NOVEL FROG Chapter 41- Fair? What’s that?
Bullies never fight fair. I was numb, looking around at the brothers crowding in. They don’t. They cheat. They use your reliance on the rules against you. They use your fear and hope against you.
Bullies love games. It makes them powerful, and makes you weak. You keep thinking that, if only you play by the rules, you can win. You can be free of the bully. But that’s not how the game works. The house always wins.
The sons of Crusher Jim slowly pressed in. Enjoying my fear. Enjoying the thought of what they would do to Versai. A rare treat, no doubt, after an eternally repeating night.
They would probably tell themselves it was justified, that this was how things were meant to be. Maybe we were even the bad ones, cheating, trying to ruin their fun.
They were in arm’s reach now- the Lion, the Eagle, the Orca, the-
Where was the Wolf?!
I looked around frantically, but I didn’t see him.
“Nowhere to run, boy. Nowhere to hide.” The Eagle sounded excited. Eager for what was to come. I think he wished I would try to run. Daphnae filled the hall to the door. Some part of me had hoped she would at least look conflicted. She didn’t. If there was a Daphnae route, clearly I hadn’t gone down it.
There was no noise coming from the pit. Vinnie was apparently a non-factor, his role in tonight’s events was complete. Shame. He couldn’t have saved us, but it would have been nice to know someone could throw a punch for us.
“I think if you are going to not honor a bet, you better get your old man’s okay. It’s his place not yours!” I yelled, desperately hoping that something might stop them.
The Eagle sniggered. “He just wants to punch things. Crush things. He don’t care how we play with ‘em first. Noooo, you don’t want Dad to come up. No you do not.”
The Lion brother reached out a finger and traced it down Versai’s shield. It made an appalling screeching noise.
“Wonder what you look like behind that shield, Princess. Wonder if your armor comes off.”
“You won’t live to find out.”
“Heh. Live.”
I desperately tried to find another angle. Something to scare them off. And just where the hell was the Wolf?!
My eyes were darting around the bar trying to find- Daphnae was looking at the door next to the bar. Eyes wide. She looked… scared.
“You sure you won’t honor your debts?” I yelled at the Eagle brother.
“A debt is something someone owes me.” His smile was awful. “Let me show you how I collect.”
His hand shot towards my face, faster than I could see. Almost the last thing I ever saw- by the time I realized he had moved, his fingertips were touching my eyelashes. And he was making the strangest keening noise.
The Eagle brother collapsed slowly to his knees, clutching his groin. Standing behind him was the Wolf. The Wolf carefully kicked his brother, hard, right in the kidney. Nobody moved to stop him. Nobody said anything. Once he was certain the Eagle brother would be in no position to fight back, he waded in and started beating him in the face.
Huge fist after huge fist smashing down on the broken-winged eagle. Breaking his nose. His eyes swelled and turned purple in seconds. Cuts opened across his forehead and eyebrows, covering his face in fast running blood. Seconds later, his hunched over body was covered in yet more blood- the vicious eagle becoming a bloody victim on the floor of the Pit.
The Wolf wasn’t done with him. He started stomping him. Breaking his ankles. I could hear them snap. I could hear the screams. It was so silent. Nobody moved. Nobody said a word. I couldn’t understand it. They had seemed so united.
The door to the basement opened. Crusher Jim walked out of the darkness, and I knew why.
Standing in front of Crusher Jim was like standing at the foot of a skyscraper. Rationally, you knew it had a measurable height, a measurable weight, that it was ultimately a human construction and that compared to the vastness of the world, it was nothing. Invisible. But standing right there, lost in its shadow, you couldn’t believe that anything could be so big.
You couldn't believe that you could be so small.
The Wolf brother didn’t let up for a second. His punches got even more vicious. Breaking ribs now. Snapping fingers and crushing toes.
“That’s enough lad. That’s enough. You are a good brother. Always looking out for them. Spoiling them, really.”
“Dad, I’m handling it.”
“Yes. In your fashion.” He was light on his feet. It didn’t feel right, but Crusher Jim moved effortlessly across the room.
“Problem is, you boys haven’t been thinking. Not that I ever encouraged thinking, much, but still. At least understand what you are looking at. The point of this place isn’t us. It never was about us. It’s about them.” He pointed at me. “Watch.” He looked over at me. “You have questions. Ask them.”
“One of your sons, maybe him-” I pointed at the eagle brother shuddering on the floor, choking down his screams. “Was… romantically entangled with one of the Marchioness' maids. Sebastian believed that someone was pouring poison into the Marchioness' ear, and one of your boys would know who, or at least how it was happening.”
Jim nodded calmly. “She didn’t need any help to always do the wrong thing. Ap Gradden was a demon on the battlefield and a legendary fool with women. We all knew she was a wrong ‘un. Speak boy. You were having little Efa, weren’t you? What did you hear?”
The Eagle brother shouldn’t have been able to speak. His ribs were broken. He had taken repeated shots to the kidneys, the lungs, his guts. He had been kicked in the fork so hard, he’d never need to worry about child support. His nose was smashed almost perfectly flat against his face. Blinded from having his eyes swollen shut then covered with blood.
“Well, we weren’t anything serious, like.” His voice came out quite clearly. Everyone’s eyes widened in horror, as his face contorted in pain. He didn’t want to speak. He was being forced to speak, no matter what it did to his body.
“But yeah, I did hear a little something. The Reverend, the old hypocrite, ain’t who he used to be. Not leering at the maids no more, nor being free with his ‘ands. Spending an awful lot of time with her Ladyship, though. Feeding her lots of meat.”
There was a sniggering noise. It should have been an impossible sound to make with his nose so destroyed. His fingers dug into the floorboards as his back arched. Agony plain everywhere but in his voice.
“Only, literally, like. Even with all the shortages, they would get entire cows delivered to ‘em. Have to be washed down afterwards with bucket after bucket of water. Efa said, one time, she saw the Reverend with his shoes off. ‘Is feet looked like hands. Silliest thing she ever saw.”
I looked at Versai. The horror on her face… probably matched my own.
“Anything else? Anything at all?”
“Nah. Nothing about that. Loads of people having little accidents, loads of things left unreplaced or not repaired. Efa thought it was dead funny, what a little twit her Ladyship was. Reckoned she would watch a Marchioness get a thrashing when his Lordship got back. Looking forward to it, the little minx.”
“The defenses of the upper town were sabotaged too?”
“Don’t know anything about that. Probably, though.”
“Anything else?!”
“Not about that, nah. I think everything else went more or less how you know. Sebastian knew something was wrong with the Marchioness but all his people kept having accidents. The Madame at the Blue Roses saw everything was going to Hell, tried to get everyone to rally together. Put a lot of money into equipping people, most of whom ran off as soon as they got the gear. Reckon she knew it would happen too- didn’t do much to stop ‘em.”
“Then there was you.” I ground out. “The Bloody Pit.”
“Aye. Sebastian called by. Told us what was coming. I told him I didn’t work for free, and neither did my boys.” Jim’s voice moved like a glacier, leveling the conversation before him. “He asked if I’d be interested in a wager instead. Forty thousand guilders. More than this pit is worth, on a born loser winning. I was going to think about it, but a certain kid jumped in and agreed on my behalf, didn’t he?”
“Dad, you don’t-” The Wolf tried to speak up.
“We don’t fight for free, boy. That’s the rules. Sebastian played by the rules. Even this kid and his dolls played by the rules. Only one here trying to break the rules is my boys, and not even all of them.” Jim reached down and picked up the eagle brother. “Now, I know you will be back fresh as a daisy in just a few minutes, so let’s not have any silliness.”
I wish I didn’t see what happened next. I wish I didn’t know that humans could do that. Could survive that! Flesh, living flesh, still tied with nerves and blood vessels and wrapped in fat, pulled off the bone, scraped off with nails and rubbed into paste. I wish he didn’t make us watch!
He made all of us watch!
“Let that be a lesson to you all. You only get to break the rules when you make the rules. When your punch is heavy enough. And we don’t make the rules here. Not yet. And none of you are even trying. Do better.” The big man shook his head.
“You wanted equipment, the things others left behind? Daphnae, clear out the lost and found in the coat room. Throw in the prize chest too, why not.” He looked at me, hand black with blood, grease and organ meat. “The slip.”
My hands shook when I passed it over. Nobody cared, least of all Jim.
“Right. We’re square now. If I thought you had a fighter’s soul, I might have taught you a little boxing. But you don’t, so I won’t. Figure your own way out. The way out of my bar is through that door right there.” He pointed. “Scram.”
We walked. Daphnae jogged out from behind the bar, holding a couple large sacks and a small wooden chest. “If you see Madame, tell her I miss her.” Her lips barely moved as she spoke, pushing everything into my arms.
“We will.” I answered as we fled. Straight back to the Tower. It might not be safe there. It might not be homey. But after the horrors of the pit, I was desperately glad to be “home.”