hard to tell who was friend or foe. Mir feared she would hurt her own people in such a situation. Gweth moved quietly to her side and rested an arm across her shoulders, “You’re doing fine, Mir. We’ll get the witch and free your people. Just focus on what we need to do.”

After what seemed like an eternity the village started to settle, Mir was just about to wave her people forward when she saw the bright flare of rising flames from the direction of the hanging tree. Her uncle had started a little early. She waved her team into action, Gweth and she moved towards the main door of the tavern, while the others paired up, heading to the other two doors.

Even after a night of drunken revelry, someone in the village spotted the flames rising up around the hanging tree, “Fire! The tree is burning! Fire!”

It was not long before others took up the call. Mir had almost made it to the main door of the tavern when someone came out. He was mostly naked, but Mir recognized him as one of the men the sorceress had shown up with in the spring. Surprising herself she drew an arrow and fired without hesitation as she moved forward. The arrow hit him high in the back as he had been looking in the direction of the now burning hanging tree.

Mir drew and fired again, her shot took him in the lower guts and Gweth’s arrow bloomed from his neck. He fell back against the door and collapsed, gasping, reaching upwards with one hand, grasping at the door. Mir darted across the front to the other side of the entrance, hanging back about ten paces from the building. While villagers and others continued to shout out warnings about the fire, some few had started running in that direction.

Someone started pushing against the door, there was a startled shout from inside. Someone ran past Mir, only a few paces away, “Fire! The tree! Fire!”

The door was forced open and another man, also half naked, stepped out, looking down at the dying man who had blocked the door. Mir and Gweth fired at the same time. Mir’s arrow grazed the man’s head while Gweth’s shot was near the heart. The man shouted in terror, yanked the door closed as he backed into the tavern, screaming.

From the east side of the village a great cry rose into the night sky and a horn sounded from that direction as well. That was Milla and over half the raiders, they were mostly a distraction at this point, to make people think there was a real attack coming from that direction.

Mir heard a scream from the other side of the tavern. Then the front door opened again and someone rolled out, staying low, they jumped from the porch into the garden that ran along the front of the building. Gweth’s shot went high and glanced off the side of the structure. Mir drew back the arrow and stepped forward. She saw someone crawling along behind the shrubs and heard further commotion from just inside the doorway.

“Come on out or I’ll shoot!” she called to the man in the bushes.

From inside the tavern a woman screamed, men were shouting.

“Mir?” said a familiar voice from the bushes. She held her shot. Someone slammed into the front door and fell partway out. She glanced back to the bushes and Tankard Dwill stood up, he looked terrified.

“Go! Run!” She moved towards the porch as a woman around her age scrabbled to her feet, wild eyed with a bloody knife in hand.

Gweth was moving towards the porch as well. The door opened wide behind the woman and Mir recognized the other man who had originally showed up with the witch. She shot, narrowly missing the young woman, but her intended target had jumped back slamming the door shut behind him.

The woman screamed and leapt from the porch towards Mir, waving the knife wildly. Mir backed off, waving her hand to signal the woman to move off, but she pressed the attack, forcing Mir to further back. From inside she heard a waspish command, “Well don’t just cower! Get out there and get them!” It sounded like the witch.

Gweth came up behind the girl still intent on attacking Mir, the tavern door opened again, Mir snatched an arrow from her quiver and stepped to the side. Gweth grabbed the crazed woman from behind, striking her hand with her bow, knocking the knife to the ground.

Someone rushed out the door, cowering behind one of the decorative shields taken from the tavern’s walls, behind him other people rushed out. Mir shot at the legs of the leading man, someone behind him screamed and went down. Gweth went head over heels as the wild-eyed woman threw her then scrambled towards her knife.

Mir stepped back, drew and aimed at the shield man’s legs, the enraged woman stood up with her knife in hand, then went crashing to the ground as Gweth rolled on top of her. Mir released the arrow, the shield man screamed, dropped to one knee and then was knocked over by the other people streaming out of the tavern.

“Gweth!” Mir snatched an arrow, stepped back, released, then did it again.

“We’re trying to help!” Gweth shouted at the crazed women. “Just run!”

Mir snatched another arrow, she could see a man on the porch with a small crossbow, aiming in Gweth’s direction. Two of the men were off the porch rushing towards her, others had tripped over their fallen comrade or checked their advance. Mir shot the man with the crossbow, then dropped and rolled into the leading man’s legs. He crashed to the ground, Mir took a painful blow to her side and lost her bow, the second man ran over her, crushing the wind from her lungs. She was pretty sure he had fallen as well.

Stunned, she fumbled for her knife, someone kicked it from her hand, she glanced up in time to see a mace descending. The blow took her in the side of the head, pain overwhelmed her, her vision blurred. From somewhere nearby Gweth screamed. Someone grabbed her by the hair and pulled her into a sitting position, vaguely she registered that the blurred form looming above her was familiar. Her father said, “Oh, Mir. I wish you had not returned.”

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