Scheams

" At ease son, I have come to reinforce you with more men." Lord Ulric addressed his son as he dismounted his horse and walked inside the perimeter.

As he moved forwards the guards made way for him to pass through, each saluting their lord as he walked by them. The marquess continued on until he reached his son, followed soon after by William, who was the second person that rode with the marquess to the defense perimeter on top of the hill.

" I did not receive word of your departure, so I was not expecting you, father." After snapping out of the slight surprise and confusion Marek slightly bowed to his father as he remarked.

" You did not receive word of my departure because that was the intention from the start." the marquess explained, upon seeing the confusion on his son's face he added. "Let us go to a more private place, I have much to explain to you."

The trio made their way towards the central tent, but no before the marquess ordered for the contingency of guards that had been brought with him from Landow to be informed to join the camp up the hill.

Once the father and two sons made their way into the tent Marek looked at William as he asked his father.

"Why did you bring him with you?"

" Because he needs to see the world, he needs to get some experience and this is a fine opportunity for that, is that right William?" Lord Ulric explained.

"Of course, I have always wanted to see you in action father" William said with a smile.

"But father!! This is a dangerous place and is no place for children like William, he would have been better protected in the castle." Marek protested, looking at his brother with slight contempt in his eyes, something that neither the Marquess nor William failed to notice.

Lord Ulric frowned deeply at his son's remark. " Are you questioning my judgment boy? or are you implying that I can't even protect my own son?"

Knowing that he had disrespected his father, Marek immediately tried to defuse the situation. "Not at all, that was not what I mean, it's just that William had never really shown interest or talent in military affairs, plus you had mentioned that he had had an accident so I thought that he may need to rest."

Lord Ulric sighed deeply and simply decided to change the topic. "That will change from now on, I saw some potential in William and I plan to see what he can and cannot do. Anyways, that is not why we are here are we William?"

"Not at all, we are here to fish and we are hopefully about to get ourselves a bit catch." William snickered at his brother, who was completely clueless as to what was happening.

"What catch? what fish?" Marek could not help but ask.

"Well son, I did not inform you because I wanted to make our elusive prey feel that everything was under their control, but now that we are here, there is no need for secrecy." The marquess stated.

Seeing that his son had not caught on he sighed once more and went on explaining what had happened. How deeply entrenched they suspect the bandit group's intelligence network to be, the fact that they probably are nothing but a puppet and tool for some external force as well as their intention to catch them all at once.

Marek was a bit mind-blown by this whole ordeal, it was hard for his soldier-like mentality to believe the implications, so he just resigned himself to following his father's lead on this matter.

" If you know that a trap is probably waiting for us at the pass, why did you tell me to take this path in the first place? Even if we know that they probably will spring their trap in there, it will be hard to catch them, we should probably pick a better place to fight them." Marek asked as well as advised his father.

The marquess almost facepalmed at this point at his son's inability to think, holding himself back only through discipline. William though did not, he was simply mind blown by this brother of his.

"Son, this is also an opportunity for us to catch them off guard, the final part of the plan is yet to come, first we have to set off tomorrow..." Lord Ulric proceeded to paint the whole picture for Marek, explaining the plan as well as the outcome they hoped it could achieve.

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

Near the pass half a day away from the Blackwell camp.

The bandits had sat up a camp of their own near the narrow pass between the hills that Lord Ulric, Marek and William were planning on crossing on their journey to Landow.

In a tent in the middle of the camp sat the trio leading the two hundred strong men bandit group. In the middle, a table was placed around which the trio sat, on top of the table was a map of the area depicting the basic topography.

"The marquess is seriously losing his touch, here I was thinking that he was going after us, instead he was just going to reinforce his son to prevent us from stealing his precious cargo, what a letdown." Talos proclaimed.

" Maybe he has gotten old?" Olivia remarked not quite sure about what was happening. She was sure that Lord Ulric, a man who is known for his military competence, would see the threat they presented and come straight for them, especially after the failures of his eldest son.

" Yeah, he probably did. We seriously overestimated him this time, what was it you said about having to lay low." Talos snickered at Olivia's previous remarques a few days before choosing to forget that he had agreed with her.

"Cut it out, it does not matter what the marquess thinks right now. The scouts did their jobs well and kept us informed of his location. Now that we have him let us focus on the plan at hand, Talos have you informed the men?" Night interjected to stop their squabbles and get them back on track.

" Yeah, we know the plan already, we went through it many times as of now. I already positioned half our men near the entrance of the pass under my lead, Olivia did the same with the exit. Once they make their way into the pass we spring the trap and box them in from both sides." Talos explained half-heartedly.

Night looked at Olivia for confirmation which she did by nodding.

" Good, remember the plan, this is less about the cargo and more about the Marquess. All you have to do is injure him as well as his sons if possible, Do not kill him understood?" Night commanded, putting special emphasis on the last part.

"Why do this anyways, does the boss have a grudge against the Marquess and his family? Why not just kill them? Olivia asked, she was quite suspicious of the whole thing even as they now held the advantage.

"I don't recall that the Boss's orders were up for debate nor are his intentions. But just to humor you a bit, I will give one of the many reasons and that is that just because you have a fifty men advantage as well as the geographical one does not mean that the marquess's men stop being elite guards with some of the best equipment, training and loyalty he could get himself." Night explained before adding a cold-toned warning.

" Make no mistake, drive those guards desperate or kill their lord and they will chew through you like starving beasts, guards are guards and no amount of fancy equipment can make you bridge that gap, so tomorrow as soon as you accomplish your task immediately retreat and you will be rewarded handsomely."

"Fine, I will inform the men right now." Olivia said as she got up and left the tent.

" I better go and check on the men as well, I can't leave them alone for more than a few hours otherwise they will drown themselves in liquor." Talos remarques as he too left the tent, leaving only Night inside looking at the map hoping that tomorrow will go as planned.