by Alex Avrio
“Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” they cried out. The little drummer boys looked at him. The smallest gave him the faintest smile. “Mercy,” he mouthed, and faded away.
The soldiers bleached, mist descending, engulfing everything. When it cleared, the team was alone once more. Regina ran to Jaeger's side. Emilia made to run to him too. Morgenstern grabbed her arm firmly.
“Leave the man be,” he said gravely.
“What– what happened?” Schaefer asked, her voice wavering.
“I believe we had with us the only man who could save us,” Morgenstern said.
Regina reached Jaeger and hugged him. The warmth of her embrace seemed to bring him back to life.
“Max, I thought they’d kill you,” she whispered. She gave him her hipflask. He emptied all down his throat.
“So did I. So did I.”
59 THE MOTHER’S SISTERS
THERE was very little talking as they resumed their travels the following day. Some seemed overawed at what had happened, some quietly contemplative, others looked blankly towards the horizon. When they stopped for a break, Amanates asked Briggs about Hildenburg. Emilia crept behind them to listen, then she strolled over to Morgenstern.
“Is it true, what Briggs said?”
“I don’t think it’s appropriate we discuss such things here, Princess,” he said seriously.
“Maybe now you understand the old saying,” Schaefer said. “Eressia is the Emperor.”
“Not now, Arza,” Morgenstern snapped.
How long have we been saying it wrong? Emilia thought. Ever since she could remember her brother always said ‘Eressia is the Emperor’. But she understood the difference now. A single man was not the Motherland - if the Emperor lacked, so did the land.
The walls of the shrine loomed tall and gray, promising an oasis of much-needed calm. A group of women clad in sober gray garments and headdresses greeted them. A woman shuffled forward, her face lined with wrinkles around the brilliant green eyes of a cat.
“I am Sister Superior,” she said. “All are welcome here, but this is a Holy Place. You must leave your weapons at the entrance.”
They took their sword belts off and handed them to the sisters. One of the sisters wrinkled her nose as Regina came near.
“Would a bath be desirable?”
“Oh, yes please,” Rosamynd said. The sisters led everyone to the sleeping quarters which were strictly segregated. Sensing more than just the familiar pain of separation from him, Regina worried about Jaeger. He’d barely spoken a word since Hildenburg.
The team cleaned themselves up and donned the clothes given them by the sisters while theirs were washed. Regina looked for Jaeger, but instead met Briggs and Summers in the courtyard, in plain garb. Both were still sporting beards, albeit trimmed.
“I thought you’d get rid of those first chance you got,” Regina commented.
Briggs didn’t look too happy. “Kapitan said to keep it until we get to Neidenwalde. Don’t want to be recognized, especially when we’re close to Border Town.”
“Know where he is?”
“Try the Temple. He looked like he wanted some time alone.”
The Temple was modest, with fresh flowers decorating the base of the Mother and Child’s statue. The Mother looked old and tired. Regina wondered if constant watching over humankind aged her, or constant need to forgive their transgressions. Jaeger was kneling in front of the statue, hands clasped, eyes closed. A faint smell of beeswax floated on the air as the candles burned, shedding their meager light. Regina lit one and offered sincere thanks for their escape from the shadows of Hildenburg. She approached him, her steps deliberately heavy so she wouldn't surprise him. Jaeger rose from his knees. Regina always knew he was more religiously inclined than she was but this was the first major show of devotion she’d seen.
“What do you want, Fitzwaters?”
“I wanted to see if you’re alright.”
“And apart from bothering a man during his prayers, what have you concluded?”
Regina crossed her arms. “That you’ve reverted to being an Eressian ass the moment you set foot on Eressian soil.”
“I’m being an ass?”
Was he expecting sympathy? If she gave it, would he wallow in self-pity and close up into himself. She must get him to talk.
“So you admit that Nassay-Beden is Eressian?” he snapped.
“I admit nothing of the sort,” she snapped right back. “Max, what’s wrong with you? Talk to me. You can tell me anything.”
“Tell you anything? After what you saw on the Hildenburg plain?” he growled.
“I don’t know what I saw, and I don’t know why they went away either, but I don’t care. We are alive. Both of us. I’ve known you were there from the first day we worked together. Did you think I wouldn’t ask around before I set off on a job with you?”
“How much more do you need to see of me?” he shouted, his face contorted. “How much more until you recoil? Until you can’t stand the sight of me? Some things are meant to be private about a man, left alone. Yet my past, the things I want left alone, keep getting dredged up.”
“We all have things we’re not proud of, Max.”
“Things you’re not proud of?” he scoffed. “What’s the worst thing you’ve done, Fitzwaters? Broken your sister’s dolly? Pissed in your brother’s soup? I got flogged for disobeying orders, disgraced my whole regiment and my family. That was where my descent started, right there on that field. I've broken people’s bones and not given a damn. Crushed them right under my boot. Beat seven shades of shit out of them. Burnt houses. When I collected debts, I’ve had women open their dresses and beg me to take them instead. I told them they were too old and ugly for me, and that there’re places in Border Town they could make a copper. That’s the man I was reduced to. I’ve killed people just because. Not in battle. After the war. Are you happy now, Fitzwaters, now that you know what I am?”
“What you’ve been, Max. Not what you are. I know there weren’t people in the houses you burnt. I know you could have taken advantage of the women and didn’t. There was something left in you, even then.”
Jaeger’s expression changed. He turned away, and it panicked her. Jaeger had always been so collected, calm, cold, and calculating. What if he fell to pieces now? She didn’t know what to do to glue him back together.
“I left, Max. I left after my father died and never went back. I left my mother and my sister in the same house with my brother William, a piece-of-shit bully. I was the strongest, and the only one who could stand up to him. I walked away and left them to him. So what do you think of me?” Regina said.
“Sometimes, you lay your soul bare to a person. Someone you trust. Other times you don’t want that person to see your soul, because it’s a miserable shriveled little thing. And mine got waved around like a flag in front of everyone I didn’t want to see. My princess, my comrades-in-arms, my friends– you.” He still wouldn’t turn to face her.
“As far as I’m concerned you’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. I’m proud to call you my friend,” Regina said. This time he turned.
“I’ve plenty to be ashamed of. I knew before. But to see the dead with my own eyes, to know so surely– I– I caught a glimpse of hell when the soldiers grabbed me. Hell. That’s where I’m going when I die, Regina.”
“Well, we always knew that, didn’t we?” Regina said with a straight face. Jaeger looked at her in shock for a moment and then burst into laughter. Regina joined him.
“Why do you think the soldiers let us go?” she asked. He shrugged.
“Maybe it was the full moon?” she pressed on. “Or because they knew you were the Hunter?” Jaeger only pressed his lips into a thin line and clenched his jaw. A shuffling of feet made both of them jump in surprise. A small elderly woman, in the sisters’ robes, got up from a corner, moving with difficulty. As she shuffled past she put her hand on Jaeger’s arm.
“Blessings of the Mother upon you, my child
ren,” she said. “My son. Mercy given is mercy received.”
She shuffled away.
Regina felt someone nudge her awake. She had slept badly, keenly feeling Jaeger’s absence. The full moon made it torture. She opened her eyes to find Jaeger standing over her.
She rubbed her eyes. “I don’t think the sisters are going to look favorably on night visits,” she said. Jaeger put down the candleholder on the nightstand.
“I wouldn’t worry. I’ve got a chaperone.” Regina followed his hand and her jaw fell open.
“Close your mouth or you'll swallow a fly,” Nathaniel said. “One thing I told you,” he grumbled. “One. What do you do? You just go straight through that place. Spend the night there!”
“Don’t look at me,” Regina muttered, getting out of bed, “he was captaining.”
“Thanks,” Jaeger said.
“Any time. Now, Nathaniel, what are you and Jaeger doing in my bedroom?”
“Apart from what he’d like to do?” Nathaniel asked. Jaeger’s ears turned red. “You two have much delayed business.”
Regina looked at Jaeger. He was wearing the plain clothes the sisters had provided. “What business? Why are you fully clothed at this time of night?”
“You need to kill the excess of Mother Spider’s brood,” Nathaniel continued. “She's been taking far too many children to feed hers. Her range grows larger every day. She takes from the whole Southwest Eressia now.”
Regina raised her eyebrows. “You seem to know all about what this Mother Spider’s been up to. Why’s this all down to us? Why haven’t you done anything to stop her?”
“This is clearly a job for the Hunter and Huntress. Do I look like a Hunter?” Nathaniel retorted, pointing at his chest. “Woman, you’re making a fuss I didn't get from the Hunter. He just got up, got dressed, and came along.”
“Yes, which is how he gets us into so much trouble. Who exactly is this Mother Spider, and how are we supposed to kill her?”
“By the gods, why do you always think you have to kill something? I said thin the brood! Slaughtering Mother Spider would not be a good idea. You’ve been Hunters for months. Surely you’ve got more of a clue how this works by now.”
“Nope,” Regina said, crossing her arms, “none whatsoever.”
Nathaniel turned to Jaeger. “When we first met I thought you were going to be the difficult one.” He turned back to Regina. “How about this, then? Do this, then I’ll enlighten you about how previous Hunters have managed to survive for longer than a fortnight. Deal?”
“We haven’t got our clothes back yet. Merchant Blades can’t go dressed like peasants.”
Jaeger stifled a laugh under Nat’s disapproving gaze.
“It’s better than trooping the countryside dressed as Korthi guards, don’t you think?” Nathaniel rebuked them. He was right. A Merchant Blades coat gave impartiality. An Eressian, Merrovigian or Korthi uniform meant you’d chosen a side. She quickly dressed, putting on her own plain clothes from the sisters, unperturbed by the presence of the two men.
Nathaniel led them outside without encountering any of the sisters. Two horses stood next to Fidel, who was proudly preening his magnificent feathers. Regina found a musket strapped to the side of the nearest horse.
“Dressed like this they’ll hang us for horse thieves,” Jaeger said as he mounted. “Telling them a dwarf on a chicken gave them to us won’t get us off the hook.”
“Don’t get caught then,” Nathaniel said. “Now follow me. I’ll take you to the entrance of Mother Spider’s lair.”
60 SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN
REGINA had difficulty navigating the terrain. Without Nathaniel as a guide she didn’t think she could have found her way. It struck her as odd that a rooster could keep up with two galloping horses. Then she remembered this was a giant rooster with a dwarf mounted on its back, and she stopped thinking it odd at all. They all slowed to a trot as they entered the forest and followed the dim light of Nat’s lantern. Regina buttoned her greatcoat against the worsening cold and humidity, among smells of pine growing ever more intense, and the sound of snow crunching under the horses’ hooves.
They followed Nathaniel into the heart of the thickening forest, trees more narrowly spaced as they went further in. There were gnarled roots, treacherous in the frozen ground, jagged rocks hidden under thin icy layers of rotten leaves. Both Regina and Jaeger dismounted and continued on foot, carefully leading their horses so none lost a shoe, slipped or broke a leg. Fidel could nimbly avoid every obstacle but Nathaniel slowed so as not to lose his two charges. He told them to look in the saddlebags. They each found a storm lantern which they promptly lit. The path was uphill. Regina could hear a brook running near.
“We’ll definitely need to find a cobbler for our boots after this,” Jaeger observed. They reached a towering rock face that stood in a clearing, the trees unable to get a hold in the rock around its base. Nathaniel shed lantern light on the rock. They could see a crevice just large enough for a man.
“Here we are,” said Nathaniel.
“Anything else we need to know?” Regina asked.
Nathaniel rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Do your job, come out before sunrise, don’t get killed.”
“Advice to live by,” Jaeger said sardonically. “Will our weapons work on Mother Spider and her brood?”
“They will work in a Hunter's hand. Are you two going to get in there or shall we discuss politics as well? The Nassay-Beden situation, perhaps?”
“Alright,” Jaeger said, pulling a leather bag out of the saddle bags and stuffing it with things he might need, “you’re worse than a nursery maid.” Regina filled her bags and they handed the reins of their horses to Nathaniel before walking to the crevice. The second they stepped in, the temperature warmed to a pleasant spring day.
“That’s nice,” Regina commented. The crevice gradually widened as they walked further in, and they followed this passage until it opened into a large chamber. Jaeger turned his storm lantern right and left, trying to get the measure of the cave’s size.
“Can we just take a moment?” Regina asked, looking up at the stalactites hanging like sharp teeth.
“Are you ill again?”
“We need to stop and think, Max,” she said sternly. “Nathaniel shows up out of nowhere and tells us to tackle this Mother Spider and we‘re off to do his bidding? It’s like we're drugged. We know nothing about him. Just because he says he’s here to help us doesn’t make it the truth. Who is he? Who sent him? Who are we really working for, and do we really have to do any of this? They send us to kill someone or something. Off we go. This Mother Spider could be an innocent bystander.”
“I agree we don’t have to do shit for anyone. I don’t know if they can make us, or what happens if we refuse. What I do know is that Mother Spider is no innocent bystander. She’s a nightmare, a bogey-lady to scare children and make them be good. All Eressian children know her. If you’re bad, she comes for you. If you wander alone in the forest, she gets you. Pretending to be a nice old lady, inviting you to her cottage to get out of the cold. There’s warm food and drink inside, a nice bed to sleep in. Just fall asleep. Then she’ll kill you, cut you up into pieces and feed you to her children in a stew. They eat your meat, crunch your bones and suck the marrow. My sister was scared to death of Mother Spider.”
“And only her?” Regina said, narrowing her eyes.
Jaeger coughed, his ears going red. “I’d kill Mother Spider gladly,” he muttered.
“I’m just saying,” Regina replied, “that we’re off to kill a monster from a children’s story.”
“As experienced killers of Abidari, mist creatures, and pals of a chicken-riding dwarf,” Jaeger counted on his fingers.
“All right,” Regina grumbled. “But I want a serious conversation afterwards.”
“So you keep saying.”
They carefully followed the cave’s downward slope, a thin layer of mud covering a floor of what felt like pol
ished rock. The stalactites grew larger deeper in, stalagmites rising to meet them. In some places they joined into a pillar; in others they twisted together to form grotesque shapes.
“It’s as if animals, and people, had been turned to stone,” Regina said in jest. The moment the words left her lips and her eyes met Jaeger’s, the idea wasn’t funny anymore. Jaeger made marks on the wall to help them find their way out. In the next chamber, Regina examined pink streaks running across the ochre wall when she heard a shuffle behind her. She turned to see a small childlike shape.
“Don’t be scared,” she began. This ‘child’ advanced with great speed, and threw itself at her. In the dim light of her storm lantern she saw eight black eyes in its face and hairy pincers protrude from its mouth. Its long arms ended in claws inches from ripping out her eyes. It was cut in half by Jaeger’s blade. Regina took a step back, and a breath.
“Meet Mother Spider’s brood,” Jaeger said. “Keep your wits, bound to be more.” He directed his lantern into the corner the creature had emerged from, to reveal a shoulder blade, shreds of meat hanging from it. Regina shuddered. They cautiously moved deeper into the cave, a crunchy carpet of small bones underfoot. Clicks and scampering came from the darkness. When they shone light there was nothing. Silken cobwebs covered rocks like a mourner’s veil. Jaeger suddenly stopped, and Regina ran into him, slipping on the sludge underfoot. She let out an oath and looked to see what had stopped him. In the flickering light, with occasional scuttering and hissing coming from the darkness around, she could make out only a stalagmite in their path. Its small mound rose modestly out of the earth. She looked more carefully. The mound had begun to calcify. It was studded with thigh bones, and arm bones, and small skulls. The skulls varied: some missing jawbones, others had milk teeth still in place.