Clearing the Web

by Cary J Lenehan

  “Behind me are Abbot Theophilus of the Monastery of Saints Cyril and Methodius, over there is Princess Theodora of the village of Mousehole, which lies in the Great Range, Father Christopher, her senior priest is here, and this is Hulagu of the Dire Wolves. He is one of the Khitan and a messenger from them and this matter concerns them as well as us.”

  “Some of you may be aware that there has been a major problem with bandits and raiders lately. Many of you have suffered to some extent or another. Some traders have not returned from their trips and people, particularly attractive women and girls, have just disappeared. Many have blamed the Khitan for these losses.”

  “We here have just found out that, until it was freed a year ago, these raiders were based in the village of Mousehole and ventured out from their home in the mountains to go all over the Plains and beyond to spread their evil. They also have confederates and helpers in many areas.”

  “The women, and I am sorry to say, sometimes even children, who they took have been taken to cater to the baser instincts of the raiders.” He looked down at the accused. “Two of the freed slaves are with us here today.” He waved towards Tabitha and Danelis. “Some of you have met them.”

  “One of the last attacks that affected us in this area was around a year ago. The family of Johann Beman, who lived south of here, disappeared along with his flocks and his bees. We now know that two of our own killed him and sold his daughter, Maria, to slavers from the Brotherhood.”

  “She now lives free in Mousehole, and I have read a letter from her attesting to what happened to her. The slavers who took her are now dead, but before they died, they named these two. The men that are bound in front of you are guilty of the murder of the man, his wife and his sons and the sale of his daughter for rape and forced prostitution.”

  “I have also read the testimony of the slavers. We will now hear from the men themselves and see what they have to say. If they refuse to talk, and it is needed, the Princess Theodora, who is a powerful mage, will make them talk by magical compulsion or the Presbytera Bianca, Father Christopher’s wife, will use methods physical to the same effect.”

  The Metropolitan speaks in a level and very measured tone. He is not trying to inflame anyone. In a way his words have been even more chilling in their import because of the way they are delivered and the whole audience is quiet and still. Even the children present have sensed something portentous in the atmosphere and gone silent.

  As the Metropolitan has spoken, the two accused are looking more and more desperate and there is a look of profound horror on the face of the married man’s wife. When they are mentioned, the men really start to look thoroughly wretched.

  After a pause, where he looked around the crowd in front of him, the Metropolitan continued: “All of the documents that I have mentioned may be inspected by any who ask after we are finished here, but I am fully satisfied with their truth.”

  “We will hear from this one first.” He points at the married man and takes a seat. The guards brought the bound man in front of the Metropolitan, and removed his gag and freed his hands. Once he is kneeling there, a Bible is produced, and the Metropolitan looks down at him. “Will you swear before God to tell us the truth, or must we use other means?”

  The man looked around at his wife and children, and at the other man and swallowed. His face was streaming with tears. “Forgive me, Your Eminence, I am a sinner. I will swear.” He placed his hand on the Bible. “May God strike me dead now if I utter a word of falsehood.”

  “I am Barton Felders, and this is my older brother Loudon. About a year ago Loudon came to me and said that we could get four gold talents each if we did some work for some men.” He swallowed. “I was quick to agree, I had not seen that much money before and I wanted to do better by my family.”

  “Once I had agreed, he told me that we had to kill Johann Beman and his family and deliver his daughter to the men. We got to keep anything we wanted of Johann’s and we had to make it look like it was done by raiders and we had to burn his house. I had just had an argument with Johann because he had claimed an area that I had wanted for my bees, and so I was not hard to convince.”

  He stops and looks at his wife. If anything, her look of horror has grown worse. “That is how I got all that new stock,” he said to her. “We found Johann alone in the woods with his hives and we killed him. His boys came out to look for him, but they were thinking of an accident, so they separated to search and we killed them one by one. We tied Maria up when she went for water and then we went on to the house.” He paused for a while.

  It is obvious that he doesn’t want to say any more, but he looks at us and continues. The words come out in a rush. “While I searched for any valuables in the house, Loudon raped his wife. He had always wanted her, but she had chosen Johann. I swear that I didn’t touch her. When he was done, Loudon killed her.”

  “We dragged her body into the woods with the other bodies and hid them well. When we had taken everything that we wanted, that night we set fire to the house. We delivered the girl to the men, I don’t know their names, but they were from the Brotherhood and they had another young woman and a little girl with them on horses.”

  “A week later, I started saying that I had not seen Johann for a while and eventually others went to check on him and found what we had done. That is the entire truth. So help me God.” He threw himself at the Metropolitan’s feet. “Please forgive me, Your Eminence, I was weak. I am sorry for my sins.”

  “My son,” said the Metropolitan seriously. “It is not up to me to forgive you here. I will take your confession later, and God will forgive you if your repentance is sincere. However, here I am also a temporal ruler and for these crimes,” he looked out over the crowd. It has grown angry and is starting to mutter, “of murder, sack, arson and kidnapping…well, they are capital and I can only sentence you to die.”

  He turned to the guards. “Take him away and hold him until he is confessed before God. He may see his family if they want to see him. Prepare a scaffold for him.”

  He turned to the older brother. “Bring Loudon here.” This is done, and the gag removed. “Do you have anything to add? I have a feeling that this is not the first time you have worked for these men? Is that correct? Are you going to die unrepentant?”

  Loudon glared at his brother’s departing back and then looked at the Metropolitan. He has passed quickly from anger to having a look of absolute defeat on his face. There is no room for him to move and his guilt is already known. His face shows resignation. “Your Eminence, it is as my brother said. Yes, I have done things for the men before. I had one more girl to deliver and then I would get to join the bandits myself.”

  “Barton didn’t know this, and he is a bit simple really. I was always able to get him to do what I wanted. My first that I delivered was actually that girl there with the bow.” He nodded towards Danelis.

  Her eyes go wide, and she takes a step forward. Tabitha restrains her. “We got her from near Warkworth about six years ago. She wouldn’t remember me, because she had a bag on her head. A pretty thing she was then, her hair was already silver although she was only fourteen. We weren’t allowed to have her though.”

  “Lucinda, that was Johann’s wife, was the first that I was allowed to touch. She was still beautiful, but she was too old to be taken for the slavers.” He stops and thinks a bit.

  “You are going to hang me as well, aren’t you?” the Metropolitan nods. “All I have left is my soul?” Again, there is a nod.

  “Then there is another local man who is bound up in all of this, and it is his fault that we are here now. He lives north of here at the hamlet of Northrode. I don’t know his name. He sometimes comes to see me when he has orders for me, and it was him who got the Brotherhood men to see me. It may be best if I tell more to someone in private.”

  He stops and, looking sad, addresses the people in front of him. T
hey are muttering and looking angry. “I am sorry. I know that I was weak, but it only started off with doing little things that seemed to make little difference…and…well…I needed the money, and eventually it was too late.” As he has told the tale, his face has seemed to age. I would say that once he was not a bad man, no worse than the rest of us.

  “Anything to add?” asked the Metropolitan. Loudon shook his head. The Metropolitan addressed the guards. “Take him away, get descriptions from him and prepare him for confession and execution. He may talk to his brother, if either wants to do so.”

  He bleakly looked out ahead of him and again addressed the crowd. “This is both a sad and a joyous day for us all. It is sad, because evil has been shown to exist in our midst, preying on us. I will be urging all of my priests to be more vigilant and to be firmer with looking at your souls to see if they can feel such sins weighing on you.”

  “It is joyous because, not only is this blight now removed, but we now know of another, possibly worse villain, and this greater blight will no longer trouble us. Your lives will be safer and your daughters less likely to be prey to the evil that lurks in the shadows. I urge you all to give thanks for this.”

  “Now, have some food and drink. The executions will be before sunset tonight for those who wish to wait. Please spread word of these events to your friends—and make sure you tell them the full story, and in particular, that deep evil can begin with what seem like only little things.” He again blessed the crowd and went into his house, followed by his secretary and the Mice.

  “Once you have heard from Loudon and you have told us where this Northrode is, we will be off there. We want to catch this other man before he hears of today’s events. Do you want us to bring him back here?”

  The Metropolitan nods. “I do. He is ours, and so it is up to us to try him here. Andronicus will give you directions. I must have badly failed my people if something like this could happen here. I need to go aside and pray, unless I am needed for Confessions.” He looks very tired as he blesses us and withdraws upstairs.

  They left behind most of their gear and landed just after dusk near the small hamlet of six houses and a few other buildings, and dispersed. The moons are both waxing, but they still do not provide a lot of light. Christopher will perform his miracle to find the Masters’ pentagram and then will be left holding the babies again, while Bianca heads into the woods with Tabitha.

  Hulagu has already moved off to set himself up to control the path back to Greensin, although all we are expecting is a patrol coming to take our prisoner. Danelis will face the other way. I am pleased with the way we have settled into a useful routine already.

  “There is a diagram,” said Christopher. He pointed at the building it is in. It is one of those nearest to us, around a hundred paces away and an outbuilding to a stone house of several rooms that is being added to. It seems to belong to the most prosperous person here and accords with what Loudon told us. It has a third building attached to it, a stable.

  Bianca and Tabitha moved out while the others tried to quietly move a little closer. Bianca is not as good in the bush at staying quiet and hidden as she is among buildings, but she is learning. Tabitha is being trained by Astrid, who is a hard teacher, and is already better in the wild than Bianca, despite having spent so much of her time in the village.

  Bianca

  There is a light in the house, and seemingly none in the outbuilding, but I am still checking it first. It seems to be of a much older construction than the other buildings. It has more dark lichens growing on its walls than the house apparently does. Indeed, it is covered by them and the stone underneath them cannot be seen at all, even from as close as I am. The door is closed and locked.

  Bianca listened to the door. I can hear nothing. She waved to the main group and beckoned them closer and headed across to the house. Now that I am among buildings, I am more confident. We will move around to the front of the house, and leave the archers and the Princess to cover the rear. The windows are shuttered, and someone is moving around inside.

  She looked around. The hamlet seems quiet, but if someone looks out and sees us then we could be taken as raiders ourselves. We need to be quick and take him by surprise. She quickly mimed to Tabitha what she wanted done and Tabitha grinned. At least she doesn’t have Astrid’s teeth, but that grin is more or less the same otherwise.

  Tabitha rested her spear quietly against the wall beside the door while Bianca reversed her grip on her short sword. Tabitha unlaced her top and pulled it wide open. She unlaces the neck of her chemise completely and pulls it down to her waist to display her breasts. Tabitha then knocked on the door and stepped back a pace and a bit more to be well out of easy reach of a person inside the building. Bianca flattened herself against the wall.

  There must be no suspicion on his part. I can hear movement inside, of footsteps coming to the door and…it opens wide. Even from where I am, he is outlined by the light streaming out from behind him. Come on…there is a semi-naked woman standing before you smiling. Move forward.

  The girl is wiggling her breasts seductively at him as she cups them in her hands. That is too much. He does not even look to the side…he involuntarily reaches out and takes a step forward. Bianca clubbed him at the base of the skull with the butt of her shortsword.

  He fell forward into Tabitha’s arms, and Bianca returned the shortsword to a normal grip and quickly moved into the room. There seems to be no-one else here. Tabitha is dragging the body inside and, puts him down. Bianca pointed to the wall where some rope was hanging. Tabitha began tying him up.

  Bianca moved quietly from room to room and returned. “There is a door in the kitchen. Open it from the side and wave first so they don’t shoot you, then get the others inside. I will check your knots.”

  “He has been to Mousehole a few times, bringing herbs and other supplies,” said Tabitha and kicked the unconscious man in the groin. “He almost bit one of my nipples off once, and I had to be healed. They were debating whether it was worth it to do so, or whether to just kill me. He wanted them to torture me to death.”

  She pulled aside her top again to show Bianca the faint scar that still remained. She then kicked him again and then went for the others as Bianca had told her to. The Mice gathered in the room. Tabitha pointed at the man for Danelis and started to re-lace her jerkin as the man on the floor came around.

  Danelis looked at the figure on the floor and went to get her hammer out. Theodora stopped her. “We need him alive,” she said. He is stirring. Bianca nodded to the others. She then knelt down and put her hand over the man’s mouth as he came alert, groaned and suddenly attempted to curl around the growing pain in his abused groin.

  He moaned around Bianca’s hand. “Hello, sweetie. We bring you greetings from the Masters.” She removed her hand.

  “What?” The man looked around. “They didn’t say…” Suddenly he sees Tabitha smiling at him like a cat at a trapped mouse, and his eyes widen and his face goes pale and he changes what he is about to say. “What Masters? Who are you?”

  “Too late…you are ours now. There will be a patrol here soon to take you back to Greensin for trial and execution. Do you want to tell us more about yourself, and what you have done for them while we wait? You can if you wish to entertain us. It doesn’t matter all that much. We will find out everything from you at your trial.” The man may stay silent, but his eyes speak volumes.

  Tabitha kicked him again and he yelped loudly. “Do you remember me and what you did to me?” she asked. “I am going to ask the Metropolitan if I can be the one to haul you up to the scaffold. If I cannot do that, then I want the last sight you have before you die to be of my breasts. I want you to go to hell knowing exactly why you are going.” She kicked him in the groin again and he gave out an anguished cry.

  Christopher looked at the man on the floor. “I can readily sense the evil in him,” he said.
“He must have avoided every priest in the area to have not been found before now.” Just then one of the babies woke and started to demand feeding. Bianca went over to look after them.

  Theodora

  “We had better talk to the people here. I hope that they are not all like him. It is likely that someone will eventually hear one of the babies and get curious about what is happening in here. Everyone stand ready in case of trouble. Father, come with me.”

  They began to go from door to door. The patrol had ridden hard and, by the time they arrived an hour later, the whole hamlet had gathered outside. I need to explain about the trial earlier in the day and what part the man on the ground, his name is Hildric Marchant, played in it all.

  Hildric is denying his part, and alleges that he is innocent, but by that time, with the babies fed, Bianca has started to search the house and come up with a box, which Hulagu has brought to where we all are, and checking with Praetor Michael, opens cautiously by throwing his mace at the lock until it smashes. It is as well he has done it that way. There is a flash as the lock opens. It was trapped. Now they can stare in amazement at the wealth inside, and we have a key.

  “So, he has a trapped box,” asked one local. “There is nothing wrong with that. He is a trader and has money to protect. What proof have you got that he has done something wrong. Who are you anyway?”

  “We are doing the work of the Metropolitan.” She pushed Danelis and Tabitha forward. They can tell their story and explain why they are here, and what Hildric has done to them in the bandit village.

  The patrol shows their letter of authorisation from the Metropolitan to back up all of this. It comes with a warrant of arrest, naming the charges for the crimes that Loudon was able to tell them about. Hildric is still denying the charges, but the rising tones in his voice tend to give him away, and his neighbours are starting to regard his pleas less seriously as time goes by.