The Chronicle of the Worthy Son

The Blockade

The rain had passed, and the cloudless morning sky promised a warm day, so Able decided to get a look at the blockade before he lost track of time in stacks of paper. The pedestrian traffic thinned when he reached the north end of town, and the people that remained quickened their pace when they crossed the blockaded road, though not without sneaking glimpses of the goings-on. Able turned onto this road and followed it into the square.

It seemed the enforcers had commandeered the surrounding area. Able passed an inn with the tall steppe coursers in the yard and several homes with red quiltcoats hanging on the lines. Up ahead, two dozen lawmen formed a line before the blockade with long-guns at rest. That gave Able pause, but he continued his stride until he got a good view of the barricade.

Poetically constructed from the wreckage of the town, the hodgepodge shelter of broken and charred wood occupied the entire length of the road. Loose paving stones littered the space between the barricade and the guard, perhaps after serving as ammunition. Able could not guess how many people were huddled within the makeshift structure, but periodically a face would poke above the boards to glance about and prove there were still people within. Had it protected any of them from the rain last night?

"Oi! Chronicler!" a woman called from behind Able.

He looked back at the inn to spot that woman enforcer, the one Capstone called Green, waving at him. She glanced about then started towards him. She was carrying a bowl of what looked like mostly eaten porridge, and her quiltcoat was mostly unlaced and hanging from her hips. Her bare arms glistened with a sheen of sweat and her damp shirt...wasn't leaving much to the imagination. Fortunately, he pulled his gaze back up to her face before she had closed the distance between them.

She grinned. "Thought you'd been scared off."

"No, but the Sheriff made it clear I'm not to come to Adeptsby until he's gotten confirmation from my superior at the university that I am who I say I am. He didn't say anything about Aimsby, though, so I'm here combing through the documents of the late Dagobari government."

"Aha. Find anything exciting?" And she took a mouthful of food.

"Not much. If it were an exciting job, more people would do it."

"Might find some more excitement if you hang around here." Her grin was wry this time. "But might not as well. We thought they'd surrender when we brought out the long-guns, but...let's just say Aimsby is special."

"I was surprised to see those." He looked at the row of firearms again. This might be the closest he had ever been to one. "I would have thought them saved for use against heavy cavalry?"

"Oh, I don't think anyone expects we'll actually be using—oh, am I misunderstanding? You're more wondering why we have them when the Bors don't have anything like a heavy cavalry?"

"That's right."

"Aha!" Now her grin was...appreciative, perhaps? "Well, I'm pretty sure the ones we have are leftover from the war, and since we're not short on any other fronts, they haven't been called back—and likely won't be as they're an old model. But they make excellent shock weapons in cases like this."

"I don't suppose any went missing during Kettlebrook?"

"Long-guns? Oh, no. Oh, thank God, no!" She laughed without humor and rubbed her eyes. "No, the powder there was for charges—strictly for construction purposes."

"All right." He said this casually, though he shared her sentiments. "So what happens here now, since they haven't surrendered?"

"Not sure." She blew tired air. "We were going to offer terms again today, since they've been in there without food or water for two days now, but then they got plenty of water last night. We doubled the watch because the guns were useless in the rain and our eyes not much better. But then, maybe they got cold and sick in there? I don't know. I know Tanner wants to hold the line until the Resistance shows up, but I don't think they will." So Tanner was still here, then.