Table of Contents – (spoilers)
Peep crawled along the east wall of Tully’s whorehouse, concealed in the bushes and long grass that had been allowed to grow right up to it. When she reached the north corner, she peeked around at the back yard. Tully was there at the small stable saddling a little riding horse. With her own horse in the bush across the Cowslip Creek to the north of Tully’s, she was going to have to wait for a chance to cross unobserved. So she hunkered down to do that. At least the sounds of fucking in the rooms above her had stopped.
As Tully was finishing with his horse, Sneed came around the other side of the building from Peep leading his by its bridle. He had his longbow in hand with a quiver over his shoulder. He nodded Tully’s way as he passed, then led his horse to the creekside. Sneed looped his horse’s reins on the saddle and left it free to have a drink of water and a nibble of the choice plants at the little bank.
Sneed had a good look around, with most of his attention focused on the bush of the opposite bank. Then, with his bow still in hand, he left his horse and ambled upstream. With his focus now half on his surroundings and half on the ground beneath his feet, Sneed would pause to poke at pebbles with the toe of his boot. Sometimes he would pause to scoop some up to have a closer look at them. He discarded all but one of the candidates, which he slipped into a bigger pocket in his leather vest.
While Sneed was performing his pebble hunt, Peep did not once have a sense that he was anything other than completely alert and aware of his surroundings. His head was constantly on a swivel, with his eyes never resting on any one thing for more than a few seconds. He moved fluidly and well with his bow, as though it were a part of him. A full-powered longbow is no small thing. Strung, Sneed’s bow was just a little shorter than he was. Even so, Sneed moved easily with it, shifting his grip as he twirled the bow this way and that: horizontal in his lap with the string up when crouching, or across his shoulders behind his neck when standing relaxed. A fine archer herself, Peep knew that in any stance he was never more than a second away from delivering a shot.
When Tully had finished with his horse and had mounted up, Sneed waved him over. The two shared a word at the creekside, after which Tully rode back downstream to cross the Cowslip Creek and head into the bush on the trail to Big Rock. Peep cursed to herself as he did. Then she then delivered a short prayer to Stron that if Tully took the south trail from there, he would not notice her horse, Gorgeous Boy, in the stand of poplar trees just off the trail.
Peep got her bow in hand with an arrow notched and crouched down at the edge of the building to continue watching Sneed by the creek. He was continuing his pebble puttering, with his horse nibbling on plants nearby. Alone behind Tully’s now, Peep had a clear shot at him. The range was just under one hundred meters. Her overpowered shortbow would make the shot, she knew. But it would be no easy shot, and her arrow would be in flight for a couple of seconds before it landed. It was a calm evening, so wind would not be a factor, but with that being so, there was a chance Sneed would hear her take the shot. If he did, sidestepping a perfectly aimed shot was probably not beyond him. And then, with Sneed with a proper longbow in hand, and his horse nearby, and his men in the building right next to her, Peep would be doomed.
Shooting Sneed was not the right move. So, once again, Peep settled in to let him go about his business. Thankfully for him, and probably her, Sneed’s men came to the creek on their horses before he ambled into a more manageable range to tempt her. Sneed mounted up and joined them. Then, they were across the creek and into the bush on the same trail.
Peep took another moment to let them go while she reflected on Sneed’s conversation with Lieutenant Dixon. She wondered if her admiration of him for it had affected her willingness to shoot him on the veranda or the creekside. This she quickly dismissed without deeper thought, as she usually did with her pensive moments (few and far between as they were).
When Peep was as sure as she could be that the way was clear, she broke cover and ran in a crouch through Tully’s yard and Cowslip Creek into the bush on the other bank. There, she lay down in cover for a long moment to have a good listen. There was nothing.
With twilight beginning to fall, and much to do before it became dark, Peep jogged back to Gorgeous Boy on the trail. In doing this, she trusted in Stron that Tully had not noticed him and had not alerted Sneed and his boys so that they could set up an ambush for her. Whether it had been her prayer, or simply good luck, Gorgeous Boy was just as she had left him. She mounted up and rode past Big Rock and up and down North Ridge to loop around to Bristlehump’s south gate.
At the church, Peep waved Choke over from the kitchen to help her put Gorgeous Boy away in the stable.
“Where’s Gabe and Barrelmender?” she asked when he had joined her.
“Barrelmender’s asleep in his cell. On top of the blanket with his boots on. But at least he did manage to make it to bed by himself,” Choke said dryly.
“And Gabe?”
“He ate some jerky and nuts and went straight to sleep in the pews. He’s completely spent. What happened?” Choke asked.
“We got them, is what! All of them except Sneed’s bunch, gathering at Tully’s soon!” Peep said, her voice low, but hissing with great excitement. “We got em!”
Peep went on to quickly explain to Choke what she had overheard. When she had finished, he nodded calmly in the darkness of the stable.
“So all the rotten eggs in one basket. Sneed excluded. Why do you suppose he excused himself from the party?” Choke asked.
“Well, probably just what he said. He doesn’t trust them to get it done and is gonna go and set up the next thing. Whatever that is. Also, he’s been careful about staying on the right side of the law. Setting things in motion and then easing back is his style,” said Peep.
“Indeed. Well, he’s put himself into it now. You are sure you heard him order Dixon to coordinate with the Chisel on killing us. You heard him say this?”
“Yeah. Or, close enough. He called him the Big Man, but then called him the Chisel to Tully. So, either way he coordinated them. And if he shows up, the Chisel’s broken his parole to Fairchild, yeah? Him and anyone with him is kill on sight now.”
“That’s so. Pinch should be just about finished making dinner. Let’s go eat quickly and then discuss the plan,” Choke said.
Around the kitchen table, with the doors to the church and Barrelmender’s cell shut, the squad discussed matters while they gobbled down the good gruel Pinch had made. Then Peep served up the wickedly strong stugroot she had set on the stove to brew when she had come in.
“So we’re just gonna walk right into Tully’s and kill them all, right?” Knuckle said.
“Yeah,” Peep nodded. She laid out some crockery and knives in a rough map. “Now, we didn’t get a real good look inside, but I reckon it’s laid out like this. Big tavern room out the front with the bar at the back and the kitchen behind. The kitchen door opens out to the yard. Then, from the main tavern, there’s probably a narrow hall to the fuck rooms along the east and north walls.”
“Let’s not forget, though, that there will be innocents there. At very least the prostitutes. Perhaps some other customers,” Choke said.
“I doubt that,” Peep said. “Hoors, sure. But if I’m Tully, I’m closing the place up for tonight for a private party. They aint gonna want the rubes around here knowing that the Chisel and his boys are there and being put into play. Right?”
“Most likely, yes. But we can’t be sure, and we must be careful about the women.”
“Okay. So, basically, we just walk in and kill the Chisel and whoever else raises up on us,” Pinch said.
“Yes,” Choke said. “Do we all go in the front?”
Peep thought about this and shook her head. “Nah. I’ll go in the kitchen door. You three go in the front. We kill any sentries on our way in, as quiet as we can. Then once ye three barge in the front heavy, they’ll all turn to face ye, so I’ll be able to spring something on them from behind.”
“Sounds okay. But I don’t like the idea of you going in alone,” Choke said.
“But I won’t be alone, Choke,” Peep grinned, flashing him her Wheel brands.
“Ah. I stand corrected. Very well.”
“What about Dixon and Wagner?” Pinch asked.
“They are hostiles now. Peep’s truthful testimony shall prove it. Just don’t die tonight before you can give evidence and we’ll be fine. If at all possible, though, try to take them alive. They ought to be saved for a trial. If possible,” Choke said.
“About the attack. We’re going tonight? A morning attack might be better,” Pinch said.
“Yeah, it would. If we could be sure they’ll all be there,” Peep said. “But we can’t be sure of that. The Chisel and his men have been holed up in the bush these last few weeks. They’re gonna have their meeting with Dixon, and then they’re gonna wanna drink and fuck for a bit. After that, there’s no telling what they might do. We can’t risk waiting.”
“And what if Dixon and Wagner leave after the meeting. That must be wrapping up about now,” Pinch said.
“Well, even better then, right? It means we don’t have to fret about killing them. We take out the Chisel and his men, maybe Tully, if he raises up. Then we arrest Tully, and whoever, and split to Spitzer to get all this put in as real evidence. Right? We don’t need to fuck with Dixon, then. The fuckin military will take care of that,” Peep said.
“Agreed,” Choke said. “So, about tonight: do we go out mounted?”
Peep shook her head. “No. Fuck that. Riding outta here means getting Pinch’s horse outta Stadnick’s stable, and then riding out a gate for all to see. Them soldiers start ringing an alarm bell on any of that, and this is blown. We creep out on foot, under the fence by the river there, and creep up on them through the bush.”
“And then?” Knuckle asked.
“Then we drag whatever prisoners we have back here, mount up, and ride like fuck for Spitzer with them,” Peep said.
“Fuckin A. So what the fuck are we waiting for, then?” Knuckle said as he stood up and thumped Peep on the shoulder.
***
The Pekot Bunch crept out of the church, through the graveyard, and over the low fence into the tight lanes that Peep had been using to creep through town. They went light, fully armed, but with no equipment besides some lengths of rope suitable for binding prisoners, and their hooded lantern turned way down low with the hood fully closed. Peep had objected to the lantern, griping that Knuckle and Choke felt the need to bring light along to navigate the bush trails in the dark. She had been overruled, and the lantern came.
Peep was armed as usual with her shortsword on her belt and her shortbow and quiver on her back. As well, she brought her Scythan bow in its saddle case and quiver, carried along by hand. Pinch went out as usual with his hunting bow, buckler shield, and shortsword. Knuckle brought his longbow and quiver in hand, with his greatsword on his back and warhammer and dagger on his belt. Choke decided to embrace being the footman, arming himself with roundshield and spear, with his longsword and dagger on his belt. He decided to leave his longbow behind. If necessary, either he and Knuckle would use Knuckle’s, depending on the situation.
When they were out of town under the palisade through the hole at the Bristle Creek bank, they settled into line to navigate their way through the trails over the North Ridge to Big Rock. Quite comfortable on these now, whether in the dark or not, Peep went first. Pinch followed with the lantern held low behind him, the hood cracked just a tiny bit to give Knuckle and Choke something to follow in the dark. Even so, the two stumbled and tripped over roots and rocks aplenty, and there was much muttered cursing. For Peep out front, this was atrociously noisy. But they were out in the bush after dark and there was no one out looking for them. They made it to Big Rock without incident, where they hunkered down to catch their breath and regain their composure.
Once they were settled down, Pinch shuttered the lantern completely and they crept down the trail to Cowslip Creek behind Tully’s. At the north bank of the creek, they spread out and hunkered down, picking their spots. This would be their fallback position if things went badly, so Peep and Knuckle left their warbows here, along with the lantern.
The night was warm enough that the kitchen door and fuck cell windows at the back were open, lighting up the yard with the lamp glow from within. The sound of carousing seemed loud even across the creek. After taking another moment, Peep led the way across the creek and through Tully’s back yard. This time, she kept to the right of the building on the path around its west side between the creek and the road out front. When she reached the building, Peep put her back against its wall and signaled for the others to continue around to the front. Pinch, Choke, and Knuckle moved on past her in that order.
In a deep crouch with her shortbow in hand, Peep moved down the wall to the open kitchen door and peeked inside. The big, iron cookstove was still hot with a cauldron of water filled with dirty dishes simmering on it. Sneed’s shoeshine lad was sleeping on a cot in the corner. The door to the main room was open, through which Peep could make out the edge of the bar and a number of big warriors at tables making a drunken racket. Peep slid her shortbow and arrow back into the case and quiver on her back and drew her shortsword as she slipped through the kitchen. She put her back to the wall next to the door into the main room, just behind the bar. Then she waited.
Out front, Pinch paused at the edge of the building to check around the corner, looking at the road and Tully’s front veranda. The road was clear. The veranda lanterns had not been lit, probably as the signal of the private party within, but the wide windows threw out plenty of light from inside. There was one man sitting on the front steps with a crossbow, and many horses were tied up to the hitching posts in front of the veranda. Pinch signaled there being one sentry to Choke and Knuckle. Then he moved straight out into the road as he notched an arrow. Choke and Knuckle moved around the edge of the building and looped around the horses to head for the sentry.
The man was alert enough to notice Pinch moving out into the road before Choke could reach him, so Pinch shot him. The arrow took him high in the chest and punched through his leather armor deeply enough to cause him a mischief. The man barked in pain just before Choke stabbed him straight through the throat with his spear. Pinch notched another arrow and followed Choke and Knuckle up Tully’s front steps and through the front door.
There were over a dozen men seated inside the brothel, enjoying their drinks and the company of the women. Alan “the Chisel” Mason was seated at the best table near the unlit hearth with Tully, Lieutenant Dixon, Sergeant Mason, and a burly younger man that was clearly one of Tully’s sons. Two other nearby tables housed four warriors each. Another man in a brigandine vest, who also had the clear look of Tully’s kin, was behind the bar drawing an ale for himself. There were two moderately attractive women sitting at the Chisel’s table, with a less attractive woman at each of the other tables.
Everyone inside froze as Choke, Knuckle, and Pinch came through the front door. Moving fast, Choke threw his spear hard at the Chisel. The spear hit the big man in the chest, but mailed as he was, did not penetrate very deeply. Even so, the Chisel fell behind his table with the spear still sticking out of him.
With his warhammer in hand, Knuckle moved past Choke, and ran right over an empty table to get at the nearest occupied one. With surprising agility for such a big man, he stepped from empty bench, up to the table, and leapt off it towards his nearest foes. They had been seated with their backs to him at the next table. Knuckle brought his warhammer down on the top of the first man’s unhelmeted head just as he was beginning to rise, splattering his brains. The man next to him tried to get away by flopping sideways onto the bench away from Knuckle so that he could roll under the table. Knuckle smashed him hard on the chest as he did, caving in the breastplate of his leather armor. The man rolled off the bench to the floor and did not move.
Pinch was the third through the door. He took a stride or two away from Choke and Knuckle towards the unoccupied half of the room. This gave him a good angle on the table of men that Knuckle was not obliterating. One of the warriors there began to raise up a shortbow, so Pinch shot him in the chest through his leather armor. As with the fellow out front, Pinch’s arrow would be very unlikely to kill him, but it did cause him to fall down behind his table.
Over at the bar, Tully’s son, the beer pourer, screamed as Peep slid her shortsword all the way up into his guts. Crouched right behind him, she stabbed him upwards to the front of the hip bone, just under the bottom of his brigandine vest.
Choke drew his longsword and moved around the empty table Knuckle had leapt over. The two men who had been sitting opposite the two Knuckle had just thumped had stood up and drawn their weapons, as did the three at the other table Pinch had shot at. Behind those two tables, the Chisel was still down and out of sight. Tully, Lieutenant Dixon, and Sergeant Wagner remained seated, frozen in place. At their table, Tully’s remaining son stood up with a battleaxe and moved on Knuckle. The four women had disappeared under the tables.
In the center of the room now, Choke was facing the four men between the two tables the eight underlings had been seated at. He squared up behind his roundshield with his sword at the ready and closed on them. Behind Choke, Pinch continued to move out into the room to attempt to get an angle on them.
Tully’s son came at Knuckle with a hard chop of his battleaxe as he stepped around the edge of his table. Knuckle blocked this with his warhammer, shaft to shaft, and twisted his weapon so that the claw-like pick on its back hooked the battleaxe. With this purchase, Knuckle drew his opponent’s weapon over to his off hand and grabbed it by the shaft. Yanking the battleaxe hard to unbalance the man, Knuckle then felled him with a short, chopping blow with the warhammer head to his knee. Then he raised up and finished him with a hard blow behind the ear.
Coming around the edge of the bar in a crouch, Peep thrust her open left palm out towards the four men in front of Choke.
“Stron!” she yelled.
An intense plume of Holy Fire roared from her hand. Still in a crouch, she swept the flames over the four men at an upward angle, catching them from the waist up. They screamed as they went up in flames.
One of the men charged right at Choke in his agonized panic. Choke clubbed him down with a shield bash and sliced deep into his neck to kill him. One collapsed in convulsions, having gotten a full lungful of the flames. Another ran straight into the big stone fireplace and fell to the ground, and the last fellow dropped to the ground to begin to roll.
To Peep’s right was the shortbowman that Pinch had shot, writhing on the floor, and the man who had been sitting beside him, who was crouched low with a handaxe and fighting knife in his hands. The unharmed man lunged at Peep with his knife. She rolled to the side as she activated her force shield ring to deflect the attack, and slashed out from beneath her shield to cut the tendons behind the man’s knee. He fell and she finished him with a stab through the neck.
While this happened, Tully bolted for the corner behind Knuckle, looking like he was going to try to escape out the door rather than flank. Knuckle let him go, maintaining his focus as he stepped over his last kill towards Lieutenant Dixon. However, Tully was armed with a buck knife and heavy cudgel in his belt, so Pinch shot him through the chest as he passed behind Knuckle.
Choke quickly finished off the two burning men at his feet, while Knuckle spared the moment to do the same with the singed man at the hearth. The arrow-shot man near Peep squirmed his way under the bench and table before she could get to him.
Dixon and Wagner both were still sitting frozen, their eyes wide and hands on the table.
Above them, some of the ceiling beams continued to smoulder and flicker with some small flames ignited by Peep’s Holy Fire. While the burst of flames had been extremely hot, it was not sustained enough to light up even dry lumber to any dangerous degree. However, the roof beams, rafters, and ceiling planks were not merely dry wood. They were deeply blackened by soot from not only the hearth fire, but also all of the establishment’s many oil lamps and lanterns. Years of soot had accumulated, much of it quite oily.
There was a flash above as flames suddenly roiled across the ceiling. And with this, Tully’s was on fire.
Behind Pinch, one more prostitute came running out of the narrow hallway to the fuck cells, screaming as she beheld the flaming roof above. Hearing her, the other women crawled out from under the tables and all of them bolted out the front door and out into the night.
Quite calm despite the heat from above that would become deadly within the minute, if not mere seconds, Peep leaned back to have a look under the table next to her. Then she took a couple of skipping strides to look under Dixon and Wagner’s table. As she did, the Chisel crawled out from under it and charged her with his shortsword in hand. Even wounded in the chest as he was and rising from prone in full chainmail, the Chisel moved well. Not well enough, though. Once again, Peep deflected the attack with her force shield, dropped low into a pivot, and stabbed him up into the crotch to bypass his mail as he went by her. Then she finished him with a throat stab as he fell curled up in agony.
Looking panicked now, Lieutenant Dixon and Sergeant Wagner stood up.
“Dixon! Halt! You are under arrest!” Choke yelled.
Lieutenant Dixon halted. Sergeant Wagner did not. He dipped his shoulder and juked as he moved around Dixon and tried to get around Knuckle just as Tully had. Knuckle read the move and struck him a hard blow as he went past. Wagner was in chainmail, so Knuckle hit him with the pick side of his hammer, right in the middle of his back. The pick penetrated the mail a little, but mostly worked as a force concentrator and crushed Wagner’s spine underneath. Wagner fell with a horrible squawk and Knuckle pulverized his head into paste with four good, hard whacks of his hammer.
Dixon put up no resistance when Knuckle, covered in the spatter and splatter of his night’s good work, grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out Tully’s front door. The rest of the squad followed, with Peep pausing to rob a few coin purses on her way out.
Muse Vassal 