"The days of weakness are over," he said, standing in the rain with his sword unsheathed and planted on the ground in front of him. "Now is the time for the strong to take their proper place."
It continued in that vein for a good thirty minutes as the four who were not out on watch sat in the rain and, at least in Herzer's case, wondered where this was going. Finally the purpose of the speech got through to him.
"So, you're saying we're going to become bandits?" he asked incredulously.
"Only for the time being," Dionys responded reasonably. Since Herzer returned he had been treating him with more respect than he had any of the others. "In time we will take our proper place of leadership in this New Destiny."
"New Destiny," Herzer said, wiping the rain out of his eyes. "Isn't that what Paul calls his group? And doesn't Sheida sort of have control of Norau?"
"For the time being," Dionys responded. "For the time being. But that depends upon her allies on this continent. In the meantime we can carve out our niche and get out of all this," he said, gesturing around at the sopping woods. "Surely you don't want to live in this for the rest of your life?"
"Hmmm," Herzer said, not looking around. He had done several scenarios where there were bandits to be dealt with and in most of them one of the ways to win was infiltrate the bandit camp. Well, I've infiltrated the bandit camp, he thought. How many points do I get?
But he suddenly realized it wasn't about points. Dionys was deadly serious. Emphasis on deadly. The sword was not out just as a prop; he was more than willing to use it. And Herzer felt a cold chill run through his body as he realized that Dionys was primarily thinking he might have to use it on Herzer.
"Well, of course I don't want to be in this for the rest of my life," Herzer snorted. "And I see no reason that we shouldn't take our rightful place." There, absolute truth.
Dionys stared at him for quite a while and then nodded.
"Benito, Guy and Galligan are out on watch. There will, eventually, be people moving on these trails. Some of them will choose to join our little crusade. Some will have items to pass on as a toll for use of the roads. All of this to the good. Some will demur. They will have to be. persuaded."
There was a rough chuckle from around Herzer and he realized that the entire charade had been for his benefit; the. creatures around Dionys had long since sold their souls and had no problem at all becoming bandits under the conditions of the Fall. Only then did he wonder if they had all started off as he had, a toy to be added to Dionys' collection of fallen souls. He also realized what Dionys had been waiting for. He had been waiting until any of the remnant holdouts, like Herzer, were hungry and desperate enough to have stopped caring.
Herzer also knew that he was surrounded; probably by prior arrangement the others had gathered to either side and at his back. And whereas several of them had knives, and Dionys of course had his sword, Herzer hadn't even found a stick that was to his liking; he was essentially unarmed.
But at the same time he finally realized just where he stood. He was damned if he'd be the villain. He was damned if he would fall to the level of banditry and brigandage, which was what Dionys was talking about even if he didn't know the words. Herzer might have some questions about his feelings, especially his feelings about women, but he had never acted as anything other than a good and just person. And he wasn't going to start just because he was a little hungry. There were too many strange looking fish in the world.
The only question was how to extract himself without having his throat cut. And right now the answer was: acting.
So he'd acted. He knew that acting fully convinced would be wrong, but he'd been willing to go along. Thereafter he noticed that one of the others was always around him, watching, waiting.
It was in this unpleasant state of paranoia, gnawing hunger and delayed mayhem that Benito came running back to say that they had their first customer of the day.
* * *
For purposes of foraging, Daneh and Rachel had split up with Daneh taking the south route back along the trail and Rachel, accompanied by Azure, the north.
Daneh had left three snares at likely looking small-game trails along the west side of the walkway. The snares were simple period ones, braided horsehair bound into a loop. If a rabbit or something came down the trail it would tangle into the loop and get held there until the snare was checked. Or until something else came along and ate it; that had happened more than once on the trip and they'd lost one of the snares that way. But it was the best they had.
She had reached a small stream, crossed by a simple log bridge, and was considering whether it would be a useful place to lay their last trotline when three men appeared out of the woods.
* * *
Herzer's stomach dropped when he saw Daneh being held by Guy and Galligan.
"Dionys, this is a friend of mine," he said. He had taken a position as far at the rear of the group as possible, but Benito was still behind him. And as the group spread out on the trail Boyd and Avis dropped back as well.
"Well, that's a nice looking friend you have," Dionys said. "Who are you?"
"I'm Daneh Ghorbani. And I know who you are, Dionys McCanoc. What is the meaning of this." Daneh's jaw was set but her voice trembled ever so slightly at the end.
"Well, there's a toll for using this road," Dionys replied. "I wonder what you have to pay it with."
"You're joking," she snapped, looking at the group then at Herzer who was looking anywhere but at her. "You're. you're insane."
"So some people have suggested," Dionys said, drawing his sword and placing the tip on her throat. "But I wouldn't suggest using that term at the moment, woman. Ghorbani. that name rings a bell. Ah! The wife of Edmund Talbot is it?"
"I. Edmund and I are friends, yes," Daneh said quietly.
"How pleasant!" McCanoc replied with a feral grin. "How exceedingly pleasant. And where is your daughter?"
Daneh had been halfway waiting for the question. "She was in London when the Fall happened. I hope she's all right."
"Better than you, I think," McCanoc said with a smile. "And I know just how you can pay your toll!"
"Dionys," Herzer said with a strained voice. "Don't do this."
"Oh, I wouldn't think of taking first place," he said, turning to the boy and pointing the sword at him. "That's your job."
Herzer stumbled forward as Boyd struck him in the back and he found himself looking directly at Daneh. The journey hadn't been easy on her, either; her bones stood out fine on her face and there was a smudge of dirt on her cheek. He looked her in the eyes and saw in them resignation backed with something else, something very old and dark.
"Dr. Ghorbani, I'm sorry," he whispered and leaned forward to drive his shoulder into Guy.
The man was smaller than he and was rocked out of the way. From that position all that Herzer had to do was keep his feet to start running. He made it across the small bridge in a single bound and quickly turned left, smashing his way into the brush and trees along the trail. With that, he was gone.
* * *
"Well," McCanoc said, swishing his sword back and forth. "That was. somewhat unexpected." He looked at Guy who was crumpled up on the ground and shook his head. "Get up from there. What a wuss." Galligan had caught Daneh before she could get away and now held both of her arms behind her. "Hmmm. well, it's still time to pay your toll."
"Do it," she spat. "Do whatever you're going to do and be damned to you."
"Oh, we're already damned. Benito, hold her other arm. You others, grab her legs. I haven't had a woman in over a week and I'm tired of jacking off."
* * *
Herzer stumbled through the woods, looking for a stick, a tree branch, any sort of weapon. He finally collapsed to the ground, panting and crying. Even through the rain-muffled woods he could hear sounds behind him but he closed his ears to them, looking for something, anything that could help.
The forest was old grown with a thick undergrowth of bracken and privet
. The branches that were on the ground were all old and rotted but finally he found a sapling that had grown to man height then died off from lack of sunlight. He tried to find his path back through the woods but the privet had covered it over. Finally he found a stream, he hoped it was the right one, and he followed it back, part of the time splashing through it. Dionys was the main threat, with his sword and size. But even Benito's rotten bow and lopsided arrows, despite the rain, would be a danger. The others just had knives.
If he could just make it back in time.
* * *
Guy heaved himself off the doctor and looked down at her.
"Should we cut her throat now?" he asked. "That's what we always do with the homunculi."
"No," Dionys said, wiping at a scratch on his cheek. "But take her rain coat and pants as penalty for not paying the toll willingly," he laughed. "Let her live." He kicked Daneh in the side.
"Live. Go and tell your paramour what we did. Tell him we're coming for him. Not today, not tomorrow, but soon enough. And then, we'll finish the job." He gestured at the group and walked down the path to the south across the bridge. "There'll be more where she came from."
Daneh rolled over on her side in the mud and covered her face with her hands as the group walked off. She wouldn't cry. She refused to let them get that satisfaction. She had stayed stone faced through the entire ordeal and she knew that that had taken some of the pleasure of it from them. It was the most she could do and she wasn't going to lose it now.
She waited until she was sure they were gone and got to her feet, fumbling her clothes on as best she could. She wished that she could tear them off and throw them away, burn them even. But she had to have something against the cold and the wet. She stumbled to the stream and rinsed her mouth spitting out the foul taste and worked at a loose tooth; Dionys had tried to get some response out of her, but other than that one scratch when she worked her hand free she wouldn't give it to him. There were other cuts and bruises on her body and she winced at the pull of her ribs; there might be a crack there.
Finally she sat down on the bridge and just let the rain fall until she heard steps squelching up the road. Afraid that one of them had come back for seconds, she stood up and turned to run. But it was just Herzer, holding a sapling taller than he was with dirt still attached to the rootball.
* * *
Herzer took one look at her and dropped to his knees, head down, cradling himself around the useless stick.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"Herzer."
"I'm so sorry, there was nothing I could do, they would have killed me and."
"Herzer!" she snapped. "I don't have time for your angst, damn it. I lied about Rachel. She's up the road. We have to find her and get her out of here before they do."
"Rachel?" he said, coming to his feet.
"Keep. Your. Voice. Down," she said tightly.
"I." He pulled the cloak off his back and handed it to her. "You need this far more than I do," he said. "And, yes, we need to get out of here."
"We'll talk about this," Daneh said, taking the cloak at arm's length. "You can walk in front of me."
"In front."
"Right now, I don't like any males near me," she said with a venomous tone. "So it's nothing personal."
"All right," Herzer replied, edging past her.
"And Herzer."
"Yes?"
"When we get to Rachel, we're just going to not mention that you were with the group that did this, understand?"
"I. okay. But, no, I don't understand."
"I put a lot of effort into saving your life," she said bitterly. "I don't want Edmund killing you. Or Rachel."
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Rachel had not been happy.
"I'm going to kill them!" she snarled.
"If you tried, you'd end up just like me," Daneh said, shivering. Herzer's cloak was a better fit for her than for the boy, but it was still a poor substitute for her rain gear. And she knew she was still shocky from the trauma of the rape. "I didn't lie through my teeth just so that you could get raped too. Leave it."
Azure, already wet and annoyed, wandered around her sniffing and yowling. He sniffed at Herzer as well, and seemed ready to bite, but finally he left off and wandered into the woods, sniffing at the ground.
"There's nothing you can do, Rachel," Herzer said tonelessly.
"You can just butt out Herzer Herrick," Rachel snapped. "Where in the hell were you? Huh?"
"Too late to do anything," Daneh said. "Leave off, Rachel. We need to get on our way."
"What about the snares?" she said. "We can't keep moving without food. Azure needs to eat at the very least."
"He won't start getting sick for another day or two," Daneh said tiredly. "If we move fast we can make it to the Via in a day at most. There are towns up there; we'll find something to eat."
"How far up the road did you go?" Herzer asked.
"Only a ki or so," Rachel said. "The trail is knee deep in mud up the way. Mom, I don't know if you can make it."
"I'll make it," Daneh said, standing up. "I'll make it all the way. But I'm not going to wait here for McCanoc and his band of merry men to find me again. Let's go."
"God, I hope Dad is still in Raven's Mill," Rachel said, gathering up their few belongings.
"He will be," Daneh replied. "I just hope that he's willing to overlook the last few years."
"Home is where when you have to go there, they have to take you in," Herzer said, quietly. He automatically took the front position, picking up Daneh's pack and slinging it on his back. "He'll be there. And he'll be waiting for you."
"He'd better be," Daneh said, bitterly.
* * *
"Naye, naye, you have to heat it more or you'll be hammering all day to no effect," Edmund growled, picking up the piece of metal with tongs and setting it back in the charcoal fire.
"I'm sorry, sir, I thought." The apprentice stepped back and looked around at the group gathered in the forge. A few weeks before, all he'd had to worry about was what to wear to the next party. Now he was trapped in this cluttered workshop, learning a trade so ancient that until the previous week he had never heard of it. And doing badly at it. It didn't seem fair.
"It takes years to learn the blacksmith trade," the smith replied, more softly, noting the glance. He jerked a chin at the bellows and waited as the apprentice pumped the fire hot. "Watch the color of the metal and the colors of the fire around it. When it gets white hot, pull it out and then strike. You don't have much time, that's why they say you have to 'strike while the iron is hot.' " He leant emphasis to the words, pulling the piece out and hammering it flat, then turning it to shape. "Just a hoe but hoes are what will feed us all soon enough. Hoes and plows and parts for wagons will be your mainstay once you learn." He thrust the half-formed metal back into the fire and jerked his chin at one of the other hovering apprentices. "Now, you tend the fire while he tries again."
He stepped back and wiped at his face as the fledgling smith tried to get the recalcitrant metal to do his will, trying not to shake his head. With the scraps and bars that Angus had brought in, they had enough material for the beginnings of a community, but they'd soon need more. He had sent a wagon load of mixed foodstuffs up the road to Angus but the distance was far enough that the oxen would eat a good bit of the load on the way. And it would be three or four weeks before any response could come.
"What about weapons?" the apprentice asked, finally getting the hoe to form. He had got the rhythm of the hammer, and sparks struck a brilliant white in the dim forge.
"You're a long way from making a weapon, son, other than a spear blade, which is naught more than a hoe shaped a bit differently. But swords and such, or armor, they take a tad more work. Once we have the wire puller going in the water forge we'll get some of you to work on mail. But for the time being it's more important to learn how to make farming utensils." He looked out the door of the shed again, then peered more carefully.
/> "You all start working on hoes from this stock, I'll be back in a bit."
Stepping out of the heat of the forge he shielded his eyes against the sun. As if in expiation for the unending rains the skies had cleared and turned bright for the last few days as the sodden ground steamed. The temperature hadn't gone up much but the humidity was still high, giving the area a damp chill that sapped energy and made everyone hungry for fats and carbohydrates that were in short supply. But the bright sun and haze made seeing anything at a distance difficult, which was why Edmund had to look long and hard to be sure of what he saw. Then he let out a whoop and headed down to town.
"Class dismissed for the next hour or so," he called over his shoulder. "Try not to burn down the forge while I'm gone!"
John Ringo - Council Wars 01 - There Will Be Dragons Page 18