balance of the weapon. Taylor, who was still watching and fretting in the doorway, caught this little display of skill and a few of his worries fled from his mind.
The two climbed the flight of steps as quietly as possible but the wooden staircase had been exposed to the elements for a long time and creaked and groaned with almost every step. Gwaynn half expected the door at the top to fly open at any moment, but it remained steadfastly closed, and both young men breathed a sigh of relief as they reached the top undiscovered. There was a window close to the door, but they found it shuttered against the night, and could see nothing of what was in the dwelling beyond.
They paused for a moment, but then a flash of lightning came from above. They looked at one another and just had time enough to smile before the sound of thunder exploded in the air. At that exact moment both of them raised a leg and kicked the door with all of their might. The lock and jam splintered from the force and the door flew open to reveal a man standing not fifteen feet away holding a bow already fitted with an arrow, which was pointed directly at Gwaynn. He released the arrow almost immediately. Gwaynn saw it leave his hand and begin its flight toward his chest, but then everything slowed. Gwaynn saw the man’s eyes. They were wide with excitement behind the on-coming arrow, which despite the slowing down of all else, seemed to be rushing at him alarmingly fast. Gwaynn did not have time to take a step, so he swiveled his body and pulled back his left shoulder. It was not quite fast enough as the arrow cut through his coat and sliced through the top layer of his skin before moving by and burying itself into the wooden post directly behind him with a resounding thunk.
Krys stared at Gwaynn for what seemed an eternity, and then time rushed ahead, normal again.
“Move!” Gwaynn yelled and Krys came unfrozen. The man with a bow also gaped as his arrow missed.
Krys and Gwaynn rushed in, a bare-breasted woman sat at a table, her fingers in a bowl of fruit that sat before her. She stared at them, eyes wide with terror. It was not Dot or Emm, but that was all the two had time to determine before a second door burst open and another man rushed in, this one armed with a set of kali. Gwaynn recognized them as Krys’ set.
“Ah, there they are,” Krys said, and moved in with a fast elegant attack that Gwaynn could only admire. The man was dead within moments, falling quietly as his heart was pierced clean through. Gwaynn glanced behind to make sure the woman still posed no threat, but she just held up both hands in submission, then he went over to the man on the bed, who was still struggling for air, though weakly now. He grasped the hilt of his knife and pulled it free, air and blood now gurgling from the wound.
“Here,” Krys said, and handed Gwaynn the set of kali. “You’re better with these than I am,” he stated with a smile.
Gwaynn smiled back and nodded at the recognition and then they both moved through the door and into a hallway that contained three doors, one on the right, one on the left and one straight ahead. The door on the left was hanging open, inside on the bed, clearly naked beneath the sheets, was Dot. She gasped, as Gwaynn moved in. Krys nodded to the door on the right and Gwaynn nodded back.
“Please don’t kill me,” she screamed.
“How many more?” Gwaynn asked moving close to her. She cowered as he swung a kali so hard and close to her that it cut a swath of hair from the side of her head.
She screamed again, but as he moved closer she held up her hands and let the sheet fall from her chest, but for once Gwaynn found the sight of breasts uninterested.
“How many?” he yelled at her with urgency.
“I don’t know…four,” she stammered but Gwaynn did not stay to listen as he heard Krys break down the door across the hall. He arrived in time to see his friend pull the sword from another dead man’s chest. This one had not made it from the bed, and the woman with him was less timid than the others. She drew a knife with surprising speed, threatening Krys, but Gwaynn calmly sliced off her head for her trouble.
They moved as one back out the door, careful of the floor, which was becoming slick with blood. Once in the hall they marched up to the lone remaining door and burst into the last room.
A girl screamed from the bed. She was naked as well, and again holding up a sheet to cover her body. It was Emm, but she was alone in the room. Another door, on the far side of the room was open and Gwaynn could see stairs beyond, They led down to what he supposed was the feed store. He moved to the window in time to see a man, still holding up his britches, running through the streets.
“Who was he?” Gwaynn asked the stunned girl on the bed. She remained quiet, staring at the two intruders with wide eyes.
“Who?” Gwaynn screamed at her and she jumped, her gaze quickly shifting to his face.
“His name is Tod,” she blurted immediately. “Tod Ogden,” she added. Gwaynn rushed to her, grabbed her hair and pulled her from the bed. She was completely naked and helpless before them. He dropped her on the wooden floor and raised a kali, his anger breaking over him in waves. Emm screamed from her prone position and held up her hands in capitulation.
“Please!” she shrieked and they all heard the sounds of running feet. Krys moved to the doorway in time to see Dot, wearing only her under things running toward the back room and supposedly the stairs beyond. Gwaynn stood frozen, his kali held high for the killing blow, but as he glanced back down at the naked girl at his feet, his anger had past.
“Please,” she said, beginning to cry.
“Fakir?” Gwaynn asked.
Emm’s mouth popped open for a second, as death began to back away. “He…he sleeps in the room by the back stairs,” she said through her tears. Gwaynn still stood above her with his hand and weapon raised, but she saw something in his eyes that told her he was not going to kill her, so she smiled her shy, sweet smile at him. Anger flared again, and he grabbed a large handful of thick soft hair, and pulled her to her feet and out the door of the bedroom. She screamed and had to walk bent over, but she managed to shuffle along quickly in order to keep her hair from being pulled out of her scalp. Gwaynn pulled Emm down the hallway and Krys followed them back to the far room. When they stopped Emm tried to straighten up, but Gwaynn jerked her hair hard, keeping his arm down so that she had to stay bent, staring at her bare feet.
The woman with the bare breasts still sat at the table with the bowl of fruit. Her eyes were still wide as Gwaynn motioned to the dead man on the bed.
“Fakir?” he asked, and she slowly nodded.
“Are you his woman?” He asked again with enough malice that she began to shake.
She ignored the question. “Please Sir,” she pleaded. “They make us do it…the thieving. They killed two that wouldn’t. Please Sir ever since the Deutz…”
“Silence!” Gwaynn yelled, his anger returning. Thunder boomed in the distance as if echoing his mood. “Are you his woman?” he asked again.
“Please Gwaynn,” Emm said, but yelped as he tugged at her hair once more.
“Yes, I was,” the woman said bravely, for she saw death in the young man’s eyes before her. She was very afraid, and the strong smell of blood in the room did not help to allay her fears. “But she’s done nothing wrong,” she added, nodding at Emm. “Fakir just bought her from her step father not two months ago.”
Gwaynn said nothing but his hold on Emm’s hair loosened slightly.
“Your name?”
“Neece Munger,” the woman whispered.
“Well Neece,” Gwaynn asked, calmly holding up one of his blades, “do you happen to know where we might find another set of these?”
Neece nodded and moving very carefully stood and went to a chest which sat at the foot of the bed. She opened it, inside were Gwaynn’s kali, along with his coin bag, plus a few hundred other coins.
Krys whistled as he moved forward to collect Gwaynn’s weapons for him. Truth was he feared for the woman before him, his friends temper flared quickly but he killed even faster. He removed the kali and the coin bag.
