Table of Contents – (spoilers)
The order of the watch for the squad’s first night at the church was, Knuckle, Choke, Pinch, and Peep. This was not random. Skillful bandits and professional soldiers all know that the best time for night raids and attacks is just before dawn, when people are at their least alert. With Peep now openly recognized as the best of the four at all things scouting and sneaky, it was natural for her to take the last watch.
The night was dark, with a waxing moon and a good amount of cloud cover. Both Knuckle and Choke’s watches passed uneventfully. Pinch was now late into his. He had just spent the better part of an hour working up a wonderful fart whose release was as entertaining as it was marvelously foul. In order not to be too loud with it, Pinch stood up and took his time with a slow release that was nonetheless symphonic in its notes. He was almost finished giggling to himself about it when he heard something.
The lanes and village square of Bristlehump were not cobbled, but it had been dry enough lately that their earth and gravel was hard-packed. With the church yard and adjacent graveyard being enclosed on three sides by the smooth walls of buildings, and the graveyard’s front being open to the square, the configuration served perfectly like a giant listening horn. So, even as slowly and carefully as they were moving, there was no mistaking the sound of horses entering the village square.
The horses came from the north, the way of the ridge between the Cowslip and Bristle creeks. Then they stopped, and it was quiet again.
His heart beating, Pinch first reached out to his side to check, for about the hundredth time that night, the location of the bell on its stool. Then he slid off his chair into a crouch, holding his bow out at the ready in front of him. He slowly pulled four arrows from his back quiver and stuck them in the earth point down in a row next to him. As he did, a horse nickered out in the square.
In behind the Church as it was, the lookout spot did not have a view of the front wall of the graveyard, which was about a meter high with a wooden gate at its center. The men coming must have known that the hinges of the old gate would be rusty, for Pinch could just make out the sound of a number of them clambering over the wall.
Barely breathing, with the rising excitement of a hunter in a blind with their prey walking into the kill zone, Pinch waited for them.
As dim as the light was, Pinch’s eyes were well-adjusted to it, and he could now see them coming. There were three of them, just shadows slipping through the gravestones. They moved swiftly and well, barely making any noise. Two of them stopped behind bigger gravestones that had good views of the churchyard, stables, and the church’s back door. Pinch’s asshole clenched as he realized that it would be precisely these two spots that he and Peep would station themselves at if engaged on just such a raid.
As the two took their positions behind the gravestones and stopped moving, Pinch lost sight of them completely. Now the third raider moved on, coming straight for the stables. As he came through the ungated gap in the cemetery wall into the churchyard, Pinch picked up the bell and began ringing it hard.
After only a couple seconds of waving the bell over his head, two arrows came at Pinch from the graveyard. Shot blind into the dark, with only the sound of the bell as guide, they missed and sank into the cobb wall behind them. Even so, they were not far off, and Pinch dropped to his belly as he continued to ring the bell with a frantically windmilling arm overtop him. Three more arrows streaked in just over his head; one of the two archers was talented at fast-shooting.
Pinch gave a painful howl as though he had been hit and pitched the bell out into the yard, where it landed loud and clattered about for another second. Then, staying on his belly, he dragged the chair in front of himself for cover as he made what he hope sounded a plausible enough death rattle.
The arrows stopped. Now dead quiet behind the chair on his belly, Pinch notched an arrow. While it had not been even fifteen seconds since he had rung the bell, Pinch inwardly raged at the eternity it seemed to be taking his comrades to back him up.
With no idea where the third raider was, Pinch lay where he was and stared out across the yard.
Finally, Knuckle’s bellowed call of, “Fuckers!” could be heard from inside the church
It was just then that the third raider made his reappearance. He came out from the stables in a low run, leading a horse by its bridle, heading for the path around the side of the church. Pinch had only a moment to react to the silhouettes in the dark. He raised himself up and shot the man in the side.
As the raider fell, the horse he was leading gave a bothered nicker as it weaved to avoid stepping on him. Both the bowmen in the graveyard shot at Pinch. This time, one of them connected. The arrow punched through Pinch’s leather armor and pierced his chest at his right pectoral as he was reaching for another arrow. Pinch fell with a gasp.
Choke was the first one out of the church’s kitchen door. He had his roundshield raised in front of him with their hooded lantern held over that. His longsword was sheathed at his side. Coming from his bedroll, he was unarmored, wearing only the quilted doublet underlayer for his chainmail. Exiting the church, he instinctively understood which direction the peril would come from and he turned to face the graveyard archers.
Both archers shot at him. One arrow grazed his thigh, and the other sank into his shield. Just a meter out from the kitchen door, Choke took a knee and made himself as small as possible behind his shield.
Peep had followed Choke closely out of the church, and took cover behind him with her Scythan warbow in hand. The wide beam of light cast from the hooded lantern swayed wildly, giving nothing to shoot at, so she waited.
Knuckle came barging out of the kitchen door, crossing behind Choke and Peep, heading for the stables with his greatsword in hand. Both the raiders behind their bigger gravestones made their move: one turned and ran away; the other raised up and shot Knuckle before wheeling back to run away himself.
Choke’s lantern had largely stopped swinging at this point, and Peep had plenty of light to target. She stood up tall with the Scythan warbow and put a war arrow straight through the raider that had shot Knuckle. Then she ran around the side of the church on the path heading for the village square.
Knuckle gave an irate howl as he stumbled and fell with an arrow in his side. Choke spared a moment to cast his lantern light around the church yard. The raider Pinch had shot leading the horse through the yard was dead, or, at least, close enough to it that it did not make a practical difference. Pinch had managed to push himself into a sitting posture against the back wall of the lookout spot, and was looking pained but stable with his shortsword and buckler mostly at the ready. He still had the arrow sticking out of the leather armor of his chest. Knuckle had rolled onto his back and was grunting in pain as he gripped the shaft of the arrow piercing his quilted doublet low in his side. The horse the raider had been making off with had stopped obediently and was standing amidst the chaos with an unimpressed air. This turned out to be Knuckle’s riding horse. Surprised to see this, Choke supposed that in the dark of the stable, the raider had not had time to be more selective.
Out front, Peep reached the square at the same time as the fleeing raider. She took cover at the edge of the cemetery wall. At the north end of the square was a mounted man holding the reins of three horses. The fleeing raider vaulted the cemetery wall next to the gate and ran for his horse.
Peep already had an arrow notched. She took a long calming breath and imagined her arrow’s flight from her bow to a point in the middle of the north lane out of the square.
The fleeing raider vaulted into the saddle and caught the reins his fellow threw him. Then he wheeled his horse with his bow in hand to cover the other who rode hard up the lane leading the two other horses. Not seeing Peep where she was hunkered down behind the low wall, the bowman wheeled again and galloped after his comrade.
Peep stood up and took her time with her shot. It was about eighty meters, but the Scythan warbow was powerful, and the man was riding directly away from her. The arrow took him right between the shoulder blades. Surprisingly, the man stayed in the saddle as his horse rode around the bend in the lane. Peep shrugged and went back to the churchyard.
Pinch was still just as he had been, and Choke was crouched next to Knuckle, calming him down. Seeing the arrow in Knuckle’s side, Peep winced. She picked up the lantern from beside Choke and cast the light around. Then she went to the cobb wall Pinch was leaning against and pulled a couple of arrows out of it.
“Yeah. Shortbows with barbed hunting heads. That one get much into ye, Pinch?” Peep asked.
Pinch grimaced. “Not too deep. It only hurts when I move or breathe,” he said through an attempt at a smile.
“We clear?” Choke barked sharply from Knuckle’s side.
“Yup. Four in total. One dead here. I dropped one in the graveyard, for sure. And the other bowman on his horse as he fucked off. The lookout with the horses got away,” Peep reported.
“Good. Knuckle, can you move into the kitchen if I help you?”
Knuckle nodded. Choke started helping him up.
“Peep, get the horse put away and secure the stable. Then help Pinch inside,” Choke said with a groan as he dragged Knuckle’s bulk upright. Knuckle screamed in agony as he did, but managed to get on his feet with Choke’s shoulder under him.
“I can manage,” Pinch said. He retrieved his bow and pushed his way up the wall. Then he slowly followed Choke and Knuckle into the Church.
Peep put the horse back in his stall and did a quick check of the stable. Nothing was amiss. Then she went into the graveyard to have a look at her kill.
The raider had been turning to run away when her arrow had taken him. His leather armor had done nothing against the needle bodkin war arrow. It had sunk itself almost to its flights in his side, with a good fifteen centimeters sticking out of him opposite. The man’s kit was little better than trash, so Peep took his money pouch and went back into the church.
Choke had put Knuckle on the big kitchen table and was stoking up the stove to get some water on the boil. Pinch was laying back on a bench against the wall. There were a few oil lamps lit.
Peep set the lantern down to shine as much light as possible on Knuckle’s side. She still had the arrows from the wall in hand, so she compared them to the one in Knuckle.
“Yeah. Ye got about six centimeters of that in ye. Barbed head. That aint good.”
“Yeah, no shit! Get it outta me! Don’t ye got Stron’s healing in yar hands?” Knuckle bellowed.
“Yeah, I do. But I don’t know what that’s gonna do with an arrow still in ye. Will it just heal up the wound around the arrow? That won’t be good,” Peep said.
Choke straightened up from the stove and tilted his head back with his eyes closed as he attempted to recall his lessons on divine healing from school. It took him just a second.
“No! Do it!” Choke exclaimed.
“No, what? Do what?” Peep barked back at him.
“Sorry. Right. The divine healing will push the arrow from the wound without causing undo damage from the barbs. You leave the arrow be and the priest will heal it without pulling it out. That’s the protocol,” Choke said.
“Yar sure? I aint a priest,” Peep said.
“It’s Stron’s healing. It will be the same. No different than a paladin’s lay-on-hands.”
“For fuck sakes! Do it!” screamed Knuckle.
Peep nodded and set both her palms on either side of the arrow shaft.
“Stron, heal this man. Amen,” she said.
Knuckle screamed in agony as the arrow was pushed out of his side by the divine healing. Peep watched wide-eyed as the shaft slid between her fingers. When it was out of Knuckle’s body she grabbed it and tried to pull it free of his quilted wool doublet. However, the arrow’s sharp barbs got caught in the wool.
“Ow! Fuck! That hurt!” Knuckle screamed as he rolled away from Peep to grab his side. This yanked the arrow out of her hand. He yowled again at the sharp arrowhead poked him again in the side. He grabbed the shaft and tried to yank it out of his doublet, but it was stuck fast.
“Okay!” Peep said with pleasure. “So the healing will push an arrow outta ye, but it’ll still hurt like a bitch. Good to know. Stron don’t take it easy on anyone, does he?”
“War god, remember,” Choke said. He was standing at the open kitchen door staring out at the dark stable with his longbow in hand.
“You all healed up, Knuckle?” Peep asked.
“How the fuck should I know? It’s all blood and shit, and the arrow’s still poking me!” he hollered back.
“Well, ye seem fine. Let’s get ye outta that doublet and have a look,” said Peep.
With the arrow still stuck in it, it was not an easy task to get the doublet off without it cutting or poking him more, but with Peep holding the arrow shaft to pull it away from him, they managed it. Under the doublet was Knuckle’s simple tunic, which was quite bloody. Under that, they found Knuckle’s arrow wound had healed itself nicely with a clean scar on the right side of his belly just under the ribcage.
“Man, but ye do tend to soak up the hits, don’t ye Knuckle,” Peep laughed, giving his stomach a slap.
“Fuck you, Peep. Go help Pinch, will ye?” Knuckle griped as he got to work pulling the arrow out of his doublet.
“Yeah, yar welcome, Knuckle,” Peep answered before turning to Pinch.
Having just witnessed what Knuckle had gone through with the arrow stuck in his doublet, Pinch was already working on getting his leather armor off. Thankfully for him, the armor was fitted with a front and a back, like a clamshell, with straps on one side as a hinge and buckles on the other to do it up. With the buckles undone, and Pinch holding onto the arrow shaft tightly, Peep was able to lift the breast piece up enough to peek underneath it with the lantern.
“You got any more healing in your hands?” Pinch asked hopefully.
Peep shook her head. “No. The big galoot sucked it all up. But, I don’t think yar in dire shape here. This thing can’t be in ye more than a cunt hair past the barbs.”
“Well, okay then, let’s— Yeeow!” Pinch shrieked as Peep gripped Pinch’s shoulder tightly with her right hand and grabbed the armor’s breast piece to yank it hard and extract the arrow.
“Fuck you!” Pinch said.
“Hey, watch yar tongue. I’m a holy vessel, after all,” Peep grinned as she cuffed Pinch upside the head. She lifted his shirt and had a look at the wound. “Not bad. Ye can clean this up yarself, right? Then I’ll stitch it.”
Pinch nodded and went to dig their medical kit out of the pack saddle on the floor.
Peep picked up the lantern and turned to Choke: “Now how bout you? Yar bleeding, too.”
“Yes, I did notice,” Choke said without looking away from his watch. “Can you check it?”
Peep did just that. The hunting arrow had cut four centimeters of Choke’s breeches along with his thigh, so Peep could have a look at the wound through the hole.
“Yeah, it’s not bad. Don’t think it’s even gonna want stitches. It is bleeding a bit, though. Why don’t I just honey it up?”
“Okay, but don’t take too long. We need to hurry up and get outside to check on things.”
With hot water and clean rags, Peep quickly cleaned up Choke’s leg, ripping his breeches just a little more to get better access. Then she smeared the wound with the honey-based medicinal salve.
“That’ll do’er,” Peep said. “We can think about a bandage tomorrow if it needs it.”
“Good. Thank you. Now, you keep watch and I’ll go armor up. Knuckle, are you good to go?” Choke asked.
Knuckle was already wriggling back into his bloody doublet and gave him a thumbs up.
Peep took up station at the kitchen door with her warbow, putting the lantern down to shine a light out at the stable. With Pinch now attending to his own wound, Choke and Knuckle went through to the church where they had left their chainmail. They helped each other get armored, moving quickly, each calmed by the familiar, friendly routine and the close physical presence of the other.
When armored, Choke went to the front of the church where there were two narrow shuttered windows, one to either side of the big, double doors. Choke first checked that the doors were still securely barred and then quietly opened one of the shutters to look out into the village square. All was dark and quiet. Choke shut the window.
“Attack on a church in the night, an alarm sounded, and the folk here all locked up tight in their homes, pretending they don’t know exactly what’s happening,” Choke said to Knuckle grimly as they moved to the kitchen together.
“Yeah, well, we aint in Stronian lands no more. No friendlies around now. Fuck it. What’s the plan?” Knuckle asked.
“Anything?” Choke asked Peep at the back kitchen door, who shook her head.
“Okay. Pinch are you okay to stay here and hold the church by yourself for a little while?” Choke asked.
“Sure. I’ll do what I can.”
“Just sit at the door and watch the stables. Can you shoot a bow?”
Pinch rolled his shoulders around with a pained look. “Probably. But it’ll hurt me.”
“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Anyway, we’ll get you the bell, and we won’t be far. Peep and Knuckle, let’s just head out to the square and see what there is to see. We won’t go far.”
“They came in from the north. I’m almost certain of that,” Pinch said.
“Yeah, they fucked off that way, too,” Peep said.
“And there were two fleeing. You shot one of them, you said?” Choke said.
“For sure. And he twisted up like he was done. But he kept the saddle long enough to get around the bend at least.”
“Well, we’ll see what’s up with that. I’m going to mount up bareback, just in case. Knuckle, I suppose it’s best for you to stay on foot with the longbow and sword. Peep, what do you think?”
“I’ll stay on foot with Knuckle on the jink stick,” Peep said, raising her Scythan warbow a little with a cheeky grin.
“Okay. Let’s move out,” Choke said.
Knuckle retrieved the chair, stool, and handbell from outside to set up for Pinch inside the kitchen door. Choke got his warhorse Nike out of the stable and mounted him bareback, with his kiteshield and light lance in hand.
While they did that, Peep skulked off through the cemetery to set up behind its gate looking out at the village square. Knuckle took up a post at the corner of the cemetery wall at the front of the church, right where Peep had shot the raider from. With his greatsword on his back and longbow in hand with arrow notched, he made no attempt to hide: standing tall as a clear warning to any that might be watching from dark nooks and crannies.
Choke rode bareback out into the square on Nike, keeping his seat easily. As he wheeled in the center of the square, Peep clambered over the wall and Knuckle moved to join them.
“You shot one on horseback down there?” Choke pointed his lance down towards the north lane when they were all together.
“Yup,” Peep answered.
“Okay, we’ll go check that out. Stick together,” Choke said.
There was no sound from the village as they moved down to the lane and around its bend. Even the village dogs were silent, locked up tight in their houses on this night of trouble.
It was quite dark, but there was no mistaking the silhouette of the horse standing in the middle of the lane with its rider slumped in the saddle. Choke, Peep, and Knuckle all froze as they beheld the spectacle.
“What the fuck?” Peep murmured.
She moved to one side of the lane while Knuckle moved to the other to cover Choke who closed slowly to investigate. He was able to ride right up to the little bush horse, which was quite calm. Not once did the rider move.
“He’s dead,” Choke confirmed as he reached the horse.
As with the other raider, Peep’s arrow had punched straight through this one’s leather armor, front and back. Sunk to its flights between his shoulders, a good thirty centimeters of arrow protruded from the middle of the raider’s chest. With death not being instant, the raider had been tough and skilled enough to keep in his saddle until he died, with his horse naturally slowing to a stop as he did. With his passing, the man had slumped, and the arrow point sticking out of his chest had stuck into the front of his saddle, propping him up.
Peep and Knuckle came to have a look.
“Fuckin weird,” Knuckle said.
“Yeah, ye don’t see that every day,” Peep said.
Choke dismounted and he and Knuckle got the corpse off the horse. Then they threw it back over the saddle like a sack of grain to lead the horse back to the church with Knuckle walking alongside to hold it in place. On the way back, Peep found the man’s shortbow that he had dropped when she had shot him.
All was safe and quiet at the church. They tied up the little horse to the stable and laid the three bandit corpses out side by side in front of the shed. Pinch came out of the church’s kitchen to join them in the yard.
“Okay, now what?” Peep asked when she had finished rifling the rider’s corpse for valuables, of which there were none.
“Should we check the north gate? Wake up those dipshits at the watchtower?” Pinch asked referring to the ludicrous garrison of three.
Choke thought about this before shaking his head.
“We know the gate isn’t secure. And we lack the manpower to secure it,” Choke said.
That evening, in coming from Barrelmender and Shasta’s cottage, the squad had ridden up the ridge between the creeks to the north side of the palisade. At the center of that was the north gate, which, like the south gate, had been wide open and unmanned. From that, it was under thirty meters to the watchtower with the little military compound, and then just a couple of hundred meters more to the village square.
“And as far as the soldiers go, those raiders rode right by them. Twice. So they’re either sound asleep, or pretending to be,” Choke went on. “Either way, the best we’ll get from them is a confrontation, if not a fight we don’t need right now.”
“Sounds about right,” Pinch said.
“Okay, then, I’ll stitch ye up,” Peep said to him.
“Good. Let’s just take what rest we can and see what comes of all this come daybreak,” Choke said.
Muse Vassal 