Chapter 29

Alice rode beside Sid as they approached the rundown town positioned at the crossroads of two minor roads. Several dozen very rough looking men were leaning against buildings doing their best to look intimidating. They were watching the roads as if expecting trouble to appear any minute. Each man was well armed and touched their weapon from time to time as if to assure themselves that it was still there. Alice nudged her horse closer to Sid's and said, "Those men look dangerous."

Sid looked around and nodded his head in agreement. He said, "They are dangerous."

"Maybe we should avoid them," Alice said. She looked at the handful of Sid's men riding behind them and doubted they were enough to protect them. It had bothered her when more than half of his men had ridden away earlier that morning.

One of the men who had been leaning against a building stepped forward and placed himself in their path. Terrified, Alice stopped her horse in an attempt to keep as much distance from him as possible. The man glanced at her and then looked over at Sid. Frowning, he said, "We expected you yesterday."

"We had a few people to liberate," Sid said pulling the reins and stopping his horse a few steps from the man.

"These are your men?" Alice asked wondering how many men Sid had riding with him. Alice settled beside him staring at the man thinking that Sid must be a great hero if he had more than a hundred men in his band.

"Yes, they are my men," Sid said with a smile. He gestured down the crossroad and said, "Those are also my men."

Alice looked in the direction that Sid had pointed and swallowed heavily. On the edge of town was a huge camp with hundreds of men in it. Rows of tents lined the road with battle hardened men guarding entry into the camp. From her location she could see the kitchen in which the food was prepared. Based on the size and quantity of pots, she figured that this camp had to hold at least five hundred men.

She looked back at Sid thinking about what kind of child he was going to give her. The thought of it almost gave her an orgasm. She stared at the bulge in his pants wondering what he was going to be like in bed.

Sid managed to get her attention off of his crotch when he said, "Come on. We've got a little errand to run now."

She turned to him and asked, "All of these men are yours?"

"Yes," Sid said with a grin. It seemed to him that she had asked that question at least once every hour of the trip.

The pair entered the Three Sheaves Tavern with Sid leading the way. Alice followed behind him keeping as little space as possible between them. She amazed to find another dozen men sitting around the tavern. She recognized the place and shuddered at the memories it invoked. She moved even closer to Sid.

Looking around for the man who had originally purchased her from the slavers, she nearly fell over when she spotted him. He was tied to a plank that was hung from the ceiling. He was tied with the plank to his back, but he was hanging face down and was swinging to and fro with his nose twelve inches from the floor. He looked positively ridiculous.

A rather large man with an angry expression on his face was seated near the plank. He looked up when Sid entered the room and said, "This here fellow was beginning to get worried that you weren't coming back."

"You don't say, Gregor," Sid said. He pointed to the barman and asked, "What's he doing up there?"

"That's a long story."

"Give me the short version," Sid said.

"You take all of the fun out of the telling."

"That's my job," Sid said with a grin.

"The stupid fool tried to run off last night. Well, we couldn't have him trying to do that again so we tied him up so that he was hugging that post over there," Gregor answered. He lifted a foot and kicked the plank setting it swinging even more. The barman groaned behind his gag. Grinning, Gregor said, "He started complaining about his feet hurting, so we tied him to the plank and then tied the plank to beam."

Shaking his head, Sid said, "Didn't you know that you were supposed to tie him to the top of the plank rather than under it?"

"I considered that, but it was just too much work," Gregor said. He grabbed the plank bringing it to a sudden halt. Leaning down so that his mouth was next to the man's ear, he asked, "Why should I make a skunk who serves warriors drugged wine comfortable?"

The barman mumbled something that was unintelligible. Sid said, "Well, he told me where to find Alice."

"Does that mean that I have to let him go?" Gregor asked.

"Yes," Sid answered.

Gregor reached over and grabbed the ropes holding the barman to the plank. His knife sliced through the rope with ease. The rope slowly loosened until the man fell to the ground. Gregor leaned down and said, "You better run. If I ever see you again, I'll kill you."

The barman took one look at the expression on Gregor's face and ran out of the bar without looking backwards. The look of terror on his face was not faked. He didn't even take the time to remove the gag in his mouth.

The man's actions made Sid wonder what had really happened while he had been gone. Putting an arm around Alice, he led her over where Gregor was seated. Gesturing to the man, Sid said, "Alice, this rather angry looking man is Gregor of the Rider Clan. Gregor, this is Alice."

"I'm pleased to meet you," Alice said looking over at Sid for protection. Half whispered, she added, "I think."

Gregor grinned at the addendum and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Sid sat down and said, "Tell me what really happened."

Gregor took a long swig from his mug of watered wine and then said, "The man is a coward and a fool. After you left, I was stuck trying to figure out what to do with him. I figured, hey he's a barman so I'll have him work the bar. There's enough men in here that he won't be able to go anywhere, so why not?"

"Sounds reasonable," Sid said.

"So anyway, we had him working at the counter handing out drinks. Last night, the idiot gets it into his head that he's going to escape. Two hours after sunset, he drugs the wine and serves it to the men I had in here watching the place. You know how I feel about that."

"I'm surprised you didn't kill him," Sid said shaking his head.

"I was sorely tempted, but I knew that you'd want to question him if you didn't find Alice," Gregor said. He took another sip of his wine and said, "Well, the men notice that things aren't quite right when a couple of the fellows fall asleep in their mugs after a single tankard. The call went out as the idiot was trying to slip out the back door. He ran into me."

"So you tied him to the plank and played with him," Sid said.

"Actually, I did tie him to the post and he did complain about his feet hurting. That's when one of my men suggested that we ought to tie him to a swing like one of those women in the fancy houses. Well, we didn't have a board the right size, so... You get the idea," Gregor said.

Alice laughed and said, "He looked so stupid hanging upside down like that."

"Where's Derek?" Sid asked. The man who normally went everywhere with Gregor wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"He was one of the men who were drugged last night. He's sick as a dog," Gregor said.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe we should have kept the barman here for a bit so that Derek could have talked to him," Sid said.

"Derek would have killed him in the old way. Today, we reserve it for only the most cowardly of men who hurt the tribe through treachery," Gregor said with a hard expression on his face. He looked off to the side as if wanting to avoid an unpleasant memory.

"What does it involve?" Sid asked looking at Gregor. Based on his behavior, it was obvious that Gregor had delivered that punishment at some point in the past.

Gregor reached into his belt and pulled out a small knife with a slightly curved blade that wasn't more than an inch in length. The knife was typically used by the nomads to trim leather and was kept razor sharp. Gregor said, "He'd have worked him over with his leather knife until the idiot died. It probably would have taken a day or two."

A look of horror crossed Alice's face as she imagined what that would encompass. Staring at Gregor, she asked, "Why would you do that?"

"So that the coward learns the real meaning of pain so that in the next life, he won't be a coward. It also assures that anyone thinking of violating the trust of the tribe thinks twice about doing it," Gregor answered. He took another sip of his watered wine and looked over at the bar. He slipped the knife back into his belt.

Looking over at Alice, Sid said, "When a member of the tribe does something treacherous against his tribe, he's bringing death to people he's known his whole life. In a clan, everyone helps everyone so that all can live. If you destroy that spirit, then you destroy the clan and everyone in it. That can't be forgiven."

"He wasn't of the tribe," Alice pointed out.

"He was allowed a position of trust and he violated that trust. You have to trust that the person who feeds you won't poison you instead. He may not have been a member of the tribe, but he attacked Gregor's family in a very cowardly manner," Sid said.

Alice looked at Gregor and asked, "The people who were drugged were members of your family?"

"They were all of the Rider Clan. We're all related one way or another," Gregor answered looking at Sid. Although it shouldn't have, it amazed him that Sid understood Clan justice. He sighed and looked into his empty tankard.

"You're not happy," Sid said.

"The kind of vile treachery that I've seen on this campaign makes me sick to my stomach," Gregor said. He felt like the people in this whole area had no sense of honor.