Volume One: The Forest Knight Chapter Two: A Change of Fortune

This was no ordinary gray straw paper; it was a bounty notice issued in the name of the Principality of Brick’s court, complete with portraits. The wanted men were none other than the brothers Grey and Ward. The announcement stated that anyone who could capture these two, dead or alive, would be granted the title of Court Knight of Brick and rewarded with a hereditary fief.

Berrion set down the bounty notice and searched his memory, recalling something his friend Éomer, who had served as a squire under Sir Logan alongside him, had once told him. It turned out Grey had been the captain of the city guard in Wallombre. Though not a noble, he wielded some authority and managed to extract bribes from shops and passing merchants, enjoying a comfortable life.

But Grey was brazen beyond measure—he had dared to become involved with one of the Duke’s secret mistresses. Though her identity was closely guarded, with few aware of it, this was akin to plucking the tiger’s whiskers. No man would tolerate such insult, and yet Grey went further, conspiring with several of his guardsmen and the Duke’s mistress herself to kidnap the Duke and demand a hefty ransom—a truly reckless scheme.

Though the Duke usually did not post guards at his mistress’s residence, a maid within the household was in fact a palace spy, tasked with monitoring the mistress’s activities. Once she reported the plot, the Duke flew into a rage and ordered Grey and his accomplices secretly apprehended. Grey, noticing the Duke’s absence from his mistress’s home for several days, sensed something was amiss and took precautions, posting sentries near the guard barracks. When the Duke’s knights moved in, Grey’s men were warned in time and made their escape.

Enraged, the Duke personally slew his mistress and commanded the Chief of Security to issue a bounty in the name of the court, condemning Grey and Ward for high treason and offering a knight’s title and hereditary lands for their heads. This enormous reward sent the lower nobility and commoners of the principality into a frenzy, each eager to seize such a fortune for their family.

Sir Logan, Berrion’s mentor, was no exception. With two sons, he had hoped to win this honor—his eldest would inherit his own title and fief, and his younger son could receive this new knighthood and lands, giving both a noble future. Yet fortune eluded him, and instead, he lost his life.

Excited, Berrion tucked the bounty notice into his breast and brought the bodies of the Grey brothers into the house, laying them out carefully. To Berrion, these corpses were no longer fearsome dead men, but the promise of a knight’s title and hereditary fief. After his tasks were complete, and having experienced so much in less than two days, Berrion fell asleep by the hearth.

The next morning, sunlight filtered into the cave. Berrion was eager to set out for Wallombre but, after a simple meal, began to inventory the bandits’ spoils. The extent of their hoard astonished him.

Deep in the cave, he found five purses, a large chest, and a small chest. The five purses together held eight thousand copper coins—about eighty dinars. The large chest contained forty-nine thousand silver dinars. On this continent, three currencies circulated: copper (“soli”), silver (“dinar”), and gold (“Aigu”). Copper and silver were most common, with one dinar equal to a hundred copper coins.

Gold aigu were rare, mainly exchanged between nobles or as rewards for great service. One aigu equaled one hundred dinars, or ten thousand copper coins.

Berrion was shocked to find three hundred aigu in the small chest—a fortune of thirty thousand dinars. His father, a lord with three villages and a market, earned only ten thousand dinars a year; here was three years’ income for their estate in a single box.

He realized the bandits could not have amassed such wealth from robbing merchants alone; it must have come from the Duke’s secret mistress, perhaps looted from the Duke’s private treasury. Otherwise, the notoriously stingy Duke would never have set such a high bounty.

Besides coin, the cave contained only some food, drink, and a bit of cloth. Usually, bandits quickly handed stolen goods to connected merchants to sell on the black market, converting them into coin, so few valuables remained.

Yet Berrion discovered, in a small niche within the cave, enough arms and armor to equip a knight’s domain. Grey and his men, former city guards, already possessed arms and armor, and had added to their stock from ambushing merchant caravans and a cavalry detachment led by Sir Logan.

Berrion found fifteen spears, seven maces, ten single-handed swords, six sabers, ten fighting axes, six leather-covered round shields, five hunting bows, and sixty arrows. For armor, there was a full suit of mail, a visored helmet—stripped from Sir Logan—three chain shirts, five coats of reinforced leather, nine hardened leather cuirasses, four nasal helmets, and six chain hoods. Berrion tallied this and thought it enough to outfit a twenty-man elite guard.

In the neighboring, larger cave were three horses—mounts belonging to Sir Logan’s cavalry squad, aside from those lost or killed. It seemed the gods of fate still watched over Berrion, sparing him from having to carry all three corpses himself.

The discovery of such wealth and arms made Berrion abandon plans to set out that day. He filled three purses: one with a hundred copper coins for daily expenses; one with three hundred dinars for anticipated bribes and fees in Wallombre; and a small one with fifty gold aigu, kept close for emergencies.

He also packed Sir Logan’s mail and visored helmet to return to his family, out of gratitude for years of kindness. Berrion claimed his own suit of reinforced leather and nasal helmet, a single-handed sword, and a leather-covered shield as his arms. The remaining weapons and treasure he concealed in the cave’s niche, sealing it with stones. By the time he finished, dusk had fallen. He resigned himself to resting and setting out early the next day.

The cave was not far from the ambush site. The following morning, Berrion surveyed the terrain from a high point, then quickly crossed the valley to the main road, where he knew the way to Wallombre.

Before urging his horse onward, Berrion glanced back at the valley, confident that no one would discover the cave for three or four months. He had blocked the entrance with branches, and both cave and valley were well concealed. At most, he thought, he would return for his cache within a month.

With one man and three horses, Berrion rode from dawn to dusk, reaching the city of Wallombre by nightfall. Though weary from a day in the saddle, he was heartened by the sight of his goal. As he approached the gates, a city guard stopped him.

“Hey, you! What’s your business? Dismount and submit to inspection,” barked a spear-wielding guard.

Berrion, annoyed but composed, replied, “I am Berrion Tuck, squire to Sir Logan and a palace guardsman. I have urgent business with the Duke and must enter the palace. Here are my papers.”

He handed over his credentials. The guard’s manner changed at once, but he still asked Berrion to wait while he reported to his superior.

Soon, the guard returned with a hurried middle-aged man. At the sight of him, Berrion gladly dismounted. The man embraced him warmly.

“Good lad! I thought you’d truly come to harm. Your father and I have been worried sick, even scraping together ransom money,” said the man.

“Uncle Rudy, Tucks aren’t so easily captured. Not only did I escape, I killed Grey and Ward—the Duke’s wanted traitors—and recovered Sir Logan’s body,” Berrion replied, glancing at the two horses bearing the bodies. His uncle, Rudy Tuck, understood at once.

“Well done, boy! A true Tuck if ever there was. I’ll take you to the palace at once.” With that, Rudy mounted his horse and escorted Berrion to the court of Brick.

On the way, uncle and nephew conversed, and Berrion learned why his uncle, a squire, had been assigned to the city guard. After Grey’s betrayal, the Duke had lost faith in the guard’s officers, demoting the viscount overseeing the guard to baron and replacing the commanders with trusted palace knights and squires—noble sons loyal to him.

Soon, they arrived at the palace gates. Sir Rudy was a longtime officer and well-known; Berrion was also a palace guard. After a brief check, both were admitted.

Sir Rudy led Berrion straight to the Chief of Security’s office, where a few guards carried in the corpses. The Chief rose at once, inspected Sir Logan’s body, then compared the faces of Grey and Ward to their portraits. Satisfied, he clapped Berrion on the shoulder with a smile. “Well done, young man! I’d like to hear your tale of valor.”

Berrion knew this was an interrogation—after all, a squire thought captured two days ago had returned with the bandit chiefs’ bodies, an improbable feat.

Berrion bowed and replied, “Honored sir, the cavalryman who brought back Sir Logan’s sword has already recounted how we were ambushed and defeated. Allow me to tell what happened afterward.”

He smiled at the assembled audience. “During the battle, I was struck on the helmet and knocked out. When I awoke, I found myself and Sir Logan in enemy hands. After the bandits saw Sir Logan had died, they assumed I too was dead and did not bind me. Because of this, I was able to escape quickly upon waking.

I killed a bandit, seized his sword, and fled. Yet I did not return to the city, for my master’s body remained with those villains. I tracked them through the night to their camp. It was dark—all but one sentry were asleep. I rushed in, slew the guard, then hacked at the sleeping bandits. Two died in their sleep, one being Ward. Alarmed, the others, thinking soldiers attacked, fled. Only Grey remained, seeking revenge for his brother. Lacking his weapon, he was easily slain.

Afterward, I cut off their heads, placed Sir Logan’s body on one horse, their heads on another, and myself on the third. I wandered the hills for a whole day before finding my way out, then rode hard for Wallombre.”

The Chief of Security, though finding some parts odd, judged the tale genuine—after all, the corpses were proof enough. There was no need to press further; he could finally report success to the Duke. For more than a year, the Duke had hounded him to capture the two who had cuckolded him, nearly driving him mad. Now, at last, he could lay down that burden.

Feeling favorably toward Berrion, he ordered, “Servants! Prepare the traitors’ bodies—I will present them to the Chancellor. Meanwhile, ready a guestroom for Sir Berrion, with food and drink.”

He then told Berrion, “Go wash and change. You’re covered in blood and reek of horse. You can’t meet the Duke and Chancellor like that.”

Berrion bowed his thanks. Once the Chief departed, Sir Rudy took his leave as well, for city defense could not be neglected. Berrion ate a little at the office, then returned to the palace guards’ quarters, where he bathed and changed into clean clothes before returning to the Chief’s office to await further orders.