The Homecoming 9.

A Stone Circle...

He looks across the circle to the lift and hoist that he helped build. He along with the others watch the crew of eight men use it to manoeuvre the last standing stone to one side. He's proud of the work he's done, who wouldn't be? But he's not especially proud of what it what his work is being used for. Even though he had a feeling before the job started, that it might be used in such a way.
In the fading light of dusk, and as a cold wind whips across the hilltop they're on. A trio of the baron's soldiers drag a bound and gagged figure forward.
He doesn't know who the individual is. Probably someone from the east of the fief, on the border of the kingdom. Or they could be from the west, near the fief of Lé Dic. He wouldn't be surprised if the poor soul is actually from the fief to the west.
He just knows the person isn't from the nearby town and villages, or farms.
The soldiers with their captive stop at the last hole that's been dug into the ground. They stand just a few yards back from it and wait.
They, along with everyone else upon the hilltop don't have to wait long. As up the path that winds up the hill, comes the baron and his routine. With them is the druid and his apprentice.
"The dark druid gets his way Tovis" says a quiet voice behind him, he turns and looks at his father Mallick, who then quietly adds "I mean druid".
Tovis the young engineer slightly nods, and though they're at the back of the crowd on this side of the circle, he gives a look to his father to remind him to be silent.
For once his father Mallick does so, much to the relief of the young engineer, who didn't want to be here this evening. But he has to be, since he's the war engineer to the baron, even though he's not yet twenty years old.
Tovis takes a step back to stand beside his father, who like himself is an engineer. Though his father is a drunk, he's not to be trusted to build war machines for the baron. Tovis is just glad he's sober tonight as they stand upon the wind whipped hilltop.
Both father and son are relatively tall, standing about six feet in height.
They can see over most of those gathered, to look at what's happening on the otherside of the stone circle.
The lord of the most easterly fief in the kingdom of Druvic looks around at the sixty or so people gathered upon the hilltop. He's silent for a few moments, then he speaks.
"We have gathered here this early evening this winter's day to preform this ancient ceremony of the land, to help us in our future endeavours against our enemy to the west" says baron Harkonin, the nobleman who is a rather rotund individual, with a perpetual sneer upon his face, that's even more pronounced when he smiles, continues with "That bitch child and her lackeys to the west have their eyes on my family's fief, they will not have it, this ceremony this evening will ensure they'll not get their way, and I'll get mine".
The baron looks over at the figure in the black robes and hood to his right, and nods to him. The dark druid slightly bows to the nobleman.
And though those on the hilltop see the baron's spellcaster being subservient to him. Tovis can't help but think that the bow performed by the dark druid was nothing but mocking.
The dark druid, looks over at his apprentice, who along with a pair of soldiers, have set up a standing brazier. The apprentice has lit the coals in it, and nods to his master once the flames start to burn the coals evenly.
The dark druid, a man who came out of the forest in the south of the fief about a decade ago, a couple of years before the civil war erupted across the kingdom. A man who deposed the former druid who was a councillor to baron Harkonin's father.
Looks over at the bound and gagged captive, being held by a trio of soldiers. The dark druid steps over to them and from beneath his robes, he takes out a curved blade. In the light of the torches that have been lit, Tovis sees that the blade is black, not from the type of metal it is, but from blood that the dagger has spilt over countless years.
The dark druid nods for the soldiers to hold the captive still, then the spellcaster holds up his blade, and closes his eyes and looks upwards. He starts speaking in a language that nobody upon the hilltop, apart from himself and his apprentice understands.
After he intones in that language for a while, the dark druid looks back down, and opens his eyes. Then he briefly speaks in the common language.
"May this sacrifice bring his lordship all that he desires, and that his people and their works help bring this about" says Palvarc the druid, who then looks around at the gathered crowd, and looks at those individuals who are most vital to the success of baron Harkonin's plans.
Amongst the councillors, guard captains and others that the dark druid looks at from beneath his hood.
He looks at the young engineer Tovis who stands on the opposite side of the circle. The young engineer feels a slight chill, and not from the cold wind either, when the dark druid's gaze briefly settles upon him before moving on.
Then Palvarc, quickly and efficiently, slices off the left ear of the bound prisoner, who screams are muffled by the cloth that's been waded up into his mouth. The dark druid hands the ear to his apprentice, who drops it into the coals of the brazier.
Palvarc nods to his apprentice, who takes a short iron rod from his belt, and puts it into the burning coals, he leaves it there for a few moments, then taking it out by the hard wood handle, he gives it to the dark druid.
Palvarc has a quiet word with the soldiers, one of whom nods, and tightly holds the head of the prisoner who is on his knees.
Then the man, who is the senior councillor of baron Harkonin, pushes the point of the hot iron rod, into the right eye of the bound captive.
On the otherside of the circle, Tovis is just glad he can't smell the burning flesh and eyeball of the poor soul who the dark druid is using for his ritual. The young engineer watches as the apprentice to Palvarc takes the iron rod, that has shriveled up eyeball on the end of it, and puts it into the burning coals of the brazier.
The apprentice then hands his master a set of pincers. The dark druid quietly says something to the soldiers holding the prisoner, who has blood running down the side of head, and a burnt out right eye socket.
The gag is taken out of the captives mouth, and as one of the guard holds his jaw open as he briefly screams. Palvarc takes the pincers, and uses them to grab the tongue of the bound captive.
The dark druid pulls the tongue, and with his blade in his other hand, he cuts out the tongue of the prisoner.
As the soldiers shove the captive onto his side, Palvarc hands the tongue to his apprentice, who tosses it onto the burning coals. Then he takes back the pincers from his master, and the two of them briefly intone something that nobody else on the hilltop understands.
The dark druid then nods to the trio of soldiers standing over the mutilated captive. They pick him up, and in the light of the torches, those on the hilltop watch the three of them drag the prisoner forward, pstand him up, and push him down into the hole that's been dug into the ground.
The druid Palvarc looks over at the crew at the lift and hoist, he nods to them and orders "Set the stone".
The stone, about nine feet high, and a couple thousand pounds in weight, is lifted up and swung to one side, so that it's over the hole in the ground.
"Our ways are the old ways" says the dark druid "Our ways are the old ways" repeat the gathered crowd upon the hilltop. Tovis can't help but slightly shake his head at the way in which Palvarc uses the traditional druidic saying in his dark rites,
Then the druid who is the councillor to the baron of fief Harkonin, nods to the crew operating the lift and hoist that the young engineer Tovis help build.
They let go of the rope, and the stone, the last to form the twelve in the circle upon the hilltop, drops into the three foot deep hole. Crushing the bound and mutilated captive in the hole to death.
Tovis who is glad the prisoner's tongue was cut out so that he couldn't hear him screaming. Is relieved that the poor soul who was picked for the dark druid's rites. Was put out of his misery so quickly, and didn't suffer a prolonged death.
Which he's heard is often the case in some of the sacrificial rites of the dark one's who follow their own path in the druidic ways.
"May this rite give you all that you seek baron" says Palvarc to the nobleman he's the head councillor to, the dark druid continues with "May the lands, and this one's lifeblood, bring about the things you most want".
"I hope so my friend" says the baron of the fief who has no qualms about sacrificing an innocent in the rites of the dark druid, if it will get him what he wishes. He looks around at the now completed circle, and knows that twelve innocent people, were put to death over the past year and a half as the stone circle was completed.
Baron Harkonin nods, and his head councillor bows to him. Which again Tovis sees as mocking, while the others in the gathered crowd see as subservient. The young war engineer to the baron can't help but think that the dark druid is getting more out of his rites that have gone into making the stone circle, than what the nobleman is getting out of it.
The young engineer glances at his father Mallick, who mutters "Old ways indeed" as he snorts in derision as the crowd breaks up as the baron orders everyone down off the hill now the rites have come to an end.
Tovis nods his head in agreement with his father, for they like a lot of people in the Harkonin fief. And for that matter, here in the very east of the kingdom of Druvic. Still adhere to the old druidic ways, more than any belief in the gods of Volunell.
Though the ways of the dark druids, and their dark rites, many of which are sacrificial, more often than not, human sacrifice. Is abhorrent to them and their beliefs.
But since the baron, and many others in his court, have taken up the belief of the dark druids and their ways. The common people, those that believe in the old ways, and those that do not. Go along with what the lord of for fief believes in.
Tovis and his father are at the back of those going down the path, and as they follow behind a couple, local farmers, one of whom is carrying a burning torch. The young engineer glances back up to the hilltop, and sees that the dark wizard and his apprentice have remained.
Tovis can only imagine what else they're going to do within the newly completed stone circle on the top of the hill. None of it pleasant if the rumours are true.
The young war engineer looks infront again when his father murmurs to him "No good looking back up at that evil pair son". Tovis can definitely agree with his father about that as they head downhill, and head back home.
Which thankfully in the opinion of the young engineer, isn't in the nearby village that the hill looks over. But is in the town of Maliss, about five miles away. Where castle Harkonin is located.
And as the baron and his routine get onto their horses, or into their carriages to return to the castle. Tovis, his father and others who live in Maliss, have a long, cold walk back to town this night.
The next morning, and Tovis wakes up late, enjoying the extra time in bed since it's seventh day, and he doesn't have to work.
He eventually gets up, and peeks through his window shutters in the second floor that is his in the family home . The young engineer sees that it's lightly snowing outside this morning. Glad it didn't snow last night when they were walking back to Maliss, it was cold enough then, snow would of just made it worse.
Tovis heads downstairs after he dresses and washes up. Only his father and himself live in the family house now.
His younger sister, who just turned seventeen in the autumn, married a carpenters son not long after her nameday. She moved out then, and moved in with her husband's family across town.
Their mother, Mallick's wife died five years earlier in an accident. An accident caused by the older engineer, the accident that's turned him into a drunk.
As he gets himself breakfast, Tovis sees that one of the beer jugs is missing from the larder. He figures his father will be outside, across the courtyard, behind the workshop, sitting under the overhang there, already getting drunk.
After eating, then quickly washing up, Tovis exits the kitchen out through the backdoor, after he puts a couple of logs in the fireplace. He crosses the courtyard to the workshop, as he does, he looks left to castle Harkonin, which isn't all that far away from his family's home.
The young war engineer works there even more than he does in the family workshop he's making his way to.
As he's about to open the door to enter the workshop, he calls out "Father?". He hears a familiar grunt, and a familiar "Yeah" from the otherside of the workshop.
Tovis nods, then enters the workshop, glad to see that his father has lit the two braziers inside, that keeps the chill out of the air.
The young war engineer stops at his work bench, and looks down at the models he's been working on. He picks up the newest one, it's a miniature scaled trebuchet.
"Now how can i make you better?" Tovis murmurs to himself as he studies the model he's made, which is being duplicated in full size, nearby within the workshops in castle Harkonin . . . . . .