Chương 94: The Border Thief

The fields had been saved, but the grain sacks were empty. Kichan turned over a sack in the corner of the kitchen. A thin layer of flour dust fell from its bottom onto the worktable.

"That's it?" Dorman lowered his head.

"We can make porridge for tonight."

"What about tomorrow?"

"If we add more water..."

"That's water." They did not have enough blankets either. Two children shared one. An elderly human slept with a wet coat pulled up to his knees. Kichan stepped outside the stone wall. He heard wagon wheels. Two large supply wagons were passing the road before the shelter. Through gaps in their covers, he saw sacks of flour and crates of dried meat. Salt sacks and bundled cloth were loaded behind them. Kichan stood in the middle of the road.

"Wait." The lead officer raised a hand. The wagons stopped.

"Are you from the Papal State?"

"No."

"Then clear the road." Kichan pointed at the cargo bed.

"Give me one sack of flour." The officer's eyebrows rose.

"Those are royal military provisions."

"You have plenty."

"They are bound for the front. Touch them, and you will answer to military law." Kichan considered that.

"Am I a soldier in that king's army?" The officer opened his mouth, then closed it.

"What are you talking about-" Kichan thrust the wake-up rod between the wagon wheels. The horse pulled forward. The wheel turned halfway and jammed. The wagon lurched hard. Batu lowered his body in the road, and the horses flared their nostrils and backed away.

"Raise your weapons!" The soldiers drew their spears. Valkyrie leaped onto the cargo bed. Its small, still-recovering body spread wide over the cover ties and sacks. Dust was already chewing through the cord around a grain sack.

"Don't tear that!" Kichan shouted. The officer mistook the words for an order to him and stopped his spear. In the meantime, Riphiel pulled the ledger from his belt.

"Eighteen sacks of flour, nine crates of dried meat, six sacks of salt, and twenty-two bundles of cloth."

"Half should do."

"Not exactly half. Each category is consumed at a different rate." You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Then you choose." The officer recovered and reached for Riphiel.

"Give me that ledger!" Riphiel turned half a circle out of reach.

"The fact that you seek the ledger before the food shows how splendidly you have managed it." Two soldiers charged Kichan. The wake-up rod knocked one spear shaft upward. On its return, the other end pushed against the chest of the second soldier's armor. Rather than knock him down, Kichan shoved him into the ditch beside the wagon. Argaon had climbed into the cargo bed and opened a crate of dried meat.

"This will spoil before it reaches the front."

"Don't eat it."

"I'm checking it before it spoils."

"Don't check it with your mouth." Kichan's party turned one of the two wagons around and took it whole. Theor took the reins. He looked at the sky for a long moment, then drove toward the shelter without a word. Seria blocked the wagon before the stone wall.

"Put it back." Kichan climbed down with a sack of flour over one shoulder.

"Why?"

"You took someone else's property. This is theft."

"So you're not going to distribute it?" Seria closed her mouth. Kichan lowered the sack to the ground.

"Those kids had one bowl of soup yesterday. Today it's thin porridge. Tomorrow it's water."

"Even so, there must be another way-""Are you not going to distribute it?" Seria could not answer. Theor let out a long breath. He went behind the wagon and began untying the cords around the sacks.

"Bring me the list." Dorman ran. Riphiel opened the ledger.

"I am not certain a law that starves people deserves to be obeyed." Argaon tore off a piece of dried meat.

"They stole it during a war and piled it here. Now someone stronger has taken it back. Why are they suddenly searching for an owner?"

"I told you not to eat it."

"This is the share I stole." Spreading the supplies over the ground made what they still lacked easier to see. They had flour, meat, and salt. They did not have winter hides, herbs for wounds, lamp oil, or a usable cooking pot. Kichan asked Seria,"Where's the demihuman army storehouse?" Seria raised her head.

"Surely you do not mean-""If I only take from one side, that's favoritism."

"That is not the problem."

"Then what is?" Seria began to answer, then stopped. Kichan walked toward the marsh without waiting. The demihuman supply storehouse stood inside a low palisade beyond the marsh. Kichan entered through the front gate.

"I'm taking some hides and medicine." A horned guard raised a spear.

"This is the property of warriors from many tribes, gathered over generations."

"I don't know the people from generations ago."

"What?"

"I know the people who are cold right now." This time, Kichan took winter hides, mandragora powder, jars of oil, and cooking tools. There were more guards than at the human wagons, but once Batu blocked the palisade gate, they could not rush him all at once. Kichan checked each jar. Whenever Dust tried to dive into the gleaming film of oil, he pulled it back by the cord. Riphiel used the storehouse ledger to choose the hides that had sat longest.

"These have been stored for two winters."

"Take those first." A guard ground his teeth.

"A thief who even inspects the condition of what he steals." Kichan hoisted the bundle of hides onto one shoulder.

"If I stole spoiled things, I'd be the one losing." The people in the shelter could not approach even when they saw the supplies. Sacks stamped with a royal crest and hides marked with tribal symbols lay in one place. Everyone knew what might happen if the armies returned after they accepted them. Kichan hung the large pot over the fire. He kneaded the flour into flat rounds and baked them. He soaked the dried meat before adding it to soup.

Only a little mandragora powder went in, enough to keep the bitterness from growing too strong. The smell spread through the enclosure.

"Who wants food?" No one moved. Kichan split one freshly baked flatbread in half. He placed one piece in the bowl of the child with the folded ear and gave the other to the bandaged human boy.

"If anyone comes to arrest you for eating this, tell them to call me."

"What's your name?"

"Kichan."

"Are you stronger than the armies?"

"Don't ask questions while you're eating." The children lined up first. The adults moved much later. An elderly human laid a thick blanket marked with a tribal symbol over his knees. A demihuman child held bread made with flour stamped by the royal army and ate with both hands. Seria eventually took up the ration list. Theor matched the number of sacks to the number of people and tied off the following day's share separately. Before nightfall, a human military messenger nailed a notice outside the stone wall.

It designated the person who had taken the royal provisions as the Border Thief. A little later, a notice carrying the same accusation arrived from the demihuman side. Kichan had Riphiel read both papers. When she finished, she asked,"Which do you prefer?"

"I don't like either one."

"It is rare to be called a thief by both sides on the same day." Kichan scraped the empty pot. Inside the stone wall, children slept beneath blankets. Flour remained beside the kitchen for tomorrow. Wet shoes stood in a row near the fire. No one went hungry that night.