Phwwwwwhht! The whistle drew my attention and I looked up to see Gus and a strange man in the center of the wagon circle.
“Gather in please!” Gus called out.
Mrs. Kine set her sewing aside and I closed the book I was reading. I glanced at the sky and then hurried around the back of the wagon, climbed up the ladder and stored the book in the water-tight chest.
Mrs. Kine was waiting for me.
The man standing next to Gus had his gray hair cut short and held his hat in his hand in front of him worrying the brim.
“This is Marshall Dunkin,” Gus said, “and he has some news for us.”
The guards were circled up as well.
“I’m authorized by the Viceroy to keep the peace,” he said showing a long horizontal metal plate that hung across his chest just under his collar bones. The chain connected to each end looped under his collar.
“The town of Nightfyre was in a bubble pop. Many, if not all, of the residents are dead. Surrounding farms and homes were not affected. Many people were out of the town for one reason or another. We are still searching properties and taking account of the dead. I’m sorry to give you this news. The Marshall service will be taking over the town until residents can be mustered to bring the towns numbers up to safe levels. Until that time there will be a rental cost and tax on every property- I know, I know. It’s not fair. You are welcome to leave, but Nightfyre is still the safest place, and as horrid as it is to say, there are empty buildings in need of workers. Fancy owning a tavern? Come speak to me and we will see what we can do. Again I’m sorry for your loses, and for the tax, it is a direct order from the Viceroy. Good day to you all.”
He put his hand on and strode away.
Gus answered questions for a bit then came over to me.
“Marshal wants to see you and Henry in the Sherriff’s office as soon as you can, as in riding into town with him currently. It’s about the John Walsh Gang. Henry’s on a hunt but I’ll send him in what he gets back.
The Marshall was waiting by our wagon. He dipped his hat to Mrs. Kine and then informed me he needed me to look at wanted posters and sketches.
“We need to know who’s alive and who isn’t. The sooner the better. There is also the matter of bounties to be paid for many as they were wanted dead or alive.”
I did not think too much about entering Nightfyre until we rounded the last hill and a large plain opened up before us.
There were trees, but they were tiny, as where the buildings when I spotted them near the patches of tilled land.
The Marshall’s silent companion pointed.
Nightfyre was below the plain. The road we were on descended the hill and at the base, there was a steep ravine.
The city started there, two or three story wooden buildings hiding in ravine, only a few rising up high enough to peak out over the top.
I grew apprehensive. Once I was in the city, the loops stopped.
“Marshall can you not bring the posters to the wagons? We have animals that we should not leave.”
“While I don’t want to arrest you and your wife,” he dipped his hat to Mrs. Kine, who he had insisted should come to meet his own wife, “I will.”
He didn’t slow his horses pace, but his man slowed so that he would be riding behind us.
I wrestled with the decision. I had my gun, and assuming the silent man let me get it out, I could likely kill myself.
Except what if it was already too late?
What if seeing the town counted as making it here?
And every moment I didn’t kill myself I made it worse. I was going to be mortal again. I’d have to fear death.
Did I do everything right in the loops? Could I have done things better?
Wesley bumped into Shadow and the bigger female did nothing. They were not threatened by males.
Mrs. Kine reached over and took my hand, holding it.
I won’t say my worries fell away, but I will say I felt much better. At least until we entered the ravine.
The first buildings were a single story tall and they were taller than the plains that butted up against their backs.
Liveries and stables and a saloon.
The road slopped down gently while the edges of the ravine stayed mostly level.
The town was empty. While there were no bodies, there were holes near windows and doors from bullets, arrows still stuck in places where they were hard to recover, and burn and blast marks everywhere.
“Did the torches fail?” Mrs. Kine asked. There were never-dark torches everywhere. The little ravine was well lit.
“Spiked well past ten,” the Marshall said without turning.
Beyond a depth of one monsters could spawn in darkness. Beyond a depth of ten, they could spawn in light.
There was a building with a pentagram painted on the sign above the door and on the face of the building.
It was three stories tall with a two story building on either side.
“Don’t say anything to these others until I clear them out,” the Marshall said as we all dismounted and hitched our horses to the post outside the building.
Once he stepped through the door he took his hat off an hung it on a hook.
“You lot get out, I’ve got official business to attend to.”
“This them?” a man with a bushy mustache and a three day growth on the rest of his face asked.
“Nope,” the Marshall said, “Train driver and his wife. The men are out hunting and will be by tomorrow.”
The man stared at the Marshall’s back while the Marshall put a kettle on what looked like an electrical heating pad, but was probably some magical thing.
“Do you take any milk in your-” the Marshall asked as he turned around.
“Didn’t I tell you to git?” he asked.
The other men began filing out. The one who had asked if we were them didn’t.
Then he looked me up and down and walked past me.
The Marshall’s silent companion remained where he was seemingly relaxed and leaning against the wall. But as the Marshall indicated we should sit the man went to the door and looked out.
“Bounty hunters,” the Marshall said, “Rumor has it some significant number of the John Walsh Gang is dead or scattered. That means someone is getting paid. Let’s start with the basics. I’ll tell you what I know first and then you can fill in the gaps. Once we are done with that we will go over sketches and get you what you’ve got coming.
He knew the broad strokes of the lie I’d told, but his version didn’t come from Gus or Henry who knew far more, but from someone else. No need to panic anyway.
“Not six men,” I said, “At the ambush there were sixteen.”
“Sixteen you say,” the Marshall said, “That seems mighty unlikely. This isn’t some fledgling gang. They have some powerhouses. Six, in an ambush, would likely have been enough for your group. No offense. You wouldn’t be trying to convince me you kill more than you did for more bounties would you?”
“No sir. But it didn’t start with the ambush.”
“It didn’t?”
“No sir. I was on horseback looking for alchemical plants to harvest. I got off the horse and was moving through the underbrush picking mushrooms when I heard two men talking. They were returning to a larger camp and talking about,” I glanced at Mrs. Kine.
“Mrs. Kine why don’t you see to the tea.”
She said nothing as she got up and walked across the room to wait near the kettle.
“They were talking about raping and robbing a wagon train. So of course I followed them. Just to see where they were headed so I could tell Gus and his men.”
He motioned for me to continue. I told the sanitized lie that didn’t involved me killing everyone with hatchets, torturing people, and setting them on fire.
“Well I the mushrooms, and they are poisonous, so I got close and just added them to the stew pot. I tried to crawl away but ended up being trapped. There was a guard further from camp and I was in a position I couldn’t move without being spotted by someone.
“They um, they died.”
“All sixteen of them?”
“No sir. Thirty in that camp. Twenty-nine dead. One woman hadn’t eaten. I was trying to decide what to do when she crawled out of her tent, noticed everyone was dead, and fled.
“There were wands out in the open so I took those and a crossbow and tried to get back to the wagons before anything happened. I happened to run into the back of the ambush party- those are the sixteen men, and barely survive.
“I used the wands and the guards attacked and we survived. We knew the woman had gotten away though so we were cautious as we traveled. We spotted another hidden camp, and the woman was there, so we attacked. Eleven dead there, and the woman, which makes twelve.”
“That’s fifty-seven. That’s most of them alright. Let’s go through the descriptions if you can remember anything and I’ll get you on your way.”
I knew those people well. I couldn’t drawn but I could describe them.
“Stinky?” the Marshall asked.
“I gave them names, he was on the privy when he didn’t, so Stinky.”
“Was it quick?” he asked, “these mushrooms of yours?”
“And painless,” I lied.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. The second pot of tea began to whistle. When it did the Marshall drew the pistol at his side and aimed it at my face.
“Stand up slow,” he said.
I lifted my arms and leaned forward to stand up.
“Left hand. Belt buckle.” I did as I was told. The weapon’s belt dropped taking my holstered pistol and belt knife with it.
“Step out of it and back up.”
“Marshall-”
“Not a word- she’s she asleep!” he added when I turned my head to see Mrs. Kine with her head on her arms.
“What are we doing here?” the silent man finally asked.
“They killed the ambush team and the mages. Fifty-seven. That’s not loosing a wheel, it’s upended the cart. We aren’t going to hold this town with- what we’ve got left.”
The Marshall stood there pointing the gun at me and I could do was compare the vast difference between the loops and now. I would die. No bench. No re-do. Death.
We stood there for a few minutes. Then the man I was highly suspecting wasn’t a Marshall spoke.
“Here’s how I see it. Jack’s dead. John’s not going to be happy about that. Not happy to the point where he’s going to walk to speak to Mr. Kine here himself when he returns. But Mr. Kine won’t be here is Sammy gets a hold of him. So Mr. Kine goes to the mine where he will behave. If he doesn’t behave his wife will be violated.”
He met my eyes while he said the words.
“For his good behavior she will be part of the kitchen crew down there. It’ll keep Sammy off her as well. He can see- you can see her at meal times. I’m not going to lie you. You’re not going to die easy, but if you do die in the mines, your wife won’t be hurt. More importantly it won’t be on our watch or our fault.”
This time he was speaking to the silent man.
“So we dump him in the mines and run?”
“Deeps no!” the Marshall said.
“John is going to be- we don’t want to give him any excuse to wonder about us. We don’t want him thinking about us at all. We stay small, we stay quiet, and we try to survive this.”
“And you, Alchemist, what did you just hear?”
“Nothing,” I said.
“Smart, but wrong answer. What you heard is that it would be better for you to die to a cave in or even to pay the man next to you to cave in your skull. He’s got a healer. If you’re lucky he will be so angry he gets carried away and kills you. If not the torture may go on for years. You wife will work the kitchen and I’ll personally see to it she’s protected and untouched. Now my friend here is going to toss you some shackles. Put those on for us and let’s get you to the mine before Sammy and his crew come back and make this that much more difficult.”
The shackles were made of wood. Which was so odd I stared at them for a while.
Thankfully the man was patient.
They were two thick rings connected by a long thing chain made out of wooden links.
I slipped my hands into the over sized rings.
The Marshall frowned and then shifted the gun from my chest to my face.
“You have all your mana reserved?” he asked.
“What?”
“It shouldn’t matter,” the silence one said.
He approached, circled behind me, and said, “Don’t move.”
“Deeps,” he said after only a moment of touching the skin of my neck.
“He’s not awakened. No mana.”
The Marshall sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose again.
This whole time the gun never wavered or dipped once. The only time it had moved was to aim at my face and then back to my chest. I doubted I could hold my hand out without any addition weight at all, for this long.
That had been my plan, wait for his arm to get tired and then- something.
“Don’t.”
I focused on the Marshall’s face.
“You think this means things have changed. I can see it in your posture. It doesn’t. Keep the wooden cuffs on or they will kick you out of the mines. Outside your not going to be able to kill yourself before he gets here. Pick your wife up and let’s go.”
I carried Mrs. Kine as best I could but the ravine continued on for a long ways.
“Not awakened. I forgot. Hand her off.”
“I’ll be a gentleman,” the silent man said when he took her.
“How did that happen anyway? I thought alchemy needed mana.”
“Would you believe me if I told you this whole universe is a simulation and I’m from a completely different universe and the guy with this body died so they slotted me into it?”
“No. You speak the language too well.”