Table of Contents – (spoilers)
Out in the church’s shed, Choke looked over the gear that Brother Barrelmender had stored for them. Mostly it was Knuckle and Pinch’s saddles from the horses they had left in the church stable and town livery. There was also the roundshield and shortspear that Choke had taken from one of Orcstabber’s slain men. Of course, there were also the bundles of war arrows from Gotthilf that Barrelmender had mentioned.
The squad had ordered four bundles of twenty-four war arrows with mail-piercing, needle-bodkin heads, as well as two more bundles of Peep’s heavy shortbow arrows, also with bodkin heads. In the shed were two bundles of standard war arrows and one of Peep’s special bundles. Choke gathered them up in his arms as best he could and closed up the shed.
As Choke walked back to the square between the side of the church and the low graveyard wall, Mariola was the only one of Peep’s followers that looked up. She met his eye and held his gaze until he looked away. There was no reading her expression, but the interaction still disturbed Choke, who was unused to beautiful women giving him any attention whatsoever.
Walking back to the barracks, Choke’s mind drifted predictably. Once he was able to wrestle it away from its impure engagements, he forced himself to think about the gear he had left behind in the shed and what was to be done with it. That drifted to a recollection of the two crossbows and suit of chainmail that the squad had sold to Father Morrenthall’s housekeeper and armorer, the widow Dunn. He winced at the thought of how useful they would be to them now.
At the barracks, Choke put the arrows away in the small armory room. Peep and her squad were fast asleep in their bunks, and there were no other soldiers there. Choke went out the north gate to check on how the work was progressing. He found everything to his satisfaction, and checked in quickly with Pinch and Knuckle. Nothing was amiss, so Choke walked back to the church.
Back at the shed, Choke hefted one of the saddles up onto his shoulder and grabbed the roundshield and spear in his free hand. While nowhere near too heavy for him, it was an awkward load. He was about to kick the shed door closed behind him when Mariola spoke up from the graveyard gate:
“Can I help ye with that, sir?” she called to him.
“Ahm. Uhh… Yes! Yes, please! If you could have someone get the other saddle in here and follow me to the army stables, I would appreciate it,” Choke answered.
“I got it, sir,” Mariola said as she jogged over to grab the saddle.
Mariola was a fair bit taller than him, and almost as broad in the shoulders. She hefted the saddle onto her shoulder easily.
“Let me get that spear for ye, sir,” she gestured to the weapon that was wobbling in Choke’s precarious grip of it and the roundshield. “Don’t worry. I won’t poke ye with it,” she giggled. Then her features clouded over as something about that notion seemed to upset her.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Choke held the spear out her way.
The two managed the exchange of the weapon with some awkward bumping accompanied with clipped apologies and shy smiles. Finally, though, they were underway.
“We haven’t had a chance to speak yet,” Choke said as they reached the square. “You are Mariola, is that right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You don’t—” Choke began, before cutting himself off in the realization that with him being a lieutenant of the army commanding the town’s garrison, as well as the local magistrate’s apparitor, someone in her position most certainly should be calling him, “sir.”
“Sir?” she asked.
“Nothing. I’m just… I don’t know. I’m just… confused, I suppose. Too much going on. Everything’s new, and so many things to keep track of now, and… Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to, uhhh… I’m sorry,” Choke babbled, dying inside as he finally managed to stop speaking.
“No, it’s alright. I understand, I suppose. You’re in charge, and I heard that’s all totally new for all of you. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be. But, about that, sir. I did want to thank you. Thank you for being so wonderful and letting me, or, well, I suppose, us, come along with you. It’s so much more than I could have hoped for. So, thank you.”
“Well, uhhh… that’s fine. I mean, I don’t think I’m wonderful or anything. We’ve just been leaving you to follow behind us in the mud. And now you’re stuck dealing with… well… the situation at the church. So, I think I really should be thanking you for taking care of him,” Choke said, wincing again at his delivery.
“No! I’m happy to do it. You see? Wonderful. You don’t understand, do you? We were so worried coming away from the church with you and your soldiers. You know. About how that could have gone,” Mariola said.
“What? Bandits, you mean?”
“No, silly! You know: how things might have gone with you or the other soldiers once we were alone with you. Us women, I mean. We were all worried about it. But here we are, all safe and sound, with somewhere dry to sleep and food to eat, and we’re… I’m, just so grateful for it.”
Mariola slowed her stride to lean into Choke’s path and give him serious, direct eye contact as she then said:
“Thank you.”
“Well, you’re welcome. But you needn’t have worried. We aren’t those sort of men. And if any that are bother you, or any of the women and children, then you let me know at once. At once. I’ll deal with it. Besides which, you have Otilla looking out for you.”
“Well, that might be true. But it’s hard to trust anyone for me. I think I’ll be able to get used to doing a little bit more of that, though,” Mariola said.
She and Choke walked in silence the rest of the way to the barracks. It was comfortable. There, Mariola helped Choke put the saddles away in the stables. Alone in the dark warmth together, Choke was acutely aware of her physical presence. The scent of her filled him.
Then the saddles were put away.
Mariola hesitated just a little as she stood in front of him. She reached out and smoothed down his tabard where the saddle had rumpled it.
“There you are,” she said, her voice soft. “Gods, you are so young. Thank you, again. Sir.”
Then she stepped up to him and gave him a hug. It was just a hug. And through his chainmail there really was little of it that he could feel properly. But her soft cheek against his was warm, and it completely overwhelmed him.
And then, she was gone.
***
After leaving the stables, Choke went straight to his room. There, he fully intended to read his Holy Book at his desk until his impure, lustful thoughts were banished. That did not go as planned.
Later, Choke went back out to supervise the men at their bush clearing and lumbering. It had progressed. With his longbow in hand, Choke did his best to appear focused on the men, while he flagellated himself internally. The primary thrust of his self-rebuke was that Mariola had made it clear that she was grateful for not having been sexually assaulted by him or his men. For him to then react to that gratitude in such a lustful way was mortifying to him. That he had not, in fact, acted lustfully, and, further, that there could possibly be nuances to the dynamic between them that might complicate his simplistic view, was not something he was equipped to consider at this stage of his life.
The work progressed, with his men doing a good job. They had both their mules in harness, working to pull the felled timber out to be stacked by the north gate. The men had their axes, saws, picks, and shovels, of course, but also kept their shields and spears near at hand. Whereas at Spitzer fort, Peep, Pinch, and Knuckle had been guarding against the men running off, now they worked a perimeter with their attention focused outward into the deeper forest. Knuckle stood in place with his longbow, moving slowly with the men as they cleared the forest and brush away from the palisade. Pinch stayed in the bush, moving around slowly from one spot to another. His war horn was slung on his belt, ready to give the alarm.
When it was about an hour before noon, Pinch approached Choke, who was standing with his longbow in hand mostly watching the men work.
“Lieutenant, sir. A quick word,” Pinch said as he joined Choke.
“Of course.”
“It’s about time to get lunch started. And I think it’s time we settled on a cook. I have a suggestion about it.”
“Go ahead,” Choke said.
“Corporal Lenny isn’t much of a soldier, to be honest,” Pinch said, keeping his voice low. “I don’t get the sense he’s all that capable of violence, and the way he moves through the bush, I can’t imagine he was much of a hunter. But, he has been good at organizing the men. You know, camp life, and managing gear and equipment, and all that shit.”
“So you want to make him the camp cook? He’s meant to be a corporal. Organizing the men is his job. I’m glad to hear that he is good at it.”
“Well, yeah. But he wasn’t the one I’m talking about, actually. I just wanted to give him credit with this. He’s been the one organizing who’s been doing the cooking. And the last two meals he’s had that guy over there as cook. Hubert’s his name. Anyways, Lenny came to me during a water break just now, and he said that Hubert asked him if he can be our cook. He’ll do it exclusively if it means that he doesn’t have to do labor. And, I mean, I can’t fault his thinking. Look at him. He’s pretty useless at this,” Pinch said.
Choke and Pinch took a minute watching Hubert digging with a shovel to uproot a thick caragana bush. The chubby man was dripping sweat and clearly had no real sense of how to be productive at all (assuming he even had the strength to be).
“I see what you mean,” Choke said. He was thoughtful. “He’s cooked the last two meals, you say? Now that you mention it, dinner last night and breakfast today were much better than anything we’ve cooked ourselves.”
“Hey! Fuck you. Sir,” Pinch laughed.
Since leaving the orphanage it had been almost exclusively Pinch doing all the cooking for them.
“Oh. Sorry,” Choke smiled.
“No, it’s fine. I know I’m no cook. But Hubert seems to be. I think it’s a fair trade: no hard labor in exchange for doing all the cooking. I can’t imagine the men will disagree.”
“I think that’s right. Fine, tell him he can be our cook. But, he still patrols and trains like everyone else. And being the cook means he cleans and manages the kitchen, along with all the gear. And he’s in charge of managing the food procurement, in conjunction with you as our quartermaster. Understood?”
“Yes. Sounds good.”
“Any further thoughts about it?” Choke asked.
“No. Sounds good. Okay, I’ll go cut him loose to get started on lunch.”
Hubert was comically grateful to be given the news that his request had been approved. He thanked Pinch, and then Choke profusely on his way back to the north gate. As Pinch had predicted, the men seemed to take the arrangement well. The few muttered, snarky comments were shut down by fellow soldiers observing that their last two meals had been the best since leaving the fort. As well, Hubert doing the cooking and cleaning up meant that no one else was going to be obliged to do it.
After another twenty minutes had passed, Peep came ambling out along the palisade with a steaming mug of stugroot in her hand. She was bleary as she ambled up to Choke with a smile.
“You haven’t been smoking, have you?” Choke asked her quietly.
“Nope. Just waking up, is all. Any news?”
“Nothing in particular. At least not on the military side. I had a long talk with Brother Barrelmender, though,” Choke said, his tone explicitly neutral.
“Oh, yeah… how’s he doing?”
“Not as badly as we might fear. Your woman there, Mariola. She’s been taking care of him.”
“What does that mean?” Peep asked, her voice hard-edged.
“Nothing untoward. Although he does seem taken with her. I’m not sure in what way, though. Anyways, she’s been cooking for him, is all. Also, organizing your other followers to clean the church and its grounds. Barrelmender’s getting tired of having them around, but hasn’t assaulted anyone yet. At least not physically,” Choke paused as he imagined the wild tirades the Holy Fire Wailers must have been subjected to.
“Yeah, well, better him than me with that lot. He can have them,” Peep muttered as she took a swig of stugroot.
“Peep, you know—”
“Yeah, yeah. I know. Fuck. Well, what’s to be done about them? We can’t keep them with us. Ye know that.”
“Yes, I do. I was just getting to it. Barrelmender has suggested that your followers take over an unused Church property. The Wilson place, he called it. And he wants to make Mariola his new housekeeper,” Choke said.
“Oh, yeah,” Peep said. She thought about this for a while. “Actually, I like it. I want her nearby, so at the church is great. And getting the wailing spastics off someplace doing some farming or some shit is great. But, what about Shasta? We’re cutting her loose?”
“No. I talked him into keeping her on as the parish’s property manager. That will give her and her children a living. And she will be the one to set your followers up at the property Barrelmender spoke of. I just need to go and inform her of all of that,” Choke said with a deep sigh.
“Okay,” Peep laughed. “And I suppose ye want me to go along with ye on that job.”
“Well, you do have a way of talking to these people. She only ever tried bullying me. She listened to you.”
“Alright, then. When d’ye wanna get that done?”
“Well, we have patrol this afternoon. I thought on the way back, you and I can check in at her property for a word. The others can practice setting up a defensive perimeter while we do that,” said Choke.
Peep laughed even harder at this. “Man! Yar that afraid of the bitch, are ye? Gotta surround her with the whole fuckin crew to back ye up!”
“That’s not—” Choke began protesting before he realized that Peep was entirely joking. “Okay, sure. I’m not going to claim that it won’t make me feel a little better.”
“No doubt. And with Barrelmender outta the picture for her, she’s gonna be on the prowl for a new man!”
“Peep. Please. It’s almost lunch. I don’t want to lose my appetite.”
Peep barked a laugh at this. “There ya go! See? And people keep saying ye have no sense of humor.”
“What people might those be?” Choke asked.
“Ye know. People. Never you mind more than that.”
Choke and Peep stood and shared a silence for a while then. Eventually, Choke spoke up:
“Speaking of me minding my business, I’m going to not do that. You mentioned that you want to keep Mariola close. Do you mind me asking you why?”
“Well, ye can ask all ye want. That don’t mean I’m gonna answer.”
“I understand. Look, if it’s personal—” Choke started.
“It aint,” Peep interrupted.
“Okay, then. I ask, because I know she was helping you out with your special mission for the Father. I’m just wondering if there’s anything I should know about her in that regard.”
“Oh, is that the reason yar asking? Assessing yar tactical assets here, are ye? Or, assessing the asses?”
“Look. Peep—”
“Hey, man, if she’s willing, then have at it. I couldn’t give a shit. And she’s the cream of the lot. Yar the boss here. Why shouldn’t ye take her? Assuming she’ll have ye, of course.”
“No, it’s not about that!” Choke snapped, actually raising his voice. Some of the closer men looked their way for a moment before getting back to work.
“Aint it?” Peep said. “Coulda fooled me just now. But, okay, LT, we’ll play it yar way. She was a big help in Spitzer. A big help. And that’s all I’m gonna say about it. But, about her, I will say: she’s smart, strong, and can think on her toes. And she’s real easy on the eyes, which could come in handy in all kinds a situations. As it did already. So, when it comes to the unit and all that, she’s mine. She’s with me. I run her. Right?”
“Alright. Sounds fine. And you don’t mind her tending to Barrelmender?” Choke asked.
“I just said I didn’t. It’s close. It’s safe. And I trust her to tell me what he’s doing. So perfect, really.”
“Yes. Good point. Okay, so that works out,” Choke said.
“Yeah. The only weak point on her, I reckon, is that she thinks she can’t fight. So I wanna start working on it with her. But, I don’t know how much I’ll be able to teach her, on account of I doubt she’s gonna get attacked by any ten-year-old boys.”
“Well, you never know. And we are supposed to suffer a goblin invasion soon. You aren’t much bigger than a goblin.”
“Hey, fuck you!” Peep laughed. “But point taken. Anyways, I’ll work with her until she’s got the basics. Then, she’s gonna wanna train against someone bigger and stronger than her. So why not you, loverboy? That’ll be a nice way for ye to get close. Ye know, sweating together and all that thrusting and grunting and shit. Real saucy.”
“Okay. Yes. Thank you, Peep. I will train her if you want,” Choke said, turning away from Peep to glower at the ground, lest she see any of the seeds she had just planted taking root.
“Of course ye will. And good on ye,” Peep said, her tone entirely friendly. She let the comment sit for a while before continuing:
“Okay, then, I reckon it’s about lunchtime, yeah? We should let these fuckers clean themselves up, shouldn’t we?” Peep asked, gesturing at the laboring men.
“Indeed.”
Choke gave a shrill, two-fingered whistle. “Men! Gather all the tools and return to barracks! Clean up for lunch! We leave on patrol after we eat!”
Muse Vassal 