Table of Contents – (spoilers)
Baron Hart took Choke to the keep’s main hall. The Baron took his seat at the head of the table, and gestured for Choke to sit to his immediate right. Then Baron Hart took a minute to pull off his tight riding gloves, watching Choke with an amused air as he did.
“Well, I suppose you have some questions,” Baron Hart finally said.
“No, sir,” Choke answered, as calmly as he could.
“No? Perhaps I should rephrase, then: I suppose that you must be harboring some doubts about me.”
“Sir, I… no. No, sir,” Choke stammered.
“No? With everything that’s been going on? You would be an idiot not to. But I will allow that you certainly are not in a position to express yourself. So I will ask you a question. Do I seem a stupid or incompetent man, Lieutenant?”
“No, sir. Of course not, sir.”
“You can drop the rigid formality, Lieutenant. Relax, please. You are making me nervous on your behalf. What is your name again?”
“Pekot, sir. Bartholomew Pekot.”
“Ah. Right. Bartholomew. The Pekot is new, is it not?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Suitable enough. So, Pekot, as I was saying, with what has been going on around here lately, you would be correct to wonder whether I am incompetent or stupid. And, if I am neither of those, then I must be the other thing.”
“The other thing, sir?” Choke said, avoiding the Baron’s eye.
“Yes. The other thing. Say it,” Colonel Hart said, his tone now an order.
Choke steeled himself and met the Colonel’s eye.
“If you are not incompetent or stupid, which I believe you are not, then, I am sorry to say, sir, you must be corrupt.”
“And there we have it. You are too honest by half, Pekot. A man in your position should be more conscientious about adhering to the dishonesty required of him. You aren’t going to get far as an officer in this army if you don’t figure out how to lie. Especially when your commander demands the truth from you,” Colonel Hart said, clearly amused.
“I suppose you are right in that, sir.”
“I am right. But I don’t mind it in you. What I will mind, however, is if you suddenly become selective about when to be honest. So keep it up now, Pekot.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Alright then, Morrenthall has burned the cretin jailer and arrested Sheriff Waters, Captain Edison, Lieutenant Hamon, and Sergeant-Major Orel. Have I missed anyone?”
“No, sir.”
“As well, Corporal Butters, Orel’s man, has run off. Probably after crossbowing you and your attacker.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And Wes, the Teamster and Outfit boss, has been killed,” Colonel Hart said, leaning forward now to stare at Choke intently.
“Yes, sir.”
“Who killed him?”
“I cannot say, sir,” Choke said, meeting his eye.
“Cannot say? Will not? Must not? Be more specific, Pekot.”
“I must not say, Colonel.”
“So you know who killed him,” Colonel Hart said.
“Yes, sir.”
“But you must not say. Even to me, your commanding officer,” Baron Hart leaned back in his chair to regard Choke in a more relaxed fashion.
“Yes. I am sorry, sir. That is just the way of it,” Choke said, sighing deeply.
“Alright then. I’ll take it. For if this is the way of it for you, then I know that Morrenthall was behind Wes’ slaying. And since his own death technicians were not yet in town, I can only assume that it was Otilla that did the deed. Not that it matters.”
Choke sat in silence and did his best to focus on his breathing.
“So, Pekot, since you have been good enough to give me the answer to my question, in the roundabout way of also revealing where your true loyalties lie, let me see how far I can push that. What are Morrenthall’s intentions?”
“Sir? In regards to what?” Choke asked.
“In regards to all my people he has in his clutches. As I understand it, so far, he has not overreached the mandate I gave him. He has every right to pull them in and press them as hard as he sees fit. That is all to the good, as far as I am concerned. But I told him that the cretin jailer is to be the example. I want the rest redeemed and returned to duty. So, Pekot… what are his intentions in regards to that?”
“Ah. Those intentions, sir. Well, I can safely tell you that he fully intends to do exactly as you wish with all of the military personnel. Father Morrenthall is determined to redeem them for release to service, punished as you see fit. Sheriff Waters, however, he intends to burn,” Choke said.
“Well there you are, Pekot. Good lad! Straddling that line between two masters now. Just so. Just so…” Colonel Hart then stared off into space as he clucked his tongue in thought. “So, Waters burns, does he? Very well. That is just fine.” He clucked and thought some more. “Yes. Good.”
Choke blinked in surprise. Colonel Hart took note of it.
“My reaction surprises you, Pekot?”
“Well, pardon me, sir, but, yes it does. We, I mean, Father Morrenthall, had expected that you might be quite upset to lose the sheriff.”
“Well I am glad that Morrenthall so earnestly regards what was my bargaining position. And since you have shown me some trust in sharing Morrenthall’s intentions, I shall reciprocate. Waters was always entirely expendable. Indeed, I do not care a lick for the Sheriff. And, further, losing him to Morrenthall in such a way can help me on another front. A bit of a gambit, if you will.”
Colonel Hart smiled into the middle distance again with a very self-satisfied air. Then he returned his attention to Choke:
“So, Pekot, when I send you to speak to Morrenthall, which I shortly shall do, I want you to ask a favor of him for me. Tell him that I would greatly appreciate it if he could let on to my lady wife, the Baronesse, that I asked him to go after the Sheriff to the fullest. When next he sees her, of course. I would like for it to be known that when I learned of Waters’ vile perversions, I was resolute that his sinfulness should be punished. Can you ask Morrenthall that for me, Pekot?”
“Ah… yes, sir. Should I go now?”
“No. We are not finished here. Don’t forget it, though.”
“I most certainly will not, sir,” Choke said in a low tone adjacent to a mutter.
Colonel Hart laughed.
“Ah, you are but a lad, and I see do not understand the ways of women and the dance of husbands and wives. I do not mind admitting to you, as no husband should, that I can ill afford to miss an opportunity to so well please my lady wife.”
“I understand, sir,” Choke said, as he quickly worked to put away his mortification at the Baron trading upon the execution of a man in holy fire to win his wife’s favors.
“No. You don’t understand, Pekot. But, with any luck, someday you will. Now, about the general way of things around here. Unfortunately for you, with your history, and what have you, you have been tangled up in things not your concern, and far more has been revealed to you than I ought to be comfortable with. You understand what I am saying. In regards to the corruption you spoke of, I mean.”
“Yes, sir. But I know that it is not my place to—”
“Ah-ah!” Colonel Hart interrupted with an upraised finger. “It is not your place, Pekot, to presume where your place might be when I am speaking to you. I will be telling you where your place is in this regard. Understood?”
“Ahhm… I… No, sir.”
Colonel Hart laughed again.
“Now, normally, when someone such as yourself, a junior officer, I mean, not,” Colonel Hart waved his hand errantly around, “whatever the hell else you might all be. When a junior officer such as yourself gets tangled up in things to a degree where I become uncomfortable, I have ways in which I deal with it. Perhaps Sergeant-Major Orel finds himself useful in this regard. Or, perhaps, Sergeant Yoann. You saw Sergeant Yoann, yes? He’s my man that I sent out to have a look at your men. You remember him.”
“Yes, sir. I remember him,” Choke rasped, his throat suddenly dry.
“Yes. See that you do. Be all that as it may, different tools for different jobs. Now, I don’t want you to worry, Pekot. I see you and yours as a useful tool as well. And even if I didn’t, I know better than to tangle with the Church. So, with that being the case, since you know far more than you ought to, I am going to do my best to help you understand that which you know.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Choke.
“Think nothing of it. I only hope it will save us having any further misunderstandings. You have been following Morrenthall around and uncovering this and that; hearing about that and the other. And you very rightly question how corrupt or incompetent I must be. And while I admit that I find the day-to-day management of this fort and town to be tiresome, I would caution you against assuming that it is not being run precisely how I wish. My steward, Uncle Gerban, who handled the barony’s administration in his younger years, is now old and quite useless in this regard. So, with this being so, if this barony is being run precisely as I wish, that begs a question. If I do not enjoy managing the affairs here, and my uncle is not up to the task… then who do you suppose runs it for me? And, further, who is it, precisely, that Morrenthall has in custody?”
“Well, sir, Captain—” Choke began reciting the list of Father Morrenthall’s detainees.
“Yes, yes,” Colonel Hart interrupted, “we know who they are. But to speak precisely, who is it that they were representing in their duties? Have we been assuming that they are all Outfit men, through and through, and that I am just a simple dupe of that criminal organization?”
Colonel Hart laughed.
“Or do you suppose that I was somehow bullied into accepting compromised men into my ranks? No. Men such as me do not fear men such as that. If it comes to it, I go ahead and kill them of a morning, and then go hunting of an afternoon. The hunting is usually more challenging. So, Lieutenant, with that being true, what do you suppose has been going on here?”
“I don’t know, sir,” Choke said, meaning it.
“Good. Because you don’t know, and to think that you do would be a grievous error. The corruption that you and Morrenthall have been running to ground is what? The theft of taxes. Yes? But they are my taxes. From my lands. To support my troops. Is that not so?”
“Well that is true, sir. But, correct me if I am wrong, but there is a deeper layer to it, is there not?” Choke asked.
Colone Hart sniffed. “Yes. You are correct. Those are also the King’s taxes. And some would say that these are not my men I support, but those of the King. Some would say these are important distinctions.”
“And are they, sir?” Choke asked.
Colonel Hart laughed. “Well, here I sit, freely speaking to you about it. So I think not. And I do not lose a wink of sleep over it. And do you know why that is, Pekot?”
“No, sir.”
“I think if you took your time, you would figure it out. But time is not something we have a great deal of these days. And I have to send you out alone into the bush to wrestle a bandit menace to ground. So I will lay it out for you plain. I am not a venal man. I do not line my pockets to drape myself and mine in furs, silk, and gold. The money I hold back has another purpose. Do you know what I am all about, Pekot?”
“I have heard, sir, that you are all about combat. About fighting Alquinians at the front.”
“Good. You have heard correctly, then. We go to the Spearshaker Mountains and we fight the Polytheists. And we acquit ourselves well. For the war there is not the open field of cavalry charges and heavy infantry formations. No. It is the skulking skullduggery of hopping about through forests and thickets, trenches and bunkers. And in this, our lads from Spaggot Barony do us proud. There are no finer archers to be found in all the lands. And, most importantly, our archers are used to fighting in tight corners, hunting the thickets for goblins. None better!” Colonel Hart exclaimed proudly, smacking his palm down on the table.
“However, within the Army, the top brass do not value this as highly as I think they should,” Colonel Hart went on, his face now grim. “And they misunderstand what it is that makes an archer. Willfully so, I think. You cannot make a longbowman out of a conscript. It takes being raised into the trade from birth by folk that live the heritage of the bow more deeply than they even do religion. You understand this, I think, Pekot. You, who carry a longbow made by the bowyer Munn, sergeant of archers for my father, the Lord Hart, in his day.”
“Sir. You know of that? Of Munn’s bows?” Choke goggled.
“Yes, of course. I do keep my ear to the ground, you know. And Sergeant Munn is a man of some renown in the forces of this Barony. And that you and your comrades carry three of his bows is a feather in your caps you did not even know you sported. But, I digress. Archers, and longbowmen, specifically, is my topic. Let me tell you, as deadly as they are, proper longbowmen are not natural soldiers. They are used to running wild in their own ways. Try to conscript one to your peril. And, they know their value well. So, they must be valued. It costs to bring them along, is what I am saying. They are not cheap. However, those higher ups in Strana who are long past fighting at the frontier, if they have even done so, have declared that we are not in times of total war. They pinch and constrict with their budgets. They do not allow for the expense of irregulars. That means: no longbowmen on the King’s purser’s coin.”
Colonel Hart took a moment to glare at Choke with this. His eyes were alight with very real anger.
“Well, I do not accept this. I will not take my men to the Alquinian Front, a warzone if ever there was one, without proper support. And so I provide my irregulars with my own coin.”
Colonel Hart smiled at this.
“My coin. For my archers. You understand, Pekot?”
“I think I do, sir,” Choke said. Then he paused, about to say more. He rethought this, however, and sat mute.
“What is it, man? Do not curb your tongue now. Let’s have it all out,” Colonel Hart said.
“Well, sir, I understand what you have told me. And I understand the why of it. I would never argue that it was anything other than right.”
“You have no idea, Pekot, how relieved I am to hear you say that,” Colonel Hart smirked.
“Thank you, sir,” Choke continued with his usual imperviousness to sarcasm. “However, there has been other corruption going on here. Of course, I am not suggesting that you had any part in it. But…”
“Other corruption you say. Besides the attempts on your life? Spit it out, Pekot.”
“Well, sir, the skimming of Lieutenant Dixon platoon’s pay. That was not the theft of taxes. It was the theft of wages you paid, milked from the reduction of your fighting force. Was it not?” Choke asked earnestly.
“Yes, well, you have me there. Orel has been a naughty boy in that regard. It is why I consented to Morrenthall giving his knuckles a rap. What is this world coming to, eh? When the thieves you employ don’t limit themselves to the thieving you set out for them. I do take your point though. I have been too free on the reins. Without a doubt.”
Colonel Hart clucked his tongue in thought for a while. Then he perked up:
“Even so, in the big picture, that one platoon was not such a great loss. Bristlehump was, after all, a punishment detail. I was forced to take on Lieutenant Dixon, demoted from Captain for reasons that I shall not be getting into. So, I loaded him down with the dross of the regiment and sent him off to Bristlehump.”
At this point, Colonel Hart noticed the look on Choke’s face. He chuckled.
“Yes, one man’s punishment is another’s opportunity. And there you sit with the man’s sword. How the world does turn, doesn’t it? Like travelers passing in the night, you two. One headed down into the gutter, and the other rising up from it. But worry not, I have the utmost confidence that you shall do an excellent job in Bristlehump.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“So, any other malfeasance you would like to get out into the open while you have the chance?” Colonel Hart asked.
“Well, as I am sure you have been made aware, Lieutenant Hamon and Sheriff Waters have been capturing vulnerable women to be sold into sexual slavery, sir.”
“Well, yes, there is that. But that is no drain upon our capabilities, now is it? Distasteful, though. And why I am not sorry to see Sheriff Waters go. With him gone, I am sure all other involved parties will have learned their lesson by the time Morrenthall is done with them. So… is that it? Any other laundry to air out? Now is the one and only time for you to bring it up. I do not want this topic discussed again,” Colonel Hart said with a paternalistic air.
“Well, seeing as you mentioned it, the repeated attempts to kill me and my fellows by soldiers under your command has been concerning. I hope they stop soon,” Choke said, meeting Colonel Hart’s eye squarely.
Colonel Hart laughed. “Oh, my, but you do have some sand, don’t you? I can see what the Holy Stoners saw in you to pull you up as they did. And I quite agree with you. I too hope the attempts on your life stop. If for no other reason that it shall save you killing more of my soldiers.”
Colonel Hart let this one sit for a while between them as he stared at Choke with a smirk. It was only when Choke began drawing breath to speak that Colonel Hart cut him short:
“I jest, of course, lad. I have no desire to see you killed. By anyone. But least of all by anyone under my command. I do hope you recall the stern correction I had Captain Fairchild give The Chisel and his men on your behalf.”
“Yes, I do, sir. And I appreciate it still. But, I must admit, that when contemplating everything Father Morrenthall has uncovered here… well… it is confusing to me, sir.”
“Is it? Well, I thank you for speaking your mind, son. Does it confuse you that I would come down so hard on those agents of the Outfit sent to string you up, when I am so willing to utilize others of their ilk for my own administrative purposes? Is that really so confusing? Different tools for different jobs.”
“I suppose, sir. And you say your men in Father Morrenthall’s custody are not Outfit agents, but—”
“I said no such thing,” Colonel Hart interrupted. “I asked if you and others have been assuming that those men are Outfit agents through and through. A man may serve more than one master, can’t he? Just as you do. Just as all men must. We all must tread a path through conflicting pushes and pulls of duties and allegiances, desires and urges. Some cannot manage a balance and fall into darkness. As Lieutenant Dixon did. Others, such as Sergeant-Major Orel, tread a middle path. And when it comes to this, with those that serve me, I tolerate what I must to be delivered that which I need. I cannot put it any simpler than that.
“However, when it comes to those agents of chaos and darkness that operate outside of my command, I have no reason to tolerate much. So those creatures of utility must take care. They must know their place well, and not nip at their betters. Some might liken their type to cockroaches to be squashed whenever they dare to show themselves in the light of day. But I am not one of them. I prefer to regard them as cats in a granary. Very suitable and useful if they stick to their purpose. And they might well grow fat at their duty. There is no harm in that. However, they are as cats and as such are basically uncontrollable; governed by their own natures. Occasionally, one might develop a taste for chickens. Those that do must be disposed of immediately. Thankfully, the scum have earned whatever they get, and there are always plenty more just like them coming up to replace them.”
Colonel Hart let Choke sit in silence and digest this for a spell. When he seemed to have done so, Colonel Hart continued:
“Now, I do not expect that the attempts on your life should continue for very much longer. I expect that between Morrenthall, myself, and you and yours killing everyone that has dared to try, that nonsense should be winding down. Indeed, I think this last attempt, precipitated by Butters on his own, was something like a nervous twitch in a corpse. Or a chicken running around without its head. We delivered the message that you and yours are now off limits, but then Morrenthall charges ahead and decapitates the whole fucking organization here before that word can be spread. And so every shitkicker and killer in the barony, in uniform or not, is running around out there thinking the offered bounty on you is still active. So, do continue to take care. But, honestly, I think we shall soon have all of that behind us.”
“What do you think about the Outfit man, Sneed. Do you think he will stop?” Choke asked.
Colonel Hart shrugged. “Who’s to say? I have heard of him, by reputation, at the Alquinian front. He is a skillful operator. So, like I said: do be careful. He is meant to be out in the bush hatching another scheme against you, isn’t he? And you have my death warrant for him. If you run across him, take him out without hesitation. That cat fancies to fix himself a meal of prize roosters. We can’t have that. But, I think it more than likely that he will get the word and disappear.”
“Well, I hope you are correct, sir,” Choke said.
“As do I. After all, I have been known to be wrong, on occasion. Now, before I send you on your way, I would like to explain a little more to you about how things work in this, the Royal Bitina Army. Since you come to us in an unusual way, I cannot be sure you know everything that a more typical junior officer would. So I do hope you’ll indulge me if what I tell you now is not new information.”
“Of course, sir. Thank you!” Choke said earnestly.
“Of course, of course,” Colonel Hart waved away Choke’s thanks. He then leaned forward in his chair to deliver Choke some proper instruction.
Muse Vassal 