Jerod's Task
Writing this story on the fly here in posttopic rather than on my computer just to see what I can come up with. Kinda like flowing, only with writing instead of rapping.
He sheathed the few exposed inches of his sword. He would not be needing it after all. His view from the bushes gave him only stragglers now. He inched his head slowly forward to see further down the road - both ways - without exposing himself. The rear guard was to his north, and a few scattered stragglers to the south and they would be too tired to notice any movement in the bushes.
Jerod slowly crept back until he was free from the oppressive concealment of the bushes lining the road to Miskiola before turning around and running the half-league to where he had hidden his horse. Thank the Lord above the animal had not been attacked by any wild dogs or wolves. It was standing below the tree he had secured it to, placidly eating the grass. He untied the beast, mounted, and rode at breakneck pace through the woods.
He rode North.
*
Lord Mayor Andreski read the dispatch a second time. It had arrived in his city and placed in his hand through a series of riders set up in hidden outposts throughout the forest south of Miskiola. He took notice of the mark - never a name - at the bottom of the hastily written page.
"A column of two thousand infantry and 300 cavalry. Is this man reliable, Captain?" The Lord Mayor asked? "Can he be depended upon?"
Not the question that Jakobi, Captain of the Miskiola Guard, was expecting. Jakobi commanded the many different scouts relayed in several leagues a full 360 degrees around the city. He was the only person in the city who could associate a name to the marks they signed their dispatches with.
"His count if always accurate if that answers your question, my Lord." He answered carefully. The Lord Mayor was absorbed with the report, detached now from the rest of the world. In his years of service, Jakobi knew that meant the noble lord was in deep, calculating thought.
"It doesn't. I don't question his count, you're selective enough in your recruiting not to hire out an exaggerator. No, I need to know if this man can be relied upon."
In truth, Jakobi did not know his scouts as indepth as the Lord Mayor assumed. He knew only that in the past, all of Jerod's reports had been proven accurate later on. "Of course he is, Lord. You can depend on that man for anything. Anything."
Andreski nodded in response. He pulled blank sheet of partchment from the top of a neat pile on the corner of his desk and began writing. He folded the partchment and sealed it with wax, no seal. On the back of the fold, he wrote "To be opened only by and added the mark of a man who's name he would never know. A square split into four triangles by an x. Jerod's mark.
"Ensure that he gets this then." And the Lord Mayor placed document in Jakobi's hand. The enemy column was slowed by its many infantry and the riders had delivered Jerod's report a full five days before their arrival, the Lord Mayor's message would reach Jerod four days ahead. Jakobi didn't want to know what the message said, but he hoped 4 days was enough time for whatever task Lord Andreski had assigned the man.
He also hoped Jerod could actually complete it.
______________
End for now, another chapter some other time. Thoughts?
Snite
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