"Oh, the refugees are more than happy just to have a roof over their head," the majordomo replied. "Most of them were homeless when they left Kirnos, so getting regular meals and living indoors - even if it's only in a shack - is something they aren't going to complain about."

"Good. That means now it's time for us to shift those farmers who'd been living in the jail to the damaged shacks. Make sure it's done tomorrow morning before they leave for work, so we can put the new captives in jail."

Duvas nodded. "As you wish, although we'll have to think of a better solution before too long."

"Let's get the sowing completed first," Kivamus said, "then we will have enough free workers to start demolishing these shacks and to make another long house for them."

"That takes care of where we will keep the captives temporarily until they are interrogated," Hudan said, "but we have to think about what to do with them after that. I am pretty sure what Feroy would suggest us to do with them, and I don't think I disagree. I suggest they be executed after the interrogation is completed."

Kivamus grimaced hearing him talk so casually about executing people who had surrendered. It was true that this harsh medieval world had nothing like the Geneva Conventions - probably because they hadn't yet seen the kind of brutality which men could dish out to each other during something like a world war - but it just didn't feel right to him to execute men who had surrendered to him. "Let's wait for Feroy and see what he tells us."

*****

It had been more than an hour since the ex-mercenary had gone while Kivamus and Duvas waited for him to return. Madam Helga had made some baked cookies in the meantime, which Lucem and Clarisa had gladly devoured before going to sleep, with Syryne and their mother accompanying them. Hudan had gone out once again to get the latest report from the guards, while Feroy hadn't returned either.

Soon, the doors opened again and both of the men came inside.

"I just met with the patrolling guards," Hudan reported," and they didn't see anyone else out there. "It seems we caught all the bandits. If there were any stragglers, they must have already run away from here."

"We can't do anything about that," Kivamus said. "We don't have the manpower to go on a wild goose chase in the night."

Duvas stared at him. "Uh... What do you mean? What is this goose you speak of?"

Kivamus shook his head. Some phrases probably didn't translate well in this new language or maybe goose was known by a different name here. "I meant that it would be futile to try to search any other bandits in these forests right now."

Hudan nodded. "I agree. I've already told the guards to return the horses to the stable so they can rest for a few hours before we send them to the fields for plowing again." He looked at Feroy. "What did you find out?"

"Same as what I expected," the ex-mercenary reported. "Many of them used to be slaves until a year or two ago. Some of them worked as farmers under their owners, but had to run away when their masters barely gave them anything to eat after grain prices started increasing, while others worked odd jobs here and there, before they were let go. They turned to petty stealing when they couldn't find a job to earn coins and eventually moved into the forests to hunt for food there and began targeting small farms and villages to find food." He shrugged. "None of them had heard of the name Torhan before I asked. What do you want to do with them?"

"I already suggested that executing them would be the best idea," the guard captain said. "I am no more fond of taking lives than any other person, but I don't want to post guards just to keep an eye on them when Torhan can attack us any time. Even though we have enough guards right now, usually we always have a shortage of guards anyway and once we start sending hunters out again, we will probably be short on them again. It's not a good idea to waste men just to guard these bandits."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Feroy seemed to be thinking for a moment before he looked at Kivamus. "It is up to you, but these aren't seasoned bandits who have been doing this for so long that they can't make amends for what they've been doing. It might not be the case with Torhan's bandits, or any other organised group which has been doing this for a long time, but from what I've seen, a lot of people who used to do honest jobs had turned into bandits in the past couple of years. Most of them live somewhere in the forests south of Cinran, and we might very well be attacked by them in the future, since they won't dare to attack Cinran and Kirnos is probably too far away to travel for them."

"They are still bandits," Hudan shrugged. "Executing them now would likely save us a lot of trouble in the future."

Kivamus shook his head in exasperation. If all those escaped slaves kept attacking them, then they would need a huge graveyard just to bury them, not to mention he just couldn't bring it in himself to kill people who had surrendered. At this rate he might have to create a local version of Geneva conventions. Huh. Maybe they could call it Tiranat conventions.

He looked at the guard captain. "These people surrendered to us, Hudan. We should never hesitate in keeping our village safe from bandits and such, and I won't stop to think twice about the men we kill while defending our homes, but those who have surrendered to us deserve mercy. You may be right that killing them would probably save us trouble in the future, but these people were just looking for food to eat because nobles like me couldn't ensure that every person in their domain had enough to eat."

Seeing that Hudan still didn't look convinced, he added, "Just consider this. If we execute people who surrender to us, any future attackers would have no reason to put down their swords. That means our guards will have to fight them to the death, which means more casualties on our side as well - since it seems like bandits aren't going to stop attacking us anytime soon in this place. So the best way to keep our village secure and our guards alive is to allow as many bandits to surrender as we can. But that will never happen if we execute everyone who does that."

"I... can see your logic in that. But what should we do then?" Hudan asked with a frown. "We can't just let them go!"

Kivamus thought about it for a while. "I do agree that we can't just keep them in jail and feed them indefinitely. They need to do hard labour to earn their food and pay for their crimes, but that has to be done in a way that they don't have any opportunity to escape. So how about sending them to work in the coal mines, now that they are active again? Their hands can be tied on the way there and back, with the other coal miners keeping an eye on them until they reach the mines, while they simply won't have any way to escape when they are inside the hills mining coal. This way we get uh... nine more workers to dig more coal - and that will earn us more gold as well."

"I do like hearing that we can get more gold in the future," Duvas said while shaking his head, "but the way you keep changing everything in Tiranat, I don't think we are going to have enough workers in the village any time soon, if ever."

Kivamus snorted. "You have no idea... Either way, we need to keep increasing our labour force."

Feroy began, "I think that can work. After these surrendered bandits have seen that they will be treated like humans here, even if they were slaves in the past, I don't think any of them will have any reason to try to escape, since this is the first time they will know for sure that they are going to get food every day. I'm pretty sure that even as captives, their life in this village will be much better than how they lived as slaves under their previous owners." He added, "Of course, there might still be some who will try to escape, but with more than a hundred reliable men of Tiranat working in the coal mines already, they won't have much chance to run away anyway."

"Good," Kivamus said. "This is what we'll do then. Shift them to the jail tomorrow after the refugees have moved to the old huts and try to find out who amongst these surrendering bandits is likely to cause problems in the future. We can go with Hudan's solution for any troublemakers, while the rest of the captives should become good workers for Tiranat in due time. Eventually we can move them out of the jail if they don't show any signs of causing problems for the village."

Feroy nodded. "I'll find out everything about them tomorrow."

Hudan looked thoughtful for a moment before sighing. "Fine. The guards won't like it, but they'll do as I say. In case any of them become a problem, the guards will know exactly how to take care of them. It's too dark right now, so tomorrow morning, we'll strip the bodies of the dead bandits of anything useful and bury them in the eastern hills." He looked at the ex-mercenary. "You should take some rest now as well, you've been awake for quite a while."

Feroy snorted but agreed. And with that, the mercenary and the guard captain exited the manor hall.

Duvas stood up from his chair as well. "I should get some sleep. The tax collector will arrive any day now, and I need my mind well-rested to deal with him."

The majordomo entered the inner door to go to his room, but Kivamus' mind was too agitated for him to find sleep any time soon. Now that Hyola had proved that the watchtowers were very effective, he wondered what they could do if they had some more powerful weapons here, even if they were not fired by gunpowder.