I nodded.
“Now that we’ve got that figured out, I suggest we split up. While the women load everything we need onto the wagon, Master Mee will tend to your health. And Tusk and I will try to scare up some horses. I believe you said you know where they can be acquired...”
“We could try to buy ours back,” the ogre cut in. “I know that the tavern owner has not yet sold them.”
Gino nodded, confirming the ogre’s words.
“Then let’s hurry!” I said and headed for the exit.
When we reached the street, it was immediately clear that Maya was right. The situation in Tradepost had changed. The sound of people screaming was coming from every direction. My nose picked up on a faint burning smell. A dozen riders came past us at full speed carrying torch. I noticed a few dark silhouettes hiding behind a neighboring building.
Tusk and I exchanged glances. In the moonlight, the giant looked menacing.
“I’ll go alone,” he barked shortly, squeezing a cleaver in his hand. “You’d better stay here and protect the others.”
“No,” I shook my head. “We have better chances if we’re two.”
And seeing that the ogre wanted to object, I stopped him with a swipe of the hand.
“Believe me, our companions won’t be left undefended,” I said, giving a predatory smile and activating the summoning amulet.
When Gorgie appeared out of nowhere, Tusk greeted him with a loud gasp. Frozen in place, he stared at the harn as Gorgie smoothly approached. A-hem... Next to my cat, the ogre didn’t seem like such a giant anymore.
“This is Gorgie,” I introduced my friend. “He’ll look after the house.”
“You command a harn?” Tusk asked with just his lips.
Gorgie gave a mocking snicker and, smoothly walking a circle around the perfectly still ogre, turned his head in my direction.
“We’ll be back soon,” I said to the harn. “Don’t kill anyone if you don’t have to. Just scare them.”
“Hrn,” the cat replied and dove into the darkness between the house and barn.
* * *
We took back alleys to the center of Tradepost.
The village was gradually coming to life, and I was liking that life less and less. Women screaming, children crying, men cursing, alarmed mooing, frightened neighing, whistling barks – a nasty cacophony was slowly engulfing the city. One might have thought something which could not be undone was about to happen. I sensed the danger on all sides in my very skin.
The nearer we got to the center, the louder the noise became.
Weaving between the buildings, we occasionally ran into frightened people. Loaded down with their bags, they were hurrying toward the lake. Does it even need to be mentioned what happened to the poor folks when they saw an ogre plunging out of the darkness?
A few times I saw people whose faces made it clear that they were in no rush to leave the village just yet. Like jackals sensing that the stronger predator was out of the picture, they’d already begun rifling through homes in search of spoils. When they saw the outline of the fearsome ogre in the distance, they tucked their tails between their legs and disappeared into the darkness. But that wouldn’t be for long. Soon they would form larger packs and then they might want to try some bigger prey on for size.
As I walked, my teeth were constantly clenched in anger. Is this really the world of humans?! The Hornet probably hasn’t made it so far as the middle of the lake and here everyone is already at each other’s throat.
When we came near the last house before the market square, we stopped. The ogre motioned for me to wait and peeked around the corner. After a brief survey, he turned to me.
“The tavern owner won’t sell us the horses,” he told me shortly.
“Why not?”
“His corpse is lying on the tavern stoop.”
“Are you sure?”
“It doesn’t get much surer than this. Look for yourself.”
I walked up to the corner and cautiously peeked around. The ogre wasn’t lying. Fifty feet from our cover, the corpse of a large man was lying on the tavern steps. Head cloven in twain. Brains spattered on the steps. Hands tied behind his back. Looks like they tortured him before they killed him.
Totally expectable given the situation. The tavern owner is a rich man by local standards. He probably made a small fortune off these refugees. In fact, one of the sources of magical emanations I detected with my Sixth Sense was somewhere in the tavern’s cellar. I activated the spell again and didn’t see anything. Looks like his tormentors got what they came for and the tavern owner pointed them to his stash. All that remains is to guess why they didn’t leave with the Hornet. I’m reminded that the leader of the local militia was greeted like family in the tavern. Although I wouldn’t be surprised to learn the Hornet himself robbed the place.
I took a look around and noticed a few more dead bodies strewn about the square. Mostly men, but there were also women. A few, as if in mockery, were lying beneath the hanging poles.
“You don’t have to feed humans bread. They can get all the sustenance they need hacking down their own kind,” the ogre snickered with scorn and mockingly added: “Well, at least this will spite the orcs – the steppe dwellers will come away with less slaves this way.”
Ignoring the acrid comments, I asked:
“What next? Any ideas for where we can scare up some horses?”
The ogre looked around and pointedly fixed his gaze on the sleighs racing toward the lake.
“Don’t even think it,” I said firmly, looking at the receding people. “Otherwise we go our separate ways.”
The ogre shrugged.
“I don’t have any other ideas.”
“Then let’s go back,” I told him and started that way.
“And?” asked Tusk, walking after me.
“We’ll take what’s most needed and move out on our own two.”
“The old man will die,” he objected. “Even if I carry him in my arms.”
“Don’t you worry about that,” I said. “My friend is a healing mage. He’ll take care of your master.”
“A gremlin mage?! And a healer to boot?!” the ogre’s snout stretched out. “Doesn’t matter who you tell, no one would ever buy it...”
“What’s the matter with gremlins?” I asked angrily.
Not noticing my tone, Tusk waved a hand indefinitely.
“If the orcs are vultures, the gremlins are whatever picks the carcasses clean after the vultures are done with it.”
“You mean to say that ogres are better than gremlins or people?” I asked with mockery in my voice.
Tusk either purposely ignored that or didn’t understand my sarcasm at all, shrugged his shoulders and answered:
“How should I know?”
“What do you mean?” The big fellow’s answer knocked me off track.
The ogre sighed heavily.
“I grew up in the Wastes. I have a spotty memory of my own kind.”
“In other words...”
“Yes,” Tusk interrupted me and rubbed the ugly scar on his forehead. “I was a slave of the orcs. Then Papa Gino bought me.”
“Did you fight in the arena?”
“A few times, but then Gino offered to make me his familiar.”
I nodded in silence. I was reminded of the night when Gorgie and I met Mee.
“What about Midori?” I asked, trying to make my voice sound even keeled.
“Familiar, same as me,” the ogre dumbfounded me with his answer. Something the old man said about having several familiars suddenly flickered up in my memory. So that’s who he was talking about!
“Papa Gino bought her in Atria,” Tusk continued, not noticing my bafflement one bit. “Sometimes there’s good stuff on the southern markets. Heh... The old man spent a fortune on her. And no surprise – dryads have always been in demand.”
“Dryads?!” I latched onto that word. I can feel my eyes creeping up into my forehead.
&nb
sp; “Well sure,” the ogre nodded and asked in surprise: “What, did you not realize what she is? Or have you never seen a dryad before?”
I shook my head silently. So, her greenish skin tone and small fangs weren’t just figments of my imagination?
“Well, then I get it,” Tusk easily agreed and explained: “Dryads are rare creatures. They don’t come out of their jungles without good reason. They keep their distance from people. And rightly so.”
When he said the last phrase, the ogre motioned at everything happening around us.
“Midori was unlucky,” Tusk decided to continue after a brief pause. “Some humans cut her tree down.”
“Tree?”
“Yes,” the ogre nodded. “But mind you it wasn’t some maple or birch. The tree of a dryad is the source of her magic. If adult dryads lose their tree, they die. But Midori was still a child when it happened. And that’s why she survived.”
Tusk’s voice grew softer when he mentioned the woman. Gino also mechanically tried to block her with his body without even thinking about it. As if hearing my thoughts, the ogre said:
“All these years, Papa Gino has raised her like his own daughter. And she wanted to become his familiar of her own free will.”
A-hem... And I thought my group made for strange company.
While we walked back, I had some time to think over what happened. The Horde must have moved out already. I couldn’t understand why the chieftain of the orcs was moving so slow. But when I got to Tradepost, everything fell into place – the humans weren’t the only ones waiting for all the rivers to freeze.
Very soon advance parties of wolf riders would reach the walls of Tradepost. I guess that must have been what scared the Hornet’s scouts.
The enemy is near, but we still haven’t made a step of progress. I understood perfectly well that we wouldn’t make it far on foot, but I will not kill innocent people for their horses!
Then, haunted by unhappy thoughts, I just about slammed into the ogre’s back when he stopped short. I quickly took a look around. Our house was thirty paces away.
“You hear that?” Tusk asked me quietly. “We’ve got company.”
At first I didn’t understand what he was talking about, but then I distinctly made out frightened neighing from behind the house.
“Horses,” I answered quickly.
“A few of them,” the ogre confirmed and added: “Five or six.”
“Let’s go!” I commanded shortly and tore off.
I could hardly believe that anyone from around here could get through a protector like Gorgie. Still that didn’t mean I wasn’t alarmed.
I saw a lithe feline silhouette appear from the darkness, which instantly did away with all my fears. A few seconds later, I already knew what had happened. And when I reached the yard of the house, I saw it all with my own eyes.
The first thing that jumped out at me was that Gino’s covered wagon had two furry little horses harnessed to it. Another three such stout horses were tied to the fence.
I wanted to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn’t seeing things when a plaintive bleat rang out to my right. I whipped around. Along the wall, two steps from the front door, there were five men sitting on the ground. All with hands and feet bound. Every single one was gagged with a rag. I looked closer. Two of their thieving faces seemed dimly familiar.
The men greeted our coming with bleating but, as soon as Gorgie jumped out and snarled in the light from the window, they shut right up. Eyes like tea saucers. Their bodies were shivering hard.
The front door opened sharply, and Mee appeared in the doorway with his sling in hand.
“Rick? Is that you?”
“Yes,” I called back.
“Thank the gods you’re alive!” Midori exclaimed, appearing behind him.
“Where have you been so long?!” Gino’s commanding voice doubled hers from the front porch. “We’re completely ready to depart! We’re only waiting on you!”
The ogre and I exchanged perplexed glances.
“Tusk, don’t just stand there!” the old man kept commanding as he came out the door. “Their sleighs are past the fence! I saw a few bags of oats in them!”
He didn’t need to tell the ogre twice. Tusk reacted with surprising speed and hurried off where he pointed.
“And take some hay!” Gino shouted after him. Then to me, nodding at Gorgie he said: “You’re full of surprises.”
While Tusk hauled the bags of oats from one sleigh to another, and the women got set up in the wagon, the old man started to tell me what happened:
“Not even a half hour after you left, we heard an animal growling out the window and then we heard these dumb-dumbs screaming. If Master Mee hadn’t reassured us, I’d have had a stroke! Given we’ll be working together a while, how ‘bout you tell me about stuff like this in advance next time!”
I just shrugged indeterminately as if to say what happened, happened.
That was followed by a short retelling of how Gorgie cut down the attackers one by one, then Mee and the women tied them up.
“But I have to say I am happy the beast was here. I don’t know how it would have ended otherwise. These bastards didn’t only come here to rob us.”
Gino pointedly drew his thumb across his neck.
“Old friends,” I heard Tusk’s mocking voice behind me.
“You know them?” I asked.
“These are the Hornet’s men.” The old man nodded darkly at the failed murderers and stated: “Their ringleader decided it was best not to leave me alive. That time with the orcs... Your woman was there also... I publicly promised the Hornet that my highly placed friends would find out what happened here. Looks like that was when he hatched a plan to get rid of me.”
“Why didn’t he do anything sooner?” Tusk asked. “He could have staged it all quietly.”
“Doesn’t matter – the people would have thought it was the Hornet either way,” I answered for the old man. “This is a different case... For the record, I’m sure they never wouldn’t have found room for you in the caravan.”
Based on the expressive gaze of the most senior captive, who was listening to our conversation, I was on the money.
“Finish ‘em off?” Tusk asked darkly.
“Let’s leave them,” Gino surprised us all. “As a gift for the orcs. We’ve gotta get out of here.”
Chapter 10
MORNING OF THE NEXT day came overcast and cold. Just so happened to match my mood.
I was sitting in the back of a moving covered wagon and glumly watching the last refugee sleigh teams disappear around a bend in the river. We had just caught up to the ones that left Tradepost almost right after the Hornet. By our calculations, that meant we would catch up to the perpetrator of last night’s dust-up by midday.
The main reason we were going so fast was that we’d made a change of wagon. Unlike me, when we were next to the tavern, the ogre was not only looking at corpses. Beyond the fence to the right of the tavern wall, he noticed a familiar wagon cover. When he told us what he found, Gino and Midori’s faces stretched out into almost identical smiles. Mee and I couldn’t understand why they were so happy, or why they wanted to urgently switch from a wagon that was ready to depart. But that only lasted until we saw what they were talking about.
A-hem... The wagon Gino had sold to the tavern owner with all his horses was as different from the other as a royal yacht is from a small fishing vessel. Due to the strange shape of the cover, long skis and convex walls, it resembled a sailboat in some way.
The interior of the wagon and the area around it was a real mess. Lots of tracks, all kinds of refuse and brownish blood spots. It couldn’t be too far off to suggest the new owner of this mode of transportation was planning to use it to leave the village. And most likely he was already getting ready to leave. But alas, the robbers came, killed the man, stole his horses and took all his stuff. Honestly, there was one thing I couldn’t understand. Why did they abandon a wagon that wa
s fully ready to depart? But then Gino shed some light. As it turned out, it was impossible to drive this wagon without high figures in a few certain abilities. However, the old man himself, the ogre and even Midori were just fine in that regard. They took long-distance trips fairly often, so Gino took care to obtain a comfortable mode of transportation, and to level the particular characteristics it required both for himself and his familiars.
To Gino and Tusk’s great delight, the harnesses were all intact. And while I looked on dumbfounded, the ogre harnessed up all our horses to the one wagon. It was then I realized this stop was worth making.
The Dark Continent (Underdog Book #3): LitRPG Series Page 9