The Incorruptibles

The Incorruptibles Read Free Page B

Book: The Incorruptibles Read Free
Author: John Hornor Jacobs
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Banty said. ‘Cornelius himself was smitten with her.’
    Cimbri raised a hand as if to cuff him. Then stopped and lowered his hand. ‘Mr Bantam.’ His whiskers quivered with outrage. ‘You don’t talk about our charge in that manner.’
    Banty ducked his head and covered his ears.
    I felt a tad sorry for the boy, so ungainly and over-eager. A damned deadly pup with a Hellfire pistol. I said, ‘I heard the same thing too, but that’s just camp talk. If there was someone they were touting as stretcher pussy, must’ve been a tall whore they tricked out to look vaettir , but she weren’t no vaettir .’
    ‘How could you know that?’
    ‘Don’t argue with him, boy, green as you are,’ Cimbri said.
    ‘Just want to know how he could know that.’
    Fisk shifted and stirred the fire with a branch, his leg sticking out at an angle. ‘Ain’t no vaettir woman gonna allow herself to be touched, not to mention fucked, by some Ruman. Highborn or not.’
    ‘How do you know this?’
    ‘Look around you, pup.’ He took a long pull on the whiskey, then shoved it at the boy and waited until he’d taken a swallow. ‘This is a big land. But it ain’t big enough for man and stretcher to live side by side and never conflict.’ He spat. ‘They don’t age, the stretchers. They don’t change. They’re proud. They’ll skin you alive. They’ll fuck their own sister, or mother, or brother. They ain’t got no laws nor decency, as far as I can tell. When you’re never gonna die except through violence, why worry about salvation or morality or whatnot? Huh? They’d spill your blood for pleasure, and slaughter your Ia-damned children …’ He stopped there, swallowed, and, passing a hand over his eyes, shook his head. I didn’t have to guess what he was thinking.
    I stood up, went to my saddlebags, and took the satchel of meat I’d sliced from the aurochs. I returned to the fire, opened the scorched piece of leather – my outrider’s kitchen – and began prepping the livers and tongues for roasting. I had some salt I’d won in a card game, a small onion. Sweetgrass and winterfat grew thick in these parts, too. I crushed the sweetgrass, sliced the onion, and then flayed open two livers and stuffed them with the spice and herbs.
    Finally, Fisk said, ‘No. No vaettir woman would ever let you stick your cock in her and make a half-breed. She’d kill you first.’
    ‘She might try.’ Banty chuckled.
    ‘She would . Stretcher women are as fearsome as the men. More, if you count their terrible beauty. You’ve never seen how they move. It’s like light, or daemonfire . Wouldn’t be no trying .’
    Banty closed his mouth then.
    I had the livers on spits and crackling in the fire. Cimbri stood up.
    ‘You said it was a message.’
    Fisk nodded, his face seemingly devoid of pain or drunkenness as he stared into the flames.
    ‘What is it?’
    ‘Pretty simple, really.’ He took a last drag of his smoke and flicked it away, making a little red falling star which cut through the night. A lascar near the johnboats raised his head at the tracer, his breath pluming in the air. ‘You harvest these aurochs, we’ll harvest you . Not because they give a shit about the animals. But because they like games. They’re bored. And tormenting is their favourite sport.’
    Cimbri blinked, then stood there for a while, thinking. Finally, he snapped his fingers, and a lascar went to the johnboat to prepare for the ride back to the Cornelian .
    ‘Might need you to talk to Cornelius. He’s quite leathered right now and who knows what mischief he’s up to. They spotted a mama bear on the western shore this afternoon and now he’s a tad excited about his hunt tomorrow. Rest and we’ll send a relief in the morning. Sharbo and Horehound, most like.’
    He strode to the boat, hopped in, and the lascar shoved them into the waters of the Big Rill. The rain beaded and pattered on the sailors’ oiled jackets, down their cowls. In the distance,

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