Table of Contents – (spoilers)
The night passed uneventfully. However, this did not mean that it was comfortable. Being as close to the slough as they were, the squad were horribly tormented by mosquitoes.
Having spent much of her life in very similar country, Peep was the only one of them that did not itch at all from the mosquito bites. Of the others, Choke was particularly allergic and was swollen up with nasty bites that looked like hives. While they were packing up, Peep slipped away for a few minutes and returned with some green leaves from a low-growing plant.
“Here,” she said, handing the leaves out to the boys, “chew these up a bit and then rub the paste with yar spit on the bites. It’ll help.”
The herbal remedy did exactly that.
“Thank you, Peep. This is quite a relief,” Choke said.
“No worries. So, Gabe, today we wanna creep up that hill to the south of Bristlehump from the south side of it. Ye said there’s plenty of trails up through there?” Peep asked.
“Yes, for sure, Miss Otilla. I know them well. If we can find our way over this hill, then I’ll figure it out.”
“Good. You do that,” Peep said to Gabe before addressing the others: “Now, like we talked about, today we clear that hill. If it aint too heavy. If it is, then we see about leading some of them off into the bush on another goose chase. Any bad boys we run into; we try to take some alive. Knuckle, yar probably the one most likely to manage that. Just ease up a bit on that hammer and leave us something to work with.”
Knuckle grinned and gave Peep a thumbs up.
Gabe cleared his throat.
“Yeah? What is it?” Peep asked.
“Well, Miss Otilla, I just hoped that with what I did yesterday, you’d let me take a more active role today,” Gabe said.
“Well, I dunno. We’ll see. We’re still gonna need somebody to mind the horses and watch our asses, right? It’s not like that aint important.”
“I understand that, Miss Otilla. I just wanted to point out that if it’s a matter of trust, with what I was doing yesterday, if I wanted to betray you, I could have done ye real bad there.”
“Oh, ye think so? How d’ye reckon?”
“Well, it’s obvious, aint it? I coulda just stolen the horses and left ye all stranded,” Gabe said, getting increasingly flustered under Peep’s deadpan stare.
“Yeah, that would fuck us up. But whad’ye think that’d do for you? Ye think if ye do that, one of them bad boys pays ye some money for the favor?”
Gabe blinked at Peep for a spell before she smiled coldly and explained herself:
“Okay… and I can’t believe I’m about to give ye a lesson on being more shady, but here ye are: The only way that works for ye is if yar already in cahoots with Sneed or the Chisel directly. Right? Ye ride our horses straight to them and say, ‘here ye are, Mister!’ and they pat ye on the head like a good little boy and give ye a few silver. Because ye aint earning no bounty on that move, since they’re still gonna have to pay that out to whoever it was that actually did the deed on us. Right?”
All of the boys were staring at Peep now with various levels of confusion and concern. Peep continued:
“But I don’t think yar hooked up with anyone. Because why the fuck would someone serious reach out to you? Before we took ye on, like we did just yesterday, what use would ye be to them? Right?”
Peep grinned at Gabe for a bit before she continued:
“But, what if ye stole our horses and handed them right off to the bad boys that were closing in on us? Ye think they’re gonna cut ye in on their bounty? That they’re gonna make ye a partner? At best, they’ll string ye along as another warm body until they put us down. And then ye’ll get yar throat cut by way of thanks. That’s it. Right?
“So, the only way for ye to betray us that makes any sense is to ride for us long enough to get information that’ll be directly helpful on taking us down. Then ye get yarself paid for that info before shit goes down. Right? And so, I’m gonna tell ye again what I told ye yesterday morning: if I ever think for a second that yar fixing to do something like that, then I’ll kill ye right then and there. And I hope that ye realize now, that thems that would be paying ye for our demise are just the sort that would rather kill ye than pay a thin silver.”
“I understand that, Miss Otilla. I will not betray ye. I told ye—”
“Right. I heard all this already. Look, ye did good yesterday. Ye keep doing good like that, and we’ll see about putting ye to better use. As we need. But we’re still gonna need someone to take care of our horses, and I aint about to have you and Pinch swap roles just because ye want an adventure. Understood?”
“Yes, Miss Otilla.”
“Good. Now, how’s about ye impress me with yar guiding, and get us up that hill without no one seeing us coming. Ye can do that, right?
“Yes, Miss Otilla.”
“Alrighty, then, let’s get to it,” Peep said as she clapped Gabe on the shoulder and mounted Gorgeous Boy.
Gabe was true to his word. He got them to the crest of the South Hill overlooking Cowslip Hollow and the village of Bristlehump without meeting another soul.
While forested, the South Hill was not virgin timber. The big trees had all been harvested decades ago. The little trees that had been left then to grow and seed the next generation were now getting big themselves; almost ready to be put to the axe. This all meant the South Hill was nicely groomed and amenable to human passage. The impressions of roads from the lumber skids remained, and the underbrush was well nibbled and trampled by livestock.
It took just three hours for the squad to find the main bandit camp near the crest of the hill. There was no one there. Still, it was obvious it had been occupied very recently. A fresh latrine pit had deposits no older than a day, and there was horse and dog shit aplenty around the camp’s periphery. In the center of camp, there was a big fire pit, with a few smaller campfire rings here and there nearby.
Of course, the squad took almost thirty minutes to creep up on the camp with all caution from the south. Once they had cleared it, they tethered their horses in the little paddock area the bandits had made, and set up ambush on the main trail heading north down the slope towards town.
“Okay, this is creepy. Where the fuck is everybody?” Pinch said, just loud enough for everyone to hear him.
“We probably killed them all,” Knuckle answered.
“No. We didn’t,” Pinch returned. “On the first ambush at the farm, we probably did. Then the ones tailing us with the dogs, we did a good number on. But we didn’t get all of them. Two dog-handlers. Choke dropped one, and I winged the other. But he was not out. Then four horsemen. We got them all. Then, what? About a dozen footmen? We didn’t put any of them down in the ambush.”
“I did,” Peep interjected. “Got him through the thigh real good. He’s either on his way to dying slow from that, or else is laid up burdening somebody.”
“Okay. That’s one. How many did ye put down on the trail, Knuckle?” Pinch asked.
“Three,” He answered.
“Right. So that leaves about eight. Plus the dog handler. That’s enough for them to stick together and join up with whoever else they were calling with that trumpet,” said Pinch.
“Hold up,” Peep said. “Who says that horn call was to call in more squads? I’m thinking it was just to gather up the bunch we ambushed. Right?”
“Okay. Explain that, please,” Choke said.
“Sure. Well, it’s obvious that the bunch camped here were the same ones with the dogs we jacked. Right? Camp’s the right size for twenty, or so. Tracks pretty much match four horses. Then the dog shit,” Peep said.
“Yes, that is obvious. So why the horn call to their own people?” Choke asked.
“Well, first off, unless they were total garbage at banditing, they aint all gonna be spending their day here clumped together with their thumbs up each other’s asses. Right? So they got the dozen down at the farm on ambush, and the twenty, or so, up here. Obviously all the same crew, right? So, they’d be cycling those on ambush with the ones up top here, probably. Then, the ones up top here would be spread out on watch. Not too far, mind you, but spread out far enough that they got eyes and ears all over the hill. Bandits don’t clump up until it’s time to fight. Yeah?” Peep said.
“Yes, okay. That makes sense,” Choke said.
“Right,” Pinch said. “So the guy tailing us from town rides up here to alert them we’re on the move, and they get busy. But they wouldn’t wanna blow the horn unless they knew their farm ambush was done. So the guy blowing that horn had eyeballs on us when he did. But his bunch still hadn’t gathered together? That don’t make sense.”
“Sure it does,” Peep said. “Think about it. Town horse guy comes up here, alerts whoever on watch that we’re moving. The bunch up here start with their bird whistles and shit to get everyone moving. The guys on horse ride to their post where they got eyes on the farm. And there we are at the road with Knuckle screaming murder at the hills. ‘Oh, shit!’ says buddy with the horn. Toot-toot-toot! ‘Hurry the fuck up, everyone!’ Plus, blowing the horn is also meant to scare us. Make it feel like we’re about to be surrounded by a bunch of other squads from other parts. Even though we weren’t.”
“What makes you say that, Peep?” Choke asked.
“Well, if they had that many more warm bodies coming, I don’t think they’d give up on us. They know where we are and they got us outnumbered. With Sneed and his alpha boys taking command, remember. But, they didn’t push on. They fucked off. Which tells me this was all that Sneed laid down for this plan. And it woulda been all he needed if it had worked proper. We just thunder runned his ass and buggered it up,” Peep said with a grin.
“Buggered his ass up? Ha! Anal sodomy!” Knuckle chortled.
“Exactly. But that don’t mean he don’t got a bunch more bad guys lurking around that he can put into play. So we still gotta be careful out here,” Peep finished.
“So, what’s the plan now?” Pinch asked.
“We still need evidence, right? I wanna go and have a word with that farm bitch that was signaling the ambush. Find out what her and her folk know about the situation. I mean, if we wanna play it hard, we can put her in with the ambushers as a bandit, right? We all saw it,” Peep said.
Choke winced. “Yes. You are correct. But I am loath to hurt a mother over this. Even if she is clearly culpable in the ambush.”
“Well, who says we hurt her, then? But we gotta lean on her. Threaten her with, you know, whatever. See what that shakes loose from her people.”
Choke nodded. “Agreed. But, when it comes to that, I will be doing the questioning and threatening. I am meant to be the apparitor here, so that is my role.”
“Cool,” Peep said, giving Choke a thumbs up. “Anyways, before we get to that, we oughta set up on the farm and see how it operates. Figure out who’s who and what’s what there. About that: is there anything we need to know about them folk, Gabe?”
Gabe thought for a bit before shaking his head. “No. They’re just farmers. There’s two married couples there with their kids and a couple of other relatives, I think.”
“How many full-grown men?” Peep asked.
“Not so sure. Only three or four, I reckon. Our land’s up the Bristle Holler, so we don’t mix much with these folk. I’m sorry I don’t know more, Miss Otilla.”
“Ye know what ye know. It’ll do. Okay, so now I wanna head to whatever spot it was the hornman did his tooting from. Because, sure as shit, that’s the best place to observe the farm.”
It was still only midmorning, so they had a lot of time to work their way cautiously across the hill towards the farm. Being as close as they were to Bristlehump, and with visibility in the light forest being much further than in a normal one, Peep had them dismount and lead their horses. She and Pinch walked together on point, with Gabe leading their horses, and his, at the rear. Choke and Knuckle stayed in the middle, leading their own horses.
Peep and Pinch started down the old lumber skid track to its first branch. There, Peep signaled a halt and pointed out some horse tracks that came up the right branch towards town. The shod hoof prints of one horse came up to the fork and turned around to go back down. The mess of unshod horse prints they had been following from the camp continued down the left fork. Pinch’s new horse, and the extra one Peep had taken were similarly unshod.
“There,” Peep said. “That’s the fucker that followed us from town. Lookouts woulda been stationed here, sure as shit. Good visibility both ways. He come up, let them know it’s on, and then went back down to hook up with Sneed, is my guess.”
“To bad we can’t prove that,” Pinch muttered.
“We’ll get something on him soon enough,” Choke said.
From the fork, it was not far to the spot where the hornman must have sounded his call. There was a bit of a clearing where the slope became steep and rocky. The trail they were on was moving laterally along the hillside, and the steep slope had been cut into to make a level passage for the lumber skids. From this point, both the farm to the left, and Tully’s roof to the right, were visible through the tree tops below. It was about half a kilometer to the farm.
Peep made sure the horses were all parked out of sight back on the trail in the trees and they set up ambush there at the lookout spot. They ate a leisurely lunch as they kept watch on the farm and the so-called road between Tully’s brothel and the outpost.
The farm seemed to be operating as such farms usually did: with their cows out in the pasture, minded by the children, and the adults out working in their nearby fields. There was nothing else to see.
However, in mid-afternoon there was some excitement. Two horsemen came slowly riding around the end of the windbreak on the road, followed by ten spearmen marching two by two. Peep made a low birdcall to make sure everyone was watching them.
“Bandits?” asked Knuckle, peering down at them.
“Can’t ye see for shit, man?” Peep whispered back. “That’s Lieutenant Dixon and his sergeant, Wagner. And them spearmen’s shields are in the Baron’s colors.”
“Dixon out on patrol? Have we finally forced Dixon to soldier? He must be quite grumpy about that,” Choke said with a chuckle.
“Yeah, but who’s he patrolling for?” Pinch asked darkly.
“No shit,” Peep muttered.
Down below, the small squad of soldiers had stopped on the road to talk to some of the farmers in the field. Dixon seemed to be doing most of the talking as he was pointing and gesticulating back towards the outpost to the northwest. This did not take long, and he soon led his men back towards Bristlehump where they went out of sight when the road entered the trees around Tully’s.
“Patrol’s over I guess,” Peep said. “But, just in case: let’s double up that way,” she pointed up the trail to the east, towards town. “There’s a small chance they’ll come up this way to look around.”
“And if they do?” Pinch asked.
Peep shrugged and looked to Choke.
“If they do, we will have a civil word with them about what has happened,” Choke said.
The squad kept watch on the farm and road for another couple of hours. Besides the peasants at their work, there was nothing to see. No one came along their trail during that time, either. As the sun dipped behind the hills and evening began to fall, the peasants started gathering themselves and their livestock for the night.
“Okay,” Peep said excitedly, “this is how this is gonna work. We’re gonna creep down to the edge of the bush by the pasture. Then we break cover and close on the farmhouse from the south there, around the side of the paddock. Timing’s gonna be critical. We want most of them in the farmhouse already, but without it locked up. We grab whoever’s outside, and muscle our way into the farmhouse. Then we lock that down with everyone in it and see what they have to say. Right? Once we’re in, Choke, yar doing the talking, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Cool. Just be yar usual, friendly self and that should scare the shit outta them plenty,” Peep said. “Okay, let’s move. Down to the edge of the forest same as we have been. Then, Gabe, we’ll leave the horses with you. Ye get them strung in a line and ready to bring to the farm when ye hear the signal. Right?”
Gabe nodded smartly.
“When the four of us hit the paddock, we split up,” Peep continued. “Me and Knuckle break left, Pinch and Choke break right. Me and Pinch on bows, Choke and Knuckle with sword and hammer. We link up in the yard between the paddock and house. I’ll keep moving around the farmhouse to cover the front. Ye three grab whoever’s outside and storm the kitchen door. Right?”
“Sounds tight,” Pinch said, his voice tense.
“Yes. But remember, these are peasants,” Choke interjected. “No killing. Even if someone raises up with a weapon, we do our utmost to subdue them without bloodshed.”
“Understood,” Pinch said.
“Is it? Do we all understand that? Knuckle? Peep?” Choke asked.
“Yeah, for sure, man,” Peep said, as Knuckle gave him a thumbs up.
“Okay, then. Let’s move out,” Choke said.
Muse Vassal 