Aetherday, 12th of Messidor
The knights have recovered, with the exception of their leader. Barberouge is still fighting an infection in his shoulder, and his mind is clouded by fever and drugs.
The knights in his convoy sit talking and drinking around a campfire after supper, mocking the young squire Jean-Patric for his perceived effeminacy. Bespin insinuates that the youth might make a good catamite for the condottiere Theodoric. At this, a passing man takes offence, and accosts Bespin and the other knights. The man proves to be sergeant Paulus Varro, and is accompanied by the odd and remarkable personages Pierre Dupont and Farrand. What seems to have the makings of a fight is smoothed over, and the foreigners leave, but a little later, Jean-Patric must attempt to persuade Sieur Jerome that Pierre isn't a sorcerer. Sieur Balthazar comes to the dispute, and almost joins Jerome in hunting down the "sorcerer", but recognizes the name and tells his henchman to drop the matter.
In the night, Balthazar and Miquondor share a dream in which they are part of an archaic horde of the iron age, charging a phalanx of dwarves. As they draw near, a red haired dwarf leaps forth and pounces like a beast on Balthazar. He proclaims that "This will be your bane!" and the two wake up in their separate tents. Going out for fresh air, their hesistantly begin talking, and Balthazar gets Miquondor to admit that he, too, dreamed of dwarves.
Sieur Miquondor and the Banneret talk a little of their dream, and of the possibility that this might be an omen warning of a dwarfish attack. Sieur Ethelmant begins working on a large grenade-like contraption.
Lieutenant-Colonel Raphel, Viscomtet of Montcuivre, first summons Sieur Ethelmant and later Banneret Balthazar, to his palatial tent. He tasks them with storming "les Tourelles", the barbican controlling the southern bridgehead of the Vádère Bridge. Sieur Ethelmant is first consulted on the feasibility of the plan, and later put in charge of the sappers, whereas the Banneret in put in charge of the attack. Montcuivre's plan is to have a unit of men cross the river in rowing boats, use petards to breach the gates and inner doors of "les Tourelles", and rush the defenders. The attack is to be carried out at night, under or after the Loafnight celebrations. There will be a full moon, but Montcuivre assures them that the nightly fog on the river will be sufficient to hide them from enemy eyes. A second team, also in boats, will set charges under the bridge between the isle and the barbican. As soon as they hear the blast from the first petard, they will blow up the bridge, to keep "les Tourelles" from being reinforced. Barberouge and his men are given fairly free hands when it comes to men and equipment. Barberouge initiates Sieur Jerome and Sieur Miquondor in the plan, but chooses to leave his squire out of the matter.
After some discussion, they elect to attack with an assortment of phalangites, crossbowmen and hackbutmen, and Sergeant Paulus Varro and most of his squard of swordsmen. In all, they elect to bring fifty men, to be rowed by half that number of rowers. Another fifty men, archers, crossbowmen and heavy infantry will be brought in to fortify the barbican, once the Ramoroseans hold it. Paulus Varro willingly brings his men as soon as the price is negotiated with Montcuivre. It is rather more difficult to resolve other problems, perhaps the greatest dispute is whether the attackers shall bring with them a spare gate. Ethelmant splits his attention between preparing petards, arguing over the assault plan, and disparaging Barberouge to Montcuivre. He allegation, not entirely baseless, is that Barberouge is mentally unsound and given to drink. Montcuivre, however, diplomatically brushes this aside, and sides with Barberouge regarding the spare gate.
The men sup lightly, and as soon as the gloaming has faded, they set out on the river Gronne. As Viscomtet Raphel predicted, fog provides ample concealment, though the moon shines brightly from the east, and the iris noctis glows red in the clear, starlit sky. Sieur Miquondor leads the escalation of the river bank, and stations the crossbowmen on the bridge, while Sieur Ethelmant leads the phalangites and hackbutmen onto the berm on either side of the gate. Aided by two hackbutmen, he sets the greatest petard againt the gate. The glow of the fuse finally alert the guards on the battlements, and they begin raining down arrows as the gate is blasted open.
A great cloud of smoke spreads around the gate, mixing with the fog into a dense smog. Sieur Ethelmant commands his phalangites to take position in front of the gate, oblivious that Sieur Miquondor is, according to the original plan, commanding his crossbowmen to fire at the breached gate. Three phlanangites fall, struck by quarrels, while the fourth stands dumbfounded, only to be cut down from behind by Sergeant Paulus's Devilblade as he leads the swordsman charge into the passageway between the gates. Here, they wait with their shields above them, while rocks fall from the murder holes above. Outside, Miquondor and his crossbowmen strive to return fire as arrows, quarrels and rocks rain from battlements, machiolations and arrowslits. The knights Barberouge and Ours-de-Fer also join the swordsmen inside, but Sieur Ethelmant and his hackbutmen-turned-sappers do not.
Barberouge angrily send Sieur Jerome to summon Ethelmant, and he so does. He is hit by a rock on the way, but his helmet saves his head. Ethelmant, angry at the friendly fire, only reluctantly obeys the Banneret's orders, and not before the first vessel of alchemists' fire has been thrown from the murder-holes inside. The second sends a man panicking as the sappers advance, but Sieur Jerome wrestles the man to the ground. Sieur Ethelmant sets a petard against the tower door, but mistimes his fuse, and the attackers flee the passageway in panic, the sappers dropping the remaining petard as they retreat. Ethelmant and his sappers are the last to make it out, slamming aside two swordsmen to do so. Sieur Jerome, meanwhile, rolls towards the far gate, keeping the swordsman in a lock while he does so. The Banneret turns and sees two swordmen flung away from the gate by the fiery blast
Outside, sheltered by their shields from the falling missiles, Barberouge attempts to berate Sieur Ethelmant, but the latter insolently foist aside the Banneret's words, and turns to lead the attack on the tower stair. The flustered banneret can do little more than follow him, as do Sieur Miquondor, Sergeant Paulus, and his swordsmen. Inside, Sieur Ethelmant is knocked down by a dropped rock to the head, suffering a light concussion through his helmet. Thus the Banneret regains the van, and charges into and up the stairwell. He is met and fought to a standstill by a defending man-at-arms. Behind him, Sieur Miquondor removes his gloves and begins to pick at a locked door. Outside, Sieur Ethelmant tosses a bottle of lamp oil at the vaulted stone roof, and then strive to light the oil with his torch. A vessel of alchemist fire is thrown from above, and strikes Ethelmant's interposed shield, lighting it on fire. Ethelmant retreats to the far end of the passageway, and exchanges his fiery shield for the buckler of one of the blasted swordsmen.
In the stairwell, the Banneret exchanges blows with his opponent. He wounds him in the gut with a mace blow, and eventually manages to knock his feet away from under him, sending him tumbling down, and forcing the Banneret to dodge out of the way, back towards sieurs Ethelmant and Miquondor. Miquondor retreats through the door he has just unlocked, while Ethelmant is slammed against the wall by the retreating Banneret wuith sufficient force to knock him off his feet and crack a rib or two. However, while Barberouge pulls the senseless defender aside, Sieur Ethelmant regains his feet and readies his gun. Another defender appears in the stairs, and is shot in the torso by the gunslinger. He retreats, and Ethelmant readies his saber and gives chase. On the first landing, he meets several men-at-arms, and a crossbowman who shoots over a crouched comerade, hitting Sieur Ethelmant's helmet and punching clean through it, into his brain. The fallen knight is soon replaced by the Banneret and Sergeant Paulus, who fight the men in the tower and gallery doors back to back.
Meanwhile, Sieur Miquondor and the swordsman Florian explore what lies beyond the locked door. They find a well-stocked storeroom, and a trapdoor in the ceiling. Aided by Florian, Sieur Miquondor climbs through the hatch, and finds himself in the feasthall of the defenders, seeing a number of them struggle with Paulus in the doorway. He aids Florian's ascent, but they are discovered, and must fight for their lives by the hatch. Florian takes an axe blow to the face, while Miquondor is well protected by his skill and his plate harness.
Holding both stairway and hatch, the remaining attacking forces are able to seek shelter in the storeroom, and gradually Barberouge, Paulus and Sieur Miquondor lead their men to push back the defenders. Barberouge leads the assault through the gallery over the gates and into the eastern tower, while Paulus and Miquondor ascend the western tower. The attacking knights notice that the defenders are remarkably sluggish, even when one takes into account that they have been feasting and drinking this evening.
Eventually, Sieur Miquondor and Sieur Balthazar can behold each other from the battlements of their respective towers. They are victorious. The attackers have 15 dead, half of them victims of firendly fire. They have an equal number of wounded. The defenders have suffered losses equal to this, while a dozen of them surrender, as does the knight in command of the tower.
Barberouge orders that the prisoners be treated well, but that the enemy wounded shall only be treated when their own casualties have been tended to. Sieur Jerome is found unconscious but remarkably unhurt, smeared in the pasty remains of the swordsman he seized and held before him like a shield. Sieur Ethelmant is also found to be alive, if barely, for the time being. The fifty man reinforcements soon arrive.
Later at night, the enemy successfully spans the bridge and makes an assault, but they are easily driven off by the vigilant men of Ramorose.
The Ramorosean fallen are readied for transport back to camp. Barberouge orders that the enemy dead shall be pyred on the bridge, a fate less kind than that of the surviving prisoners. As the morning sun clears the horizon, it illuminates the smoke of many pyres, smoldering at the southern end of the bridge, in full view of Vádère's defenders.
Sieur Balthazar of Barberouge receives a courier crow ordering him to report in person to Lieutenant-Colonel Raphel of Montcuivre. He leaves Jerome in charge, and he and Sieur Miquondor leave "les Tourelles" for the time being, going downriver on foot, and crossing at the Ramorosean docks. The Banneret is greeted on the other side by his squire, Jean-Patric des Perceurs. The latter, revolted by the copious gore on his master's armour, is ordered to clean it, as Barberouge and Coeur-de-Grandcourbelle changes into their courtly finery. He passes this task on to his own servants.
As the two knights come into tent of Montcuivre, they are washed and in fresh clothes, but they still seem to smell the stench of the battlefield, despite the incense burned by their commander's servants. The lieutenant-colonel himself seems rather tired, with sunken, shaded eyes. However, he smiles at the knights victorious return, and congratulates them. He promotes Sieur Balthazar to the rank of captain, and asks him to pick his own lieutenants. He then suggests that the men follow him to loafmass, and they do. Sieur Miquondor dozes of at times, but is waked before he falls by an attentive and rested Jean-Patric.