Free Lord Soth by Edo van Belkom

Halton as he sketched a rough map of his home village on a sheet of pale leather laid over a table in the knights’ chambers.
    “If you had to guess?” asked Caradoc, standing to the left of the rider.
    The rider was silent, deep in thought. “I really can’t say.” The rider shook his head, apparently frustrated. “We’re a village of peaceful farmers. We’ve relied so much on the protection of the Knights of Solamnia that few of us even have weapons with which to defend ourselves.”
    “A guess?” Caradoc prodded, a little forcefully.
    The rider shook his head. “Perhaps there were no more than ten or fifteen of them.”
    A ripple of nervous laughter coursed through the knights who stood around the table. That many ogres wouldn’t be too hard to handle, especially for such a seasoned warrior as Lord Soth and his company of thirteen loyal knights. No, the problem with liberating the village wasn’t so much with the ogres who had besieged it, as with the villagers and trying to keep them out of harm’s way during the battle to free them.
    “Do you know where most of the ogres are located within the village?” asked Soth, standing to the rider’s right and carefully looking over the sketch of the village.
    “I can’t be sure,” said the rider. “But perhaps I could sneak back into the village when we get there and find out.”
    “Yes, that would help. The more we know about the village and the ogres the better it will be for us,” said Soth. “But, we can do nothing until we arrive in Halton.” He began rolling up the length of leather. “We leave within the hour.”

    Soth adjusted his breastplate so that it rested comfortably across his chest. The breastplate, bearing the symbolof the rose, was still unmarred by battle. It gleamed brightly against the light shining through the open entrance to the keep and did justice to the pride Soth felt in wearing it. When the plate was set into position, he checked the armor plates over his shoulders, and on his thighs and shins, making sure they were all properly placed and secured.
    Like most of the knights on this expedition, Soth had opted for medium-weight armor with steel plates covering the vital areas like the head and chest, while the extremities were left to the protection of chain mail. The combination of the two types of armor would allow him more freedom of movement, which was vitally important when fighting the much stronger, but slower-moving ogres.
    Satisfied with his armor, Soth held out his hand for his sword. The two footmen who had been busy sharpening its blade carried it toward him wrapped in a heavy cloth. They presented it to him hilt first. Although the sword was designed for two-handed use, Soth was a big man, easily strong enough to wield the weapon with only his right hand.
    The footmen remained where they stood, waiting for Soth’s appraisal of the weapon and his verdict on its suitability.
    Soth cut a swath through the air with the sword to check its balance, then raised it up to take a closer look at the cutting edges of the blade. That the footmen had spent all of their time since the arrival of the rider honing the weapon was obvious. Both its edges were as sharp as knives and the tip of its point was needle-thin. He looked at the footmen and nodded appreciatively.
    The two footmen smiled at each other proudly, then the taller one said, “Slay one of them foul beasts for us, milord.”
    “Consider it done,” said Soth, placing the sword neatly into its heavy leather sheath.
    Next, he took hold of his helm. It was made of bare silver-graymetal with only certain parts of it adorned with decorative roses. The visor was up and the horse’s tail that sprouted out from the top center of the helm was as long and black as Soth’s own flowing mane. Like the rest of his armor, the helm was of medium weight. Some of the knights had opted for their heaviest helms, but Soth had decided that not even the strongest helm could protect him