Legends of Belariath
Ubique et Hic
The Midnight Raid
The patrol along the Lady Sutara’s lands was easy enough. Both western villages were quiet. The eastern one closer to the mid ground barracks was of course silent, with guard presence so close. Mentally, Ubique reminded herself she needed to talk to Sutara about getting a guard post building built on the eastern road. Every time the warlord rode to the guard stationed there, there were complaints about the weather and the cold. Only one guard was kept at that spot at any given time and Ubique had no doubt that it was the isolation that made whoever was there complain so much. But a small shack meant for the guards would probably lighten their mood. The eastern road was for the most part unguarded and an important post. Anything that would keep them from being distracted by their own gripes had to be okay.
Aiming her black charger towards the barracks, the Moriel woman slowly headed towards the insides of the lady’s official property. All was well, the evening had settled and turned into dark night, and most personnel on the grounds were inside avoiding the cold. When the dark elf’s pale blue eyes scanned around and saw someone on a horse following a trail along the eastern fence, she gave a small smile and turned her horse back in the person’s direction. Her hope was correct, it was indeed Setan, the rough skinned raggedy haired Moriel she had known in days gone by and had taken into Sutara’s army. He had just been about to begin a patrol, he explained as she neared.
“Shall we do some raiding instead?” Ubique offered, giving him a wry smile.
Setan was immediately interested and began to follow Ubique’s horse with his own, back towards the barracks.
“There is a farm we’ve been scouting, you and I,” she said softly, gesturing across the road that ran before the front of Sutara’s main gate. “It’s time to take it under my lady’s wing properly. With her consent and blessing, of course.”
Setan grinned, dismounting as he listened to the warlord. Climbing off her own horse and leading him to the stables behind the mid ground barracks, she detailed more of the plan.
“We’ll take a cohort with us,” she said, moving with Setan back to the front of the guard building. “We’ll need more people to do this than just the two of us.”
“I know just the people,” the man said with a grin. Then he called out to his men. “Gyrfalcon Cohort!” he shouted.
Four men and one woman scrambled to get themselves in order, Ubique watching them as they quickly dressed while also trying to stand at attention and straighten themselves out before the warlord and their junior officer. Soon she was beckoning them close and explaining their role. Setan’s cohort of guards were a stealthy bunch; however, tonight’s activities would require less stealth in the end than they were used to, and would put them in bolder positions. They were trustworthy though, the Moriel warlord knew, and she needed people she could trust for this little mission to come off properly.
Soon, the five guards were disappearing through the trees, nothing but black shapes even to the dark-attuned eyes of the two Moriels. Smiling, Ubique began to walk down the road towards the front gate, Setan at her side.
“The farmer has two or three dogs,” she said softly to the man next to her. “I’ll need you to take them out. Then, when your people have done as I requested, I’ll want you to step in and make things ‘right’. And that’s when I come in.”
She gave a small finger signal and Setan was off, trailing behind his cohorts. Each part of Sutara’s army was divided up into what was called a full cohort. Each individual guard was called a cohort of their own accord though; a full cohort was a compliment of six people. Five guards and a junior officer who commanded the others. Setan’s full cohort was called the Gyrfalcon Cohort because of the fighting style he had been training them in. They struck like furious hawks falling at great speeds out of the sky, determined to strike at their prey repeatedly until whoever their victim was found themselves harried and beaten and unable to fight back against unseen attackers. Setan himself was one of a few people Ubique considered close enough to be what surface people called ‘friends’. His Gyrfalcon Cohort could be trusted for this job.
Slowly, the warlord made her lonesome way down the road towards the farmstead. For all intents and purposes, she appeared to be a traveler in a dark hooded cloak, making their way along one of the few main roads that went through the vast and dark forest. That was the image she had wanted to project, one of solitary happenstance travel. There were none around to see her of course, but good plans paid attention to every detail. Soon she turned and made her way down the long drive towards the farmer’s homestead. In the distance she heard a branch break and a dog bark and saw dark shapes making for the forest’s edge. Setan had lured the dogs away and would find some way to muzzle and subdue them. He’d been warned against harming them as from this point on, they belonged to Sutara, just like every other animal and indeed, every other person on the property.
Leaning against a tree at the edge of the clearing the buildings were in, Ubique pulled her cloak around her armor and House tabard. There were several buildings to this farmstead. One was a house, and it was inside there that all the staff and family lived. There was a barn full of animals, and another full of bales of hay and animal feed, as well as other produce being stored for the winter. A grain silo stood full, waiting for sale of the produce inside to keep the farmer’s pocket lined during the more lean months. The property itself was approximately two hundred and fifty acres, including mixed fruit orchards and many gardens.
The family lived inside the house and consisted of husband, wife and two daughters of marriageable age. Three farm hands lived in the large house as well. Other hands were hired out and went home each day, more hired during planting and harvest seasons than were around every day. She lifted her eyes at the sound of the door being broken in and the screams and shouting that resulted as the men were dragged angrily from their beds down to the main floor. Any weapons found were thrown out the open door and into the snow, as the men were put to their knees on the floor of the front room of the house. The women would also be brought down, kicking and screaming if her ears judged right. The daughters were being harassed and tormented before the eyes of their father and mother, as the five guards followed Ubique’s instructions to the letter.
That’s when Setan would make his appearance, looking as much like a hero as any Moriel could in a situation like this. His usually quiet light hearted voice had taken on a commanding tone, ensuring Ubique would hear every word he spoke to his ‘misbehaving’ cohorts. The squealing and objecting screams soon quieted and Ubique knew her comrade had ‘saved’ the daughters from her own orders, just as she had planned. She made her way towards the building, giving Setan time to draw the farmer to his feet, away from his wife and the other men. Then she waited by the door a few moments more, until the man had been seated at his own table. From the reflection in the glass of the door’s window, she could see the two daughters huddling in a corner, holding each other while a guard leered at them. At a signal from Setan that the farmers would not see, the guard leaned in and tweaked one pert nipple on one of the girl’s tits, making her scream and cry out in pain and fright. To which of course Setan would respond with a bark and a threat and warning, causing the guard to look down, chastised. Falsely, but the point was being made. Setan controlled the guards in the house and the farmer had to know that by now.
When things began to settle but hadn’t settled too much, Ubique made her move. She walked casually into the room through the open door, her eyes only on the farmer’s stunned face. With dark fingers she drew her hood back, sitting down and making sure that her cloak showed off the red House tabard. Anyone in this area had to know who Lady Sutara was and would recognize her crest easily. With a fake smile on her lips, placed there for politeness more than to fool the farmer who was far too shaken to fall for such niceties, Ubique waited several more moments before speaking.
“Hello,” she finally said, only then turning her face slightly to give a nod to the farmer’s wife.
Her eyebrows raised as she looked over the girls. Then she signaled Setan, and he commanded the one woman in his cohort to fetch a blanket for covering the girls up. Their mother was now trying to use her nightgown and seeing the bare legs of the elderly woman was doing nothing for Ubique’s own appetites. Once the girls were covered and proper gratitude was on the face of the woman, the Moriel warlord turned her gaze back to the farmer.
“It would seem you have a new lady to pay homage to,” she said softly, her tone firm and clear.
There was no room for argument or debate on the matter and the farmer knew it. While watching and scouting over the place, Ubique had taken careful consideration as to who came and went. She had seen no obvious tabards or signs of a lord or lady around the place, no signs of devotion or loyalty given by the farmer or his people. He might even be an independent farmer, but in times such as these, independents couldn’t expect to stay so for very long. The bigger a farm got, the more it produced, the more money it stood to make, the more likely it was to be taken over by some lady or other. It was only a matter of time and the man knew it. And that was why Ubique had made her choice to move tonight.
Her eyes flicked again over to the two girls now cowering behind the blanket the woman guard had brought from one of the bedrooms. Pointedly, she moved her eyes slowly back to the farmer’s face.
“You have a good piece of land here, land you know and have worked well for probably your whole life,” she spoke to him. “You’ve many pretty…things…to account for. Luxuries you will miss if you are not obedient to your new lady.”
She didn’t need to look at the girls again to hammer her point home. The blanching of the man’s face told her she’d made the right choice in first terrifying him then demonstrating the control and command that one saw in Sutara’s army. Having the guards bust into the house in the middle of the night, rendering the men helpless to watch as the young women were poked and prodded at with great indignity had been the best way to get the farmer to pay attention to how very vulnerable he was working on his own. Setan coming in and commanding his guards behave demonstrated the ‘generosity’ of Sutara’s rule, displaying the truth that should the man obey, he could expect the lady’s kindness to continue. Dealing with him thus, in the middle of the night when he couldn’t call on friends at other farms to help him and wouldn’t have a lot of help around the farm left him as weak as putty in Ubique’s hands. And it was the best way for her to play. Those who were acquired by fear alone would only remain obedient for temporary periods. Those who chose to enter into servitude because they felt it was the best option for themselves and those they loved tended to stay submissive for much, much longer. It was a mental game she had learned to play very well, so long ago.
The farm ran a hand over his face and just when he was about to turn and consult his wife, Ubique tapped the table with her finger.
“Two guards will be stationed here from this point on. This is no small property and you have not gone unnoticed by my lady’s discerning gaze. The men will fix the door, though your weapons will remain in their grasp until the morrow. I don’t expect you’d harm my people. But do know that new guards will be coming at sunrise to relieve these two. And then two more at sunset.”
She leaned back, smiling a bit. There would be no room for the man to try and overcome the people she sent to this farm. It would be foolish for him to try and he knew it. New people would always be coming, sending reports. And Sutara’s official lands were only just across the road, her army could be here very quickly should the need arise. Ubique knew it would not.
“Our business is done,” she whispered, giving him another fake smile. “All of your existing grain and produce will be moved tomorrow and brought to my lady’s keep, to be sorted. A healthy portion will be returned to you for use by you and your family here. During your planting and harvesting seasons, you will be allowed to keep a portion of your produce while the rest goes directly into the lady’s hands. Details of these arrangements will be prepared by a member of my lady’s staff, should you need to see them in the future. Try not to bother the keep though. If you need something handled, tell one of my guards and they’ll get the message through.”
She smiled then, again giving her dark lips a fake twist as she stood up and moved towards the open door. The Moriel warrior purposely moved her eyes slowly up and down the hidden bodies of the man’s two daughters, then looked back at him. He knew what was best for him and that he’d been living an easy life up to this point, one he couldn’t possibly have hoped to sustain for very long. With Sutara’s ownership of the land, he would be able to work his family plot til the end of his days and find suitable marriages for his daughters, retiring in his later years and leaving the farm fields to his sons-in-law to manage with Sutara’s people on hand.
It was time to go. Setan chose the two to stay at the house and they began setting the door to rights immediately. The rest of the guards followed behind Ubique and Setan as they walked comfortably down the drive and towards the road, then over to Sutara’s front gate.
“That went well,” the man stated amiably, proud of his people.
When he glanced at them over his shoulder, Ubique smiled and nodded, knowing his thoughts.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure your people are given full credit for their help tonight. Everything did go well but I didn’t exactly expect any trouble, not with this man. I watched him for enough time to know what his weakness was. His love for those two girls was his undoing, at least in this case. Though, honestly, it made this go a lot less violently than it could have.”
Setan nodded, knowing Ubique was right. He’d helped her do the initial scouting. And that was when his eyes lit up and he stopped. Suddenly he was off running into the trees. Ubique gave him a single backward glance and then shook her head. Several minutes later, when she was nearing the barracks again and dismissing Setan’s cohorts, the man returned to her with an almost forlorn look to his face. He held up his cloak, used to muzzle and bind one of the dogs, and showed Ubique a tear in one side. She chuckled and slapped him on the arm.
“It’s time for drinks, I think,” she said with a smile, and he agreed.