Burn it down!

Georg pushed past Count Agist and shouted "Lord Alfreed!" as he tried to rush to Lord Alfreed's body.

Count Agist grabbed the man by the collar and held him back, "It's already too late, let's investigate the body first."

"What is there to investigate?!" Georg said angrily, "My Lord is dead and you want to leave his body in a pool of blood?"

"I never said that, you should inform his daughter though, I imagine she will be devastated." Count Agist said while looking around the room.

"I do not know where she is currently, Lord Alfreed may have sent her away so she wouldn't have had to see this." Georg said solemnly.

"I can understand that... I still remember my father's– " Count Agist shook his head to interrupt himself then said, "Let's cover the body for now. Do you maybe have a large bed sheet in one of the bedrooms?"

"Yes, I'll have one of the maids–"

"Get it yourself! Don't traumatize a maid!" Nicholas interrupted Georg.

"But... you're right, sorry. I'll be right back." Georg said then slipped out of the room to head to the nearest bedroom.

"That was uncalled for Nicholas!" Count Agist said.

"Sorry, but I wanted him gone for a second... look at his desk, notice the box where the royal seal is kept?" Nicholas said and pointed to a small empty wooden box.

"Yes, Lord Alfreed probably didn't bother returning the seal after writing the last letter since he wasn't planning on using it ever again."

"So in that case, don't you suspect that he would have it on himself somewhere?"

"Search his body, I'll buy you a little time but I imagine Lord Alfreed's adviser is uncomfortable leaving us alone h–"

Just as Count Agist was about to finish his statement, a heavy knocking followed by a man's voice said "Get away from our Lord you murderer!"

Thomas opened the door and found Georg standing there with a lot of knights around him.

Count Agist pushed in front of Thomas and said "What's the meaning of this Georg?!"

"What do you mean? You attacked Lord Alfreed during our peaceful negotiations, he sacrificed himself so I could escape and get help!" Georg said menacingly, "Brothers! Seize them!"

Fortunately Count Agist and the rest had prepared for the worst case so they were still in their armor, but Count Agist had left his ax, Last Stand, back at the camp.

Georg's mistake was that this move basically exposed himself as the one that killed Lord Alfreed, but by seizing the initiative with the knights of Flint he had them on his side and were beyond talking with.

The knight in front charged at Count Agist bringing down his sword towards Count Agist's shoulder. Count Agist caught the knights sword arm then kicked him hard in the stomach knocking him back. The knight collided with Georg who hadn't retreated yet and knocked the wind out of him.

Another knight yelled "Protect Lord Georg Watkins! Fall back outside the manor!"

Georg wanted to say "Kill them you fools!" but he was to busy gasping for air.

"Out the window!" Count Agist shouted

Nicholas was the closest to the window and was about to crash through it when he stopped himself as an arrow went through the glass and hit him in the arm after being mostly negated by his armor.

"Damn it! Get away from the windows!" Count Agist then shouted.

Thomas went over to Nicholas, pulled the arrow out, and then inspected the wound, "You'll be fine, it wasn't to the knee."

Count Agist picked up the sword the knight dropped and chased the knights that were fleeing with Georg, when he reached the main door to the manor, he peaked out and saw all of the Flint knights surrounding the manor, many with bows, and so he slammed the door to the manor shut.

"Looks like they've surrounded the manor." Count Agist said to himself then returned to where Thomas and Nicholas were.

"What's the plan milord?" Thomas asked as Count Agist walked back in to the study.

"Think Dion or one of our knights would notice a fire or the smoke from one?" Nicholas asked.

"Of course, but the ensuing fight would leave both sides crippled." Count Agist said.

"Think we could sneak out?" Thomas suggested.

"Might be a secret passage somewhere, but there is a good chance Georg would know about it." Nicholas countered.

"How about we give them what they want?" Count Agist suggested then.

"Us?" Thomas said while questioning where Count Agist was going with this.

"No, they want the one who killed Lord Alfreed." Nicholas said, "So we need to find something that proves Georg did it."

"In the letter, Lord Alfreed said his daughter was to marry Georg if I didn't take her. Georg would want to keep her alive for himself, but where could he put her that nobody would notice her?" Count Agist said.

Nicholas started to contemplate where Lord Alfreed's daughter could be kept. "Wouldn't be the prison... guards patrol that, wouldn't be in his room since maids come to take care of him..."

"Maybe he has a private house in the village?" Thomas suggested.

"Indeed, that would be a good idea, but it would have to be a stone house or a cellar since it would be very easy to make noise and draw attention to yourself."

"It will be hard to search the houses from here and signaling our knights would just lead to a battle."

Count Agist had another thought, "Why haven't they attacked us yet?"

"Maybe they're waiting for the servants to leave?" Nicholas suggested.

"Should we take hostages? I'm against taking hostages, but I'd rather not die to scum like that." Thomas said.

"How about one of us impersonate one of the servants so that person can search for Lord Alfreed's daughter?"

"Good idea Nicholas! Thomas, Nicholas, let's go try and find some, capture them, but don't threaten them if we can help it."

It looked like Georg never warned the servants to leave as probably about half of them were still in the manor. They gathered the one butler, one cook, and 3 maids into the study with them. The maids looked fearfully at Count Agist, Thomas, and Nicholas as they were worried that they might rape them in a final act of defiance before death.

Thomas smiled and bowed humbly in front of the 3 maids and said, "Be at ease ladies, we are not brigands or murderers, we will let all of you go free shortly."

Nicholas whispered to Count Agist, "I have a plan."

__________

Count Agist and Nicholas concocted a plan to search for Lord Alfreed's daughter in the town and also stall for time. The cook had a slight resemblance to Thomas so Thomas took his clothes and the cook was put in Thomas's armor. They were going to claim they took the servants hostage and would release them slowly one at a time.

Count Agist wrote up a quick letter saying they would slowly release the hostages one at a time if they were allowed to be heard out. Count Agist knew Georg would never let them be heard, but he would still have to play the part of the good guy so they could buy time with the hostages.

"If this doesn't work, I blame you guys!" Thomas said as he stood there in the baggy cook's outfit.

"Just don't make eye contact with any of them and pretend to be in a hurry to get home!" Count Agist said.

Count Agist handed a letter to one of the maids and said, "We will let you go first if you promise to deliver this letter to Georg. If you don't and run away, we will kill one of the other maids."

The maid nodded and said she would hand Georg the letter.

Count Agist went to the main door of the manor and creaked the door open slightly. He could hear several archers draw their bows. He held his hands up and signaled for the maid to come out. The tension seemed to get to one of the knights as an arrow was let loose narrowly missing Count Agist and the maid.

Count Agist stood in front of the maid in case one of the other knights panicked. The maid looked up at him with gratitude but she still would've preferred to be behind the thick door of the manor.

Count Agist then bellowed out as loud as he could "We are releasing this maid! She has a letter for Georg regarding our terms for releasing the remaining hostages!"

The knights of Flint looked at each other nervously, then saw Count Agist motion slowly for the maid to leave and watched her run towards Georg. Count Agist then hid behind the door again in case one of the knights got any bright ideas.

Georg took the letter from the maid, read it, then found out they still had 4 more hostages from the maid. Georg then shouted towards Count Agist, "You have a deal! Now release the hostages one at a time!"

Count Agist came out from behind the door, shook his head, then said "We will release one every hour!"

Georg frowned and said, "Every minute!"

Georg and Count Agist negotiated and finally agreed upon one every 30 minutes if Count Agist released one of them immediately, which was actually Count Agist's original goal.

Georg watched the rather well-built cook flee from the manor and felt something was up so he decided to play it safe. He whispered to the knight commander "After they release the last hostage, burn the manor to the ground!"