Re: Steel and Gunpowder

"What do we do, Lord Konrad?" Captain von Richter asked. "If they have a hostage out there, or if they are setting up heavy powder kegs against the doors..."

"We don’t do a thing, Lukas," Konrad stated bluntly.

He pulled his pocket watch from his doublet and checked the ticking brass hands. "We just wait. The inner wall cannons take four minutes to rotate their iron mounts and aim down into the courtyard bottleneck. We just need to give the gunners their time."

Minutes passed... the choking smoke of black powder drifted across the ruined Great Hall.

Every single Swabian veteran held their breath, their wheellock rifles trained on the doors.

Outside, the mercenary commander shouted a few more theatrical threats, demanding that Konrad step out and surrender his ledgers to the Pope’s authority.

Konrad just stared at his watch...

One minute. Two minutes. Three minutes.

Duke Wilhelm whimpered from his spot on the floor, shivering inside his hidden breastplate. "Konrad... say something to him! They are going to slaughter us!"

"Shut your mouth, Wilhelm," Katarina snapped, refusing to look at her father. She kept her eyes fixed perfectly on her husband.

Four minutes.

Konrad snapped the brass cover of the pocket watch shut. He didn’t even have to give the signal.

The deafening roar of the Swabian twelve-pounder cannons erupted from the inner ridges of the star fortress. But this time, they weren’t firing into the distant mud. They were firing directly, at point-blank range, right down into the packed, congested bottleneck of the main courtyard.

The lead balls bypassed the doors of the Great Hall and slammed into the flank of the massive siege engine waiting outside.

Even so, the sheer destruction was impossible to fully comprehend... the timber of the battering ram splintered.

The iron wheels shattered. The hides meant to stop fire arrows were useless against the Swabian artillery.

When the siege engine exploded under the cannon fire, it turned into a lethal fragmentation grenade. Huge chunks of jagged timber and twisted iron tore through the tight mercenary ranks standing in the courtyard.

The elite killers who thought they had cornered the warlord were cut down where they stood.

A lot of people died... It was incredibly, unexpectedly fast.

"Reload!" a Swabian gunnery sergeant screamed from the high walls outside. "Pour the lead!"

Another volley of musket fire rained down from the angled bastions of the star fortress.

The surviving mercenaries, trapped in the killing zone between the broken outer gates and the locked Great Hall, lost their minds.

They had just watched their incredibly expensive siege engine evaporate, and their front lines were bleeding out on the stones.

"They are throwing down their guns!" Eckhard shouted, pressing his ear against the doors. "I can hear them screaming for mercy! They are routing, Lord Konrad!"

Hundreds of surviving mercenaries threw their crossbows and early muskets into the mud, throwing their hands up in surrender.

Those who were too terrified to surrender simply turned and ran, trampling over their own wounded comrades to escape through the broken iron gates and run back into the northern hills.

However, Konrad waited for the Swabian war horns to blow the clear signal.

Two long, steady blasts finally echoed from the ramparts... the courtyard was completely secured.

"Pull down the barricades," Konrad commanded, sliding his pistol back into his belt.

Captain von Richter and the halberdiers quickly shoved the tables aside.

The doors of the Great Hall groaned as they were pulled open, letting the fresh winter air sweep into the smoke-filled room.

As the doors opened, the people who had been hiding began to emerge.

The cellar doors near the kitchens were entirely pushed open. The local peasants, the exhausted maids, and the wealthy trade merchants slowly walked back up into the light, stunned that they had actually survived the day.

And then, stepping out from the fortified inner keep, came the rest of Konrad’s family, leading them all was Isolde.

She saw Konrad standing unharmed next to Katarina. And then, she saw Duke Wilhelm.

"Bring him to the altar," Konrad ordered, ignoring the cheers of his victorious men.

Though the Duke of Bavaria tried to resist, Marshal Eckhard and Lukas grabbed the lord by the arms.

They threw Duke Wilhelm onto the raised wooden stage. The very stage where he was supposed to officially bless the wedding just an hour ago.

The Duke fell hard onto his knees. He was surrounded by the people he had tried to slaughter. Isolde stood to his left, her eyes dead.

And Konrad stood right in front of him.

"Konrad... please..." Wilhelm sobbed, pressing his forehead against the floorboards. "I surrender the ledgers! I surrender the salt routes! Just let me live! I will go back to Munich and never cross your borders again! I swear it on the blood of my daughter!"

Konrad looked down at the broken noble. He didn’t say a word.

He slowly turned toward the edge of the stage. Awax wedding candle, decorated with the intertwined black and blue banners of their houses, had somehow survived the gunfire.

It was standing upright on a small iron stand.

Konrad reached into his pocket and pulled out his flint and steel. With a few quick strikes, he caught a spark on a small piece of dry tinder.

He calmly touched the flame to the wick of the candle. The yellow fire flickered to life. He picked up the burning candle, feeling the hot wax slowly begin to melt and drip against his knuckles.

He walked slowly back to the kneeling Duke.

"You broke the contract, Wilhelm," Konrad stated. "You brought the Pope’s killers into my home. You ruined my wedding."

"I am sorry! Damn it, I am sorry!" Wilhelm shrieked, looking up at the flame.

Konrad swung his arm down, smashing the burning wax candle into the center of Duke Wilhelm’s face.

The Bavarian lord screamed, an agonizing sound that tore through the quiet Great Hall.

The hot, melting wax stuck to his skin, burning his cheek and his beard as the wax smothered him.

Wilhelm fell backward, writhing and grasping at his face as the Swabian guards watched with satisfaction.

Konrad tossed the broken, bloody stump of the candle onto the floorboards.

He stood over the broken ruler of Bavaria, adjusting the cuffs of his doublet.

"Now then..." Konrad whispered, a smile touching his lips as he listened to the Duke’s endless screaming. "How many days ride is it to Munich?"