Free Chains of a Dark Goddess by David Alastair Hayden

thirteen ragged men of various ages and, on the nearest cross to the road, a young girl. They were crucified in the so-called gentle style, with platforms the tips of their toes could just reach taking some of their weight. That way they would suffer for as long as possible. A guardhouse sat atop the summit of the hill, but the lights were out, the guards asleep.
    As Breskaro approached, the girl pleaded desperately. “Help us!”
    Her body sagged though fire remained within her large golden eyes.
    Breskaro drew Nightsoul’s reins and stopped in front of her cross. This barren stretch of road would soon take him to the Temple of Saint Resban. From there, he would go out into the wilderness, following an ancient, overgrown path that would eventually lead him to Peithoom Swamp. 
    The moon was to Breskaro’s back and his hood up, so they couldn’t see that he wore a mask.
    “I don’t help criminals,” Breskaro told the child.
    “I’m not a criminal!” She groaned and gasped for breath before continuing. “These men ain’t criminals either!”
    “We’re innocent, sir,” said the man hanging nearest her. He was a bear of a man in his mid-forties with a bald pate and a curling mustache.
    Breskaro started to ride again. “You were judged so. You shall die so.”
    “ Demon !” the girl shouted. “You’re worse than … the Resbani bastards who … put us … here.”
    Breskaro paused.
    “Demon! Demon! Demon !”
    Breskaro turned back. He ignored the girl and approached the man. “Who put you here?”
    “Clerics from … the Temple of Saint Resban.”
    “What harm did you do to them?”
    “Demon!” the girl cursed again.
    “Hush,” the man said to her. “We did no harm. None but that we exist. We’re a simple hill-folk … Rrakans by tribe, men of the old faith.”
    “Kaynim?”
    “Yes, my lord, we worship the old … rugged gods of wood and stone, fire and rain.”
    “Did you flaunt it?”
    He grimaced and gathered his focus. “We kept quiet, kept our ways to ourselves, stayed on our mountain, the Graypoint ten leagues from here, and bothered no one. Not many of us left. The Resbani were …. looking for a fight. And the girl … not even one of us. Came to us a straggler, her mother having …. perished of some wasting sickness.”
    “I’d only been with them for three days!” the girl spat. “Priests didn’t care. I was already corrupted.”
    “Would you have vengeance on these priests?” Breskaro asked the man.
    “I’d have freedom.”
    “Freedom comes at a cost. What is your name?”
    “Larekal.”
    “What did they do to your family, Larekal?”
    “Told them they must convert within a ten-day or … suffer the same fate. That was three days ago. They hung us up here this morning.
    Breskaro went to the girl. “Why then are you here? Corrupted you may be, but none of the other women and children were so cursed. And you’ve no family to persuade.”
    “After they said I’d be condemned to Torment for my ways I brained one of them with a club. Gave him … what he deserved for … bothering these folk.”
    “Alas, it’s true,” Larekal said. “The girl’s a savage.”
    Breskaro stood up in his stirrups and faced the forlorn, exhausted, and dehydrated men before him. “In a way, the girl has spoken true. I might as well be a demon for I am a man returned from the dead.”
    The men murmured in fear.
    “If you will swear to serve me, I can free you. Together we can destroy the Resbani and save your families. However, you must serve me until I release you. You must do whatever I command, even if it goes against your beliefs. It won’t be a fair bargain. I’m a being of malevolence. And I have designs far greater than destroying the Resbani. But if you serve me, you’ll die on your feet, for your people, and not hanging on a cross.”
    “We’ll do it!” the girl shouted.
    “I didn’t ask you, child.”
    “I will do this,” Larekal vowed.
    The others muttered weak