Table of Contents – (spoilers)
Brother Barrelmender stomped through the front doors of the church, making a terrifying entrance in his demonic plate armor. As before when he had trained the men, he had a longsword on his hip, and walked with his staff loose in hand. He ignored Annica and Mya, who yelped in fear as he strode by them, heading to the altar where Peep and Choke were praying silently.
“You have had success, I hear,” Barrelmender said, stopping at the front pew to set down his staff and remove his helm.
“Yes, Brother,” Choke said as he and Peep rose to their feet and sheathed their swords. “The murderer was slain, and the two captives rescued.”
“Good. And the man was your attempted assassin from Spitzer Fort? You have confirmed this yourself?”
Choke blinked. “Well, actually, no, Brother. Pinch, I mean, Sergeant Nikolas, had wrapped the body by the time we got to the cabin, and there were other things going on that distracted me. I’ll check the body as soon as we’ve finished here. It’s in the back yard.”
“Very well. You may as well process it while you’re at it. Whether it is your man from Spitzer, or not, he was the murderer from South Hill. That is confirmed, yes?” Barrelmender asked.
“Yes, Brother. His two captives have assured us of that. As well, they are prepared to give evidence that you will be most interested in hearing. But, pardon me, to go back just a little. What do you mean process the body?” Choke asked.
“Well, you are my apparitor, are you not? That is a murderer. So, cut off the head and put it up over the south gate. Then have the body buried in unconsecrated ground. If you are squeamish about beheading a corpse, then I suppose you could delegate that as well.”
“No, Brother I will do it. It is the right thing to do with it, of course.”
“I know. You say the captives have testimony that I will find interesting. Concerning what?”
“Whom, actually, Brother,” Choke said, not bothering to contain his smile. “Thad Swallowtail. They have heard him preach the Solluna Union heresy.”
“Have they, now? Well, then, that is something, isn’t it. That’s them there, is it? You there!” Barrelmender barked at Annica and Mya, who were now doing their best to hide in the back corner of the church. “Come here! To me! Now!”
The two women came to the front of the church, quaking at the sight of Brother Barrelmender, tall and broad shouldered in his terrifying armor.
“I understand you have testimony for me,” Brother Barrelmender said to them.
“Sir?” Annica stammered.
“It means— oh, never mind! What’s the point explaining it to the likes of you? Sit down! Both of you!”
Annica and Mya immediately sat down together in the nearest pew, holding hands and trembling in terror.
Barrelmender looked up at the altar and closed his eyes, his lips fluttering through a silent prayer. Then he grasped his iron Wheel holy symbol around his neck.
“Stron! Grant me the ability to detect lies! Thank you, Lord. Amen.”
Brother Barrelmender took a few heavy steps to sit down in the pew directly behind Annica and Mya. He leaned forward to grip the back of their pew with both gauntleted hands, one just to the outside of each woman’s shoulder. With his face now just behind the backs of their heads, he spoke in a quiet but firm voice:
“If you lie to me, I will know it. If you lie, it will go badly for you. Now, tell me what you told Lieutenant Pekot and Otilla of the Holy Fire.”
With Mya now incapable of speech, Annica did her best. It was good enough. With a few prompts and follow-up questions, Barrelmender confirmed that the man Pinch had killed was the man that had murdered Paige and Henri. She also told him about Thad’s heretical musings towards them, although without any of the sexual embellishments that Mya had provided Peep and Choke.
Annica’s testimony took only about five minutes. When it was done, Barrelmender slumped back in his pew as complete exhaustion seemed to overtake him. He sat back, eyes closed, breathing heavily for another couple of minutes. Everyone else remained just as they were, frozen.
Finally, Brother Barrelmender leaned forward, his plate armor clicking and scraping against the wood of the pew.
“You have done well. Thank you, children. Stron bless you.”
Barrelmender traced the Wheel over both Annica and Mya. Then he touched them lightly on the backs of their heads before standing up abruptly, startling everyone except Peep, who was now sitting off to the side, grinning broadly at him.
“That is all for today, then, yes? You have no more need of me?” Barrelmender asked Choke.
“No, Brother. That is all. We can discuss this testimony at a later time, I think.”
“Yes. Now I am bone tired. I will take a rest in my quarters. Do not disturb me until tomorrow, unless absolutely necessary. Is that clear?” Barrelmender said. It seemed he was not exaggerating his condition, as he was swaying on his feet, and look even paler than usual.
“Yes, Brother. Please take a rest. Thank you for all your help.”
“Deal with all this as well. Yes?” Barrelmender waved his hand over top of Annica and Mya. “I would rather it not be here when I awake.”
“Of course, Brother. I understand completely,” Choke said.
Barrelmender shuffled to the front pews, where he retrieved his helm and staff. He then headed for the door to the kitchen and his private chamber, but paused on his way to turn back to Choke.
“Thank you, Pekot. For taking matters in hand. And for encouraging me. This last while has been a welcome change. Tiring and trying, of course. But welcome. Do forgive my difficulties.”
Choke blinked in shock at this dramatic reversal of attitude, but rallied quickly enough:
“You are quite welcome, Brother. And thank you. We shall do great things together. Of that I am sure.”
Barrelmender waved this away and turned his back on Choke, leaving without anything further.
“See?” Peep said quietly. “He’s our priest. It’s on now.”
“It seems so,” Choke said. He sat looking up at the Wheel altar. The resolve his answered prayer had given him was still strong within him. There was no questioning that they were on the right course, but a part of him quaked at the implications of this. Something more occurred to him.
“Peep,” he said quietly, leaning towards her.
“Yeah?”
“When we were praying just now, you felt the presence of Stron, or, I suppose, one of his angels, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“I know this is personal, but I have to ask. Did that change anything for you? Did it match up with the spirit of the Holy Fire in you?”
Peep looked away from Choke and down to the Wheel brands in her open palms. When she raised her gaze back to meet Choke’s, there was no questioning her calm resolve.
“Yeah, it matched up. There’s work to be done here, and it aint gonna be pretty. The worry ye raised earlier, about how we’re always taking the hard line when doing the law thing; how’d that hold up for ye?”
“It didn’t. It is weakness that we can ill afford. That is clear to me, now,” Choke said.
Peep nodded. “Alright. So let’s get on with it, huh?”
Peep clapped her hands and stood up to face Annica and Mya, still sitting in their pew together with their heads bowed, making every effort to remain unnoticed.
“Alright, ladies. Looks like yar done here. Pack up and take all that shit with ye,” Peep said, pointing at the pile of belongings they had been going through earlier.
“Did we do good?” Annica asked, daring to raise her face to meet Peep’s eye.
“Yeah. Ye done good. We can be friends. Anyone gives ye any trouble, ye let me know. And if ye stumble on any information about Sneed or any other Outfit baddies, I’ll pay ye for it.”
Peep dug out her coin pouch and gave Annica and Mya both a silver coin. They looked well pleased.
“Now, one last thing,” Peep said. “Ye were talking before about keeping yar mouths shut. Now, I hope it would be obvious to ye both that that’s the safest course for ye going forward. If it gets known that yar feeding us information and are privy to who we’re going after because of that, well… how d’ye think the Outfit cats out there are gonna feel about that? So be smart.”
Peep looked Annica to Mya and back again. They both nodded.
“Any other questions?”
Both women shook their heads.
“Alright, then, ye can take off. Don’t forget to take that stuff with ye. Good luck to ye,” Peep said.
Choke stepped forward. “Indeed. Good luck to you both. And thank you for your help. Stron bless you.”
“Yeah, right. Why not?” Peep said. She traced the Wheel over them both and touched her right palm to their heads in turn. “Stron, bless these women. For, in their way, they have done yar work. Keep them safe. Amen.”
When the women had gathered up their things and left the church, Peep looked to Choke.
“Okay, LT, now what?”
He flinched. “I suppose I need to go and check that the body out back is indeed Butters. Then I need to cut its head off.”
“Oh, that’s right! Bonus! I thought it was gonna be something lame!” Peep grinned, giving Choke a friendly swat when he gave her a weary look.
Out back of the church, Corporal Dom had dumped the corpse right where Choke had told him: between the shed and the small stable. The body was on its back, and the cloak it was wrapped in had shifted further, but Dom had done them the kindness of covering up its crotch with the piece of burlap that had been over its ass.
Grimacing in distaste, Choke drew his dagger and cut through the rawhide chord binding the cloak’s hood over the corpse’s face. He then used the dagger’s point to pull the hood down. Staring down at the bloody face with its smashed mouth, Choke winced and tilted his head to the side.
“So, is that Butters?” Peep asked.
“I don’t know. Possibly. It’s hard to tell.”
“Yeah, no doubt. But who else could it be, anyways, right? Everything else lines up.”
“This is true,” Choke said, still staring at the face. “Yes. I think it is him. Yes, it’s him.”
“Good. So now we just gotta pop that head off and stick it over the south gate,” Peep said cheerfully.
Choke sighed as he nodded. “Yes, it must be done. Could you grab a log to stick under the neck?” he asked Peep as he began to draw his sword.
“Woah, hold up, man,” Peep said, grabbing his elbow to stop the draw. “I’ll do it.”
“No, thank you, Peep. I appreciate the offer, but this is not the sort of thing I should delegate.”
“What’s that mean? Delegate?” Peep asked.
“It means to get someone else to do it. If I am Barrelmender’s apparitor, this is the sort of thing I need to do,” Choke said.
“What are ye on about, man? This is exactly the sort of shit ye get someone else to do. Yar Lieutenant Pekot. The future golden boy of Spitzer! Ye don’t chop the heads off killed murderers. That’s what I do for ye.”
“Look, Peep—”
“No, you look, man. Ye think Sheriff Waters did that kinda shit himself? Of course not. He wouldn’t even diddle someone until Billy’d broken them in first. Yar an officer. Ye don’t do that kinda ill shit yarself. Ye got people for that. Or, d’ye wanna become known as the dirty work guy?”
Choke glowered at Peep for a while before deflating as he realized that she was, of course, absolutely correct.
“Well, I suppose you are right. Thank you, Peep. But are you sure that you want to be the one that does it?”
“Yeah, I am. This is me, right here. All fuckin day long,” Peep grinned as she drew her shortsword. “So do me the favor then, and pop a log under his neck. That shit was a good idea.”
Choke dug a smaller log out of the wood pile and set it on the ground above Butters’ head. He then lifted up on the shoulders and Peep rolled the log under the neck with her boot. With her boot pressing down on the face to tension the neck, it took Peep just a few swipes of her magical blade to sever the head.
“Yeah, that worked a treat!” she said. She left the head where it had rolled and went to the trough to wash off her blade. She dried it on her breeches before sheathing it.
“Alright, head’s sorted,” she said ambling back. She pointed to the corpse. “But we aint the gravediggers around here no more. Ye guys potted Henri and that other hoor yesterday, right? Who dug their holes?”
“Some older fellow. He seems to live just around the corner here,” Choke gestured vaguely. “We can arrange that once this chore is done.”
Peep nodded. She picked the head up by its hair and went around the side of the church towards the town square. Choke followed her.
Out in the square, Annica and Mya were standing next to their bundled belongings talking with a number of other women. Stadnick the stablemaster, Royce the tavernkeeper, Otto the blacksmith, and Bill Cornmasher the general store keeper were all standing together in front of the tavern, talking quietly as they watched the women. With her free hand, Peep tapped her brow in salute to the merchants. Otto the blacksmith scowled and turned away to spit.
All of the women were quite excited to see Butters’ head, and followed Peep and Choke to the south gate. Peep went up the steep stairs to the walkway above the gate where there were four rusted iron spikes for just this purpose. She skewered the head on one of the middle ones, facing out towards the crotch. The small crowd of villagers that had gathered with the two soldiers on guard gave some more hoots and applause.
Peep went down to the creek to wash her hands while a few lads began throwing rocks at the head. There was quite a lot of lively banter. Choke exchanged a few pleasantries with some of the folk while waiting for Peep, but managed to avoid getting dragged into anything involved.
Back at the church, Choke and Peep split up. Choke went to locate the gravedigger to engage his services. Peep went back around to the church yard to slip into the church kitchen to retrieve Butters’ money satchel where she had hidden it in the pantry. She then grabbed her horse, Gorgeous Boy, and went back to the barracks to put him away in the stable. Pinch and Knuckle had all the men except the cook, Hubert, back out clearing the forest, so Peep had the place mostly to herself. She took some time poking around, making sure nothing important had been stolen or misplaced. Everything was to her satisfaction.
When Choke returned, he had the men brought back into the courtyard to stand at attention.
“Men! As you may have heard, the fugitive Butters, formally a corporal in the King’s army, has been brought to justice by Sergeant Nikolas and Otilla of the Holy Fire. Any of you who are interested can go to see his head on the south gate when you have the free time. Now, as to that: You have been receiving some useful training from our magistrate, Brother Barrelmender. And I trust you all appreciate the opportunity!” Choke said loudly, with a just trace of humor.
There was a murmur through the men, with some of them chuckling darkly, while other muttered curses.
“Understand!” Choke continued. “This is an opportunity for you! He is a Brother of the Holy Stone, and a hero of the realm! The training you receive from him, while it may seem harsh, shall prepare you well for what is to come. Or do you think the bandits, witches, and goblins we are likely to face will be easier on you?”
Choke paused to let that sink in. When he continued, his tone was friendly:
“However, I do understand all too well just how tough Holy Stoner training can be. And I am proud of you for how you have taken it. So, it is about an hour until lunch. You may now fall out and do as you wish until we sound the lunch call. Stay within the town walls. And stay out of trouble! After lunch, we shall split you into two groups. One group shall continue clearing the forest with Sergeant Nikolas and Corporals Dom and Lenny. The other shall begin weapon training with your wooden spears. That shall be conducted by Sergeant Theodas and myself. The groups shall switch at mid-afternoon, so you all shall get a chance to do both. That is all. You are now free until lunch. Dismissed!”
Then men cheerfully saluted Choke, who returned it in kind. He then gestured for Dom and Lenny to approach.
“Yes, sir?” Corporal Dom asked.
“The two of you may relax as well, but I will ask that you try to keep an eye on the men, if possible. And, Corporal Dom: do feel free to share your experience of the manhunt with the men. They no doubt will be curious, and I would like them to understand in no uncertain terms what happens to vile men such as Butters.”
“Yes, sir!” Corporals Dom and Lenny said, saluting.
Choke saluted them in return. Then he turned to Peep, Pinch, and Knuckle, who had gathered near him.
“I think we all have earned an ale before lunch, don’t you? And we have a lot to talk over. It’s a nice day. Let’s pull some chairs out have a beer at the edge of the courtyard there, in the shade, shall we?”
Muse Vassal 