Table of Contents – (spoilers)
It was just twilight when the squad crept from the bush like bandits to take the farm. Peep’s plan worked perfectly.
There was only one man and a bigger boy in the yard between the paddock and the farmhouse. They had just finished closing the paddock gate on the cows and their plow horse when the squad surprised them by coming around each side of the paddock, jogging in low crouches, out of sight behind the cows.
The farmer gaped, flatfooted at Pinch and Choke closing on him, but his lad was more alert. He turned and ran straight into the big farmhouse through its open kitchen door.
“Bandits!” the boy cried as he did.
“Don’t move!” Pinch barked at the man as he moved past him towards the house.
Peep had broken into a run to head around to the front of the farmhouse, while Knuckle barreled on into the kitchen right on the heels of the boy.
With his longsword in hand, Choke closed on the farmer still standing in the yard.
“Stay calm and do as I say. No sudden moves. Go into the house with your hands where I can see them,” Choke said, before herding the farmer towards the house.
In the kitchen, Knuckle stepped through the door and came face to face with another man who had just armed himself with a shortspear. The man backed up a pace as Knuckle entered and planted his feet to attack him with a strong, two-handed lunge. With his warhammer, Knuckle parried the attack, knocking the spear’s wide, iron head aside. Then he stepped into a strong, straight left punch to the farmer’s jaw, dropping him onto his ass.
“Sit the fuck down!” Knuckle boomed at the rest of the farmhouse’s occupants.
Behind him, Pinch came through the kitchen door, his bow in hand with an arrow notched. The farmers all did as they had been told. Besides the man who Knuckle had punched, there was another young man, an old woman, two younger women, and five children, including the lad who had run in from outside. The young man and the old woman were already seated at the long kitchen table. The two young women were standing by the iron stove and kitchen counter, preparing dinner. They sat down on the floor right where they were, as did the children, although three of the younger ones ran to the young women, their mothers, before doing so. All of them stayed quiet, so it seemed that being menaced by warriors was nothing new to them.
“Stay down,” Knuckle said to the man he had put on his ass. Then he picked up the spear and put it back in the small weapon rack by the door.
Choke and the other farmer came in then.
“Sit over there,” Choke said to the man, pointing to the far corner of the room with the point of his longsword. The man immediately complied.
Around the front of the house, Peep had already found the door closed and locked. Satisfied, she continued to run around the building with her shortbow in hand. When she reached the yard, she gave Gabe the bird-whistle signal. Then she took up a position at the edge of the house to watch for anyone coming up the road from town, and waited to help Gabe get the horses tethered to the outside of the paddock fence.
In the farmhouse, the big kitchen opened to a rough open room with storage racks and pens for cows or horses. Pinch moved on to clear that, before going up the wide steps to the second floor to make sure the sleeping area there was also empty. It was.
Choke and Knuckle stood tall in the kitchen, weapons in hand, and waited for Pinch to come back. Once he had, Choke said:
“You are all being detained for questioning. Cooperate with us, and all will be well. Now, everyone, take out your knives and put them in this basket.”
Choke grabbed an empty basket from the floor next to the door, and handed it to Pinch, who moved around the room collecting the knives that every person (with the exception of the two youngest children) had on them.
Looking the peasants over, Choke could see that the young man seated at the table was some manner of cretin who kept smiling at him nervously. The man he had brought in from outside was sitting in the corner staring at the floor with his trembling hands clasped in front of him. The man who had attacked Knuckle was rubbing his jaw as he opened and closed his mouth, and seemed as though he might still have some fight left in him. One of two young women sitting on the floor by the stove met Choke’s eye defiantly. The other held her children close with her head down. The old woman at the table may as well have been a statue.
Choke spared some more time studying the young women, trying to figure out which of them had been the one signaling the bandits at the ambush the day before. He could not.
“Ye don’t look at her,” growled the jaw-punched man in the middle of the floor as he glared up at Choke. “I know what yar kind do to women, and ye’ll not be having any of ours, I say! Ye don’t look at her!”
The man looked like he would get back to his feet as his voice raised to a shout at Choke. However, Knuckle responded quickly and stepped in to punch the man on the nose and knock him back down. The blow, again from Knuckle’s left, was not particularly hard, but it was well delivered and the man barked in pain as he fell.
“The fuck you say?” Knuckle shouted down at the man as he waved his warhammer over top of him. “Ye move again, or say shit, and I’ll start breaking ye into pieces! Stay down!”
The man had rolled onto his side to clutch his nose. When he pushed himself up on an elbow to glare at Knuckle, his face and hands were awash with blood.
“Oh, ye got some sand in ye, don’t ye?” Knuckle said. “Ye put on a good show. Everyone seen it. But we aint here to take yar women. So take it easy now, man, and think real careful about yar next move, because I’m about done playing around with ye.”
“Theodas is right. We are not here to violate any of you or take any liberties. We are not that kind of men. However, we have lawful questions for you, and we will have answers. One way, or the other,” Choke said.
It was then that Peep came in through the kitchen door from the yard.
“Horses are square. Junior’s with them,” she reported as she looked around the room at everybody. “No sign of anyone on the road. Upstairs is clear?”
“Yes,” Pinch said.
“Good. Pinch, ye head on up there. There oughta be a way to get up on the roof. Ye get up there and keep a look out for as long as there’s light enough. Give us a good whistle if ye see anything.”
Pinch nodded and headed back up the stairs to find the roof hatch these peasant buildings inevitably had for ventilation and roof access.
“Okay, let’s get this show started,” Peep then said to Choke as she took up position at the kitchen door where she could watch Gabe with the horses.
“Right,” Choke sighed. “To begin with, do you know who we are?” Choke asked the peasants.
“Yar a bunch of murderers, is what ye are!” the feisty young woman snapped at him.
“Neva! Be quiet!” said the man in the corner Choke had brought in from outside.
“Hey!” barked Bloody-Nose at his fellow farmer. “Ye don’t tell her anything! She’s my wife, not yars! And she’s right!”
“Shut up, all of ye!” bellowed Knuckle as he smashed the wooden floor at his feet with his warhammer. They complied, although some of the children started crying.
Choke waited for things to settle a bit before he again spoke:
“Very well. So we are clear: I am Bartholomew from the Pekot school of the Brothers of the Holy Stone, here to serve Brother Barrelmender and the order in whatever capacity I can. She is Otilla of the Holy Fire. Yesterday we were ambushed right outside here by bandits behind your cowshed. Any questions?”
“Please, sir,” the man in the corner said, “I understand who ye are. But we’re just simple farmers here. And Neva aint herself, on account that one of her brothers, and a younger favored one to boot, was killed by ye out there yesterday, if ye’ll pardon me saying so. And we just spent the better part of this morning burying him and his lot over in the meadow there. So, ye’ll pardon us for being out a sorts here.”
“And they wasn’t no bandits, neither!” Neva said. “They was good boys! Doing the Baron’s work! And ye bunch of ravens murdered them for it!”
“The men who were waiting in ambush for us behind your cow shed? Was your brother among them?” Choke asked Neva.
“Ye know he was! And ye murdered him! Just a boy, and ye trampled him into the earth like he was nothing better than mud to ye! Ye vile, heathen, jink killer!” Neva spat at him.
“He was with them that shot at us and tried to kill us,” Peep interjected, taking a long step straight towards Neva. “And he was old enough to raise up on us armed when they did. If ye cared that much for him, ye shoulda pulled him outta it. And yar the one that signaled them to set it all off. So, by my way of thinking, yar as much to blame for what went down as anyone.”
“Was she the one that signaled them?” Choke asked Peep.
“Yeah. It was her,” Peep said.
“You are sure, Otilla?” Choke asked.
Peep nodded as she stared down at the woman in front of her.
“I… I never!” Neva blinked as it began to dawn on her where this was headed.
“Oh, but ye did, woman. And now yar gonna answer for it,” Peep said.
“You leave her be!” her husband, Bloody-Nose, yelled.
“Ye dirt farmers had better understand something right quick here!” Peep announced to them all, her voice loud, but tone neutral. “Ye got this one chance to get yar heads right and cooperate with us, or the full weight of the law is gonna come down on this place. Starting with you,” Peep pointed at Neva.
“Oh! Is that what’s gonna happen, is it?” Neva returned, glaring up at Peep fiercely. “Because ye all are such fine, upstanding people to be coming here with threats of the law! That one there a jink from that disgusting school for buggery boys. We have heard all about what ye all did to each other there. And then, you,” Neva sneered at Peep. “Coming in here, acting so high and mighty. You, who pulled yar knees wide for every man in Goldy’s camp. Same as ye did in Rakham’s camp, I hear tell. A bandit hoor! Come here to judge us with the law! Why, I—”
Neva’s spirited tirade was cut short by Peep, who closed the distance between them with a fencing style lunge to deliver a hard, backhanded slap to her mouth. Neva yelped and fell to the floor.
The sudden violence shocked and froze all but one in that room. It was Neva’s husband, Bloody-Nose, that reacted instantly. He rolled to his knee behind Peep and lunged out to grab her by the lower part of the quiver strap on her back. With this, he yanked her into him as he rose up and threw his right arm over her shoulder to put her in a headlock from behind. His control over her was short-lived, though.
Peep did several things simultaneously to counter Bloody-Nose. With her left hand she reached up to grab his forearm as it closed around her neck. As she did, she let her legs go limp and dropped all her weight straight down. Being much bigger than Peep, Bloody-Nose was already hunched over her. When she pulled down on his arm, he stumbled forward and lost his grip on her quiver belt as he waved his arm for balance.
The final thing Peep did was pull her slender boot dagger. As Bloody-Nose stumbled over top of her, she plunged the dagger deep into his upper right arm. Then, having a very good sense of where Bloody-Nose’s center of balance was in relation to his feet, Peep planted her feet and shoved her shoulder into him to drop him to the ground. With his right arm out of play, she twisted around to face him as they fell, scattering arrows from her quiver across the floor. She stabbed him again in the right thigh and clambered up his torso to mount him with his back on the floor. Before Bloody-Nose, or anyone else in the room, had any notion of what had happened, Peep was straddling him with her blade pressed against his neck.
“Ye put yar hands on me? Ye put yar hands on me!” Peep screamed in rage as she wound her left hand into the farmer’s tunic to get a better grip on him.
“Peep! No!” Choke barked as he realized she was about to cut the man’s throat.
Peep blinked and took a deep breath as the man whimpered underneath her. Then her vision cleared and she looked down upon him with her rage once again contained.
“You put yar fuckin hands on me, ye pig,” she said calmly and quietly.
Peep took her blade from his neck and inserted it deep into his open mouth. She ripped the dagger’s sharp edge out through the side of the man’s cheek, splitting his face from the corner of his mouth to almost the base of his jaw.
The man screamed and thrashed around as Peep quickly got up off him. She wiped her dagger off on her breeches and put it back in her boot before gathering her spilled arrows and picking up her shortbow.
Following Peep’s slashing of the farmer’s face, there was a moment of stunned silence. Then the cretin at the table started screaming: a long, high-pitched shriek of terror and anguish. At this, the children started wailing as well.
The farmer in the corner started standing up, but Knuckle took a half step towards him and raised up his hammer, which was all it took to sit him back down. Over by the stove, the quiet woman was occupied comforting the three small children. Next to her, Neva was still curled up face-down on the floor.
Without expression or word, the old woman stood up from the table and went to a shelf to take down a sturdy basket with a hinged lid. This she took to Bloody-Nose and sat down on the floor next to him to begin soothing him.
Choke went to the open door. “Gabe! Get in here!” he barked.
Gabe ran over smartly and into the kitchen. Choke shut the door behind him.
“Help her help him,” Choke ordered Gabe, indicating the old woman next to Bloody-Nose. She had now opened the basket and was tearing up some linen for bandages.
It took some time, but the simpleton and children eventually stopped screaming. Gabe and the old woman worked on the man, who was in deep distress. There was blood everywhere. Peep watched them work on him without expression.
Finally, Neva pushed herself back up to her knees and raised her face. Choke winced. Peep had struck her with a left backhand, hitting her square in the mouth with her big, steel, Stronian Wheel ring. It had split Neva’s upper lip. As well, Neva was holding one of her teeth in her bloody palm. She had a stunned expression on her face, not unlike she had just been woken from a deep sleep.
“Yeah, that’s right bitch,” Peep said to her. “Talk some more shit about me and see what happens. I weren’t ever no bandit hoor. I did different work for them. Which ye now understand, I think. So, when next ye set yar mouth to spreading talk about me, ye make sure ye don’t forget to tell what I did here.”
Peep looked over all the peasants coldly. Then she continued:
“So enough fucking around. I guess we have yar attention. What we want is evidence connecting the bandits that attacked us to the people pulling their strings. This bitch here was signaling the bandits. So she’s one of them. If someone here doesn’t tell us everything ye know, right now, then things are set to take a dark turn here.”
“I’ll tell ye!” the farmer in the corner exclaimed. “I swear to Altas, I’ll tell ye everything I know! Please, just don’t hurt us no more!”
“What’s your name?” Choke asked the man.
“Rodolf, sir.”
“Okay. Rodolf, you need to listen to me carefully. You need to tell me the truth now. No lies. Lies will not help you. Because we will take you to Barrelmender to give evidence and he will root them out. Do you understand?” Choke asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Now, tell me about the men that were hiding behind your cowshed. Whose orders were they under?”
“Well, sir, their leader is a man goes by the name of, Burkhard. But he weren’t with them when they attacked ye.”
“Do you know where he was?”
“I reckon so, sir. He was up at their hill camp, I’d guess. They’d rotate their lads from camp to ambush every day,” Rodolf said.
With a normal conversation (of sorts) now initiated, the mood of the room had begun to mellow. Neva’s husband was still making distressed noises, and some children were whimpering, but that was not too noisy.
“Where is their camp?” Choke asked Rodolf.
“Up near the top of South Hill. Not so far off.”
“Good. How long were they set up in ambush here?”
Rodolf pondered this for a moment. “Just a few days.”
“How many days? Be specific,” Choke said sharply.
“Uhhhh… Today woulda been their third, I suppose.”
“Today is Wednesday. So they came and set up on Sunday, then? Sunday is the day we rang the church bell for mass,” Choke said.
“That’s the second time ye rung it, right?” Rodolf asked.
“Yes, the first time would have been on Friday, the morning after the attack on the church.”
“Okay… right… Yeah… No. If Sunday was the last church bell ringing, then he come with Burkhard to let us know they was setting up watch behind our cow shed, and up on South Hill yonder, on Saturday afternoon. That’s right, because on Saturday we was setting up to plow the north plot, and—”
“Never mind your farm work, Rodolf,” Choke interrupted. “You said, he came with Burkhard to talk to you about the warriors setting up watch. Who was that? Sneed?”
“No, sir. That was Dixon.”
“Lieutenant Dixon? Lieutenant Dixon came to you on Saturday with Burkhard, the leader of the men that ambushed us, and talked to you about them setting up behind your cowshed. You are sure about that?”
“Yes, sir. I know Dixon, after all. It was him.”
“Okay, then,” Choke said, exchanging a significant look with Peep and Knuckle. “What did Dixon say to you, exactly?”
“Well, sir, he said that Burkhard and his men were being brought on as irregulars for the Baron to keep the peace out here, and that they’d need to use the woods behind the cowshed to do that. But that we weren’t to worry about it, since they had been told to leave us be. Not that we was real worried about that, on account of Neva’s folk being on friendly terms with Burkhard’s number-two man, Cam, who ye killed out back of our cowshed, if ye pardon me saying.”
“I do,” Choke said in a calm voice. “Now, Rodolf, this is important. Lieutenant Dixon himself said to you directly that Burkhard and his men were working as irregulars for the Baron. This is exactly what he said?”
“Yes, sir. To me and Victor, there,” Rodolf gestured towards the man whose arm was presently being stitched up by the old woman.
“Good. That is a great help to us, Rodolf. Thank you,” Choke said, breathing a deep sigh. “Now, further to this, did Dixon say anything to you about how Burkhard and his men were meant to be keeping the peace?”
“No, he didn’t, sir. But, we understood later from Cam that they was meant to take ye lot out, if ye pardon me saying.”
“I do. Is there anything else?”
“Well, just that Dixon told us that Burkhard and his would be paying us in coin money from the Baron for any food and fodder we could spare to sell them. And they did pay, sir. In fair struck, big copper!”
“I am quite sure they did, Rodolf. Now, at any point, did you see Sneed interacting with Burkhard or his men?”
“Who?”
“Sneed. The security chief for the teamster’s yard.”
“Bob, ye mean, sir?” Rodolf asked, looking even more confused than normal.
“No. Not Bob. He’s the foreman. Sneed. Their goon,” Choke said, barely holding on to his patience.
“Pardon me, sir, but I don’t reckon I know who that is. I’m sorry, sir,” Rodolf said, bowing his head and tugging on his forelock.
“That’s okay, then. So, just one more thing, for now, Rodolf. What is your understanding of what happened yesterday? Starting from when we were attacked by the men behind your cowshed. You said Burkhard was not with them, correct?”
“That is, sir. Cam and his lot had the ambush that day.”
“And Cam died there in the windbreak?” Choke asked.
“That he did. One of ye killed him. He was the big feller with a battleaxe. We found him in the trees to the south of the shed.”
“Oh, it was me that took him, then,” Knuckle said proudly. “Yeah, he wasn’t shit.”
“Well, I’m sure ye know best, sir,” Rodolf said without any hint of snark.
“So, after we cleared the ambush, a horn was sounded from the South Hill. Then a force of about twenty with hounds and four horsemen followed us past the outpost. Was that Burkhard?” Choke asked.
“Yes, sir. Burkhard’s the one with the horn.”
“Was,” Peep interjected. “Our boy up on yar roof saw to him.”
“Right ye are, ma’am. Dixon did say most of them got killed up past the outpost,” Rodolf said.
“He said that this evening? When he and the soldiers stopped to talk to you out in the fields?” asked Choke.
Rodolf blinked as he realized they had been observed, but answered promptly, “yes, sir.”
“Did he have any of Burkhard’s men with him?” Choke asked.
“No, sir. All his own boys.”
“Whad’ye reckon happened to the survivors from Burkhard’s men?” Peep asked.
“Reckon they lit out for the bush, ma’am.”
“To gather more men?”
“Don’t reckon I could say,” Rodolf said, now getting more nervous.
“Can’t say? Or won’t. This bitch here has connection to their people, ye said. Who are they?” Peep asked sharply.
Rodolf hesitated, trembling in fear before he spoke:
“Please, ma’am. They’re kinfolk to us. I gave ye what ye said ye wanted, didn’t I? And it’s the truth. Aint that enough? Please?”
Peep looked set to respond harshly to this, but Choke interrupted her with an upraised palm.
“You have been most helpful, Rodolf, and have given us precisely what we asked for. Is everything you have said to me the truth? Remember: we shall be bringing you in front of Brother Barrelmender, who will be told of any lies by Stron’s angels. Be sure of that,” Choke said sternly.
“I am sure of it, sir. And it’s all the truth. I swear.”
“Good. I believe you, Rodolf. If you come with us freely to Barrelmender and swear to it, then that is all we shall be requiring from you and yours. We will leave your kinfolk out of it. Assuming, of course, they don’t come attacking us.”
“Thank you, sir. Bless you, sir,” Rodolf said, bobbing his head and looking set to weep in relief.
“Now before we finish here, I would have everyone hear me clear on this,” Choke said, his tone shifting again to one of pronouncement. “What Lieutenant Dixon told you about Burkhard and his men working for the Baron was a lie. They were doing no such thing. They are all employed by the Outfit, that cabal of teamster goons. They are all criminals, Dixon included, it seems. The only true agent of law here is Brother Barrelmender. In future, you should look to the church for guidance. I suggest you remember this.”
“Well thank ye for the correction, sir. But, pardon me saying, Father Barrelmender coulda fooled us. He aint been no kind a law, or anything else, since he got here. I am sorry to say.”
“I understand you saying that, Rodolf, and I thank you for your candor. We shall be working on that as well, I assure you,” Choke said as Peep snorted in amusement.
Choke now stepped over the old woman and Gabe, who were still working hard to help Victor. It was not looking good. They had a tourniquet on his arm, and the woman was working furiously to stitch up his wound. However, when they loosened the tourniquet, arterial blood continued to pump from the wound.
“You hit an artery. He’s going to die,” Choke said, looking up at Peep.
Peep shrugged.
“So, he dies then. Fuck him for putting his hands on me.”
Choke sighed. “I understand that, Otilla. But, given the circumstances, I do not think that warrants his death. Particularly since his fellow has been so cooperative. These people can ill afford to lose him, I think. Can you save him now?”
Peep stared coldly at Choke.
“Peep. Please. Stron is not only about killing. Repentance has its rewards. These folk need to be shown this. Heal him now,” Choke’s voice, conciliatory at the start, firmed up into an order at the finish.
Peep spat on the floor.
“Okay, then. I’ll do the arm and save his life. But only because ye asked me, and I understand the why of it. But I aint touching his face. That heals slow and painful. That’s his penance. Right?”
“As you say, Peep. Now. Please. Show these people some forgiveness and mercy.”
Peep knelt down and stuck her palm down on Victor’s arm wound.
“Stron, heal this stupid fuck, so that he can feel the full pain of recovery from laying his stupid fuckin peasant hands on me,” she said.
Gabe released the tourniquet and the bleeding had stopped. Gabe and the peasants were quite impressed even despite themselves.
“Okay, then. Rodolf, yar coming with us now. Time to go,” Peep said as she stood up, wiping Victor’s blood off her hand onto the shoulder of Gabe’s tunic. She then addressed the room at large:
“All of ye’s listen up now! We’re taking yar man here to give evidence to Brother Barrelmender. D’ye understand what that means? It means that if any of ye get it in yar head to be clever and run off to tell tales about what we’re up to, to whoever, then what yar really doing is fucking him and yarselves! The bad boys out there find this out, and yar man here is the first one to get got! So ye all are gonna wanna keep this shit real quiet. Right?”
With this, Peep gave the peasants all one more good glare before heading straight out the door.
Muse Vassal 