Chapter 105: Book 2: Chapter 9 (Part 1 of 2)

Well, the battle wasn’t entirely complete. There was still mopping up we had to do.

But by the time we’d finished with Gertie Jenson and cleared all the other rooms in this wing of the building, then it was essentially over.

The squads following LT soon had spread throughout the rest of the school complex and killed or incapacitated any remaining defenders. We would have to keep a watch out for groups returning from their faux encirclement of Ionia, though.

Although with any luck, Shana and Jackson would have galvanised the fighters of Ionia to move out of the town limits and handle them for us.

Inside the assembly hall that Danny and his team had secured we found the children. Lots of them. Almost fifty, in fact. Which was far more than I’d anticipated, and Danny and his people seemed to be struggling to corral the more mobile young ones as they defiantly ran rampant around the hall, filling the room with a cacophony of screeching noise.

“Fucking Nora,” I swore.

“Bojemoi!” Anastasia added at the same time.

A quick scan of the room confirmed what I should have suspected. All but a handful of the kids, who were sitting quietly in the corner apart from the others, were related to the Jenson clan. The group in the corner who wasn’t, thankfully included Susan Trilby’s daughters, Lily and Bonnie.

“Captain,” Danny the ogre rumbled in a deep gravelly voice when he spotted me walk into the hall. “These snot-nosed runts won’t listen to a word we say. Even after we bashed in the heads of a couple of the guards and the mothers ain’t doing shit to calm them down, neither.”

“Mothers?”

Danny pointed to another corner of the room where there was a gaggle of garishly dressed women under guard. They were middle-aged, or looked it at any rate, and had lit cigarettes hanging from their lips. They watched the chaos with practised disinterest.

“How much notoriety do you think we’d get if we put the lot of them in the dungeon?” I asked only half-jokingly as one of the little shits ran up and threw a blue plastic toy train at me before running off cackling wildly.

<Children can’t enter dungeons> Quixbix responded unnecessarily.

“And Shana would be pissed if you did,” Anastasia added.

“I know,” I sighed. “Let’s see how bad this is.”

I walked over to the group of women who started whispering to one another as I approached.

“Are you the head asshole in charge?” A shrewish dyed redhead cawed as I stopped in front of them. I registered that her name was Tina.

The other five closed in tight behind her and glowered at me with contempt. It would seem they had picked Tina as their de facto representative. Their abrasive attitude quickly convinced me that appealing to their better natures would be a waste of time.

Threats and intimidation would have to suffice.

“Indeed,” I replied. “And I’m a busy asshole. So, you’d best listen up. Gertie’s dead. The rest of the clan along with her or they soon will be. As far as I’m concerned, you’re of no use to me. And I don’t waste my valuable time on useless shit. You get one chance to play ball. Exert some control over your rowdy brood and maybe you won’t have to find out how big of an asshole I can be.”

Tina took a long drag from her cigarette and blew the smoke in my face. “So…Aunt Gertie’s gone, huh? Nobody’s gonna cry about that overbearing bitch being deaded. Don’t see why we should help the fucker who up and killed our menfolk, though. Whatcha gonna do? Kill kids? You ain’t got the balls, pretty boy.”

It would appear they were too thick to understand the gravity of the situation. I decided not to bother with any further threats and intimidation, there was a simpler solution which required less effort. Without another word I turned on my heel and walked back over to Danny and Ana who still loitered by the door.

“That’s what I thought, a fucking pussy,” Tina sneeringly called at my back.

“Danny,” I said, addressing the ogre. “Have your squad escort those kids in the corner to the ship…” I pointed out the group that included Susan Trilby’s daughters “…and put them in my reception cabin on the upper deck. Carry them if you have to. Be quick about it.”

Danny nodded thoughtfully and started bellowing orders over the din created by the Jenson rabble to the rest of his men.

Two minutes later, and with the important personages removed, I slammed the large double doors of the assembly hall shut. I’d had somebody retrieve the chain and lock from the smashed in entrance and used it to lock the hall up, nice and tight. With the Jenson problem still inside.

Once the doors closed Tina and her bevvy of harpies caught wind of what I was up to and raced over banging on the doors demanding I let them out this instant. Screaming that I couldn’t do this and making some rather inventive threats about what they would do to my genitalia.

To be honest, I was rather glad they’d decided to be offensive. I didn’t want them in Stormblade Harbour, and this made the decision to leave them behind all the easier. They would be left to stew, locked up in the hall until tomorrow when we were ready to leave.

Still, I knew I wouldn’t be able to leave the Jenson kids completely at the mercy of the creatures running loose, even if they were aggravating little oiks. We’d take them a little way downriver to a small town called Boston and dump them there.

With that sorted, I got the next step of the plan rolling.

Fifty of our people under LT’s supervision went east down the M21 to Pewamo. They would finish off the final Jenson stronghold and return to Muir in the morning. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew busied themselves rounding up the collared and transporting the supplies and booty the Jenson’s had been storing here in the school back to the ship.

About an hour later, most of that work was done and I sent a squad back to Lyons to bring Susan Trilby and the enslaved Lyons townsfolk up to Muir. It was time for Susan to pay the piper.

 

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Anastasia and I awaited their arrival on Marena’s Mercy where I planned on a bit of showmanship. First things first, we sealed the cabin on the top deck where Susan’s daughters were idling the time away with a few other children the Jenson’s had taken prisoner.

We had managed to match the other children to their mothers amongst the Jenson’s slaves and left them inside the cabin as well to make sure everyone was looked after while they were sealed up.

Susan broke from the Lyons group when they got within sight of the ship and practically sprinted up the gangplank onto the deck. “My children? Where are they? You said you’d reunite me with my daughters,” she gasped, concern etched on her features.

“Calm down, will you,” Anastasia drawled and rolled her eyes. “Your girls are fine.”

“You don’t have children, do you?” Susan snapped angrily at her.

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“No, and never will,” Ana retorted with a smug smirk.

I put my hands in the air to forestall any further quarrelling between the two.

“Ana, lead the indentured down below and load them into the cells. Wait for me before we send them on their way.”

Anastasia gave me a half-assed salute and then skipped over to the gangplank and commanded the enslaved Lyons townsfolk to make their way up and then to follow her into the bowels of the ship.

“Susan,” I said, addressing the former mayor after the train of people trooped by us. “My offer was to reunite you with your daughters after you did me a favour. That favour is still owed.”

“I want to see them first,” Susan demanded, but her lower lip quivered, betraying her uncertainty.

I held all the cards, and she knew it.

“No. You have my word that they are well, and you will see them soon.”

For a moment it seemed as if she would argue with me further, but then her eyes welled with tears before she wiped them away and took a deep breath, refocusing herself.

“Straight afterwards, though?” she said.

“Not quite,” I answered, and she looked panicked. “Let me show you what I mean.”

By now the first group of people who had been brought up from Lyons had followed Anastasia down below. I took Susan by her shoulders and gently guided her down to the Brig.

When we arrived, Anastasia, at my behest, closed one of the cells which held roughly twenty people and activated the harmonic plexus node. With a loud pop, the twenty people in the cell vanished, transported instantly back to the pens in Stormblade Harbour. We’d been sending back every collared person that we hadn’t required on site.

Susan stepped back in shock; her hand covering her mouth. “What just happened? Did you just kill those people?”

“No, they aren’t dead. They’ve been sent back to my base of operations, Stormblade Harbour,” I explained. “And this is why once your favour is done you won’t be able to see your daughters right away. We’ve already sent them back to my base,” I lied smoothly. “Where they are perfectly safe, might I add.”

“What? Why? Why did you send them away?” Susan cried, her voice rising a few octaves in distress.

I’d felt this display of deceit was necessary to impress upon Susan the ramifications of trying to screw me over. If she knew the truth, she might be tempted to do something regrettable, thinking that she could seize the ship and free her girls using the sentinels that would be at her disposal.

Believing they were a hundred or more miles away in an unknown location, would discourage such foolishness. Not to mention that reuniting them early after she had played her part ought to engender some gratitude.

“Come with me and I’ll explain what I need from you as we head into town.” I gestured to the door of the brig, and Susan, with one last look at the cells, complied with my request and walked out.

I remained silent as we disembarked from the ship and strolled briskly back into town. There were no applicable civic buildings in Muir that weren’t near the outskirts of the small town, so the podium had been placed in a tree-shaded patch of open grass in the centre of the town a little bit to the south of the school. LT’s force had passed by and secured it during our initial assault.

“Susan,” I started. “The favour I require from you is both simple and important. We will soon be at the podium for Muir. I need you to claim the town, create your own faction and set it as Law-Abiding. Me and my people will have to withdraw from the town as you do this, and it will likely take several hours. That is the simple part.

“Once the town is yours and the faction created, the Framework will offer you a fairy companion as the faction leader. You will accept this offer and all that it entails.”

Susan stared at me in bemusement. “What?”

“You’ll understand what I mean when it happens. Don’t worry, this won’t harm you in any way. I have something similar, an imp called Quixbix who advises me. Apart from him being a bit of a smartass…”

<I can hear you; you know> he grumped.

“…he’s been mostly helpful.”

I decided to leave Quixbix’s rather bloodthirsty urgings out of the explanation for simplicity’s sake.

The podium was just up ahead of us, and I started to feel that jittery anticipatory excitement of a plan coming to fruition.

  “Anyway Susan,” I continued. “When you have the fairy, you will come back the way we’ve just come and meet me at the Maple River bridge. There you will complete your task for me by ceding control of the Muir settlement to my faction, the Shattered Storm. At which point, you will be transported to your daughters.”

Susan couldn’t help letting slip a hopeful, yet fearful, smile. She stepped away from me eager to get started with claiming the town. I caught hold of her wrist and pulled her back in front of me, startling her. She looked up at my tall powerful frame with sudden uncertainty.

“One last thing. The fairy’s name is Quinntexxis. Once you have bonded there is a good chance Quinn will strive to convince you not to hand over the settlement to me. Ignore her. She may make promises and implore you to deploy resources that will be at your command. Perhaps to try and hold me to ransom or negotiate a trade for your daughters.

“Let me be clear. Although I may want what Quinn, and by extension, you have to offer, I do not need it. There will be no negotiation. If you do anything other than coming straight to me and ceding the town we will leave, and you’ll never see your daughters again.”

Susan trembled as my words washed over her. “This is why you chose me, isn’t it? Because you had leverage over me.”

“Yes,” I told her simply, but then elaborated. “I’m not a needlessly cruel bastard, Susan. Despite what you might be thinking of me. I’m not some hackneyed villain that coerces people by threatening their loved ones with no intention of ever giving them back. Do as I’ve ordered, and you’ll have your family back in Stormblade Harbour. You can stay or go as you please, after that.”

Susan Trilby sighed deeply with resignation and nodded her head. I released my grip on her wrist and sprinted for the town limits. There was no need to prolong this any longer than necessary. I’d already been forced to remove the mouthy Jenson mothers from the school as their presence would have inhibited the claiming process.

Although we left the children in the school, it would be safer for the rambunctious little shits in there. I didn’t want to have to put up with them but wasn’t quite ready to throw them to the wolves.

Quixbix had advised me that due to the short period of time that the Jenson’s had held Muir and because Susan held a noble class, Baroness, it should only take a few hours for the change in ownership to complete. Provided none of the surviving Jenson clan members set foot within the town limits during the changeover.

To see that eventuality off, twenty of the crew had been positioned on the highway to the northwest of the town. The most likely ingress point for any returnees from the Ionia patrols.

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