82. The Manor House 19

Novum whispered to Jane. "You are going to pass his judgement. You can do whatever you want to him mentally and physically. Just do not kill him. I need to send him back alive so that he can pass along a message. I do not care about anything else other than that."

"I can really do what I want to the piece of crap that killed my husband?"

"Short of killing him yes."

"Thank you Baron. We need to send Emily away for this."

"Of course. Erica, Fang." Erica quickly came over and Fang was almost immediately right beside him. "Could the two of you take Emily up to Granny's cottage? Fang, you are to guard Emily with your life."

"Of course Baron." Erica and Fang walked towards the little girl who had her face buried in her arms as she was facing the corner. "Emily come with me. We will go and talk with Granny about some flowers."

Fang nosed the little girl and she wrapped her arm around his neck and she let the huge wolf lead her out of the building with Erica right behind them with a severe look on her face. One of the guards turned to look at the girl and Fang growled at him and Erica called magic in an instant. The guard quickly looked the other way. Fang snorted and headed out of the manor.

Jane looked at the man on the ground and as soon as Emily was out of the building a look of pure hatred came over her face. She looked at her covered foot and realized that this soft shoe would not do near the damage that she wanted to do. She walked over to one of the guards and pointed at his boot. The man almost refused but then he saw the look on Novum's face and pulled off the boot.

Emily put it on with her shoe but it did not fit right so she pulled it off and went to another guard. Everyone in the room no matter who they worked for quickly pulled off their heavy metal boots and stepped back. The ones that worked for Novum did so happily the others did so out of fear. After the fourth boot she found one that she liked and then turned back towards the groveling noble.

Without any hesitation she got just out of range and then made a short run and kicked the man in the groin. "That is for all the slave girls in your manor that hurt being a noble and a man's man." She let him roll around for a second and as soon as he quit moving she kicked him in the same spot, maybe even a little harder. "That is for my cousin who can't find a husband since you made her afraid of men."

Jane proceeded to kick him a few more times in the same spot each time naming someone that the noble had destroyed and she looked like she was just getting started. She started moving around his body stomping on joints and other bones. Each of them was for one of the men that he had beat or maimed on a whim. She was not sparing him any pain.

"Please sister.." Before he could say anything else she stomped on his chest with the heavy boot.

"You killed your own brother and then sold me and your niece into slavery and then have the nerve to try and beg me. No, you are not getting out of it. I will make sure that every time you even think your brother's name your body hurts somewhere." With that she pulled the dagger off of her hip and headed for the man groveling on the ground in pain. She quickly went to work and cut up his face.

"Baron could you please hold him so that when I write on his forehead the words will be legible?"

Novum did not question her and held the man's head so that he could not move it. She wrote 'Fratricide' in big letters across his forehead and as soon as she was done she dropped the dagger and started crying like there was no tomorrow. Novum knew that she had reached her limit and motioned for a few of the ladies in the kitchen to come and get her. She let herself be led away.

"Crystal, would you come and heal him enough that it leaves scars and I do not care about his bones, I just don't want him to bleed to death."

"Of course Baron." Crystal moved forward and used just enough of her energy to stop the bleeding but left the openings to the point that they would leave big scars. She also concentrated the energy on the face and left the rest of the body alone. She had seen his type before and she had no desire to do more than was requested of her. It was not that she hated nobles, she had met a lot of great ones, like Novum and the Lyons Family, but she had also met more than she liked of ones like this one.

Novum turned to the guards. "Who is in charge after these two?" The guards stood there and did not make a sound. Novum realized that they thought he was going to do something to the next one in charge. "Okay, I just want to have you go and grab the wagons and leave. I have no intention of hurting anyone that does not want to hurt me and mine."

Again none of the guards moved. Novum shook his head. "Okay, let's do this another way. You can step forward now or I can kill everyone but one person and they become the person in charge by default." Immediately a middle aged man stepped forward. "Was that so hard?"

"I was afraid Baron."

"Makes sense. So, here is what you are going to do. You are going to go and gather up your wagons and horses and get ready to leave. Before you go you are going to leave the horses of the men that were killed since they attacked me on my land their property becomes mine. Then you are all going to leave a drop of your blood in my property coin and if you come back I will know and I can kill you as soon as you come back." He held up his hand. "Don't worry it does not become active until you leave the property. Now you have one decision to make and that is what to do with your dead? I will bury them of you would like or you can take them home and bury them there."

The man bowed towards Novum. "We will take our fallen with us Baron."

"Okay then. Take a few of your guys and go get the wagons and then come back here and leave the blood. Technically I do not own Three Mines and I would rather not kill you."

"Of course Baron."

"I do not need to tell you what will happen if you do not come back, right?"

"It is pretty clear Baron." The guard gave him another bow and grabbed a few men and headed for the village to get the carriage and wagons.

"Send word to the guys in town to not bother the men coming after their stuff." Before Melissa could respond Greg stepped forward.

"I will take care of it Baron. Ma'am, it appears that you are going to be the steward of the manor given your posture and bearing."

"Yes sir."

"Then if you would let me know when you are ready I will show you around and start introducing you to the people that you are going to need to know. I was the mayor here before we changed over to nobility ran."

"That would be most welcome." She turned to Novum. "Baron, I would like to get started right away is this acceptable?"

"Melissa you go and do what needs to be done and if I need something I can handle it. You go and do what you think is necessary."

She gave him a bow of her head. "Thank you Baron."

"Crystal how are the ones that are wounded?"

"Rurik will probably not even have a scar sine they hit him in the back of the head with a very big club. Mike on the other hand picked up a pretty good scar and it will be at least two weeks before he should be doing anything. The got him in the chest but it was not deep enough to go through the bones."

"Well thank goodness for small graces. Remind me to talk to Melissa about him getting paid for this time please."

"Of course Baron."

"Sara could you come here please?"

"How may I serve you Baron?"

"That sounds a little iffy. Okay I know that we were not going to have you build the array for a while but I need you to do it now and then when I come back this evening you can take it back apart. If your granny notices me we are within the time frame that I could have turned around and brought the bandits back with me."

"You do not need to worry about that Baron. I will build it and then return."

"I would rather you let me play host for a few days and then you can go back after you live a little but I will not force you."

"Do you think you can fool my granny?"

"I can stall her. More than likely by the time she gets word that I am back in the capitol I will be back here and you can turn it off. If anything tell her it glitched after I came through it after I rushed you in order to talk to the duke and it took a few days to find what you needed to fix it."

"Actually that is not a bad idea."

"Then go ahead and get started. Looks like I am going to have to deal with two nobles after this and I need to let the duke know as soon as possible."

"Excuse me for saying this Baron but it one or even two people worth all this trouble?"

"One person is more than enough to fight for."