Stranger of Tempest: Book One of The God Fragments (31 page)

The Prince of Sun scowled and glanced back at Payl. The taciturn woman nodded back at the wagons.

‘Supplies all ready if you need, food and ammunition.’

‘You serious?’ Teshen asked quietly. ‘Shadows Deep looks like a good option?’

‘Can you see another?’

‘Kas and me double back, take their scouts. Maybe ask one how many troops they have.’

‘They might not even know, and what if it’s more than we can handle? We lose hours of our lead.’

‘Have you been through a Duegar ruin?’

Anatin exhaled loudly and slowly as though reluctant to admit it. ‘Skirted one, never went deep.’

‘Me neither – and there’s a good reason for that,’ Teshen said. ‘Stonecarver nests and Tanglethorns are dangerous enough, let alone the elementals that’re drawn to the wilds. You travel the darkest deep and you’ll find maspid packs, even if you steer clear of all the traps left there by the Duegar.’

‘I know all that,’ Anatin snapped. ‘You think I don’t?’

Again Toil physically interjected herself in the conversation. ‘Stonecarver beetles you can burn out, Tanglethorns are easy to avoid if you know what you’re looking for. We don’t go into the dark unless we need to, of course, but I’ve done it a dozen times. Maspids are quick and nasty, but that’s what we’ve got guns for. Traps I can steer us around or fool. I’ve done it before. Remember, I’ll be the one at the front out there. I’ll get eaten first if I screw it up.’

‘That’s not as reassuring as you might think.’ Anatin sighed. ‘Coldest dark, we don’t have a choice, do we? They’ll catch us on the road; we’ve got to leave it.’

He turned and waved for the quartermaster. ‘Foren, get those supplies loaded on to our horses, we’re going east. Payl, you’re taking the rest round to Chines same as before, but make it quick or they might send for reinforcements to chase you down.’

A mutter ran around the mercenaries, even those who weren’t braving the horrors of Shadows Deep.

‘Short rations,’ Toil added loudly. ‘By my guess, we’ll be no more than a day in the saddle. No roads into a Duegar ruin, not on the surface anyway. We’ll have to lose the horses and keep going on foot.’

‘You’re a man short,’ called someone from the throng of mercenaries, faces turning to reveal the bruised face of Deern. ‘Safir ain’t goin’ nowhere.’

‘Where the buggery did you appear from?’ Anatin said. ‘Thought you were dead!’ he sniffed as he looked the smaller man up and down. ‘Looks like you’ve had one o’ the kickings you so richly deserve.’

Deern smirked. ‘Missed you too. Got let out two mornings back. Turns out I’d been rude to some stuck-up cow and she had her guards jump me.’

‘Well that’s a shock right up there with daytime being easier to see in.’ Anatin shook his head. ‘One man down, you’re right. Don’t want those scouts to see we’re light on numbers, might think Toil’s stuck with the company. You volunteering, Deern?’

The wiry man stood a little straighter, a sly smile on his face. He looked around the small troop, looking Lynx straight in the eye with his mouth slightly open, poised to speak. But nothing came but a small laugh as he made to take a pace forward then veered away instead.

‘Did you hear me volunteer?’ Deern said, a mocking smile on his face. ‘Buggered if I’m going with you, I don’t need bonus money that bad. Reft’s big enough to look after himself I reckon, don’t need me to hold his hand. I’ll see you all on the other side, but I can’t see any good reason to go through Shadows Deep myself.’

‘Suppose not. Well, anyone? A Knight’s bonus pay for whoever takes Safir’s place.’

There was a general looking around at their comrades.

‘No one? Llaith? You’re a fine woodsman.’

The pock-cheeked man nodded slowly, cigarette smoke curling up across his face as he considered the idea. ‘Terrain around a Duegar ruin ain’t the same as elsewhere,’ he said eventually, ‘and I ain’t getting any younger. Not sure a trek like that’s for me.’

‘Dor? Estal? Ashis? None of you up for the challenge?’

The white-haired Seer shook her head, no apprehension on her face but Lynx had been told she wasn’t the fighter she’d once been, not since her injury. He didn’t know who Dor was and didn’t see a reaction from them, but before it could drag out any longer a sour-faced young woman stepped forward.

‘Always wanted to see a real Duegar ruin,’ Ashis declared. ‘Now’s as good a time as any, I guess.’

Anatin nodded at the woman and turned to the rest of his elite team. ‘Time’s a-wasting, then. Best we get away fast and give them a harder choice between us and the rest of the company.’

Lynx felt weariness bubble up from his boots as he took the pack a mercenary offered him. He glanced at Sitain then Toil. The young woman was standing wide-eyed, apparently astonished that she had just agreed to accompany them, while Toil just rubbed a hand over her face, rolled her shoulders and went back to work.

I knew joining this lot would be a mistake
, Lynx thought to himself, but his eyes lingered on Toil for long enough that he realised it wasn’t just orders or some sense of responsibility towards Sitain taking him east. There was a fascination, too, with this wild agent of some city-state he didn’t even know yet. Willing to march time and again into the jaws of danger, clearly driven by something deeper than greed, there was more to Toil than Lynx knew. He realised now that he craved answers to that puzzle. Toil was as darkly alluring as Shadows Deep, beauty and danger moving as one, and Lynx knew he wasn’t a man to always desire what was good for him.

‘Someone give Sitain a gun,’ he called. ‘Can’t ask anyone to go there unarmed.’

Payl nodded and handed over a mage-pistol and cartridge pouch which Sitain awkwardly belted around her waist.

‘Shadows Deep?’ she asked in a hoarse voice. ‘What have I just agreed to?’

Lynx forced a smile. ‘Sure it’s not as bad as it sounds. You know how mercenaries like to whine.’

Uvrel refused to simply stop and wait for Sauren’s promised reinforcements to catch up. She reluctantly lessened the dragoons’ pace to at least give them a chance, and save the horses they’d brought, but they still moved quickly and rested infrequently. As the sun brushed the outer edge of the Skyriver she raised her hand to bring her small column to a halt, Sauren waiting just a moment before ordering the dragoons to dismount.

‘Sir?’ the lieutenant asked quietly. ‘Shall I order rations?’

‘How far ahead do you think they are?’ Uvrel asked, staring off down the road.

They had glimpsed one of their scouts half an hour earlier, the man returning just far enough to give a signal before retracing his steps. Other than that, they’d had precious little trace of their prey, just one exhausted horse tied up by the road and a second that had been put out of its misery.

‘Not far at all. Their pace must be slowing by now, surely?’

‘Let us hope. Once they reach those caravans they’ll see they can’t all escape us. Mercenaries won’t sacrifice themselves.’

‘Will they fight?’

Uvrel scratched her armpit irritably. ‘There’s no way to tell. With reinforcements we can flank them, they’ll see our numbers and then surrender, I’d say. Probably put an icer in the brain of their captain themselves. If we catch them as we are, they’ll believe they have a chance.’

‘We could be walking into an ambush.’

‘If they have the guts for it,’ Uvrel said dismissively. ‘No reason they got a good look at our numbers before they fled the city.’

‘But if it’s their only chance?’

‘They still have to wait for a good ambush point and we’ve passed none since dawn.’

‘Should I ride ahead? It’ll make any ambush all the harder. They might not even try it if they lose the advantage of surprise.’

‘Surrender instead? A small hope, Lieutenant, but the idea is a good one. Do it. Keep well within sight though.’

‘Exalted!’

Uvrel turned at the voice from the rear of the column, but no explanation was necessary as a rider was coming up hard behind. Not a dragoon, but wearing the black and white of the Knights-Charnel all the same. His cloak flapped free behind him as he tore towards them, mage-gun visible in a white saddle holster. He jumped down from his horse and abandoned it as he stumbled towards Uvrel and offered a sloppy salute.

‘Exalted Uvrel.’ He was an evil-looking man with sandy hair and blotchy, uneven cheeks that made him look like a brawler or a drinker, most likely both.

‘Yes, Trooper? You’re ahead of my reinforcements?’

‘Yes, sir. Commander Quentes sends his compliments. They’re about an hour behind, if you hold here.’

‘That I will not, Trooper, we’ve still got the numbers to deal with them so Quentes will have to catch us. Dragoons, make ready to move on!’ Uvrel shouted to the rest. ‘Time to earn your pay!’

‘Shall I wait for my commander, sir?’ the trooper asked, more out of hope than anything else.

It was clear he’d be keen for the rest, having pushed on to catch them and only earning a regular man’s wage, but Uvrel wanted all the numbers she could muster if an ambush was imminent.

‘You too, Trooper. Lieutenant Sauren, go up ahead and keep within sight. Drop back if you spot an ambush site or anything else unusual.’

The column continued on in the same manner as before, a quick pace for travelling but a curtailed pursuit. As the afternoon warmed and the sweat built under her tunic, Uvrel felt her frustration wax with every passing mile. She watched Sauren keep as far ahead as possible on the long, straight road, dropping back a shade when there were other travellers, but this was a path many avoided. It verged too close to the wild of Shadows Deep for most tastes, the majority of traders taking the north road from Grasiel instead.

To her intense frustration they did pass an escorted caravan train from the coastal towns of the inland sea, Parthain, where the mercenaries were likely heading. From one of those they could hire a ship and set out across that great inland sea to any of the three city-states that might be behind this murder.

There was a sizeable escort to the caravan, all wearing a green uniform flashed with red that marked them as Knights of the Sacred Mountain – a warlike Militant Order dedicated to Ulfer. While the two orders were not exactly allied, scripture and regional politics meant the Mountain Knights would likely have joined any battle as Uvrel’s allies, had they come across the mercenaries at the same time.

As it was, the captain commanding the escort was happy to stop and answer Uvrel’s questions. They had indeed passed a mercenary company a few hours earlier and a smaller group no more than half an hour after that. The two would have met up by now given the pace set by the second party, their numbers and insignias conforming to what Uvrel already knew.

They parted quickly after that, the captain offering Ulfer’s blessing on their mission and regretting that he was already commissioned to a duty. Exalted Uvrel was brief in her thanks, not wanting Ulfer’s blessing when it didn’t come with additional guns, and pressed on. There was a renewed eagerness in her troops, however, having heard solid news of their prey, and in less than an hour Uvrel found herself standing at a bend in the road with both local scouts, hooded against the sun, and Lieutenant Sauren, glowering at a river ford.

‘You’re sure they parted company?’

‘Someone did, sir,’ the scout replied. ‘Saw nine riders break off and their tracks lead out of the ford, heading into the wilds. The rest of the company carried on down the road.’

‘And where is our assassin? Where is the mage?’ she wondered, looking past the ford at the grassy plain beyond.

‘If I might, Exalted?’ the scout continued, hesitantly. He was a middle-aged man with white stubble on his chin, eyes looking black in the shadow of his hood.

‘Go on.’

‘I’ve gone a way into the wilds here before. It’s no more’n two days of plains before you reach hills and ravines, easy to track horses over that. If they know what they’re about, no decoy would try to lead you off that way.’

‘Surely they could buy enough time for the rest?’ Sauren argued.

‘If they were Knights-Charnel, fine. We’ll obey orders and run off round the wilds, but mercenaries? Not a chance they’ll risk their hides like that.’

‘What if they’re not in fact mercenaries?’

‘Then they’re damn loyal troops, doing that for the others. They ain’t getting out of the wilds easy. We can track and encircle ’em on the plain, they’re pinned by the river on this flank and Shadows Deep beyond.’

‘And they can’t get back around us, not if they’re returning to the road. They must expect us to have some form of reinforcements following.’

‘Exactly, sir. They’re running for Shadows Deep is my guess. Mercs often sign up with adventurers to serve as added muscle; maybe they’ve been there before and know a path.’

‘And they’re banking on us not, or following the main company who can just stop and deny everything. If they don’t put up a fight and there’s none of the faces we’ve seen, what evidence do we have to offer the Lord-Exalted? The best we can hope for is names and descriptions to put a bounty on.’

‘It’s still not a move you make lightly,’ Sauren said, doing a fair job of keeping the apprehension from her voice.

‘When the Knights-Charnel are your pursuers, there are no easy choices,’ Uvrel replied. ‘Sauren, hold here and direct the rest after us into the wild. Have a company hold position at this ford to watch our backs in case the rest of the mercenaries try to double back. You had grenadiers and light infantry following you, Sauren, correct?’

‘Yes, Exalted.’

‘Good. We’ll want the light infantry to follow them in the wild.’ A tight smile appeared on Uvrel’s face. ‘And grenadiers are mad enough to enjoy the many delights of Shadows Deep.’

‘Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.’

‘Indeed. Dragoons! Ride as hard as you can! A Duegar ruin awaits us if we fail!’

The mercenaries rode in silence for an hour. The plain had a steady, gentle slope for the main and they made good time, but in the distance a dark shape lurked. Lynx felt it preying on his mind and as the ground beneath them climbed, the presence of Shadows Deep loomed larger.