Friday, December 23, 2016

Vol 7: Tales of Vengeance, Book I: Winter of the Wolf, Chapters 3 & 4



Chapter 3: A Wolf in the Fold

Once they were back inside Soissons, Jacques suggested a drink to celebrate their second victory over the wolves and the group returned to the Two Saints Tavern for drinks and a hot meal. While Jacques oversaw ordering a flock of chickens for roasting, Norbert and Mel went to the Market to meet Yvette. After the drinks and snacks at the tavern, Norbert was late and he had become concerned that the daylight wolf attacks would make the trip too dangerous for Yvette. In turn, Yvette was worried that the people at the farm where she lived would worry if she didn’t return and she was concerned that they may even go out looking for her in the dark. Norbert persuaded Yvette to stay in town, telling her that he would go to the farm to tell the family that she was staying in town. But once they returned to the tavern and Norbert had arranged for a private room for Yvette, the sun was beginning to set. Jacques warned Norbert that his horse was not yet recovered from its wounds. So Norbert told Yvette that he wouldn’t be going to bring word to the farm tonight. Upset, she began crying and went to her room without eating. Norbert ordered Mel to stay outside her room as a guard. Claude asked “Who’s gonna get the girl’s meal?” He then volunteered to eat Yvette’s chicken so that it would not go to waste.


After dinner, Father Signoret returned to the Cathedral Rectory. Brother Crispin told him that the townspeople believed that Soissons had been cursed and that they blamed Governor Labrousse. Signoret asked why. The monk told the Jesuit that the governor was infamous for his cruelty, rapaciousness, and lust. He frequently has had his way with attractive young local women. Last year, the beautiful daughter of a woodsman was coveted by the Governor but she resisted his advances and badly scratched his face. In revenge he had her put out of the town on a cold night shoeless and naked – “since she has the manners of a wild beast, she should run with the beasts.” When her father protested, he was struck down by the Governor’s guards then shackled and publicly whipped in the town square. The Governor instructed that the town walls be locked and that none should aid the maiden on penalty of death. And so she disappeared into the night. Her father was imprisoned in the dungeon beneath the Chateau. The townspeople never saw the woodsman again and believe that both he and his daughter are dead. 


In the middle of the night, Father Signoret was awakened by shouts and pounding at the rectory door. He hurriedly dressed and went to the door where he learned that Lieutenant Trudeau, the commander of the Governor’s guards, had been attacked in his bedroom and that he needed a priest and a healer. Father Signoret and Brother Crispin hurried to the guard barracks. There they found Trudeau murdered, the room sprayed with blood and his throat torn away as if by the huge claws of a bear. Examining the scene, Signoret learned that the heavy bar to the outside door had been snapped in two and the door to the bedroom had been shattered into a hundred of pieces. Trudeau had fired both his pistols before his throat was torn out. Signoret found a bloody claw print on the door jamb at the height of a tall man’s hand, and a strange clawed footprint in blood in the hall and again on the ground outside, but the frozen ground did not easily show prints and he could not follow the beast any farther. 


Gaston and the Red Guards arrived. They had been informed of the attack on Lieutenant Trudeau. Gaston took charge of the Town Guards ordering them armed and patrols, led by his Red Guards, to check the walls and gates. One of the patrols returned with news that a wall sentry had been murdered. They went to the site where they found the guard had been decapitated and eviscerated. Outside the wall, near where the guard was killed, Father Signoret found the same strange clawed footprints in the snow both coming and going. Gaston led a patrol so the Jesuit could follow the tracks. Signoret found that after about a hundred yards the strange prints joined a group of half a dozen wolf tracks and both sets of tracks continued towards the hills southwest of Soissons.





The next day, Father Signoret suggested that they try to follow the beast tracks to its lair before it snowed. Gaston informed him that although he had given the Town Guards orders last night in an emergency, he did not have the authority to command them and that he would need Governor Labrousse’s permission and authorization. Therefore Gaston gathered his force, had them brush off their red tabards, mount their horses, and ride to the Governor’s Chateau. With a squad of the Cardinal’s elegantly dressed Red Guards at his back and a Jesuit Priest next to him, his threat to have the guards arrested and hung for treason unless they immediately admitted the party resulted in prompt action—the gates were opened. 


Inside, Gaston, Signoret, Norbert, and Jacques were admitted to the Governor’s hall. Labrousse was seated on a throne-like chair. Along the sides of the hall stood eight guards armed with musket and halberd. Standing on either side of the Governor were his brother Armand, a noted duelist, and his silent, hulking servitor, Odo. As they had agreed, Father Signoret did most of the talking while Gaston, flanked by Norbert and Jacques, added a mixture of gravitas and menace. 


Signoret told Governor de Labrousse of the recent wolf activities, including the death of Lieutenant Trudeau. Then the Jesuit suggested that Gaston be placed in command of the Town Guard to combat the menace of the creature and its wolves. In response, Armand de Labrousse glanced meaningfully at Gaston as he whispered something to his brother the Governor, who agreed to appoint Gaston to a temporary command, but he vehemently insisted that the unusual wolf creature be captured alive so that he could determine the source of its vital energy. 


Signoret warned Labrousse that the wolf creature had already killed several people, but the Governor airily replied that “The lives of peasants and commoners are of little matter compared to the chance of increasing human knowledge.” His words and manner led the Jesuit to conclude that the Governor was some sort of demented alchemist in search of the vital essence and possibly the elixir of life itself. 


Gaston said “Their lives matter to the dead…excellency.” But even this did not dissuade Labrousse from his desire and in the end Gaston accepted the appointment and agreed he would do his best to capture the creature alive.


With the Governor’s authorization in hand, Gaston ordered both the Red Guards and the Soissons Town Guards to prepare for a wolf hunt at first light. He ordered the town blacksmith to construct a stout iron cage to hold the beast. Jacques offered to help the blacksmith. With orders given and preparations begun, Gaston and Father Signoret mounted their horses and used the remaining daylight to follow the tracks from the previous night to a cave in the hills southwest of Soissons. They returned to town well before sunset and finished making their plans for the next day’s hunt which would begin after Sunday mass.





Chapter 4: Trail of the Wolf


While Jacques and the blacksmith worked throughout the night to forge a stout cage for the beast, others slept. But Mel got little sleep. At Norbert’s orders he was once again bedding down in the hall outside the door to Yvette’s inn room. The cold drafts from the windows at either end of the hall made it difficult for him to stay warm. He was awakened from a half doze by the sound of breaking glass from the window by the stair. By the light of the single sconce he could see a shambling, hulking bipedal figure, its breath rumbling like the low growl of some savage beast as it slowly moved towards him.


Suddenly, the Beast attacked. As it leapt towards him, Mel saw that the creature was a combination of man and beast. Although it walked on two legs, it was covered in fur and had huge clawed hands, pointed ears, and a great gaping maw filled with fangs. An icy thrill of terror ran down Mel’s spine. The Beast swiped at him and its claws drew a bloody line across his chest as its powerful arm smashed him into the outside wall of Gaston’s room. The Beast howled as it smashed open the door to Yvette’s room[i] and leapt inside. From within, Mel heard the young woman’s piercing scream. 


Mel dragged himself to his feet and raced to the door, pistol in hand. He saw Yvette lying in bed, the blanket clutched in her hands as some futile shield. The wolf crouched over her and she fainted. Sensing Mel’s presence behind it, the Beast turned. Mel’s knees shook, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph” he said as he leveled the pistol and pulled the trigger. His shot hit the creature in the heart catapulting the Beast through the window. Gaston and Norbert raced into the room weapons in hand. Mel muytely pointed in fear towards the window. Below the two cousins saw the dark outline of the shattered window frame and the sparkle of broken glass in the moonlight…but no body.


Norbert ordered Mel to see to Yvette then jumped out the window to the ground below. The snow was cold on his bare feet. He shouted up at the window, “Mel, bring me my boots.” But Mel ignored the second command and stayed with Yvette who had woken and clutched his arms tightly in fear. Mel tried to comfort her. Meanwhile, Gaston shouted at his men to arm and dress. He quickly returned to his room to retrieve his boots, a pair of pistols, and his cloak. He hurried downstairs ordering one of his men to stay with Mel and guard the girl. Then he joined Norbert outside. 


Norbert had found blood sign amidst the broken glass and a pair of clawed footprints. Gaston sent one of his men to fetch Father Signoret as he and Norbert, accompanied by the remaining three Red Guards, tracked the Beast through town to the market. There Norbert lost the trail. But they were soon joined by Signoret and a fourth Red Guard. The Jesuit called for a lantern and then examined the location where the clawed footprints mysteriously stopped. Gaston suspected an ambush. He drew his weapons as he realized there was only one possible location for the creature to hide. He looked up just as the beast leapt out of the rafters at him fangs bared. The split second of warning was all Gaston needed to use his rapier to parry its fangs but the force of the creature’s strike knocked the soldier off his feet and sent him rolling across the hard packed earth of the market until he crashed into a support post.

Norbert spotted a fish net stowed in the rafters and grabbed it, and executed a perfect throw. The creature slashed at Norbert, but entangled in the net its claws missed the giant. Signoret slashed at the creature’s leg trying to hamstring it. Gaston got back up, but Norbert was between him and the creature so he circled and looked for an opening. The beast grabbed Norbert with its other arm. First it pulled the giant closer, then it hurled him at Gaston, but Norbert used a wrestling hold hanging onto the beast’s huge arm to break the force of the throw so that he ended up free and standing next to the Beast. Signoret and Gaston circled in opposite directions. Both slashed at the Beast, Signoret again struck at the creature’s hamstring, but it was like hitting the solid wood of a tree. The Beast was bloodied but still standing. Hoping the net would hold it, Gaston ordered his men to get Jacques and the cage. All four of the terrified Red Guards raced away from the hideous creature to find Jacques or the iron cage. 



The battle continued. The beast tore itself free from the net, but before it could attack or escape the three companions stabbed and clubbed it to death. Jacques and the others returned and they placed the creature’s body into the newly completed iron cage. They took cage and body to the blacksmith’s barn and took it in turns to watch the beast while waiting for daylight. 


On his watch, Norbert kept seeing what he thought was the Beast stealthily breathing as if it were secretly still alive. But every time he took a closer look, the beast still lay dead and unmoving. Jacques had the last watch. He alternated watching the dead creature and poking it with a stick with drinking and refilling his mug from the blacksmith’s wineskin. At one point, just after sunrise he noticed the beast was gone from the cage. Startled he moved cautiously closer, pouch of wolve’s bane in hand. Inside the cage he saw a naked man sleeping. The cage was still securely bolted closed. Unnerved, he woke the others and they all pondered the odd situation. They questioned the man. And the man asked them where he was and why they had stolen his clothes and placed him in a cage. They didn’t answer his questions and he didn’t provide any useful answers to their interrogation.


Soon after, Brother Crispin arrived out of breath. He told Signoret that he had heard that they had captured the wolf. The man in the cage recognized the monk and asked him who these people were and why they had imprisoned him. Brother Crispin told the group that the man was none other than the Woodsman who had been imprisoned by the Governor several months before. 


“I told you the story of how Governor Labrousse tried to have his way with the young daughter of a Woodsman. She resisted Labrousse’s advances and even scarred the Governor’s face with her nails. In revenge Labrousse ordered her put out in the cold and had her father whipped and then imprisoned in the dungeon of the Chateau.


What I did not tell you was that the Woodsman’s daughter took refuge in her father’s cottage. I saw her there the next day and brought her food and some clothing. But somehow the Governor must have gotten wind that the girl was sheltering there. He ordered Lieutenant Trudeau to burn down the cottage. And after complaints by the Governor, Bishop Hecqueville ordered me confined to the Cathedral grounds leaving that poor girl without anyone to aid her. Later, when I was allowed to leave the grounds, I found what I think is her grave. A simple cairn of stones erected in the woods near the ruined cottage.


About a week after the girl’s exile, I was working in my garden on the Cathedral grounds when I was visited by the Woodsman who had somehow escaped from the dungeons of the Chateau. From his wounds it was clear that he had been the subject of the most awful tortures. I tended his wounds with healing herbs, but when I mentioned that I had seen his daughter and that I was now forbidden to help her, the Woodsman refused to stay. I never saw him again. I can only assume that his daughter had died and he built the cairn over her body. One thing I do remember was that the night after I saw him was November 7—the night of the full moon. The farmers say that they heard a terrible, mournful howling that night. And it was at the end of November that the wolf attacks began.”


The Woodsman told them that after he found his daughter’s dead body, he swore a hideous oath to gain his revenge on those who had harmed him and caused the death of his daughter. He admitted that he had not yet killed the hulking Odo who was responsible for whipping him in the square and for brutalizing him while he was imprisoned. But the main object of his vengeance was still Governor Labrousse who he accused of being a worse monster than the Beast could ever be.


The friends pondered what to do with the Woodsman and how they could safely fulfill their original mission to end the wolves’ menace while satisfying the governor’s desire to examine a captive monster. They decided that the governor would need to see the monster change to believe them and some of them were worried that the Governor might himself be a werewolf. Therefore they decide it would be best for them to be with the Governor and the Woodsman when the full moon rose tonight.


To buy time, Gaston sent a message to the Governor that they had captured the beast and would bring it to the chateau after they had finished the cage to hold the beast. As Signoret headed towards the Cathedral to pray he ran into an angry mob of townspeople who wanted to kill the beast. The Jesuit reminded the crowd that the woodsman would find his punishment one day in hell, but the crowd was not inclined to wait. The mob shouted that they would light the barn on fire and send the monster to hell straight away. Gaston and the Red Guards stepped outside. The Guards flanked the crowd while Gaston faced the mob which he dispersed by threating to “put a bullet through the head of the first person to light a torch.” Faced with the cold eyed soldier, the front ranks of the mob backed up astop. Gaston leveled his pistol and pulled the dog down with an audible snap indicating the gun was ready to fire. Then he coldly pointed the pistol at various people in the crowd in turn as he stepped forward saying,  “Who wants to be the first to die? How about you? Or you…or you? What about you?…” The mob quickly decided that they wanted to be elsewhere. 





At the cathedral, Father Signoret celebrated the Sunday Mass. Afterwards he prayed to Saint Hubertus and looked up information about the Saint and his cure for wolf and dog bites. Amongst the Cathedral relics he found a Key of Saint Hubertus—a six inch long silver spike with a wide flat head engraved with an odd symbol. According to his reading, the cure was affected by heating and blessing the Key and then cauterizing the bite with the red hot head of the spike while praying for the intercession of Saint Hubertus.


That afternoon they loaded the cage with the Woodsman inside onto a wagon and took it to the Chateau. The Woodsman now wore a pair of pants that Jacques had provided. Claude drove the wagon, while Gaston, Signoret, Norbert, Jacques, and the other Red Guards rode, pistols in hand, flanking the wagon. Mel and Yvette walked behind. The party entered the courtyard just as the sun began to set. The interior walls were lined with musketeers as the Governor came out to greet them. He was pleased to see that they had captured the Woodsman and gloated at having him back as a “guest of the Chateau.” The Woodsman cursed the governor. In response the Governor instructed his servant Odo to bring “the special bracelets” which turned out to be a set of silver manacles and chains. Apparently the Governor was prepared for his guest. He demanded the key to the cage. Jacques tried to stall him, but his effort did not deceive the Governor for even a moment. At a signal from the Governor, several muskets pointed at Jacques as the Governor gave a one word command, “Key.” Jacques surrendered the key and Odo manacled the Woodsman. Then the Governor invited the others to join him for the metamorphosis. Odo and Norbert each took one of the Woodsman’s arms as they half carried, half dragged him to the dungeon. Behind those three went the Governor and his brother Armand, and six of the Governor’s guards, followed by Gaston, Signoret, Jacques, with Mel and Yvette trailing behind. As they paused while each door was unlocked, Norbert noticed that the Governor’s brother Armand seemed to pay particular attention to Yvette, who kept a continual grip on Mel’s arm.


Inside the dungeon they saw a large chamber lit by torches and the red glow from a large brazier full of hot coals. Various instruments of torture, both familiar and esoteric were scattered about the room and iron ring bolts were affixed to the walls. One side of the room was filled with an assortment of glass alembics and flasks filled with oddly colored fluids bubbling and steaming over small braziers and oil lamps. The room had a second heavy door and a single barred window through which they could see the light of the rising moon. 


Labrousse instructed Odo and Norbert to manacle the Woodsman to the wall facing the barred window. The Woodsman’s silver cuffs were chained to a pair of iron ringbolts imbedded in the wall. Governor Labrousse perched on a stool at an enormous table covered with alchemical paraphernalia. By the Governor’s side stood his brother Armand, the duelist, and between the Governor and the prisoner the hulking Odo stood guard. Behind Labrousse were a pair of town guards armed with halberds who separated the Governor from Jacques and Norbert. Father Signoret stood on the halberdiers’ flank beneath the large chandelier and Gaston stood next to the Jesuit. On the level above a pair of musketeers with lit matches pointed their pieces at the Woodsman while two more of their fellows guarded the door out of the dungeon. Yvette and Mel stood near the exit and watched.


The group waited as a beam of pale silver moonlight crept slowly closer to the Woodsman. As the moonlight touched his body, he began to writhe as if in pain and to change…then he tipped back his head and howled.



[i] The wolf’s goal is to kill Gaston, but he runs into Mel and mistakenly goes into Yvette’s room.

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