Chapter 27

I was crouched in a tree to the south side of town looking at the brothel’s rear entrance. The stitches in my leg were tugging at my skin unpleasantly. Better than continuing to bleed though I suppose. The town was crawling with dozens upon dozens of soldiers. They appeared to be stripping everything they could get their hands on and were piling it up in the main intersection. While most of the men were bringing in loot, they had eight men loading it into packs and into the back of a couple of wagons.

And then I saw him. The leader that had taken my eye limped out the back door of the brothel and took a piss off the back stoop. Dang, guess he kept the leg, though his face, foot, and hand were heavily bandaged. He looked decidedly uncomfortable tying up his breeches one handed, I smiled. He turned and went slowly back inside.

I climbed quickly down the back side of the tree to find Knick waiting for me. “Well, they definitely took the town,” I whispered. “I’m not seeing any townsfolk. So either they’re dead or they’re tied up somewhere. Way too many soldiers around for us to take them on ourselves, so we stick to the primary mission. You’re on apple duty. I’m on gauntlet duty.”

Knick nodded. “Where do we meet? Or should I just head back to Hammer once I’ve filled the pack with apples?” He pointed a thumb over his shoulder at his pack as he whispered back.

“Head to Hammer,” I replied. “But I’m going to swing through the orchard on my way back, so if you’re not done by the time I get there I’ll help you finish up. That said, check the north side of the barn or inside the barn itself and you may not have to actually pick the apples yourself. I’m pretty sure that’s where they store the harvest since I’ve scouted the orchard before in hopes of stealing some apples myself,” I sighed. “But there were always too many people around no matter what time of day I checked. Plus…” I grimaced. “They had dogs. Speaking of which, I’m not hearing a single dog barking tonight so I’m assuming they’ve probably all been put down. Just watch out for soldiers. If you have to engage, try to do so from behind and quietly. If we do this right, the only trace that we were here will be some missing stuff that they’ll never know was there in the first place. If we have to leave some bodies, so be it, but if they raise a cry and draw the whole lot of them we’re going to spend the whole night being chased. My leg hurts. Let’s not spend the whole night running at top speed if we can avoid it, yeah?” Knick nodded, turned, and darted quietly west through the trees.

I turned the other way and quietly stalked across the dirt path that extended south from The Mountain road and off into the forest directly behind Smudge’s Bar. I made my way east until I found myself looking through the trees at the familiar back door of the smithy. The door hung broken and askew from a single hinge, but the smithy otherwise looked the same as always except for the lack of smoke billowing from the large chimney. It was pitch black out according to Knick, but I felt like I could see ok. Not sure how regularly hunting at night translates to effectively having night vision, but it’s certainly coming in handy on a moonless night like tonight.

I saw light moving inside the smithy. Shit. Nothing ever seems to go easy when I want it to. I moved out from the cover of trees and crouched beside the woodpile. I could see through the open back door, and there was at least one soldier walking around with a candle picking up various tools and putting them back down. Several tables that had displayed some of Anvil’s wares were knocked over, two of them were broken and smashed, and iron tools littered the floor. As I slowly moved to the edge of the door, I glanced in, and heard the soldier talking.

“Not sure why the captain has us back here checking the smithy again. Didn’t we already grab all the good steel he wanted earlier?” asked the man holding the candle as he disgustedly tossed an iron spade onto the table under the window at the front of the smithy.

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“The lieutenant says it’s some kinda super steel that’s gonna be worth big money back home, so keep looking. He said if we find anything with writing on it to bring that too. If we take home the secret to super steel we’ll all be rich as lords when we get back,” said another voice hopefully.

Fuck, at least two. I listened hard and thought I could hear a second man rustling around off to the left of the door near where the hearth was. I didn’t hear anything else though, so only two then? Hmm, I should be able to take two, but how do I do this quietly?

“He won’t mind if I help myself to one of these iron knives then right?” Asked the first man. “Need a new one since I snapped mine off in some whore’s skull earlier.” I could just barely see him looking at the knives on the west wall at the edge of my field of view. The second man moved over to stand beside him and examined the wall as well.

“Don’t see why not. Think I’ll grab one too. It’ll make a nice present for my boy back home.” They both reached up to grab a knife and stood examining their new acquisitions.

“Shit!” Exclaimed the first man, dropping the candle. “Cut myself. That little fucker is seriously sharp.”

“Quick! Grab the candle before it-” The light in the smithy went out. “Damn it, Gary.” The second man sighed exasperatedly.

“Sorry,” said the first soldier, Gary apparently. “Just let me grab my flint.”

Well, I’ve never been above taking charity. I stalked silently through the back door. My night vision didn’t seem particularly affected by the sudden drop back into darkness, and I could see just fine as I slowly strode up behind them, drawing both of my snake blades. I reached out with both hands, stabbing the blades into the sides of the soldiers’ necks simultaneously, and then I slashed them both forward, tearing the blades through the front of their throats. They simultaneously dropped to their knees, the sound of gurgling the only noise in the smithy. I wiped off my blades on the back of their cloaks, and they folded to the ground to finish bleeding out as I sheathed my knives and looked around.

Anvil’s body was sitting in the corner. It was pretty gruesome. I could see what looked to be multiple stab wounds on his torso and he had been shot with no fewer than ten arrows. If they’d needed to shoot him that many times, it was probably the arrow through the eye that finished him. He held a hammer in each hand. I reached down and tried to pick one of them up. Hammer said he needed one if I could get it after all. Anvil had a death grip on its handle though, and I couldn’t pry his fingers loose no matter how hard I tried. Damn, even dead the man is stronger than me. I grimaced, pulled out one of my knives, and sawed away at the joints on his fingers. Four fingers later, and I had a hammer. I pulled the pack off my back, stashed the hammer inside, and put it back on. Secondary smithy mission complete. Now let’s quick check to see if they found Hammer’s gauntlets, and then we get the fuck outa Dodge.

I made my way upstairs and through the first door on the left as directed. I’d never seen Hammer’s room before. It was surprisingly spartan with just a simple, if overly large, bed, an equally oversized chair, and a wooden trunk at the foot of the bed. While the room wasn’t particularly small by my standard, imagining Hammer in here, it must have been a bit cramped. The bearskin cloak I had gifted him hung from a peg on the wall next to the bed. The bed. Right. I made a beeline to it and picked up the pillow. Two massive shiny gauntlets, right where he said they’d be. Wow those attached bracers are no joke. It looked like they had spikes that would protrude back past his elbow while covering almost his entire forearm. I quickly grabbed his cloak off the wall and wrapped them up, stashing them in the pack with the hammer. That should keep them from clanking around and giving me away.

With the pack on my back, I was done and ghosted silently back down the stairs, out the back door, and into the safety of the dark woods.

I smiled to myself remembering the various stealth video games I’d played in my last life. Mission successful. Bonus points for remaining undetected. Bonus points for two stealth kills. Bonus points for completing optional mission. Bonus points for completing the mission in under five minutes. I made my way west, weaving through the trees, heading to the orchard. Fingers crossed Knick had had it as easy as I did.