She crawled out from beneath Ozzie’s tarp before he woke up and made breakfast by the campfire. All the time she had a feeling that somebody was watching her. But she didn’t see anyone.
Nerves…
She fetched her bags from Ozzie’s tarp tent and sat on a small, filthy mattress near the campfire site, looking around the camp.
If she craned her neck she could see the Forsaken Inn and the Great East Road far to her right in the south. It was early afternoon, and one by one the brigands started to crawl out from their tarp tents. She tried to find the woman. Hellrien remembered how terrified she had been. What had Ozzie said… about Kyle having friends? Was she afraid of those friends? Helen, the woman had called herself. A common name in Bree.
Swearing, she took a bottle of brandy from her saddle bag, removed the cork and took a long sip. She gasped her breath. Then she looked around the camp again, trying to make sense of her situation. Ozzie and Helen on her side, and Kyle a cripple now. What about the three others? Were they the ’friends’ of Kyle’s Ozzie had referred to? Had Kyle been the leader of this group? And if so, would Ozzie now vie for the position?
If Ozzie became the new leader, that would make Hellrien’s position very secure indeed – unless his claim was contested. Then it would be Hellrien, Helen and Ozzie against the rest – three against three. In that case they would likely make an attempt to get her out of the picture. She had proven herself to be a dangerous foe, one to get rid of if they saw her as a threat.
She took another drink and stared at the campfire with empty eyes. Suddenly she felt a desperate urge to take her horse and ride back to Towerglan. She had no business here. It had been years since she had last associated with people like these.
Suddenly she noticed the woman. Helen was lurking in the tall grass on the other side of the camp. On a sentry duty, most likely.
Hellrien took her hat, stood up and walked over to the woman. She saw how Helen stiffened as she approached. A couple of the brigands threw intrigued glances at her.
”Hello, Helen”, said Hellrien. ”May I talk to you for a moment?”
Hellrien sat down next to Helen, so they were both hiding behind the tall grass. Small gnats buzzed and hovered around her head. Helen sat very still, almost as if paralyzed, and stared at Hellrien with a peculiar expression in her eyes.
”I’m sorry if I seemed rude yesterday. I felt… distressed.”
”That’s understandable. You saved my life. Kyle would surely have killed me after he was done with you.”
”And where is Kyle now?” Hellrien asked. ”I haven’t seen him since yesterday. I’m not even sure if he lived.”
Helen was quiet for a moment. The expression in her eyes didn’t change.
”He lives. But he… left. This is no place for cripples.” Helen spat on the ground. ”I wish him a long and miserable life in the Beggar’s Alley in Bree.”
”What about you?” Hellrien asked. ”What will you do now? Will you go home to your family… now that Kyle doesn’t ’own’ you anymore?”
”I have no other family than this”, Helen almost whispered, looking down. ”No other place to go.”
Hellrien thought about it. It wouldn’t take long before one of the other men would start making passes at Helen. Maybe all three of them. Helen didn’t strike Hellrien as strong enough to resist it, so she would have to pick a ’husband’… or become a ’challenge trophy’ for everyone. And from what she had seen, there was nothing to write home about in any of the lads available here.
”Do you have anyone you… like here?” Hellrien asked. ”A friend?”
Helen shook her head. ”I know you’re with Ozzie now. Ozzie is… a good man. He’s a friend.”
Hellrien detected a hint of jealousy in Helen’s voice and got the drift.
”Well”, she said, ”if any of the lads gives you any trouble, you just let me know. I will make sure nobody will bother you, alright?”
”Alright. Thank you.”
Hellrien stood up. ”I will leave you know to your duties, but if you need anything, just let me know.”
Hellrien turned and saw a stranger sitting by the campfire. A new man had arrived in the camp while she had been distracted with the conversation with Helen. He was sitting with two brigands around the fire, passing a flask between them.
Hellrien walked over to them.
”Sit down and have a drink, lady”, said the stranger with a smile, revealing his white teeth.
”Thanks.” Hellrien removed her hat and threw it in front of Ozzie’s tarp tent. Ozzie was still sound asleep inside, snoring like a buzz saw.
Hellrien sat down. The brigands eyed her amicably.
”You must the one who crippled Kyle the Snake”, said the stranger.
”Yes. My name’s Hellrien.”
”I am Harmon Rushes. These two go by the names Herbert Dickerson and Victor Landen.”
Hellrien took a sip of brandy from the flask. Her back was moist with sweat. She remembered that Ozzie had mentioned Harmon Rushes as one of the brigands who didn’t mess with Kyle the Snake. As the flask went round she formed her impressions of the men. Rushes seemed to be the dominant personality – he would have stood out anywhere. He was young – not much older than Hellrien – and had brown hair, blue squint-eyes, broken nose and white teeth under bushy handlebar mustachio. Because his other eye was squinting it was difficult to determine the direction of his gaze. It appeared as if he was watching past Hellrien. It was hard to say which eye he was looking at her with. It was disconcerting.
Herbert Dickerson had brown, thin hair. He was built like an ox and had tame, milky blue eyes that had a faint glimmer behind them. He was in his thirties.
Victor Landen couldn’t have been a day more than twenty years old. He was wearing brown leather shoulderpads and a red shirt that looked as if glued onto his slender body. He was the only brigand here who was wearing a sword on his belt.
Rushes leaned forward to hand Hellrien the flask again.
”I heard what you did to Kyle”, he said. His voice was calm and pleasant, and his manner of speaking polite and civilized. ”You did us all a favor there.”
Hellrien smiled faintly. ”Don’t mention it”, she said dryly.
”Why didn’t you kill him?”
Hellrien looked at his crooked eyes. ”I saw no point to it. Besides, I didn’t know if he had friends here, and I…” She fell silent and raised her flask.
Rushes nodded. ”I understand. But there’s no love for Kyle here.”
Dickerson and Landen laughed. Hellrien took a note of young Landen’s laugh. It sounded tense.
Hellrien said nothing.
”Are you going to stick around for a while?”
”I don’t know. Maybe. How so?” There was defiance in her last sentence.
Rushes raised his hands appeasingly. ”Calm down, woman! I’m not trying to pry or anything. It’s just that we rarely meet anyone new here, and it gets boring to look at the same faces week after another. You see, we are… well… having a vacation, if you can say so.”
Hellrien remarked that his laughter was now a tad nervous. She wondered why they would reveal themselves like that to a stranger. Would they reveal their true colors to a woman they had just met? Had the fight against Kyle been enough to earn their trust? Hellrien decided to play her hand cautiously.
”It’s a nice place”, she said lightly. ”I even found myself a boyfriend here already. So maybe I’ll settle down here, have kids and raise a family.”
”Do you gamble?” asked Landen.
”I’m usually unlucky at gambling”, Hellrien said bemoaningly.
”But lucky at love”, Rushes grinned, and again Dickerson and Landen laughed dutifully to his quip.
The flask went round the circle again as everyone sat, looking at each other.
Rushes said: ”I like the way you used those swords of yours. Not many people around here are that handy with them.”
Hellrien grumbled something incomprehensible.
”Let’s take Kyle the Snake for example”, Rushes continued. ”He’s been strutting his stuff around here for about half a year, acting all mean and scary. He was in a habit of skinning people who had crossed him alive and making all kinds of accoutrements of their skin, and everyone here was pretty scared of him and convinced he was the genuine article. But when push came to shove, turns out he was not so tough after all.”
Hellrien grunted again. Rushes’ eyes flared, and Hellrien still couldn’t tell which of his eyes was looking at her. It was something she just had to find out.
”Kyle’s brother though, he’s a different kind of animal”, said Dickerson slowly. The silence that followed proved Hellrien they had engineered this conversation to study her reactions.
Hellrien didn’t say anything, but focused on loading her pipe instead.
They waited. Finally Rushes had to respond for Hellrien.
”Do you mean the Brute?”
”I do. He killed six people in Bree a few months ago, and what he did to them makes skinning alive seem humane in comparison.”
Hellrien still didn’t respond. She forced the men to speak for her.
”The Brute hasn’t been around in a while”, said Rushes ponderously. ”But it’s possible he’ll drop by now.”
Hellrien reached for the flask.
Rushes’ eyes were expressionless now. He said: ”Hellrien, I think you have to prepare yourself to the fact that the Brute will want to avenge his brother.”
”Is that so.”
”And he’s a different kind of animal than his brother.”
”No kidding.”
”Just trying to be helpful.”
”Thank you.”
Rushes leaned backwards. ”You don’t scare easily, Hellrien.”
”Had you hoped so?” Hellrien’s cold blue eyes drilled into Rushes’ pale purples.
”Absolutely not.”
Hellrien concentrated on the flask again.
”The Brute might bring friends too. But don’t worry, we will have your back – no strings attached.”
”Why?” Hellrien’s eyes flashed coldly.
”We don’t like Kyle, Brute or any of their ilk. One could say that they have outstayed their welcome in the Lone-Lands”, Rushes said calmly.
”There is no place safer to be than in the caring heart of a friend.”
”No need to be sarcastic, Hellrien. We mean what we say.”
Hellrien stood up. ”Thanks for the drinks, men.”
”I have to leave too, but how about a game of dice in the evening?”
”Fine by me.”
”I’ll be back by sunset.”
”See you then.”
Gust of dry heat blew against Hellrien. Scorching wind flew dust and rubbish along the camp. Hellrien crawled back under Ozzie’s tarp, shucked her dress and lied down next to him.
