Thomas spent the following two months with Will as he let his jaw heal. Will took the chance at helping his father learn how to read more than the little bit he did. It wasn't hard once Thomas read some of the more difficult words used on context. He learned to enjoy reading and found that it relaxed him, especially when he read the tales regarding old wars and warriors. Thomas had become enthralled with the tales of Beowulf.
"I luk thet he duz wet neds ta be dun," he had said to Will upon his first reading.
"Yeah," Will agreed, "I'm not sure he had all those abilities, though."
"Den't mettah," Thomas said through his teeth, his jaw was still tied shut, "he evently yoost hes wits."
Will thought that Grendel could have represented many different things and asked his father, "What do you think Grendel is?"
Thomas took a long moment to think it over. "He wes mebe ev eh peepl thet is neh lenger."
"Like a tribe?" Will clarified.
"Mebe." Thomas said.
Tuck came around to see how Thomas' jaw was healing up. Thomas had lost weight since he couldn't eat much but stuff strained through his teeth.
"Does it ache much?" Tuck asked.
"Neh," Thomas replied as Tuck untied the head strap.
Thomas opened his mouth slowly. He moved his jaw back and forth. It didn't hurt or click or sag.
"Say something," Tuck said.
"Like what?" Thomas asked.
"That'll do," Will interjected.
Thomas smiled at his brilliant son as he stood up to take the book back to its place on the shelf.
"Teague is still looking for you," Will said.
Thomas hated that name. He thought back on those days on the farm when Teague invaded his home with his "holier than thou" ways. "Your men have come across him?" Thomas asked.
"They give him wide birth," Will said. "Those are my orders. I don't want him coming round to sanctuary and stirring things up here."
"I understand," Thomas said. He knew how important the school was to Will. "How many strong is his group?"
"My men say it's twenty but I think it's dwindled to fifteen over the last month," will started, "De Lacy has reassigned some of the men to increase his personal guard. Guy has stepped up drills and posted not just a poster with your likeness but has also established that anyone aiding you would be put to death."
"Guy's a fool," Thomas retorted. "He couldn't find his nose on his face let alone usurpers and rebels."
Will laughed in agreement. They both hated Guy. Will hated that he had taken one of his favorite books. Thomas hated that he was too weak to control his own men and they both hated that he had tried to ingratiate himself to Matty.
John came in as rain began to fall outside. He brought with him news from Loxley.
"Teague has been making searches around Loxley within an ever growing circle," John stated, "I suspect within a month they will be close enough to sanctuary to smell."
"He'll be dead within two weeks," Thomas declared. "I won't have the school put at risk."
"How do you intend to take out him and fifteen of his men?" Will asked.
The question caught John's attention as he too wondered how such a feat would be accomplished.
"When the time is right," Thomas started, "I'll only be dealing with Teague."
The ominous threat made John and Will imagine a thousand ways that Thomas would remove the other fifteen men from the game board.
That night, Thomas quietly gathered his things. He sat at the table and quietly wrote out a note and inserted it into the book about Beowulf.
When morning came, Thomas was already high above the forest floor in a tree just outside of Loxley.
He watched as Teague and his men rode out shortly after day break. Thomas waited patiently in his tree as the party came back at mid day.
Much like they had done with Thomas, the group had imposed on civilians in Loxley. The men had moved into several of the homes. The thought of it all made Thomas sick with disgust.
Thomas had learned many things when growing up on the farm. Specifically about the precautions needed when cleaning up after horses.
That night Thomas crept down into Loxley and avoided the two sentries. He made his way to a stable and found what he had been looking for. His prize was a couple pieces of horse dung. He gathered it into a bundle and wrapped it in an apron he had found in the stable.
He then waited close by to one of the sentries. The one he chose had looked tired. Thomas figured the men were on rotation and that this one hadn't gotten a full rest. As he had suspected, the man had looked around to see if anyone was watching then he climbed into the bed of a wagon and shortly, his shallow snores could be heard from where Thomas had been hidden. Thomas quietly made his way over to the man and took the man's water skin. Thomas removed the lid and smeared some of the dung on the inside of it and closed it back.
Over the next two days Thomas had been able to do this to a total of nine of the men. He found that they separated themselves from their gear when they went into the local shops during their down time and he dosed the caps of their water skins and even their knives which he knew were often used for eating.
A week later, Thomas had tampered with all of the men's water and had started seeing the effect of the initial dosing. The water skins had proven a perfect habitat when the sun heated them mid day. The parasites and bacteria flourished in them. The men had been unable to hold down food and their evacuations had been the consistency of water.
By the end of the two weeks, Teague had stopped his searching and had ordered that the locals care for his men. He also ordered one of the farmers to ride into Nottingham with a note asking for help to be sent as some plague had slowly ravaged his men.
Thomas caught the man as he rode out of Loxley.
He stepped into the road and the man on the horse knew who he was by the red hood.
"Please don't kill me," the man begged.
"You aren't my quarry," Thomas said, "There's no pleasure in killing that which can't defend itself. Not unless it's put into a stew with carrots after."
Thomas knew the joke was unsettling.
"Please," the man begged again.
Thomas threw him a gold piece. "Perhaps you should go fishing, instead of riding all the way to Nottingham?"
The man came down from the horse. "Please don't kill us," he begged again.
"I promise to only kill one man this day," Thomas said and the man ran off down the road away from Loxley.
Thomas mounted the steed and went to where he had stashed his weapons so many months ago.
He then rode the horse so that he stood outside the residence that Teague had commandeered.
"Teague!" Thomas yelled.
Loxley got quiet as the villagers looked out to see who beckoned the man they had been tolerating. Fear gripped them when they saw it was the Hooded Demon.
"Teague, you coward! Get your arse out here!" Thomas yelled again. He didn't move from the horse.
Teague appeared at the door of the cottage. "Right now," Teague started, "there are a dozen men with their bows ready to kill you."
"You lie," Thomas challenged.
"All I have to do is give the command and..." Teague started but was interrupted by the sound of one of his men getting sick.
"You lie because your men are all sick. How do you suppose they got that way?" Thomas teased.
Teague stepped into the cottage again and returned. He was holding a young mother with a knife to her throat.
"You won't harm me for fear of harming another farmer, would you, Thomas?" Teague asked.
Thomas let Teague step out. "Where do you intend to go?" Thomas asked.
"You're going to..." Teague said but was interrupted when...
Thomas had only flinched and his dagger had cleaved Teagues hand off at the wrist. The dagger stuck out of his chest, missing all of his major organs. The girl ran into her home and shut the door.
"I'm going to listen to you beg me to spare you before I kill you in the most agonizing way I can imagine," the Hooded Demon announced.
Teague began to run but Thomas didn't give chase. Instead, he calmly strung his bow and aimed it at Teague's right knee as he ran from Loxley.
The snap the bow made was echoed by the noise of Teague's kneecap exploding as the head of the arrow penetrated it. Teague fell onto the ground, screaming in agony.
"I told you, Teague," Thomas said as he dismounted the horse, "there will be begging."
"P... please, Thomas!" Teague cried as Thomas walked up on him, "please be civil."
"You mean how you were civil to my family when you bullied your way into my home?" Thomas said.
"Be... be a better man than that," Teague begged, "I was following orders."
"Oh, I know," Thomas said, "I intend to kill the people that gave you those orders, too."
Thomas drew his sword. Teague tried to scurry away backwards but Thomas simply stepped on his damaged knee.
"Ahh! P... please!" Teague begged again. Tears ran down his cheeks as the pain became more unbearable.
"You know what's worse than a man that blindly takes orders?" Thomas said.
Teague mumbled, "Please..."
"No," Thomas begun, "A coward that takes orders."
Thomas calmly dipped his sword's tip into Teague's abdomen. Then he twisted and from the wound came not just blood but waste.
Teague wished that he would faint or pass out but he didn't. He could feel the poisons burning in his abdomen. He screamed in agony.
"You took food from the mouths of my family," Thomas said. His sword slashed at Teagues face tearing his cheeks and removing teeth. "You took away my ability to defend them," Thomas punctuated the sentence by chopping at Teague's shoulder until his arm was removed. "You took away my love," Thomas sword broke Teague's sternum as it made its way through Teague's heart and into the ground.
Teague lie there motionless. Thomas looked up and the people of Loxley had come out.
"He took from us, too," the woman that Teague had tried to use as a hostage said.
"I did this for me," the Hooded Demon said as he turned and faced them, "don't you dare think I would do this for you. Don't cheapen my revenge."
Thomas sheathed his sword and began walking toward Nottingham.
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