fate's pawn 14

 

Chapter 14

 

“It’s getting hot, now Summer has really set in,” said Evgon. “Do you think we might go without armour? It’s a well-travelled road.”

“And we had trouble on a well-travelled road which was patrolled,” said Kaz. “We’ll be going through forest shortly, and the shade will help; though it’s not cut back to deter brigands. Wet a face scarf with cold water in that spring and put it under your helmet to help cool you,”

Evgon grimaced, but obeyed.

They marched on, all having taken up Kaz’s suggestion, and wet cloths on the backs of their necks too.

“We will camp and doze around midday, and we’ll travel into the night,” said Kaz. “Then rise before dawn tomorrow, and work around the weather.”

This engendered sounds of agreement from her fellows, and they set off with the hopes of making it to the cooler green path through the forest before the sun approached its zenith.

They had reached the edge of the forest, petering out in a few stands of trees outside the fields of the small settlement they had passed through, renewing the dampness of their cloths at the village pump, and drinking deeply of the water there. Before the forest proper there was what appeared to be a broken cart, the wheel off it, and several men in mercantile robes standing around.

“We’ll offer aid?” asked Protasion.

“If they need it,” said Kaz. “Why hasn’t one of them gone back to the village for a carpenter? Even if there is no wheelwright, surely any carpenter will have tools to effect some sort of repair. It’s less than half an hour’s walk into the village. Be wary.”

Kaz regarded the men. Closer to, they looked less precious under the mercantile robes they wore, having unshaven faces, and broken, uneven fingernails. The ring of armour under their robes that her darksense perceived made her narrow her eyes.

“Rynn, Zon, one each side, vanish in the undergrowth and seek what is to the sides,” she said, in the language of the Toróg.

Their superior hearing heard her speech though they were towards the rear of the party, when it did not reach to the supposed merchants.

“Well met, are you in trouble?” asked Kaz, to the one with the most sumptuous robe.

“We appear to have had our wheel fall off,” said he. “Perhaps you could render us assistance?”

“What assistance can we offer?” asked Kaz. “We are soldiers, not wheelwrights or cartwrights.”

“I... perhaps two of your number might hold the cart up whilst another couple manhandle the wheel onto the axel?” he suggested.

“But surely you could manage that yourselves?” said Kaz.

“We would get dirty!” he said.

“You would delay temple business for fear of getting dirty? I fear you are much mistaken,” said Kaz. “You could always send back to the village and pay for some men to help you. May the gods be with you.” She beckoned her people onward, and into the forest where she moved rapidly off the road into the trees.

“Why were you so churlish, Kaz?” asked Lelyn.

“I didn’t like how efficient the armour under their robes sounded,” said Kaz.

“Oh, your darksense,” said Lelyn.

“Yes, and as Rynn is bringing those people I believe to be the owners of the robes, and Zon is sliding carefully to catch us up, I suspect that the reason we were not attacked was because they did not fancy tackling armed soldiery, even if they outnumbered us,” said Kaz.

Rynn emerged between a couple of trees at this point with four stumbling humans, who looked the worse for wear.

“Water,” said Kaz. “I take it you are the rightful owners of that cart and the robes?” These men were soft and well manicured, and matched the robes with the clothes they had been wearing under them.

“Young... woman, we are, they were going to hold us ransom. What are you going to do about it?” managed one of them.

“Kill the brigands and restore your goods,” said Kaz. “You lost the wheel and it gave them the idea of an ambush of other travellers?”

“Yes,” said the leader. “I am Artemeos Sobrax.”

“I am Kaz of Alethos,” said Kaz.

“Alethosi! What luck,” said Sobrax.

Zon slithered out of the bracken.

“Another four hidden out of sight with crossbows,” he said in his own tongue. Kaz translated this.

“Take Svardia and... Kuros, and Rynn, and kill them all by stealth,” said Kaz. “Brigands are owed no challenge. Protasion, Evgon, Lelyn, we will kill the others.”

 

Kaz gave the four who were ambushing the ambushers time to get in position, and signalled the charge. She, and the three with her, went smoothly into a run, coming around the slight bend to see that a trader and his companion were helping lift the cart, as the brigands shucked their robes, being unaccustomed to fighting in such.

“Lay down your arms and submit to arrest, flat on your face!” called Kaz.

“Shoot them!” shouted the leader, towards the bushes on the other side of the road.

There were no immediate answering twangs of crossbow sinew, but two twangs came late, and the leader was, himself, shot by two enthusiastic tróglings.

Kaz went into action against the next, a big brute, signalling to Lelyn to finish the leader. She went on high guard, and her opponent laughed.

He was not laughing for long. Kaz noted that his cuirass was of fine bronze, but not quite long enough, and by feinting high to make him bring up the battleaxe he favoured, he stretched apart the armour of the cuirass and the armoured skirt of plates. Without a decent protective undergarment, Kaz was able to spin her sword and make a backhanded cut into the unprotected belly below the ribs.

Her opponent sat back heavily, mid laugh, as the laugh became a gurgling cough, filled with blood, and his guts spilled out into his lap.

He stared down at them, disbelievingly, for a long moment before he fell backwards, his eyes staring at the sky with the unknowingly knowing look of a man who suddenly knows the secrets of death.

Lelyn had swiftly dealt with the leader, already softened up by being shot from the direction of his own allies, and Protasion and Evgon were not far behind.

“They weren’t what you might call much opposition,” said Protasion.

“Don’t complain; they have good armour,” said Kaz. “Ah, the others have brought down the bodies of the ambushers.”

“What are you going to do?” asked Artemeos Sobrax.

“Strip them and put their bodies on poles to discourage others,” said Kaz. “To the victor, the spoils, but if you want to bargain for any of the armour to sell on, it saves us having to carry it. I don’t think they emptied your cart, so once we have that wheel back on, you can get back on the road. In company with these other good merchants, for safety in numbers.”

“I won’t despise Trógling again,” said Sobrax. “Indeed, I believe I will buy a couple as scouts.”

“And night guards,” said Kaz. “If you let them sleep the day away in your cart, they’ll keep you safe all night.”

“My thanks,” said Sobrax. “Will you be marching with us?”

“No; we’ll be busy mounting the brigands on stakes, and checking out if they have a camp, if there are any more of them, and if they have other hostages,” said Kaz.

“I see,” said Sobrax. “Good luck.”

“And to you,” said Kaz. “Now, let’s get this wheel mounted again. Rynn, see if one of these fellows has any kind of mounting pin on him, for it would not surprise me if it was removed overnight to cause your wheel to fall off in order for them to ambush you.”

Rynn used darksense to find the bolt which attached the wheel to the axle, and she brought it over. The cart was mobile again in a trice.

“And our thanks too,” muttered the two merchants who had been almost caught in the trap. They had heavy sacks which sounded not quite metallic, and Kaz suspected they carried partly refined ores.

 

Sobrax was happy to purchase the armour; he could readily sell it in the city. As Rynn and Zon seemed to know what to do with crossbows, Kaz decreed keeping all of them. None of the armour would fit either trógling, so there was no point keeping it, once the others had had their chance to choose any piece they liked; but Rynn and Zon might have a decent dagger each, a shortsword for them.

Kaz watched the merchants get on their way.

“Svargia, Rynn, Zon, with me,” she said. “Protasion, lead the others a few hundred yards behind us. Leave staking them for now, they aren’t going anywhere, and I want to make sure we have no enemies behind us.”

Protasion nodded. It made sense.

Kaz and her scouting party vanished into the undergrowth. Protasion sighed. It would take him a while to move through vegetation with as much facility and without making the bracken fronds shake.

 

The brigands had been careless and had trodden the same path each time they came to the road; a path which the hunters swiftly found and followed. Protasion, following them, found it too, and was relieved. It was easier to follow a path without making a noise or startling some roosting bird to cause a disturbance.

The trail was perhaps half a mile, going uphill as the forest away from the river rapidly rose towards the mountains.

Kaz slowed down as a limestone outcrop saw the trees petering out as the sharp rise then soared up in cliffs. There was a cleft in the cliff-face, to which the path led.

“I don’t see any other option than to walk boldly in,” said Kaz. “My darksense says that there is a narrow way which opens up, but if there is anyone in there, I cannot tell. We are shorter than most humans, and can also move in a squatting position, which is the proper way to approach our mistresses, so we three trógling will go first. Crossbows ready; but do not fire into any soft body unless you are threatened. It seems dark within which suggests either it is empty, or there are only captives.”

“Do you think there will be captives?” asked Svargia.

“No; for the reason that they were ready to seize the other merchants as hostages,” said Kaz. “If they already had captives, I think they would be chary about taking more.”

Svargia nodded. They had moved to either side of the cleft, and Kaz dropped into a squat, and made her way forward with what Svargia considered remarkable speed. Rynn and Zon copied her.

Presently there was a flare of fire, and Kaz whistled.

Svargia went in, swiftly followed by the other four, who had caught up whilst they cautiously negotiated the entrance.

“Very sloppy,” said Kaz. “We will need to spend a few days doing what we can to obliterate the trail.”

“Why?” asked Protasion.

“Because if we are going to war with chaos and Selen and Daze, we shall need a number of well-equipped hideouts, with weapons, armour, dried goods, and salt meat and fish,” said Kaz. “There’s a spring here which vanishes underground again. Very convenient. There are a sufficiency of currents in the air to allow a fire within, but we shall want something to hide the cleft. A painted canvas might do for now, but I’d like a big bush or something.”

“There are some trees on the top of the cliff,” said Protasion. “If we could bring one down which is right on the edge, and use ropes on it to swing over this way, that would do it.”

“You can investigate that when we have eaten. But let us get the other excitement out of the way; there are several large chests here.”

Protasion flung one open, with an exclamation from Kaz about taking care in case of traps.

The chest was full of coin of many kinds, even the red-gold favoured by the Selenites. Another had jewels in it.

“This we should take into Kallos, and see if anyone recognises any of it,” said Kaz. “Money is anonymous, and though perhaps we should return it, we can scarcely do so.”

“There will likely be rewards for family jewels anyway,” said Evgon.

“It can go into sacks,” said Kaz. “As to the rest, we share equally, though I wonder if we should cache much of it.”

“No, someone else might have some idea where the brigands hid, and the cache would shortly be their cash,” said Protasion. “Which, if it’s someone from the village who has suffered from them, I wouldn’t mind, though not one of them called a warning to us.”

“Which argues that a sleeping member might live in the village,” said Kaz. “We’ll camp here a few days, work out how to shift the loot, and work on making it harder to find.”

 

They finished mounting the brigands on stakes before doing anything else, a main pole supported by two branches one each side to make a death glyph, and a tree nail through the wrists of each brigand to suspend them from the top. They made a grim display along the roadway.

“That ought to send a message,” said Kaz. “Right, cut some twiggy branches so we can try to sweep out some of the track as we go back up it, and encourage weeds to trail across it.”

This was not a task which might be accomplished fully right away, but it would start the process of obliterating a worn trail. After displaying the brigands, nobody felt much like a midday meal. Kuros declared himself the best climber, and went up the cliff, with a rope slung around him, which he suspended from a firmly-set tree for the rest to follow.

“That one there,” said Protasion. “It’s only a sapling, and if we undermine it from this side, it should fall in about the right place.”

“Is ‘about’ a good word for an engineer?” asked Kaz.

He ruffled her hair.

“It’ll do for a part-trained engineer,” he said.

The brigands had tools like crowbars and spades, and the sapling was uprooted before the light had gone from the sky, largely by the three young men. Kaz had left Svargia and Lelyn on watch, and firmly slept, along with the other trógling, to keep watch overnight.

The tree did not quite block the entrance to the cave, but it made it a squeeze to get in. They had to cut a few branches, and then darken them with mud, to get the mules in.

“That should help a lot,” said Kaz, pleased, when she got up to survey the engineering works. “Another time we can explore the rest of the caves, and see about a bolt hole. But I doubt there’s anything dangerous, or the brigands would have found it already.”

This seemed a reasonable supposition to the others.

“I’ll be happier when I know where other passages go, though,” said Protasion.

“Tomorrow,” said Kaz. “You can always stack rocks over the squeezeway deeper in.”

“I will,” said Protasion. He did not bother mentioning that he made sure they were piled to be unstable from the other side.

The yell in the night justified his actions.