Tribe Master 5: A Fantasy Harem Adventure

by Noah Layton

  ‘You better serve me well tomorrow,’ I whispered to it. ‘Even if we manage to muster an army, I don’t know what we’re going to be up against. You might be our only hope…’

  I slid the sword beneath the bed and undressed, climbing beneath the covers amongst my wives.

  Despite the battle tomorrow they were all sound asleep, hardly shuffling.

  I thought I knew the reason. They had something to put their faith in, something to believe in – me.

  They didn’t need the moonseed to get to sleep.

  But I was the one at the top, the one responsible for leading, for guiding, for bringing us to victory, for keeping us safe.

  The only person I had to look up to and believe in was myself.

  I downed the moonseed and taurem milk concoction and dropped the flask into my inventory before resting my heavy head against the pillow.

  Heavy is the head that wears the crown, as a wise man once wrote.

  Warmth, comfort, the company of my beautiful wives…

  This might be the last night I get to enjoy it.

  Chapter Seventeen

  ‘Master Jack, Master Jack!’

  The moonseed had done too fine a job of knocking me out the night before. When I awoke the next morning it felt like a pleasant but hefty weight was hanging from my head by a rope.

  But when Alorion was calling my name and slamming his fists on my treehouse door, I always knew that something was up.

  I staggered out of bed and promptly pulled on some clothes. I made to the door, but not before backtracking sharply and dropping to my front like a contemporary ballerina, snatching my new sword from beneath the bed and quickly equipping it at my waist.

  Before I even reached the door I heard the call of the red xevea beaks coming from the northern watchtower.

  ‘What is it?’ I asked frantically, wrenching the door open to the sight of Alorion pointing to the gates.

  My imp companion pointed towards the northern gate wordlessly.

  They were still securely locked and barred, but I could feel the presence of something substantial lurking just beyond them.

  Whether they were here to attack or assist was another matter entirely.

  We arrived at the gates not a minute later. As I crossed the fields, I felt the snow slushing against my boots and registered the change in temperature.

  Things suddenly felt a little warmer than they had in the deep throes of the cold spell.

  ‘Who is it?’ I called to the fox-man on duty upon the watchtower.

  ‘Allies,’ he nodded down to us with a smile.

  I didn’t request that anybody shift the bar this time; I was so eager to see who awaited us that I removed it myself, carrying it away with strained grunts and throwing it aside.

  I returned to the gates and heaved them open, revealing our guests.

  The moment I laid eyes on the considerable forces standing before me, my heart skipped a beat and I reached for my sword.

  When my awakening mind finally registered who I was looking at, an uncontrollable smile rose to my face.

  ‘I heard you were in need of an army.’

  Mariana sat atop one of the pink steeds that the sun-elves rode, each looking like slim versions of hippos, the very same that I had seen her father and his warriors riding on the very first occasion that I had made contact with their tribe.

  It was the first of five – four of her sun-elf warriors sat atop the steeds, two either side.

  Behind them, stood rank on rank, were no less than fifty armored sun-elves standing to attention. Some held gladius swords, others were armed with bows, and those closest held spears.

  A well-trained group of warriors.

  Mariana dismounted her steed and crossed to me, removing her helmet and offering a handshake, which I took firmly.

  ‘The snow is melting,’ she said. ‘This cold spell seems to be coming to a close. The gods may be on our side yet.’

  ‘Let’s hope so,’ I nodded. ‘Bring your warriors inside. They can set up in the pasture to the south.’

  Mariana spun on her heel to face her soldiers.

  ‘Morelia-taus!’ She called out commandingly, in a fearsome tone that I had never heard her muster before.

  Every standing soldier raised a foot and stamped it, them shouted back: ‘taus!’

  We made way for the sun-elves as they marched onto the land, loyally following Mariana along a path of their own to the southern pasture.

  By now my people had begun to emerge from their homes, watching the procession of sun-elves move in startling coordination.

  When the final sun-elves had entered the land and were trailing after the ranks at a prompt speed, I moved to close the gates, when-

  ‘Master Jack!’

  I opened the gates once more to the sound of the voice, expecting to see more sun-elves.

  Instead I was met with something else – maybe something even better.

  Tobias, the leader of the warriors, was guiding his tribe, each of them armored and armed.

  ‘That was damn good timing,’ I smiled, shaking hands with Tobias. ‘I was wondering if you would be able to make it in good time at such short notice.’

  ‘Short notice?’ The leader scoffed. ‘You saved my people from a terrible fate, Master Jack. Your enemy is our enemy. It would be an honor to fight alongside you.’

  ‘And an honor for me too,’ I nodded. ‘You can get set up with your people in the north-east. We’ll get you started with some firewood and taurem steaks.’

  The leader nodded to me and ushered his warriors onto the land. They moved swiftly in double file to their camp for the day.

  All of my allies were in one place.

  Now it was just a matter of preparation and execution.

  Nightfall was coming, and with it our journey to the tribal land of our enemy.

  ***

  The Map Room had never been so filled, nor by such a diverse range of people.

  From my land, myself, Alorion, Onilsia, and my wives crowded on one side.

  From the land of the warriors, their leader and two of his senior guards stood on another.

  On the third stood Mariana, her imp, and two of her closest advisors, a male and a female sun-elf.

  How quickly she’s taken on the role of leader, I couldn’t help but think with a repressed smile.

  ‘We need to know exactly where we’re headed,’ I started, addressing Mariana. ‘I’m guessing you figured out where Garrison’s tribe is located?’

  ‘That we did,’ she answered. ‘North-east, well beyond the land of the dwarves. I trust this is how he found it so easy to attack their land.’ Mariana nodded to Onilsia.

  ‘I do not understand how we missed his presence,’ Onilsia said. ‘We have lived upon that land for some time.’

  ‘He does not seem to have been there for long,’ Mariana said.

  ‘Wait, what?’ I replied in confusion. ‘Are you serious? How can you know that?’

  ‘While my spies were carrying out their observations, they managed to notice a few things. The first was the size of the land – it is surprisingly small, which is what made it so difficult to find in the first place.

  ‘What’s more is that it’s hidden in a patch of dense forest. That is exactly the reason that your tribe were unable to find it, Onilsia. It is hardly noticeable. Easy to hide in, and easy to leave behind.’

  ‘This isn’t the kind of place that I would imagine Garrison occupying,’ I admitted. ‘He’s a megalomaniac. He values things above all else.’

  ‘Perhaps that is the very reason he occupies this land,’ Talia said. ‘Forgive me for interrupting, but within my old tribe there were stories of one of our ascendants who had hoarded fruit from the forest, dumping it into a small cavern and eventually drowning in it in a fit of madness.’

  Everyone stared back at Talia.

  ‘So…’ I pondered.

  ‘What I mean, is that a man like this may wish to compress his wealth into
a small space. The opposite of us, essentially.’

  ‘That’s… Actually quite a convincing idea,’ Lara nodded, impressed.

  ‘Either way, this small land may yet act as a problem,’ Mariana continued. ‘My scouts inform me that Garrison has destroyed the forest surrounding his land.’

  ‘How much of it?’ I asked.

  ‘At least sixty yards from the perimeter to the tree line, maybe more. In addition, there are four guard towers overlooking this open space. It makes a stealth attack, even one carried out at night, nigh on impossible. He will see us coming.’

  ‘Damn it,’ I muttered, plunging my hands through the blue grid and planting them on the stone table. ‘We can’t even launch a volley of arrows either.’

  ‘That was going to be my next suggestion,’ Mariana said in confusion. ‘Why is a ranged stealth attack from the forest such a bad idea?’

  ‘Because of the potential for collateral damage,’ I replied, looking around at my allies. ‘We know that Garrison deals in slaves. Even if his land only occupies a small area, it’s a fair assumption that he’s got cages filled with slaves on his land. Any of our blind ranged attacks could easily kill innocent beings. We can’t let that happen.’

  ‘Then we need another plan of attack,’ Mariana said. ‘Master Jack.’

  She might have been my ally, but I could still tell that she was challenging my competence.

  ‘What we need is some way to bring down this outer perimeter, and the watchtowers with it. If we can cause enough confusion and panic, we can buy enough time to move our warriors in across this open stretch of land and surround Garrison and his men…’

  I stared at the diagram and the empty space that surrounded the land we intended to attack.

  How do we do this?

  And then, just as I asked myself the question, the happy answer came to me.

  I looked up at Mariana. While my expression made it seem as if I had just discovered the secrets of the universe, hers was filled with trepidation.

  ‘No,’ she started.

  ‘Yes,’ I answered.

  ‘The Infernal Fire Explosives? We don’t know how unstable they are.’

  ‘That doesn’t matter. We know the area of effect, right?’

  ‘Roughly, but still, the instability.’

  ‘We can account for that. All we have to do is make sure that the blast radius will take down the fence and the watchtowers without stretching far enough to cause any damage to friendly forces, be it the slaves or us.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Talia said. ‘What are these things you speak of?’

  ‘They’re powerful explosives,’ I answered. ‘Our tribe came into possession of them after our first encounter with the Master Mariana’s tribe.’

  The leader of the sun-elves shot me a look across the table. I could see her mind casting back to the escape from the land of the wood-elves, but at the same time warring with the thought of looking weak.

  ‘I was very grateful for Master Jack’s efforts,’ Mariana said formally, ‘now we return the favor, as allies. And as for the explosives, yes, they are as Master Jack describes them. They are rare, dangerous and incredibly powerful, capable of incinerating everything that they come into contact with.’

  ‘The cold weather will last for a few days longer,’ I said. ‘That lowers the risk of a forest fire breaking out, which is minimal anyway because the blast radius won’t reach the forest. Our only issue is how to get the explosives to the place we need them. The charges only delay for a short amount of time, and I don’t want anybody accidentally blowing themselves up.’

  The room fell silent. Mariana thought for a long time. Her two advisors shared a look behind her back.

  They knew something, but she was still considering it. After a few moments she finally spoke.

  ‘We have something that may work,’ she said. ‘A relic from the old days of war.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘It is better that I show you.’

  A few minutes later we were in the southern pasture, crowded around one of the hippo-drawn wagons while one of Mariana’s soldiers swept through the wagon’s inventory space.

  ‘I never did ask you what these creatures were,’ I said.

  ‘Elkin,’ Mariana replied. ‘They are fearsome on the battlefield and rather adept at moving through water, too.’

  I petted the one closest and he promptly shook his huge head with a yawn.

  ‘I think I’ll stick to the horse,’ I nodded, backing off.

  The sun-elf soldier removed an item from the cart and transferred it immediately to the ground in front of us.

  A huge wooden object landed on the ground, whipping up flecks of snow and crushing the rest beneath its substantial weight.

  When the powdery snow cleared, I found myself looking at a small catapult.

  ‘In tribal warfare that occurred before and during the Great War, our people used these as a means of heavy ranged attacks,’ Mariana said. ‘They were much larger back then, but they still serve their purpose. Assuming we can get a clear line of sight from the forest, we can use them to launch the explosives.’

  I nodded in agreement. ‘This will work perfectly. We just need to figure out how far these things will launch a projectile.’

  ‘You’re saying we should test them?’ Alorion exclaimed. ‘Can we guarantee that these devices will not blow up after striking the ground at incredible speeds?’

  ‘Nope,’ I replied. ‘So let’s go find some rocks.’

  After a little experimentation with rocks of roughly the same weight as the explosives, we determined that the catapults would launch the projectiles to a distance of approximately fifty yards.

  The explosives had a blast radius of roughly thirty yards, meaning that we would need to set the catapults twenty yards back into the forest in order for them to arrive at the desired spot, central in the space that spanned from the edge of the forest to the perimeter line of Garrison’s land.

  The snow would likely prevent any movement once they struck the ground, but the launch path of the catapults would never be perfect; they could easily travel a greater or lesser distance by a few yards depending on the precise placement in the bucket.

  We would need to overcompensate and adjust to situate them closer.

  Better them than us.

  From there we detailed our plans to our warriors. Our force totaled almost 100 fighters by the time we had congregated everyone.

  We would rest during the day, set off at nightfall, and move quickly and quietly along the remote paths to reach Garrison’s land.

  From there we would use the catapults and the explosives to take down his outer defenses, and in the immediate chaos following it, move in to attack.

  The closer our forces got to his land, the more effectively we would box them in. From there it was simply a case of taking them down until we reached Garrison.

  Garrison. I had only met my enemy on one occasion, but he had had more of an impact on my life than any other foe that I had faced so far.

  He had employed mercenaries to hunt down Talia and imprison her like some kind of prize.

  He had enslaved a whole tribe of warriors and sold them like objects.

  His hired mercenaries had launched an impromptu attack on my land and killed Oden, one of my own.

  Now we would be bringing the fight to him.

  With our plan formulated we returned to the Map Room one last time to go over the details.

  ‘So we’re all clear,’ I finished. Everyone nodded. ‘Good. We set out at nightfall. Get some rest before them – we’ll be travelling through the cold and the dark to get to Garrison’s land.’

  ‘There’s one last matter I wish to ask you about,’ Mariana said. Her eyes trailed my body, descending over my torso to my waist. ‘Your weapon.’

  ‘How do you know about it?’ I smirked.

  ‘Word travels quickly amongst people when it is in regard to something of this nature. I heard that you were se
arching for something… And that you found it.’

  ‘I did,’ I replied. ‘It’s the very reason that we need to go to war now.’

  ‘Because of the power it possesses?’

  ‘Because I used it to kill several of Garrison’s men, as well as one of his personal guards.’

  I distanced myself from my companions, standing to one side of the table before drawing the sword from its specially made sheath.

  The blue light of the grid that was set upon the table constantly set out a colored sheen across the grey walls, but as I presented the sword, the room filled with light.

  ‘By the gods…’ One of Mariana’s advisors muttered.

  ‘This is what the agrarium was fashioned into,’ I spoke calmly.

  ‘And you…’ Mariana trailed off, catching her breath and composure quickly at the sight of the weapon in an effort to maintain her character. ‘You used it to kill the dark-elves that confronted you at its location?’

  ‘He did,’ Ariadne cut in. ‘He saved my life, and Talia’s.’

  ‘That sword is capable of destroying practically anything in its path,’ Talia said. ‘I saw it with my own eyes. It’s… Unstoppable.’

  God, I loved my wives. Not only did they attest to my bravery, but the sheer power of the weapon that I now wielded.

  If Mariana wanted to trade her loyalty as a fighting ally for my independence, she had another thing coming.

  That thought quickly left her mind in the presence of the sword.

  I watched her process the image of me holding it, trying to find the best course of action.

  If she had no inhibitions, she would promptly say give me it, just like Kali had.

  But we weren’t enemies.

  Mariana finally smiled, scoffing with an impressed tone.

  ‘My, my,’ she breathed, regaining her composure with a smile. ‘It is a wonder we are not simply sending you in to face off against Garrison alone. By the sounds of it, this weapon of yours can lay waste to a whole tribe as a result of a single swing.’

  ‘I wouldn’t say that,’ I smiled back. ‘We need all of our forces if we’re going to win this. But rest assured, I won’t be the kind of leader standing at the back of the crowd, commanding my soldiers to run bravely into battle to die for me. I’ll be stood at the front, the first man in, leading the way.’