Jeff Salyards - Veil of the Deserters

As I got closer, stumbling over my inebriated feet, I saw Mulldoos walking through the crowd toward the stairwell. He hadn’t seen me yet, so I considered turning right back around and disappearing. But the figure immediately behind him stopped me short.

He was leading a small girl through the inn, and her hands were tied together. She had hair so fair it was nearly white, but in complete disarray,

and her face and arms were covered with bruises and more ominous welts. She had a cracked lip, and was wearing a tunic that had several bloodspots on the chest. Her shoes-or what passed for shoes, at least-were torn and tattered, and one seemed tied together with twine.

In short, she was a complete mess. But that didn’t stand out so much as her demeanor. Where most beaten children would have kept their heads fixed on their feet, or worked hard not to make eye contact with the dozens of strangers in the room, this bruised, bloodied, and bound girl held her chin up, and gave anyone glancing her way a challenging look back, as if daring them to say something or lay a hand on her.

My chance to disappear was gone-Mulldoos saw me. The crowd parted around the strange pair, largely due to his usual liberal use of elbows and angry glares, but also as people stepped aside to get a better look at the strange prisoner.

Mulldoos jerked a thumb toward the stairs as he got close to me, and I followed them up. The lieutenant called out and knocked on the door, and a moment later Vendurro unlocked it and opened it. Mulldoos pushed his tiny charge through first, and while I couldn’t see Vendurro’s expression, I heard him exclaim, “Plague me! Where’d you get this drowned cat?”

Again, instead of being cowed, the girl looked in his direction and hissed.

“And feral on top of it,” he added.

Mulldoos looked at Vendurro as he entered and showed his arms, which were covered in scratches and what looked to be teeth marks. “Vicious little hellcat, more like.”

The girl started turning to face him but he grabbed her firmly by the back of the neck. “Face forward, hellcat.”

“Lay off!” she yelled, struggling as best as a small girl with her hands tied could against a massively muscled soldier who wasn’t pretending to be gentle.

He turned to Vendurro. “Best fetch Cap.”

Vendurro knocked on the captain’s door. When Braylar didn’t respond right away, he knocked again and called out, “Mulldoos come back, Cap. Got hisself a prisoner. Maybe half a prisoner, truly. Guessing you’ll want to see her though.” He turned around and looked at the group, then whistled, long and low. “Guessing you’ll hold for Cap, but this story ought to be ten kinds of entertaining.”

Mulldoos smiled, which was almost disturbing. “Oh, you’ll hear it soon enough.” He looked at Braylar’s room and then back to Vendurro. “He doing alright?”

Vendurro didn’t answer right away, glanced at me, then at the tiny battered prisoner as if gauging how much he could say. “Been better, I’m thinking. But to hear Lieutenant Hew tell it, or Arki here, been worse, too. So holding steady. For what that’s worth.”

“You seen Hew? Where’s he at?”

“Cap said he might have gotten good word about the whereabouts of…” Vendurro looked at the small girl and added, “That fella we been after. So off to check on that. Be back short like.”

Braylar stepped out of his room, eyes still bloodshot, but otherwise looking no worse than before. Still, as Vendurro said, that wasn’t anything to feel tremendously good about. It was difficult to tell which ailed him more-the ale or the demons he was trying to drown.

He looked ready to issue a biting remark of some kind when he stopped himself, noticing the small and scruffy newcomer in the room. Then he looked at Mulldoos. “Well. This is the rogue witch, is she?”

Before Mulldoos could answer, the girl said, “No witch at all. Told them that, told this bastard that, and now I’m-”

Mulldoos cuffed her behind the ear. “Being right disrespectful. This is a captain you’re speaking to.”

She shook her head and said, “Could be the king hisself and I’d tell him the same plaguing thing. Whatever they said I done, they lied. Bunch of lying shits, the lot of them, and I hope when the plague comes through again it hits Ash Walk first.”

Braylar grinned. “And here I thought Lloi was the most irreverent dream thief we’d ever run across.” He looked her bruises over and said, “It’s good to see that you were careful, selective, and discrete.”

Mulldoos shrugged his shoulders. “Most of that was on her already. And as I recollect, seemed our situation called more for results than tip-toeing around. It’s nothing but dumb chance I managed to turn this hellcat up at all. Villagers were fixing to kill her dead when I rode up. You want me to send her hissing back into the wild, though, you just say the word. And you want her drowned in the river, that works as well too.”

She stomped back, trying to strike his shin or foot, but mostly hit floor. He grabbed her by the neck. “Settle down there, you little bitch.” Which only made her thrash more until he gave her a firm shake.

Braylar said, “Oh, she’ll stay a bit longer. At least until I’ve determined her use. Or lack thereof, more likely.”

Which set the girl to kicking and squirming again. “You put your cock anywhere near me, I’ll bite it off and spit in in your face, I will. Just see if I don’t.”

Mulldoos cuffed her behind her other ear and Braylar replied, “Oh, I have no doubt about that. But do settle down. I prefer my concubines quite a bit older, recently bathed, and decidedly less hostile.”

She glared at him but stopped struggling. For the moment.

Braylar walked to the table and took a seat. At least he hadn’t stumbled or wobbled overmuch. He folded his hands on the table, still staring at the angry young thing in front of him. “I know you’re simply bursting to tell me the details, Lieutenant. So please. Share how you came to find this vicious, little, scruffy creature that you somehow believe might be allowed anywhere near me if I was prone and helpless. This story, I would love to hear.”

Mulldoos smiled again, the kind a cat might have with the mouse’s tail poking out of the corner of his mouth. “Me and the boys, we hit every inn and tavern in the city, hoping to hear word of a witch out there, expecting not to. Thirsty work, that is. But Alespell is big, with more villages and communities around than most. Heard tell of two sightings, one in Tenvale, the other in Ash Walk. Most rogues get found out, they get done for pretty plaguing fast, so we rode out in a hurry. Would have split up, but Tenvale wasn’t far off the path to Ash Walk, so we just hit there first.”

“But clearly that did not pan out.”

“No, they stoned their witch. Been dead a couple of days already, nailed to a tree. So we kept riding a half day for Ash Walk, figuring to find a similar outcome. But Ash Walkers, they must not get much in the way of excitement, decided to have themselves a trial. Would have ended the same way, for sure, but it delayed killing the girl long enough for us to ride into the square.”

Braylar leaned forward. “Please tell me you paid for your prisoner and didn’t kill everyone in Ash Walk.”

“Nope. That is, yep, no killing, just passed some coin across. Seemed the village elders weren’t too keen on losing their chance for a little fun. Stoning, drowning, burning, whatever else they had in store for the lady here.” The girl turned and scowled at him, but held her tongue, and Mull-doos continued, “Asked a pretty coin for the release, so not charging by the pound. I thought about cleaving one of those bastards, to help the bargaining speed up a bit. But I paid up. No blood.”