by Sami Dougish
Orizmad chuckled to himself, and gestured to the dwarf behind him, “This is Brazkin, and he is one of my oldest friends and associates. The stuck-up bastard is also a mage, I think he will come in handy on our little mission wouldn’t you say?” Orizmad clapped Brazkin on the back, and the mage stumbled forward from the force of the blow.
Brazkin straightened up, and shot a half amused, half annoyed look at Orizmad before turning to me. He stepped forward, and offered me his hand, “I am glad this old fool managed to find us more help for this job. You look impressive, but are you actually capable.”
I didn’t take his hand, instead I narrowed my eyes at the dwarf, and just said, “We will see.”
I then turned back to Orizmad, and got straight to the point, “This house, is not simply a front, you occupy it often I would guess seeing as it is well maintained. How do you get in and out of a dwarf hating city on a regular basis if not through the gates?”
Brazkin looked offended by me dismissal of him and looked about to say something to me. Orizmad on the other hand, chuckled, and said, “He is a direct one isn’t he Braz?”
Brazkin glared at me and said, “Rude too!”
“I am not here to be polite or make conversation,” I said bluntly, “I am here to help you kill people, and free your workers. You still haven’t answered my question dwarf.”
I heard a rustling behind me, and Micah stepped forward angrily, and said, “Hey listen here you big bastard, Show some fucking respect! If you don’t fix that attitude, ill- “
He never got to finish as Orizmad held up a hand to calm him down, and said, “It’s alright Micah, calm down,” He then turned back to me, and said, “You know it has been a long time since anyone had the stones to speak to me this way. I must say I have missed this straight forward kind of talk! We dwarves appreciate it when a man doesn’t beat around the bush. Very well I will give you some answers. You are right for one, this is my main operating base in this part of Thuum. I prefer the smaller towns, to the bigger cities, as It is easier to bribe guards in the smaller towns, then it is in the bigger cities where the king’s army regulars have a much stronger presence. You are also correct to assume that I have another way into the city. I had a large smuggling tunnel dug from here out into the surrounding forest, Its nearly two miles long, and took a lot of gold and work to complete it is worth it though, as I can smuggle other good and people through there, that need to avoid the use of the town gates.”
I nodded he had just confirmed what I had suspected, “So that is why you want to break out of the north gate instead of using your smuggler tunnel? You would rather keep it secret, so that you’ll be able to keep up your operations after the jail break.”
It wasn’t a question; I knew that was why he had chosen this certain escape plan. Orizmad just smiled, and said, “You are a sharp one laddie, yes that is exactly why. Quite a few of my boys were rounded up, and that large of a group running through the streets back to this house, and then disappearing? Well suffice to say that would let the soldiers in on my operation, as sure as if I painted a large sign over my door that said SMUGGLERS DEN!”
I thought about what he had said, and in the end, I really didn’t care. I was here to get out of this city and acquire a mount. Rushing out the front gate instead of fleeing through the smugglers tunnel would just mean I got to kill more humans. That was a win in my book.
“Doesn’t matter to me. Just point me to where and who you want me to kill.”
Micah raised an eyebrow at me, and looked nervously at Orizmad, as if asking whether or not me being here was a good idea.
Orizmad however burst out with a deep bellied laugh, and said, “Oh I wish I had more of you laddie, while I prefer to keep myself and my work in the shadows, a vicious enforcer is a necessary asset as well, and you seem you would be perfect for that line of work. Just tell me where and who you want me to kill? Oh, that is perfect!”
Brazkin sneered at me, and muttered, “As long as he can back up his words that is!”
I turned my gaze to the wizard, and looked him in the eyes, refusing to look away from the arrogant wizards disgusted expression. I just imagined what he would sound like if I shoved my naginata through his guts, and the thought of that helped calm me a slightly.
Orizmad gave his friend a light shove, which coming from the burly dwarf, seemed to be more of a hard push, “Oh leave off him Braz, just because he isn’t trying to shine your loose asshole with his noise don’t mean he isn’t capable.”
His joke broke the tension for me, and to my surprise, I nearly chuckled at the dwarf’s words, and nearly lost the battle when I heard Raskorian chime in, “Uncouth Mountain rats!”
Fortunately, the mask protected my face from being read easily, and I did my best to wait until Orizmad was done laughing at his own joke. After he had gotten control of himself again, he gestured behind him at the table, and said, “Well now before we discuss the plan in more detail, how about you come join us for some food! No point in fighting on an empty stomach I always say.”
I shook my head and said, “Not hungry.”
In all honesty I actually was very hungry, but I knew eating would force me to remove my mask, and I had no intention of doing so in front of these people.
Orizmad rolled his eyes, and said, “Well suit yourself laddie, but what are you going to do, just stand there like a statue while we eat?”
I didn’t answer and instead just rested my weapon against the decorative wall and leaned into the wall besides it.
“That is exactly what I plan on doing,” and with that having been said, I did exactly that.
The two dwarves looked at each other, and shrugged, and moved back over to their plates. Micah followed as well, and I saw that there was a plate laid out for him as well. I waited, inwardly impatient while they ate their meal, and discussed different topics. They spoke in a language that I recognized was dwarven, and I was surprised to see that Micah spoke it too. I glanced out the window, and saw that the sky was already lighter than it had been when I arrived, but the sun was still out of sight.
“Hey Raskorian, can you understand what they are saying?”
“Of course, dwarven language hasn’t changed much in the past few millennia it would seem.”
“Well can you tell me what they are saying?”
“They are discussing you as a matter of fact. The human, and the mage are asking him where he found you, and why they should trust you. The mage in particular seems to dislike you. It seems he didn’t enjoy you dismissing him like the cretin he is. I swear the arrogance of mages will never cease to amaze me. They think since they have the slightest grasp on what magic truly can accomplish that they are the ultimate specimens of their respective races. HA their knowledge couldn’t fill those mugs they have when in comparison to my kinds knowledge of the arcane!”
I mentally rolled my eyes at him, and said, “Yes, you are the epitome of modesty and humility.”
“You know sometimes I regret teaching you new words, they have led you to overestimate your own mental capacity.”
“We can fight about this later, what else are they saying?”
Raskorian growled in my head, but still he resumed his translation for me, “The human feels concerned that you remind him of a rabid dog, uncontrollable, and dangerous. He does not feel comfortable with you at his back for this mission. Orizmad however says that they will need all the help they can get, and that you have an air of confidence about you that he trusts.”
I saw Brazkin glance over at me, and glare before turning back to Orizmad and asking something. Raskorian was fortunately quick with the translation.
“Both the human and mage are asking him why you wear the mask over your lower face. Orizmad is telling them that he didn’t know, but that yesterday you had it covered as well, just with a bloody rag instead of the leather. He thinks you are probably a criminal on the run or something of the sort. He doesn’t care though as long as you can fight and save his
men.”
Even though Raskorian could be as irritating as an anal pimple, he was getting more and more useful as time went on. He still was prone to long bouts of silence, but he was now more active throughout the day, and in my eyes, was proving his worth. I basically had a mental translator for nearly every language in existence. I could see the benefit of that as I traveled through the continents. I couldn’t lie either it was comforting to have a constant companion. He was puffed up, arrogant, rude, and an extremely condescending companion, but even with all of that, his presence and the power that came with it had saved my life multiple times.
For the next ten minutes or so the dwarves ate and discussed me and what they planned on doing to break their men out. Raskorian continued to translates, and several times I was tempted to ask him to tell me how to say a few words in dwarven, just to enjoy seeing their reactions, but I decided that letting them think I couldn’t understand dwarven was an advantage I couldn’t afford to lose.
Finally, Orizmad slammed his mug down and belched loudly. He wiped his face with his sleeve, and said, “Well now that we are good and full, let’s begin talking about our plan of action. He looked at me, and said, “You know you still haven’t told me your name laddie, what should we call you?”
“Whatever you want, I don’t care,” I said with a small growl to my voice. I still saw no reason to reveal my name to them.
Orizmad shrugged and said, “Well I’ll call you mute then as you seem incapable of speaking in more than a few sentence or words at a time. So, come on over here mute, and take a seat, and let’s discuss our plans.
Glad to finally be getting to business, I moved forwards, and sat down heavily on one of the seats. Even though the seat was small for me, it didn’t have any arm rests, so I was still able to fit. I kept my hand on the naginata though and turned to face Orizmad.
“Well as I said yesterday, my boys are currently stuck in the keeps prison. A contact of mine though informed me at first light, they will be transferred to the northern gate garrison to be then transported to the slave markets. Now most of the guards will be out on patrol or manning the gate itself. We will use that to our advantage to strike. Once we get into the prison and free my men, our numbers will swell, and we will be able to strike at the more heavily fortified gate and break out.”
“How many men do we currently have, and how man will we be breaking out?” I asked as Orizmad paused.
He smiled and said, “Well us for now, several more of my spies and contacts in the town should be on their way here now to help us. Altogether we should have seven men. As for the amount of my boys being held, well as long as they haven’t killed any of them yet, there should sixty-seven of them locked up.
I nodded thoughtfully. In comparison to a full army, sixty-seven wasn’t all that much, but as a surprise strike force, in a border town, it would be a significantly more effective force.
Plus, when we free them, we can have them arm themselves with the city guards’ weapons, I assume they would have an armory at their garrison” I said as I looked to the three men in front of me for confirmation.
Orizmad nodded, and said, “Yes indeed they do. Once we get our men free, we can make a push to the northern gate. Now the gate to the north is the largest in the town, as it faces in the direction that will eventually lead to the Stenao Dukedom. They usually have a standing garrison of forty or so men at the gate. That isn’t counting the patrols that constantly move around the city.”
I decided now was the time to ask about the keep, “I saw that we are close to the towns keep. Should we expect any reinforcement form that garrison?”
This time it was Micah who spoke, “If they catch wind that a band of dwarves and humans are making a rush for the gate, they most certainly will send reinforcements. The mayor of this town won’t want to lose so many potential slaves. As mayor he collects a profit for every slave sold at the market. He will want us recovered as soon as possible. Thankfully by the time they organize a response we should be able to get out and loose them in the forest outside. The boss has set us up with supplies and mounts outside, and once we are clear of town, we will make our way there and make our escape.”
“Where is this place?”
“Just follow me mute! I’m sure you shouldn’t have any trouble keeping up with me with those long legs of yours.” Orizmad said with a large grin plastered on his face.
I just stared at him impassively for a few seconds, and then nodded in understanding, but then went on to ask, “Any idea on how many city guards will be at the garrison?”
Orizmad shrugged, and said, “No way to be sure, it depends on how many are out on patrol. The captain of the guard and his staff are always at the garrison, so that’s eight right there. Now add the trainee’s, the instructors, and patrols on break, well we can expect anywhere between twenty to sixty men.
I mulled that over in my head briefly, seven against twenty men wasn’t good odds, let alone sixty. Sure, I had killed nearly the same amount of bandits single handedly, but that had been at night, and most of them had been drunk. Still, we might be able to pull it off though, as I doubted the guards would have any idea that they were going to be assaulted in their own garrison. From what I had seen of city guards, they tended to fall into routines, and didn’t deviate much. If we hit them hard and fast, and didn’t give them time to recover, we might be able to overwhelm them as long as they didn’t have a cohesive response to our raid.
“What going through your head mute?”
“Just think about our odds of attacking a garrison like that with only seven men.”
Orizmad clapped his hands together, and said, “You are forgetting that we have a mage on our side! Give Braz here enough time and space, and he can wreak some havoc amongst the enemy.”
I narrowed my eyes at The dwarven mage. From what I had experienced, mages magic tended to be volatile, and hard to control. I didn’t want to have to rely on this mage to watch my back, but it seemed I would have little choice seeing as we were so badly outnumbered.
“Fine, how are we going to approach the garrison though? While me and the other humans can approach the garrison without too much suspicion, there is no way they will let a pair of dwarves walk up to their garrisons.”
“Ah you see now that is the advantage of being a smuggler, I have stashes all over the place. Micah will be driving a cart towards the garrison under the pretense of being a merchant with barrels of ale for the garrison. Braz and I will hide in two of the empty barrels, and one thing that almost any guard post is always happy to get is new ale deliveries. The rest of you can pose as mercenaries hired by Micah to escort the wagon from the nearby Cherub brewery. They are a common place sight in this town, and make frequent deliveries to restaurants, taverns, and the guards. I even have one of their wagon emblems emblazoned on the wagon. That should get us to the gates easily enough.”
I decided to bring up one more point before waiting for the operation to get started, “I have heard that the king’s regulars had been sent to this region, should we be worried about any regulars inside the keep? They will be a much harder enemy then this town guards?”
For once, Orizmad seemed to get serious, and stroked his beard briefly before saying, “I have heard similar rumors as well. Apparently, the king dispatched them to hunt down some rogue Drayzraac. Sounds like nonsense to me though. One drayzraac can’t be worth all the trouble for the king himself to dispatch part of the regular army to track it down.”
“Well boss rumor has it that this Drayzraac slaughter an entire village near here, after working with bandits to take it over in the first place. They say he then turned on the bandits and massacred them all as well. Apparently, some noble’s son was there too somehow, and got himself killed by the scaly as well!”
Braz sneered in disgust and said, “Leave to one of the cursed race to do something so dishonorable! It’s hard to believe one lizard managed to do all that himself, but if it’s true, hopefully the regulars
will be more focused on finding the lizard instead of us. They most likely would be patrolling the woods, no chance he would be stupid enough to come into the city. Either way, soon enough he will be caught skinned, and then killed, and that will be one less abomination the world has to deal with!”
I had to lean my naginata against the wall, so I could keep my hands hidden under the table, as they shook with barely controlled fury. At this moment I wanted nothing more than to tear the smug mages throat out and tastes his blood as the life left his body! I took advantage of the fact that the mask covered my lower face, and bared my teeth at the mage, doing my best to control the urge to leap across the table at him. Maybe if I took one of my knives, and slowly peeled his skin off, maybe then he wouldn’t be so eager to have my scales skinned off my body! My tongue ran across my sharp teeth, trying to imagine what he dwarfs blood tasted like! My vision was turning the light tinge of red that was a sign my animal nature was asserting its dominance!
“Calm yourself vessel, believe me, I have no qualms about you killing this mage, but that might complicate our escape, you will be able to sate your bloodlust soon enough.”
Raskorian’s advice to control and calm myself, surprised me enough that it helped me get a handle on my dangerous emotions.
“You are cautioning me to be patient and careful?! Aren’t you the one who is usually shouting at me to just kill anything in sight?!”
Raskorian sniffed, and said, “Well I was starving at those times, imagine having to subsist one what amounts to travel ration for hundreds of years. Since then, you have managed to kill a number of beings, and I have relieved some of the maddening hunger, Now I am more interested in keeping you alive, so as to ensure I never go hungry again.”
I stifled an amused snort at the dragon’s words, he had the weirdest way of giving me compliments, but I would take it. It was better than his near constant stream of insults when we first bonded. I unclenched my hands and quietly took a deep breath. He was right, I would be able to kill soon enough, and there was no point in satisfying my anger now. I had more to gain by waiting, then attacking now. None of the people at the table seemed to have noticed my tension, and I quickly schooled my features back to a neutral look. I had missed what Orizmad had said, but it was clear we were still going ahead with the strike, so I figured it didn’t matter.