Table of Contents – (spoilers)
Back in Bristlehump, the men were again hard at clearing the forest away from the palisade. They were making good progress with it. Peep and Choke had to ride almost a hundred meters down the cut line from the north gate to get to the work site. There, they had a quick word with Pinch and Knuckle to fill them in on the developments about Shasta’s continued employment as a Church agent, as well as the disposition of the Holy Fire Wailers.
“Fucking lucky slut!” Knuckle laughed. “Crap out two kids for the right guy and yar set for life!”
“Yeah, well, she does have a thick-headed friend in a position to help her,” Peep grinned as she gave Choke a swat.
“What? Oh, come on!” Knuckle laughed even more.
“For real? Dood! Ye can do so much better!” Pinch joined in.
“Yes, yes. Thank you very much. It’s nothing of the sort. We are all simply helping the Brother honor all of his obligations,” Choke said.
“What, by stepping in to plow Shasta for him?” Knuckle asked.
“No! And that’s enough, Sergeant!” Choke barked.
“Sir, yes, sir! Sorry, sir!” Knuckle snapped off a perfect salute with a lewd gleam in his eye.
“It’s the kids, stupid,” Pinch said to Knuckle. “Barrelmender needs to support his kids, even if he can’t be with their mother no more.”
“The kids? Whatever, man,” Knuckle snorted.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. But, yeah, whatever. LT’s call,” Peep said.
“It was Barrelmender’s decision,” Choke said, over-enunciating every syllable in a sign he was getting angry.
“Sure it was. And we’ll leave it at that, man. Don’t matter a bit. We’re just having some fun,” Peep said cheerfully. She clapped her hands in a clear change of topic: “Okay. So we’re about a couple hours from lunch, right? Anything else going on right now, LT?”
Choke thought this over. “Not particularly. Clearing the forest is the first priority. So that is the work of today.”
“Okay. Well, that seems like it’s going good. But I think we should also keep up the patrols, just more on the sly, like,” Peep said.
“That can’t hurt, if we can manage it. What do you have in mind?” Choke asked.
“We need to check out the Tanglefoot lookout camp up on the other ridge there,” Peep said, gesturing over towards the other side of Bristle Creek, where the Tanglefoot Trail to Callic had its trailhead.
“That’s right. We do need to check on that. Once enough of the men are up to it, we should be setting an occasional ambush up there,” Choke said. “I suppose you want to do the patrol. Alone?”
Peep shook her head. “Nah. But nothing showy neither. What I was thinking is: me, Pinch, Dom, Hardmod, and maybe one more that’s worth a shit in the bush. Foot patrol. Head up to the trail real sneaky and figure out how to head back down on the other side of the ridge. There’s some old goblin runs in the bush across the creek from the freight yard. Be nice to creep up in there and see if anything’s different. Also couldn’t hurt to start laying in some ways to set up on the yard. Right?”
“Okay…” Choke said, looking pensive. “But, you know, with that as a squad, you’ll have taken everyone who’s good in the bush.”
“Yeah, exactly. Look, doesn’t seem like anything’s hopping right here at the moment. But if ye think that you and Knuckle can’t handle the boys out here by yarselves, I could head out lighter. But I aint bringing anyone along who’s gonna get us spotted out there,” Peep said.
“No, you’re right. Take who you want. I’ll stay with Knuckle and mind the men,” Choke said.
“Alrighty. I figure a couple of hours should do her. Pinch: I’ve got Hardmod. Is there any of them ye wanna bring along and test out?” Peep asked.
“Yeah, I could think of a couple.”
“Well, pick one. Let em know and give them a few minutes to get sorted. We’ll head out from the north gate in fifteen. Right?” Peep said.
“Sounds good.”
“Alright. Bring your horn along, Pinch. And take care,” Choke said, nodding to Peep and Pinch both. “Knuckle: you and I have the men.
Peep put Gorgeous Boy away in the stable and took a drink of water. She decided to head out just as she was already kitted up: with her heavy shortbow in hand, a quiver on her back, shortsword and buck knife on her belt, and in her brigandine armor vest.
Peep, Pinch, Corporal Dom, head slinger Hardmod, and a young willowy lad chosen by Pinch all met at the north gate. There, Peep and Pinch took a few minutes to explain the route, and then some generalities on how they preferred to work the bush together. Then, the five-man patrol set out.
Peep, Pinch, and Dom were armed with their bows and sidearms. Pinch had his fine steel shortsword from the Chisel’s squad leader that Peep had killed outside of Callic to claim her Scythan warbow. Dom had his deer bow, a hand axe, and a big, chopping knife. Hardmod and the lad both brought along their spears, but left behind their roundshields. Hardmod also had his sling and pouch of stones, along with a buck knife. The lad had a normal peasant’s utility knife, and a crude trowel that seemed to have been fashioned from an old spearhead.
“Alright. What’s yar name boy?” Peep asked the lad when they were still close to town, working their way down the hump towards the Bristle Creek.
“Rabbit, sir.”
“Rabbit, huh? Seems to suit ye. Is that a nickname?”
“Don’t reckon I ever had another.”
“Well, alright then, Rabbit. Yar along for the ride. So do yar best to stay hid and quiet and in the middle of the rest of us. Ye don’t work point or rear just yet. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
Peep’s scouting squad moved down to Bristle Creek along some of the smaller trails, looking to reach it to the north of Shasta’s place, where the habitations had thinned out. They moved at a good pace, staying low and quiet. When the person in front reached a stretch of trail in a clearing, they would all hunker down to watch and listen to the forest before switching their order and moving on. By the time they reached the creek, they were already developing a good group dynamic.
At the creek, they waited in the thicker bush off the bank for a while, listening as they watched the road past the opposite bank. Finally, they waded across. Pinch went first and set up in some bushes to provide cover. Then, Dom, Hardmod, and Rabbit crossed together. Peep crossed last.
Using the same steady caution, the squad moved up the Tanglefoot Trail. As they approached the blind where Peep had overheard Theon’s violation of his goat, they got off the road into the bush to creep up on the blind from behind. It looked just as it had the last time. They hunkered down in the blind to watch the trail’s switchbacks rising up the ridge. Peep quietly explained to the men in more detail what they would find at the top. After a few more minutes of uneventful silence, they slipped out from the blind and went up the trail.
The squad reached the lookout camp at the top of the ridge about an hour after they had set out from Bristlehump. The camp had a rough lean-to of evergreen limbs for shelter, as well as blinds overlooking both the trail they had just come up, and the Tanglefoot Trail heading along the ridgeline to the east. The trees were too thick to the west, so they could not see Bristlehump, but they could hear the murmur of the community and the sounds of their fellows chopping trees.
“Alright. Take ten,” Peep said. “Dom: you take that blind. Hardmod and Rabbit, yar on the other. No talking.”
When the men had settled into their posts, Peep took a seat on a log by the lean-to and took a drink from her skin.
“Yar boy seems okay,” Peep said to Pinch quietly, who stepped over to squat down next to her. “He’s quiet, and he’s got good instincts on not getting seen. He’s comfortable out here. Not all jumpy. I can see why ye picked him.”
Pinch nodded. “He’s fleet, too. Whoever named him Rabbit had the measure of him.”
“Can he fight worth a shit, though? Hunt? Sling? Shoot?”
“I dunno. Seemed okay in the shieldwall training. We’ve cut good lengths of wood, so we’ll have practice spears and swords by tomorrow. Then we can start working with them one on one. And set them at each other,” Pinch said.
“We need to get these fuckers some more bows,” Peep scowled.
“I know it. None of them know how to make bows, though. I’ve asked them all.”
“Yeah, well, if they did, they wouldn’t be with us. Some other dickhead woulda snapped them up,” Peep said.
“True enough,” Pinch said.
They lapsed into silence for a while. Sitting, listening to the forest live its life around them, Peep and Pinch sat comfortably together. After some time, their eyes again met.
“You know, I’ve kinda missed this,” Pinch said, still very quietly.
“Huh? Don’t ye be getting silly on me now,” Peep growled.
“No, it’s not anything… I dunno. It’s just, these days, since we got to Spitzer, really, we’ve all been split up, basically. I mean, before, it was always just us four. Now, it seems like we’re all in our own situations, and you and Choke are off together doing this or that all the time. And it’s just… I dunno,” Pinch drifted off. He looked away into the distance. Then he sighed and picked up a pinecone that he flicked at a nearby tree.
“Yeah. Like I said: silly,” Peep said. “But I know what ye mean. But there’s just too much shit to be done these days. It aint like we’re cutting ye out.”
“Yes you are. And I know that’s how it’s gotta be. Choke’s the LT. Yar the… I dunno… Holy Vessel. Ye both got shit going on that me and Knuckle can’t be a part of. And we got shit to take care of, too, now. So yeah, of course.”
“So, what’s the fuss?” Peep asked, staring at Pinch calmly.
“Nothing. No fuss. I was just saying I miss the way it used to be, sometimes.”
“Ye mean when we was less than nobodies and Outfit thugs were breathing down our necks to shove horseshoes up our asses? Like, three weeks ago? Them good ol days?” Peep laughed.
“Yeah, I know. Just… whatever. I’m fine.”
“If ye say so. Okay, it’s time. Let’s move,” Peep said, raising her voice just enough for the men in the blinds to hear.
The last time the Pekot Bunch had come up here, they had come from the opposite direction. They had ridden out the Spitzer road for about an hour to find a proper trail for horses up to the Tanglefoot, then had come back to town along the trail. This time, Peep was determined to find a more direct way straight down to the bush on the east side of the Bristle Creek. As the crow (or magpie) would fly, it was not more than a kilometer to Bristlehump. However, this did not mean it was easy to get straight there overland. The slope was aggressive, and the bush was thick.
The squad worked their way slowly east along the Tanglefoot Trail, focusing on the slope down the ridge to the south. It did not take long before they found a small game trail that branched off down the hill. Taking care to move slowly and stay as quiet as they could, the squad made it down to creek level within thirty minutes. This put them in the bush just to the east of the lumber road to Bristlenook. They stayed in the bush, creeping alongside the road, heading south to the point where Peep and Knuckle had dragged Corporal Munge’s corpse into the thicket opposite the lumber yard. This time, Peep took the squad into the thicket as well.
“Oh, shit,” murmured Dom when he saw the tight pathways ahead.
“Yeah, gobo heaven in here,” Peep whispered back. “Just ahead over there they’ve tunneled out under the trees. Don’t seem like they’ve been here for a good while, though.”
With Peep leading the way, they skulked to the natural blind over the east bank of the Bristle Creek. It had a good view of the freight yard. The five of them took a rest as they watched the teamsters at work unloading the timber skids that had been dragged out of the forest to the north.
Peep pulled an arrow out of her quiver and pointed it at the road about eighty meters away.
“That right there,” she said quietly, “was the spot where Sneed and his boys shot Lieutenant Dixon in the back and killed him. From a spot on this side of the crick, just a bit back of the Crotch over there.” Peep pointed out the spot where the Cowslip and Bristle creeks joined just in front of Bristlehump’s south gate.
“That’s gotta be, what, about a hundred meters?” Dom said.
“Yup. They know what they’re about. It was the longbows that took him,” said Peep.
“Ye wanna find their spot?” Pinch asked her.
“Yeah, ye know what? I do. Then, it’s just about lunch. Let’s move.”
It took just ten minutes for them to find the spot where Sneed’s squad had killed Lieutenant Dixon from. It was not all that hard to do. They overshot the spot coming out from the bush onto the Bristlenook road, and then worked their way back towards the Crotch. When they reached the point where the angle seemed right, Peep and Pinch both paused.
“Four of them, right?” Peep asked him.
“Yeah.”
“So they’re gonna wanna keep their horses more in the bush and spread out in a line with a view that away. So that puts them about here,” Peep said as she slowly walked over to the spot. She pointed over at the road where Dixon had died. “Yup. We’re riding directly away from them right from there. And, yeah, about a hundred meters.”
“And lit up by all the lanterns and torches at the yard,” Pinch said.
“Dead to fuckin rights,” Peep muttered.
She hunkered down to look at the ground all around. She took a few slow steps towards the trees looking down at their roots. It took her just a moment to find what she was looking for.
“Motherfucker,” she muttered. “Motherfucker!” she then exclaimed.
Peep snapped her fingers back at Pinch and pointed to the roots at the base of the biggest tree at the edge of the road just there. It would have provided good cover for the murderers’ lookout on their ambush. There, nestled snug in the crotch of the roots, was one of Sneed’s little stack of river-rounded pebbles.
“Fucker,” Pinch muttered and he stepped gingerly closer to the base of the tree, peering down at the stack like it was a snake poised to rear up and strike.
Dom, Hardmod, and Rabbit all came in close to stare down at the stack.
“Kay… what the fuck is that?” Dom asked.
“It’s a message for us. From the guy that’s been working us. Like a… whad’ye call it? A…” Peep drifted off, searching for the word.
“A signature,” Pinch finished. “It’s his signature. He left a stack of pebbles when he killed our witness against Lieutenant Dixon. Then, when we had a staredown at Lucky’s in Bristlenook, he left another little stack on the table.”
“Whimsical, Thad called it. Sneed’s just a whimsical guy. Then, at Tully’s, the hoorhouse we burned down when we killed the Chisel and all his men, I was set up spying and I heard Sneed playing with fuckin pebbles. It’s his thing. When he left the joint, he strolled up the crick pulling pebbles out to take with him.”
“And then he left those here,” Dom said.
“Yeah. At the spot where he killed Dixon,” Pinch said.
“Alright, then, so with this psycho, who’s hunting who?” Dom asked.
“Guess that all depends,” Peep said.
“On?”
“Whoever lines up their shot first.”
“And where is this guy now? As far as we know,” Dom asked.
“Off to the north, we’ve heard. Hatching his next scheme on us,” Peep said.
“North. To the Moondark Hills,” Dom said. His voice was flat, so he was hiding whatever fear he was feeling. Behind him, Rabbit and Hardmod were having less success with that.
“Yeah. Maybe. Maybe not. We’re working on it,” Peep said.
There was silence for a while then.
“Working on it,” Dom eventually repeated. “By, what, waiting around here for him to spring it on us?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Peep conceded. “D’ye have a better idea?”
Dom stared at her for as long as he could hold her steady gaze.
“No,” he eventually said as he looked away.
“Yeah. I didn’t reckon so. Welcome aboard!” Peep laughed. “But, seriously, guys, if ye do have a better idea, throw yar hand up. I’m all ears.”
“D’ye wanna grab the stones?” Pinch asked.
Peep thought about it as she stared at them some more.
“No. Fuck that. Leave em be. Don’t wanna give him the satisfaction if he comes back around to check.”
“Sounds right. Okay, then. So… it’s about lunchtime, yeah?” Pinch said.
“Yeah. Let’s head that away and go through the Crotch. Let the knuckle draggers at the yard see that we’ve been out and about this morning,” Peep said.
With this, the five of them moved up the road heading towards the south gate.
Muse Vassal 