Chapter 49: Cleaning up the mess

"Thanks, I'll try."

A bubble of awareness must have traveled ahead of me, for the streets were clear well in advance of my presence. Doors slammed, windows shuttered and people fled. I disregarded it. I had to.

Covered in blood, I stormed down the street to that house. I would worry about my appearance after I did what needed to be done.

Four of the local soldiers saw me at a cross street and fled. I'd worry about the guardsmen later. That house came first.

Both pieces of the soldier were where I left him. Nothing else was moving that I could hear. The creature at the top of the stairs was first.

The creature's arm, the one that I initially cut off was desiccated. Four fingers and a thumb all ended with razor tipped claws. It resembled a man's hand, or maybe a chimp's hand with specialized claws. I wasn't sure. The head too was desiccated. The creature bled where I cut him and that contrasted with what I knew of mummies.

I was missing something. I looked over the room and found the body that the creature threw at me earlier. There was a dagger buried to the hilt in its belly. I pulled it out, ready to throw it away when I noticed the lantern's light glinted off of it.

Oh shit, a silver dagger.

Using the lantern, I looked around for anything else odd in a house of horrors.

There was nothing in this room, maybe in the other.

I stared at the door afraid to open it, I knew that I had to, though.

Bright Lady grant me comfort.

A warm glow encompassed me, held me, loved me. It was more than enough to open the dreaded door and search. The lantern's light revealed his discard chamber. Every body was the same, desiccated and gutted. With Kassandra's blessing I was able to search the room. The people were drained of life, that was my guess; he did something that stole from his victims. What, I do not want to know. But he did.

I returned to the room of the wizard. Vampire or not, I was going to burn him, not bury him. I wanted to make sure that he would not be coming back. Ever.

The sheath for the dagger was on a shelf, along with pouches and some clothes. I sheathed the dagger and took the four pouches. The chopped up body fit into the sack that Gallor gave to me. I searched the rooms but didn't find anything else that stood out. Tate's blood was pooling about his torso, but the flesh was a funny color. I went to the back and kicked open the boarded up rear entry, I wanted to see the sergeant's head in the sunlight. It too was gray, not as gray as the wizards, but enough to be unnatural, even without the blood that recently flowed through it.

That went into the bag along with the wizard.

I had enough here. I was sure that no one was going to enter this house even on pain of death. Not unless they were a party to this, maybe not even then.

The same phenomenon that preceded me here, preceded me back to the barracks. The sack dripped blood when I stopped at the barracks door, no real surprise there. The door was barred, and I did not feel up to breaking it down.

"If this door is not opened by the count of five, I will assume that everyone inside is guilty. The guilty will be hung."

"One!" I called out.

There was movement from behind the door, and soon to follow was the bar being drawn back.

"Two!"

The door opened slowly to reveal a young soldier, he looked afraid but not unduly so. That was good. He looked down to see the blood drip and blanched. I stepped around him and walked into the stone building. There were dozens of men, some eating, some dressing, and some still in their bunks freshly awakened.

"Is this everyone?" I asked loudly enough to carry.

I saw a few head shakes to the negative, and heard a chorus of 'No, Milord."

"Then it will be your job after I leave to see that they get the message." I took a second and looked at each of the various groups, seeking out the older men. Some flinched, some looked down in shame.

"I expect a full list of men that helped Sergeant Tate and the wizard by this time tomorrow. I also expect them to be in custody for judgment by this time tomorrow." I paused letting that sink in. "If this is too difficult, then I will assume that you were all guilty. If that happens, then you will wish that you could have traded places with the girls they took.

"I want four men to guard that house. No one is to enter and nothing is to leave without my permission."


The room was quiet. They were all guilty, some more than others. I certainly was not going to let Chandra near this fiasco, and couldn't trust Grant to do anything correctly.

"You," I pointed to the young soldier that answered the door, "is the firepit here large enough to cook a boar?"

"Yes, Milord." Every time that I moved or gestured the assembled men flinched in unison. That gave me a perverse satisfaction.

"Good, take me there. I have something for you all to see." I followed him into the kitchen. There was a roaring fire going already, two large kettles were hung from an iron bar. I pointed to the two men that were already in the kitchen and told them to remove the food from the fire. They looked unsure but followed my orders.

I tossed the dripping canvas bag into the firepit. The stone enclosure was more than deep enough for the bag and its contents to fit.

"Inside is the chopped up wizard and the head of Sergeant Tate. They will not get a burial, they will be burned until ash. The Earth Mother will not grant them rest. See that this fire does not diminish, or I will have to find alternate means of feeding it. Do I make myself clear?"

A chorus of 'Yes, Milord.' echoed in the kitchen.

"Good. I shall be at Lord Grant's house. You may summon me for whatever reason if needed." I looked, just looked, at the men blocking my way out of the kitchen. They quickly cleared a path for me.

"By the way," I stopped before I exited the barracks. "My name is Lord Charles. I confronted and killed the wizard in his own house, so don't even think about doing anything stupid." The amount of blood and gore on me coupled with the knowledge of where I had been kept them very afraid of me.

The walk back to the town was lonely. It seemed the whole town had heard about me. What they heard, I don't know. Just before I came to Grant's house a woman broke free of her friends and ran at me with a dagger. She called me all sorts of vile things, some I did not even know what they meant.

I took the dagger away from her before she harmed anyone and set her gently on the ground. The woman, no, girl, she couldn't be older than fifteen, cried dry tears and still tried to pound on me even after I took her dagger away.

Her four friends were standing just far enough to run if I came at them. But stayed close enough to help their friend.

I took a step back. "There is a little girl that I rescued from that house. She is with a Postulant of Kassandra. The little girl needs her mother. Please see if you can find her mother." I tossed the dagger away and continued my journey to the house.

The hysterical woman just stayed on the ground where I left her and cried brokenly.

I needed a bath, a very long and hot bath.

I didn't even knock, I just walked in seeking any sounds or movement. I found Megan in the sitting room being served tea by Gallor.