The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Only a coward asks for mercy, even if it’s offered.”
    “Pigshit,” said Hegel. “Only a mecky coward would lie on his ass while someone tickled his toes with a blade.”
    “Assholes,” Bertram managed.
    “Clear as day, he’s too broke to move anythin else. Watch.” Manfried prodded Bertram’s lips with his finger, and despite his
     agony the man snapped his teeth, desperate for even a drop of Grossbart blood.
    “Well, alright,” Hegel relented, and smashed in Bertram’s skull with a rock.
    They had little to show for their toil except for boots to replace their worn, pointed turnshoes, and actual weapons. Hegel
     claimed Gunter’s sword and Hans’s pick, while Hegel took Bertram’s mace and Helmut’s ax, leaving the one used on Heinrich’s
     wife in the road as a warning to any who came after. The few salvageable bolts they shoved into makeshift quivers; cudgels,
     dull knives, and several choice round stones were tossed in with the rest of their gear.
    The clothing had suffered worse than the men who wore it, and not a corpse present had either coinage or jewelry. Bertram
     they covered in scree but the rest were unanimously judged to be cowards and thus crowfeed. Daylight showed the impracticality
     of attempting to maneuver the cart down the opposite slope, the trail diminishing to the point that even getting the horse
     down would prove daunting. The Grossbarts had faith, though, and loaded up the animal Manfried named “Horse” and Hegel dubbed
     “Stupid.”
    Hegel applied ax to cart, further burdening the workhorse-turned-pack mule with all the firewood he could cram into the folds
     of blanket lashed onto its back. Then they started off, Manfried leading Horse down the mountainside. Although the path showed
     no signs of usage, they remained convinced it would soon join a wider road leading all the way through the mountains. They
     were wrong, of course, but did not learn this for some time. By noon they reached a wooded valley, and after plodding though
     the shade they climbed another rise and came to an even steeper pass late in the afternoon.
    In the failing light they decided to camp at the bottom of the slope. Providence offered them a clearing split by a small
     stream, and they gathered wood to conserve the cart pieces for leaner times. Hegel unwrapped the horse head he had severed
     that morning and set to carving and stewing it for headcheese. Manfried caught frogs in the brook, but mid-autumn in the low-lands
     was early winter in the mountains, and the few specimens he found were sluggish and small. The chill brought on by night forced
     them close to the fire, but the Grossbarts’ morale rose with the stars as they discussed the days and weeks to come. One of
     the dead horses had yielded a cask full of rank beer and they shared it happily, laughing and swearing late into the dark.
     The cold ensured that one always stood watch to stoke the fire, and shortly before dawn they loaded up Horse, came out of
     the trees, and went up the next incline.
    This pass came even higher, and after struggling upward for the better part of the morning they were afforded an unbroken
     view of pristine peaks before them and the foothills behind. Their exuberance dampened several hours later when they came
     down into an alpine meadow where the trail faded into the grass and could not be found again. The mount they had descended
     met another across the field, jabbing skyward high as the sun. After much cursing and accusations, they decided to continue
     on a roughly southern course, for somewhere beyond lay a wide and worn road leading all the way to the sea-lands. Another
     argument ended with the conclusion that a slower road with the option of horse meat down the path was superior to the instant
     gratification a quicker, more direct approach might yield.
    Hegel laughed triumphantly each time Stupid slid on the rocks, but Manfried cooed to Horse and encouraged him to double his
     efforts.