Knox of the Bloom

Chapter 11: The Eyes of the Gods

Knox let Col finish daubing the ointment on and stood up. Eriu tried to fight him in this, but he was having none of it. It's only so often that your hero comes back from the dead, and he could feel the strength come back to him as he met Hornbeard near the hut. He and the Five were speaking about how best to deal with the bodies.

Together they made their way to the ceremonial hut, where Old Sister was sat on her throne, the bodies of women and children littered about on the floor around her.

"These people died for nothing," said Clay-Jug.

"They were avenged. And will be. That White-Fang was lucky he escaped with his life." Flint-Blade rubbed a cut on his cheek. "I left him with a nice parting gift though."

"He cut his fucking arm off," nodded Jug.

"Good," said Hornbeard. He looked up at the smoking roof, and at the ash covered bodies, at his sister's body sitting on the throne she had ruled over for nameless years. "It will be a start."

Only one man had survived from Old Sister's clan. He was sat outside, staring off into the air, lost. Hornbeard placed his hand on the young man's shoulder.

"What's your name, lad?" asked Hornbeard.

The man didn't seem to hear him.

Hornbeard crouched down in front of him and gave the young man a nod. "What happened shouldn't have happened. I lost many clansmen of my own, including a good friend, Marrow, who that coward White-Fang beheaded and pretended it was me. So you listen to me, lad, we'll get our revenge on Fang and the rest of them bastards, my brother especially."

"Your brother?" the young man asked.

"Aye, he sent men to help Fang try to kill me. Me and these two here barely escaped with our lives. So you stay with us and we'll take care of you. You're one of us now."

"My name's Clell."

"A strong name, means descendant of the wolf family. Right?"

Clell simply nodded.

"Well you're a wolf now, Clell, and wolves hunt together." Hornbeard stood up and offered Clell his hand. The man took it and got onto his feet, giving Knox a nod as he walked by.

"Right!" shouted Hornbeard, gathering the men around him. "There's a few fuckers running off through these trees and we need to find them!" Hornbeard gave them all a sweep of his eye. "Are ye ready to hunt some fuckers down?"

The crowd cheered as one, and then moved to the gate to hunt down what was left of the attacking force.

Knox and Tapa stayed behind, with Hornbeard and Tapa, the Five went with the crowd, besides Bronze-Shield, who was Hornbeard's right hand man and never left his side.

Knox took a look around at what was left of the village. It would be abandoned now, nothing but the burnt timbers of the buildings and the bleached bones to speak of the people who had once called this home.

But that was the way of it with fighting, Knox supposed, there were never any winners.

Not truly.

*

The enemy was hunted through the mountains, and White-Fang was caught in the western passes, hunted down by the Five like the mutt of a dog he was. They brought him back to Hornbeard's camp, where Knox watched him being questioned.

"Why did you turn on me?" shouted Hornbeard, smacking Fang across the face once more, blood splattering across the floor of his hall. The crowd watching was silent, a few dozen of the Red-Pine clan had stayed around to make sure no more harm came to Hornbeard and the handful of warriors he had left.