The woman's breath hitched in her throat. For a split second, she was frozen, staring up at the golden giant in the moonlight. Then, she screamed.
The sound shattered the quiet of the woods.
From the brush behind her, a rough voice barked a laugh. "She's down! Get her!"
A man burst through the treeline, his chest bare, his eyes wide and manic. He didn't even notice the armored figure in the shadows. He lunged, reaching for the woman's matted hair.
Aldric stepped out. He didn't draw his blade. He drove the heavy, steel-banded scabbard of his greatsword upward.
Crack.
The impact caught the raider flush under the jaw. Bone splintered. The man's feet left the ground, and he crashed into the dirt, entirely limp.
Three more men broke through the foliage.
Aldric didn't wait for them to process the giant in their path. He closed the distance in a single, fluid stride. He reversed his grip, bringing the heavy pommel down on the second man's temple. A dull thud echoed, and the man folded.
The third raider, realizing the danger, roared and swung a rusted wood-axe at Aldric's neck.
Aldric ducked the wild swing. He stepped into the man's guard, driving a gauntleted fist into his solar plexus. The air rushed from the raider's lungs in a violent wheeze. Before the man could fall, Aldric delivered a brutal uppercut, snapping his head back.
The fourth man stopped dead. He looked at his three comrades, bleeding and broken in the dirt. He looked at the golden armor glinting in the moonlight. He turned and bolted.
He made it three strides before his foot caught a submerged root. He pitched forward, slamming face-first into the trunk of an oak, and slid into the brush.
Silence returned to the forest, save for the groans of the raider with the shattered jaw.
Aldric lowered his sword. He walked over to Kevin, who had rushed forward and was kneeling beside the trembling woman.
"It's safe," Aldric said, his voice a low rumble. "Tell us what happened."
The woman looked from Aldric to the nearest groaning bandit. A sudden, terrifying shift came over her. She scrambled away from Kevin, her hands desperately searching the dirt until her fingers closed around a heavy, jagged stone.
With a guttural shriek, she threw herself onto the bandit. She brought the stone down on his face. Again. And again.
Kevin started to stand, reaching out to stop her. Aldric caught the boy by the shoulder, his grip iron-tight, holding him in place.
Aldric watched in silence as the dull, wet thuds echoed in the dark. Only when the man's face was an unrecognizable ruin did the woman finally drop the stone, collapsing over the corpse in hysterical, gasping sobs.
When her tears subsided into dry heaves, she crawled toward Aldric, clutching at his steel greaves.
"My lord," she begged, her voice raw. "Please. My friends. They have them in the woods!"
"Pirates?" Aldric asked. "Are you from the village on the coast?"
She froze, looking up at him. "Is there... is anyone left?"
Aldric shook his head.
The light died in her eyes. Her grip on his armor loosened, and she slumped back into the dirt like a puppet with its strings cut.
Seconds ticked by. Then, a ragged breath shuddered through her chest. She forced herself upright. "Please. They are just ahead. By the riverbank."
"How many?" Aldric asked.
"Three. They stayed behind to guard the prisoners."
Aldric tapped his fingers against his hilt. "Then these men here are of no use to me."
He stepped over to the second bandit—the one recovering from the pommel strike. Aldric planted his armored boot heavily on the man's hand, grinding the steel heel into the knuckles until the man shrieked and writhed awake.
Aldric leaned down, his face a mask of shadow. "There is a village fifteen leagues from here. The people are slaughtered. Was that your crew?"
The bandit's eyes darted to the pulped face of his companion. "No... I..."
Aldric shifted his weight onto the boot. Bones cracked.
"Answer properly," Aldric commanded. "The last man didn't satisfy me."
"Yes!" the bandit screamed, thrashing in the dirt. "It was Cowens! He ordered it! He said leave no one to talk!"
"Are you the leader?"
"No! Cowens is at the camp!"
"Good enough."
Aldric drew his hunting dagger. In one smooth motion, he drew the edge across the man's throat. The bandit clawed at his neck, blood bubbling through his fingers, until he choked on his own lifeblood and stilled.
Aldric stood, wiping the blade on the dead man's tunic. He felt a cold hollow in his chest, an absolute detachment from the violence he had just committed. Hesitation here meant death.
He sheathed the dagger and looked at his squire.
"Kevin. Take my sword."
Kevin stared at the blade. "Ser?"
"Cut off their heads. Bring them."
Kevin's face went completely pale. "Cut... their heads?"
"You chop fish heads well enough," Aldric said, his voice flat and unforgiving. "These won't struggle. Do it."
The last unconscious bandit stirred, groaning as he pushed himself up on his elbows. Seeing the carnage, he scrambled to his feet and lunged for the dark safety of the trees.
Aldric shifted his stance. He drew the Serpent's Striker and hurled it like a javelin.
The blade took the fleeing man directly between the shoulder blades, pinning him to the earth. Aldric walked over, pulled the sword free, and with a single, brutal downward chop, severed the man's head from his shoulders.
He held up the dripping blade. "Like that. One clean stroke."
Kevin swallowed thickly. The boy drew his own cheap steel sword. His hands shook violently as he approached the first unconscious raider. He closed his eyes, raised the blade, and swung.
It took three messy hacks before the deed was done. By the time Kevin finished the other two, he was covered in blood and gasping for air.
"Clean your steel as soon as we find water," Aldric instructed, taking the grisly trophies. "Blood left on a blade invites rust."
Aldric tied the four severed heads together by their greasy hair and hung the macabre cluster from his heavy leather belt. Standing in the dappled moonlight, cloaked in steel and adorned with the faces of dead men, he looked like a nightmare made flesh.
Even Claire, the rescued girl, shuddered, wondering if she had simply traded one monster for another. But as she looked at the lifeless eyes of the men who had ruined her home, a cold sense of safety washed over her.
"Lead the way," Aldric told her.
As they crept through the forest, Aldric kept his voice low. "Who are you?"
"Claire," she whispered. "Just a farmer's daughter. Our village didn't even have a name."
"Who holds the lands here?"
"We belong to House Hornwood," Claire explained, her voice trembling as she navigated the roots. "But we pay our dried fish and shells to Master Rodney. He keeps the keep at Redstone and protects the coast."
"A landed knight?" Aldric asked.
Kevin leaned in. "Ser, Northmen keep the Old Gods. They don't take vows in a sept, so they aren't anointed knights. They are masters or lords."
Aldric nodded, filing the information away. "Go on, Claire."
She told them of the peddler who had come selling nets two days prior, only to return that night guiding a longship of pirates. They butchered the men, took the grain, and dragged the young women into the woods.
"This morning, they split up," Claire whispered. "The main force marched inland. Only seven stayed behind by the water source. When they were drinking, we tried to run. Only I made it."
She stopped, pointing a trembling finger through the thick brush.
Up ahead, through a break in the trees, the faint orange glow of a campfire flickered against a massive, twisting weirwood tree.
"Hide here," Aldric commanded Claire. "Do not move until I call your name."
He turned to his squire. Kevin's hands were still tightly gripping his bloodied sword.
"Kevin," Aldric whispered. "Stay behind me. When I hit the camp, block the escape paths. Do not let a single one of them run."
Kevin nodded, the naive boy of Splitwater replaced by a hardened, grim-faced survivor. "Yes, Ser."