Chapter 2

One week later.

Firefox awoke the next day on cold flagstones, muscles sore from doing all the worst chores in the fortress. He let out a groan, which elicited some laughter from the fire raisers hanging around the dining hall. However, he heard slapping noises close to his mat and upon opening his eyes found that a few wineskins had been tossed to him. He picked one up, raising it in a toast to the group of men it had come from, and took a sip. Despite routine hazing, he had found the fire raisers didn't hold any ill will toward newcomers. We'll have to stick around longer for them to really hate us. He thought.

"I see you've made some friends." Anzio's voice was cold and quiet next to him. Anzio hadn't been quite so readily accepted among the fire raisers as the Piper and Firefox, and had adopted a surly mood lately that he refused to talk about.

"Suppose so." Firefox replied, confused at the tone. "Where's Ivo?"

"Singing for Capricorn. The sod apparently thought applying to be his personal little canary would be a good way to 'prove himself.'" His friend said sourly.

"Good for him." Firefox stretched, stood up, and went off to find some breakfast, leaving Anzio behind. Firefox met up with the Piper in the courtyard and they went into the kitchen together to get some food. They joined a group of men eating who more or less accepted them and were rewarded with reasonable amounts of friendliness. Anzio eventually came over and sat with them, to slightly less greeting and enthusiasm, not letting them know about the emotions stirring and stewing in his heart.

After breakfast, the Piper gave his plate to a maid and headed into the forest to practice with the lyre Capricorn had given him. He'd had a few years of lessons back home, but he hadn't brought one with to the fortress. Almost as soon as he'd found a spot and started playing, he heard a rustle in the bushes.

"Who's there?" he called, turning around. A feminine giggle came from the shadows, and then a maid with black hair and a mischievous face stepped out smirking with pouty pink lips.

"Me." She said, as if it was obvious.

"Who are you?" the Piper asked in bewilderment. "Am I needed back at the fortress?"

The young woman shrugged. "How the hell should I know? I'm Roxane. I'm new here, too." She giggled again. "I've been kept in the maid's wing being the other girls' personal servant, but I saw you leaving from the window and…I just love music." She twisted some hair around her finger. "I sing, myself. Would you play for me?"

"Oh." He replied. "Well, I'm sort of rusty on the lyre, which is why I came all the way out here to practice…alone." He couldn't help but add.

"Please?" she was really pretty…the Piper had never had much luck with girls…maybe this was a chance for a fresh start.

"Well…okay…" he started playing and sang a simple song as she sat down right next to him and began to softly sing along.

"You're a good singer." He said awkwardly when he'd finished.

"You too." She slid closer, until their thighs were touching. He laughed nervously and his voice cracked. She laughed and kissed him. After a moment of surprise, the Piper kissed back.

Basta slowly ran his knife up and down a piece of leather to sharpen it, admiring the scraping sound it produced. It took him a second to realize that the new guy, Firefox, was standing near him. He gestured for him to sit.

"So, what's your story?" Basta asked.

"What do you mean?" Firefox clearly felt a little uneasy talking to him; a sign of respect, Basta concluded.

"Did you have a fight with mommy, steal a loaf of bread, or what? What made you desperate enough for somewhere to go that you'd come here? And without a sword between the three of you, no less." He said condescendingly.

"Um…" the redhead's eyes darkened, and he said "It's my fault. Iv—the Piper and Anzio just came along because they hated our town as much as I did."

"What'd you do?" Basta put the knife down, turning to Firefox with curiosity.

"I don't want to talk about it." He said quietly. He started to get up, but Basta pulled him back down.

"You want to know what I did?" he asked. Firefox looked at him questioningly, so he continued, "I was ten when Capricorn picked me up. This was before he hit the big time and got this place; he was still wandering around the countryside living off the peasants." He took a deep breath, remembering the day as perfectly as if it were about to be shown in a flashback. "It was market day in the town of Montecida…"

Basta would have killed to be allowed to die. The village stocks were chafing his neck and wrists, and the crowd had been throwing eggs at him all morning. Yolk was in his hair, eyes, even dribbling into his mouth as shells splattered on and around his head.

"Witch! Witch! Witch!" the cry had become a distant, repetitive roaring in his ears after two days up here. Somewhere behind him, he knew they were building a pyre around a stake, where he would be burned alive in a matter of hours.

Basta's mother stood outside of the crowd, wailing for all she was worth. His family was prone to public displays. His mother was always crying about something. His father had been an abusive sod who often made a show of beating his son in his yard when he'd had too much to drink. And Basta, of course, had screamed, "I hope you die!" at his father just before he dropped dead of liver failure. Hence, the imprisonment and impending execution.

Basta was too lost in misery and self pity to notice the crowd had gone silent and was parting for someone. It wasn't until the stock was opened and he dropped, exhausted, to the ground that he noticed something was going on.

"Are you all right?" he looked up toward the voice and saw a man of about twenty standing over him, eclipsing the sun.

"No. What's it look like?" he asked, trying to maintain his surliness.

The man chuckled. "Oh, I like you. All right, come with me. We'll get you cleaned up." He watched Basta try to walk, and finally picked him up. Basta let himself relax and leaned his head on the man's chest, getting egg yolk on his shirt. He could see the crowd been parted by men with swords and smiled.

"Sorry I got egg on you, mister." He murmured as he began to lose consciousness.

"Don't worry about it. What's your name?"

"Basta."

"My name is Capricorn." The name was the last thing he heard as he blacked out.

"You're a witch?" Firefox asked in wonderment.

"No. It was the old man's bad luck." Basta said, fingering his good luck charms. "Just bad luck." He shook himself. "Anyway, what I'm saying is, everyone here did something they thought was unspeakable." He pointed to a man across the courtyard. "Flatnose there like to take small animals apart. He gave me this, in fact." He gestured to his rabbit's foot. "And Cockerell, he drowned three people. Slasher like to skin men alive and make clothes out of them; he's wonderful at sewing. Even made a saddle and bridle for his horse once. And speaking of horses, they caught Pony fucking one." Firefox was looking a little spooked, so Basta didn't go on. "My point is, if you've done something worse than what I've said, it's something to brag about. And if you didn't, no one here will think it's bad."

Firefox laughed suddenly, but immediately looked guilty for it. "I tried to force a girl back at my village." He blurted out. "You know…force?"

"Ah. Yeah, I know. Well, that's about a medium, I would say. Good for you, you're average!" Basta stood up and said, "Hope I helped," before walking away.

As the Piper stumbled into Capricorn's chamber after a shellshocking makeout session and the unexpected (but not unwelcome) loss of his virginity, he noticed he was looking at a table covered in ashes. He looked around the room and jumped when he saw a Night Mare crouched in the corner.

"Ah, Piper. I see you've discovered my little experiment." Capricorn said as he came through the door. "Don't worry, it's quite harmless. It's had only ashes to eat for weeks, so it doesn't have the strength to hurt a fly."

"Why—why are you keeping it in here?"

"In a few days I'm going to perform a spell of obedience which will bind this creature to my will, and only mine, for the rest of my life. Imagine the spectacle it will be at executions, when my shadow suddenly comes alive and devours the condemned!" Capricorn giggled with delight. "Now, before you play some more of your delightful music, I have one other task for you."

"What's that?" the Piper repressed a shiver. Would this task have anything to do with that thing?

"There is a gang rival to ours you may have heard about that's set up shop just past the Lombrican border, and we are in the process of negotiating a treaty deciding the borders of our respective territories. I need you and Firefox to bring the signed copy of the treaty to their headquarters to be signed by their leader."

"What about Anzio?"

"He's away on a little side project he asked to go on leave for. Don't ask me." Capricorn said at his nonplussed expression.

"If you don't mind me asking," the Piper said, hurriedly pushing the odd revelation out of his mind, "are we actually going to follow this treaty?" the Piper asked.

"Oh my, no. Just a formality."

"I see."