table of contents – (spoilers)
Mariola and Choke were still in the tent together, a good two hours after Choke had said that he absolutely had to get back his men right away.
“I need to go. I have to get back!” Choke groaned, wriggling out from underneath her.
“You keep saying that, but ye aint trying very hard,” Mariola giggled.
“Well, this time I mean it!” Choke said rolling free of her clutches to start assembling his clothes.
“Uh-huh. I’ve heard that before, too. Wait… is that one of the gate bells?”
“Yes, very funny. Wait…” Choke froze. “Shit! It is! I have to go!”
This time, Mariola ceased impeding him and helped him get dressed. She threw her dress on before joining him outside the tent to help him put on his chainmail. They were just about done with that when there was the strident note of Pinch’s horn.
“Oh, shit! Shit! We have to go!”
“Settle down, Choke! It was just the gate bell. They’re blowing the horn because they don’t know where ye are. If it was a real emergency, it woulda been the horn first,” Mariola said, not particularly confidently.
“We need to go now!” Choke barked, grabbing her wrist and pulling her towards Nike.
“The tent, silly!” Mariola said as she broke free of his grip. “Ye go and I’ll pack it up. The horn’s stopped. It’s gonna be fine. But we don’t want be stumbling outta the bush together all in a state, now do we? That’ll give them a laugh that’ll spread the story like wildfire.”
Mariola returned to the tent to begin taking it down, waving Choke off as she did.
“I can’t leave you alone out here,” he said.
“Why the hell not? Ye leave me alone out here with all them followers of Peep’s. Ye think they’re such great protection? And if there’s somebody out here that’s gonna get me, they woulda done us both already when we were at it. Go! Go on, Lieutenant! Get! I’ll be fine. See ye later,” Mariola laughed.
Choke hesitated just a little more, but Mariola had stopped paying attention to him, so there was really nothing for him to do other than leave. He mounted Nike and turned back to her.
“As soon as you’ve packed up, come up to town!” he barked at her.
“Yes, sir!” she straightened up to give him a cheeky salute.
Muttering a curse, he waved and rode Nike out the little trail they had come to the clearing on. This led to the Bristlenook road, not far from the access trail to the property Mariola and the Holy Wailers were occupying.
Choke decided to ride down the road to the south gate where he would be able to observe the town from across the river. There was no sign of anything amiss. It was now late afternoon, and across the Bristle Creek the teamsters were busy loading their big lumber wagons. Choke rode through the Crotch to the south gate, which was open. A pair of soldiers, shields and spears in hand, were standing around with a few villagers.
“Men! What was the alarm!” Choke demanded as he reined up in front of them.
“Sir! Don’t know, sir!”
“Well, why is the gate open, then!”
“We had it shut, but nothing was happening, so I went up to the base and checked and Sergeant Theodas said all was clear. Sir.”
“Alright, then. Good. Carry on.”
“Yes, sir.” The two men saluted.
Choke rode through town to the military compound. Most of the men seemed to be milling around the courtyard near the barracks’ door with their foresting tools still in hand. Knuckle was amongst them, talking with Osgar, the burly thug he favored for promotion to corporal.
“What’s happening, Sergeant?” Choke asked as he rode up.
“Sir. Spearman Reece had an accident. Or something.”
“What happened?”
“I dunno. They were finishing up clearing the bush down to the river. Guess Reece drags himself outta the bush up a ways bleeding like a stuck pig. Leg wound.”
“You guess? You weren’t with them?” Choke asked sharply.
“No, sir. We were on night watch last night, remember? I was down the way visiting them ladies with Osgar here. We come back up when we heard the horn.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Choke sighed, realizing that he had taken his afternoon off at the same time he had given Knuckle and his squad leave to.
“And Reece was off, too, wasn’t he?” Choke asked.
“That’s right.”
“So what was he doing outside with the work team?”
“I dunno?” Knuckle said.
Looking him over, Choke realized that he was actually fairly drunk.
“Okay, then. So where is Reece now?”
“In the barracks. With Peep and Pinch,” Knuckle gestured towards the open door.
“And where is Corporal Dom?” Choke asked, looking around the men and then the rest of the courtyard.
“I dunno, sir. Aint seen him since we cut his buddy down,” Knuckle said.
Osgar leaned in and raised his hand. “I seen him, sir. We dumped the body in the cart and the old guy drug if off. Corporal Dom went with him. Aint seen him since.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” Knuckle said, brightening up as he remembered.
“Thank you, spearman,” Choke said. “Your name is Osgar, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And you are friends with Reece, who has had this accident, aren’t you? Do you know what happened to him?” Choke asked.
“No, sir. Not a clue, sir,” Osgar said, straightening up to stand at attention and stare straight off into space in front of him.
“Very well. Sergeant! Call the men to muster! How are we to know how many of them are even here?”
“Yes, sir!” Knuckle bellowed cheerfully. “Ye heard the Lieutenant, ye swine! Form up! On the double! Move! Move! Move!”
Choke left Knuckle to it and tethered Nike to the nearest hitching post before going to check inside the barracks. Back in the kitchen, Pinch and Peep were sitting to either side of Reece, who was laying on a bench, writhing in pain. Knuckle had not been exaggerating: he was bleeding badly from a wound high in his thigh. Pinch was holding Reece down while Peep was applying pressure on a tourniquet fashioned from an iron fire poker through a leather belt to wind it tight. It was this that was causing Reece the greatest pain. A second fire poker was heating up inside the cookstove.
“Fuck! Just get the fuck on with it!” Reece pleaded through clenched teeth.
“I don’t do shit more until ye tell me what really happened, ye fuck!” Peep returned. She looked up as Choke entered and grinned at him. “Oh, good! Yar back from yar patrol of Trout Bush!”
“Yes, thank you, Peep. What’s happened?” Choke snapped.
“Fucked if we know. We were just— Hey! Shut the fuck up!” Peep interrupted herself to holler at Reece as he gave a piercing yowl. “Yeah, so we had the guys gathering up our lumber outside the wall, and Reece was hanging around being a pest, so I told him if he didn’t piss off, I’d put him to work. And it seemed like he did, but then, not ten minutes later, we hear a yell and he comes dragging his ass outta the bush bleeding.”
“Axe wound?” Choke asked, peering down at Reece’s leg. The breeches had already been cut away, but there was too much blood to see a wound clearly.
“Nah. Stabbed. For sure. Something slim. But fucker won’t tell us what happened. He’s just saying he fell on a sharp stick,” Peep said.
“That’s what happened! Miss! Fuck! Please! I fuckin fell down!”
“Like fuck ye did! Who stabbed ye! Spill it!” Peep yelled in his face, torquing the torniquet tighter.
Reece screamed.
“Peep! Enough! We have more pressing matters than getting his story right now! Dom is gone now, and we don’t know if all the men are even here! Just heal him already!” Choke shouted.
“He aint getting Stron’s healing, the fuck! No chance! But fine. Have it yar way, then, ye fuck!” he yelled in Reece’s face. “Choke: you hold him down up top. Pinch: take the tourniquet and keep that leg still. I’ll stick the brand in.”
“Oh, Altas’ mercy,” Choke said as he replaced Pinch holding Reece’s upper body down to the bench.
Peep pulled the iron poker out of the stove. Its point was orange hot. Peep showed no hesitation before stabbing it into Reece’s wound with obvious glee. Reece howled as smoke and steam rose from his leg. Then he passed out.
“Okay! Pinch! Let off!” Peep shouted as she withdrew the poker.
When the torniquet was loosened, it seemed that Peep had done a good job. There was just a little bleeding. Looking pleased with herself Peep grabbed their medical kit.
“I’m gonna put some honey in there and stitch him up while he’s out. Ye two may as well get on with them pressing matters,” she said.
Choke and Pinch went out through the kitchen door to the courtyard. Knuckle had the men lined up.
“Two missing, sir!” Knuckle proclaimed. “Corporal Dom and that little fucker that Pinch likes.”
“Who? Rabbit?” Pinch asked, looking up and down the two lines of men.
“Sergeant!” Choke said loudly to Knuckle, giving him a significant look towards the men. “I think you forget that Corporal Dom is not missing. He went to see to the burial of his friend, did he not?”
“Huh? Oh, right, sir. Yeah, sure.”
“And whad’ye mean Rabbit’s missing? He’s right there!” Pinch exclaimed pointing out the slight young man, who was standing at the far end of one of the lines.
“Yeah, that’s right. But he wasn’t here earlier, is what I meant. He tried sneaking in through the gate while I was mustering the men. He’s all wet. Said he fell in the crick trying to clean up after taking a shit,” Knuckle laughed with a drunken grin.
“Well that aint exactly missing, then, is it?” Pinch muttered to him. “Fuck sakes, man, how much potato wine did ye drink?”
“Not enough to dent what I did to them hoors!” Knuckle said loudly.
A number of the men laughed at this.
“Great. Good job,” Pinch said.
“That’s enough!” Choke shouted. “Men! Clean yourselves up and then you may do as you like in your quarters until dinner. Hubert: Otilla should be almost finished treating the wounded man in the kitchen, so you should go and see if you can’t get dinner started. Thank you. Rabbit! You stay out here. The rest of you: dismissed!”
The men saluted and began ambling towards the well and troughs. Knuckle fell in with them. The youngster Rabbit tried to join them.
“You there!” Choke bellowed, striding forward to get in his face. “At attention! I told you to stay!”
The lad startled and snapped to attention. Choke took a close look at him. He seemed to be in a daze.
“This one is meant to be clever, isn’t he? Choke asked Pinch who had followed him.
“Yes, sir.”
Rabbit was indeed wet. He was soaked though head to toe. Choke turned back to him.
“Alright, man. What happened?”
“I told Sarge already, sir.”
“Well, tell me now.”
“It’s nothin, sir. I just was out working with everybody and I had to take a dump and it was messy and I went to clean up in the crick and I fell in and that’s why I got late coming back. That’s all, sir,” Rabbit said, now trembling as though he was chilled. Although he was wet, the afternoon was warm.
“Are you feeling ill? Have you caught a fever?”
“I dunno, sir. I guess so?”
Choke muttered a curse and closed his eyes to think. He reached out to touch Rabbit’s forehead with the back of his hand. He felt normal.
“Alright. Go and sit down over there. On that bench at the stables. You are not to speak to anyone. Go now,” Choke ordered.
“Yes, sir.” Rabbit hurried over to the indicated bench. He seemed to be moving well enough, at least.
“Did you see him leave the work unit? Does that story check out?” Choke asked Pinch quietly.
Pinch thought for a long moment. “I dunno. Now that I think of it, I don’t remember seeing him. Not since near the start of the work.”
“So he could have slipped off into the bushes with diarrhea.”
“Yeah. That’s possible. Or…” Pinch let his voice trail off suggestively.
“Yes. Or, Reece pulled him off into the bushes to continue whatever Knuckle interrupted the other day. And then Rabbit stabbed him, and went down to the creek to wash the blood off himself,” Choke said darkly.
“That makes more sense than Reece injuring himself like that falling on a stick at exactly the same time the kid says he was shitting himself in the woods,” Pinch said.
“Indeed. Okay, thank you. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to help. With Knuckle and Dom off, you and Peep had too much to take care of on your own. I should have been here. This is on me.”
“I don’t think so, man. Don’t take it too seriously. If this was what we think it was, it was gonna come out sooner or later. Ye remember how ye got yar name, right? Same situation, really. Even the Brothers couldn’t stop it, and they had us locked up.”
“None of them were ever as remiss in their vigilance as I was today. I thank you for saying otherwise, but I should have been here. This was my responsibility. So now, if you could go and guard Rabbit. Don’t let any of the men near him. And see if you can’t see any signs of struggle or blood on him. I’m going to talk to Peep. Thank you, Pinch.”
Pinch nodded and saluted before moving over to stand near Rabbit. The men washing themselves at the troughs nearby had been paying him some attention, but Pinch barked at them and they stopped.
Choke went back to the kitchen where Peep was just finishing bandaging Reece’s leg. The man was nominally conscious again, groaning. Hubert was busy preparing dinner, doing his best to ignore the bloody mess. Choke waited until Peep was finished. By that time, men were coming into the barracks, so he went through and assigned two of them to carry Reece into his bunk. With that settled, Choke and Peep stepped outside.
“What’s the story there?” Peep asked, jerking her thumb Rabbit’s way.
“He didn’t come back in with you and the others. Knuckle caught him trying to sneak back in the gate just now. He’s soaking wet. He claims that he had diarrhea and made a mess of himself, and then fell in the river cleaning himself up,” Choke said.
“Well, that’s bullshit,” Peep snorted. “He’s the one Knuckle interrupted Reece and a couple of others trying to fuck, right? So, good for him!”
“No, not good for him. If we leave this alone, Reece and his little gang is going to take revenge on him.”
Peep shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe. That kid that ye choked out for trying to bugger ye, what was his name? Dugnut, right? Did he make any moves on ye?”
“No, he didn’t. But we were children”
“I dunno if that makes any difference. People act pretty much the same regardless of what age they are. This seems pretty much settled. Reece aint saying shit about it, and Rabbit there already lied about it, too, right? So, what are ye thinking ye wanna do about it?” Peep asked.
“I want to get to the bottom of it. Then, perhaps, we can press the truth out of Rabbit. If it was self-defense, as I am sure it was, then we can use his testimony to punish Reece and whoever else for what they did to him. I don’t want that sort of thing happening under my command!”
“Well, that’s good-hearted of ye, and all, but are ye sure that hanging a snitch sign around the kid’s neck is the way to help him out?”
“Duly noted. Now, are you going to help me get to the bottom of it, or not?” Choke snapped.
“Sure thing, boss. Whad’ye want?”
“What do you think? I want you to go out into the bush and look around. See if you can’t figure out exactly what happened. There should be some pretty obvious signs, shouldn’t there? At least for you.”
“Yeah, okay. And, I guess there’s the other thing. Has he been searched? Reece’s wound was a puncture. It wasn’t like a normal knife, or anything. Deep, but a really narrow hole. Almost round. So, first off, we should check if he’s got a weapon like that on him.”
“Thank you, Peep. That’s good thinking. Let’s do that now.”
Choke and Peep walked over to the stable wall where Rabbit was sitting on the bench with Pinch looming over him. By this time all the other men had gone back inside the barracks with Knuckle. Rabbit seemed more alert than he had before. He stiffened in alarm as Choke and Peep approached and began to rise to attention as they reached him.
“You may stay seated, Rabbit. That’s your name, isn’t it?” Choke asked, his voice as soothing as he could make it.
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, before we proceed with what we need to do, I want to check with you again. Is there anything you want to tell me? About what happened this afternoon?” Choke asked.
“I told ye, sir,” Rabbit said, staring down at his hands in his lap.
“Okay, then. But I am going to tell you what I think happened. I think that Reece, and perhaps others, were trying to make you do things for them. Wrong things. Maybe they already did them. I think that Reece pulled you away from the others into the forest to get you alone for that purpose. And I think that you stabbed Reece in self-defense because of it. Isn’t that what happened?”
Rabbit raised his gaze to meet Choke’s eye squarely, now calm.
“No, sir. That aint what happened. It’s like I said, sir.”
“Okay, then. But you need to understand that at this point, if it happened the way I said, and you tell me the truth, then you will not be punished. Reece, and whoever else, would be the ones in the wrong. They would be punished. Do you understand that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And do you want to change your story?”
“No, sir. I told ye what happened. That’s it, sir.”
Choke sighed. “Very well, then. Stand up, soldier.”
Rabbit stood up to attention. He now seemed very calm.
“Sergeant Nikolas: search this man thoroughly and remove all his weapons,” Choke ordered.
Pinch nodded and did so. Rabbit had his peasant’s knife: wide-bladed and single-edge. He also had an old iron spearhead that had been sharpened into a trowel-like dagger, as much a digger as a weapon.
“That’s it,” Pinch said.”
“That aint it,” Peep cut in. “Ye didn’t pull his boots off. Also something could be sideways under his belt, hidden in his sleeves, or in his ass crack, or tucked up under his balls.”
“Fuck, Peep! Are ye kidding me?” Pinch snapped.
“No, I fuckin aint,” Peep returned.
“Thoroughly, I said, Sergeant. Carry on.”
“So we’re stripping him, then?” Pinch asked.
“Yes. Carry on.”
Pinch made Rabbit strip right down and went through his boots and clothing thoroughly. They found nothing on him. However, when Pinch had finished the search, he held up Rabbit’s breeches. There was a faint blood stain down one leg.
“What’s that, soldier?” Choke asked.
“Sir. That’s from a rabbit kill the other day. Sir.”
“Indeed? I’m inclined not to believe that. You may dress yourself again, though. Then you will sit here on this bench until told otherwise. Sergeant, put his weapons away and stay here to guard him please. Thank you,” Choke said.
“Yes, sir,” Pinch said, still clearly displeased.
Choke and Peep stepped away from them.
“Okay, LT. So now I go and do a bit of tracking?” Peep asked.
“Yes. See what you can find. But, before that, I am wondering: when supervising the work party, you didn’t notice if Rabbit was gone at the same time as Reece? When you sent Reece away, I mean.”
“Well, I dunno. He’s easy to overlook. It’s kinda his deal, right? But, no, I didn’t’ t see him.”
“Okay, then. So, please go and see what you can find. I imagine there is an obvious blood trail to where the incident occurred. And if you can find the weapon, that would be useful,” Choke said.
“Oh, no shit? Thanks! Yar gonna stay here, I guess?” Peep asked.
“No. Knuckle has the men. They are indoors, and even as drunk as he is, I think he can handle them. I am going to try to find Dom. I suppose he is at Lenny’s grave.”
“Yeah, I’d guess so. He went with the old dood who was gonna bury him. I figured we should give him some space. But, yeah, he’s been gone a while. Maybe he decided to light out himself, huh?”
“Yes. Maybe he has. Thank you. I shall try to be back as soon as possible. Don’t take too long yourself, if you can help it.”
“No worries, man. I don’t think this’ll be a toughy. Okay, then! Happy hunting!” Peep gave Choke one of her cheeky salutes and jogged on out the north gate.
Choke took another moment to do some deep sighing before untethering Nike to go and look for his remaining corporal.
Muse Vassal 