Jack Frost: King of Thieves

CHAPTER XX: Southern Isles Countryside

Jack and his companions rode at a leisurely pace through the rolling hills of the Southern Isles countryside, the fields and farmlands bathed in the deepening glow of the late day sun. The road they followed skirted the edge of a grand and ancient forest, its shadows darkening by the moment. The air was still, and a thrush sang from within the wood.

Jack kept a wary eye on the line of trees and glanced back at the others periodically to see that they were keeping watch, too. Ester rode at the rear, holding his stave across his legs and checking the road behind them now and again. This was good land, their ride thus far had been uneventful, but none of them had any doubt that Pitch's men would be coming for them.

They stopped with the sun still up so that they would have time to set up camp before darkness fell. While Sinbad and Ester gathered wood for a fire, Jack and Peter wandered deeper into the forest to hunt for their supper. They returned just as the first stars appeared in the sky, carrying a brace of rabbits. Ester grinned at the sight, and took it upon himself to prepare the meat, making it clear that he didn't trust Jack or Peter to do so without ruining their meal.

Naturally, Peter took offence and insisted that he and Ester cook the rabbits together. For his part, Jack had other matters to which he needed to attend.

As the last light of the twilight sky gave way to the bright glow of their fire, Peter pulled out his flute and began to play. Sinbad and Ester skinned the rabbits. And Jack, his back to the others, pulled out a different sort of loot: the spoils from the forest road in Alsace-Lorraine. They had gathered the coins and jewels of the dead hastily before riding on to the coast. Now, Jack took it upon himself to divide what they had found as evenly as he could into four piles.

Peter began to sing.

Sadness, sadness,
Can only lead to madness.
You have to count your gold.
The living king of sermons.
Was delivered from his evil,
But he couldn't talk his last,
Because God took out his throat.
God's crossbow took out his throat.

"By Christ!" Sinbad said, glancing over at his friend. "Can you not sing a happy tune? We've made it to Southern Isles with our hides and gold intact." He turned back to the rabbit he was skinning. "Sing a foot-stomper about adventure and daring and courage, and how handsome I look in armour."

"What about a song called 'By the Grace of God Go I'?" Jack said, without looking up from his work.

Ester shook his head, a grin on his face. "No. Sing something about a woman. A large woman."

Peter laughed at that and began to play something new, a song they had learned in Alsace-Lorraine from some of the other soldiers. It was a somewhat less pious piece than the first one Peter had played, concerned as it was with the generous assets of a serving girl. Ester laughed out loud and began to sing along, as did Sinbad.

Jack distributed the last of their riches and covered the piles with his cloak before turning to the others.

"I'm done," he announced.

Immediately, Peter stopped playing and they all turned their attention to Jack. He lifted his cloak from the piles and the other three gathered closer, gazing at the loot, eyes wide, mouths open.

"The money is divided," Jack said. "And so should we be."

"Where will you go?" Peter asked.

"I think there is something we owe for such good fortune. I mean to give it back, Peter."

"How so?" Ester asked.

Jack's hand moved to the hilt of Overland's weapon. "The sword," he said. "Its inscription entices something in my memory. Maybe it is just a trick of my imagination. I don't know." He took a breath, knowing how the others would react to what he had in mind. "I intend to deliver it to its rightful owner, to fulfill the request of his dying son. To repay good luck with bad grace is to invite darkness."