The Ruins Box Set

by T. W. Piperbrook

  Bray opened and closed his mouth as he thought of a response. Each day his friends were on the islands brought them closer to death. They might be dead already.

  “We will need to be certain before we attack the bridge. Once we wage a war, we will need to finish it,” Enoch said. “I do not believe we will get another chance. Too many casualties will wipe most of our people out.”

  “There is something else I should mention,” Bray added.

  “What?” Enoch asked, leaning forward to hear it.

  “It is something I thought of only briefly at the time, but it might help us now.”

  “I am listening.”

  Before Bray could elaborate, shouts echoed outside. Enoch grabbed his weapon, and Bray and Flora turned their heads, staring at a soldier who had ripped open the door, speaking in a curt, indecipherable voice.

  Enoch looked at the gun in his hands, then at Bray and Flora.

  “What’s wrong?” Bray asked.

  Enoch looked rattled. “Our men found a small group of islanders in the woods last night. One of them, a woman, is keeping my men at bay. These people have horses.”

  Bray’s pulse pounded. “Horses?”

  “Yes,” Enoch said. “And the woman is using a weapon my men have never seen.”

  “You mean one of the guns?” Bray guessed.

  “Not a gun. Something else. Something that is making holes in the ground. They have been guarding her. This man walked through some of the night to get me.”

  The man at the door stared at Enoch, clearly awaiting an order.

  Before Enoch could give one, Bray said, “Wait! I know who she is. You can’t kill her.”

  Chapter 47: Bray

  Bray hiked through the forest next to Enoch and a large group of his men. It had taken most of the morning, and some of the afternoon to get there, but finally they wove through the trees in a tight, tense group, approaching a group of other Halifax men who were waiting.

  One of the soldiers spoke with Enoch. Enoch nodded.

  “This way,” Enoch said, pointing through the trees.

  They kept hiking, getting closer to a cluster of others waiting by a game trail. The ground was speckled with blood, and two men’s bodies lay on the ground, marked with gun wounds. Bray’s jaw dropped as he looked farther through the trees, catching sight of two large animals standing next to the Halifax men, shaking their heads, stamping the ground nervously.

  “My horses!” he said.

  Disbelief took over him as he hurried over to the animals. The one he’d named Blackthorn stood next to the other.

  “These are my steeds!” he told Enoch, who was close behind him. “Two of them, at least.”

  A cautious hope turned into a fear as he looked past the horses. Deep in the distance, a small, fairly intact structure sat in the woods. Halifax men surrounded the building on all sides, aiming their guns. Every so often, one of them barked something in their language, or adjusted to get a better view. Enoch, Bray, and the others walked faster, keeping to the trees, approaching within thirty feet of the hovel and stopping.

  Enoch called out to his men.

  Some of the guarding Halifax men turned to greet Enoch with solemn nods. Bray saw some scattered leaves inside the open entrance of the squalid structure, and what looked like some blood. He tensed. A few men called over to Enoch, pointing at a large hole in the earth, which looked freshly made. The divot was scattered with sticks, leaves, and debris.

  “What’s going on?” Bray asked, waiting for an explanation.

  “Each time they get close,” Enoch said, “they are forced to step backward, or hide behind the trees. The woman threatens them.”

  Bray watched as one of the men crept closer, testing the information. Before he got a few feet, a small hand crept around the side of the open entrance, holding a round, metal object, and a voice screamed a warning.

  “Stay back!” shouted a woman, in an accent he couldn’t mistake.

  Kirby.

  “That is my friend!” Bray explained to Enoch.

  A few of the men looked over at Bray, surprised. Before Enoch could respond, Bray leaned around the tree and yelled, “Kirby!”

  The hand retreated around the building’s entrance. Quiet settled over the scene. The Halifax soldiers looked from Bray, to Enoch, to the building. Bray swallowed as he considered that Kirby might be wounded. Perhaps that was her blood at the building’s entrance. Perhaps he’d arrived in time to watch her die.

  A terse answer emanated from the inside of the hovel. “Bray? What are you doing here?”

  Bray might’ve smiled, if the situation were different. Instead, he yelled, “I’m with the Halifax men! Give me a moment to explain.” He turned to Enoch. “That is definitely my friend. Tell your men to lower their guns. There is no need to harm one another.”

  Enoch called something out, and the men lowered their weapons halfway, though they didn’t seem convinced.

  “We need her weapon,” Enoch told Bray. “Tell her she must throw it out.”

  Bray shook his head. “I don’t know much about those weapons, but from what I know, you do not want her to throw it.”

  “Why?” Enoch was confused.

  Bray pointed at the hole in the earth. “Trust me.”

  One of the soldiers said something to Enoch, and Enoch explained to Bray. “She has someone else in there. Can you ask her who it is?”

  “Who else is with you?” yelled Bray.

  “One of the islanders,” Kirby called. “He’s suffered an injury.”

  Trying to make sense of the situation, Bray asked, “Was he helping you escape?”

  Kirby didn’t respond for a moment. Finally, she answered, “No. I wish the bastard had died.”

  This time Bray couldn’t help but smile.

  “He’s too weak to be a threat,” Kirby continued. “He won’t be able to do more than glower at you. Can I come out?”

  Bray looked at Enoch.

  “Tell her to put her weapons away,” Enoch said.

  “I heard him,” Kirby yelled out. “I will.”

  Relief swept over Bray as Kirby exited the building, her gun holstered and the object she called a grenade put away, a wounded man draping one arm over her shoulder. She looked tired, and her clothing was covered in dirt and snow, but she didn’t appear to be injured. Seeing her seemed like a miracle. He’d never expected to see her alive again.

  “Kirby!” he called, as if she might disappear.

  A half-smile crossed her face as she helped the man away from the building and spotted Bray. Several of the Halifax soldiers approached slowly. Seeing the wounded man wasn’t a threat, the Halifax soldiers took him, holding him in the same captive position in which they’d held Flora. Blood leaked from his gut and he groaned. Free of the man’s burden, Kirby reached Bray. A look of emotion he hadn’t expected crossed her face.

  “It seems you found more than animals on your hunt.”

  Bray looked around, confused, before he realized he was with a pack of Halifax men, and not the island hunters she might’ve expected.

  It had been too long since they’d seen each other.

  He shook his head, unable to distill the experiences of several days into words. “We have much to catch up on.”

  Kirby’s eyes glistened. He was surprised when she embraced him. “I am glad to find you alive. I didn’t think I would.”

  “The same with you.” Bray swallowed a lump in his throat as he hugged her back.

  Noticing Enoch standing next to them, Bray said, “This is Enoch, the leader of Halifax.”

  “You are from the settlement by the water,” Enoch put together. “The one called New Hope.”

  “Yes. My name is Kirby.” Kirby looked at the gun in Enoch’s hands, but she refrained from saying anything else.

  “And who is he?” Enoch asked, pointing at the man who was surrounded by Halifax soldiers.

  “A man from the islands named Jonas,” Kirby said, the last of her
lingering smile fading. “I was ordered to keep him alive, along with the other soldiers.” She nodded into the forest, prompting Bray to turn around, where several soldiers were rifling through the pockets of some dead islanders they’d dragged over. “Now that they are dead, we have less to be grateful for. I am afraid William might die, too.”

  Chapter 48: Bray

  Walking in a much larger group than the one with which either of them had entered the forest, Kirby and Bray strode next to Enoch, catching up on the events each of them had missed.

  Kirby told of William starting to recover, their betrayal at the hands of Jonas and Deacon, and the mission on which she’d been sent. She also told of the four nights she had been given to bring back the guns, along with Deacon’s men, alive. Bray received the news with a grave face.

  When she was finished speaking, he shared his story of escaping Bartholomew and the island soldiers, his encounter with Flora, and his meeting with the Halifax people. He also told of the things he’d learned from Flora, who was back at the settlement, waiting.

  Enoch stood beside them, listening, and asking questions when he heard something he didn’t know. Every so often, he relayed something to a soldier next to him, who narrated some details to others. The Halifax men wore hard, angry expressions as they received the news.

  “The treatment you’ve received reminds my people of the tragedies our people have suffered at the hands of the islanders,” Enoch explained. “It reminds them of lost loved ones.”

  “Jonas,” Bray said, recalling the name Flora had told him as he looked over his shoulder at the man being led by Halifax men. “He is a close companion of Deacon’s. He makes devices to imprison men, or so Flora says. He tortures them.”

  “He is a strange, cruel man. We should never have entered The Arches,” Kirby said, a torn expression taking over her face as she looked at Bray. “I am afraid for William.”

  “As am I,” Bray said. “But we will go back for him.”

  “If we are not back in two nights, William will be killed,” Kirby reiterated, prompting Enoch to go silent.

  Bray felt a pang of unease as he considered the possibility that he might’ve reunited with Kirby, only to lose William.

  A rasping voice diverted their attention behind them, where two men were holding Jonas up by either arm, pulling him along. Jonas looked at them with a glazed sneer. “William is dead already,” he said through gasping breaths. “I am sure of it.”

  “And you will be next,” Kirby said plainly. “You found your courage too late.”

  Jonas fell silent as he worked through a gurgling cough. Bray couldn’t see how he’d survive much longer than a night.

  “Without the guns, and those men, we have not complied with Deacon’s request,” Kirby said, turning back to Enoch and Bray. “Even if William is alive now, I am not sure what we can do to save him.”

  “We need to attack them,” Bray said, looking over at Enoch, but the man averted his eyes.

  Enoch wasn’t offering up his men to fight a war for William. And why would he, to fight a war for a boy he didn’t know?

  “We will talk on it further, when we are back at the settlement,” Enoch said finally. “But one thing is certain. I cannot lead my people to their deaths.”

  Bray wanted to push, but he didn’t want to anger the man, from whom he had already received several favors, and to whom he owed his life. They needed to come up with a plan to convince Enoch to fight.

  It was the best they could do.

  Enoch looked down at Kirby’s waist. Seeing his expression, Kirby said, “You have another question.”

  “I was hoping to get another glimpse of the round, metal weapon. The one that made the hole in the ground.”

  Kirby shared a glance with Bray, obviously considering whether she should comply. She looked at the gun in Enoch’s hands. “It is called a grenade,” she said, without showing them.

  “A grenade,” Enoch said with wonder.

  With some coaxing from Bray, Kirby lifted her jacket, pointing at one of two small, round devices she had stored there. “Deacon took my rifle, and some ammunition, but I kept these hidden. They can kill many men, but once you use them, they are gone,” she said simply. “They are powerful weapons.”

  Enoch cranked a thumb over his shoulder. “Perhaps with these grenades, we have more to talk about.”

  Bray’s hope rekindled.

  Looking ahead of them, he watched the men carrying the other bodies of the dead islanders that had been with Kirby and Jonas. “What are you doing with the bodies?” he asked Enoch. “Would it not be easier to bury them in the woods?”

  Enoch said, “We are not as cruel as the people of The Arches. We burn the bodies when we get to Halifax. Besides, we have uses for the bones.”

  “What do you mean?” Kirby asked.

  “We scatter them outside the settlement,” Enoch said. “Bray probably saw them on the way in to Halifax. It keeps some of the barbarian tribes away.”

  Chapter 49: Kirby

  They reached Halifax by late evening.

  Kirby stood with Bray in the room used by Enoch, studying the looted objects on the walls—swords, knives, axes, all of various shapes and sizes. Trinkets she didn’t recognize hung from the ceiling. Most were made of baubles of glass, clay, or pieces of metal, attached to strings that swayed with the subtle breeze. Several Halifax people walked past the open doorway, some of them going out of their way to catch a glimpse of her and Bray. She bristled as one of them walked by wearing one of her people’s jackets.

  “They have my guns,” she said, voicing a feeling she’d been holding back. “And my people’s belongings.”

  “I know that makes you uncomfortable,” Bray said. “But they are a good people, or at least better than the islanders. They seem well intentioned. They thought everyone in your settlement was dead, or it was abandoned.”

  Kirby sighed. “I know better than to argue with a settlement full of people with guns. But I don’t like it. I would like to have a discussion about that.”

  “Later,” Bray said sternly, but not harshly. “We need their help, if we are to get back William. Perhaps we can talk about that after we figure this out.”

  “I’m not sure how we’re going to get back into the islands without their army,” she said.

  “Neither am I. We will need to convince them of a plan that might work,” Bray said. “It is the only way I can think of. I have some ideas Enoch hasn’t heard yet. Perhaps he will be swayed.”

  “Where is Flora?”

  “They are still holding her in a room here. Even though she talked with Enoch and me, they still don’t trust her.”

  “I don’t trust her, either.” Kirby couldn’t hide her vitriol. “She betrayed us.”

  Bray agreed. “She almost killed me. But we need her help, if we are to have a chance at fighting Deacon and his men.”

  “Why would you listen to her, after what she has done?”

  “She has no loyalty to Deacon, or his soldiers. I believe she is telling the truth, after hearing the story about her father. She is hoping to keep her family alive,” Bray said.

  Kirby stood quietly, watching some of the objects on the wall. The discussion of charging back in and getting William had been easier when she was in the forest. But now she was second-guessing that decision. She couldn’t forget Jonas’s sneering words.

  “You look like you’re thinking about something,” Bray said.

  “We have to accept that William might not be alive,” Kirby said quietly.

  “Are you thinking about what Jonas said?” Bray asked. “Empty words. Taunts from a dying man.”

  “Probably true, but I’ve seen what Deacon does to his closest men. You’ve seen the sharpness of his soldier’s blades, when they threw you in the river. I have no doubt Deacon would’ve killed me, if he saw no purpose in me. For all I know, William was a ruse to send me into the forest.” Kirby sighed. “I promised I would not fight another man�
�s war again. We might be heading back to our deaths.”

  Bray thought a moment. “When I was in the forest, after they threw me into the river, I could’ve escaped, but I chose to return. I never thought I would see you again. And yet here we are.”

  “True,” Kirby said, shaking her head. “But can we expect that same luck for William?”

  “Is it better to die a pointless death in the wild, or a noble death?” Bray asked. “I’m not sure. But I do know that I made a promise to William. And I intend to keep it.” Bray raised his head as some anger passed through his face. “Who knows, perhaps I will get lucky enough to kill Deacon and his men while we are there, if we can convince Enoch.”

  Kirby thought back to the screaming soldier she’d been forced to shoot, and the look on Deacon’s face when he’d told her about William.

  She couldn’t deny she wanted him dead, too.

  Commotion made her turn. Enoch entered with several of his men, carrying two wooden chairs, setting them up next to the other. Flora walked in quietly behind them, her hands bound, some dried blood on her face. She took a seat near Kirby. She looked at her as if she were a ghost, come to life. Kirby gave her a look of disdain as she and Bray took the other chairs.

  “I attempted to speak with Jonas,” Enoch said as he looked across the table at all of them. “He will not speak with me.”

  “As expected,” Kirby muttered.

  Flora looked over with shock in her eyes. “Jonas?”

  The others looked at her.

  “From the islands?”

  “Yes, the man who assists Deacon,” Kirby said, annoyed.

  “He is the one I told you about,” Flora said, with fear in her eyes. “He is a trusted friend to Deacon who does his bidding. He has the strange devices that he uses on men.”

  “One and the same,” Kirby said simply. “I have heard him speaking about those exact things with the soldiers.”