Page 82 of Wolf Alliance

“Aye, we took care of the brigands in there and the ones down below where the ovens for baking are. Their bodies are in the cellar’s secret tunnel,” Erik said.

The men they had released all smiled. “You have been busy,” one of the men said.

“Aye. We have much more work to do. Return here and we’ll go as a force to the barracks.”

A dozen of their men went to the kitchen and the cellar to arm themselves.

Then Erik and the remaining men with him waited until Alasdair and his men joined him in the dungeon and learned the plan.

“We saw Baldur’s men haul off the dead guards’ bodies into the woods while we were up on the wall walk. Baldur identified them as his men who had been imprisoned, so I figured you were down here releasing them from the dungeon,” Alasdair said.

“Aye. We needed to hide the bodies and gather their weaponry,” Erik said.

Alasdair glanced at the other men who had been prisoners. “It appears we need a few more weapons.”

“Others are grabbing knives from the kitchen and the other men we’d left in the cellar,” Erik said.

Alasdair nodded. Then they heard people moving about upstairs and one of Baldur’s men went up to peek inside. He hurried back down to them. “Guards are taking some men and women who prepare the meals into the kitchen.”

Erik hoped the men gathering knives in the kitchen wouldn’t get caught. He and Alasdair had the same notion at the same time, and they raced up the stairs, several more men, armed or not, following them into battle.

He only wanted the armed men to help him eliminate the guards and protect the cooks, but everyone was so eager to assist he understood how they felt. Some undoubtedly had families and were concerned about them too.

Erik and Alasdair burst into the kitchen, the other men who had gone to arm themselves nowhere to be seen. He heard someone in the cellar then.

Erik and Alasdair began to fight two of the guards, the cooks and servers hurrying to get out of the way, some going into a side room for safety. More of Baldur’s men poured into the room and dispensed with the five other guards. Erik killed the man he was fighting, and Alasdair finished off the one he’d been battling. Now they had even more weapons.

The men came up from the cellar, armed this time, but took the other guards’ bodies downstairs to hide them. Once Baldur’s, Alasdair’s, and Erik’s men gathered, they hurried to the barracks. There were no guards on the outside, probably because nobody thought anyone would dare to break into the barracks where a bunch of hostile armed men would be.

Freigard’s men would be sleeping to pull the nighttime guard duty.

As soon as the doors banged open, Erik, Alasdair, and the rest of the men with them charged inside. The men on the bunks leaped out of bed in various states of undress, grabbing weapons and fighting to the death. This was why Erik and the others practiced fighting so much between their people and other clans to keep in shape and to be able to battle their enemy.

The man Erik was battling was heavily muscled and taller, but Erik wasn’t letting that stop him from eliminating the brute. Still, every swing he made in the crowded barracks—a central hall with beds on either side and chests at the food of each of the beds—Freigard’s man blocked them and swung twice as hard in retaliation.

Erik felt a body at his heels and fell backward but regained his balance before the brigand cut him in two. Erik jumped out of the way and landed on his feet on a mattress stuffed with hay. He struck at the guard again.

Suddenly, Logan knocked into the guard from behind him as Logan targeted another man. When he did, the guard Erik had been fighting turned to attack Logan—as if offended by his jostling him.

To protect his brother, Erik attacked the guard with vengeance, striking at him over and over again, not letting up. The guard couldn’t strike back, just countering Erik’s moves, blocking Erik’s sword until he fell on the mattress. Erik attacked him in the chest with his sword, killing him.

Sweat pouring off his brow, Erik turned to see where his brother was. He was catching his breath and uninjured. Swords were still clanking in the barracks, a few were fighting, some were wounded, and most of the villains were dead.

“Where’s Freigard?” Erik asked a dying brigand.

He shook his head. He didn’t know. Erik asked a few more people, but everyone gave the same answer. They didn’t know.

“What about Dunbar’s men?”

“In the great hall,” one of the men said before expiring on the floor.

“How many of you are there?” Erik asked one of the wounded brigands. His eyes were glazed over, and he didn’t answer. Erik suspected they had decimated Freigard’s forces at least, and Erik probably had enough men on their own that they could eliminate the rest of Freigard’s men.

Erik, Alasdair, and their group of twenty men made their way to the great hall. When they reached their destination, the five guards there looked horrified to see so many men they had to face in battle. They didn’t stand a chance the combined forces engaged in a fierce fight against the guards, keeping Baldur's pack members imprisoned inside. Within minutes, the guards were slumped on the floor, dead.

Erik and Alasdair opened the doors to the great hall and peered in to see women, children, and older men huddled against one side of the great hall away from the doors.

“We’re here to free you,” Erik said. “Members of Alasdair’s pack, mine, and your own, freed from the dungeon, are here to help us take down Freigard’s men. Does anyone know where Freigard is?”

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