Fearless Warrior: Isaacson Trilogy Book Two

4

The last man to die by Ulric's hand fell to the wet dirt with a weighty 'thunk.' A startled look froze upon his face, and broken twigs protruded from his right side. Esmund's muscles shrank to their normal state and size, and the muted colors became vibrant as he looked around at the mayhem they had caused. Birds chattering songs soon filled the sky, raising the question of whether they had even stopped in the first place.

Esmund pulled his blood-drenched shirt away with a grimace and let it plop against his torso. He muttered a curse and turned his attention to the mutilated dead men. "Why do these situations always happen when there isn't a river or lake nearby?"

Ulric grinned wide, the first genuine smile Esmund had seen on his brother's face for a week. "I'm pretty sure you ask that every time."

"That's because every time we get into these situations, there's nowhere close by to wash up."

"I'll be sure to plan the next one near a river, just for you."

Letting out a heavy sigh, Esmund turned his attention to the dead men. "We should probably figure out if they were McCreedy gang members or just a bunch of idiots causing trouble."

"Let's just say they're idiots and leave it at that," Ulric murmured, walking up to the first corpse. He rolled the body onto its back with a nudge of his toe and curled his lips in disgust. "This one's Gus Huckleberry. I'd recognize his face anywhere."

A short burst of laughter escaped Esmund. "No, you wouldn't. He's so ugly that his face is never used on his wanted posters."

Ulric snorted and settled his hands on his hips. "True, but we ran into him three or four months ago in Boulder Lake. I'm pretty sure he got this scar on his cheek after getting too physical with those two doves."

Esmund's brow creased for a moment, smoothing when he grinned and said, "How did I forget about Tildy?" He waggled his eyebrows as he said, "She tried to compromise me three times after my show of muscle, you know—she might have even succeeded if my self-control wasn't as mighty as Zeus. Who was the other one?"

Ulric smirked, "Starlicia Moonshine. Makes you wonder how she came up with that name."

"Why didn't we arrest him?"

"I think by the time we figured out who he was," Ulric said with a shrug of his left shoulder as he moved to the next body, "he'd already skedaddled out of town."

They searched the other six bodies and were able to identify four more as McCreedy gang members without too much difficulty. Still, the damage was too excessive to the remaining two faces, so they looked for other distinguishing features.

Esmund knelt and began searching through bloody coat pockets, grumbling when he found nothing. Seconds later, he smiled as he pushed the outlaw's sleeves up to the elbow. Esmund whistled to Ulric and held the outlaw's right wrist up to show the birthmark resembling a strawberry. "Isn't it Cock-eyed Bart who has this?"

"Yep," Ulric grunted as he stood and pointed to the corpse he'd been searching. "And this one's Two-fingered Liam." Suddenly, his brow creased, and he turned in a slow circle, tilting his head to the side. "Do you hear that?"

Esmund frowned and listened. It sounded like a wounded animal crying out in pain. He turned in a slow circle as he tried to discern the direction of the noise.

"Eeoourphue...ungh...oh no, my dress!"

"Is that Elsie?" His eyes widened, and he took a few steps toward where they'd left her. "I can't believe we forgot all about her."

"I can. These last ten minutes have been the most peaceful out of the past four hours of my day so far."

She groaned.