Chapter 15: It's all a matter of trust

We arose before dawn; washed, dressed and had a quick breakfast. The stable was quiet, so we didn't have any interruptions to get our horses ready for the day's travel. When we approached the front of the inn; an absolutely huge man advanced us on with a cudgel in his paw lumbering straight for us. I figured that nothing good was going to come of this. It looked like Simon had his arm wrapped in a soiled bandage, and he was loping behind his father.

"Keep back and let me handle this, Meri," I said quietly. She just nodded.

The big man came closer than comfort to me and bellowed loud enough for the whole town to hear. "You hurt my boy, you need to pay for that. Gimme some 'f yur horsies and I'll let you live." He brandished his cudgel.

I heard a cackling from the porch of the inn; there was a pair of old one-armed men in matched rocking chairs. The one with a long white beard shouted, "Bye, Samuel, it was fun watching you and your evil kin stomp around for a while; but now you're a dead man!"

Samuel turned and started threatening the old man, when the other old man started singing, "Sword Saint, Sword Saint; will kill you dead," over and over.

The big idiot ignored me and started advancing on the old men. I figured that enough was enough; I drew and stabbed. I took a step back and watched the boy as he realized that his father was dead. Samuel bounced pretty well. I didn't want to kill the kid outright, it was obvious that he did listen to someone, and that he wasn't completely hopeless.

I didn't have to worry; the kid ran to his dad and fell on him crying. I almost felt bad until I figured that he would have done worse to me. I looked back at Meri and had her fetch the women from the kitchen. She looked worried and ran. I waited.

The three women came from the back of the house at a run. I still hadn't sheathed my sword; I was waiting to see if there was going to be any fallout. The older woman stopped at them, and kicked her son telling him to get up, which he did slowly. I quickly glanced over at the old men who were still up to their antics, just much quieter and put my finger in front of my lips. They acquiesced.

The older woman stormed at me after she looked at her fallen husband. "You killed him, you murderer! I'll see you hang for that."

My sword was instantly at her throat, I could see a droplet of blood run down her neck from my point piercing her fat neck. "He came at me with a weapon and the intent to harm me and mine. If. IF, mind you, I come back here and find that your son hasn't improved in manners towards strangers and innocents, then he and any with him will meet the same fate."

"Do you understand, woman?" I asked without moving my sword a millimeter.

"Yes, you bastard. Yelp." Since I did not move my sword, her talking made my sword go deeper into her skin.

"I shall return, and the lot of you had better be ready, I would hate to have to pay to bury your whole family." I removed my sword and sheathed it. "Meri? Toss the men over there a couple of pennies, and have them bury the pig before he starts blocking traffic." I mounted, and waited for her to do so also.

As soon as she mounted, I looked to the old men. "See that he gets a decent burial. Oh, and sing well of me." They cackled in delight at that.

"Let's go, Meri." We went.

On the way out of town I did notice that most of the doorways and windows had faces in them, but no one seemed to want to come out, so we kept riding.

"Did you notice the people?" I asked her.

"Yeah, everyone was watching."

"How's your head?"

"Hurts."

"Let me know if you have any problems from bumping it. Now, tell me what happens when I come back to this town."

"Nothin' I guess."

"Really? So all of his relatives are going to say thanks for killing him. They all were tired of him bullying us." I asked mildly.

"I would."

"You might, but remember how his wife acted, and how Simon acted normally. Do you think that they were the only ones like that in the family?"

"No."

"So tell me what is going to happen when I return."

"Umm, they'll kill you?"

"They will definitely try. It's our job to make sure that they fail. We will have to be ready for anything. I want you to remind me before we are within a day's ride of this town, Ok?"

"I'll try."

"Think hard about it; remembering could save our lives." That got through to her, now she started looking scared.