Of Civilized, Saved and Savages by Johnny Worthen

Author:Johnny Worthen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sf and fantasy fiction; scifi; gothic fantasy; science fiction; flame tree press; speculative fiction; hard science fiction; fantasy; Dune; Game of Thrones
Publisher: Flame Tree Publishing
Published: 2022-11-02T15:45:03+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Nothing fuels revolution like hunger and hangings.

Old Earth Proverb

21, Tenth-Month, 513 NE – Apis, Temple

He’d sent the alarm to the priory as Minnar gathered his family for escape. Outside, looking for Gebbert’s sons, he sent another message, a warning of possible trouble. Then, at the barn, finding Rolden and Eric bound and gagged, two crossbowmen over them and Allen strolling toward Gebbert’s house with four more, he ordered the entire priory to town.

“This is not our wish, Prior,” said one of the guards.

“Did you hurt them?”

“Nay,” said the other. “Just bound them as Master Allen ordered.”

“Master Allen?”

“Aye.”

“Master of what?”

The two men looked at each other and then at the ground.

The two sons were tied back-to-back on the ground. The guards raised their cocked weapons. “We have orders,” one said.

“To kill me?”

“To shoot anyone who interferes with lawful orders.”

“I would check them,” said Lerer, gesturing to the boys. “Allen clobbered young Eric earlier tonight. Let me see to his wounds.”

The two shared a glance and then one of them reluctantly nodded.

Eric’s head was bleeding again. His hair was a mat of wet and hardening scabs. Over his cloth gag his eyes were full of accusation.

Lerer offered him a consoling smile, the best he could manage, and turned to Rolden. Like his brother’s, his eyes were big and accusing, angry and stern. Unlike his brother’s, they were not meant for him, but for the guards and their crossbows. He gnawed on his gag, sawing his teeth across it while pulling at the ropes binding his wrists. There was blood on them.

Shouts from the house. A crash.

Rolden kicked to get to his feet, but couldn’t.

Lerer could understand Rolden’s rage and also Eric’s indictment.

Recognizing one of the guards, Lerer said, “You are Jasper’s boy. How fares your father?”

“Better than most,” said the guard.

Lerer nodded. “No harm here,” he said, pointing to the hostages. “And take off the gags. I already know.”

As if in answer, a woman’s scream shook the night and a child cried an anguished response.

Jasper’s boy set his bow down and went to work on the gags.

Lerer left the barn.

He didn’t know all the townsfolk, not half of them really, a fraction by name, many by sight, but they all knew him and that was something. Perhaps that was enough.

He said a prayer in a language that had never been spoken on this world and went to the house. There were many men there now, a dozen on foot, more on horseback.

He could not see the future, but he knew enough of the past and the present to have guessed that this crisis moment was inevitable. Evolution he knew took two forms: there was the slow erosion of mountains by breeze and rain, steady and seasonal, that shaped gorges and valleys. And then there were sudden landslides and earthquakes when the world could hold its old shape no longer – not for an instant more – and whole continents would break and reform – mountains brought low, plains raised up. Like

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