Blood of the Isir Omnibus

by Erik Henry Vick

  The door swung open so hard it banged against the wall and swung back. Paltr kicked the door a second time, knocking it out of his way and strode into the room. “What’s doing, little brother?” he boomed.

  Luka’s eyes went wide. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  “Sif told me she was invited to the Ministry to see you work. I decided to come along and see for myself. Sorry I’m late.” He slapped Luka’s shoulder with sufficient force to make his little brother take a step forward.

  Luka bristled, but Vowli put out his hand and clasped Luka’s shoulder. “That’s fine, Paltr,” he said, “as long as you are here to watch rather than to interfere.”

  Paltr held up his hands, the picture of innocence.

  Vowli grunted and rested the tip of his finger about an inch from the last long vertical cut in Peli’s back. When the tip of his finger touched Peli’s skin, a little screech burst out of the tortured man. “Now, Peli. I want you to think long and hard before you answer my question. Can you do that?”

  Peli grunted, too scared to do much more than that.

  “Good,” said Vowli. “Good. Keep in mind that we have three distinguished guests in attendance, any one of which has the ear of the queen.”

  Paltr slid past Luka to stand next to Sif. He looked at her and raised his eyebrows.

  She glanced up at him and shook her head.

  “Are you listening to your friend Vowli, Peli?” asked Luka with a hint of peevishness in his voice.

  “Y-yes, Luka.”

  “Good,” whispered Vowli in his ear, making Peli twitch and shiver. “Are the charges against you true? Specifically, did you attempt to defraud the queen by misrepresenting your income to avoid paying your fair share of taxes?”

  “Yes. Yes, I did that,” said Peli. Sweat dripped from every part of his body.

  “Good,” said Vowli again. “Did you become aware that the Ministry of the Queen’s Justice was investigating you?”

  “Yeah,” sighed Peli. “I got scared, then. Really scared.”

  “Good,” crooned Vowli. “Now, be careful with this next answer, and please recall that you have already confessed to this crime.”

  “But I said I—”

  Vowli twitched the tip of his finger downwards, and Peli screamed and then seemed surprised that there wasn’t any pain. “Let’s just call that a little warm up, Peli—just a practice cut, on my part, using my finger.” Vowli shoved his finger in Peli’s face, just a fraction of an inch from Peli’s eye. “Now that we are all warmed up again after the exciting entrance of our friend Paltr, the next cut is for real. I am putting the tip of my dagger on your back now. I want you to listen to the whole question and think about your answer. Don’t just shout something out before I’m finished speaking.”

  Peli tried to nod with his head tied to the cross.

  “Did you, after learning you were being investigated, try to run?”

  “Yes,” whispered Peli. “I panicked.”

  “Did you go to the house of your betrothed and hide there?”

  “I went there,” said Peli.

  “And you convinced your fiancée to hide you, correct?”

  Tears streamed down Peli’s cheeks. “You are going to cut me if I tell the truth.”

  Vowli made a cut about three inches long in Peli’s back. “I’m growing tired of this, Peli. I’m about to let Luka question you.”

  Peli whimpered and sagged against his bindings.

  “Answer him!” roared Luka in Peli’s right ear, making the naked man jerk his head away as far as he could.

  “No, Oesk knew nothing of any of this. She’s innocent!”

  Peli screamed as Vowli made the three-inch cut stretch all the way to his waist. Then Vowli stepped back and sighed. “We tried this the easy way, Peli. I want you to remember that we offered you an easier way than you’ve chosen.”

  Luka walked to a small table that was covered with stoneware jars. The table was masterfully positioned so that it was just visible to anyone tied to the cross. Luka let his hand drift lazily from one jar to the next while Peli sobbed.

  “She is innocent,” Peli sobbed.

  Luka’s hand snapped to the lid of a tall jar and knocked it aside. He grabbed a handful of salt from the container, whirled and stomped over to the cross. “We already have her, you know,” he whispered in Peli’s ear. He spread the salt across the long cuts in Peli’s back, and the man gasped and tried to twist away. “She may be being questioned even as we speak. Of course, were you to confess, we might find ourselves with all the answers that are required.”

  “Y-you’d l-let her go?”

  “Well, you know that isn’t possible,” said Luka. “But we might be able to send her on her way to exile without continuing the questioning.”

  Peli looked torn, but then a look of calm acceptance settled on his face, and he sagged against his bonds. “Yes,” he said.

  “Yes?” asked Luka. “Yes what?”

  “I did it. I did whatever you said I did. I did it all.”

  “Ah, progress.” Luka beamed at Sif for a moment and then put his mouth right next to Peli’s ear. “Now, let’s move on to names. You will tell us every person in whom you tried to sow seeds of rebellion.”

  Peli’s eyes opened wide with fear.

  “We already know who they are,” said Vowli. “We just need confirmation.”

  “Just list the names, Peli,” crooned Luka. “Then we are done.”

  Peli began to spew names as fast as he could think of them. They were other merchants, his competitors mostly. Luka looked at Vowli and gave him a small nod. Vowli turned and left the room. Luka let Peli ramble on until he started to slow down, either running out of competitors or running out of breath.

  “Now, Peli,” said Luka, “you know that list was a false one.”

  “N-no! I promise you—”

  “It’s okay, Peli. We all understand the temptation to implicate your competitors and business rivals. It’s human nature,” crooned Luka. “We can all understand trying that. Once. We won’t be able to understand any further attempts at side-stepping the question, though, so please bear that in mind as you begin again.” Luka slapped his hand down hard on Peli’s right shoulder. “The names!”

  Peli began a new list of names, starting with a few members of his own family, and including some prominent karls who had the misfortune of being one of his customers.

  “Peli, Peli, Peli,” muttered Luka. He waved his hand at the doorway.

  Vowli entered the room, pushing a naked woman covered in all manner of filth before him. The woman had probably been quite pretty before her visit to the Ministry, but now she was in a wretched state. Her long blonde hair was a mass of rat tails and matted tangles. She had long, half-healed cuts across her breasts and an ugly burn on her cheek. Vowli steered her around the cross and pushed her down in front of it. She didn’t resist, just fell to her knees where Vowli pushed her.

  Peli saw her and began to cry, hopeless and broken. “Oesk,” he cried. “I’m so sorry, Oesk.”

  The woman didn’t even raise her head. She didn’t speak.

  “Oesk, Oesk!” cried Peli. He began to thrash against the leather straps that bound him. “What have these bastards done to you, Oesk?”

  Again, the woman just sat where Vowli had pushed her down, not moving, not speaking, not responding at all.

  “I’ll kill you!” Peli screamed, thrashing even harder. The cross began to creak and moan as he threw his weight this way and that. “I’ll kill both of you evil sons of—”

  Vowli took a quick step forward and punched Peli in the side of the head. Peli slumped against the straps, stunned but still conscious.

  Luka smiled at Vowli. “Masterfully done, my friend.”

  Vowli gave a small bow.

  Luka bent and picked up a bucket of oily looking water. He moved so that no one would get splashed and then threw the bucket of water in Peli’s face.

  Peli started and th
en sputtered. His eyes opened, and he looked down at Oesk, his face the picture of regret. “Oh, Oesk, I’m so sorry,” he said.

  “Oh, don’t start that again,” snapped Vowli.

  Luka stood behind Oesk, and Vowli moved behind Peli. Luka grabbed a fistful of Oesk’s matted hair.

  “Leave her alone,” whispered Peli. “Please.”

  “You know what you have to do to protect her,” said Vowli.

  “But I can’t,” cried Peli. “I can’t tell you the names you want to hear. I don’t know them!”

  Luka pulled Oesk to her feet by her hair. She didn’t react even as strands of her hair were pulled out by the root.

  “No, please,” whimpered Peli. “Just tell me the names you want me to say, and I’ll say them. I beg you!”

  “That’s not how this works,” said Vowli.

  “Tell us,” grated Luka, “or I can promise you will not be happy.”

  Peli slumped against the cross and sobbed.

  “Come on, now,” said Vowli. “Just give us a list of names we can believe. It doesn’t have to be the whole list. Just a start.”

  Peli cried in exhaustion. “Where should I start?” he asked.

  Luka jerked Oesk’s head this way and that by the hair, but it was like she was stuffed with sawdust for all the reaction it got.

  “Oesk?” asked Peli.

  “Good,” crooned Vowli. “Now who else? Maybe someone in Oesk’s household? Her father perhaps?”

  “Yes!” said Peli. “Oesk’s father. And her mother!”

  “Good,” said Vowli. “Keep going.”

  “Um,” said Peli, his eyes darting around the small room. “Their cook, Chellrune.”

  “Good. Who else?”

  “The groomsman, I’ve forgotten his name right now. He’s tall and red-headed.”

  “Oh, Peli,” sighed Vowli. “He was one of our investigators. Are you just telling us what you think we want to hear?”

  Peli sagged against the cross again and sobbed.

  “I’m afraid you’ve upset Luka,” said Vowli. “You know that isn’t a good thing.”

  Luka stared at Peli, his eyes boring into the sobbing man. Then he turned his head toward Oesk and pulled her face close to his.

  “No,” whispered Peli. “Punish me, not her.”

  Luka looked at him coldly. “The worst thing I can do to you is to make you watch me hurt her.”

  “Brother, I think—”

  “Shut up!” snapped Luka. “You’re not in charge here.”

  “But I really think that this man doesn’t have the information you want. It’s clear he’s just trying to please you,” said Yowrnsaxa,

  Luka darted his face forward and there was a snicking sound. Oesk screamed—the first reaction she’d made. Blood poured from her cheek.

  Paltr shook his head as if he couldn’t understand what had happened.

  Luka spit a chunk of Oesk’s face into Peli’s face. Blood and saliva dripped from Luka’s chin. His eyes were locked on Peli’s. “How’s your memory now?” he asked in a savage voice.

  Vowli laughed.

  To everyone’s amazement, Paltr roared, took two giant steps forward and cuffed Luka across the face with what looked like all of his strength.

  Luka staggered as if he’d been hit with a log and shoved Oesk away so that he could catch himself against the far wall.

  Sif darted forward and wrapped the bleeding woman in her arms, turning so that Sif’s body was between Oesk and her inquisitors.

  The next blow from Paltr was a closed fist that drove Luka into the table full of jars, sending both the man and the table crashing to the floor.

  “Stop!” said Vowli.

  Paltr glanced at him, and his look was so venomous and filled with rage that Vowli took a step toward the door. Paltr loomed over his younger brother, rage baking the air around. He was clenching and releasing his fists as if he longed to have Luka’s throat in his hands. “What have you done here?” he hissed.

  Luka shook his head, flinging drops of blood across the room. Vile liquids and various powders spotted his clothes. He looked up at Paltr with hatred. “It’s not your place!”

  Paltr gave a guttural roar, and one of those big fists smashed into Luka’s face. “You are a disgrace to this family!” he bellowed. “What have you become? A worm?”

  Luka sprang to his feet, his face a rictus of hatred and rage. “Hit me again,” he hissed.

  “I should hit you until you bleed from the soles of your feet, you disgusting little—”

  “Then do it, big man!” screamed Luka. “Shut up and hit me. Let’s see what happens.”

  Vowli looked like he wanted to be anywhere but in that room.

  Sif pushed Oesk into Yowrnsaxa’s arms and pointed at Vowli. “You get Luka,” she snapped.

  Vowli looked at her without understanding.

  “They will kill each other, you fool! None of us want that,” said Yowrnsaxa.

  Vowli looked at her and hissed, but he started moving toward Luka while Sif started to pull at Paltr’s shoulders.

  “Come away, Paltr,” she crooned. “This isn’t the place for this. You are so angry—”

  Paltr looked at her with rage in his eyes and then snapped his gaze back to Luka.

  “—and justifiably so, in my opinion, but nothing should be decided in such a rage. Come away, now,” she said. Pulling at the big man’s shoulders until her fingers turned white.

  Vowli was standing behind Luka, one arm around his chest, and crooning in his ear. Luka still seethed with rage and had eyes for no one but his elder brother.

  “This isn’t finished, brother,” said Luka. He let Vowli pull him toward the far corner of the room.

  “Get out,” snapped Vowli. “All of you. The queen will hear of this.”

  Paltr glanced at Vowli as if he were a bug and drew his dagger from his belt. He cut the leather straps holding Peli to the cross. “This man and his woman are under my protection,” he said with a voice still choked and shaking with rage. “We are taking them with us.”

  “No, you aren’t!” shouted Luka, thrashing in Vowli’s embrace.

  “Just go!” yelled Vowli. “Do you think I can hold him forever?”

  Paltr swept Peli up as if his weight were nothing and motioned for Yowrnsaxa to go out first. He nodded toward the door, but Sif shook her head and pointed into the hall, pushing him gently.

  They left the Ministry, the state and nakedness of Peli and Oesk drawing many looks, but the grimace on Paltr’s face stopped anyone from questioning them. Sif kept up a constant stream of calming words as Paltr walked forward, his face frozen in rage, eyes blazing.

  “Where can we take you, Peli?” asked Sif. “The only place any of us has is in the palace.”

  Peli’s head lolled as he looked around in a daze. “There’s a hunting cabin outside the west gate,” he said. “No one knows about it.”

  Paltr grunted and walked toward the west gate and, later, through it.

  The cabin wasn’t much. Two rooms—a small one and a really small one—and only a small fireplace to heat both. They put Oesk and Peli in the smallest room and went outside.

  “What do we do?” asked Yowrnsaxa.

  “I can’t go back there,” said Sif. “She has lost her mind, and if I go back, I can’t guarantee my actions.”

  Yowrnsaxa shook her head. “She hasn’t released you, Sif.”

  “I don’t care. Let her come for me.” Sif’s face looked as if it were carved from stone and then layered in ice.

  “Are you sure that is wise?”

  “Wise?” snapped Paltr. “What would have been wise is to never have pledged into that hateful bitch’s service in the first place.” He paced in front of the cabin with fast, brutal strides. “I’m going to kill him,” he muttered.

  “You should go back, both of you,” said Sif. “I’ll stay and protect these two. Heal what I can.” She shrugged. “I can’t go back, but the Trohtninkar Tumuhr and Vuthuhr Tro
htninkar need to know what those three vipers are doing to the empire.”

  Yowrnsaxa nodded. “We have to do something.”

  “You bet your shields that we do. I’ll bring you weapons and armor, Sif.” Paltr turned to go.

  Sif put her hand on his shoulder. “Thank you, Paltr, but before you go, I need you to promise me something.”

  He turned back to her, one eyebrow arched.

  “Promise me to let things with Luka lie until it is time to move on them all.”

  “But—”

  “If you don’t,” Sif went on, talking over him, “it will tip our hand to the queen, and if she learns what we intend before we’ve made enough converts, it will be terrible for everyone.”

  Paltr’s mouth snapped closed, and he nodded once.

  Before he could walk away, Sif stepped forward and kissed him. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “It makes sense,” he said shrugging. “You make sense.”

  “No, not only that,” said Sif. “For everything you’ve done this morning.”

  “Oh,” he muttered. “What else could I do?”

  “That’s why I kissed you. There is nothing else you could do. You are a good man, and whatever Luka has become doesn’t change that.”

  He nodded and for the first time since Luka had bitten Oesk, his face softened a little, and some of the rage drained out of his eyes.

  “Talk to Meuhlnir,” Sif said. “He’s a good man, too.”

  “Yes, he is,” said Paltr. He shook his head. “We are going to need more good men.” He took Yowrnsaxa’s arm and then led her back toward the city.

  Twenty-eight

  Yowrnsaxa stared off into the dark night. “Then Paltr took my arm and led us back into the city. It very much felt like a different city than the one I had woken up in.”

  “Indeed,” said Sif. “It was a wretched time. Peli recovered in time, but Oesk never really did. Oh, she got so that she would at least look at a person if they called her name, but to my knowledge, she never spoke again. She was just broken by the depravity of what she experienced in the bowels of the Ministry.”

  “You were able to keep them hidden?” I asked.

  “Yes,” said Meuhlnir. “Things changed somewhat rapidly after that, and the political power of the Dark Queen, Luka, and Vowli began to fold in the face of opposition.”