Harmony said, “The dead kobolds are fed to a dragon that guards the orchard.”
Val said, “Or, more accurately, they are taken away by an army of invisible elves, deadly marksmen, who curse any trespassers with sickness and a slow death.”
I said, “And only we know that the army of elves is just four people. And that the dragon is just one tiny girl with black hair.”
Harmony grinned and said, “I’m thinking of shaving it.”
We looked at her in surprise and she said, “Oh, I meant my pubic hair. Like you Val and Dawn did. At least Dawn told me that you did. Was she telling me the truth?”
Dawn laughed very quietly and said, “Oh, she told you the truth. And it’s very nice.”
Harmony said, “It sounds like it. I have kept mine trim, but shaved sounds like something to try.”
I said, “We should sleep as much as we can. We can take shifts as lookout. Dawn, can you continue for the first watch? And then Val, and then me? And Harmony, you do what seems best to you. But I want you to get plenty of sleep. All of us should. Whoever has the last watch will wake us up when something happens. We can sleep past daybreak, as long as nothing needs us. Sleep as long as you can. We need the rest. We don’t know what tomorrow will be like. Delilah will have to change her tactics again. And so will we.”
Chapter 6 - Changing Tactics
I had taken two watches during the night. We had changed lookouts often. The girls let me sleep late. And Harmony as well. In fact, when I did wake up, Harmony was in my arms, sharing a cloak for warmth, and Val was kneeling next to us, encouraging us to wake up. She gave us a bit of breakfast and some water and the daily potions that she had prepared for us. Dawn was on lookout.
When we were fully awake and refreshed, Dawn joined us and we got a briefing on the situation. Harmony had woken up and gone on patrol several times during the night. She hadn’t found it necessary to kill any of the kobolds in the orchard. She had, however, made a trip to the cave mouth to find that fresh, that is living, guards had replaced the ones that she had slain earlier, and those died with kobold daggers in their chests, the same as their predecessors. Val reported that this morning, the kobolds had been very slow to wake up and seemed to be having trouble walking steadily. It was what she had expected. The poisons were working just as they had been designed to. Dawn had shot two kobolds who had stumbled on dead comrades and had tried to move them. She waited until they had entered the camp, and they died in the sight of the others. A third tried to pick up one of them, and he died instantly as well. After that, the dead lay undisturbed. They might not have been so easily discouraged if they had been healthy, but in this weakened state, they quickly let go of any plan that brought more hardship. She told us that there seemed to be a fair amount of argument taking place between the kobolds, with a lot of waving toward the hill and even more shaking of heads and fingers. So far, none of them had left the camp, but a party of four were at the edge of the orchard as if they were considering it. Dawn said that she counted fifty nine kobolds alive this morning, after she killed the three that she did.
Since nothing was happening, we waited, and even relaxed as much as we could. None of us could understand what the kobolds were saying, but our guess was that they thought that they wanted to get out of the orchard, but didn’t dare go back out of fear, for some reason. We waited another two full hours before anything new took place.
Finally, about midday, a few of the kobolds stepped out of the trees and climbed about a third of the way up the hill and started calling to their people above. Some words were exchanged, and then the kobolds sat down on the grass and waited. A quarter of an hour later, three of the kobolds came down from the cave entrance and had a conference with the ones from the orchard. They talked for a little while, and then the ones from the cave returned to their hole. A half an hour after that, three more, perhaps the same ones, came out again. They spoke to the few from the orchard and then all of them made their way to the camp. The majority of the ones at the camp didn’t bother to stand up as the newcomers approached, but some of them yelled weakly in some kind of complaint. The three from the cave spoke to a few, conferred with some that seemed to be leaders, and then left and went back to the cave again. And we didn’t see them again that afternoon.
At evening we ate some dinner, and waited some more. One more time, kobolds came from the cave, looked at the situation at the camp, and then returned the way that they had come. We stayed vigilant during the night, but this time, Harmony didn’t take any excursions up the hill, and none of the guards died overnight.
Chapter 7 - New Tasks
The next morning was like the one before. Val woke me, and this time it was Dawn in the cloak with me. We had some breakfast and discussed the situation. During the night, no one had gone between the hill and the camp, and no kobolds had left the camp at all. We considered several options. We could slaughter the kobolds at the camp. We could try to provoke more to attack us. We could make a raid on the caverns. Or we could wait. So we did. We waited.
It was clear that something was happening up in the caves though; that some kind of war council of their own was taking place. So we waited. If a massive attack came, we would deal with it as we could.
Again, about noon, a few of the kobolds left the cavern and went to the camp. None of the kobolds at the encampment were capable of standing, and several had fallen into comas, as Val had predicted. The scouts left quickly and ran back to the cave entrance. An hour later, we saw more activity than we had been used to.
As we watched, at least twenty, maybe thirty, of the kobolds came out of the cave and stood near the entrance. One of them walked slowly down the hill, carrying some kind of box. When he was thirty feet from the orchard, he stopped, set his burden on the ground and stepped back two paces from it. He faced the trees and called out something and raised his hands over his head. His words were loud, but they sounded more pleading than threatening. He stood and watched the trees, and then repeated the call again.
I whispered to the girls, “I think that he wants to talk.”
We discussed it and decided to take a chance. Of course we wouldn’t understand each other’s words, but I would see what communication we could have. I moved through the trees until I was in front of him, and then walked into the open. None of the kobolds moved or spoke. The girls were behind me, out of sight, with their bows ready.
At the sight of me, the messenger held out his hand as if to stop me and made some noise. I stopped, and the kobold took his dagger from his belt, and dropped it on the ground. Apparently, he wanted to at least discuss the situation without a fight breaking out. He didn’t wait for me to drop my weapons, and I had no intention of doing so, and he motioned me forward. I stepped up to a point about two paces in front of his box, and stopped. The kobold held out his hands and motioned at the box and slowly stepped up to it and removed the cover and stepped back quickly.
I looked at the contents of the box and was surprised to see coins and other items made of silver, gold, or other less valuable metals. Was this a plea for peace? I looked to the kobold, and he dropped to his knees and bowed his head.
Well, that was unexpected. I didn’t know if we could come to terms, or not, but we could at least try.
As soon as the kobold knelt, two more from farther up the hill started toward us. They moved slowly and carried cloth bags. When they were near the one who had come first, they dropped whatever they were carrying next to the box, and then all three of them moved ten feet to the side and knelt again. And then, two more did the same thing. They came slowly down to where I stood, dropped a sack with the others, and then joined their comrades in kneeling off to the side. Two by two, they came and added a bags and small boxes to the pile, and then joined the others. There were twenty seven of them in all that did the same thing. At the end, two more came, but these carried a large bundle wrapped in cloth. When they came near, they laid the bundle carefully on the ground and stooped beside it
and pulled away the cloth at one end. It was Delilah.
This was obviously a plea for peace. They had brought tribute and proof that they had put their queen to death for making war on us. What would happen now, I didn’t know, but I didn’t have to wait long.
The twenty nine kobolds stood very slowly, bowed, dropped their weapons, and backed away. They stepped backward for about twenty feet, and then bowed again. They turned slowly and then walked up the hill. But they didn’t go into the cave. They seemed to deliberately head to the west of it about a hundred feet, and then turned so that they walked straight up the hill in the direction of the top. I motioned for the girls to come out of hiding and follow me as I followed the kobolds at a distance of about seventy feet. About every fifty feet, the one who had come down first turned, bowed in my direction, and then went after his fellows. When he reached the top of the hill, he looked back at me and pointed in the direction that they traveled and then walked down the other side. When the girls and I reached the low summit, we stopped and watched as the little band of kobolds walked away.
I said, “What do you think of that?”
Dawn said, “Is it a trap?”
I said, “I don’t think so.”
Val said, “I think that is all that are left. We beat them and they gave up. I think they just gave us what treasure they had and hoped that it would be enough to keep us from killing them. I think that they are surprised that we didn’t.”
Dawn said, “So, the caves are empty?’
I said, “Maybe. Empty of kobolds. Not entirely empty, but maybe empty of kobolds. I think they just agreed to leave our lands and never bother us again.”
Harmony said, “Delilah is dead.”
I said, “I’m sorry.’
Harmony said, “She made her choice. We couldn’t have stopped her. Ronin, is the village safe now?’
I said, “I think that it is for now.”
Dawn asked, “For now?”
I said, “Have you heard the saying that when one door closes another is opened? The monsters live in a kind of self-sustaining system. The kobolds lived near the rats. There is a chance that something lived below the kobolds, deeper down in the caverns from them. If so, the kobolds kept those things from coming to the surface. If the kobolds are gone, the things below may eventually get hungry and come to the surface to find food. The same way that the kobolds did. If something is there, it will be worse than kobolds, but not as numerous. Like I said before, it could be cave trolls, or goblins, and something else. It won’t come out very soon, but eventually it might. And even if it doesn’t, if the caverns are clear, something else will move in. It would be a great place for a nest of giant spiders. Or, when enough time has gone by, if the kobolds don’t find a new home, they will forget why they left and come back.”
Dawn asked, “Will the kobolds attack the village or farm, if they live in the hills?”
I said, “Not for a long time, I think. They don’t know how they were defeated. They won’t want to come back and find out unless they get desperate. And even then, it will be easier for them to find food somewhere else than here.”
Harmony said, “What should we do with Delilah?”
Val said, “I don’t know. We can have a funeral and mourn her, but it will be a sham. But we can’t leave her in the open to rot.”
I said, “They are far away now. The kobolds are. Let’s go back now.”
We walked down the hill and stopped when we came to Delilah’s body and the piles of tribute.
Val lifted one of the bags and said, “It must weigh forty pounds. And there are at least twenty five of them. That’s a thousand pounds of treasure.”
I said, “Well, sort of. First, it hasn’t been sorted. Some of it will be shiny rocks and bits of glass. But, what we see here isn’t all of it. They brought what they could carry. I will bet that there is more that they didn’t bring out with them. We still need to go get it. We don’t know how much there really is. But even if this is all of it, and even if only half of it has any value, it will be a huge fortune.”
We just stood and looked at the pile, and at Delilah’s lifeless body for several minutes in silence.
I said, “I didn’t expect this. Not so soon. I thought that it might happen eventually, that the kobolds would turn on her, but not so soon. And I didn’t expect them to surrender and just leave. On the other hand, I didn’t know that we had killed all but thirty of them. I suppose that the total number here was a good size colony, about what? Two hundred? I was just planning for the worst. I guess that we’re fortunate that they didn’t have more time to establish themselves as a stronger force. It makes me wonder.”
Dawn said, “Wonder about what?”
I said, “Did the kobolds move in recently and hadn’t grown to a larger population yet, or had they been here for a long time and were stronger at some point, but something else started killing them and driving them to the surface? Like I said before, have we opened a door for something that is worse than kobolds? It doesn’t matter. We did what we had to.”
We stood for another minute and then I announced, “Well, we need to get to work. I know that we’re tired from the constant battle for the past, well two weeks, I guess, but we have to finish this job before we take our holiday.”
Val said, “To clean out the caves?”
I laughed and said, “No, no, not that. That can wait for another adventure. What we need to do is to let everyone know that we are safe. We need to show the workers that the orchard is safe and get some wagons out here to take away the bodies and our treasure, whatever it might be. The caverns will wait until we are fresh and ready for them. Let’s go down to the tunnel and start telling the good news. The four of us will work for just a few more hours, and then we can rest.”
Dawn said, “And take baths.”
Harmony said, “And get out of our clothes.”
Val said, “I love what we have been doing, sleeping on the ground in shifts and eating in secret and all of that, but … it will be nice to sleep in a bed again, at least for a few nights. And to sit at a table with family and be able to talk and laugh.”
I said, “Good. Let’s go.”
We walked the short distance to the tunnel entrance and stood at the top and called down.
I said loudly, “Hey, is anyone down there?’
A voice came back, “Yes, Sir. What do you need?”
I said, “It’s safe up here now. Come up and see. We need to talk for a minute.”
A man that we had seen several times before came to the edge of the hole, and looked about to see if it did seem safe. I pulled him up from the hole and he stood beside me. He called down to others, and two more came up.
I said, “Men, it’s done. The orchards are safe. The kobolds are all gone. Oh, wait just a moment. Harmony and Val, will you go to the camp and make sure that um, that all the dead bodies are ready to be transported?”
Val looked puzzled, but Harmony knew exactly what I meant and she took Val away to make sure that all of the kobolds were truly dead. I didn’t want any that were still breathing to be lying there when the workers came to take them away. That could have been a shock for the men, for sure.
I went on, saying, “So, we need men and maybe three wagons to come up here and collect about sixty or seventy bodies. And a thousand pounds of unsorted loot. I will show you where it all is. The way across the fields is perfectly safe, and it might be faster to go above ground than through the tunnels.”
The acting foreman agreed to take care of all of it. I said that the girls and I would stay here and wait, but asked him to see if Gerald would come when they came with the wagons and workers.
He said, “Sir, this has been quite an adventure. I never thought that I would see days like this, for sure. And, as unpleasant as it might have been for you, I have to say that it has been a pleasure for us. You have saved our homes and our lives, and made us rich besides. Thank you. We will always be in your debt.”
I said, “How did I make you rich? I haven’t done that.”
He said, “Sir, come now. The loot is yours, and I don’t mean that at all. But your father promised us our portion of the money from the hides and leathers. The village will share it. Some are plowing and planting, and the skinners are working all day, every day. The rats were worth a bit and every family would have a few silver pieces from them, but these kobolds are very rare and the hides are prized for many things. Every family will have a gold coin or more when we have sold them. We aren’t fabulously wealthy, but we will have made perhaps two months wages in a few days. And we would have done the work for nothing, because we had to in order that we wouldn’t lose our homes. We can discuss it all you want to, but the end of it is that we are very grateful to you. And it seems that it is a miracle that it has been done so quickly and without the death of a single man. All we can say is thank you.”
I assured him that we were very happy that everyone was safe and that we accepted their gratitude and were grateful for their work and support as well.
The on in charge said, “Men, run back as fast as you can and get the three wagons, and at least ten more men. Tell Gerald what we have learned and see if he has orders for us as well. I will stay here and take a look at what needs to be done so that Sir Ronin doesn’t have to direct the work when you come back.”
The two men started to run at a medium pace toward the farm, and the foreman stayed with me. I made some small talk with him, until Val and Harmony returned.
Val smiled and said, “All ready to go at the camp.”
I said, “Good. Let’s go show our friend around.”
I took him first to the hill and pointed out the pile of loot, suggesting that since it was about thirty feet up the hill that they might want to bring a wagon up here first, before it was loaded with bodies. He agreed, and then we went down to the orchard and showed him the kobold camp. There was plenty of room for the wagons in the orchard, and getting here to haul away the dead would be no problem. I walked him around the orchard a bit, just to show that it was all quiet and perfectly safe and that no one needed to be nervous. They could all come and work here, and even have children play here again, as soon as the gruesomeness of the camp was eliminated.
The Edge of Harmony: The Guardian Maidens Book 2 Page 6