by Randi Darren
She was a shadow that wouldn’t go away for very long.
“No violence,” Steve said. No matter how many times he told her not to ask, she still asked.
“Just one? A good solid slap?” Nancy asked.
“No. No violence,” Steve said.
Nancy sighed and nodded, her arms folded behind her back.
“Maybe next time,” she amended. “Personally, I might have thought capturing three hundred murderers would get me what I wanted.”
“The problem is it isn’t what I want,” Steve said.
“Mm. Maybe when you fall in love with me, you’ll give me what I want,” Nancy said.
Steve shook his head and didn’t reply. Nancy was too pushy for him at times.
“Oh, Susan is signaling that everything she thinks is worth anything is gone,” Nancy said.
And on the other hand, she’s a really damn good henchwoman. A fantastic henchwoman. Nearly perfect henchwoman.
I can tolerate all the rest for how she just… does what I want in every other facet.
Doesn’t even argue with me. Just gets it done.
Nancy held up a hand and then made a gesture to Susan.
“We’re all done, Steve,” Nancy said, turning to him. “Everyone will be heading back now. The Creep Witches said they’d have the square put up and everyone dumped off in there for collaring.”
“Good work, Mistress,” Steve said.
“Of course,” Nancy replied demurely. “And I’ve been thinking on that voice you heard. You realize… you could probably force it to respond to you. If you threatened to kill yourself and intended to follow through, it’s likely it would make itself known.
“It’s not much of a weakness, but it might work. Exploit their interest in you.”
Huh. I… that might work.
That or threaten to go live in a cave. As long as I did the opposite of what it wanted.
Maybe?
It might not care at all.
Might tell me to kill myself.
Something to consider.
“Shall we go?” Nancy asked. “Or would you like to take a short detour into the village, find something hard that’ll ruin my back and knees, and absolutely destroy me?”
Perfect henchwoman.
***
Steve was leaning back in the grass, watching the collaring continue for all his new prisoners.
For whatever reason, this entire village was full of murderers. There hadn’t been a single innocent so far. Even the children, little more than pre-teen girls more often than not, had all gotten their hands bloody at some point.
Even the men.
Very few chose to die rather than be put to work.
Nancy stood beside him in her ever-present position. Jaina and Ina were doing the collaring work while Kassandra stood guard.
“It’s very strange to be the hand of justice,” Lucia murmured from beside him. She was seated in the grass, watching the proceedings.
“It’ll help us become bigger. Not to mention, these aren’t even the biggest villages,” Steve suggested.
“They’re not. Two others are considerably bigger. Stronger, too,” Nancy said. “They’re more akin to perhaps… half the size of Filch? Each one of them.”
“We’ll have to deal with those later,” Steve said. “For now, our goal is the same. Walls, walls, walls. I’m not convinced the Creep is done or gone, but it isn’t much of a problem right now.”
“Hmm. Yes,” Lucia agreed with a sigh. She lifted a hand and set it on the side of her face. “If the country goes back to normal, I’ll have to go home for a time.”
“What?” Steve asked, looking at Lucia.
“As a maiden of the court and the royal family, it’s my duty to report a change in my status,” Lucia said. “That includes taking a man.”
“Wait, you really are part of the royal family?” Steve asked. He’d only been teasing her about such a thing. He thought it’d all been a joke about how she carried herself. He didn’t question that she was nobility, but her being of royal blood wasn’t something he’d really believed.
She did make that comment about the royal womb. But I thought she was just being her.
“Indeed. I’m a very minor princess. Twentieth in line for the throne or some such. Nowhere near anything of relevance. But it’s still something I must attend to. If I’m to start giving birth to princes and princesses in a land like Lamals, then I’ll have to make sure the royal guard knows of it.”
“Royal guard,” Steve said, watching Lucia now to see if she was messing with him.
“Indeed. I don’t personally warrant that many. Only fifty or so. Our children will probably each receive just as many,” Lucia said with a sigh. “I’m sure they’re all extremely cross with me for sneaking out the way I did.
“Mother will surely have an aneurysm when she finds out I married without her permission. Father won’t mind. He’s always been fascinated by Humans. He never did talk mother into having a Human woman join their marriage, though. Your species just doesn’t live very long.”
Lucia grinned at that, as if the idea of bothering her mother was actually a good thing.
“And… yours does?” Steve asked, not really keeping up with the full conversation.
“Six or seven hundred years, give or take a few centuries. It’ll be hard to live on after you pass, but being your wife and having children with you will be worth it. At least, I personally think so,” Lucia said.
I’m not Human, though. Not really. There’s that… asterisk… next to my species.
Still don’t know what that means.
Do I live as long as a Human? Longer? Shorter?
Hmm.
I wond—
“Incoming!” Kassandra shouted at the top of her lungs.
Shaking free of his thoughts, Steve jumped to his feet and turned his eyes to where Kassandra was looking.
In the distance, across the plain, he could see a massive group of people heading his way.
Looks like a damn army.
Not knowing what it was, Steve was left to guesses.
“Nancy, think that might be one of our city-size friends?” Steve asked.
“Could be. Can’t tell,” Nancy said.
Steve marched over to Kassandra, not really sure how to handle this. He wasn’t a soldier, and he had no idea if they could even handle a group that large in their current state.
“No, we can’t hold,” she said the moment he was close enough. “We don’t have the defenses for something that large.”
“Uh… kay. What’re our options then?” Steve asked. Behind him, he could hear Lucia and Nancy practically standing on his heels.
“Run,” Kassandra said simply. “Run back home. Leave everything here.”
“Fuck that,” Steve growled. “They’d turn this into a fortification and just end up using it against us. No. Running isn’t a valid option.”
“Then we die,” Kassandra said. “We can’t fight that in a head-on conflict. There is no tricky plan, no strategic dodge, no silly storybook maneuver. If we fight, we lose. If we stay, we fight. If we run, we lose the outpost.”
“What if… what if we put up a Creep magic square over the fields we’re working and the cabin?” Ina said. She and Jaina had stopped working on the collars for the time being. “Could easily keep them out in the same way we’re keeping those in.”
Ina gestured at the murderers as she spoke.
“Could… work,” Kassandra said.
“Yes, yes. If we do it that way, we could shoot arrows through the barrier. Or use spears,” Jaina said.
“I’m going to go gather everything I can for supplies,” Lucia said. Taking a running leap, she zipped forward, and her wings fluttered rapidly behind her as she sailed away.
“Okay,” Steve said. Then he threw a thumb at the people in the current Creep square, as Ina had called it. “And can we maintain them in their square, too?”
“Shouldn’t be an issue. We c
an merge the spells. Cost wouldn’t be that different,” Ina said with a wave of her hand. “Jaina and I are the two strongest Creep Witches anyways.”
“You are?” Steve asked. That was a curious statement.
“Very, very much,” Jaina said with a prideful grin, showing off her teeth. “We can take on every other Creep Witch at the same time and win. Ina and I are so, so, deadly.”
Ina smirked at that and put a hand on her hip.
“Well?” she asked.
“Do it. Right on the cabin and the fields,” Steve said. “We don’t have to kill them, just keep them out and pick them off one by one. We’ll convert our prisoners at the same time, and then we can lower the second Creep square.”
“Got it.” Ina turned to look at Jaina. “You hold this one, I’ll make the other and tie it in.”
“Yes, yes,” said the Kobold. “I’ll continue collaring the beasts while you do that.”
Beasts, hmm?
I suppose to Jaina they might be beasts. Those who broke too many pack laws.
Ina started heading for the cabin while Jaina turned to those in the square.
“Everyone get up! Up, up!” Jaina called. “We’re going for walkies. You haven’t earned your collars yet, so you have to stay in the square. Touch the square and die!”
Slowly, everyone began marching determinedly for the center of the outpost. Where the cabin and crops all were.
Should probably… dig a well. Can’t rely on the water source remaining untainted.
Damn. Let’s hope we can end this quick.
Glancing over his shoulder, Steve looked back toward the rather large mass of likely murderers heading his way.
Quicker than he expected, everyone was rounded up, settled down, and put to work.
Steve dug a massive pit that would serve as their well and cut into the moat water. The more he could fill the pit with it, the better off they’d be. He’d have to fill the passageway back in as soon as the enemy got close enough, though. He couldn’t risk giving them the opportunity to get everyone sick by polluting their water.
Others spent their time barreling as much water as they could from the moat, while a very large team of people worked desperately to knock down as many trees as possible and drag them all back to the encampment.
There was no telling how long they’d be stuck this way. But Steve wasn’t about to let it be said he didn’t prepare for it. Or at least do as much as he could.
And just like that, there wasn’t anything left they could do. Not because there was nothing to do, but because the enemy was here.
Standing outside of the large square Ina had thrown up was an army of women. All were armed with weapons, and almost all of them were wearing some type of leather armor.
It was clear they weren’t soldiers, though, as a casual inspection see showed they all had skills.
As well as families.
Both were things that soldiers simply didn’t have.
One woman, who was either braver or dumber than the rest, stuck her hand up against the massive glowing wall.
She instantly went rigid and collapsed sideways. The magic of the wall glowed brighter after that.
“Feed spell works,” Jaina said, looking at Ina.
“Yes… your feed spell works,” Ina replied. Steve couldn’t tell, but it sounded like she wasn’t very happy about that.
“I wonder if it took her soul. Or just her life,” Jaina said, moving close to the wall and peering down at the dead woman. “Very, very dead.”
“Yes, well, suppose we’ll never find out,” Ina said.
Makes sense. Ripping the soul out of someone sounds rather terrible.
“You,” said a woman, pointing at Jaina. “Are you the one in charge?”
“No, no,” Jaina said. Then her hand flashed out of the square and she grabbed the dead woman. Before anyone could respond, she’d pulled the corpse through the wall. “Oh, nicey, nice. A necklace. I like it.”
Jaina began to happily strip the body right then and there, pulling the armor off.
“He is,” Kassandra said, pointing at Steve. “He’s in charge.”
“Thanks, Kass,” Steve muttered. “Remind me to make you howl later.”
“I will,” Nancy offered.
Taking the cue Kassandra had forced on him, Steve stepped up to the glowing wall.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
“You will take down this wall, give us your prisoners and your food, and then become slaves,” said the woman.
“That’s cute. But my answer is… no. Now get off my land,” Steve said. Stepping up to the edge of the wall, he gauged that he was within reach with his axe. He could probably put it through the woman’s head faster than she could react.
“You’re handsome,” said the woman, giving him a feral grin. “When it’s all said and done, I think I’ll keep you for myself. After I let my girls take you for a ride. Now, how about you just make the wall go away, and I promise it’ll be fun for you. Rather than painful.”
“Leave,” Steve said. “This is my land, and you’re not welcome. Last warning.”
“No. I think not. You can’t keep this magic up forever,” the woman said, gesturing at the wall.
“Okay. Got it,” Steve said. Before the woman could respond further, he’d whipped the axe around off his shoulder. It blasted through the woman’s head, splattering her in every direction around her. All around the women surrounding her.
Steve lashed out with his axe again, killing two more women before they could get away from him.
Then Lucia began firing as fast as she could. Arrows ripping through the air and downing women left and right.
Jaina and Ina didn’t join in, instead holding their magic in reserve to keep the walls up.
Steve picked up a rock nearby and flung it with all the force he could.
It detonated through a woman’s arm and exploded through a second woman’s head, and he realized he’d greatly underestimated how much power he could put into a throw.
Steve ran to the back of the cabin where he kept stones he’d found in the field, determined to kill a few more.
By the time he got back, though, the enemy had fallen out of Lucia’s range.
A group of women wearing collars moved out from the safety of the square and started looting the dead.
In almost no time at all, the dead were stripped and their corpses piled into a mound. Including the one Jaina had grabbed.
“That was entertaining,” Kassandra said. “I wonder if they’ll try again.”
“Probably,” Lucia groused with a huff. “They sound like little better than jumped-up peasants. They’ve been battling their own kind, and with numbers, and now they have an inflated sense of self.”
Turning to one side, Lucia gave Jaina a wide smile.
“Jaina dear, could you make me a very simple tower to fire out of? Doesn’t have to be complicated. Just something I can work with,” Lucia asked.
“Oh, yes, yes. Not a problem,” Jaina said, smiling back at Lucia. “Will you teach me the bow?”
“Of course. I even have a short bow I was working on that you could train with,” Lucia said.
All over the outpost, the prisoner work teams got back to their jobs. Farming, digging, or working logs.
“I can probably expand the square further out once we clear the rest,” Ina said, pointing to the number of collarless prisoners. “Not out to the moat and walls, though.”
“Don’t bother then. Keep it small and tight. Something Lucia can watch from any side but still gives us room to work in,” Steve said.
“Not a problem,” Ina said, then sighed and leaned up against Steve. Her arm looped around his waist. “Think after we clear this group, finish the outpost, and settle in, it’ll be over for a while?”
No.
“Maybe,” Steve said. “Really comes down to what our enemies do.”
“True.” Ina shook her head. “I’ll fight. I’ll defend what’s ou
rs. But I feel like we’d be better off isolating ourselves. Just… hunker down and let everything else do whatever it wants.”
No. That wouldn’t protect us.
That’d just keep what we have.
No, we need to take a citadel commander’s title for our own. Or higher.
This can’t continue, and I’m not going to let it.
We’ll start here and crush Lamals. End the pens, and maybe… maybe see what’s going on behind all the brainwashing.
No one would willingly send their husband or father out to fight. Not with their numbers so low.
There must be more to it.
“They’re coming back,” Kassandra reported. “Don’t shoot till they’re up against the wall again. We can get more kills that way.”
Steve nodded. It was good advice.
“’Will you walk into my parlor?’ said the spider to the fly,” Steve muttered.
Twelve
Steve methodically worked at the massive bunkhouse as efficiently as he could.
He needed a place to shelter and protect all his prisoners from the elements. A place for them to end their day and rest for the next.
In addition to that, he’d already built an infirmary for them. If they got sick, tired, or wounded, they needed a place they could recover in peace without being bothered as people came and went.
They were murderers. The worst of the worst, one and all.
But they were his.
And he was going to make sure he kept them alive, healthy, and working. Because a dead prisoner wasn’t useful to anyone.
A happy prisoner—one who was well fed, cared for, and given a reason to put work in—was an extremely useful commodity.
Certainly a great deal better than killing them outright.
I wonder if the Lamals government does the same thing. Do they enlist murderers into the army and fling them out to the front?
Probably not a terrible idea if they’re always short on soldiers.
Or is the military too much of a trust issue? They may not be able to use murderers simply because it’s such a high-needs job.
Something to consider, I suppose.
Especially since it’s unlikely they have the collars.
Standing up, Steve swung his axe up on his shoulder. He’d taken to working in his loin cloth once more. The clothes he’d arrived in this world wearing had long since become little better than rags. Though he was fairly certain Nikki had stolen his windbreaker and put it somewhere safe.
