Richard Baker - Avenger

The dwarf raised an eyebrow. “Are ye wishin’ hard times on me?” he said, but he smiled behind his pipe. Early the previous summer, the Icehammer mercenaries had stood side by side with the Shieldsworn and the Spearmeet to break the Bloody Skull horde at Lendon’s Wall. Kendurkkel was a mercenary and owed allegiance to no one … but Kara had won his respect with her generalship in the desperate battle against the orcs, and respect was something that Kendurkkel was slow to give.

“No, better times for me and mine,” Kara answered. She turned to face the mercenary and fixed her eyes on his. “We’ve got work for the Icehammers if you’re willing, Master Ironthane.”

“I’m always willin’ t’talk business. What’s it t’be, then?”

“I mean to retake Hulburg from Marstel and his supporters. We march at the end of next month. I’d like to hire the Icehammers to bolster our numbers.”

“That soon, eh?” The dwarf drew on his pipe. “It’ll no’ be cheap, Lady Hulmaster. If that’s what you’ve got in mind, well, there’s a damn good chance of a field battle t’be fought. We’ll no’ shy from fightin’, but it costs a good deal more, you see.”

Steeling herself for the answer, Kara asked, “What’s your price?”

“Well, the customary amount is two thousan’ gold crowns up front, and a thousan’ per month we’re in your service. Add another six hundred if we provide our own quarters and board.” The dwarf removed his pipe from his mouth and tapped it against his hand, emptying out the ashes. “We’ll need a bonus of one thousan’ per day o’ skirmishin’ or siegework, or five thousan’ for a major battle.”

Kara grimaced. That was frankly more than the Hulmaster fortune, such as it was, could manage, but she had to have the Icehammers. The winter weather meant that no other mercenary companies could be hired and brought to Thentia until late spring at the earliest, and that would pose its own problems-the Hulmaster treasury would be empty by then. More importantly, she couldn’t take the risk that Marstel’s agents might contact Kendurkkel and hire his company. All things being equal, she thought Kendurkkel would rather fight at her side than with her enemies, but it was hardly wise to count on such sentiments affecting a mercenary’s business dealings. If Marstel offered to meet the Icehammers’ price and she didn’t, there would be two hundred more veteran soldiers lining up against her, enough to make an already difficult task next to impossible.

“All right,” she finally said. “We can meet your hiring price and your monthly rates for several months, at least. We’ll look after your quarters and provisions.” Of course, that meant selling off almost all the jewelry she’d been able to scrape together from her mother’s collection as well as that of Harmach Grigor’s wife Silne, who’d died many years before. They’d fetch enough in the markets of Thentia to cover the Icehammers for a short season … she hoped.

“An’ if there’s fightin’, can you pay?” Kendurkkel asked.

“It depends how much fighting you see. Is it possible that we could arrange to pay in installments once we see how much of a bonus you’ve earned?”

“That’s no’ the way ’tis done,” he replied, shaking his head. “Usually our employer’s t’set aside a provisional sum with some countinghouse or another. After all, if we fight an’ lose, an employer might no’ be able to pay the agreed upon bonus. An’ if we fight an’ win, employers sometimes forget that there’s a bonus t’be paid.”

“We don’t have thousands of crowns to leave in a countinghouse right now, Master Ironthane.”

The dwarf shrugged. “Then I don’t see how t’help you, Lady Kara. I like you, I truly do. We’ve killed a lot o’ orcs together, we have. But as I see it you’ve got long odds against you, and it’s all too likely I’ll no’ see my pay.”

Kara’s stomach sank. She needed the Icehammers! She crossed her arms and paced away, trying to come up with some argument, some enticement, that might sway Ironthane. Beyond the troops drilling in the field before her, the false battlements of Lasparhall glistened under their dusting of new fallen snow. She gazed at the old manor, thinking furiously … and something came to her. She looked back to Kendurkkel and said, “How about Lasparhall? The manor and the land must be worth ten thousand crowns or more. It’ll be our security for your fee.”

The dwarf raised an eyebrow, but he turned to look at the house. “I’m no’ certain what I might do with a manor,” he muttered.

“Sell it, use it as quarters for your company, or keep it for your own. I imagine that someday you might want to retire comfortably,” said Kara. Of course, if their attempt to retake Hulburg failed, that would leave the Hulmasters landless as well as penniless; there was literally nothing else to fall back on. Even Geran might have hesitated to make such an offer. Well, he wasn’t here to offer some better answer to the challenge of securing the Icehammers for the spring campaign. This was the only thing she could think of that might hook Ironthane in the absence of hard coin waiting for him in some trusted countinghouse. “If we fail, the place is yours. If -when -we defeat Marstel, then I’d like the opportunity to buy the deed back from you. But if we can’t, you’ll have Lasparhall to show for your troubles.”

Kendurkkel replaced his pipe between his teeth, studying the lay of the land around the field. “It’s a fair piece o’ land,” he finally admitted. “I’ll be needin’ some assurance that th’ lord o’ Thentia would let the property change hands if it comes to it. But, if that’s all well, then yes, I agree. We’ll take your contract.”

“Excellent!” Kara repressed a sigh of relief; she didn’t need the mercenary captain to see anything but complete confidence on her part. “Your quarters will be ready in two or three days. I mean to drill hard for the next few tendays, so your soldiers’ll be hard at it for a while.”

“That’s as it should be,” Kendurkkel said. “A bored soldier’s a trouble waitin’ to happen. I’ll have me boys begin the packin’ up directly.” He stuck out his hand, and Kara took it forearm-to-forearm in the dwarven manner. The mercenary nodded in approval and grinned around his pipe. “It’ll be good t’ work with you again, Lady Kara. I go.”

“We’ll speak again soon.” Kara watched the dwarven mercenary climb back into his mule’s saddle and ride off, then returned her attention to the companies wheeling and turning in the field before her. The sergeant’s sharp voices carried over the snowy ground, and from time to time one company or another gave a sudden shout in response. They’re good troops, far better than the foreign blades who make up Marstel’s army, she told herself. The question was whether she had enough of them … and with the Icehammers, she thought she had an answer.

She motioned for her standard-bearer, a young Hulburgan soldier named Vossen, to join her. The sergeant trotted over, the Hulmaster banner fluttering from his stirrup. “Aye, Lady-Captain?” he said.

“My compliments to the captains of the shields, and Sergeant-Major Kolton. Carry on with the day’s drills, and join me with the House War Council in the upper library at four bells this afternoon.”

“Yes, my lady,” Sergeant Vossen replied. The soldier saluted, striking his right fist to his breastplate, and rode down into the drillfield in search of the captains as Kara turned Dancer and cantered back up to the manor. She’d been thinking of the campaign to come since the day the Hulmasters and their Shieldsworn had been driven out of Hulburg. It was time to set events in motion.