Chương 8: Karmic Retribution for Karma

Tiya smirked at her own joke as she came up on the ambush point and saw the two archers crouched down there. They were waiting for their fellow bandits, cautiously glancing through cracks at the distant gelding coming down the river road towards them. They had simple but well-maintained hunting bows, not the best for getting through armor, so they'd target throats and faces and vulnerable spots from their superior vantage points. They wouldn't kill a horse if they could help it, as horses were valuable and useful.

They definitely didn't expect someone to come up behind them without being heard. Their only notice of her coming as she raced up behind them was a half-second of surprise as the sound of the wind died away. They were just starting to look around, wondering what it was, when her axe cracked right through the spine of the neck of the man on the right, and she carried through to bury it in the face of the one on the left.

They fell, making no sounds as their blood sprayed, their bows falling from their hands as they did. Tiya knew the duration of the Silence was limited, and slid off to the side, a loud and brash move that would have surely alerted them that something was wrong, and instead hit the ground in total silence basically right next to the two startled men in ragged leathers clutching hunting spears and waiting for the signal from above before they leapt out.

Spears were extremely dangerous tools in open ground and with numbers, and very bad in close-quarters. Tiya promptly shoulder-slammed the closest one, driving his spear back into his chest, and the spike on her axe plunged up and under his chin as both men yelped and heard nothing. The scraggly-bearded fellow's eyes bulged, his breath smelling of rotted teeth as she spun, pulling out her axe as the other man tried to jump away from her.

He was shocked as she slid over the ground and closed the distance on him, her axe looping down and underneath his spear, chopping deep into his groin and the femoral artery there. He dropped his spear in agony, crumpling down on her as he clutched at himself, trying to stop the gushing blood that would empty him out in under a minute, even while his friend was writhing and clutching at the bloody spray erupting from his jugular. Their screams and frantic convulsions remained unheard.

Tiya brought the hammer head down atop the second man, slid backwards to the first one who was staring at her and trying to scream for mercy through the blood coming out his mouth, and just cracked him across the temple to keep him silent and stop his thrashing, too. Two left on the other side of the rock. Tiya hefted her bloody axe, trotting around the jutting boulder, her face grim and her axe in two hands as she moved to take out the last pair of them.

Deuce was floating along next to the gelding as the dun horse plodded up, nostrils flaring and ears twitching at the smell of blood, but otherwise not discomfited. It was an Empire-trained warhorse, quite used to combat, and all it did was glance about for sign of any other threats, finding none, and so was completely unfazed by the smell of the dead. The Silence was long gone, Tiya going over the dead and finding little to take with her.

Naturally she chose to destroy most of what they had, chopping the spears down, splitting the bows, breaking every arrow, and in the process hammering the spearheads out of usefulness with quick, brutal blows. It looked like a sixteen-year-old boy had been brought into the effort to kill them. Truly a family business, she thought as Deuce, still wrapped up securely in his pack and only his eyes visible, rippled into sight on the translucent Disk.

-That is a symbol of Shoul, - her son said, as Tiya shattered the poor steel of the second spearhead she had wedged into the rocks there. She looked over to where one of the corpses burning unwhite, probably the father of the young man, had a crude black crescent moon of obsidian tied about his gaping throat with a leather thong.

"Shoul." Tiya furrowed her brow, but the black crescent was a big hint.

"The god of the Dark Moon." The association of Ruilvei the Witch-Queen with the dark moon was quite strong. She had never heard of the vanished god before Deuce had mentioned him to her. -God of thieves, assassins, murderers, secrets, and those who hunt at night, - Deuce explained. -Obviously his faith hasn't died out everywhere. - Hill bandits serving the old god of thieves wasn't a big leap of deduction.

"Is this important?" she asked. -A symbol of faith means religious. Religious means a place to worship. A place of worship of the god of thieves also means a place to store their loot, and will be where their head priest is based. - Tiya thought that over.

"You think we should track these people down and get rid of them?" she asked.

"I can tell you their families are not going to be understanding about us killing them." -I'm sure the families of those they murdered along this road will match them unhappiness for unhappiness. One of the hallmarks of being a Good person is doing the right thing, even if it means sticking your nose in where sooooo many people would prefer you just let others suffer while they profit. - Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Tiya winced despite herself.

"So, a little Imperial justice for them, eh?" That often took on the exact opposite form the words were supposed to have. -No. Just Justice, no Empire about it at all. They want to kill others and take their stuff, they should be totally ready to be killed and for others to take their stuff. - Tiya couldn't argue with that. The Imperial Army often acted like total assholes to those they conquered, and was always outraged when they were treated like pieces of shit in return. It was basically how Deuce came about...

"What do we do? We don't know where their base is, and I don't think I can track them over this kind of ground," she admitted. -Ten local men just died. They are going to want to know how the fight went. They should either have a designated runner to send word, or a fire or smoke signal or something indicating everything went well. When there is just silence, they'll wait until later, and send people to investigate, I believe? - That sounded about right to her.

"Well, I see we won't be getting much traveling done today, but it's late, anyway." She thought about that.

"They'll send either a single person or a full band, depending on how brave they are." -You just wiped out ten men, - Deuce pointed out. -Being brave is the last thing a bunch of ambushers have on their minds. - Tiya grinned at the thought.

"Right! So, a single scout, being careful. What I should be doing is heading on further down the road, putting some distance between us. They might try to catch up to us, but that would be stupid. It's a road, and a horse will distance them easily, as long as it's not too rough. They'll hate it, and they'll want revenge, but ten dead will cool their tempers. We basically just have to sit nearby and wait for them to show up." -Make a fire of the bows, spears, and arrows, perhaps?

Fire just has a way of drawing those sorts in. - Tiya thought about that and nodded.

"Ruins the temper of the metal, too." She jammed a poor-quality knife into the rock, and proceeded to hammer it sideways with the back of her axe until the brittle steel broke, the hilt snapping in protest as it flew away.

"Now I got to run back to all those dead scouts!" she complained with a sigh. The mental cough drew her attention to the stuff stacked behind Deuce on the Disk, where the usable belongings of the dead scouts had been stacked up neatly. -Let's just get the fire going and withdraw to a place to watch. I think right in the middle of the road would be appropriate, don't you? - Tiya grinned again. Deuce was a very nice boy, but when he got angry, he could definitely be merciless about things to those who deserved it.

"Sure!" she agreed, flipping her axe around to chop the stuff apart quicker.

"I'll get it set up, you light it, and we'll move off somewhere close by to watch." -Sounds like a plan to me, Mother! - Deuce agreed calmly, and Tiya started her end of the job.

The very cautious searchers arrived well after dark. That was good, as it was a whole lot easier to conceal themselves off the trails they were using, and any tracks they left wouldn't be seen in the dark. They watched as a short and wiry man inched up to the fires, while his two comrades circled about, looking for spotters. The curses the men spit out when they saw the circle of severed heads around the fire were perfectly audible for some distance, however.

"Who do we follow?" Tiya asked reasonably. Devilsight was up and active on her, and the night looked like the day, only grimmer and with no shadows, the colors having a harsh edge to them they didn't normally possess. With the sight advantage, she should easily be able to follow them, and lightfoot would make sure her steps were quiet, too. -The one with the best clothes, - Deuce said reasonably, and Tiya nodded at that.

Deuce could Stealthslake the hooves of their horse, too, which would eliminate most noise, and a simple warning to the animal would ensure he stayed silent, knowing there were enemies around. Devilsight on the gelding would also ease his fear of the night and stumbling in the dark. There were more curses when the men realized all the spear hafts, leathers, and bow parts were the fuel for the fire, rendering all of them useless.

All of the iron parts were likewise in there, their tempering destroyed and having to be reforged at the best, thrown out at the worst. They did see the horse tracks heading down the trail, and conferred about sending a runner ahead to make sure the two had a lethal reception at the next town, favors exchanged between them and at least one of the men having family there.

On the other hand, the thought of running down the road in the night after a woman who had certainly killed eight of them, and probably killed the last two at their posts, didn't feel wise to any of them. They did make torches out of the fire, and left it to burn out for the morning. The two lesser men hurried off to check the sentry positions, where they'd find the corpses of the spotters in their places and curse some more, especially when they realized the dead were stripped and looted, too.

The last man was heading out and away from the fire. Quiet as a panther in the night, Tiya paced after him, mindful of the twigs and branches as ki streamed from her soles and made sure she broke nothing with her steps. A hundred yards further back, easily able to trace his mother, Deuce led Clopper (had to give the steady gelding a name now) in her wake. It was not a bright night out, so the bandits had nothing to help with their night vision, and his Detect Evil would sense them some distance off.

Likewise, he could easily narrow in on the bright Aura of his mother, despite her not being what the spell was really looking for. He had so much work to do, he reflected idly, laying there like the baby he was for now.