I had expected maybe one of the men to speak up after some more threats and perhaps some more bodily harm. Instead, all three started babbling and shouting over each other.

“Silence!” I growled into the cacophony.

I pointed at the middle man, “You speak. The rest keep quiet.”

The man I was pointing at visibly gulped and in a quavering voice spoke.

“Lord, what she says is right, we are bandits. But we are poor men and there was no other way to live in our villages so we took to banditry.”

“I didn’t ask for commentary,” I said threateningly. “Have you kidnapped these women and raped them.”

The shaking man, looked at his comrades for support and then nodded his head at me.

“Say it,” I said in a low voice.

“Lord, yes, lord we kidnapped these women.”

“And?” I prodded.

“R…raped them.”

“And?” I said in a louder voice, growing increasingly incensed.

“And made them work for us.”

“Did you beat them?”

“Yes l…lord, we beat them. Sometimes for burning the food or stumbling or being clumsy. But some of the men were violent men, they hurt them for pleasure,” said the quivering man, the truth tumbling out of his mouth now.

I growled.

“Did you know that some of the women were children?” I asked.

He nodded and made a squeak. Tears were flowing down his face now and I could see that his loincloth was wet.

“Did you rape children?” I hissed.

He nodded again, sobbing in fear.

I roared and leaped at the man, grabbing him by his throat and lifting him off the ground.

“Oh gods, oh gods! You promised to let me live! You promised lord!” yelled the terrified man, sobbing and shrieking and struggling in vain.

I was about to end him, but his words made me pause. I was angry enough to go berserk. I could feel his soft flesh within my grip and all I had to do was squeeze. But I had promised.

“Since when have kings and emperors kept their promises to commoners?” scoffed Ghost-Kishni in my ear.

I wavered, my face was still twisted in righteous anger. I could feel myself snarling like a beast. But my thoughts were split. Breaking my word just didn’t sit right with me – emperor or not.

As I stood there with the struggling human in my grip, hovering above the ground, there was a sudden movement by the fire. Before I could react or do anything, the child woman had picked up something off the ground, rushed behind the remaining two men and then proceeded to stab them in the backs of their necks with a speed and ferocity that I didn’t think humans were capable of.

The women screamed and scattered away from the fire but I just gaped at her blood-covered face as she stood with a knife in her hand and looked around defiantly.

The stabbed men had fallen to the ground clutching their leaking necks. They made choking sounds for a few moments, kicking their legs against the muddy forest floor and then fell silent.

“What did you do!” I yelled at her. “What did you do!”

She seemed to shrink inwards at the loudness of my voice, her expression caved a bit and she looked terrified. But only for a moment, then very rapidly the earlier steel came back and her eyes flashed and face tightened. She dropped to both knees and addressed me.

“My lord, I took it upon myself to solve your dilemma. I could see that you wished these men dead but did not want to break your word. So I killed them for you.”

My mind was still a mess but I managed to splutter, “I promised them that they would live, not that I wouldn’t kill them.”

“My lord, you promised them that they would live but I didn’t.”

She looked up at me with determination on her face.

“You are the Lord of Death, but I am a human and have free will. I still have free will.”

I was utterly bewildered by this child-woman.

My thoughts were interrupted by a wheezing sound coming from the direction of my hand. I turned to see that the last bandit who I held by the neck had passed out from me throttling him. I opened my grip and let his body collapse to the ground.

A look of hunger and hatred entered the child-woman’s eyes as she gripped her knife and looked at the last bandit.

“No! Just no!” I shouted at her wagging my finger in her direction. “You do not kill this one. You must do as I say.”

The child-woman looked ready to retort.

I heard a snort near me.

“You must do as I say,” Ghost-Kishni mimicked me. “You sound like a whiny child not a giant.”

“My lord,” said the child-woman rising and speaking in an angry voice which pricked my ego. “Do you intend to let this one live?”

“I gave my word,” I said feeling irritated at the hint of whininess creeping into my voice. Damnit Kishni!

“So…what you’re saying is…this man agreed that he had raped and killed innocent women and children and you will let him leave unharmed just because he confessed?”

“That’s not what I’m saying damnit!” I replied frustratedly. This child was winding me up in circles. I had just come for the food, how did I get caught up in this trial?

She didn’t speak but continued to look at me. I think she would have put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot in judgement if I hadn’t been a giant who had casually killed two men.

When I didn’t say anything for a while, spoke again albeit with a softer tone.

“My Lord, you must keep your word for you are a Lord.”

I looked at her suspiciously.

“But,” she continued. There’s always a ‘but’. “I demand recompense from this bandit for his crimes.”

“What recompense,” I asked.

“My sisters and I will take away his ability to hurt another human being again.”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked dreading the answer. A phantom pain was starting to creep up my nether regions.

“We neuter him like the animal he is. We will take his right hand so that he may never hold a weapon again and we will brand him so that all may know what his past is.”

I was horrified. My hand twitched towards my privates.

“You pulped two men and you’re troubled by a rapist losing his balls?” asked Ghost-Kishni caustically. “Remember their crimes.”

And I did. I forced myself to remember that this was a rapist, paedophile, murderer. My anger grew again.

“How will you ensure that he lives?” I asked the child-woman.

She gestured to the three older women who I had noticed earlier.

“These are the bandits’ wives,” she said venomously. The women she was pointing at looked shocked and scared to become the centre of attention.

“They were kidnapped just like us. They suffered just like us. But then they gave in and helped these bastards hurt us.”

Dark layers within layers. My mind was reeling and I regretted entering the clearing. I should have stuck to my fruits and tree bark, at least I wouldn’t have been haunted by nightmares.

“They are weak and we will not kill them for that, but they will do the butchering on their man and cauterise his wounds after. Since they care so much for these bastards, we will leave his life in their hands.”

I was becoming numb by now. I just nodded, but the child-woman didn’t seem to care. She had already begun organizing the younger women and was handing knives to the older woman to heat in the fire and begin their grim surgery.

I didn’t want to see a man lose his testes so I made to move back to where I had left my cannon. But the child-woman stopped me with her whip-like voice.

“My Lord, surely you mean to stay and ensure our safety. I have just given these witches knives and without your protection they will no doubt turn these knives on me and my sisters.”

Ghost-Kishni chuckled.

I stood straighter and turned around clearing my throat. I schooled my features and said with an affected low growl, “I had grown tired of standing in one place and wished to stretch my legs. I am going nowhere.”

I was forced by this furious child to watch as the young women held the unconscious bandit down, while one of the older women hacked off his hand. I say ‘hacked’ but those rusty, poorly-kept knives only managed to saw. Then one of the other older women took a red-hot knife and pressed it against the wound. It sounded like meat frying. I looked away when they ripped off the man’s loincloth and I heard the sound of a hook-and-tackle being sawed off. My eyes were watering as I gagged repeatedly. By the time they got around to branding the bandit I was exhausted. I just wanted to curl up in a hole and sleep till I forgot.