The Robber Knight's Love

32. Sleepless Nights

The rumor spread through the castle like wildfire: the spirits of the dead themselves had risen from the earth to conquer Luntberg and plunge all of them into eternal darkness.

Proof? Weren't the severed heads and the creepy howling proof enough? Those were the spirits of the dead out there, that was as clear as daylight.

Reuben found this rumor very interesting, especially since it had been the heads of Luntberg soldiers which had been catapulted over the wall. Ergo, if their spirits were indeed wandering around the castle, one should rather expect them to defend it rather than attack it, shouldn't one?

The villagers didn't seem to share this optimistic view of the supernatural. They kept as far away as possible from the old pigsty where the gruesome missiles were temporarily stored.

Well, apart from one particular villager.

“Sir Reuben?”

Reuben looked down. Then he looked a little further down. Finally, his eyes found the little girl in front of him. She couldn’t be more than five years old, with a mass of black hair hiding most of her face, except for the eyes and the stubborn mouth. In each hand, she clutched a doll.

“Yes?” he asked, not really paying attention. “What do you want?”

She pointed to the old pigsty. “To get in there.”

That got her Reuben’s full attention. He frowned. “There are parts of dead people in there.”

“Aye, I know. I want to know what chopped-off heads look like.” She pouted at him. “But the guard in front of the door won’t let me!”

“Fancy that. What a cruel man.”

“That’s what I said! So I thought maybe you could bash him on the head to make him let me go inside.”

As tempting as the idea was, Reuben could already see Ayla chatting with the guard at the pigsty, who was explaining to her with expansive gestures what had happened. The lady of Luntberg threw a suspicious glance at him and the little girl.

Hm… maybe no head-bashing today. It was probably more than his life was worth.

“Fye? Fye, come here. I need to talk to you.” Determinedly, Ayla strode over towards them.

It took a while, but finally Ayla managed to dissuade the little girl, although she didn't go without considerable protest.

After that, Ayla called together a detachment of guards to bury the heads in a secluded corner of the outer courtyard. But that didn't help, the muttering among the villagers continued.

If I only could do something! I want to burn those goddamn soldiers alive! I want to tear out their guts and feed them to the dogs!

But he couldn’t. The soldiers dressed up as spirits were staying safely out of bow range, and to open the gates just to try and send out a party of soldiers to attack them was much too risky. That might be exactly what the enemy was hoping for.

So for now, we’re stuck with the whole castle thinking that the spirits of the dead are hounding us!

Not that the villagers ever voiced the fear of the supernatural when Reuben was around. Oh no! As soon as either he or Lady Ayla appeared, the villagers fell into silence immediately, and looked as though nothing in the world could bother them.

However, Reuben suspected that this same reaction was triggered by entirely different motivations: In his case they said nothing because they were afraid of his reaction—in Ayla's case because her presence probably genuinely assuaged their fears.