Paladin of the Peaceful Lady

Chapter Six Too Late to Help

Drake was watching the forest, thinking about what Stuart had said about farmers seeing things in the trees. Jack was setting aside and organizing the candies he had bought and was expounding to his father which sibling got which piece and why, Drake was only half listening. They passed farmers in their fields at first close together but as they got further from town, they were spread out more and more.

The wagon had made it an hour out from town and hadn't passed a farm in a while when Drake noticed smoke coming from the farm he knew was around the next turn. "Looks like farmer Dale has started burning his winter cut despite the lack of rain" Jack looked up from his organizing and saw the smoke his father pointed out.

Dale was an old widower, he clung to his farm despite his years. He had a team of strong horses he used for tree hauling and would bunch the unused limbs into a great pile that he would usually burn in the wet of spring or fall. His house sat not far from the road and the pile was easily seen from the small hill that the road topped before going down into the lower end of the valley where Drake's farm lay.

As Drake came atop the hill, he looked towards the brush pile curious, usually Dale invited his neighbors over for the great fire, both to keep it in check and as an excuse for a community picnic. As he looked though, he noticed it wasn't the brush on fire, but it was Dale's house. He clicked Daisy into an urgent trot and sensing his unease the horse picked up the pace until she was just under a gallop.

"Stay here," Drake told Jack as he jumped from the still moving wagon and ran towards the house. As he got closer to the house, he saw the doors to the barn wide open and the horses nowhere in sight. He looked around the small yard and saw Dale's old dog lying on his side, there was blood pooling under him.

He came up to the front of the house, the blaze was hot as he came up to it, now standing in front of the door it was nearly unbearable. "Dale!" Drake yelled out above the roar of the flames. He ran around the side of the house, as he came around to the back, he noticed several things at once. First the back door of the house was open, second, he saw Dale on the ground between three men he didn't recognize. Two of the men were armed with small bludgeons and the third had a short sword. They rose up from where they had been crouching over Dale as Drake rounded the corner.

"Well, you're a biggun aincha?" said the one with the sword. "we'll make quick work of you, get im boys."

The two with the bludgeons, overcoming their surprise lunged forward at Drake, weapons raised. Drake cursed inwardly for forgetting his staff, he acted on instinct rather than conscious thought. He took three quick steps to his left, now instead of facing him head on, one of the bandits was behind the other as they came towards him. Drake crouched slightly, readying himself, as the first man came on, he waited until he was just a few paces away, then Drake surged into motion his old life taking over his movements. Surprised the man started his swing too late, Drakes left hand caught the small man's wrist mid swing while his right hand came across and caught the man on the side of the head, he felt a crunch under his knuckles when his hand connected. He hadn't meant to hit him that hard, but the man slumped lifeless, his wrist still held by Drakes left hand. Drake let go and caught the bludgeon in his right hand as the bandit's fingers opened on their own. Caught by the brutality of his companion's death the second man checked himself, that was his mistake. Before he could recover, Drake covered the short distance between them and brought the bludgeon down in a massive overhand swing. The man brought his arms up to protect himself, but it did no good, the bludgeon in Drake's strong grip cracked into the man's forearm and continued down, he felt the man's arm break as he screamed, but the scream cut off as the bludgeon connected with his skull and he too slumped down like his friend, dead. Taking an instinctive sidestep Drake quickly focused his attention to the third man with the short sword. He needn't have worried though, the man's jaw was agape as he stared wide eyed at the large man who had just ended his companions in the same amount of time someone might have split a large log for firewood, and it seemed just as easy.