Northgate
Summer 216
When he fell to his knees in the soft grass, Piton Grimes wasn’t afraid. He had been in situations like this before. And if he played his cards right, he might get a chance to get the drop on whoever was standing on the other side of the hood covering his face. The hood was removed and he stared up into the night sky. It was cloudless and the fragmented moon shined brightly. He was in a large, open field. A night breeze rippled the grass like waves on the sea.
A young man, not even six feet in height, tossed the hood aside and knelt down in front of him, cutting the bindings on his hands. The blade looked almost invisible, painted black perhaps, but it must have been incredibly sharp as it sliced through the ropes almost instantly.
The young man stood, pulled a spare blade from behind his back and tossed it into the grass in front of Piton. It was Piton’s blade. He thought it was still in his boot. When had the man lifted it…?
“Cut your legs free,” the man instructed. Barely a man by the look of him Piton thought. But he began cutting the ropes around his feet nonetheless. He worked up a sweat before he was even halfway through.
I’ll need to sharpen this when I get back to town… or maybe not. Maybe I’ll just take the sharp one with that fancy ivory hilt after I deal with the kid…
The young man - as Piton could now clearly see his face - walked few yards away to stand next to an expensive looking black horse, so dark it almost looked like a shadow.
I’ll take that too… he thought.
“It’s going to take you a minute to cut your way through those ropes,” Ethan said. “So I‘ll use that time to explain why we’re here…”
“Let me guess,” Piton interrupted. “Yurung sent you? You must be one of his little debt collectors. He always did like the pretty ones…” he continued cutting the bindings on his feet.
“…or maybe the Sargent finally had enough of me causing trouble around Central but didn’t have the balls to send any of his own men after me? Knowing that I’d send any of his lot back with their tails between their legs. Or maybe…”
Only tethers remained, buy the dull blade made even these painstakingly slow to cut. “…maybe it’s more personal? Tell me - you have sister or mother? One that said ‘no’ until I convinced her to say ‘yes’?”
Ethan stared back at the man. The young man seemed unfazed by the remarks. Or the situation as a whole. And now that Piton thought about it, why was the kid letting him cut himself free?
“No,” Ethan answered almost whimsically. “This is because you stole a pig.”
Piton stopped cutting.
“What? Are you fucking serious?!” He cut through the rest of his bindings and jumped to his feet, preparing to charge towards the kid with murderous intent. After two steps he spotted the crossbow in Ethan’s hand. Piton stopped in his tracks. Where the hell had that come from…?
Ethan gestured for Piton to toss the knife and he complied.
“What the fuck is this…? Some kind of joke? The fucking pig?”
Ethan didn’t reply.
Piton looked around at the open field and then back at Ethan. His shoulders relaxed. A sneer worked itself across his face and into his voice.
“So, what, I stole your pig and so you think you’re going to ride me out here, just a few miles from the front gate to scare me? Is that it? Well, I got news for you, Pal. This isn’t my first rodeo. I already know you’re not gonna
kill me.”
Ethan raised an eyebrow. It was a trick he’d been practicing for just such occasions.
“Look around us,” Piton continued. “There’s no gravesite here, you fucking amateur. And I don’t see a shovel. So IF you killed me, then you’d have to spend the whole night digging a hole deep enough to bury me with your bare hands. Or you would have to figure out how to drag a dead body twice your puny little size across this whole fucking clearing.”
Ethan lowered the crossbow. “Are you done?”
Piton was furious. Oh, just you wait, you cocky little mother fucker…
Ethan’s tone was casual. “You’re right. I’m not going to kill you. And I can see how, from where you’re standing, it would seem like this was a whole lot to go through for something that can be replaced with a few silver.”
He began patting Vengeance’s mane.
“Some people paid you, so you stole a pig. You gave it to those people and they slaughtered it. Unfortunately for them, it belonged a friend of mine. And when they found the people who killed it, they extended to them the same courtesy that your friends showed towards the pig.”
Piton spit. “So they killed your precious little piggy and got what’s was coming to’em for their troubles. What’s that got to do with me?”
“The problem is, that particular pig also happened to be a very good friend of my horse.”
Piton looked at the beast standing next to Ethan.
“This is Vengeance. Say ‘Hi,’ Vengeance.” The horse neighed and shook its head.
“Vengeance here has a very, very good memory. And he saw you come into the stables to steal Hampton… and he was real upset when I told him what eventually happened to his friend.
“So I made a deal with Vengeance: I would deliver the man who stole his friend and Vengeance here would agree to let go of a grudge he’s been holding… a grudge that just so happens to be against the former owner of the pig you stole.”
Piton looks at Ethan and then the horse. The kid’s crazy… Piton thought.
“So no, I’m not going to kill you. Vengeance is gonna do that himself…”
Piton sneered. “Listen here you little…”
His words are interrupted by a loud whinny from Vengeance, who stomped the ground with his hooves.
Piton took a step back and once again looked around at the open field. There were no trees or roads in the area - just rolling grassy hills bathed in moonlight.
“He wants you to have a head start,” Ethan said, stepping away from the horse.
Piton looked at Ethan. Ethan stared back calmly.
“You should run.”
Piton takes a few furtive steps backward. This is crazy, he thinks. There’s no way tha—
Vengeance began to charge.
Piton turned and began sprinting through the field but was quickly knocked to the ground as the horse charged past him. A few yards away, the shadow of a horse turned around, dancing on its hind legs, before charging again.
Gods help me…
That night, Piton Grimes ran longer, harder and faster than he ever had in his entire life.
When his body was discovered several days later, it appeared as though he was trampled underfoot by an stampeding herd.
Episode navigation
Previous
Previous:
The Fangs of Se’aldarNext
Back to: