Kingdom Of The Weak

It was generally agreed that of the five, Burning Steel was the strongest, simply because they had four Slayers. Cruel Rose and Blood Claw had three each; Circling Raven and Secret Waves only had two. In the minds of many, this meant that Circling Raven and Secret Waves were the weakest gangs, even though Circling Raven supposedly had the largest numbers.

As for Secret Waves… they had the least numbers, and the least Slayers. Remian was curious as to how they survived the hostility of the other gangs for so long. That was why, when he set out to meet the bosses, he started on the East side.

The East Side of Frontier Town was a jagged row of houses and shoplots on a sheer cliff extending over a river. It could be pretty, if it didn"t look like the whole thing was on the verge of falling into the river at any given moment. At the extreme edges, the cliff was so thin, it wasn"t hard to imagine walking out on the cliff one minute and the entire thing collapsing into the chasm far below, a terrible sixty foot fall. Looking at the way some of it seemed uneven, Remian suspected that some of it had, in fact, fallen away and somebody somewhere had very much regretted taking that walk on the cliff"s edge.

According to Max, the Secret Waves headquarters was a wide villa named Storefront Pavilion. It really was its name, as the words were writing on the gatepost of the villa. Remian ignored the strange naming sense and called out, "h.e.l.lo? Anyone here?"

"Benji? Is that you? Get in here!" someone called.

"I"m not Benji." Remian yelled back. "h.e.l.lo? h.e.l.lo??"

There was no answer. With a grimace, Remian stepped in to the headquarters of the oddest gang in Frontier Town.

The villa was empty. Remian didn"t see anyone around at all. He went straight in, through a main hall, and then a corridor, and out into the open courtyard surrounded by the wings of the villa. There was only one old man there, and he was fishing in what looked like a large well. Two buckets of water filled with fish and a half-filled one nearby suggested that he"d been at it for quite a while.

"h.e.l.lo?" Remian asked.

The old man didn"t respond, simply sitting there with his fishing line.

Remian waited.

Nothing happened.

At last, the line jerked, and the old man responded in a flash. The rod was tugged, the line rose up, and then he was pulling in his catch, hand over hand. The line kept jerking but try as it may, the fish was eventually hauled up to the courtyard and unceremoniously dumped into the half-filled bucket.

Then the old man saw Remian and fell backwards with a yell.

Remian likewise, fell backwards with a yell.

The old man flailed for balance, and somehow got his hands tangled in fishing line. Then he tried to get away, and his feet got tangled in the fishing line. He tried to break free, and his own fishing rod fell right on top of him…

In no time, Remian found himself staring at a very sorry figure wrapped in tackle and trying very hard to keep a menacing hook away from his own face.

"Hi. I was hoping I could meet the leader of the Secret Waves gang?" Remian winced.

"That"s me." The old man said, gingerly trying to untangle himself without letting go of the hook or losing track of it.

"I want to offer you some s.p.a.ce on my board, so you can post jobs you want done, or bounties on people you want dead or alive…"

"We have one of those already." The old man grunted.

"But mine is up in front of the south gate and everybody can see it and take jobs from it and post bounties on it. No matter which gang they"re from. That means, more people would be able to do what you want." Remian summarized.

"Ah. Okay." The old man grunted, tugging at fishing line caught in his beard.

"Um… that"s it?" Remian blinked. "Just like that? Okay?"

"Yeah, okay." He shrugged, then frowned at his tangled beard.

"What about building the wall? Can you spare us some crew to do that?"

"Sure." The old man sighed, then reluctantly picked up a knife to cut his way out of the tangle. "Anything else?"

"Uh… no, I think that"s it. Thank you!" Remian bobbed his head in a polite greeting to the elder, then ran away.

Was that really the gang leader he just met? Or just some random wacko fishing in his own well? Remian didn"t know, but the place was indeed the Storefront Pavilion, so it had to be right.

"Five days." Death mused, as they left the villa.

Remian didn"t ask him what that meant, but the possibilities sent a chill up his spine.

The Circling Raven gang"s headquarters was the Raven Tavern, where Mindy worked. She was still recovering at the church, so she wasn"t there when Remian knocked on the door and asked to see the gang leader.

Inside, there were a mob of kids.

No, seriously. Twenty human juveniles between the ages of 10-18 years of age were milling around in a tavern right next to some very grown-up drinks. One or two of them serving to earn a living like Mindy was not too far-fetched, but this tavern was teeming with them. They were everywhere! Playing cards, playing darts, playing bowling, even eating and drinking, though Remian sincerely hoped that the contents of their cups were not the kind that hard-bitten thugs would prefer.

If these kids were the average gang member of the Circling Raven, it stood to reason why this gang was considered the second weakest of the lot despite them having the most numbers.

What kind of gangs did this town have? A gang of an old fisherman and so few people that they probably mainly survive because they were based in a place that n.o.body wants to walk around… and a gang of children? Remian himself wasn"t very old, almost twenty, but to find so many younger people in one place? Did he walk into a school by mistake?

Speaking of which, Frontier Town didn"t have a school. Maybe he should fix that…

But no. The wall came first. Education, economy and industry developments… all of these could wait until security and more immediate needs were met.

"You." A shadow appeared behind him suddenly.

Remian almost jumped out of his skin. "Kage! Are you the gang leader of the Circling Ravens?"

"No." Kage summarized in one word.

He said no more, but looking around, n.o.body else responded to Remian"s request. "Some sort of sub-leader, then?"

"Sort of." Kage said shortly.

"Kage!" two little girls squealed when they saw him standing there. They pounced on him and started tugging at him to follow them. "Come play! Play, play!"

Kage stood there, the stoic and silent shadow, wordlessly looking from Remian on one side to the two girls all but climbing over him on the other.

An older girl came to his rescue. "Come now, girls, don"t disturb the Slayer, he"s busy keeping us safe! Otherwise, the Cruel Rose will come and catch you and turn you into a slave!"

"Nooooo…!" the two smaller girls ran away.

"Sorry about that." The older girl came up to face Remian then. She had long red hair, inquisitive blue eyes, and a bandage around the right side of her face. "Are you new here? We can offer you food and shelter, but you"ll have to work for it…"

"No, no, I am an agent of the Iron Legion." Remian said hastily before she could rope him in. "I came to talk about a public board we are setting up. It"s for bounties and jobs people want done. Anyone can post on it, no matter which gang. Your people can post your jobs and bounties too. It"s outside the South Gate, at the Iron Legion camp, so that"s neutral territory that anyone can access. We only ask for a small fee for posting on it, and a small cut of the rewards of the jobs done."

"Huh." She eyed Remian up and down. "You"re a Legionnaire?"

"No, no, just an agent. An informant, or a secretary. Actually, mostly my job this days is to barbecue…" Remian realized his was rambling and shut up suddenly. "Ahem."

She let out a low chuckle, and Remian felt his face burn. He had to admit, she was good-looking, even with the bandage on her face. In fact, she looked familiar…

"Are you related to Mindy?" Remian took a shot in the dark in a desperate bid for dignity.

"Mindy is my sister." She confirmed it. "I"m Mandy."

"I see. I hope she gets well soon." Remian said politely. "Actually, I"m certain of it. I just met her this morning and she should be fine by tomorrow."

Mandy breathed. "That is good to hear. Thank you, Mr…?"

"Remian. Remian Vin." He introduced herself. "I hope to see your notices on the board soon. The jobs and bounties on it are available for anyone to fulfill."

"And how will the payments be made?" she asked.

"Whoever posted them will pay the reward, of course." Remian blinked. "You can"t be expecting us to pay for someone else"s requests?"

"And what if they don"t pay after the job is completed?"

There was a short, awkward silence. "Uh… I guess then people won"t do their jobs anymore? And I won"t let them post on the board in the future."

"You won"t? What if they force you to let them? At knife-point?" she asked, keenly.

"Errr…" Remian hesitated. "I"ll have my wolfcat bite their heads off."

"You have a wolfcat?" she stared. "You can command the Wilds?!"

"No, there"s just this mother and child pair…" Remian bit his lip. "I shouldn"t say too much."

"You really shouldn"t." Mandy agreed with a smile that was very distracting.

"Um… bye." Remian fled before he could make a bigger fool out of himself.