Ned watched as the boy mulled over his tale. He was no longer surprised as how stories like this could be so easily accepted. True, he’d fallen for a bit of Lisa’s own tale. That was different; it made sense. He didn’t have to know her to believe what she was saying.
Here was this kid, never having met anyone in the group until now, and he seemed to be believing everything Ned told him. The kid was impulsive, obvious from watching him and talking to him for even a short time. He was also absolutely certain about his hometown’s strength.
The more Ned thought about it, the more he felt that the kid’s aimless nature was another reason. He didn’t seem to care about his future. Not only what he’d do with his life, but not even what he wanted to do that day. It was almost as if he didn’t want to connect with anyone.
“Okay,” the boy finally said, “say you’re telling me the truth. What do you want me to do?”
“You have to ask? You can’t figure it out for yourself?”
“I can’t take off now. The guards would see me.”
Damn, this kid is dense. “They might not see you at night.”
“Oh, yeah.”
Ned stepped in front of the boy and waved a finger in front of his face. “Now, listen. Lisa won’t be heading out until the day after tomorrow. You got that? Good. She’ll have three wagons. There’ll be two people on each wagon, a driver and someone armed.”
“Got it.”
“One last thing. Any harm comes to her, or anyone with her, and no one in the group will want to deal with you. They won’t even wait to get help from Butler. They’ll just come. Make sure no one shoots first. All you have to do is capture them.”
“I got it.”
Ned waited until the kid was out of sight, then shook his head. You’ll get it, all right. I wanna see the look on your face when you get it.
***
Lisa’s first impression of Butler when darkness came was when that the town had something against light at night. Precious little light snuck through the windows of the houses. What did light get through after sunset was extinguished in an hour or so. The night watch carried lanterns, and lit them, but didn’t open them.
She considered the possibility that it was a strategy. This world had one distant moon, and this night only half of it cast light on the planet below. It was hard to see on a night like this. Someone staggering around might be heard first. Perhaps one of the two guards at each bell might hear the noise and raise the alarm.
The scheme relied on an enemy fairly unskilled at moving around at night. Lisa found it hard to believe that the men of Poplar Ridge would be that inept. If they were smart enough to improvise searchlights, they’d be smart enough to figure out how to attack at night. Ten years had to be plenty of time to get it right.
Lisa mentioned her thoughts to Little Wolf. His world also had a dim and distant moon. His people were also used to fighting their neighbors. Their battles didn’t involve actual violence, merely brave deeds seen by others. The experiences were roughly the same.
“I sense some desperation,” he said. “They make their town dark and rely on sound. That is good if your foe is clumsy.”
“Maybe those folks down there aren’t expecting a full-out attack.”
“That is a better reason.”
“Yeah, it is.”
The more she pondered that explanation, the more Lisa agreed with it. Neither town could really risk sending too many of its men on an attack. They would be needed to hunt. They’d have to tend the fields, or protect their women while they tended the fields. If one town planned a big attack, how would they defend the town while the men were gone? As she recalled Alek’s drawings of Poplar Ridge, she realized that that town was also on the defensive. Their defenses were simply a bit more sophisticated.
How long would these towns stay on the defensive? That was the really tough question. It was tougher for Butler than for Poplar Ridge. The road to Richmond was rough but could be used. She’d heard that in the last year a few families had fled Butler; only one had left Poplar Ridge. The fields weren’t large here, and game appeared hard to come by. Either the people here would give up and leave, or they’d have no choice but attack Poplar Ridge.
Lisa was amazed that neither town grew grains year-round. On Fairfield wheat was planted in the winter and harvested in the late spring, while corn was planted in the spring and harvested in the fall. In Butler, at least, what crops were planted went down in the spring. That would make life here worse during the summer, with no grain and little game. It was a minor miracle that the people here hadn’t already grown desperate.
Lisa’s scouting party was camped on a hill just to the southwest of town. The had cover from the trees and the darkness. They could see down into the town. Lisa decided that her sitting and watching wouldn’t get her much more information. She told Little Wolf to keep watch until he got tired.
“Then what?”
“Wake Jane, and put her on watch. Tell her when she gets tired to wake me up.”
“What are we watching for?”
“The guards. I want to know if they stay up all night, or if they’re on shifts.”
“Do you want to know when their shift changes?”
“Yes. You or Jane should wake me then.”
Lisa went to sleep. It was Jane who woke her up. She and Jane looked into the town. One of the guards who stood by each bell went to a home and knocked on the door. A man or older boy came out a short time later. The second male went to another home, knocked, and waited for a third male to come out. The two then went to the remaining guard. The guard gave the lantern to one of the two new guards, then went home. Lisa dug out her notebook from her gear and wrote down what she’d just seen.
She woke up Alek. “Get your bow and one arrow,” she told him. “I want you to go to the edge of the field, and shoot at the fence near the bell. Don’t try to hit anyone. Just hit the fence. Come back if you think they can’t see you. Otherwise, wait till they calm down.”
He nodded and dashed off. Lisa watched as he got into position, aimed, and fired. She could barely hear the slight “thunk” of the arrow sinking into the wood fence. Alek’s shot landed below the bell.
The guards were on either side of the bell. They heard the arrow hit, and saw it embedded in the fence. One opened the lantern, casting a beam of light in the direction of the shot. Alek ducked down so he couldn’t be seen. The other guard rang the bell three times in short bursts. Both men then bent down behind the fence.
Doors of most of the homes cracked open. The doors of the homes on the south side of town opened wide. Armed men and boys came out. A handful ran to the where the guards were. There was some muttering and glancing over the top of the fence. After several minutes of this, the men shook their heads. The men who’d woke up returned to their homes. Doors shut. The two guards watched for a bit longer. The one with the lantern closed it, and the pair seemed to relax.
Alek came back to camp a few moments later. Lisa complimented him, then told him to go back to sleep. Lisa took a few more notes, then put her notebook in her pack. She told Jane to keep watch, and to wake her if the guards changed. If they didn’t, she was to wake her when she got tired.
“I got lots of sleep,” Jane replied. “I can stay up till dawn.”
Lisa shook her head. “No, don’t. It’s a long walk back to Richmond. I can handle a couple hours.”
“Okay.”
Lisa crawled into her bedroll. As she drifted off to sleep she thought, With a little luck and some strong persuasion, this fight might be over in days.
***
Ned had to clear his throat to get Lisa to look up from the maps and notes. She hadn’t heard him approach, even though she was expecting him. She looked up from her research. “Oh, great, you’re here. Come in.”
“Thanks.” Ned closed the door behind him but didn’t shut it.
Lisa waved at the papers strewn over her bed. “Hand me a few of them before you sit down.” He
did as she asked. She set the extra papers on the small table next to her bed. “Good news?” she asked him.
“Yep. The Ellis kid seems to have run off during the night.” He smiled and shook his head. “You really knew how to get to him. I didn’t even have to improvise anything. I did have to remind him that it was easier to sneak off at night.”
“You’re joking.”
“Nope.”
“Don’t tell me he was that clueless.”
“Aimless, I’d say. Aimless, and a little reckless. Doesn’t think ahead. I hate to say this, but I actually enjoyed lying to him.”
“Don’t get into that habit.”
The light expression faded from Ned’s face. “Doesn’t it bother you, sometimes?”
“What?”
“Lying like that. Isn’t lying supposed to be wrong?”
“Yeah.” Lisa her notebook and the maps in her lap. “Let me tell you a little story. I’m not the prettiest young woman, I know that.”
“You don’t look so bad.”
“You haven’t seen my sister. Put it this way: who’s prettier, me or Ellen? Wait, let me put that a better way. Who do most men think is prettier?”
“Ellen.”
“Okay. My sister’s pretty like she is. She doesn’t look the same, but she’s that kind of pretty. She’s been pretty all her life. She was even a pretty little girl.
“One day, when we were both little girls, she and I got into some argument. I can’t quite remember about what. I said something to her, and she told me that she was pretty and I wasn’t, and that she’d always be pretty and I never would. On that particular day that got to me, and I started crying.
“That night I told my father what she said. He punished her by making her do my chores for a week. She didn’t know why she was being punished. She hadn’t hit me, and she said she didn’t tell any lies.
“My father said, ’You did tell her that she’d never be pretty. That might not be a lie, but it is a mean thing to say. You shouldn’t say mean things just because they might be true.’ When we were older, I said something mean to her that I thought was true. Father punished me for the very same reason.”
“Well, yeah, I can see that,” Ned said. “What I said to that kid, or all that stuff we said to the fat man, that’s not the same thing.”
“No, but what’s worse? Stealing from people, or lying to someone who steals from people so that he gets caught and punished?”
“Well, sure,...”
“You said you almost enjoyed lying to that Ellis kid. Why?”
Ned paused to recall his thoughts. A smile crept onto his face. “Because I want to see his face when he finds out the truth.”
“Why is that?”
“Because he fell for what I said so easily.”
“Why did he fall for it?”
“Because he believed everything I told him. It fit with everything he knows, or thinks he knows.” He sucked in a breath. “You want him to question what he believes, is that it?”
“I hope so, but I’m not counting on it.”
“Yeah, but still, if he’s wrong about us, maybe he’ll think he’s wrong about that feud.”
“Maybe. I don’t like manipulating people, like that kid.”
“You don’t?”
“Not really. But it’s a choice. If I didn’t have you tell a lie to that kid, to help end this feud, what else could I do? Remember, I don’t want us to fight for or against either town. I don’t want to kill anyone, or even hurt them. What other plans could I try to get to our goal?
“Or take what we did to the fat man. We had to stop him. We could have murdered him, but would that make us any better? Would that really stop what he was up to, or would one of his men take his place? We could have hunted down his bandits. But how long would that take? What if they didn’t admit they worked for him? Would that have stopped the fat man, or would he just hire new bandits?
“I really tried to think of another way to stop him. I kept coming back to the same two facts.” She counted them off on her right hand. “One, someone had to see him and his outlaws together. Two, he and his outlaws couldn’t rely on each other. Something had to come between them; otherwise the outlaws would take all the blame and the fat man would still be free.”
A short silence filled the room. Ned slowly nodded his head. “You balanced your choices, right?”
“That’s right. I found the best possible way with the fewest compromises. I know lying is wrong. That’s why I had Dave play the part he did. Wayne just can’t tell a lie. He wasn’t comfortable, so I let him opt out. Actually, that was probably a good thing. Dave was more convincing, and with Wayne gone, that made it all that more convincing.”
Lisa suddenly smiled to Ned. “Why all the worry? Didn’t you used to steal from people once?”
“Well, yeah.” He pointed to her. “I never stole from those without much. I never killed, never raped, never harmed anyone.”
“You don’t have to keep saying that. I do believe you.”
“Oh, I know. I guess I’m getting, what’d you call it, a conscience?”
“I think you’ve had one long before I met you.”
He glanced at the floor. “Maybe so.”
She edged closer to him. “So, tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“Tell me how you became... a thief with honor.”
He exhaled a long breath. “My dad was a drunk. He farmed, but most of what he made he used to get liquor. He’d get drunk, and then beat all us up. Me and mom most of all. I didn’t look enough like him, so I guess he thought she cheated on him. One night I got tired of him smacking me around, so I ran off. Didn’t take me long to find out I didn’t know much about working. I started stealing what I needed.
“One day I got caught. I was just about to be hauled off when Bill Travis came up. He said he was my dad, and that he’d punish me. When he got us away from town, he told me if I didn’t want to get caught again I should stick with him.
“He told me never fight unless you have to, and don’t kill unless you don’t have a choice. ’You want folks annoyed with you, not hating you.’ He said a smart talker always beats a dumb fighter. ’Think twice, act once.’ ’Take from those that have, not from those that don’t.’ He never took everything from a group; he always asked for just a toll, some instead of all.”
“Why did he start stealing in the first place?”
“Something about him and that Dashner. He never told me why he didn’t like that man. All I knew were Bill’s scars, and that Dashner’s name always made him mad. Funny thing, though. When Dashner died, I thought Bill might be even just a bit happy. He wasn’t. He left me in charge of our little group, and took off. Ain’t seen him since.”
“And that group...?”
“They got pretty much the same stories as mine.”
“Why do they follow you? You don’t force them to do as you say.”
“Experience, I guess. Tell you the truth, though, I don’t think they’d keep following me for long. When we didn’t find good pickings around Great Junction, they were all pretty upset. The winter wasn’t as rough as the past few, so we weren’t starving. But we were getting on each other’s nerves.”
Ned smiled to her. “Then you and your friends came along. Now we’re living better than we ever have. We’ve got friends. People look up to us. We haven’t been at this long, but you’ve already kept your promise.”
Lisa let out a small laugh. “I hate to tell you this, but I didn’t promise you anything. I just said you’ve have a chance at a better life.”
He frowned. “You mean you lied to us? How could you?” He laughed, and shook his head. “You did the same thing to us that we did to the fat man. That I did to that kid. I’m happy that you did.”
“I didn’t lie to you. I gave you a choice. I just made choosing my way sound better.”
“That wasn’t hard.”
“Maybe not.”
“Why’d you
give us that choice, anyway?”
“I didn’t want to fight, not with women and children riding along. I certainly didn’t want to pay your toll. I won’t encourage stealing just to avoid a fight.”
“So why talk?”
“I think it was because you didn’t attack first. You wanted to talk. We talked. I knew if I talked you out of taking your toll you’d want something. I figured I’d tell you trading was better than stealing, and tell you why. You guys looked like you wanted a better life, so...” She shrugged. The edges of her mouth curled up.
“So next time I’d better not let you talk to me, huh?”
She smiled broadly. “Too late, my friend. Too, too late.”
“Yeah, right.” He stood up. He turned towards the door. He stopped, and looked at her. His face grew serious. “Whatever happens, I think I’m more glad I met you than Bill. You’ve given me pride.”
“Thank you. That really means a lot to me.”
He nodded in return. He walked to the door. He took hold of the doorknob. He turned to her one last time.
“Try not to get carried off tomorrow,” he said.
“Maybe I’ll make you and Wayne ride together.”
“Do that, and you’ll have a real war on your hands.”
“Now, now, play nice, or you won’t get to that Ellis kid’s face.”
He shook his head. “I’d better get going.”
“See you at dinner.”
“Sure.”
“Hey, Ned.”
“Yeah?”
She became serious. “I’m glad we talked, just now.”
“So am I.”
“Feel free to talk anytime.”
“Thanks.” He nodded once, then left.
***
“Ow.”
“Sorry.”
Little Wolf frowned at Lisa despite her apology. The road was very rough. They hadn’t thought to put something on the wagons’ seats. Without springs the wagons bounced over every stone, clump of weeds, or rain-eroded cut.
Lisa knew her ass felt just as bad as Little Wolf’s. She wasn’t complaining. She would be an example and endure the ride. She thought he ought to consider how hard the road was on their friends in the wagon beds.
The sad state of the road slowed the progress of her and the other two wagons. This was enough of an annoyance by itself. Added to that was her order that everyone keep silent. Talking could ease the boredom and aching backsides. Talking could also tip off their opponents. She and the rest had to endure in silence.
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