Peep, Pinch, and Shane came down the church steps into the crowded square. It seemed that every person in town not out working was there milling around. Corporal Dom and the soldiers were spread out amongst the townsfolk, with two soldiers stationed with Thad’s corpse on the burning Wheel. Three old men were stacking up logs and branches underneath the Wheel from a mule cart, with a half-dozen more old men disagreeing on how they should be doing it. The atmosphere in the square was excited and light, if not overtly cheerful.
As Peep came down the steps, the Holy Fire Wailers detached themselves from the crowd and came at her excitedly. Peep stifled a curse but pulled up.
“Pinch,” she said, “go to the south gate and get Hardmod. We’ll meet at the north gate.”
Pinch nodded and ran off through the crowd. Peep turned to Shane:
“You and yar dogs ready to go?”
“Yes, Miss Otilla.”
“Okay. Go to the north gate and tell Dom to get ready to head out. Then, if ye feel okay about it, check around outside the gate with the dogs. See if there’s anything hinky there.”
“Yes, Miss Otilla.”
Peep flinched and held up her hand to halt Shane before he left.
“And stop with that Miss Otilla shit. Call me Peep, if ye can. If not, just call me sir like the rest of the guys.”
“Oh. Okay, then. Ah… Yes, sir,” Shane said before hurrying off.
Peep took a deep breath before turning to engage with her followers who were clustered expectantly around her. Once she got them settled down, they were able to tell her that they had learned of Thad’s visit from some of their neighbors. The women and children of the cottages just to the north on the Bristlenook Road had come by the Wilson place to spread the word on their way up to town. None of the Wailers had seen any strange men.
By the time Peep had extracted this information, Pinch and Hardmod were back from the south gate. Peep told her followers to stay in the square and spread the word of Stron’s might. She left them to it and went to the north gate with Pinch and Hardmod.
There, Shane and Dom were standing at the gate with Shane’s three dogs. The gate was closed, but unbarred.
“Did ye check it out?” Peep asked Shane quietly when they reached them.
He nodded. “Sent the dogs out on a quick boo. No sense having them track, since it’s nothing but people in and out here. But if there were people within a stone’s throw, they’d have come back and indicated to me.”
“Yar sure they don’t ever bark?” Peep asked.
“No. Never, unless I order them to stand watch or track loud.”
“That’s solid. Okay, let’s bring it in,” Peep motioned for everyone into a huddle.
Peep, Pinch, Shane, Dom, and Hardmod all huddled up.
“Okay, ye keep this under yar hats,” Peep looked significantly to Dom and Hardmod. “We’ve had word: Sneed and his three guys are back. As of yesterday. So, with what’s just happened, we’re thinking they might be set up on their shooting spot on the Crotch. Where they got Lieutenant Dixon from. So we’re gonna head down, through the Bristle Crick, and hit the bush behind that from the Wilson place. The Wailers are all up here, along with everybody else around, it seems. If we spot Sneed and his, we hit them. Pinch is gonna blow the horn, and the LT and Knuckle are gonna bring our horses around to the Bristle Road through the Crotch. Got it so far?”
Dom and Hardmod were both wide eyed and tense, but nodded. Peep continued:
“As far as we know, it’s Sneed and his three main guys. Sneed and one of them use full longbows. The other two have shortbows. They all can shoot. These guys are all as serious as cats like this get. We aint in a real rush here. On the move, we stay tight. Fan out just a bit to hunker down while Shane sends the dogs out to check on the next stretch. But we all stay within sight of each other. Then we move again. Keep it slow. Keep it tight. Any questions?”
There were not, so the Pekot’s Bushrats stealth squad moved out. The underbrush this close to town was well-trampled down by folk scavenging for kindling, so they were able to spread out just a little off the trail. They moved about a hundred meters down the trail towards the Bristle Creek and stopped at a spot that had something of a view of the creek below through the trees. They hunkered down. Shane gave a soft whistle to attract his dogs’ attention. He met the alpha dog’s eye and made another quiet series of whistles with a hand gesture towards the creek and back. The dog gave an excited whine and loped off with his two mates. The three of them spent the next couple of minutes running around in the brush between the squad and the creek before returning.
“Good boy, Tore,” Shane said quietly.
“How are you communicating with them?” Pinch asked quietly.
“Animal companion,” Hardmod answered for Shane. “They share a natural link with me.”
“Like a witch and a familiar?” Pinch asked, tensing up. “This sounds like druid’s natural magic.”
“It’s like it, but different,” Shane said. “Altas and Stron are in everything right? Spend enough time in the bush and ye can find them out here, too. I share a special bond with Tore. He can understand me like a person would. Then, Alfy and Eddy do what Tore tells them too. They follow his lead.
“That’s tight. So this is like some kind of spell?” Pinch asked.
“If we are focused enough, we can get spells and boons, just like priests. My bond with Tore is such a boon.”
“Oggy Lightfoot, my leader, had spells and a companion,” Peep said. “His was a raven. Barrelmender said his type is called a ranger, and is like a druid. But we never had a name for it. Oggy just got it from nature, he said.”
“That is heresy,” Shane said. “I praise Stron for His gifts.”
“Well, that’s good. And the priests let that pass?” Peep asked.
“Of course.”
“Fuckin A. Well, enough dilly-dallying. Let’s get down there and set up on the edge of the crick for a minute,” Peep said.
They moved down the trail to the Bristle Creek and spread out in the bush at its bank. The logging road to Bristlenook was just on the other side. They sat for a while, watching and listening. With a feeling it was clear, Shane sent his dogs across the creek and had them check out the bush on the far side of the road. When they returned to the road from that, he gave a little bird whistle to attract their attention. With another whistle and hand gesture, he sent them down the road to the north. When they returned from that, he sent them to the south.
“What if they run into somebody?” Peep asked.
“If they sense humans, horses, or goblins and the like, they come running right back and indicate. Without barking,” Shane answered.
“Good.”
When the dogs returned with no such indication, the squad crossed the creek on the trail crossing’s stepping stones. Peep sent Dom and Hardmod first, who hurried across and set up in the bush on the other side of the road. Pinch went next, followed by Peep. Shane and his dogs came across last.
With the dogs sent on ahead, they moved down the road to the Wilson Place, the home of the Holly Fire Wailers and the platoon’s archery range. The Wailers were all up at town. From there, the squad got into the bush to begin slowly approaching the spot on the Bristlenook Road where Sneed had left his pebble marker after killing Lieutenant Dixon.
This area was a narrow stretch of thicker bush between the Bristlenook Road and the high ridge to the east that was the start of the Tanglefoot Trail. It was in this area that Mariola and Choke had pitched their tent for their lovemaking. A little farther to the south, past the confluence of the Bristle and Cowslip creeks, was the spot where Peep and Knuckle had disposed of Corporal Munge’s corpse in the old goblin tunnels. This area had an excellent view of the freight yard and Spitzer Road, but was socked in tight with brush and thick bushes, making an unlikely surveillance spot for humans, and impossible with horses.
With their foraging and hunting, the Holy Fire Wailers were already opening up the woods between the Bristlenook Road and Tanglefoot ridge. There were now a few trails. The stealth squad slipped through the bush towards Sneed’s ambush spot. They now moved very slowly; every footstep considered and deliberate. The dogs snarfled around to and fro out in front of them, looping back in to check with Shane every couple of minutes. It took them almost thirty minutes to cover the few hundred meters to their target. The squad moved well, all but silent, like snakes through grass.
Still a good fifty meters out, Shane read his dogs’ bearing and gave Peep a terse head shake. There was no one nearby. Peep hand signaled for the squad to sit tight and dropped to her belly to slither the rest of the way to the road on her own. It was about ten minutes before she returned.
“They aint here,” she said to everyone once she had.
They all exhaled deeply, releasing the killing tension.
“So, now what?” Pinch asked.
Peep did not need to think about it. “Let’s go back and set up on the Tanglefoot intersection with this road here. If they’re gonna come to this spot, then they’ll be going by there.”
“Good call,” Shane said, as the others nodded their assent.
The stealth squad set up an ambush on the spot, each of them hunkered down in the bush at the intersection, with a good line of sight down the road towards Bristlenook. Every so often, Shane would send his dogs out; down the road, mostly, but also out through the bush around them.
They were there about an hour when the dogs came barreling back towards them from up the Bristlenook Road. They indicated by leaping about excitedly and swinging their heads back the way they had come. The alpha, Tore, put his butt up in the air towards Shane with his tail up and his nose pointed that way. He then hopped up and down a little, his tail wagging.
Shane gave a soft bird whistle to summon the dogs back to him. He congratulated them before settling them in the bush just behind him.
Fully tensed again, the squad waited, staring down the road.
“If it’s them, we wait till they’re at that overhanging tree there,” Peep said, indicating a spot on the road about thirty meters out. “They’ll be coming in a line, probably. If it’s just one guy on point that aint Sneed, we let him go on by, if he doesn’t spot us. If he does, we take him. If we get a shot on them all together, me, Pinch, and Shane shoot first. Sneed. Then Dom and Hardmod, ye both go at whoever seems best. Questions?”
There were not. The tension deepened in the following silence. Then, they all heard the bellow of an ox, and a driver’s shout. A few seconds the heavy grind of a lumber skid was audible just before the skid itself came around the bend of the Bristlenook Road.
“Fuck,” Peep muttered as they all deflated.
“Keep frosty,” Shane said. “Ye never know. They might be skulking in behind. Watch the drivers. If they’re scared or nervous, they should show it.”
It was a three-man team on this skid. Four oxen were hauling a single, huge, long log that had already been limbed. It took some time for them to reach the ambush spot. There was no indication that anything was amiss.
“Let them go on by?” Pinch asked.
Peep hesitated. She met Shane’s eye. He shook his head grimly.
“This is a bust, I reckon,” he said.
“Yeah. Fuck it,” Peep said, spitting aggressively at the ground. “Let’s have a word with these dumb fucks. See what’s what. Me and Pinch will do the talking. The rest of ye, spread out a bit and keep watch around.”
Peep and Pinch stood up and broke cover, with Pinch hailing the ox drivers. They were surprised, but seemed friendly enough as Peep and Pinch approached. They halted the team and waited, getting nervous as Shane, his dogs, Dom, and Hardmod emerged from the bush as well.
“Howdy,” Pinch said as he and Peep reached the three drivers. All of the men were local to Bristlehump.
“Good day, sir. Miss Otilla, ma’am,” the senior man said. He and the two others removed their caps and stood obsequiously.
Peep’s face contorted at the man’s address, but she let it pass.
“I understand you are busy, as are we, so we just want a quick word,” Pinch said.
“Sure thing, sir,” the man said. He and the other two looked nervously over to Shane, Dom, and Hardmod, who had passed behind Peep and Pinch on the bush side of the road and were spreading out behind the skid to keep watch.
“There are some… goings on, suddenly, around here. We’re curious what you know about it,” Pinch said.
“Yeah, I guess so, huh? Well, it was just a couple of hours ago that some of the fellers’ kids came a running to tell us that Thad, the stoner sex wizard from out Bristlenook way, came through the middles heading for town. We’ve since heard that the Brother did him. Is that so?”
“Yes, Brother Barrelmender executed him as a heretic. His body is presently on display in the town square, strung up on the burning Wheel,” Pinch said.
“Okay, well,” the lead mule driver exchanged a wide-eyed look with his two mates. “Reckon that’s been a long time coming. Goes to show that being a sex wizard will catch up to a body. He’s been plucking girls from out this way for quite some time now. Just having his run of the place. I mean, fun is fun, but it’s been a bit much, ye know?”
“Yeah!” the fellow’s mate chimed in. “He’s even scooped up half the town’s hoors! Leave some for the rest of us, buddy! So, now that Thad’s been put down, are ye gonna get us the rest of our hoors back?”
“Well, not just that,” the first driver said, “Dumpicker’s girl is over there, stole away, with a bunch of others from around here. Yar gonna be bringing them home, right?” the man looked to Pinch.
“Hey!” Peep snapped, stepping forward to stab a finger at the men in turn. “First off: they aint yar hoors. And we aint slut drovers. Ye hear?”
“Yes, ma’am, Miss Otilla, ma’am,” the first one said, clutching his cap in front of him in fear.
Pinch sighed. “So, anyways—” he started.
“No. Fuck this,” Peep interrupted. She stepped up closer to the lead driver, getting in his face. “Before ye said that Thad came through the middles. What does that mean?”
“It’s this stretch here, ma’am,” the man gestured up the road back towards Bristlenook, practically cowering as he did.
“So the cabins and that shit between Bristlehump and Bristlenook. Ye call that the middles?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Alright. And what d’ye know about Sneed? Ye know who he is, right?”
“Yes, ma’am. We heard from the Bristlenook guys today that he’s back with his three guys. They come there yesterday and spread some proper copper around, asking after what ye and yar men have been up to. Miss Otilla. Ma’am.”
“Oh, is that so? And here we stood in front of ye, and ye didn’t think to say anything about it? Instead ye start grinding us about the hoors!” Peep yelled, looking from one man to the next.
All three of them were now cowering.
“Okay, Peep,” Pinch said holding his hand out between her and the lead driver.
“Fuck that!” Peep slapped his hand away and stabbed her finger right in the man’s face. “Ye come at us for favors while yar holding that Sneed info tight to yar chest? I oughta cut yar fuckin throat, ye shit-riddled spastic!”
“I’m sorry, Miss Otila, ma’am. I am! I didn’t think. I just didn’t think!” the man wailed.
“Ye got that fuckin right! I’m putting all of ye fuckin teamsters on notice! Spread the fuckin word! Ye pick a fuckin side now. And if yar with us, yar fuckin keeping yar ears open for us. And yar reporting on what ye hear. Ye got that? Otherwise, as far as I’m concerned, yar with Sneed and his. Ye got that? Ye get yar ass to town square and look upon what’s left of Thad and ask yarselves what side ye wanna be on here. That’s enough of this shit! Smarten up!”
“Yes, Miss Otilla, ma’am. I’m sorry!”
“Not yet, ye aren’t. But you will be if ye don’t watch yar ass,” Peep muttered. She held her hand up towards Pinch to demand silence while she stared off into space and had a short think. Shortly, she snapped her fingers and looked back to the trembling man in front of her.
“Ye go on yar way now. And when ye get to yar yard, yar gonna give Bob a message from me. Ye got that?”
“Yes, Miss Otilla, ma’am. I will! I will!”
Peep looked up at the sky and then down to the road at some shadows.
“Okay, it’s just a bit past lunchtime now. And yeah, fuck, I’m hungry. And I’ve had enough of this pussyfooting around. So ye tell Bob to be up at the church in an hour. By himself. And ye tell him everything I just said to ye. And ye tell him to put the fuckin word out before he comes up to church. And because yar clearly a fuckin spastic, I’m gonna repeat what I said. You teamsters keep yar ear to the ground about Sneed and his bunch. Ye tell Bob what ye hear. And he’s gonna come and tell us. And if one more thing slips by that I think I shoulda heard about from yar bunch first, I’m gonna start a fuckin teamster head collection up on the gate. You tell him that. Ye got it? One hour, he’s got. The church. You tell him.”
“Yes, Miss Otilla, ma’am.”
“Alright. Fuck off, now.”
All three drivers bobbed obsequiously as they set to getting the ox team moving. Peep and Pinch moved around the back of the huge log, to where Shane, Dom, and Hardmod were hunkered down.
“Ye heard that?” Peep asked Shane.
He nodded. “Bob’s an Outfit hoor, though. Always has been. He aint gonna do shit for us.”
“He might, actually,” Peep said. “We’ve had him straddling the fence. It’s time to give him a proper shove and see which way he wobbles. And like I said: I’m done pussyfooting around with the fuckin teamsters. One way or the other.”
“Alright then. It could get bloody,” Shane said.
“That’s just how I like it. But it is past lunchtime, and I’m fuckin starving. Let’s head back up,” Peep said. She gave Shane a friendly elbow nudge and then Pinch a good pat on the shoulder as they moved out.
Muse Vassal 