Table of Contents – (spoilers)
With no need to continue digging the grave, the squad washed up properly and put away the tools in the shed. Then Peep and Pinch took the raider’s horse across to the stable to exchange it for three months of room and board for their mule and Pinch’s horse, as well as the care and fodder of their three horses in the church stable.
“Okay, so now what?” Peep asked when the four of them had gathered in the kitchen. Pinch was stoking up the stove to put on a gruel pot for dinner, and the other three were sitting around the table idly watching him work.
“Well, we have to keep watch tonight again. Obviously,” Pinch answered.
“Yeah, for sure, my dood! Righteous!” Peep answered, once again falling into her mockery of Thad’s manner of speaking.
They all had a laugh at this.
“Man! What a fuckwit!” Knuckle exclaimed.
“Really?” Peep said. “I’d a thought he’d be a real hero of yars, Knuckle! I mean, the guy is obviously drowning in pussy. And I’m surprised he didn’t trip over his cock coming up the stairs!”
“Yes, the road to hell is often thus,” Choke said. “If it were not alluring it would be no trouble to keep the flock on the straight and narrow.”
“So, something’s gotta be done about Thad and his movement, is what yar saying,” Peep said, making the sex gesture of poking her right index finger in and out of a hole she made from her left thumb and index finger as she said, “movement.”
“Obviously. But that is not something for us to tackle. He and his followers are not overtly hostile, and we are not in a position to root out an entrenched heresy,” Choke said.
“No. That’s meant to be Barrelmender’s job,” Pinch said.
“Exactly. So we must simply support him in finding his way back to his duties. Until he does, we must tolerate Thad and his little sex cult. So long as they remain peaceful.”
“And how long will that be?” Knuckle said. “I wanna crack that guy’s fuckin head!”
“Man, he really go under yar skin, Knuckle! Jealous much?” Peep said.
“Fuck you, Peep! Yar gonna tell me that guy doesn’t need a savage beating?” Knuckle barked.
“Well, I don’t know. He’s annoying sure, but he does have a way about him. To be honest, I kinda wanna watch him go to work on them four dancing chicks. Ye know, see him stretch out their guts with that meat club of his. See how they take it,” Peep said, this time making a pumping gesture with her fist.
“Oh, and Knuckle’s the one with Thad under his skin,” laughed Pinch. “Seems like he worked his magic on you!”
“Pffff!” Peep scoffed. “Yeah, right! I’m just in it for the freak show, man. Don’t ye worry about me.”
“I think, just perhaps, we’ve all had quite enough visions of Thad’s genitals today, haven’t we? Can we move on, please?” Choke asked plaintively.
“Yes, please,” Pinch seconded.
“Yeah, sure,” Peep shrugged. “So, what were we talking about?”
“Setting a watch tonight,” Pinch said.
“Right. Obviously. But I don’t think we should be out by the shed like we were. That was a bit exposed,” Peep said.
“Yes. Obviously,” Pinch said darkly as he rubbed his pectoral where the arrow had taken him.
“What we should do is set up just inside the kitchen door here,” Peep said. “It’s got a good view of the stable. If we hang a lantern over the stable door we got a clean shot at anyone coming to fuck with it. And the bad boys around are gonna know we’re keeping watch now, so it aint like we’re gonna surprise anyone this time. The lantern should scare off most comers.”
“Sounds good,” Choke said. “So, what do you think we should do tomorrow?”
“What’s the plan with Barrelmender? Are we just going to leave him be for now?” Pinch asked.
“I think that’s best. So long as we are relying on Shasta for everything else, we may as well do so in this matter, too. I suppose she will have the best sense of when to approach him,” Choke said.
“And we’re trusting her?” Pinch asked the group.
“Why wouldn’t we?” Peep asked.
“I don’t know. I’m just asking.”
“I think she’s solid,” Peep said. “She’s hitched her wagon to the whole Stronian thing, along with Barrelmender, right? If we let her slide on how she got where she is, she only can gain with us.”
“What?” Knuckle said with a scowl. “She was pissed when we showed up! She said she loses both ways with us. That either she’ll still be stuck with a useless Barrelmender, or else he’ll get his shit together and kick her the fuck out. So what’s stopping her from setting us up?”
“She said all that before she thought it all through. Before she figured out her angle here with being the Widow Alan who is Barrelmender’s housekeeper and the church’s custodian. She’s made her play with us. So, as the custodian of the church, which is basically the day-to-day church boss for all the shit-heels around here, the more powerful the church gets here, the more powerful she gets. Right?” Peep said.
“Okay…” Knuckle said, still looking unsure.
“I mean, she obviously hates Thad, right? Why is that? Because he’s taken away Barrelmender’s flock. You watch: Shasta’s gonna be the one that gets Barrelmender to handle Thad.”
“Yeah, but, all this shit is gonna fall apart as soon as someone from the Church shows up and digs into it! It aint gonna last!” Knuckle exclaimed.
“Maybe. But who says she’s thinking that far ahead? She’s got two little kids! She’s worrying about tomorrow and next week, not six fuckin months from now. Ye cross one river at a time, right? And who the fuck’s gonna show up? Ye think the Bishop or some other fat fuck is coming up here to fuck around with these yokels? If Barrelmender gets his shit together, he is gonna be the proper Church boss up here. And I’m guessing she thinks she’ll still have enough of a hold over him to keep him from fucking up his own kids. So don’t ye worry about Shasta. She’s on the team,” Peep finished.
Contrary to how Knuckle usually pouted after being argued down, this time he looked thoughtful for a few seconds before he nodded and settled into a contented silence with a horny little smirk on his face.
“Okay, so we’re trusting Shasta. Good,” Pinch said. “But what are we doing tomorrow?”
“Well, today is Friday,” Choke said. “So tomorrow we’re free. On Sunday, the day after tomorrow, I want to hold mass here at the church.”
“How in the fuck do ye know what fuckin day it is, Choke?” Peep asked, looking amazed.
“I mark the days in the back of my Holy Book, after I do my morning reading and prayer.”
“Well, okay then,” Peep said, shaking her head as though Choke were a complete lunatic.
“I suppose that since ringing the bell today didn’t piss Barrelmender off enough to light a fire under his ass, you’re thinking holding mass in his church might?” Pinch asked Choke.
“Perhaps. That, and someone needs to be doing mass here,” Choke said.
“Ye think anyone is going to come?” Pinch asked.
“Probably not. But the gesture is important.”
“Well, okay then. That’s what we’re doing the day after tomorrow. How about tomorrow?” Pinch asked.
“We should start to get the lay of the land,” Peep said.
“Good idea. What do you propose?” Choke asked her.
“Well, from what we’ve seen, we’ve got three big ways outta town here right? There’s the Cowslip and Bristle cricks, which each head off deeper into the bush. Then, from the Crotch, we got the teamster yard, and the Spitzer road back to the city. Also, the Tanglefoot Trail to Callic starts somewhere around here, right?” Peep said, mentioning the trail that Thorn had guided them to, which ran through the bush north of Spitzer between Bristlehump and Callic. “With Callic being a safe place for us, with the tower all set up by now, our first priority has to be finding the trailhead. Anything gets too fucky here, we can bolt for Callic,” Peep finished.
“Yes, good call,” Pinch said.
“I agree,” Choke said. He looked over to Knuckle, who was staring off into space as he pulled on his crotch. “Knuckle. Do you agree?”
“Huh? Oh. Yeah, whatever.”
Choke sighed, but indicated for Peep to continue.
“So, let’s head out tomorrow and start figuring all that out,” Peep said. “And Knuckle, listen up, when we are moving around out there, I need all of ye, Knuckle and Choke especially, to start thinking like scouts. The cats that we’ll likely be tangling with out here will know the terrain and’ll be as crafty as goblins. They’re gonna be looking to ambush us. So keep yar eyes peeled and stick to cover whenever possible.”
“So, how do we go about finding the trailhead?” Pinch asked. “We don’t want to just start asking around with the locals.”
“No. Let’s head up to the roof and see what we see,” Peep said.
The four of them went up the staircase in the priest’s quarters to the steeple, and then out onto the roof peak walkway to have a look at the land around. With the nearby watchtower being only a little higher than them, they had an excellent view of everything to be seen in the pleasant evening light.
“Okay, so that’s the Crotch down there, the teamster yard, and the Spitzer Road, Peep said, pointing south. She then pointed to the northwest: “that’s the Cowslip, with Lieutenant Dixon’s hoorhouse, Tully’s, right?” She then pointed to the north: “that’s the Bristle Crick, which is gonna lead to Bristlenook and Father Thickmeat Thad’s sex jamboree.”
Choke flinched at this while Pinch and Knuckle giggled. However, Peep was now frowning as she stared off into space.
“That’s right…” she said. “That Corporal Munge asshole said that the hoorhouse was called Tully’s.”
“No. Munge didn’t tell us shit. It was the youngster, Biscuit, that spilled the beans on that,” Pinch said.
“Oh, right. But he did say the place was called, Tully’s, right? Why have I heard that name before?” Peep asked.
The other three all frowned off into space, as well.
“It doesn’t sound familiar…” Choke said.
“We aint met anyone named, Tully?” Peep asked.
“No. We haven’t,” Choke answered. “Not until we met him at his whorehouse.”
“So why is the name so familiar to me?” Peep asked.
“How the fuck should we know, Peep?” Knuckle laughed.
The three men then spent the next little while taking in the excellent view from the church roof while Peep pondered her Tully mystery. Below them, each of the divergent creeks were nestled between the surrounding hills in their own lightly forested ravines, or hollers (hollows) as they were locally known. Between the ravines, to the north northwest, the rise the village was on continued upwards into a ridgeline. From their vantage, deforestation was visible all up the ridge, with thinned forests and, in places, clearings.
To their east was another rise up to a second forested ridgeline, this one heading off to the east. Peep had finally shaken off her puzzlement and next pointed this out:
“That ridge there, that’s the one the Tanglefoot was up on. At least it was over Spitzer way. Makes sense it would be up there here, too. So the main trailhead must be down in the Bristle Holler a ways. Probably between here and Bristlenook.”
“Not so far from Barrelmender and Shasta’s place,” Pinch said. “Maybe we should go and ask them about it.”
“We could,” Peep said. “But I thought the plan was to stay out of his hair for the time being. And there’s a bunch of cottages and shacks all through there. Bushwacking our way up to the ridge through them is gonna be putting us through a bunch of local turf. Hunting blinds and snares and traps and whatever else. It’d be easy to box ourselves in someplace and then get ambushed heading back out. Plus, at a minimum, it’ll piss off the locals for no reason. I don’t think we wanna do that.”
“Seems reasonable,” Choke said. “But what, then?”
“Well, the last time we got up on the trail from the Spitzer road, just outside of Spitzer. Up that crick, right? So, there must be a trail here, or several, that head up to the ridge from the Spitzer road. Right? If nothing else, some game trails. And if we’re gonna be bushwacking anyway, better to do it in real wilderness where we aint stirring up the cousinfuckers,” Peep said.
“Makes sense,” Pinch said.
“Right. Then, when we find the Tanglefoot Trail, we can head back to Bristlehump on it and find the real trailhead that way. See where it pops out without any fucking around. And the locals shouldn’t be expecting us to come out on it, so there’ll be a much smaller chance of ambush,” Peep said.
“Ah. Good point,” Pinch said.
“Yeah, it is,” Peep said with a grin.
“Sound like a plan,” Choke said. “So let’s have dinner and turn in early. Same watch sequence as last night. Yes? We’ll ride just before first light.”
***
That night’s watch was set up just as they had discussed it: with a lantern lit over the stable door and the person watching from just inside the Church’s kitchen door with their bow and the alarm bell at the ready. There was no trouble.
They had a filling but miserable breakfast of the leftover cold gruel from the night before. They left Betsy the mule at Stadnick’s stable and rode out of Bristlehump heading south on the Spitzer road as the sky to the east began to brighten with dawn. As early as it was, the teamster yard was already active, with a few men in the ox paddocks getting the teams assembled.
The squad rode on at a walk until dawn broke and they could speed up to an easy jog. Every ten or fifteen minutes, they would stop so that Peep and Pinch could check out possible trails to the north. While they did, Peep tasked Choke and Knuckle to set up with their longbows beside the road to watch out for anyone following them. Of that, there was no sign.
Finally, after just over an hour, they found a trail with enough potential to be worth following. It was little better than a game trail, but was wide enough for them to stay mounted with their horses in single file. Now in the bush, Peep proved to be an excellent pathfinder. The trail wound this way and that as it split up and intersected with other game trails. She would pause at some of these branches to scowl at the terrain around, before indicating her choice with a grunt and a curt gesture. At other branches she had no hesitation.
After over ninety minutes, it became obvious they were moving uphill at an ever-steepening grade. Finally, Peep signaled a halt.
“Let’s set up ambush here and take a rest,” she said quietly. “See if anybody’s following.”
“And if they are?” Pinch asked.
“Well, you pop up outta a bush with yar pecker in yar hand and say, ‘hi!’ and if they try to kill ye, then we kill them.”
“Yeah, fuck you.”
“Well, ask as stupid question, get a stupid answer. Whad’ye think we do? If there’s hardcases tailing us out this far, we fuckin kill them. Am I wrong?” Peep looked quizzically from Pinch to Choke to Knuckle and then back to Choke again.
“No. Ye aren’t. We fuckin kill em,” Knuckle said before Choke could say anything.
Choke nodded. “That’s reasonable, given the circumstances. But mark your targets well. We don’t want to be murdering a hunter or some goat-herder, or something. We all know the type that are going to be coming after us, so make sure before you kill.”
The squad settled back into silence in their ambush, sipping water as they chewed on some tough, jerked venison. Being the least sneaky, Choke and Knuckle were hunkered down with the horses a few meters up the trail. Pinch and Peep were stationed to either side of the trail behind a tree. All of them had their bows unlimbered. After about half an hour, Peep gave a low, “all-clear” bird whistle and they mounted up to continue on.
With Peep and Pinch alternating working point, they carried on through the tight bush. When their trail reached the steep rise of the ridge, it went on up, switching back several times to reach the top. There, they found the Tanglefoot Trail, looking almost exactly the way it had to the north of Spitzer. The ridge was wide and forested, with occasional outcroppings of rocks. The trail wound its way along it without ever becoming difficult and treacherous.
“Beauty!” Peep said quietly.
“Okay, so now we head back to Bristlehump on this trail, yes?” Choke asked.
“That’s right. Slow and steady. They shouldn’t a figured out what we’re up to, but ye never know. There might be someone set up for us at the trailhead,” Peep said.
“How long do you think it’ll take to get back to Bristlehump? About an hour, right?” Pinch said.
“Yeah. About that. So we’ll want to do it in two or more. We got the time. But why don’t we have lunch now?” Peep suggested.
“Good call,” Choke said.
Once again, the squad settled into a good ambush spot just off the trail to gnaw their way through a cold meal of trail rations. They were almost done when Peep sat up straight in excitement.
“Yeah!” she said quietly to herself.
Everyone looked at her expectantly.
“I just remembered where I heard the name, Tully,” Peep said.
“No shit. Okay, then, tell us already,” Pinch said.
“Tully. Yeah, it was in Callic, after I gacked them three. The next morning, the Chisel sent a rider to Spitzer to get reinforcements. Father Nate told me that Arlen’s stableboy overheard them talking about getting, ‘Tully’s boys.’ No one knew what that meant.”
“Well, it meant that there was another squad of reinforcements waiting in Spitzer. They never got activated because Captain Fairchild arrested the messenger on the road,” Pinch said.
“Yeah, but who is Tully and how many men was it, all that, we didn’t know,” Peep said.
“Who is ‘we’ here?” Choke asked, sharply. “You never mentioned this Tully to us. All we heard was that the Chisel’s man was intercepted going for reinforcements.”
“Shit,” Peep said. “My bad. Yeah, what with Father Nate confronting the Chisel and his men with you and Munn in the trees, and then the Captain’s doods showing up and arresting them, and then the trial and all that shit, it completely slipped my mind.”
“That is unfortunate. Had it not, we might have asked Thorn if he knew who this Tully and his boys might be,” Choke said.
Peep flushed. “Well don’t look at me like that!” she snapped. “It wasn’t just me! Father Nate screwed the pooch on it, too!”
“Shh!” Pinch hissed at Peep sharply. “We’re mean to be on ambush here, aren’t we?”
Peep shot Pinch a murderous look, but was back to a whisper when she continued:
“What’s done is done. I remembered now. That’s the important thing.”
“Maybe,” Knuckle said.
“What was that?” Peep returned.
“Maybe it’s important. Maybe it aint. Is it the same Tully?” Knuckle asked.
“How the fuck should I know?” Peep said. “But it’s worth looking into. The Tully here seemed a hard case. And ye don’t wind up a hoormonger with a big joint in towns like this without being serious.”
“Okay, so that’s one more thing to worry about,” Pinch said.
“I’ll take a known unknown over an unknown unknown,” Choke said.
“Huh?” Peep said, as she, Knuckle, and Pinch all stared at Choke like confused puppies.
“It is one of Father Willem’s lessons on command,” Choke said. “When planning, we have to be aware of what we know and what we don’t. But we also must be aware that there are things that we don’t know that we don’t know. The unknown unknowns. These are the most dangerous. Before Peep remembered she had heard the name Tully before, we did not know that we don’t know if he has an active connection to the Chisel. Now we simply don’t know if there is that connection between them. This is a better state to be in.”
“Well, okay then, boss. Thanks for that,” Peep said after exchanging a wearied look with Knuckle during a very long pause.
With lunch finished, the squad packed up and started west on the Tanglefoot towards Bristlehump and its Tanglefoot Trail trailhead.
Muse Vassal 