The squint eyed southerner was bound and forced onto his knees in the stone floor of the ruins in Midgewater. Corrben stood just to the side of him, his hands streaked with blood, staining the leather bindings wrapped around his knuckles. He noticed the unusually dark color, nearly burgundy rather than crimson as it oozed from the broken nose of the prisoner. Splattered on the pale stone, it looked nearly black.
Grimbriar had arrived, leaving Oakdale to be attended to as his wounds were extensive from the knife wielding brigand. The Chief Watcher stood with his hands behind his back, in a relaxed parade stance as he stared down at the southerner. Brittleleaf took a sip from his flask, standing off to the side and watched the proceedings.
"How many of brigands are now in the Vale?" Grimbriar asked again, his voice deep and even, his frustration only showing in a flickering of his dark eyes. "Who is sending the supplies, the weapons?"
The squint eyed man sneered, poking his tongue through the gap left after Corrben had broken his front teeth, leaving a bloody ragged hole.
"I'll not talk, peasant, takes more than a few nips from your hound there," he growled out, his voice stuffy sounding.
At Grimbriar's nod, Corrben stepped forward, landing a short hard jab to the already broken nose, turning it to mush. The southerner howled with the pain and cursed vividly. The young watcher shook his fist and shrugged, "It looks like an improvement to your ugly face."
Brittleleaf grinned at that, drinking once more from his flask, his pale face flushed already. Grimbriar saw the prisoner was still tightlipped and he turned to Corrben, "Break his fingers."
Corrben paused, looking back at his boss but he saw the man was serious so he went around behind the southerner and grabbed one of his bound hands. "Talk or I'll start snapping them like twigs."
The southerner snarled and spat at Grimbriar who stepped back but not in time to avoid the wad of bloody saliva that hit his tunic. He wiped at it as Corrben gripped the smallest finger and took a deep breath, twisting it back sharply until he felt the snap. He grit his teeth, as the man screamed uttering a stream of vulgarities. Corrben broke the second at the Chief Watcher's order and left the squint eyed man groaning.
"I will leave you a crippled and broken man," Grimbriar said, "Or you can walk away now. Choice is yours."
The Chief Watcher took out a medallion and threw it at the prisoner's feet, "What is that symbol? Where does it come from?"
The man flashed a feral grin, his broken teeth jagged stumps in his mouth, "From the south."
Corrben gave him a quick hard punch to his kidney and Grimbriar shook his head, "I need a better answer than that."
"That's all you get," the man said, "Whatever you and your hound here can do to me, is nothing to what would happen if I betrayed my master."
The squint eyed man snapped his mouth shut and at the nod from his Watch commander, Corrben twisted the prisoner's broken fingers causing him to howl. "Who is your master?"
The man refused to say anymore and Corrben looked to Grimbriar whose lips were pressed in a fine line and the tension showed in the cords of his neck. "Who is your master in the south you piece of shit?!"
Even after another broken finger and another tooth knocked out, his nose a pulpy mess, the southerner still did not speak the name and merely replied with a vulgar sneer, "Your mother."
Grimbriar grabbed the ugly man by his shoulders, "Talk or you will die today!"
"You don't have the guts to murder," the squint eyed man replied, "Your lot believe in laws and such right? Then lock me up."
The Chief Watcher's mouth twitched in a grimace and he backed up, looking at Corrben, "He's done. Finish it, Fenflower."
Corrben paused, glancing between them, "Sir?"
"Kill the bastard!" Grimbriar snapped and then glared at Brittleaf who was red eyed and swaying slightly. "Get out of here and get sobered up. Meet me back at the cabin. Fenflower, meet us after it's done."
Once they had left, Corrben stood looking at the man he had beaten and tortured for information that he had refused to give. The man laughed at him, "Oi, what's wrong boy? You've not got the balls to kill a man in cold blood. I felt your hesitation when you broke my fingers. You're soft. Like all of them in this land. Soft and tender like a virgin cunt."
The young Watcher punched him hard, splitting a cut above the man's eye. Dark blood oozed out, the southerner blinking as it dripped into his eye. "Oh come on lad, what'll it be, eh? The spear so you don't have to get so close? Or will you be a real man and used a knife, cut my throat and be done with it."
