CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
MASTER AND SERVANT
“You useless bloody ape!” Rend yelled, his hoof connecting with Cray’s jaw and sending him sprawling on the ground. “I gave you one task, one simple damned task, and you can’t even do that right!”
Cray could feel blood pooling in his mouth and spat it out on the snow. “I’m sorry, Lord Rend. I did my best.”
The thestral brought his muzzle close Cray’s face, his voice a menacing whisper, slowly emphasising each word, “It… wasn’t… good… enough!”
Rend viciously pushed Cray back into the snow and stalked off, wincing as his wound reminded him that it hadn’t fully healed yet. He slammed down on his haunches regardless and growled low to himself. That stupid human fool! How had he allowed this to happen? He’d found the witch, brought the humans to her with that carefully concocted story, and the rest should have been as natural as water flowing downhill. What the hell had gone wrong? He’d thought of everything! He’d been betrayed; he must have been. It was that damned Thorn, it had to be.
“Why is she still alive, Cray?” Rend snarled. “Why didn’t they kill the witch when they had her in their dirty little claws?”
Cray bowed low in the snowy ground. “Lord Rend, it was the gang boss, Chert. He persuaded the others to take them into the village.”
“What for? For what purpose?”
“They intend for the lord's men to deal with them.”
“And what do think he will do with them, Cray? You know these people far better than I.”
Cray sat up. “They will execute them, my lord.”
“You don’t know that for certain! How could you? You said they’d do that when they found the bitch princess in the damned shack!” Rend stomped a hoof, his rage peaking. “They will probably kill the monkey, but as for Celestia, they may well take her back with them and exhibit her as some sort of freak!”
“But they will kill her nonetheless, Lord Rend, and the goddess will be pleased, will she not?” Cray asked, his face half-buried in the snow.
The young warrior let out a heavy breath and opened his pack. “And just how are we going to know for certain they’ve done it? Do you think they’ll nail her head to a post for us to see? Even if they do, when? I’ve had my fill of this cesspool. I want her dead, I want her head, and I want to get out of here!” Too fearful to move, Cray stayed where he was. “Oh, get up, human! Your constant grovelling irritates me. Act like a damned stallion for once.”
“Yes, Lord Rend.”
Rend rolled his eyes and began to pack the pieces of bamboo with the black powder he’d managed to salvage from the wagon. The traitor’s cowardly attack hadn’t been as accomplished as he must have thought. The blast, as large as it had been, had thrown two of the barrels of powder clear and off into a snow drift, singed but unbroken. Additional powder, pouches of metal balls, and a considerable length of slow-burning rope-type material had been recovered from the dead, not to mention a quantity of those ‘guns’.
This cold was beginning to get to him. The fact that he was in an alien land was bad enough, but it was taking all his survival skills just to stay alive. He missed the company of other thestrals as well. The human, as weak as he was, was better than nothing. It was a pity that all the spineless weasel could do was grovel. By the moon, why couldn’t he show just a little spine? In his homeland, leaders became leaders because they defeated their superiors. The weak and feeble were quickly weeded out, either by battle or left at home as nothing more than servants and breeding stock. Rend intended to find a mate once the war was over in Equestria, and he could then settle down, raise a foal, and become so much more than he had become. Success in war meant a stronger mate, and a strong mate meant strong foals. In thestral society, successful breeding brought status and power, something that many young thestrals like him dreamed of.
Rend fumbled with the bottle around his neck, checking the contents. He shook his mane angrily. He was running low. He’d had to ply the human with it to make him more servile, but now the hopeless creature kept grovelling for more. There had to be the raw ingredients here in this land, or something similar that he could use surely? Worryingly, when he hadn’t taken haj for a length of time, he could black out as the withdrawal symptoms took him. Sometimes hours, even whole days would be unaccounted for. Since he’d been taught the secret of the forbidden powder, he’d made sure to always have a decent quantity of it on hoof. Now, though, he’d have to think of something else. There had to be something…
“Human?”
“Yes, Lord?”
“Do you know where we can find herbs, spices, elements of the healer’s trade?”
Cray scratched his chin in thought. “There’s Nasta’s down in the village, but that’s crawling with Chert’s men now. But… Rush, he was a healer. His mother taught the two of them. There could be something up at his house, if it hasn’t been ransacked yet.”
Unlikely, Rend thought wryly. These humans were a very superstitious lot, prone to huddling together when frightened, like cattle. He smiled to himself. This could be it!
“Well, what you waiting for? Get your gear, and let's see what we can find in the home of our friend Rush, shall we?”
*************************
The house was a wreck. The door had been left open, and wind and snow had blown freely through the building, scattering what hadn’t already been upended or smashed by the vengeful villagers. Cray stopped and took in the scene. The sad remnants of a man’s home, all that he had owned in this world, lay in ruin around him. Had he been the cause of this… this destruction? Lord Rend had explained why they had to find the witch, why they had to deal with Rush the way they had. Now he was facing execution. Cray shook his head angrily, trying to dispel the doubts that were beginning to blossom in his mind. All of this was of Rush’s own making, all because he’d been harbouring that evil creature. Thank the gods that Lord Rend had had the foresight to give him the powder to subdue the witch’s cursed magic!
What Cray couldn’t understand though was why. Why had Rush done those terrible things? He didn’t want to have to do what he did, but Rush had become corrupted by her, and the gods knew what the two had been doing up here in the forest… alone. He shuddered. Standing in here, in this cold empty place, made his blood run cold.
“What’s taking so long? Cray? What are you doing in there?”
Rend’s voice echoed around the cold room. He hated confined spaces and had decided to wait outside for Cray to conduct his search. The blacksmith pulled his winter coat tighter around him, supplementing it with some more clothing, blankets, and an embroidered blue blanket he’d found stuffed in the rafters. That would make a fine bedding roll. The rest of the house yielded little, other than regular household items: brushes, pans, a kettle.
There was a crack under his foot as a floorboard gave way, startling him. A splinter caught in his ankle, and Cray hissed in annoyance, sitting down to pull the painful thing out. As he reached down, he saw something hidden in the dark recess beneath the broken floorboard. Intrigued, he pulled at the loose wood, finding it came away surprisingly easily. For some reason, it hadn’t been nailed down like the rest. He peered inside. There, in the darkness, his questing fingers found something… a small pouch secreted away in the corner. Was it gold? Coin?
Hurriedly, Cray extracted the bag and untied it, dumping the contents into his large hand. The box sat there, small, bland… uninteresting.
“What’s that?” Rend called, peering in through the open door.
Cray jumped, dropping the box into the snow. “I don’t know, my lord. It's a box of some kind. I can’t seem to open it.”
“Well, bring it along if you must, but keep looking for what we came for. I don’t want to be here any longer than we have to. This place feels wrong to me. It stinks of Celestian.”
Eventually, Cray re-emerged from the building, dumping the items he’d found into the small cart. The largest by far was the large medicine chest. That caught Rend’s attention immediately, and he quickly opened some of the drawers, muttering to himself and finally nodding his approval.
“Yes… good, good. Most of what we need is here. I’ll need some bark shavings, but I’m sure I’ll find something similar to those we have in the Purple Sands.”
“Purple Sands?”
Rend lifted an eyebrow. “Where I’m from, human, my home. A place very different from this.” He looked about himself at the wooden house, the snow, the forest, and lifted his gaze to the sky. “This is not my home…”
Cray remained silent. He’d never seen the thestral like this before, so…human. Maybe he wasn’t so different to this warrior of the moon goddess after all.
As they trudged away, Cray glanced back over his shoulder. It was a relief to get away from that house and its memories. At least now he’d be able to concentrate on helping Lord Rend make more of the haj. He wasn’t sure whether it was the cold weather, the terrible feeling he had from being inside Rush’s home, or something else, but by the gods, he couldn’t stop shaking. All he wanted right now was a little more of that marvellous powder from the goddess, just a little, that was all. Then the world, his worries about his family, what he had done—it would all disappear once again in that blissful sea of calm.
Back at the camp, Rend began to work on the bamboo tubes once more. Cray sat nearby, watching in fascination as the thestral used his teeth and hooves to measure powder, pack material in the top, seal it with heated tree resin, and insert a length of the cord that they’d recovered.
Rend noticed him watching and raised an eyebrow. “Wondering what these are for?” Cray nodded. “I’ve decided to have a little... insurance. Just in case things don’t work out the way I’d like them to.” Rend laughed. “Think of them as gifts, Cray, for your old friends.”
The young thestral scratched his mane. It hadn’t been washed in weeks, but no matter. When all this was over, he’d be bathing in the witch’s blood and be able to stand before the goddess of the moon as she showered him with her love and praise at his good work. His last plan hadn’t quite worked out as he’d hoped. Rend hadn’t been fit enough to fight the Celestian witch head on, rather hoping the villagers would have charged in and killed her in his stead. She would have taken a lot of them down with her, of course, but she was confined and had that human with her as well. He furrowed his brow. There was some connection there between those two, but he couldn’t quite put his hoof on it.
Finishing the last one, Rend sat back, rubbing his forelegs together for warmth. The cloak really was a nice addition, even it did stink of Celestian. The goddess wouldn’t mind, surely? A thought suddenly struck him. He could present it to her with the head of the witch! Rend grinned to himself. It was all coming together, piece by piece. The box was interesting as well, undoubtedly Equestrian in design. The writing on it was unfamiliar, but the carving of the moon and the sleeping ponies was probably a representation of the moon goddess. The other side was… her. Whatever this thing was, he couldn’t get it open. No amount of forcing had even so much as marked its surface, suggesting some sort of foul Celestian sorcery. He placed it to one side. It was probably no more than a sentimental trinket box, unimportant to him, but... not to them. Rend lifted it in his hoof, staring at it intently before shrugging and dumping it in his pannier.
Cray sat nearby, the sound of the pestle and mortar surprisingly loud in the silence of the forest. Rend scratched his chin. Celestia's human, this Rush, was more likely to be a puppet of the witch princess as much as Thorn was. In fact, just as much as Cray was to him. These humans were so easily manipulated, it was almost a shame to slay them. Still, it was so easy! And they really did taste quite delicious. When all this was over, maybe he’d have one last meal before the goddess took him home. He watched Cray as he ground the herbs as he’d instructed him to.
Rend had thought of killing and eating the blacksmith several times, but he’d proved surprisingly useful so far. He smiled to himself, a plan beginning to formulate in his mind. Taking a quick huff of the powder around his neck, he sighed loudly. Yes, he had plans for that human, and the rest of them in that village… interesting plans. Rend grinned.
“Soon,” he whispered to the sky. “Soon.”