Chapter 3 ~ Lukas Von Bayern

 

There was a knock on my door. Judging by the height of the knock and the weight of the knock, my squire was knocking on my door.

“What is it?” I barked out, rousing from my bed.

“The wolves are on the move, and they’ve joined forces with the Eagle Prince.”

“What reason does the Prince of Tirol have to join the wolves and fight against me?” It made no sense. I had never done him any harm. This whole war was a farce started with the lies and the greed of one mountain state that wanted to be bigger.

“The Prince of Tirol has married Princess Sofie Von Werdenfels.”

“Married her? Why would her father give her to a lesser prince when he could have married her to the Prince of the Lions?” It made no sense to me. My lands were vast, much larger, and I had better connections when it came to trade as well as friends and lineage.

“Probably because he couldn’t tell you what to do,” my squire joked as he helped me get dressed.

My manservants would soon arrive when they heard that I was up. I hated their morning attentions. I could dress by myself, but it was expected from me that I get help.

I thought about my squire’s words. They weren’t wrong. It was clear that the Prince of Werdenfels couldn’t control me, but I knew that he would like to, or we wouldn’t be at war.

Had he denied me his daughter so she could marry a lesser prince, and his son could take my lands by force. Was this so his son could rule my lands as well as his own and now his sister’s? Could the man be this conniving?

If he were, then his new son-in-law should watch his back. If he died, then his lands would go to his wife and thus to her father and brother if she didn’t give him an heir. Was he trying to gain everything? But it was so risky.

A clever fool. To deny me his daughter in marriage, and then to pretend offense and start a war, gain alliances, and then kill me, was the thinking of a mad genius. If that were the case, his son-in-law would die soon. Then he would blame me and march on my lands again, attacking my villagers, making them suffer through unspeakable crimes that would cost them their lives. And all that because of the greed of one small family.

I considered myself lucky that her father refused me her hand. It had been idiotic to offer for a girl I had never seen before.

He probably spread the lie that his daughter was beautiful. In truth, she would have buck teeth and thick bushy eyebrows and breasts that a man couldn’t find without a map.

I roared in anger as I pieced everything together. No one played me for a fool. “Send a rider to the Prince of Memmingen. Tell him to send his troops. He owes me. Remind him of that.”

I stormed out of my room and called to my men. We were going back to war.

~

A few months later, I sat on my horse on the side of the mountain, watching the wolves troops go in a straight line through the pass in the mountain. All the while, my men were getting into position to cut them off from behind.

Prince Lorenz of Memmingen and his men were already in position. They were blocking the wolves troops on the other side of the pass.

Months of war had me weary. I hoped today would end the war and bring peace back to my people.

I had to wait until the head of the line was in position. I rose up my hand and waited for the men to be in the best possible position. I wanted the loss on my side to be at a minimal. It was my duty to protect my people. I didn’t call them to war lightly. I never would have if the Wolf of Werdenfelser had left us alone, but he called me out to me by attacking my innocent villages with his son, forcing me into this cruel war, where men watched their own blood spill, their children being slaughtered, and their women being misused by people who were once their neighbors.

I wanted revenge for all that I had seen. There were wrongs done to my people that couldn’t be undone. If I ever laid my eyes on the conniving witch who whored herself to a young prince, making him think that he was wedding her for a noble cause, I’d killed her personally.

I brought my hand down, and the fighting began. The sound of metal clashing against metal was horrible, but the worse sound was when metal met flesh, killing the souls of so many men, who were following their lord, dying for his selfish greed.

We were picking off the traitors so quickly. I rode down and joined the battle. Taking innocent souls because I had to defend myself and my people.

The deaths would weigh heavy on my soul. I would get my revenge for this.