table of contents – (spoilers)
After Peep came down from the watchtower, she brought Pinch’s old bow and quiver over to Mariola and Choke, who were both flushed from their training, in all manner of ways.
“So, how’d it go?” Peep asked.
“Great!” Mariola exclaimed, her eyes alight. “Lieutenant Pekot is such a marvelous instructor!”
“Thank you. And, please, you can call me Choke. If you want,” Choke said, glancing away from her suddenly, his earlier awkwardness fast returning.
“Well, okay then, Choke. I don’t mind if I do. At least when it’s just, ye know, the inner circle,” Mariola smiled now at Peep.
“Okay, yeah. You two are fuckin adorable. Fit to make me sick here. So that’s enough for today. Mariola, this here bow belongs to Pinch, but he said ye can use it. It aint a deer bow, but it’ll put a man down if ye hit him in the right spot. So start taking some shots with it. Get comfortable. And if ye can bag some game to fill yar pot, so much the better. Right?”
“Yes, indeed! Thank ye, Peep! For everything!”
“No doubt. So, are we finding ye a place to stay up here tonight, or what?” Peep asked.
At this, Choke’s face spasmed in panic and he turned quickly on his heel to stomp Knuckle’s way to see what might require his attention over there.
“Oh, poor dear. He really is too cute,” Mariola said quietly, smiling after him.
“What did I just say, woman? That’s enough of that. I don’t need to be hearing about yar dirty business. Least of all with him,” Peep snapped, her scowl now genuine.
“Right. Sorry. So… what were ye asking?”
“If yar staying here tonight, or heading back down to the Wailers?” Peep said, still short.
“That’s right. Ahm. Well, I didn’t say anything to them about not coming back. So they will get ruffled if I don’t, I’m sure. So, I guess I’ll go back and make sure they’re okay. For tonight, at least,” Mariola said, her voice dropping low as she finished, staring thoughtfully over at Choke, who was talking with Knuckle as they watched the men putting the practice spears away against the palisade wall.
“Alright then. So take this bow, and that roundshield and spear. Also, ye should probably see if any of the Wailers can use a shield or spear. Or if they just want them, even if they can’t. We got the extras. Send whoever wants them up here tomorrow morning. Right?”
“Yes. Will do, Peep. Thank ye again.”
“No problem. Alright, then, see ye tomorrow, I reckon.”
Peep held up her fist and Mariola gave it a solid bump. Peep left her and wandered off towards the barracks’ kitchen to grab another ale and smoke a bowl.
Now left alone in the courtyard, Mariola threw the quiver and bow over her shoulder, with the bowstring across her front and the bow at her back. She then went to put her practice spear away before grabbing her proper one. The soldiers she was moving through gave her a respectful space, and she immediately noticed the change in them towards her. She straightened her back a little more and occupied that space they were giving her. Then she went to speak to Choke, who was still talking to Knuckle.
Knuckle scowled at her, but nodded and took a half step back from Choke, allowing her to cut in. Mariola gave him a nod before she did:
“Well, thank you so much for today, Choke. I had a wonderful time. I feel so much safer now,” she said, stepping in closer to him.
“Well, yes, uh, yeah, that’s my pleasure! Any time! Please do join all our training sessions!” Choke responded, too loudly.
“Okay, sir. I’m gonna go see to that shit now,” Knuckle said, saluting Choke before stepping out.
“Yes! Thank you, Sergeant!” Choke returned the salute.
“Well, I should be getting going to. We don’t want to be leaving Peep’s people unsupervised for too long. But thank you again,” Mariola said, leaning in to squeeze Choke’s upper arm.
“Yes, of course. But, I’ll escort you there. Nike is still saddled. Just give me a moment to saddle a horse for you,” Choke said, still in a borderline panic.
“No, no. That’s alright, Choke. I’ve been walking to and fro for the last bit, and no harm’s come to me. You needn’t do that.”
“No, I insist. It’ll just take a minute.”
“Well… I don’t want to bother ye saddling a horse just for me. But, actually, I am pretty tuckered out from everything today. So I don’t mind doubling behind ye,” Mariola said, just a little too breathlessly as she stared deeply into Choke’s eyes.
“Yes. Uh. Okay,” Choke managed.
Choke had soon retrieved Nike and rode up to Mariola. He had a soldier hold her spear and shield for her and reached down to offer her his arm to help lift her up onto the back of his saddle. He then took the shield and spear from the soldier, arming himself with them.
“I will return shortly. As you were,” Choke said to his man.
“Yes, sir,” the man saluted.
Choke tapped his helmet with the spear in lieu of a salute and rode out the north gate. On the wide trail down to the Bristle Creek, they passed several lumberjacks returning to town on their way to work. The men got out of Choke’s way and dipped their heads submissively as he rode past them.
“Thank you. A good day to you, men,” Choke said.
Choke kept Nike at a walk heading down the slope with Mariola hugging him tightly from behind.
“Choke,” she said softly into his ear.
“Yes?”
“Do you believe what Peep and Father Morrenthall have been saying? About the horrible evil that’s coming? Do you really think something terrible is going to happen?”
He thought for a second.
“I think so, yes. I haven’t seen or felt anything myself, but I have felt the spirit of Stron in Peep’s brands. And I have seen her conviction. And Father Morrenthall’s. Something is coming,” he said.
“And what are you going to do about it?” Mariola asked.
“I am going to help Peep do as she must. Whatever I can do. To the end, I am with her.”
“And what if that’s not enough?”
“Well, then, we will die doing our duty for Stron. And we will go to Heaven as our reward for dying righteously,” Choke said, his voice steady with conviction.
“Do you believe that?”
“Yes. Unquestionably, yes. We must simply be strong and do our duty and we shall go to Heaven. What is death compared to that?”
“I don’t know. Not so much, I suppose. And it aint like this life’s such a treat,” Mariola said.
“So you are with us, then?”
“Yeah. Suppose I am. I don’t have anywhere else to go. I don’t have anyone else.”
“So you are just as the rest of us. All of us have only each other in this world,” Choke said
Mariola was silent for a while then. When they were down the hump and across the Bristle Creek onto the Bristlenook road, she took a deep breath and released it slowly, hot across the back of his neck.
“So if things are going to go to Hell soon, I guess we shouldn’t waste any more time, then,” she said.
Mariola dropped her right hand from Choke’s chest and slid it up his thigh, under then hem of his chainmail. He reined up, stopping Nike as she grabbed his thickening cock with a firm grip.
“Mariola…” he sighed, tensing as he began to twist away from her.
“Shhhh,” she said into his ear, hugging him close as she massaged him through his breeches. “It’s all good, baby. It’s right. Shhhh.”
Choke closed his eyes and relaxed. She kept working his cock just a little longer, before releasing him.
“Okay, baby, that’s enough for now. You can take me back to them.”
Choke got Nike moving again. It was only a couple more minutes to the trail up to the Wilson place.
“Here’s good,” she said, sliding off the saddle to the ground as he reined up. “I’ll walk up from here. But get off that horse and say goodbye to me properly.”
Choke was helpless to do anything but. When he was standing in front of her, she took her shield and spear from him and dropped them to the ground. Then she slid inside his arms and leaned down to kiss him. It was a long, wonderful kiss. When they separated, she licked her lips and kissed her way up his neck to his ear. Once she had lightly licked and nibbled his earlobe, she whispered:
“Tomorrow, after I’ve cooked the Brother’s meal, I think I’m gonna clean up that church stable. Late morning, Barrelmender doesn’t leave the church. He sits and prays in front of the altar. Or, maybe sits in the kitchen and reads. But he don’t go out back. And I’m gonna be in that church stable all by myself.”
Mariola broke off speaking to kiss Choke up and down his neck some more.
“So, tomorrow morning, I want ye to wash yarself real good. Make yarself nice and clean everywhere. And then yar gonna come to me in that stable. And then I’m gonna show ye how to make me feel real good. And I’m gonna make you feel real good, too, baby. And that can be something just for the two of us. Because we don’t have much time, and a kind touch is really the best we can get in this world.”
Mariola separated from Choke and looked up at him. He was just able to meet her steady gaze.
“So yar gonna do that for me, right, baby? Yar not gonna disappoint me. Yar gonna come to me, aren’t ye?”
“Yes,” Choke rasped.
“That’s good. Now, I’m gonna kiss ye one more time, baby. And when I do, I want ye to grab my ass like the man ye are.”
Mariola kissed him. This was better than the last, and Choke grabbed her just as she had told him to. And, when that was finished, she broke away from him, picked up the spear and shield, and was gone.
***
The next morning at breakfast, the Pekot cadre of Choke, Peep, Pinch, and Knuckle coordinated their day’s plan. Peep and Pinch were to track down the women, Annica and Mya, to see what they could tell them about Thad Swallowtail’s place in Bristlenook. As for the others, with the foresting getting close to finished, Choke decided to do a full push on it that day, putting all the men on the work detail.
“Now, Knuckle, do you mind supervising the men by yourself this morning? With Dom and Lenny, of course” Choke asked. “I’m worried our horses haven’t been ridden enough the last few days, so I want to get them all out and trot them a bit. I’ll also check on the three in the church stable.”
Choke finished with a furtive look away from everyone, but if anyone noticed it, they did not let on.
“Yeah, no problem, Choke,” Knuckle said giving Pinch a sour look. “I’ll handle them.”
“Thank you. This afternoon, I expect I’ll join you outside. Assuming nothing else comes up,” Choke said.
With the day’s plan settled, they split up after lunch. Peep and Pinch decided to head down to the Crotch at the south gate on foot to begin asking after the women. Usually, some of the town’s idle folk gathered there to enjoy the sun at the Cowslip Creek’s bank, while many of the womenfolk did their washing in the creek.
That day was no different. Four women were doing laundry in the Cowslip, with a half-a-dozen young children scattered around. Several old men with broken teeth were seated in the sun with their backs to the palisade, watching the women at the shore.
Above the south gate, some crows were pecking away at Butters’ head on its spike. No one was paying that any mind. When Pinch and Peep came out the south gate, the folk at the river noticed them and acknowledged them with polite nods. Some of the women’s attention lingered on Pinch for a longer moment before they got back to work. Significantly, while both Peep and Pinch were fully armed, with bows and sidearms, the relaxed mood had not diminished in the slightest with their arrival.
“Okay, they like ye. You do the talking,” Peep said quietly as they approached.
“What do I say?”
“Whatever. Work yar charm. Just find out where the hoors got to.”
Pinch sighed and raised his hand as he addressed the folk there:
“Good morning everyone! I hope yar all well. I wonder if ye can help us,” he said, keeping his voice light and friendly.
“Hey, yar the one that killed that pimp soldier that run off with them girls, aint ye?” one of the old timers.
“That’s right, sir. I am. We are. And that’s sort of what I need some help with. Do any of you know where those women, Annica and Mya, are right now? We need to talk with them a little more,” said Pinch.
“Talk, ye say! Ha! They got their hooks deep into ye already, did they boy!” another oldster cackled.
“I woulda thought a young buck like you wouldn’t be so impressed with country hoors like that,” another said.
“Well now, ye know, I’ll have ye know that in my day I had hoors aplenty, both town and country, and I’ll say that if yar willing to pay a premium, and by that I mean a real premium, then sure; ye can get some much better looking strange in towns. But, by in large, it’s the country gals that put in the better effort. And that’s some real value for yar money, I’d say,” another old man said.
A majority of the old men in attendance seemed to agree with this good sense.
“Ye old goats think the corporal here is needing to pay for it in town these days? If he is, he’s as dumb as the lot of ye,” a middle-aged woman shouted with a grin as she stood up from the river, her wet skirts clinging high to her thighs. “If ye get to feeling like that, honey, ye just come find me and I’ll take care of all yar wants,” she said to Pinch, grinding her hips suggestively at him.
This caused a wild ruckus, with the women and men alike cackling and hollering good naturedly. When this had calmed just enough, Peep stepped forward and raised up her palm.
“Hey now!” Peep proclaimed, her voice loud, but steady, without humor or menace. “If that sorta thing was what this was about, d’ye think I’d be here with him? So, fun is fun, but we got shit to do. So do any of ye know where Annica and Mya got to, or not?”
“Yeah, we do, Miss. We do,” another woman said raising her hand. “They wound up going to Mavis’ shack, on account of Mavis having some extra room and having a hard time of it since her Harold passed.”
“Mavis, huh? Okay, what’s her deal?” Peep asked.
“Well, she’s widowed, right? Just girls with them, too. Three daughters. One died having a baby a while back, and the other two are married up now. She was managing her place alone, ye know, doing some weaving and this or that, on account of her being a stubborn old cow and not wanting to move in with either of her girls, on account of not getting along with her sons-in-law, ye see. And then, there’s all that bother with—”
“Okay, okay. I got it. Thanks,” Peep interrupted. “So, where is Mavis’ place?”
“Just up yonder up the crick here. Just a couple of sheds this side of where Tully’s used to be. Mikey can show ye, can’t ye boy!” the woman snapped her fingers at a nearby lad of about seven.
“Yes, ma!” he answered.
“Okay, then. Ye show these two Mavis’ place and then come right on back. No pissing around by the crick up there. That’s some proper bush on this side of it up there. All sorts of gobos and bandits sneaking around in there, no doubt. Snatch ye right up!”
“Yes, ma!”
“Alright, thank you ma’am. Thank you, all! Stron bless you!” Peep said loud, tracing a Wheel over in the air towards the folk with her open palm.
“Amen! Praise Stron!” some of the folk replied enthusiastically. Those that did not managed to fake it well enough.
“Okay, then. Thank ye, ma’am. Boy, yar gonna show us to this Mavis’ place? Ye know where it is?” Peep asked the lad.
“Yup!”
“Alright. Lead the way,” Peep said to him.
Muse Vassal 