Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Of Knights And Scoundrels ❯ Curtiwald Zänninger ( Chapter 4 )

Allen sat quietly in his new office, pouring over more reports about the activity in and around the Fort. It seemed it was the only thing he could do, and had been doing for at least two days in a row now. He calmly sipped his tea, feeling the hot liquid fill his stomach and spread its warmth all over his body. He let him self relax, while in his mind, his thoughts were in raging battle. Ultimately, the knight had to admit defeat. To some extent.

He had set out to punish a soldier who had a painstakingly clear disrespect for the rules of the Asturian army, and he did not like what the outcome had been. He had wanted to state a punish for the man there and then, but somehow the Sergeant had heard about the commotion and stepped in, completely undermining his authority as commander.

Allen equated that Gaddes had done what he did so that the knight did not become even more unpopular among the men, or even because he felt that Allen, being so new at the Fort, was not yet familiar enough with the way these men functioned. The first, he understood and could actually be a bit grateful for the concern, but the second was a different matter altogether.

If Gaddes expected him to shut his eyes to what went on among the soldiers, he was very mistaken, and no amount of time 'fraternizing' would change that. Allen was a young man, but he already had plenty of experience on his shoulders. He had his way of doing things, and had proven it to be effective on other occasions where it had been necessary. Now that he had taken over command of the Fort, they had better realise that Gaddes' word was no longer the law. His was. And with that significant change, they could also expect that the way the Fort was run would have some profound alterations.

For starters, he was beginning to see that the outpost was not as isolated as it had seemed from the air. There was a small town named Castelo two hours north on a horse ride. It was a small community that had settled there after the construction of the fort was terminated. It economically bloomed slowly but steadily under the shadow and protecting eye of the outpost. He could also see two other things, not quite as mind soothing. One, the men under him had the privilege of having much more weekly days off than normal and chose to spend them in this town. Two, the inhabitants of Castelo apparently were not as law-abiding as those of Palas, hence the development of the small oasis in the middle of nowhere.

Feeling that the details were starting to be too many for his mind to be able to keep up with unaided, the knight pulled out a sheet of paper and pen from a drawer. As he read through all the reports in front of him, he slowly began elaborating a list of all the different things he needed to further investigate, change, rearrange, and keep an eye out.

- Rearrange soldiers' days off.
- Check order for new ballistas from Palas: where is the equipment?
- Significant discrepancy in weight measurements to the cargo of the vessel "Emperatrice": Asturian measure 35W, Fanelian measure 23W.
- Other vessels with similar measuring errors over the past month: "Thule", "Anvers", "Le d'Urville".
- Check request for money for construction materials to repair damage on the palisade: what damage?
- ...

Oh yes, between making friends and disentangling this mess of reports, he would have plenty of work to keep him occupied for at least the following two weeks or three. And he was not so sure whether he wanted to keep trusting - or allowing - his second in command to do things the way they had been done up to this point. It would possibly create a conflict between himself and the only person who had seemed interested in being his ally so far, but his morals and sense of duty did not permit him to allow this decay in military discipline to continue. --------------------------------------------------

Deep down, Reeden knew very well how much he depended on his Sarge to watch his back. That was why he held the man in the utmost respect and reserved him his ultimate loyalty, even though he did not agree with his decisions most of the time. He never complained about how much work was assigned to him, although that had more to do with it the fact that it was never anything other than a bland load.

But sometimes he could not help questioning himself whether or not that respect and loyalty were misplaced. For instance, was it really necessary to reinstall all the hidropumps that he had so skilfully dismantled the previous night without anyone growing the wiser on the knight's guymelef? He knew the sergeant liked to hold himself in a state of mild respectability - he was after all the bridge that linked the soldiers of Castelo and their daily reality to that of the army of Palas - but he had no need or obligation to lick the new commander's boots.

Reeden often bragged of how he was in the Sergeant's good graces, but there was one thing about it that he took uncharacteristically seriously - or as seriously as his ruffian personality permitted -, and that was how much the two of them talked on occasional nights.

Everyone at Fort Castelo was there for a reason, typically a not very good reason. Being assigned to this outpost was almost a running joke among the Asturian infantry. Some, like Reeden, had a tendency to take a situation and turn it to their advantage, be it strictly legally or not; others had similar clashes with the pristine and obedient image that was required of them at all times. Minor or not, those clashes had bought them a one way ticket to the Fanelian frontier. No one complained about the treatment, since they had much more freedom as they were.

But with Gaddes, it was an entirely different case. Reeden was not sure about the details of what had landed him there - the man claimed he did not like to dwell on what had been and preferred to think on what was to come instead - but there was something intrinsic about Gaddes that separated him from the average scum. He had a good head on his shoulders and a good sense of responsibility. Everyone knew they could count on Gaddes, somehow.

The special particularity, though, was that 'everyone' truly meant everyone. He would side with his friends and enemies alike, so long as he deemed reason was on their side. The sergeant had an acute sense of justice that many found uncanny, but that all men admitted was what had held the Fort's populace together. What Gaddes said was law and, in the eyes of everyone, there was no one who could better take the place of leadership. Which lead to the question: why in the seven hells did a rich city-boy uptight knight have to come and take away from them such a good man?

Even as Reeden hung suspended by security straps from the guymelef's artificial elbow, Gaddes was out, making his way to the city to talk to Cutty and solve problems that had nothing to do with him. He had also taken great lengths to insure that the rich city-boy uptight knight did not suspect a thing about what was going on behind his back, just so that Reeden would not have a rotten start with the new commander.

It was gestures like these that had earned Gaddes the position that he now occupied in the hearts of the men in this Fort. All knew that he could be trusted no matter what, and he gave them slack enough. In return he had harvested trust, devotion and the protection of all. That was the main reason why that Allen Schezar was receiving such a cold treatment, and would always receive it. Everyone resented him for replacing their Sergeant and taking the place that rightfully belonged to Gaddes.

All that and still, Gaddes seemed to back up the knight and tried to support him and accommodate him as much as possible, while at the same time keeping his men out of trouble. Reeden had to admit that he would not have done the same thing, and he knew for certain that neither him nor anyone else at the Fort would have had the same understanding attitude towards the newcomer.

Screwing the last of the bolts in place, he finally shut the last of the outside panels and declared his punishment complete. Then, just as he was rubbing the oil out of his hands and face, it happened.

The scrape of metal against metal echoed throughout the hangar as the doors were pushed open from the outside. Reeden ran a mental check trying to figure out what ship was coming in and why he had forgotten to keep the doors open for it. He could not place it, and that in itself was unusual, since he was the person in charge of receiving ships and was always on top of their comings and goings. Could this be an emergency, or a last minute call that had come in after he started his shift? Both were unlikely, so the soldier made his way to the small vessel that was entering.

It landed, its men exited, swords were drawn and Reeden knew at once that he was in deep trouble.

"Sonje..." ---------------------------------------------- ----

Gaddes had rushed through his affairs that day, leaving even a good portion of them for someone else to do in his stead. He had wanted to be done with his duties for the day shortly after lunch, so that he had enough time to ride all the way to the city of Castelo, find Cutty and settle his troubles with Reeden, and be back before it was time for dinner, so that knight Allen Schezar did not notice his prolonged absence and suspect that anything was amiss.

It was what one would call a simple plan. He was well familiar with the ride to and from the two Castelo's, having made it many times before, and he knew that whatever duties he had left behind would be covered properly. As for Curtiwald Zänninger, or Cutty as he was most known among his circle, he was an easy man to find. The problem was not so much the where or the when; it was the how, the why and whether or not your business was important enough to risk meeting him.

Gaddes considered himself an honest and loyal friend, and although Reeden sometimes did things that left him wondering whether or not to rethink his opinion on the man, he was still a friend. Therefore, the Sergeant's sense of responsibility left him in a most awkward position.

On the one hand, he could not betray his men, or rather, his companions at Fort Castelo, since he was no longer their leader. He had earned their respect, not an easy feat, and thus he respected them in turn. Not helping one of them in a situation such as this would be a fault, in his opinion. On the other hand, he had promised himself that he would do his best to ease the relations between the newly appointed knight and basically everyone else. There had been much talking among the soldiers about how the knight would only ruin the strange stability that Gaddes had managed, and although the Sergeant had no personal ill wish against Allen, he was sure he was one of the very few. He had wanted to have a nice thorough talk with the new commander today, but then Reeden had gotten in the way and that had had to be postponed. So now, he found himself with the task of smoothing out any conflicts before he had the chance to help the knight gain the respect of the soldiers.

So, awkward or not, it was a position that he had been forced to take and he planned to cut cleanly through it until he found himself safely on the other side. He straightened his shoulders, dismounted, took a breath of fresh air and steeled himself for what he knew was coming, before plunging deep into Cutty's favourite bar.

The changes in the environment were immediate and remarkably noticeable. The air was heavy with the respiration of too many on too short space. It smelled of spices, alcohol and perspiration, and shuddered to the rhythm of a fragile band playing on a far corner and the buzzing of conversation. The sun was only starting his descent outside, but inside the establishment it was dark, the lights dimmed and focused on certain points only.

A counter and high stools took up most of the wall to the right and the rest of the space was occupied by individual tables, some plain, others with couched sofas for the patrons to relax. A quick look around told Gaddes that Cutty was in one of the latter.

Remembering to keep his shoulders steeled, but not so much that he would be stiff, Gaddes slowly made his way to the entourage clustered around the group of tables. Cutty was the only one he recognised although he had never spoken to him in person, but he could guess that the others were either associates or guards. He was stopped long before he got near by a bulky presence.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I just wanted to have a word with Cutty about a common friend of ours, that is all", he said, placating the obvious hostility by showing his hands. The neck-less individual motioned to someone who was closer to his boss, and after a brief exchange, the man in question got up to join Gaddes.

Curtiwald Zänninger was not a warrior, nor could he ever pass as one, but he had an imposing figure nonetheless, Gaddes had to admit. Years of accumulated profits had made him swell, in arrogance and confidence but also in size. His elegant outfit, filled to the brim with designs from places which Gaddes could only dream of, made little to cover up the not so elegant curve of his contented stomach, that made his deep voice resonate.

"You wanted to see me?" He asked languidly.