Chapter 294: Orc Subterfuge
I woke a few hours later. Somehow during the night I had rolled back over and was now hugging the large white wolf. The warmth had been welcome, but I needed to relieve Mateo and Maveith on watch. The wolf roused with me, shaking its coat. Its brother was sleeping outside the door of the single-room cabin. I thought this might be the one I comforted during the thunder and lightning display. I rolled up my bedroll and sent the griffin pillow and bedroll to storage.
Mateo stretched his back, seeing that I was awake. Maveith was on the far side of the cabin, and Mateo went to get him. I would be the only one on the second watch, as my earth speak would help me watch a larger area.
Maveith and Mateo found their bedrolls after stirring the coals of Tarnasha’s fire. I decided to check on the horses and walked the thirty yards to where they were. The white wolf plodded at my side, and I passed him a chunk of bear meat. Good food was the best way to befriend an animal, as Ginger could attest.
The injured horses had been healed and I gave all the horses half an apple each before I returned for my watch. Maveith had waited for my return before curling into a ball in his bedroll. We hadn’t set the tarp tents because Glasha had guaranteed no overnight rain. I was starting to wonder what the extent of her magic was.
I found a comfortable rock roughly shaped like a seat and settled in. I pulsed earth speak, practicing refining my feedback from the pulse. The wolf sat behind me, higher up on the rock. He was hoping for a few snacks throughout the night, which he would receive, as I was apparently a pushover.
I watched my group from a distance as they stirred with the rising sun. Maveith was the first one up and quietly moved to prepare breakfast for everyone. Raelia was up shortly after and walked past me with a self-satisfied grin to check on the horses and tend to her own business. Blaze was next, and he moved to help Maveith prepare breakfast. Mateo had stood the first watch, so I couldn’t fault him for sleeping in. I was about to go wake Benito but hesitated. Waking him harshly was something Konstantin would do with a self-satisfied grin.
Benito was probably sore from practice last night and exhausted. He had taken the worst beating and didn’t get any healing from Glasha. I reclined in my seat and reached back to rub the wolf’s coat. “That one is scared of his own shadow,” came a voice from behind the wolf. Startled, I looked back to see the wrinkled orc. I hadn’t pulsed earth speak since the sun rose, but I was certain he hadn’t exited the cabin. He grinned madly. “I still have some tricks you young ones haven’t seen.”
In Orcish, he commanded, “Hunt!” The brother wolf by the door stood and looked for his sibling to follow. I had given him over two pounds of meat throughout the watch, and I wasn’t sure he would be motivated to hunt. He finally rose after Tarnasha nudged him strongly with his foot, but spent a minute stretching before sauntering off into the woods with his brother. Tarnasha sat down next to me. He smelled like mint and pine needles.
“Are you going to try and convince me to serve as Mynasha’s First?” I asked the orc.
He considered his response. “Glasha thinks you will break before we arrive. I told her you are a mercenary and need to be paid your due.” He started digging around in his leather hides for something. Coin was not going to sway my decision. He eventually found what he was looking for and handed me a blue sphere.
It wasn’t an essence, or at least it wasn’t one I was familiar with. It was the size of a major essence, a large marble, but lacked the characteristics of an essence. It emitted no faint glow and it had no visual appearance of movement within. To me, it appeared to be a simple, dark-blue stone. I tried to channel aether into it, but it was slippery and refused to take it. It must have been magical in some way. Confused, I looked up. “I give up, what is it?”
The old cleric smiled. “It is an obfuscation stone. Though the name is a bit of a misnomer. A better name would be a clairvoyance antithesis. It repels any spells with the clairvoyance affinity.”
“Seems like it would be valuable to those hiding from mages. Why would you give it up?” I asked, handing it back to him. It was not enough of an incentive for me to help Mynasha.
“Well, since I am leaving here, it no longer serves much purpose for me.” He chuckled to himself. “Not that anyone was searching for me. I just didn’t want to be found. It is also imperfect. Other affinities have spying and tracking spells, though not over as great a distance as the clairvoyance affinity.”
“Why did you think that would convince me to be Mynasha’s First?” It was a valuable artifact, and I was mostly certain it would fool a blood compass, but I would need to test it out. If I had such a device, I could have fled the Empire without concern of being tracked.
“Besides its value, if you are planning on absconding with the goliath’s sister, it could come in handy,” he explained. My jaw tightened and my anger boiled at the fact that Glasha had revealed our purpose in the Caliphate to Tarnasha. She might trust this old cleric, but I had not formed an opinion of him yet.
Realizing something, I narrowed my eyes and stated a bit tersely, “I thought if I helped Mynasha become the Supreme, she would free Maveith’s sister? Why would we need to flee in stealth?”
Tarnasha laughed softly. “Most certainly. Her word would be law if she was the Supreme. But that doesn’t mean others wouldn’t seek revenge against an honorless outsider who interfered with the Choosing.”
He stood and addressed me as he pocketed the stone. “It will be dangerous to flee the Caliphate with her,” he said gravely. “The warlords and clerics would unite to hunt you. Although outsiders are tolerated, the Caliphate and warrior caste in particular would not take such insults to their honor lightly.” I nodded as if I understood, but he wasn’t aware that I could simply place a living person in my dimensional space.
The wolves trotted into the clearing, one carrying a small faun in its jaws. Tarnasha addressed me. “I need to explain to them I am going away for a while.” He then addressed the two wolves. “Good work, Coryn and Ryshan. Come, and I will harvest your favorite parts and speak with you.”
“You can actually talk to them?” I asked, my mind momentarily off the stone.
“It is an imperfect spell form, but they can understand me well enough.” He walked down to the stream, and the wolves followed with their prize.
I helped clean up the campsite and ate with the others. Raelia returned from the horses, and it looked like she had spent time washing up at the stream because her hair was wet. We lounged around the fire, waiting on Glasha and Mynasha. Tarnasha returned from the stream, but the wolves were not following him. I guessed my new wolf-friend was temporary, but maybe when I settled down, I would get a dog.
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Mynasha emerged at midmorning, fatigue visible on her face, but she seemed more confident now that she had another ally for the Choosing. Maveith prepared an early lunch for all of us, and soon we set off on our horses, heading north. Since Tarnasha didn’t have a mount, Mynasha let him use hers. She would be walking until he could buy one. Maveith and Blaze led our group, followed by the trio of orcs.
I trailed further behind, but it was clear the orcs were strategizing about the Choosing. Once, early in the trek, I caught a glimpse of white deep in the woods, but after that, I didn’t see any sign of the wolves. It was a relief that the wolves were staying back, as the townsfolk would likely view them as a threat and try to kill them.
We followed the stream rather than retracing our steps on the game trail. Tarnasha assured us it would shave a few miles off our journey—an appealing prospect after a long morning on foot. By midafternoon, we rejoined the main trade road, and not long after, we reached a town where we managed to procure a riding horse for the old orc.
It didn’t take long for him to start complaining of saddle sores. Before the sun had dipped too low, he was already asking Glasha for healing. She gave him a sideways smirk. “You need to grow your riding thighs, old one. We’ve got nearly a week of hard days ahead. If I heal you now, you’ll just be in pain again tomorrow.” Still, when we made camp that evening, she took pity on the bowlegged orc and eased his aches with a touch of healing magic.
While the others settled in, I consumed one of the minor earth essences and set out to scout the perimeter of the farmstead we were using for the night. I hoped the chaos I had stirred up by unlocking my water affinity had calmed by now. The earth essence settled in more easily—it even sharpened my earth pulse slightly, pushing the range out a little farther. There was some mild discomfort, a churn in my gut, but nothing I couldn’t manage. I decided I would take the second minor essence a few days before we reached the capital.
The two minor strength essences had gone to Benito and Mateo. They wouldn’t get much from them in terms of power, but the boost to their morale and the reward for their loyalty and friendship were worth it. That left my current stock at three apex water essences and four minor air essences. I wasn’t ready to take the apex waters just yet—my body and mind needed more time to settle. As for the air essences, it would be a long while before I could unlock another affinity. Maybe by then, I would have better options available.
I didn’t spot any tracks around the farm, and my earth speak didn’t detect any threats beneath the surface. With things quiet, I had everyone train for an hour after dinner. It was just light conditioning drills to keep us sharp. Afterward, I allowed them to turn in for the night.
I took first watch with Blaze. The camp had gone quiet, fire crackling low between us. After a stretch of silence, I leaned closer and whispered, “Am I really that bad of a leader?”
Caught off guard, he stammered, confused. “What? Did you hear something?”
“When I sparred with Raelia, you were all hoping she would win. You were rooting against me,” I said softly.
Blaze chuckled to himself. “Just the opposite. I think we all aspire to be what you have become. Two years ago, you were a raw recruit joining the company. You couldn’t ride a horse and whined daily about your sores. Now you are fearless and running off to fight werewolves and ankhegs alone. Besting you, even in practice, is an accomplishment.”
Blaze paused in thought. “You could give us more compliments on our improvements. You are too much like Konstantin, pointing out our shortcomings. But no, you are a good leader. As good as Castile or Adrian, just in a different way.”
Feeling assured that I was not screwing up too badly, I grinned. “I didn’t whine aloud. Just groaned a lot.” Blaze started laughing and I joined him.
We were silent for a long time before Blaze spoke again. “You know Raelia has been trying to get your attention for most of the journey.”
“What?” I retorted, surprised and confused. “Is this about her being in my room in Adorechi?”
“No.” He laughed a little louder. “I know nothing happened there. For a man who is so perceptive, you tend to miss what is right in front of you. Did you even notice that Mateo stopped trying to gain her attention?” He patted my confused shoulder and went to wake the next watch.
During the next three days of riding, I received some more language lessons from the orcs between their strategy discussions. My focus was more on my group than the passing countryside. I did catch Raelia eyeing me a few times, but didn’t sense any underlying meaning in it.
She was an elf, and I was human, after all. She was on this expedition for Maveith, not me. I watched how quickly Mateo and Benito responded to any orders I issued. Maveith was a ball of anxiety as we got closer to the capital and his sister. He would be finding out soon if his sister was alive.
We were just two days from the capital of Becar, according to Glasha, when a thundering cavalry came up behind us. The dust cloud was visible down the road, and with my spyglass, I saw there were more than one hundred mounted warriors in heavy armor. The forerunners of the unit had extensive tattoos. Damn it, just two more days and we would have been done with this. I started giving orders. “Dismount and move to those rocks!” The rocks would prevent them from charging us.
Glasha cut through my orders. “Stop. They are not here for us. Move off the road; they will pass.” Everyone was tense as the thundering procession approached, but as predicted, they ignored us and rode past. One of the tattooed leaders peeled off and circled back to us.
He looked over our group, some confusion on his face. He finally decided to address Mynasha, probably because she was riding the biggest mount among the clerics. “Honored Battle Cleric, finding you on the road is fortunate. A force of mountain trolls commanding dark ogres has emerged from the Endless Dark.”
“Where?” Glasha interjected, her tone hard.
The orc bowed his head in deference. “Chronicler, the Skull Passage.” I must have missed how the clerics were identified. Was it her red hair that marked her as a Chronicler?
Glasha furrowed her brow and said angrily, “What of the passage guardians?”
“All dead from the report I received.” He looked over the clerics and then us, expecting something.
“We will meet you there,” Mynasha declared with a steely resolve, her eyes locking onto the rider with confidence. Glasha’s jaw clenched tightly as rage radiated from her. The rider, acknowledging her words with a subtle nod, spurred his horse forward to rejoin his warriors. Tarnasha shook his head. “The Skull Passage is a day and a half in the wrong direction. We will miss the start of the Choosing.”
With determination in her voice, Mynasha declared, “As a war cleric, my duty compels me to go, even if it means missing the Choosing.” Her eyes held resolve, embodying the weight of duty.
Glasha hissed, “I know. You would lose honor if you didn’t, and word of it would eliminate you from the Choosing after they called you a coward. It is all too convenient of an event to happen on our approach to Becar! One of the Elders or warlords must be behind it!” Glasha was chewing her tongue. “We have no choice but to go.”
Tarnasha was skeptical. “How would they force an exodus from the Endless Dark?”
Glasha chewed her cheek and answered obscurely. “There are ways.”
I pulled Ginger to join them. “No one asked me if I would agree to another detour.”
“We will go with or without your escort,” Mynasha declared before spurring her large mount forward, leaving us behind.
I locked eyes with Glasha and then Tarnasha, thinking. I turned and looked at my companions. Raelia had told them what was said. My eyes sought Maveith. He gave me a slow nod of consent. “We will go with you, but we will not fight the trolls or ogres. It is not our fight.” Glasha nodded in thanks, and no more words were spoken. We all spurred our mounts into a trot to catch up with Mynasha.
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