But all of that was speculation. What was certain was that the Guards posed no threat to Westernfort. They clearly had no idea of where the village had moved to and no way of finding out. It was hard to see what purpose they thought they were serving by staying at the site. Evading their scouting parties was absurdly easy. Their red uniforms showed up like beacons.
Kim sighed and turned back to Sergeant O’Neil with her decision. “Tempting, but not worth the risk. I think we should settle for ambushing a few of them when they leave the village.”
The two Rangers were about to slip away through the covering vegetation and rejoin the others when a minor disturbance erupted on the far side of the camp. The Guards seemed excited, although at first the reason was not apparent. But then Kim saw six bound prisoners being dragged into the village, one of them a child of less than ten.
“Damn. It’s the family of heretics,” Sergeant O’Neil said, horrified.
“How did Rozek find them before us?” Kim was angry, largely at herself, knowing she had been a touch too complacent. “I guess this changes things.”
“We’ll try to rescue them?”
“We have to. We can’t let them be taken back for execution. If they live that long.”
“You think Rozek will kill them here?”
“Maybe not intentionally, but she’s never going to believe them when they say they don’t know where the village has moved to.” Kim’s face was stern, remembering Rozek’s style of conducting an interview. Her eyes returned to the encampment, and she studied the cover and contours of the land, noting the exact position of sentries and making her plans.
*
Midnight was very close. One lone moon hung low in the sky, Laurel as a quarter crescent. Its feeble light was only the faintest wash of blue over the occupied village, but from where Kim lay in the grass, the sentries showed up as sharp silhouettes against the brilliant backdrop of stars. Two were in view, standing thirty meters apart at one corner of the site, hidden from other sentries by bushes and a dip in the ground. Kim wondered whether the Guards had the faintest idea of how close at hand their enemies were, or how isolated they would be when the attack came. Both stood rigidly at attention, as if on display at the temple gates, and neither had moved a muscle for half an hour. By now, their eyes would have glazed, their brains would be numb, and their bodies stiff and slow to respond.
Kim’s lips formed a circle to whistle the signal, an imitation birdcall, but then stopped, staring intently at the two silhouettes, in the abrupt awareness that this was not a raid on bandits. The Guards were guilty of no crime, were probably decent enough women, soldiers like herself who were obeying their orders. Kim bore them no personal ill will, but neither did she have any options. The Guards’ helmets made it too risky to attempt to knock them out quietly. Whatever I do, some women will die as a result. Either Guards or the family of heretics, Kim told herself. Asking politely won’t be enough to make Major Rozek release her prisoners.
Kim closed her eyes as she made a silent appeal to the Goddess that she no longer believed in, then looked up and gave the signal. At once, two new figures rose up silently behind the Guards. Swift, synchronized thrusts, and then the bodies of the Guards fell to the ground. The fact it was so easy only made it worse, but the guilt and regrets must wait. A job was waiting to be done.
Kim jumped up and signaled the rest of the Rangers forward. As they approached the first hut, the women split into three groups. The smallest was made up of Kim and three of the most experienced Rangers. The two slightly larger parties went left and right, on stealthy routes toward the stores and the horses, while Kim’s group headed straight into the heart of the village, aiming for the hut Rozek had commandeered. The prisoners would most likely be there, but if not, Rozek would certainly know where they were. A grim smile touched Kim’s face; it might be fun to ask Rozek a few questions for a change.
The feeling was strange, almost dreamlike, walking through the village that had been her home for several months, but which was now occupied by her enemies. The three Rangers followed her, slipping from shadow to shadow between the dark, silent huts, heading confidently to their goal. Rozek had been helpful in choosing to occupy a spot where the layout was so familiar to them, and even more helpful to mark her headquarters with a tall gold and red standard at the door.
The sound of quiet talking came from one round hut as they passed. If it had been Rangers or Militia inside, Kim would have suspected an illicit late-night card game. With Guards, it was more likely a prayer meeting for the overzealous. There was no sign that anyone else in the village was awake until they were within sight of Rozek’s headquarters. The major had taken over one of the largest buildings that opened onto the central square. A smaller hut was next to it, with two sentries stationed outside the door. Surely a useful pointer to the place where the heretics were held.
The Rangers halted while Kim whispered her instructions, and then they set off again, silently moving around the square and finally approaching the jail from the rear. Once there, the small group split into two pairs that edged around the hut in opposite directions, so as to advance on the entrance from either side. As she crept around the dry stone wall, Kim could hear a voice from inside—Rozek’s—speaking in the clear, impassive voice Kim remembered.
“Where have the traitors and heretics gone?”
The reply was a confused mumbling, spoken between sobs. Kim could not pick out the words, only the terror. Instinctively, her hand moved to the hilt of her sword.
Rozek spoke again. “Oh, come on. You know I don’t believe that.”
More mumbling, with the words “please” and “don’t know” in it.
“So you went wandering through the mountains without any idea of where you were going, just on the off-chance you might come across your friends?” Rozek spoke in contemptuous irony.
By now, Kim was closer to the door of the hut, and the answer was spoken clearly enough to make out parts. “We’ve told you...were to be met...don’t know...please believe us.”
“I’m not that stupid.” Rozek’s voice sounded bored. “And I will get the truth from you in the end. I have not enjoyed the last few hours, but it is only the start of what I am prepared to do to get what I want. It can take all night, and all tomorrow, and as many days after that as are necessary. So perhaps we should start again, although with a different subject. You obviously don’t care about your old mother, but perhaps the child. She—” Rozek’s words were cut off by screams of anguished entreaty from more than one woman.
“No.”
“Please.”
“Oh. So you do care about your daughter.” Rozek mimicked surprise. “Then where have the traitors and heretics gone?”
Waiting outside the hut was almost more than Kim could bear, and she could tell the other Ranger crouched beside her was feeling the same, but reckless haste would help no one. She drew her sword in readiness, gently so as not to rasp metal on metal, and settled back in the shadows under the low eaves of the hut. The waiting was agony, but then Kim heard the sound she had been listening for, the out-of-season chirp of a straw weevil.
She answered in kind and started counting silently. Eight years’ experience in the Rangers carried her forward, silent, sure-footed and deadly, moving until she was less than a meter behind the sentry. All the time the numbers kept running in her head; on sixteen, her feet reached position; on nineteen, her hand tightened on the sword’s hilt; on twenty, she launched herself forward, her left arm swinging around the Guard’s throat to strangle any cry, and her other hand driving the short Ranger’s sword up through the woman’s body. She did not need to look to know that at the other side of the doorway, Sergeant O’Neil would similarly have dispatched the second sentry.
The bodies were dragged off into the dark. The golden helmets and red cloaks were stripped from the dead Guards, and within seconds, another pair of sentries stood at the door of the hut. It was not much of a disguise, but would be quite ad
equate for the dark night, particularly with the expected confusion ahead.
Flickering firelight escaped through the crack under the closed door. Kim dared not open it to see exactly what was happening, or how many Guards were there. Instead, her attention focused on listening, hoping for answers. Someone else was talking. Not a prisoner from the absence of fear in the voice, although the speaker was not completely at ease either.
“Excuse me, ma’am, it is late. And too much...disturbance might wake people.”
“Maybe,” Rozek conceded. “And perhaps a few hours to think things through might be useful for our prisoners. I’m sure I have given them a lot to think about.”
Kim’s stomach churned. Despite the dispassionate tone and earlier denial, Kim had no doubts that Rozek was enjoying every second. The urge to burst in and silence the sadistic voice was overwhelming, but it was wisest to wait until there was enough disruption in the camp to cover any calls for help. And surely it would not be long before the disruption started?
Kim looked in the direction of the barns. At that moment, a shower of sparks erupted into the night sky, followed by the glow of flames, growing stronger. For a full minute the fire grew, and then came the first shouts. The figures of Guards began to emerge from a dozen doorways, half stumbling and half awake, staring in confusion at the blossoming fire that was engulfing their stores. Kim and O’Neil kept to the blackest shadows, a little back from the doorway, but no one was looking in their direction. Already some of the more astute officers were starting to shout orders, calling every available Guard to help fight the raging fires. The two disguised Rangers remained at their posts, standing as still as stone. They were completely ignored as the center of the hubbub moved away from the village square.
Rozek had been talking quietly to a colleague. Now her voice snapped out, “What’s all that?”
Kim kept silent on the chance that Rozek might recognize her voice and left it to O’Neil to call out, “Excuse me, ma’am. The stores are on fire.”
“What! Why didn’t you say before? You three...go and help.”
The door of the hut opened, letting light spill across the ground. Three Guards raced out and disappeared into the darkness at the other side of the square. None of them paid the slightest attention to the two bogus sentries or seemed to notice that they did not follow.
At least one other Guard remained in the hut with Rozek. A voice asked, “Shouldn’t we go as well, ma’am?”
“Yes, in a minute.” Rozek was clearly torn between her duty as commanding officer and her sport with the heretics. And although her responsibilities had to come first, still she could not resist one last bout of intimidation before she left her victims. “We will be back in the morning. And be quite sure I am not just making idle threats. Your daughter will receive exactly the same attention your mother has had unless you answer my question, and it is a simple enough one. Where have the traitors and heretics gone?”
“Well, some of us are here.”
The time of waiting was over. Kim stepped into the hut, her sword drawn and still red with the blood of the sentry. Her eyes scanned the inside of the hut, quickly noting the position of the prisoners at one side and the absence of any enemies apart from Rozek and one other officer. She faced the two Guards. Rozek’s expression of stunned shock was everything Kim could have wished for. More unexpectedly, the second officer’s face showed an emotion more like relief. This woman moved first, eagerly stripping off her sword belt and throwing it down in a gesture of surrender.
Rozek’s eyes were fixed on Kim. “Ramon! I’d thought I—”
“I know. You thought you’d killed me.” Kim finished the sentence for her and shrugged. “It was an easy mistake to make. I thought I’d drop by and set you straight. I’ve also got a message for you to pass on to the Chief Consultant. She doesn’t own these mountains. We do. Our chosen leader is Gina Renamed, and any women who come into our lands without her permission do so at risk of their lives. Now we’re going to take our friends and leave, but my advice to you is to pack up what’s left of your things at first light tomorrow, return to the Sisters’ land, and stay there.”
The other three Rangers had entered the hut behind Kim. Rozek’s eyes lit up at the sight of the red cloaks, only to fade again when she saw the gray and green uniforms underneath. Yet still she found the composure to quote, “Do not let your feet stray from the path of the Goddess, for all who stand against her laws will die, and their lives shall be offered as tribute by the swords of the righteous.”
“Do you want to try to demonstrate this?” Kim asked, pointing at Rozek’s sword with her own.
Despite her arrogant disdain, Rozek clearly realized she was outnumbered, particularly with her comrade’s instant surrender. She treated the Rangers to an arrogant sneer but had no option other than to remove her belt and toss her sword to lie with the other one on the ground.
“Tie them both,” Kim ordered, then turned to look at the family of heretics in more detail, and froze.
As she had seen from the hilltop, there were six of them. The oldest was a woman who must be over fifty; the youngest was a girl of about seven. The other four appeared to be scattered through their twenties. All were bound, including the child, and none looked as if they fully understood that a rescue had arrived. The child’s eyes were wide in rigid panic; the younger women’s were tear-stained and filled with the dead weight of horror. The oldest was the only one who was gagged. She was also the only one naked from the waist up, which revealed a body crisscrossed and bleeding with the livid marks of burns. In confusion, Kim’s eyes searched the hut, not that the source took much finding. Despite the summer heat, a fire was burning in the central hearth, and in it lay an iron poker.
For a dozen heartbeats, Kim stared at it with disbelief. Even in her words to O’Neil, she had not quite believed the depths Rozek could plumb. Then in two steps, Kim had crossed the hut to where the major sat, her hands and legs already bound. The point of Kim’s sword flew to Rozek’s throat, drawing one small, round drop of blood, but Kim’s arm locked. She looked into Rozek’s eyes and saw fear and anger and religious certainty, and not a trace of guilt. Kim’s hand on the sword hilt pressed forward a little and the drop of blood became a trickle, but she was shaking and could not strike.
“I shouldn’t have given you the chance to surrender. I should have cut you down where you stood,” Kim said, and it was true.
“That would have been closer to the sort of behavior I would expect from you.”
“The sort of behavior you expect from me?” Kim was incredulous at Rozek’s self-righteous tone. “The sort of behavior like torturing old women and children?”
“For her glory, the faithful shall not question the acts they must do in her name.”
The quote was more than Kim could stomach. She pulled back her sword and swung it down hard upon Rozek, hitting her across the face with the hilt. But that was as far as she could go. The world without Rozek would be a better place, and it was not fair that ordinary Guards lay dead outside while Rozek still lived, but Kim could not kill an unarmed woman, and certainly not one who was bound and helpless at her feet. As Rozek keeled over, the other Guard officer looked away, with a shame that was manifest. Small wonder that she had been so quick to surrender.
Freeing the heretics did not take long. Kim stepped to the door and peered out. The flames from the stores were, if anything, higher than before, and the square was deserted. She shook her head. Surely by now someone should have realized that the fire was deliberate and possibly a distraction. However, the Guards’ inexperience was largely what the plan relied on. Kim spoke quickly, giving the last necessary instructions, and then the group filed out of the hut, with two Rangers carrying the older woman.
With the exception of the rumpus by the stores, the return journey was identical to the way in. No one saw them, no one stopped them, and soon they were beyond the boundaries of the encampment and reunited with the successful team of fire l
ighters. But the evening’s plans were not quite finished. As they began to move away to the final rendezvous, a fresh commotion began in the distant corner of the village where the horses were stabled.
At first, a few neighs rang out, followed by wild shouts and yells, and then the rumble of pounding hooves in a frantic stampede. After several minutes of increasing chaos, the sounds faded into the distance on the far side of the village. The ploy was intended to steer any unoccupied Guards away from the women escaping on foot. It would also serve two further ends. Some horses would undoubtedly be recaptured, most would end up supplementing the resources at Westernfort, and in addition to Sergeant O’Neil’s prediction of a long, hungry journey home, the Guards would be going on foot.
Chapter Twenty-Four—The Words of the Goddess
Just after dawn the next day, Kim joined the two Rangers posted as lookouts on a hilltop with a clear view over the village and examined the results of the raid. With the exception of three burned-out huts, the scene looked much the same as the day before, but the manner of the Guards had changed. Even from a distance, Kim could tell the swagger was gone from their walk and the razor-sharp edge of their discipline was blunted. Double the number of sentries guarded the perimeter, but they now seemed twitchy, as if they were no longer devoting their entire attention to standing still, and instead were wondering what was behind them. The horse paddock also looked different; a bare quarter of the animals remained. Much activity was centered around Rozek’s hut; officers were arriving and messengers were departing by the minute.
“What do you think Rozek will do?” one of the Rangers asked conversationally.
“If she has any sense, she’ll recover as much as she can from the remains of her stores and head back to the Sisters’ homelands, but...” Kim let her sentence trail away.
“When did you hear of a Guard officer with any sense?” the Ranger finished.
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