Baldur's gate II_ throne of Bhaal - Drew Karpyshyn [2]
Half the soldiers still held torches. The other half methodically drew their scimitars and waited. They all kept their shields up high to guard against another assault of arrows.
From within the cabin there was only defiant silence as the thatched roof caught flame, and the fire spread. Soon orange tongues licked their way down the walls, crawling from the roof of the tiny home to scorch the foundations and earth below. The smoke curled up before it was finally thinned and dispersed by the faint wind blowing across the fields.
Gerdon screamed a wail of anguish and grief, an inhuman keening that made the townsfolk cover their ears in terror and shame.
The door to the cabin flew open, wrenched from its hinges as Gerdon burst forth. Armed only with the iron scythe he used to thresh grain, the heavy-set farmer recklessly charged the captain of the soldiers. The armored captain calmly stepped forward to meet the charge, his shield and scimitar prepared to meet the assault.
Wielding his makeshift weapon with the expertise of a master thresher, Gerdon brought the curved blade in low, at the unprotected legs of his opponent. The captain parried the scythe with his own blade and redirected the blow so that it struck harmlessly on the ground by his feet.
In one quick motion Gerdon reversed the direction of his attack, sliding his hands along the long shaft to change the center of balance while twisting his waist and wrenching his shoulders to reverse the momentum of the heavy implement. His opponent was caught off balance by the quick counterstrike, and barely managed to get his shield in the way to take the brunt of the blow.
Driven by the fury of madness and desperation, the force of Gerdon's attack dented the iron shield, knocking the captain back. The soldier lurched awkwardly, struggling to regain his balance even as Gerdon brought the scythe around for the final, fatal swing at the captain's now-exposed flank.
The tool slipped out of Gerdon's suddenly paralyzed hands and the farmer dropped to his knees, the victim of a single well placed slash of a scimitar across his unprotected back. Blinded by his grief and rage, Gerdon hadn't noticed the soldier who had calmly moved into position behind him during his battle with the captain.
Gerdon crumpled to the ground, his legs and arms twitching spastically from the wound that had all but severed his spine. He tried to call for help, a final appeal to his neighbors still standing just out of sight beyond the wall of armored soldiers. But a seizure gripped Gerdon's body, and only animal grunts and moans escaped his throat.
The captain sheathed his weapon and stepped over to kick the scythe out of reach of Gerdon's uncontrollably flailing hands. He jerked his head in the direction of his men, and four of them rushed up, each grabbing hold of one of Gerdon's thrashing limbs. They lifted the convulsing man from the ground, carried him over to the burning cabin in which his wife's smoldering corpse lay, and threw him on the inferno.
As Gerdon's body struck the blazing walls of his home, the fire-weakened framework gave way and collapsed, burying the paralyzed man beneath the flaming wreckage. "Captain!" a stern voice called out from the crowd a second later. "I found this one running through the fields, trying to escape."
Half a dozen soldiers pushed their way through the mob of horrified civilians to join their fellows impassively watching the burning remains of the building. One of the new arrivals dragged a boy behind him, his fist firmly clenching a knot of the child's hair.
The captain followed their progress with a dispassionate gaze as the boy was forced into the center of the circle and his arms pinned behind his back by one of the soldiers. Bathed in the light from the mounting flames the boy was clearly visible to the entire assemblage.
"What