Austronaut

Into The Dark: Mercenaries (Heroes of Fame and Fortune)

I was waiting for someone else to post

Blood, Steel, and Gunpowder (Austronaut & POOHEAD189)

Hilde’s head was swimming as Gilbrecht half helped, half carried her up the castle’s twisting stairway. Dimly she was aware that the knight was talking to her, asking her questions. There was something she wasn’t supposed to talk about but she couldn’t remember what it was. He asked about Cedric and some woman who Cedric knew, or was supposed to know? By the time they reached the oaken door of the chamber the questions had stopped.

The knight took her into the room and laid her down on the bed. The drugs he had put into the wine had done their work. She claimed she didn’t know that Cedric used the name Reiner, she thought he had told her his name was Reiner but couldn’t remember when. Perhaps it would have been better to have had the questioners put the fire to Cedric and make him talk but they needed Isolde to perform her ritual. Sigmar’s work could not be delayed because a sorceress decided that she should throw herself from a tower because a former lover had been tortured to death.

Gilbrecht was an honorable man, he would never dream of taking advantage of a woman in Hilde’s condition. There was an obscure sense of guilt at having drugged her for information. He did permit himself an appreciative glance at her somnolent form. His eyes tracked down to where her belt had dragged her trousers down slightly over the curve of her hip. He was just about to turn away when he noticed something there. Something in his training jolted in the back of his mind, overpowering his chivalrous inclination to turn away. With a sense of dread growing in his heart he moved over to her and began to slowly pull the fabric away. His eyes bulged in horror at what he saw.

Hilde came awake with a start. Her mind was still fogged with the drugs but there was a new clarity somehow. Gilbrecht was standing over her, he had dragged her trouser down over her hip. His eyes were wide and he was ashen pale. Rage and fear flooded her. The adrenaline pouring into her system purged the drugs faster than any alchemist could have done. Gilbrecht opened his mouth to shout. She surged to her feet driving her shoulder into the knights stomach. He reeled back, snatching for a sword that wasn’t there. She hit him as hard as she could with a balled fist, driving it deep into her stomach. He fell backwards tumbling over and she followed him down landing on his stomach. Gilbrecht was a trained soldier and he outweighed her by a hundred pounds. Even unable to should he kneed her in the chest sending her sprawling back to the bed. He tried to yell to sound the alarm but his breath wheezed in his throat from her attack. With a choking gasp he darted across the room and leaped atop her, powerful hands closing around her throat.

Hilde thrashed beneath the knight, her vision pulsing red in time with her heartbeat. Her hands scrabbled futilely at his, but it was like trying to dislodge tree trunks. The world started to fade around her. She spasmed beneath the knight, her hand fell to her waist, brushing a hard object. With her last energy she drew her pistol from her waistband, pressed it into GIlbrecht’s stomach and pulled the trigger. The last thing she saw as the world crashed towards blackness was a flash of light and the smell of burning powder.

Blood, Steel, and Gunpowder (Austronaut & POOHEAD189)

Isolde could have wept with relief. She had been desperate when she reached out to the hardbitten soldier. That he had been willing to play along had been a stroke of fortune almost beyond belief. She reached across and clasped his hand fervently.

“A female pistolier?” Isolde asked in genuine surprise. What strange coincidence had led the soldier and his friend here?

“Is she special to you?” the question was framed to sound slightly jealous for the benefit of the guards but she was genuinely curious. It sounded like something out of a melodrama.

------------------------

Hilde came to the end of the account of her first meeting with Captain Hollerman. Gilbrecht laughed at the slightly off colour punchline of the tale as he poured the both of the more wine. The pitcher was nearly empty already. It was just possible that he was trying to get her drunk to get information out of her but she had so far been able to hold her tongue. It didn’t seem like that was the gold though. Sir Gilbrecht seemed to have alot on his mind, he was eager to be distracted from whatever worries weighed on his mind.

“I must confess you are a delightful companion frau.. Hilde,” he commented, remembering at the last to drop the title as they had agreed earlier in the evening. Hilde smiled and took another bite of the excellent pork. Rather than picking at her food she ate with a real gusto which seemed to perplex the knight. Hilde had learned early on in her career that food and particularly meat were luxuries to be consumed where possible. She correspondingly ate with more enthusiasm than might be expected in polite company.

Gilbrecht reached across the table and stroked her face with one hand, his calloused fingertips rough against her smooth skin. She came to her feet abruptly and her head swam with a wave of nausea. Apparently she had drank quite a bit more than she had planned. She swooned and was saved by collapse by Gilbrecht’s arms.

“Sorry…” she murmured, “I think I need to get to bed.”

Gilbrecht smiled down at her.

“Of course, I’ll escort you there at once.”

@POOHEAD189

Blood, Steel, and Gunpowder (Austronaut & POOHEAD189)

As Isolde had hoped the guards stiffened at the question of her reasons for being in the keep. She kept silent for a few moment to make the reaction obvious.

“I am a guest of Sir Gilbrecht’s, as you yourself know it is dangerous to travel without an escort. There are some minor works to be done for the castle of course, basic wards and what not,” she gestured enthusiastically with her fork.

“I had been in Altdorf when I met him, quite sudden and unexpected it as too…” she prattled on for a while making her conversation as generic and uninteresting as she could. The guards, though determined paid less attention as the meal went on. Under the table Isolde ran a barefoot up Cedirc’s leg, making sure she had his full and undivided attention. She smiled a coy smile and lifted her brass cup to her lips. She exhaled on the cup, misted like a mirror in a hot bathouse save for where in large letters she had written with her fingers:

PRISONER. HELP.

The words faded as quickly as she had written them. Belatedly it occurred to her to worry if the sergeant could read. Her fine plan would be for nought if he couldn’t

--------------------------------------------------

Hilde was still chattering with Sir Gilbrecht. She had maneuvered the convesation to friendlier ground, even laughing at a few of the commanders awkward jokes, when the scribe and the wounded soldier arrived. Gunter’s arm was definitely broken, it hung limply and the man was in obvious pain. The scribe’s nose was bloody and swollen.

“My lord,” snapped the scribe, “this heretic has assaulted us!”

Gilbrecht gave a stony look. He had told them to get the information out of her so he bore some responsibility.

“I didn’t tell you to burst in on the lady while she was bathing,” he chided gently. The scribe’s face darkened and he glanced suspiciously between Hilde and Gilbrecht.

“We will discuss the matter later, for now please take Gunter to the infirmary, his arm needs tending.”

Gilbrecht turned and smiled at Hilde, his aristocratic confidence back. He took her arm gently and led her up into the castle. It was still far from luxurious but it was certainly better appointed than the lower levels.

“Perhaps you will do me the honor of being my guest for dinner?” it was phrased as a question but Hilde knew an order when she heard one.

Blood, Steel, and Gunpowder (Austronaut & POOHEAD189)

Hilde covered her mouth and coughed politely.

"Um... I'm afraid that I didn't react well when they burst in. I don't think they will be permanently damaged, a few bruises and perhaps a broken arm."

Her voice was contrite for truthfully she had reacted in a panic at being surprised half naked. If Gilbecht was shocked he didn't show it.

"Ah, well, then discourtesy is its own punishment. Nevertheless, I apologise."

Hilde nodded to give herself time to think. The problem with lies was that it was easy to get tangled up.

"I have no relationship with Sargent Reiner or Cedric as the men usually called him. We exchanged a few words at briefings and such but we scouts kept pretty separate."

It seemed to Hilde that Gilbrecht relaxed a little at that. The man seemed to swing between moods with unreasonable speed. Hilde had experience tending the mad and the knight didn't seem insane, but he was strung extremely tight for reasons she couldn't fathom.

"As to a witch, I hope I haven't any association with such a person."

"Lord Egling, I don't know what we have done that has made you suspicious, I am just a soldier," Hilde explained forcing herself to smile. Gilbrecht smiled slightly more genuinely.

"I don't think women are permitted to be soldiers in the Imperial Army," he commented midly. Hilde bristled inspite of her intention to remain friendly.

"That is true, we can only sign on for contracts, as mercenaries," she explained, it had been hard to find a commander who would take her even so, at least one who didn't expect a non military services in return. The thought of a half dozen such lewd proportions made her ears burn. Shallya only knew where she would find another such commander.

"Why would a beautiful young woman want to be a soldier? It's a dirty blood business, not a place for a woman," Gilbrecht continued. Hilde's temper rose both at the suggestion that she couldn't take the pressure and the clumsy gallantly both. It wasn't any of his business, it wasn't any of anyone's business.

-------------

Isolde smiled warmly at Cedric. True to Gilbrecht's word the soldiers stayed at the open door. She was dressed in a simple white dress but had braided her hair in intricate tresses. The sorceress had eschewed all jewelry to draw Cedric’s attention to the brass bracelet fastened around her wrist. She had taken what care she could to prepare the room. All she had to offer was the same roast pork and boiled vegetables that the garrison had, but she had found plates and cups for the wine. The soldiers had taken care to make sure she had no way to pass a message.

"I can't believe you are here," she enthused.

"What have you been doing since we last saw each other?"

Blood, Steel, and Gunpowder (Austronaut & POOHEAD189)

Hilde frowned at Cedric's departing back trying to take in all the information she had just been given. Why would the knights be suspicious of two escaped soldiers? Paranoia was not an uncommon trait amongst Sigmarites.

Well she had next to no chance of making it through the woods without Cedric's help. That meant she needed to remain in Sir Gilbrechts good graces. Well, if Cedric was right, she might be able to manage.

Improvisation was the key. She untucked her shirt an tied the tails together. The resulting effect pulled the shirt tighter across her chest and left her midriff exposed. T outfit made her look like a Araby corsair or a Tiliean sell sword. She hung her weapons belt high on one hip so it slanted diagonally down to her scabbard. She needed to walk with her hip cocked slightly to stop the whole thing falling to the ground but it seemed worth the price there was nothing she could do for barefeet or disheveled hair, speed would be more important now at any rate. Squaring her shoulders she went looking for sir Gilbrecht.

The Knight was coming into the great hall when Hilde found him. It was easy to let her face form an expression of affronted rage. That was how she really felt after all.

"You!" She blazed, subtly posing as she did so.

"Two. Of your men assaulted me whilst I was bathing. Have knights really sunk to such depths in the Empire?"

@POOHEAD189

Blood, Steel, and Gunpowder (Austronaut & POOHEAD189)

Hilde crashed into a man as she rounded the corner. He was built like a tree trunk and she staggered back, raising her pistol instinctively. In her panic she nearly didn’t recognise Cedric. At the last second she jerked the weapon down and let out a ragged breath.

“Cedric,” she gasped, with evident relief.

Lowering the weapon she quickly pulled the trousers she had been carrying in her offhand up over her legs and then tied them awkwardly with her belt. She cast a worried glance over her shoulder, though there was no sign of pursuit.

“That scribe and one of the nights burst into my room while I was bathing and tried to grab me,” she said by way of explanation. The sight of Cedric’s face jogged her out of the shocked state she had been in.

“They wanted to know what your name was.” She didn’t give any particular emotional loading to the words. It was hardly uncommon for mercenaries to use false names for a variety of very good reasons.

“What is going on here?” she asked, glancing back down the hallway.


Isolde stared defiantly up at Gilbrecht. The knight’s aristocratic face wa set in a expression of cold fury. They were in her… room was to strong a word, cell in one of the western towers.

“You will dine with him,” Gilbrecht instructed, pacing back and forth as he spoke.

“I warn you witch, you may think you are too important for us to kill but I would rather you die than our work be imperilled. There are other wizards we could find,” Gilbrecht declared angrily.

“I think this is a desperate trick and that this fool is bewitched by a pretty face,” Gilbrecht expounded. He thought of Hilde and wondered if he too had been bewitched. Perhaps it would have been better just to let the pair die in the forest rather than risk the great work they were about. At the time he had felt Sigmar would not look kindly on abandoning his people to the beasts. He turned and glowered at Isolde.

“And remember, there are Templars here who have hunted the Empire for the likes of you. They can make your dying take days.”

@POOHEAD189

Blood, Steel, and Gunpowder (Austronaut & POOHEAD189)

“Yes, the good frauline,” Gilbrecht said, turning to gaze out over the mist shrouded Riekwald. He drummed his fingers on the parapet. His expression changed subtly as he watched the distant treelined hills.

“An interesting woman, I might be willing to believe that you were a survivor, but her?” Gilbrecht turned a suspicious gaze on Cedric.

“Am I to find that she is miraculously acquainted with our guest?” Gilbrecht’s anger contorted his face.

“I swear by Sigmar, if this is some sort of trickI will burn the three of you and damn the consequences.”

--------------------------------------------

Hilde dealt with the tending of the fat kitchen woman as long as she could. She ate a simple meal of cheese and dried fruit which was filling but unsatisfying. Requests for ale or wine were met with prim sniffs and obvious disapproval. Fresh clothing and several buckets of hot water were produced by sullen male servants. Elizabet insisted that she would help bathe the girl. Hilde refused absolutely and eventually prevailed by sheer stubbornness and washed alone. She scrubbed herself with harsh lye soap until her skin burned and sluiced the gore and mud away with the remaining water.

She was in the process of pulling on a cotton shirt, cut for a man and much too long, when the door banged open. Two men burst into the small room one of them brandishing a heavy cudgel. The club wielding man was unfamiliar but the other was the slender secretary she had seen in the courtyard. She screamed and scampered back into the small room eyes wide.

“Silence wench,” snarled the secretary. Hilde scrambled back and seized a heavy fireplace poker from a cold hearth, brandishing before her like sword, her other hand holding the shirt down to cover her near nakedness.

“The soldier who came with you,” demanded the scribe, “What is his name?”

Hilde’s eyes darted around the chamber seeking escape and finding none. She altered her grip on the poker.

“Get out!” she commanded in a trembling voice. The scribe sighed theatrically.

“Take her Gunter,” he commanded the cudgel wielding soldier. The man reached forward with a hand to grab the girl. Hilde twisted sideways and swung the heavy iron downwards with all her might. The fire poker gave a satisfying crack as it smacked into the man, Gunter’s, forearm. The soldier howled and staggered back screaming. Hilde darted towards the door where the scribe was still standing. It was doubtful he intended to stop her but he was in the way and blocking her escape. She drove a knee into the thin mans crotch, doubling him over with a scream of pain. In the same instant she bought her elbow down onto his kidney and then drove her knee into his face with a satisfying spray of blood. The scribe dropped to the floor mewling.

Gunter recovered himself and lunged across the room taking Hilde in a flying tackle. She kicked at his wounded arm and, still slippery with soap, slid from his grip. With a quick lunge she reached her pistols and snatched one up, pulling the hammer back with an audible click. Gunter froze, a look of shock on his bearded face.

“Throw me the trousers,” she said in a quavering tone, “or by Shallya I will wash the wall with your brains.”

“Ok ok,” the soldier rasped, picking up the trousers that had been laid out beside the shirt. He tossed it to Hilde who stepped aside rather than let the bundle obstruct her shot. The scribe moaned and vomited in the door way. Without breaking eye contact with Gunter she reached down and collected the trousers. Then stepped over the scribe and into the hallway.

“I … assure you this is a misunderstanding,” gasped the scribe breathlessly. Hilde kicked him in the stomach hard enough to hurt her bare foot and turning the man over to clear the doorway. With a quick motion she pulled the heavy oaken door shut and then realized there was no way to lock it. With a curse she turned and ran down the hall, barefoot and dripping.

@POOHEAD189

Blood, Steel, and Gunpowder (Austronaut & POOHEAD189)

Isolde felt a surge of triumph froze. Gilbrecht didn’t quite lose his cultured, superior smile but it seemed to freeze on his face like a ricktus. The other men in the room also tensed, only the scribe, Thomaz, seemed capable of action. The slender man took a step towards Cedric, although what he hoped to accomplish was a mystery. Gilbrecht held out a restraining arm.

“Reiner? I thought your name was Cedric?” the commander asked, his voice deceptively calm. Isolde nodded enthusiastically, thanking Ranald for the stupidity of knights.

“Reiner Cedric,” she interjected, “We spent some time together in Ubersreik.” She completed the vague account, providing all the information before anyone had a chance to ask further questions. She coughed into her fist as though covering an embarrassing moral situation.

“I don’t suppose my instructors would be too pleased to discover that little secret,” she concluded making the statement into an unverifiable lie. Gilbrecht seemed snap back into action.

“Ah, well perhaps you can renew the acquaintance,” he began.

“Perhaps over dinner,” Isolde interjected yet again, enjoying the look of frustration on the knight’s face. She felt the prick of something sharp against her back and realised that Thomaz had moved around behind her and was pressing a small knife against her back, It was concealed from Cedric’s view and its message was clear.

“Perhaps,” Gilbrecht declared, noncommittally.

“But first I must discuss the beastmen who were hunting your friend earlier today, please join me on the battlements Seargent.” It was not a request.

@POOHEAD189

Ologies: A Study of Arcane Specialists {Paranormal Investigations and more}

Hmmm good question. The american red cross for some people ;)