Chapter 204
THE FORGOTTEN FIELDS (NOVEL) – Chapter 204
Chapter 204
The interior layout of the small fort buzzed with a massive crowd of local inhabitants who had taken refuge there from the city.
Varkas scanned their faces, which looked pale and exhausted due to the impossibility of washing themselves for weeks, and halted his steps upon spotting several corpses lined up on one side of the room.
There were bodies of soldiers equipped with blood-stained gambeson jackets and men dressed in civilian clothes who seemed to have lost their lives amidst the riots of the mutiny; all had been placed in a straight position.
“Are these all the bodies?”
“Ah, no, sir. The corpses of the soldiers who backed the governor and those of the mercenaries he hired are piled up in the backyard of the citadel,” replied an elderly priest wearing a black clerical robe, while remaining on his knees beside the bodies, his voice visibly trembling from the tension.
Varkas nodded toward the knights stationed behind him:
“Go and check it.” Then he added, casting a cold, scrutinizing gaze throughout the entire enclosure, “The fort will be temporarily closed, and I will conduct a thorough investigation into the identity of every single resident inside. No one will be allowed to leave this place unless it is proven that they were not involved in the rebellion.”
Sighs heavy with fear broke out everywhere.
Varkas left behind those who burst into tears while embracing one another and climbed the stairs in the center of the hall.
Everything indicated that the governor had met his death in his own quarters.
As soon as he entered the spacious room in the middle of the third floor, he was greeted by a pungent smell of blood that flooded the nostrils.
He walked over the carpet stained with dark hematic fluids until he reached a partially wrecked desk.
On the table, sinking into a chaos of blood and ink stains, lay scattered piles of leather parchments.
Varkas picked them up and reviewed them quickly, narrowing his eyes upon discovering a letter requesting military support from someone.
On the blood-sullied paper, phrases resembling pleas mixed randomly with symbols presumed to be military codes.
“Is it a message addressed to his allies? Or perhaps it is……”
He shifted his gaze toward the bottom of the missive.
In the recipient box, the words “The Gray Bear” were written.
If this referred to Bjorn Blodar Heimdal, the forecasts that the leaders of the Northern rebellion had taken refuge in ‘Tarlen’ were completely wrong.
Varkas roughly messed up his untidy hair, threw the parchments aside, and began searching the desk drawers for more evidence.
At that moment, Darin’s voice came from the doorway:
“Have you found anything?”
Varkas raised his head while contemplating the empty drawer:
“Not yet.”
“I have obtained some results,” Darin straightened a chair lying on the floor and sat heavily on it, then continued speaking, “The soldiers discovered chests filled with gold coins in the underground storeroom. From the context, it seems to be the payment for the military provisions sold to ‘Balto’.” Then he sighed deeply and added, “Furthermore, we found five or six of the mercenaries employed by the governor, all of whom indicate they come from the North. They are certainly rebels who were summoned for smuggling operations.”
“Are there any survivors?”
Darin shook his head at Varkas’s question:
“Practically everyone who backed the governor was wiped out. Only the butler and a few personal guards who operated as close associates of the governor survived, but it doesn’t seem that extracting valuable information from them will be easy.”
“Continue with the interrogations until they confess everything they know,” Varkas dictated his instructions in an emotionless tone as he stepped away from the desk. “If we are lenient in this, the same thing will happen again. I will severely punish anyone who was involved in this matter to serve as a warning to the rest. Do not limit yourselves to investigating the residents of the fort; search every corner of this place and gather everything that can serve as evidence.”
“At your command, sir,” Darin replied with a heavy voice, and then stood up, leaving the room.
Varkas searched the bookshelves for a moment, and coming to the conclusion that he would find no more relevant clues, he left the wrecked quarters and moved through the hallways where stillness reigned.
Suddenly, he halted his steps upon catching sight of a familiar scene behind a broken glass window.
On one side of the garden, over which the rays of the cold late autumn sun poured, yellow roses were blooming in abundance.
He stood staring at them intently with somber eyes for a long time, and then resumed his steps as if erasing the specter of her that had hovered before his eyes.
Several days of severe interrogations passed, but no information was obtained regarding the rebels’ headquarters.
When it became clear that the leaders of the northern rebellion were not in ‘Tarlen’, Caileas led his legion and advanced toward small fiefs located in the North.
He seemed to harbor hope at the possibility that Bjorn might be hidden in the vicinity. But Varkas was certain that Bjorn had abandoned this place and his trail had vanished completely.
“Considering that they acquired a large amount of military provisions from the East, the forces backing him remain powerful.”
Since they had secured the necessary supplies, they must have already moved toward the northern regions where their main bases were located.
He turned the pages of the smuggling ledger that he additionally discovered and frowned.
The question arose as to how they had secured that massive sum of money after losing all the major cities and with ‘Amasik’ having fallen as well.
There were countless natural forest mines in the North, but all trade routes had been closed immediately after the war broke out.
Smuggling routes have a limit for providing war funds. The thought struck him that perhaps they had received secret support from the lords of other regions.
He felt a headache striking him, so he threw the book onto the desk.
Then he leaned his body against the back of the chair and pressed firmly on the space between his eyes.
As soon as he considered the possibility of the intervention of other forces, his mind began to operate with extreme complexity.
‘Balais’, bordering the western frontier, was the most likely party as an external partner.
The descendants of the ancient kingdom of ‘Balais’ who had settled in the far northwest had been unable to shed their nationalistic desire to completely escape the influence of ‘Ribadon’, their old enemy.
And ‘Dristan’ could not be ruled out either.
For the Dristanians who had established themselves in the southeastern regions of the continent of ‘Lobedain’ had not rid themselves of their old rancor toward ‘Widon’, which bordered them to the west.
And it was probable that those groups also aspired to independence.
One hundred and fifty years had passed since the death of Emperor Darian.
This Empire composed of ten peoples was now sustained on a fragile balance that could crumble at any moment.
“…Perhaps a third force exists that seeks to gain independence from the Empire, operating in the shadows.”
That could be the reason why the signing of the peace treaty had stalled.
He exhaled a sigh with fatigue and looked toward the sky, where the light of dawn was beginning to break.
He had spent another night in prolonged insomnia.
Due to the accumulated exhaustion, his heavy limbs were beginning to suffer slight spasms.
He clenched his fist as if to suppress it and stood up solemnly.
He felt a sensation of numbness extending from his arm and shoulder until it reached his neck, but the pain had not yet reached his mind.
There was only an instinctive, dry judgment crossing his thoughts that he might be in danger if he did not take a rest soon.
“I must get a sleeping pill as soon as possible.”
However, it seemed he was capable of resisting for the time being.
Varkas examined his condition coldly, then took his coat and left the military tent.
Upon the walls of the fort, the corpses of the prisoners hung at regular intervals.
The number of courtiers who had been executed during the last few weeks amounted to thirty people. That was the consequence of revealing the involvement of the northeastern lords and most of the administrators in hostile acts.
Due to this, a large power vacuum occurred in the northeastern regions. And filling that vacuum quickly was the urgent task that came next.
Varkas began selecting candidates rapidly in his mind.
He intended to proceed with the arrangements for Lina’s marriage in parallel with the appointment of a new lord.
And if his sister insistently refused the marriage, designating Lucas here was one of the solutions.
For there was no better training ground than ‘Tarlen’ to learn field work, and it would not be a bad idea to make him acquire some achievements before declaring him the official heir.
Weighing the multiple options in his mind, he pulled the canteen from the leather pouch hanging from his waist to moisten his dry mouth.
At that instant, noises of a commotion were heard near the gate of the fort.
Varkas turned and frowned upon seeing Perov running toward him in a rush, without even wearing his full armor.
His bewilderment triggered an ominous presentiment that ran down his spine.
“Sir, an urgent message arrived from Calmore,” exclaimed the man, who reached his position in a single run while panting sharply.
Varkas straightened his posture, having been leaning his body against the fence.
The man extended a small roll of leather parchment to him and added in a voice that attempted to contain rage:
“You must return immediately. It is said that Lord Lucas was attacked by the Duchess’s wolf and has been severely injured.”
Chapter 204
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