carl@fire

Tully was a…

Well, he was a brigand now if he was honest with himself. He and the small band he'd gathered over the years made their living by waylaying travelers who passed along the wrong part of the royal roadways at the wrong time. They'd been doing it for long enough that they'd gotten quite skilled.

Skill was the most difficult part. A brigand had to have a method in order to be successful.

Would they pretend to be some traveler in need of assistance, luring others into an ambush?

Would they create a blockade and demand a toll to permit crossings?

And, of course, would they kill those travelers they preyed upon or simply rob them?

These were all questions that Tully and his crew had considered and argued about over the years. One of the women in the group, Bele, was reasonably attractive, and she was adept at playing the damsel in distress role. It was an option, and it worked fairly well, but Tully had grown tired of it some years ago.

It was too predictable. How would a woman like Bele even come to be stranded in such a location? Anyone who considered the matter was likely to arrive at the correct conclusion and not stop. Or, worse yet, attack her. Tully held no special affection for Bele, but she was a member of the crew, and he wasn't about to carelessly dwindle their number.

Tolls were a stupid idea. They'd attempted it once, and a platoon of soldiers had coincidentally ridden through immediately after, destroying their constructed barricades and chasing them through the forest for long enough that they'd almost given themselves up. A sudden rainstorm had saved them, but at some cost; to a one they'd caught some virulent, lingering illness and had been unable to provide for their families in the nearby township of Cokumworth for several weeks.

Killing travelers, though, that was the truly contentious issue. Leaving alive those they'd robbed ensured that their activities would be reported to local militias and perhaps even the army, which was not a good thing. Conversely, killing those they'd stolen from removed that risk but left most of them with guilty consciences. They were just trying to survive, not end lives.

Well, most of them. Linyeve had no conscience, and she seemed to mostly be tagging along for the fun of it. Tully appreciated the help, but the Goddesses could take her sooner than later for all he cared. She was too wild, and sometimes she refused to follow orders.

Tully had a certain strategy he preferred to use these days. It was realistic, it had a low chance of being found out by those who saw it, and it was easy enough to play off as genuine if he had a bad feeling about the person or people he'd stopped.

Tully and his crew would ride on a well-lit, covered wagon out along the road at night, then remove one of the wheels, replacing it with an obviously-broken one. Then they'd simply wait around. There was no need for much in the way of weapons and armor even, as they could simply choose to not engage anyone who looked too tough to handle with a few swords and daggers along with the advantage of numbers.

"I think we've got someone," Tully called into the opening by his head.

His crew was stationed inside the back of the wagon, hidden by its covering. He stood outside, posing as a merchant who was examining his recently-broken wagon.

"What seems to be the problem, sir?" hailed a man's voice from behind him.

Tully turned around, affecting an expression of surprise.

Another vehicle had drawn up some distance away. A black-haired, clean-shaven young man who was perhaps in his early twenties was driving, and seated next to him was a girl with a cloak drawn up around herself and over her head, exposing only her very pretty face.

The last part was not relevant to Tully. They weren't that sort of criminal, no matter how Linyeye complained about it. He reckoned that time serving in the army gave a person strange thoughts if she was anything to go by.

"Ah, my thanks for stopping!" Tully called. "It's my wagon, you see? The wheel has broken, leaving me stranded out here."

The travelers' horse-drawn wagon moved a little closer. "So it would seem," the man said, his tone casual. "How…"

Tully continued with the plan. He spun a tale—the same one he tended to use—of how he'd been making haste to return home from a nearby town where he'd gone to trade, having received news by courier that his wife had grown deathly ill. He was decent enough at playing the part, and the other carriage closed in even more while he spoke. When it got close enough, Tully reached back and tapped the side of his wagon twice.

His crew rushed out and took their practiced positions, blocking the horses and surrounding the carriage. Linyeve was dramatically licking the knife she always carried in the same, creepy way that she always did, despite how Tully had repeatedly told her not to do anything that would further frighten people and cause them to become unpredictable.

"Surrender your coin and your valuables, and you won't be harmed," Tully recited.

"And the girl," Linyeve added, edging towards that side of the carriage.

"Ignore her," Tully said, squeezing the bridge of his nose. "Linyeve, no touching unless I say so."

"She's a long-ear!" Linyeve protested. "I can smell it on her!"

"Lawrence," the girl on the carriage called in a happy, sing-song voice, "should I—"

"No, we discussed this, didn't we?" the man whose name was apparently Lawrence said in a gentle voice while turning to face her. He looked back at Tully. "My apologies, I didn't mean to interrupt. Please continue."

Tully's eyes narrowed. This wasn't the typical behavior of those they stopped. He reassessed the man. He dressed well, but not too well, had no jewellery visible, had a clean shearing of his beard with no visible stubble, and Tully might even have described him as nondescript if asked. But he seemed far too calm given the current situation.

Tully was confused. This sort of thing had never happened before in his years of roadway banditry. "Uh, that was it," he said slowly. "You're surrounded with nowhere to go, and we're robbing you—like I said."

The pretty-faced girl's mouth opened again, but the dark-haired youth patted her on her leg and she closed it.

"If I were to give you a thousand coins," the youth said, "that would last you a while, wouldn't it?"

Tully considered it. That was roughly what a farmer might make in a year. It was a good amount to take in a single night, but there were ten members of Tully's band. That meant it was only a hundred coins each.

"That wouldn't be enough, would it," the youth said, stroking his right eyebrow as he seemed to arrive at the same conclusion. "No, how about ten thousand?"

Ten thousand coins?

Tully's eyes widened. That was a lot of coins, and it was a big jump up from the mere thousand he'd been offered a moment earlier. If the offer could increase that much, then surely there would be more where that came from!

The young man on the wagon sighed. "You remind me of myself."

The statement gave Tully pause. He was forty three years old. How did he remind this boy of himself?

That was when Linyeve's recklessness made itself known. "Look!" she shouted as she lunged in and grasped the cloak which covered the girl on the wagon and yanked. The cloak came free, revealing what was indeed an incredibly beautiful long-eared devil with a red dress and pink hair.

Who wore no collar.

Tully gasped.

"Oh no, Lawrence!" the devil called out, feeling around at her neck. "You told me not to let anyone take that off! I—"

The young man on the carriage patted her leg again, and she stopped talking. He fixed Tully with an unsettling gaze. "A hundred thousand coins for you to leave now and forget everything you saw. Last offer."

Tully swallowed. It was a good offer. A great offer, the more he considered it. But…

"Don't be an idiot, Tully!" Linyeve called. "We could sell the long-ear for a hundred times that amount!"

Tully stared at the long-eared devil. She had no collar, which meant she didn't belong to anyone. That meant she would be easy to sell.

And she was undeniably beautiful, Tully thought as his eyes moved from her face down along her almost absurdly curvy body.

The young man sitting on the carriage waved his hand casually at Tully, as though dismissing the idea. "I'm not interested in anything complicated. Take the coins and we can all be on our way."

Tully had a wife he cared for, but he couldn't stop staring at the long-eared devil. He wanted her. He needed her.

And he could have her, too. His wife would never know, and then he could stop working for the rest of his life with the coin he'd make from the sale.

"I don't think I want the coin," Tully said.

The young man—the boy, Tully reconsidered—sitting on the carriage waved his hand again. "I'm sure you do. It's good coin, I promise. Not counterfeit in the slightest. I'll even let you—"

Linyeve stepped forward again, her arm outstretched to pull the long-eared devil from her seat, and Lawrence waved his hand slightly at Tully once more. "We don't want your—" She finished with a gurgle, clutching at her throat where a black handle had sprouted.

Tully froze.

The boy didn't blink or even look over, continuing to stare at Tully as Linyeve fell to the ground clutching at the knife in her throat. "I recognize the look. You've set your mind to it," he said, nodding. He waved his right hand, and a trio of knives appeared. A fourth one flipped lazily across from his left hand. "You know, a lot can be done with mirrors," he said abruptly.

Tully blinked at the sudden change in topic. Mirrors?

The boy casually tossed his non-knife-holding left hand into the air, and it was then that Tully realized that the boy's right hand, which had most certainly been holding the knives a moment ago, was now empty.

There was a series of thuds, and the four members of Tully's group who had been stationed to the rear and the sides of the wagon fell over without making even a scream. The closest he could see, Sherm, had the hilt of one of those same knives sticking out of the top of his skull.

"How many did I get on your side?" the boy asked, looking briefly to the pink-haired long-eared devil sitting next to him. "I can't see the reflection properly."

She looked around the side of the wagon. "Two!" she reported back, beaming at him. "Can I—"

"No, and please stop asking," Lawrence said, shaking his head. "And put your cloak back on. You're too noticeable without it."

"Okay!" the long-eared devil climbed out the side of the wagon.

Lawrence stood up in his seat.

Tully and the rest of his crew edged backwards. He was strongly regretting not taking the offer of even a thousand coins at this moment.

"This isn't what I do," Lawrence said, holding up his left hand and walking a knife along the back of it, "but I've always thought it pays to be cautious. You've seen her now, and it doesn't seem like you're the cautious type like me. I'm sure you understand."

Tully gulped. He suddenly felt like perhaps he and this Lawrence fellow were in related professions.

Bele, standing next to him, turned to run. A knife protruded from her ear before she even finished turning. She fell to the ground, unmoving.

"M-maybe we can still work something out," Tully tried as he slowly backed towards his own wagon. He'd seemed perfectly willing to discuss and bargain previously, hadn't he?

Lawrence frowned and patted his jacketed chest. "Six isn't enough if I'm out of the city," he muttered.

Six wasn't enough? He'd thrown six knives… Was he out of weapons?

Lawrence didn't seem to be out of weapons, however. He withdrew a small wand from his sleeve. "I had wanted to save this," he said, "but—"

"I put it back on!" the long-eared devil called, smiling happily. "Will you pleeaaase fuck me now? I'm ready, I swear!"

Lawrence sighed, and his shoulders slumped. "I really need to figure out a name," he muttered.

Tully caught sight of something approaching at an incredible speed from past Lawrence's wagon. Few things traveled at such a speed. In fact, he'd never seen something moving so swiftly.

But there was only one thing he could imagine which might move that fast.

It must be a vehicle for carrying officers from the army. Linyeve had spun tales which seemed too fantastical to believe, a number of which had mentioned the speed at which the Charus Kingdom's army and Heroes were able to travel.

Tully started waving his arms over his head. "Help!" he called. "Help!"

Lawrence raised the wand and a short beam shot out, striking one of Tully's companions—a man by the name of Brot, who had only been with them in an attempt to provide for his and his brother's combined nine children—and causing him to turn to ash.

Tully waved harder, and the vehicle finally came into view. Immediately, it was upon them. The steamcar, painted a shade of light green as he could see in the light of the lantern hanging off his own wagon, contained a bear of a man drenched in blood.

And that man was clutching a headless, bloody corpse with bite marks around the neck. The vehicle slowed slightly as it curved around the wagons in the road.

Tully met the driver's eyes.

The man's beard was red with the dried blood of the body that he'd obviously been eating while he drove. He didn't slow down further, instead accelerating and disappearing into the distance in an instant.

Tully felt his control over his bladder loosen just as Lawrence's wand came up again, turning the remaining two members of his crew to ash. He fell to his knees, shuddering.

"What do you think of the name Mirielda?" Lawrence called over his shoulder.

"Is that my name? I love it!" the long-eared devil squealed girlishly. "I really, really need—"

"We've talked about this, Mirielda," Lawrence said. "I'm not interested in a slave."

The long-eared devil had come up behind him and was pressing herself against his back, running her hands all over his body. "I'm not a slave, Lawrence," she said, her voice still happy. "Slavery is wrong! But I am yours, aren't I? Just let me suck—"

"Don't make me put you back in the bag," Lawrence interrupted.

"Noooo!" the long-eared devil shrieked. "I don't want to go back in there! It's so cold and dark!"

"I knew it!" Lawrence exclaimed, turning his head around. "So you do still have things you want!"

The long-eared devil wrenched his head around and dragged him into a deep kiss that seemed as if it would have gone on for a long while if Lawrence hadn't pushed her away almost immediately. "I have one thing I reaaally want right now," she said seductively.

"Um," Tully said, feeling that now perhaps there might be a chance that he might be able to leave since this Lawrence fellow seemed considerably less upset.

Lawrence pressed his free hand to his face and let out an exasperated breath. "My apologies. I wasn't trying to be cruel, but she's very distracting."

The long-eared devil reached around his front and began massaging his crotch with both hands while she licked his ear. "At least let me put my collar back on," she said breathily.

"Stop that," Lawrence said, batting her hands away.

Suddenly, Tully knew no more.