by Logan Jacobs
Lavinia swept her long white hair back away from her horns and into a ponytail as she mulled that over. Finally, she sighed as she stood and began to pack her things.
“It’s hard to get used to,” she said quietly. “Hunting’s better before dawn.”
I remembered what the ladona woman had told me about her life before she’d joined the Shadow Foxes. Orphaned at a young age, she’d had to learn to shoot to provide for herself. Her incredible skill as an archer and a tracker were born out of necessity, and it made sense that the habits she’d learned from that part of her life would be hard to break.
Before I could respond, Urim sat up and rubbed his eyes, and when he saw that Lavinia and I were already awake, he turned to Sulla’s sleeping form, shoved him roughly, and growled out some sort of command in orcish. Though Lavinia and I had taken care to keep our voices down, Urim spoke loud enough to wake the whole camp.
Lena, Aerin, Emeline, and Rezo raised their heads sleepily, but Maruk’s reaction was much more pronounced. The orc shot up with a look of panic and was halfway to his feet before he seemed to realize where he was and fixed a tired glare at Urim and Sulla.
“Must you do that?” Maruk groaned, his blanket still clutched in his hand.
“What did you do?” Lavinia asked as she stared at Urim. “It’s impossible to get him up.”
“It is the wake-up call we use on the ship,” Urim replied as he grinned around his tusks.
“It’s also a call to battle stations,” Maruk grouched. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”
“Ah, don’t get soft, Maruk,” Sulla chided as he stood and shook out his blanket. Like everything else the orc owned, it appeared to be spotted with old blood stains.
“Can you teach me how to say that?” Lavinia asked.
“Don’t you dare!” Maruk warned before either Sulla or Urim could respond, and he rounded on Lavinia with a frown. “It’s not funny.”
The ladona ranger patted him on the arm as she passed by him to stoke the fire. “It was pretty funny.”
“What time is it?” Aerin asked with a yawn. She’d managed to sit up, but she was still wrapped snugly in her blanket and looked as though she could fall back to sleep at a moment’s notice.
“Late enough,” Lavinia replied. She prodded the fire back to life and added another few pieces of wood to fuel it.
“Mmph,” Aerin muttered and wrapped her blanket over her head. “Just wake me up when breakfast is ready.”
Lavinia rolled her eyes. “It’s too bad you were never a pirate, Aerin.”
I chuckled as I walked over to the carriage to see what was left of the food Yvaine had packed. There were enough rolls and cheese for everyone to have toast for breakfast, but after that, we’d be back to relying on our own supplies until we’d finished dealing with the ogre. Not that it would be a problem. By Lavinia’s estimate from the night before, that could be as early as this afternoon.
I brought the basket over and took my share of the remaining rolls, and Merlin followed close at my heels and mewed pitifully as if he hadn’t just been gorging himself of swamp turtle. I broke off a bit of cheese and offered it to him to keep him occupied while I toasted the rest over the fire. A few moments of work and the toasty, melty combination of bread and cheese was ready, so I sat back against my pack to eat.
“This isn’t so bad,” Emeline said as she took a roll for herself and settled back onto her blanket. “Etienne told me adventurers in guilds have to eat bugs and tree bark to survive.”
“It’s not usually this good with the carriage and everything,” I admitted with a half smile, “but we haven’t had to resort to eating grubs yet.”
Emeline laughed as I fed Merlin another piece of cheese.
“Is everything else more or less what you expected?” I followed up with. I’d been meaning to ask Emeline how she felt about the first two real fights of her life. She’d handled herself well against the pirates and the leeches, but I knew from experience what a shock it could be to be thrown into this world so suddenly, and I was sure there were some things that her training with the Mage Academy couldn’t have prepared her for.
The panthera woman looked down as she picked at a loose thread on the hem of her robes, and her ears tilted back slightly.
“I keep thinking about those people we saw leaving Kepa,” she said quietly. Suddenly she looked up at me again, and there was an earnest, worried light to her green eyes. “Do you think they were able to make it back home?”
I considered her question for a moment. I understood her concern, but I knew, too, that beyond killing the invading pirates, there was nothing we could have done for the city and its people.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly, “but I hope so. We did what we could for them, and Edward and the other nobles will see to repairing the damage to the city. We’ll tell Yvaine what happened, and I’m sure she’ll hold him accountable.”
Emeline nodded. “Maybe when we get back to Ovrista, I can tell the archmages about it and organize a relief effort. I’m sure they’d want to help.”
I didn’t share Emeline’s confidence in the goodwill of the archmages, but I supposed we had very different perspectives of Eamon Maderel and his colleagues. For the sake of Kepa’s people, at least, I hoped Emeline was right.
“How do you feel about your mission?” I asked her then.
I’d never faced an ogre myself, but I’d read about them. They were intelligent, largely solitary, and fond of treasure. In the past, guilds had often sought them out for their treasure, or because the Mage Academy had put bounties on their heads. While they weren’t mages in the sense that humans and elves and other people were, they did possess some magical skill, and as limited as it was, it was apparently enough to make them a threat to the Mage Academy.
Our bounty only specified that we were to retrieve some documents from the ogre’s belongings, but I was sure that if our mission had to end violently, there would be no tears from the Academy on the ogre’s behalf. The thought stirred a faint sense of kinship and remorse within me, and I wondered what our odds were of simply convincing the ogre to let us take the documents we needed. Probably slim, if I had to guess.
“I’m ready,” Emeline replied confidently. “We already beat the pirates and those giant worm things and the water elemental.” Then her ears flicked back, and she blushed. “That’s more than Etienne ever thought I’d be able to accomplish, anyway.”
“I’m sure that’s not true,” I told her gently.
“He barely even let me do this,” Emeline complained. Her brows knit in a frustrated expression, and she snapped the loose thread on her robes over her fingernail. “He still thinks I’m just a clumsy little kid.”
“He’s worried about you, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t believe in you,” I said. Emeline didn’t look up, and she was in danger of beginning to unravel the hem of her robe if she kept picking at it, so I reached out and took her hand. “For what it’s worth, I believe in you. You’re going to do great.”
Emeline’s bright green eyes widened in surprise, and then she blushed again and smiled. “Thanks, Gabriel. I appreciate that.”
After everyone had eaten, we packed up the camp and started on the road again. It was a clear, cool morning, and I felt optimistic about the day ahead. I was riding along in the carriage with Maruk, Aerin, Lena, and Emeline while Lavinia walked behind with Sulla and Urim. She had a vested interest there as she asked them about various combat maneuvers that she could implement in the next fight. The orcs were loud enough that we could hear them from inside, and Maruk groaned and rubbed his forehead when Urim began to explain a leg-sweeping technique for taking down a larger enemy.
I was preoccupied with wondering what sort of enemies the orcs faced who were larger than they were, but Aerin looked over to Maruk.
“Something wrong?” she asked. “Is it your wound?”
The scratches Maruk had received during the battle in Edward’s library had scabb
ed over and appeared to be healing rather well, but Aerin still asked Maruk if they were bothering him at least three times per day. According to her, our net profit faced a serious reduction if we were not all in peak physical condition.
“It’s not that,” Maruk answered. “I just know Lavinia is going to want to practice that maneuver on me later.” He sighed. “They always used to make me practice that one with the children back home, and I hated it. My back would be sore for days, and I’m not as young as I used to be.”
“You’re not that old now,” Aerin pointed out.
“We’re about to fight an ogre,” I put in. “Maybe she can practice on him instead.”
Maruk grunted and settled back against the plush seat with his arms crossed.
“So everyone in your family really is a pirate?” Emeline asked, her ears pricked up with interest. “You grew up on a ship and everything? What was that like?”
“Oh, it was dreadful,” Maruk replied with a frown. “The food was especially bad. Pickles and sea biscuits aren’t all that pleasant at first, but believe me, they can get so much worse when that’s all you’ve had to eat for weeks.”
“Did you go on raids?” Emeline pressed. “And fight with swords? Did you find any cursed gold? Do pirates really talk like they do in books?”
Maruk raised his eyebrows and straightened up a bit, and Aerin threw me a glance and rolled her eyes as she mouthed, “Here he goes.”
“Well, I tried to forgo all that violence as much as possible,” Maruk started. “As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I only fight with my shields. As far as the cursed gold, there was one instance where my sister Oghash’s crew tried to rob a clan of leprechauns. They must have taken about two dozen chests full of gold and silver, but of course, it all turned into dried leaves and twigs the next morning. Oh, they were terribly upset. Smashed all the chests and threw them into the sea.”
“What happened to the leprechauns?” Emeline asked eagerly.
“Oghash and her crew went back for them,” Maruk answered. “She claims they slaughtered the entire clan and roasted them over spits, but I think she was just trying to save face, honestly.”
There was no end to the questions Emeline had for Maruk about his life as a pirate, and for his part, the orc seemed pleased to answer, though he frequently commented on how much better off he was now after having left such a barbaric lifestyle behind, and he recommended several books on philosophy to the panthera mage.
As we rode on, the forest pressed in closer on either side of the road, and hills rose up across the landscape. It was late in the morning when I felt the carriage slow and roll to a stop, and then Rezo jumped down and knocked on the door.
“I think we must be close,” he said gravely. “The horses are refusing to go any farther.”
We filed out of the carriage and looked around at the dense woodland that surrounded us. I could see no sign of the ogre’s keep yet, but there was something in the air that made my hair stand on end, and I rubbed my thumb against the hilt of my dagger.
Lavinia cast us a curious glance as she and the orcs caught up to the carriage.
“We’ll have to go the rest of the way on foot,” I explained. “The horses are too nervous to continue.”
The ranger nodded. “We shouldn’t be far, anyway.”
I turned back to Rezo.
“It might be better for you to stay here and keep an eye on the horses,” I told him. I’d appreciated his help with the pirates before, but I knew we’d be able to handle the ogre, and I didn’t want to be responsible for allowing one of Yvaine’s best people to get injured on the job.
“If that’s what you believe would be best, I’m happy to oblige,” Rezo answered with a small bow.
“We shouldn’t be long,” I told him. “I expect we’ll be back before dark, but if we get delayed, we’ll find a way to signal to you.”
Rezo dipped his head in a nod and with that, we gathered up our weapons and supplies and continued on foot. The road was clearly delineated from the surrounding forest, but it was still nothing more than packed dirt, and there was barely any impression of wagon wheels or other tracks to show that it saw much use. I supposed the ogre in the area had something to do with that.
Our boots crunched on the loose stones along the trail as we began a steady ascent up the road, but aside from that, the forest was quiet. There was hardly even birdsong or a rustle of leaves in the breeze. I wondered if that also had anything to do with the ogre, and I tried to remember if I’d read anything about them driving away animals.
Merlin at least seemed relaxed as he trotted up the road ahead of us, and of course, Maruk’s cousins weren’t the least bit put off by the stillness of our surroundings. The orcs talked and joked as before, sometimes in the common speech, though they switched mostly to orcish when they spoke to each other. I didn’t speak orcish, of course, but I gathered from context that they were debating the best ways to construct armor out of the skeleton of an ogre.
We’d been walking for about forty-five minutes when we came to a spot where a narrower path branched off from the main road, and Lavinia informed us that this was the way to the ogre’s keep. There was still no sign of the keep itself, but the road was lined carefully with stones, and it even appeared that the trees that grew over it had had their branches trimmed back to allow for easier passage.
As we started up the path, I cast a glance at Emeline to see how she fared now that her test was really about to begin. She rubbed her thumb over the worn leather strap that fastened her spellbook to her hip in little anxious swirls, but her expression was resolute and determined.
“Check it out,” Lavinia called and nodded up the path ahead to where the edge of a stone structure was just barely visible through the trees.
“Looks like we made it,” I replied and then turned back to the others. “Now, we don’t know what kind of defenses he has in place, so let’s take it slow from here and be careful.” My advice was mostly an attempt to keep Sulla and Urim in check, and I threw a glance over my shoulder at the pair to make sure they’d heard.
They didn’t look thrilled, but they nodded when they caught my eye, and I was satisfied that I wouldn’t have to worry about them setting off any traps by running ahead at the first sign of a challenge.
As we rounded a bend in the road, the trees fell away, and we got our first full view of the keep.
I wasn’t sure what exactly I’d been expecting, but I’d thought the ogre’s keep would be more or less like your typical abandoned ruins filled with magical creatures or rogue mages. Once-grand buildings that had fallen into disrepair so that they would make suitable hideouts for those who were scorned by the rest of civilization. The ogre’s keep, however, resembled Yvaine’s estate more than some old, crumbling castle or fort, at least from a distance.
It sat solidly on the edge of a hill, and its five towers of sturdy gray stone reached up above the treetops that surrounded it. Ivy clung to the walls, and along either side of the great oak doors were rose bushes heavy with white blooms. Definitely more Beauty and the Beast than Dracula.
As we made our way up the hill, I saw that all the windows were intact, and thick drapes were drawn across those at the lower levels. The trees nearest to the keep itself had obviously been pruned, and the dirt road had been covered over with a layer of fine white gravel.
“Are you sure this is the place?” Aerin asked as she looked around. The redheaded elf’s brow was furrowed in a skeptical expression. “It seems too nice for an ogre’s keep.”
“This is it,” Lavinia confirmed. “I’m sure of it.”
“Just because he’s an ogre doesn’t mean he can’t have good taste,” Maruk chided. “Perhaps he’s a gentleman, and we can simply negotiate for the texts that the Mage Academy wants us to recover.”
“I wouldn’t get my hopes up,” I warned. Of course, we wouldn’t rush into a fight we didn’t need to get into, but I doubted a bounty like this would be completed as easily as k
nocking on the door and asking politely. “Let’s see how we can get inside.”
“I’ll check the windows,” Aerin offered, and she waved Lena forward to help her.
“Maruk and I will look around the back,” Lavinia said. “There might be a side door that’s unlocked.”
“We could just break down that door,” Urim suggested, and his tone indicated that he viewed that as the most obvious solution.
“It looks pretty solid, I don’t think Lena’s bombs would be powerful enough, and we don’t have--” I started to reply, but I stopped and turned as I heard one of the orc pirates grunt followed by the rustle of leaves and a tearing sound.
Sulla had his huge arms wrapped fully around an oak tree that he was in the process of pulling out of the ground. Dirt trickled from the roots, already halfway torn up out of the ground. Sulla met my questioning look with raised brows.
“Battering ram,” he answered simply.
“Hey, there’s a window that’s open here,” Lavinia called back to us. “Second story, but I think we can all make it.”
“Put the tree down,” I told Sulla, and the orc stuck his lower lip out in a pout as he let the tree fall back into place and followed me.
Lavinia and Maruk stood below a wide window that had swung open just a crack. It opened in the middle with the two separate panes moving on hinges like a door. A stone ledge ran along the bottom, and a trellis woven through with vines was braced against the side, perfect for climbing. It was a lucky find, for sure, and it would definitely allow us to maintain a stealthier approach than busting down the front door.
“I stood on Maruk’s shoulders to look inside,” Lavinia said. “There was no one there, so as long as we aren’t too loud, we might be able to sneak in.”
There was one problem, however.
“Do you think we’ll all be able to climb up that?” I asked with a nod to the trellis. The iron frame looked sturdy enough for me, maybe even for Maruk, but I wasn’t sure that it would be able to support Urim or Sulla.
“Oh,” Lavinia said quietly. “Damn it, I didn’t think of that.”