Chapter Seven

“You know, this is honestly the worst part.” Speranzi remarked offhandedly to the nearest of her soldiers.

“My Lady?” He asked and cocked his head, he was newer to the Black Quivers, and at a glance she recalled that he was the third son of a lord, sired by a maid.

‘He got very, very lucky.’ Speranzi thought as she took the sight of him in, no scars that she could see, and to be in her unit his swordsmanship and skill with a bow were considerable. Some lords invested no time or money at all into the progeny born of servants, a few would cast pregnant maids out of their houses entirely and leave them bereft. This one’s father had invested in his child’s future at least enough to let the boy provide for himself in manhood.

She said none of that, instead replying that, “There’s nothing to do right now, just stand around and look scary enough that nobody approaches the wagons or tries to take anything, and in a place like this?” She shook her head, “Right now anyway, that’s just not going to happen, so we’re just scary decorations.”

“As you say, My Lady.” He answered with stiff formality and clammed up.

Speranzi said nothing more, he was a nervous sort around her still, she guessed. The horse nickered and backed away. Though she wouldn’t admit it even to Corwin, that was the true reason she walked. ‘Horses hate me.’ She rolled her eyes a little while the young bastard got control of his mount.

“Might as well get this over with.” She muttered and turned around, “Alright, while we’re waiting,” she raised her voice to ensure she was heard at the back cluster of her warriors, “If this goes like it usually does, we get tents or common rooms. You can draw part of your pay so you have something to spend, then get your share of the loot from the bandits, after your gear is stored you can shuffle off and go have some fun.”

She paused to give her followers a moment to cheer. “But!” She said to silence them after the noise began to fade, “Don’t let doing a good job the other day and this morning give you a big head tonight. The rules still apply. No bullying the locals, no picking fights, and no hassling the women at the tavern. You keep a good head on your shoulders or I’ll have a noose put over it. This is the Black Quivers, not a jumped up group of bandits. I will have discipline… give me that, and I don’t care if you drink so much that this place has an outbreak of sobriety for a month after you leave.”

Another cheer went up just as Corwin emerged out of the guild hall.

He descended the stone steps and approached his ally, “Alright,” he held out a document to her, “common houses for the soldiers, and a room at the inn for you.”

“What about the rescues?” Speranzi asked, and Corwin’s mouth briefly opened and closed.

She could only laugh, “It didn’t involve money, so you didn’t think about it, did you?”

“Ahhh…” He flushed red in the face and rubbed the back of his head, “I’m afraid you got me.”

“I’ll handle it.” She replied, “Just have your apprentices dispense the pay to my soldiers while I go handle… other matters.”

Corwin’s flushed red face became faintly sickly. The sack of ears, the bandit head, and the one surviving prisoner. He unthinkingly glanced at the canvas sack where the behemoth’s head hung, the bottom was stained red where the blood soaked through and left a stain that only magic would remove, if not erase.

“Right, yes. That seems… preferable.” He answered and Speranzi spun on her heel to leave him behind while her soldiers lined up to receive pay. ‘Such a strange woman…’ He thought, though he could never say it to her out loud, and instead chose to approach his apprentice merchants to take advantage of the chance to instruct them on how to properly handle paying armed warriors.

Having left her employer behind, Speranzi approached the bandit who sat bound in the wagon, she’d barely moved more than a few inches, though when taking a look, the woman had used her feet to move sacks of beans around to make a fairly cozy spot for herself. “Unbelievable. You were riding more comfortably than anyone. If it wasn’t likely you were going to die, I’d think you did this to get a free ride.”

Skana looked at Speranzi and answered, “If I’m going to die anyway, I might as well be comfortable. So what happens now?”

“First, this.” Speranzi said and pointed to the ground, “Get down, your victims get their say. If they say you die, you die, if they don’t, we’ll see after that. For now, we’ll let them have their say.” Speranzi reached up, intending to lift Skana down, but to her surprise, the auburn haired bandit hopped over the edge, lifting her knees up to her chest, and then landed on the stone right where Speranzi’s hand had pointed a moment before.

“Alright then… I wasn’t expecting that, but having you hop back there is ridiculous so…” Speranzi said and without another word, crouched, grabbed the bandit’s thighs, and picked her up over one shoulder.

“You haven’t changed.” Skana murmured lightly as she was carried to the back.

The last wagon had a handful of huddled young women who shrank back as Speranzi approached. “Relax, I’m not here to hurt you.” Speranzi said as gently as she could, “You’re safe now.” She reached into the coin purse at her side and withdrew a silver coin.

She held it up between two fingers and extended it toward them. “This should be enough for two rooms at the inn for the night, you’ll have to share, but it should leave enough left to get some day old stew, bread, and cheese. You can stay here in the fortress, or travel with us to the nearest village tomorrow morning. They always need field hands, you can… you can start your lives over.”

Speranzi didn’t look them in their eyes, she knew better than to do that, they’d only shrink away further. None of them reached for the coin, so she slid it onto her thumb and flipped it toward them. It landed in front of the same one to speak against the remaining bandits that morning. The rapid wobble of the silver quickly died and a trembling hand darted out to take it as if afraid it was a trap.

“There’s only one thing first, then you can go.” Speranzi said, and set the captive down, she forced Skana to turn around and removed the bandit’s helmet, then she dropped it down to the ground where it landed with a clang. “Decide this one’s fate. She survived the-” The mercenary paused, it wasn’t really a battle after all. “The massacre.” She finished.

They gasped, and a raven haired woman spoke up, “You were a woman?!”

“I still am, thank you very much!” Skana snapped back.

“Does she die or not? Did she harm you in any way? Do you know if she was forced to be there?” Speranzi pressed.

The handful of rescues centered their eyes on their raven-haired companion. “She got us water sometimes. I heard her arguing with someone outside the tents where we were kept, she was trying to get us food. I don’t know anything else, but she never did anything to us herself.” The woman bit her lip so hard it bled, “I still can’t believe you were-”

Skana didn’t turn her eyes away from the rescues. “So, why didn’t you get them loose? Why didn’t you sneak them out?” Speranzi demanded, “Speak up, or it won’t take a rope to finish you.” SHe placed her hand around the back of Skana’s neck, her inner mana was channeled into her hand, warming the flesh just a little.

The bandit woman however, needed no encouragement to speak. “Why didn’t I get them killed you mean? What, are you stupid? You think I could sneak out this many people with nobody the wiser?” She snorted, “The priests may say I’m no good, but at least I’m not so bad that I’d get them killed. Even if I got them out, then what? They’d just get caught and killed by monsters or captured by another group out there that hadn’t joined Bodger yet.” She tilted her chin up and stared at the rescues, then down at the shorter Speranzi beside her, “If they wanted to die that badly, they could have strangled each other and called it a day. Now do whatever you’re going to do.”

Speranzi stared into the woman’s luminous green eyes, and to her surprise, the woman stared right back into her own. The mercenary’s hand on the bandit’s neck began to relax and fall away.

She turned the woman around, grabbed the ropes which bound her, and with a yank, she ripped them apart. Speranzi then knelt, grabbed the ropes which bound Skana’s ankles, and snapped them just as cleanly.

When she stood up, she gave Skana an order. “Walk with me, you’re going to carry your leader’s head and the ears of your former… comrades.”

Skana didn’t protest as she was led away, she hefted both bags over her shoulder, saying only, “As you wish.” as they began to walk away to enrich her captor with the remains of her comrades.