The thick silence of the sealed mine pressed against Konrad. His hands were bloody, his nails torn... and the air was growing thin.

He sat back against the rough rock, forcing his breath to slow, measuring the fading of the air.

Twenty hours... he reckoned. He had perhaps twenty hours before the bad humors clouded his mind, and thirty before they took his life.

The lesser lord had either slain the loyal workers Konrad had brought from Kufstein or bought their silence. The Swabian League vanguard had been broken, but the resulting chaos gave Henrich the perfect cloak for murder.

Konrad closed his eyes, focusing on holding his body’s heat and slowing his heartbeat. He had driven his forges to marvels, changed the face of war in his lands, and struck a pact with the greatest merchants in the Empire.

Yet, his life now hung on a thread he could not hold: the loyalty and wits of the people he had left behind.

"Henrich speaks falsely!"

Bam! Master Dieter slammed a fist onto the wood, "Lord Konrad forged those powder pots himself. They do not burst unless a hand sets the match. Henrich buried him!"

"The truth of his treason matters little now." Captain Eckhard nodded, standing over a map of the Swabian hills spread before him. "The cruel fact is that Lord Konrad is trapped, and Lord Henrich holds the door. We must reckon Henrich has barred the mine and called his serfs to arms."

"Then we take the watch and we break his gates!" Dieter stated.

"If Henrich has called his serfs, he could easily number five to our one... And if we drag the falconets through the mud to Rothenburg, they will see us coming for miles." Eckhard countered.

"Perhaps... perhaps a charge is not needed."

"...?" Eckhard and Dieter turned in surprise.

Elise, Konrad’s younger sister, stood in the doorway. She looked terrified, clutching a small wooden cross, but her jaw was set firm.

"Lady Elise," Eckhard said gently, "...this is a council of war. You should bide in the safe rooms."

"Konrad is my brother," Elise replied, stepping into the room. "I know how his mind works. He always seeks the path of least stone."

She walked to the map, "When Konrad was reading the estate’s old books, he found maps of the Rothenburg veins. The main shaft runs close to the surface near the northern ridge. The old miners left it because the roof was weak."

Dieter’s eyes widened. "She speaks true..."

"If Konrad is trapped at the main digging face, he is not deep in the mountain’s belly. He is less than forty feet beneath the northern ridge!"

Eckhard saw it at once. "We can walk around them entirely... We climb the northern ridge and dig down."

...

Captain Eckhard chose sixty of his best men, arming them lightly with wheel-lock pistols and short swords for speed. They left the falconets behind.

Master Dieter, however, brought the heavy thunder. He loaded two strong mules with the sealed powder pots Konrad had forged, along with heavy iron bars, shovels, and long coils of slow-match.

By the time the pale light of dawn began to creep over the sharp peaks, Eckhard’s band had reached the northern ridge above Rothenburg.

Down in the valley, the main gate of the mine was heavily watched by Lord Henrich’s panicked serfs, armed with pitchforks and rusty spears.

"Here," Dieter whispered, pointing to a dip in the stony earth after checking the old maps Elise had given.

His men went to work at once, clearing the loose dirt to bare the solid limestone beneath. Dieter carefully set three of the sealed powder pots in a tight ring, placed to drive their blast downward.

"Set the matches," Dieter ordered.

Eckhard signed his men to fall back behind a heavy rock, their wheel-locks primed in case the blast drew Henrich’s watchers.

Dieter lit the matches, watching the sparks bite into the cord, before running back to cover.

Down in the dark of the sealed shaft, Konrad’s breathing was shallow and hard. The air was turning foul, a choking blanket. His mind was slowing, his sharp, reckoning thoughts beginning to cloud...

A deep shudder violently shook the solid rock.

Konrad opened his eyes, the high whine in his ears returning with brutal force. Dust and small stones rained down from the dark roof.

A second, incredibly loud roar of tons of rock breaking and tearing apart echoed through the hole.

A jagged shaft of gray light suddenly pierced the absolute dark.

Whoosh... Fresh, cold air rushed into the foul pocket. Konrad gasped, his lungs burning as they drank the clean air.

"Lord Konrad!" A booming voice echoed down through the broken roof.

Konrad blinked against the sudden light, the dust clearing enough to see the massive shape of Master Dieter looking down through the jagged hole.

"Cough, Cough... the strength of your powder pots is highly proven, Master Dieter," Konrad managed to croak, his voice raw.

A hemp rope was quickly lowered into the shaft. Taking it with bloody hands, and with the strength of Dieter and the watchmen pulling from above, he was hauled out of the grave.

"Drink, my Lord. The deed is done." Captain Eckhard knelt beside him, offering a water-skin.

Konrad took the skin, drinking deep, the cold water soothing his raw throat. He looked around at the sixty armed men and the heavy crates of powder.

"Your coming was swift, Captain," Konrad noted, his voice gaining strength. "How did you know to bypass the main gate?"

"Lady Elise gave us the old maps, Lord Konrad..." Dieter explained, a grin on his face. "She found the path of least stone."

Konrad stood slowly, refusing Eckhard’s offered hand. He looked down into the valley, where the sound of the blast had finally roused Lord Henrich’s men.

Panic was breaking near the main mine gate as the serfs saw they had been outflanked from above.

"Lord Henrich thinks he has buried his greatest fear," Konrad stated, "He is likely rushing to claim the iron for himself..."

"Do we strike?" Eckhard asked, "We hold the high ground. We can pick them off with the wheel-locks."

"No," Konrad shook his head. "We lack the numbers for a long fight, and we lack the great guns to break his tower. Further, slaughtering his serfs is a waste of men. They are simply confused and afraid."

Then he turned from the valley, looking back toward the deep woods that led to his own lands. "We ride for the keep at once. Lord Henrich’s treason has cleared the board. He has openly joined the lords who seek our ruin."

He paused. "We hold this ground. Henrich has failed, but Baron von Waldburg will surely send his host to investigate the blast. We will turn this valley into their grave."