The Toils (Book Two)

II. Bomb Lands

The Night Before

Lobard knocked back the last of his drink, throwing the empty bottle into the bushes, "either way, I want to sleep".
"No!", Thatcher cracked. "We sleep when we get home, for now, we're not fucking napping in the middle of a hostile territory".
Lobard quipped - "you tense, Thatcher?".
"The fuck do you think?", her voice quivered.
Neither man wished to prod her further, so they rode in silence.
The sound of their horses' hooves on the ground seemed to grow eerily louder.
"LOOK OUT!", Lobard shouted, leaving them no time to react as a volley of arrows swished through the trees, aimed right at their heads.
At once, the cacophony of noise became immediately unbearable, as shouts of warriors intermingled with horses whinnying from being hit by sharp arrowheads.
They thudded heavily as they hit the damp path, throwing Thatcher, Lobard, and Toff from their backs. Toff had no time to react as an arrow pierced through his eye, killing him instantly.
Drunk, Lobard swayed to his feet and drew his sword, but it was no use - they were surrounded.
"Put the weapons down, no one else needs to-", Thatcher started, but was cut off by a fist meeting her jaw. Like a ragdoll, she collapsed to the ground.
SCHLICK!
From behind Lobard, a woman with a sword had just shunted the blade through his back, piercing his heart.
Two men, three horses, dead.
Thatcher, still laying on the snow sodden path, gazed up at the people around her, ash faced, with painted thighs, the still didn't know if they were Settled or Settler.
"Dis doesn't need to go dis way!", Thatcher urged through her bloodied mouth.
BOOF! A fabric-wrapped foot kicked her square in the eye.
TWOFF! A second kick for good measure.
"WAIT!", the woman who had just killed Lobard cried out. "I don't think these are Noxa's people".
"Why?", the man overtop Thatcher asked with a snarl.
"Horses... their legs... think about it", the woman replied uncertainly.
"Noxa's group stopped painting their legs ages ago", he bit back.
"The horses, though".
"Even if they're not with Noxa, why're they this far south?", he eyed her lazily.
"I don't-", she stammered, before shutting up completely.
"I'b here to help you", Thatcher begged, "keep be alibe, and I can take you norf".
"Liar!", the man drew back his bow, an arrow tip less than two inches from Thatchers' eyes.
"Ikime, don't!", the woman threw herself over Lobards body and ran over to stand in front of Thatcher.
"Get out of the way", Ikime responded, growling rabidly.
"IKIME!", another man yelled from within the group.
Ikime stared into Thatchers rapidly swelling eyes, his pupils were mere dots in a pool of hazel.
"On your heads be it!", Ikime lowered his bow. With a huff, he stromped over Thatcher and into the bushes. "HURRY UP!", he shouted back to them.


"You killed two of my men", Thatcher spoke over the campfire to Asper.
Her mouth was still swollen, but not so much that it impacted her speech.
"You've gotta understand what those people had just been doing", Asper flitted her eyes over the fire to meet Thatchers' own.
"Tell me", Thatcher put dryly.
Asper took a deep breath - "there's a village, about four hours walk from here. They were bombing it".
"Bombing?", Thatcher knew the word, just not what it meant.
"This story comes in numerous parts... There's the part where we acquired weaponry unseen in this country for nigh on four hundred years... There's the part where we used those weapons to get an edge over Noxa and his group of thugs... There's the part where they took their revenge on us", Asper announced slowly, "what part do you want to hear first?".
"Let's just start with the basic facts, first, I don't wanna hear a story I ain't gonna understand", Thatcher looked at Asper cautiously.
"Ask a question, I'll answer it", Asper replied genially.
"Bombs, what are they, exactly, and how many do you have?".
"Walk with me, I'll explain it to you", Asper stood. She offered a hand for Thatcher to take, and slowly, Asper lifted Thatcher to her feet.
The camp was growing quieter as people slowly started making their way to bed.
"First we should start with how many; it makes more sense that way, to which, the answer, is more than a hundred. Bombs explode, causing untold damage. Should one go off up here, it would very likely cause an avalanche and kill us all", Asper spoke barely louder than a whisper as they passed tents.
"Right", Thatcher nodded, suddenly evermore fearful than she'd felt up till this point, "and Noxa?".
"Uh", Asper cocked her head amused, "Noxa... He's... a monster".
"Gotta be honest, today alone I've seen two of my close friends murdered by your gaggle of goons - I mean...", Thatcher trailed off, almost tripping on a snow-covered rock.
"Look", Asper stopped and faced Thatcher, "they were worried you guys had come from Noxa's group, that you were looking for them to kill them, and not nice, normal, killing. I'm talking skin pulled from flesh, fingers removed one by one... you can't possibly imagine it".
Asper continued walking past tents, leaving Thatcher to digest what she'd just heard as she followed.
They reached a large bivouac, clad in possum fur.
Asper ducked down and crawled into the small space, beckoning Thatcher to follow.
At the end of the tent, in a small hole in the ground, lay a large rucksack, filled with silver cubes of varying shapes and sizes.
"I keep them here so the kids won't play with them", Asper told Thatcher grimly.
The light from the fire was fading, given the distance, and Thatcher truly had to squint to see what she was looking at.
"Aren't they... fragile?", Thatcher asked quietly.
"Immensely. So it's important that no one else comes in here", Asper nodded.
"Is this why the sky's black?", Thatcher asked curiously.
"No, that's not... no", Asper shook her head, and Thatcher remembered what she'd discussed with the others about that coming from the north of Gossfordshire.
"What about the earthquakes?".
"These are destructive, but they don't make the ground shake", Asper continued shaking her head, before looking Thatcher deep in the eyes, "are you serious, about taking us north?".
"Yes", Thatcher put plainly.
"Then get some sleep, we've got talking to do", Asper pointed to a heap of blankets on the lefthand side of the bivouac.
"Where will you sleep?", Thatcher asked.
"I'm not sleeping, there's a watchtower, a half a K down the mount, I'll be on watch tonight".
"Watching over me?".
"Mostly watching to make sure Noxa's group don't walk through, but yeah, also you", Asper gave a look of suspicion, before ducking out the tent and strolling out of view, leaving Thatcher to untangle the grubby knot of blankets.