Charge of the Lyte Brigade

By J.B. Norman

As bandits plunder ancient ruins on the outskirts of Porthaven, Professor of Archaeology Melisa Grevling looks for help to teach these bandits a lesson. Luckily for our favourite badger-woman academic, the Lyte Brigade is here to help!
Under the relentlessly optimistic leadership of their Captain Nolan Lyte, the Lyte Brigade prepares for their first real adventure as a group. Nolan, Matilda, Amara, Pela, Falcata, and Tancred are ready to prove themselves as the best guild in Porthaven. Although they lack experience, they abound in heart and they're ready to show the world what the Lyte Brigade can do!
The long-awaited sequel to "Forward, the Lyte Brigade" is here at last in this all-new Realmgard story!

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.B. Norman
• Release date: Mar 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005044541

J.B. Norman

J.B. Norman lives in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where he pretty much lives and breathes writing. When he is not writing his own books, he is editing books written by somebody else. He wanted to write a book since he was about nine years old; upon discovering that "Viking" was no longer a viable career option, he finally sat down and did it.

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Charge of the Lyte Brigade:

A Tale of Realmgard

J.B. Norman

Published by J.B. Norman at Smashwords.

Copyright 2022 J.B. Norman.

Cover Art Copyright 2022 Joel Balkovec.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, locations, and events are either products of the author's imagination, or are used fictitiously.

This book is available in print at select online retailers.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

www.realmgard.com

To Natalie, the best writing teacher I’ve ever had.

1

Wulfbert the Handsome would like to tell you about the fiercest and best-looking bandit in not just all Realmgard, but the whole wide world of Terrace.

It’s him.

And Wulfbert the Handsome—the fiercest and best-looking bandit in not just all Realmgard, but the whole wide world of Terrace—is not in a good mood. He’s the leader of the baddest gang of bandits east of the Midwood. He should be out there banditing: looting and plundering and ill-getting gains, then rolling around on top of a big pile of them. But, no. He’s spent the last week digging.

Digging!

In the dirt!

This, Wulfbert decides, is utterly ridiculous. Waste of time. Waste of effort. Waste of a man of his sheer, unbridled brilliance and talent and rugged good looks. And the dirt Wulfbert is getting under his fingernails is just the worst.

He has his sister to blame for that.

Sometimes, Wulfbert can hardly believe that he is, in fact, related to his sister. Sure, they both have Wulf- names, but that’s about the only similarity. He’s Wulfbert the Handsome, the fiercest and best-looking bandit in not just all Realmgard, but the whole wide world of Terrace. She’s Wulfhild the Bookworm, always better with books than with swords. He’s almost convinced that their parents must have found Wulfhild in a basket left on their doorstep and decided to take her in.

But the bandits of Realmgard have always lived by a certain code of honour. Good bandits stick together, bandits who are family especially stick together. And if you can’t trust bandits, who can you trust?

Unlike his sister, Wulfbert doesn’t have any fancy university degrees. Actually, he has several, acquired during his bandit career. Of course, he’s never attended a university, and all of those degrees originally belonged to somebody else first. But, especially when you’re a bandit—and especially especially when you’re the fiercest and best-looking bandit in Realmgard and the whole wide world of Terrace—possession is indeed nine-tenths of the law. For all the good that’s been doing him lately.

Miss "I-Graduated-from-Oxfjord-and-I-Have-a-Real-Degree" seems to think there’s something important under all this dirt, and Wulfbert grudgingly admits that she’s probably right. There are ancient ruins all over Realmgard, and Wulfhild insists on stopping at each and every one of them for a few days to dig around. They usually find something and then usually find someone to sell it to.

However, his current optimism is fading fast as he continues to labour in the dirt like a common gopher.

When somebody starts digging up ancient ruins, that’s supposed to mean treasure: gold, silver, coins, emeralds the size of a Troll’s fist. Crowns and sceptres. Statues with jewels for eyes. Ancient swords of inconceivable power, wrought by the peerless craftsmen of elder days long forgotten to the lore of mortals. So far, the only thing they’ve found under all this dirt is even more dirt, and all they have to show for all this work is that the hole they’re digging gets a little bigger every day. He’s going to have words with his sister if they don’t find something soon. This is, he tells himself once again, a waste of time. A waste of his talents.

And all this dirt under his fingernails!

He can only imagine how the rest of his bandits must feel about the situation. People with names like Face-Kicker Pete, Diana Daggers, and Knuckles McDougall didn’t get into banditry to spend all their time digging. He wonders if he’s about to have a mutiny or a riot on his hands. He isn’t worried, of course. He’s Wulfbert the Handsome, the fiercest and best-looking bandit in not just all Realmgard, but the whole wide world of Terrace. He’s confident he could take on all the other bandits at once. With