Meanwhile the riders switched from a gallop to a trot, then came to a complete stop approximately a hundred feet away from our ambush. Right in front of the wall of reeds.
“Hey old man Gino! You still alive?!”
The Hornet’s rasping voice was mocking and angry at the same time.
“I see you got your wagon back! I guess its previous owner didn’t need it?!”
The Hornet’s troops met his last sentence with savage cackling. In all that time, none of them took a single step forward. I was liking the way these people behaved less and less. I was starting to get the impression they were stalling.
Based Gino’s grimaces, I was not the only one to reach that conclusion.
“I trust you understand, after all, that as soon as the Baron finds out about your dirty dealings, you’ll be strangled like rabid dogs?!” Gino shouted unexpectedly.
At first, I didn’t understand why he was revealing his location, but then it hit me. The old man is trying to provoke the Hornet to attack.
“Old fool!” the Hornet shouted, smiling. “Where’d you get the idea that the Baron will care a whit about us?! He and his retinue are hiding in Borg like a pack of cowardly rats! Ha-ha! Idiots! They think they can wait out the Horde!”
I shuddered. The Hornet knew about the Great Horde and understood that Borg couldn’t outlast it.
Meanwhile Gino, paying the criminal’s words no heed, continued plying his course.
“I’ve seen many of your ilk executed before!” the old man shouted. “First they’ll cut off your noses, tongues, lips, ears and members! But you won’t die from blood loss! No! A healer, assistant to the executioner, will be treating your wounds! And they won’t burn your eyes out! You’ll be made to watch as they torture your comrades!”
“Old fool!” the Hornet barked in response. “By the end of winter, this Barony will cease to exist! It will be forgotten, like Arundel before it!”
“Then all your finger- and toenails will be yanked out one by one!” Gino wouldn’t let up. Based on the Hornet’s outrage and his peoples’ silence, the old man’s plan was starting to bear fruit. “Then they’ll pull off your fingers with big pincers!”
“Dodderer!” the Hornet howled. “You do understand that everything you’re describing will be happening to you today, right?! Then your nonhumans will have their turn!”
“While the executioner eats lunch, his less capable assistants will bash all your joints to dust! But there will be a watchful mage on site to make sure none of you kick the bucket so soon! Then they’ll start in on your loved ones! Before your eyes, they will torture your wives, children and parents! That’s how marauders are punished! Such is the will of the Steel King!”
I shuddered despite myself. If the old man isn’t lying, the ruler of these lands is even crueler than they say.
Gino wanted to say some more, but we heard a loud cry of pain from the direction the dryad had gone. Based on the timbre, it was not a woman screaming either. So part of the band had been sent through the forest to flank us after all.
The cry of pain from the forest served as a signal. The Hornet gave a loud whoop, jerked his horse’s reins and his company took off. At the same time, I gave Gorgie a mental order to go help Midori while preparing to activate Ram.
The bowstring of a crossbow gave aloud thrum and the first bolt flew toward the racing riders. Gino was clearly aiming at the Hornet but, alas, missed.
After that, the riders fanned out, forming something of a semicircle and, a few moments later, flew into the thicket of reeds.
A bearded man in a brownish-black half-coat riding a short furry pony was first to hop onshore. He bared his teeth angrily and rolled his eyes like a savage. For the record, almost every one of the Hornet’s warriors had a hunting bow on their back, but none of them were using it. There could only be one explanation. They mean to take us alive.
The bearded man was fifty-five feet out, just right to activate an Ice Arrow.
— You have killed Raider (8).
— Congratulations! You receive:
— Experience essence (1600).
— Silver tablet (2).
The shock made me shudder. The Ice Arrow flew true and hit the bearded man in the head, taking part of his skull with it. Is that all? That fast and easy? I was stunned. I’d killed before. But not like that, with one shot... The fact I had just killed a man, or not even – a soulless enemy, didn’t bother me. If not him, me. The raiders would probably torture us all before killing us too.
His headless body slammed to the ground, irrigating the snow with rust-hued blood. His horse, meanwhile, paying no mind to the lack of rider, continued its gallop apace until it reached shelter among the trees.
A few moments later, the other riders started appearing from the thicket. I greeted a few of them with ice arrows, and those that made it past them were blasted by a Ram and Lightning. The old man’s crossbow also managed to give another thrum. All that time, I was hearing terrifying cries from the forest. That must have meant Gorgie had finally reached the attackers.
A few minutes later it was all over. Neither the Hornet nor any of his troops managed to reach us. Two of the raiders were able to escape. I didn’t strike them in the back. I didn’t want to waste the mana on Arrows. As it turned out, my first hit was a lucky coincidence. Out of ten “icicles,” only three hit their target. The rest of the shots I missed. And that means four hundred ninety mana points went up in smoke. I desperately need Accuracy! Among other things...
Just then, Gino finally got what he was after and hit the Hornet with a bolt. The raider ringleader was lying on the snow in a puddle of his own blood. A thick crossbow bolt protruding from the right side of his chest.
When I walked up to him, he was still alive. The attentive gaze of his gray eyes landed on my face. I could see he didn’t have long to live, so I bent down to finish him off.
“You are a mage?” the Hornet rasped barely audibly. Blood sputtered from his mouth. He clenched his jaws, but the blood seeped out between his yellow teeth and flowed down his beard.
“Yes,” I nodded.
His mouth spread into a blood-soaked smirk.
“Now that I did not consider.”
Then his smile turned to a scowl.
“You’ll live to regret helping that old geezer... He isn’t who he seems to be... As soon as he gets the chance, he’s sure to betray you.”
“So then, are you any better?” I asked mockingly. “You found out about an advance party of orcs and fled without so much as warning the people.”
The Hornet’s glassy eyes bored into me and, with the last of his strength, he spat out angrily.
“I don’t owe a thing to anyone!”
By all appearances, he had poured the last of his strength into that exclamation. His body went limp all at once, his facial features grew sharper. With his final breath, the Hornet suddenly gave a crooked smile and before falling silent forever, he made one last barely audible utterance:
“What makes you think I was fleeing the orcs?”
Chapter 12
AFTER THE HORNET gave up the ghost, I quickly scanned the area. Gorgie had just appeared from the forest and Midori after him. The harn and I met gazes and a moment later he gave a comprehending growl and dashed toward the cape.
The dryad, having watched us closely, led a surprised gaze over the beast as he disappeared amongst the trees.
“Where’s he going?” She couldn’t resist asking.
“Up the rocks where their watchman is still sitting,” I answered. “I desperately need to have a talk with him.”
Gino walked up just then and cut in.
“What’s going on?”
“They weren’t fleeing the orcs,” I informed him shortly, nodding at the Hornet’s corpse. “They got frightened by something else.”
The old man and dryad exchanged glances.
“Did he tell you that?” Gino asked. I could hear obvious mockery in his voice.
<
br /> I just nodded in silence.
“Didn’t say anything else?”
“Only that,” I responded.
I neglected to mention the fact that the late marauder ringleader had warned me not to trust Gino. And to be frank, it was because I didn’t take what he said seriously. But as for the threat...
“The delirium of a dying man,” the old man waved it off casually. “He wanted to muck things up on his way out.”
“Well, what if we suppose that his scouts found something or someone else?”
“Am I to understand you have some guesses?” Gino asked with now greater attention.
I took a heavy sigh and said thoughtfully:
“It’s still too early to say. Let’s wait for my beast. I hope he’ll have a successful hunt.”
I had no doubt that Gorgie would drag the marauder watchman to me. I just needed to share my impressions with my friends before telling anything to our allies.
After a brief conversation with Mee, we came to the conclusion that my guesses were probably right. We just had to wait for the harn.
An hour later, when all the loot was collected and the horses that hadn’t scattered were rounded up, we got back underway. Now, not considering the horses we already had, our herd had grown by eleven head. As for the Hornet’s band... Of the twenty soldiers that attacked us, only two got away. Not counting the watchman. His fate is predetermined. Gorgie will not let him escape.
I should note that after the battle I occasionally caught thoughtful looks in my direction from Gino and his familiars. My Ice Arrows and especially the Accuracy I cast them with, to put it lightly, didn’t particularly impress either Gino or Tusk. But the same could not be said of my Ram and Lightning. The effect of these spells utterly shocked my allies. I could read clear comprehension in their eyes that, if not for my magic and my pet – we’d never have won.
When we got to a narrower part of the river and made it around the cape, we drove right into the dead marauders’ empty camp. And though I had some nagging doubts deep down over being party to the death of almost twenty people, after what I saw in the camp, they all fell away.
The Hornet and his pack of thieves got what they deserved. Based on the number of sleighs and carts, the rapscallions had robbed and murdered several dozen refugees before trying to do the same to us. It was their blood that Gorgie smelled earlier. We walked between the tents and sleighs in silence, here and there noticing telltale brownish red splotches on the snow. But there weren’t any bodies anywhere.
“Over here!” Midori’s alarmed cry came not from the camp but the river.
A few moments later, we were at the dryad’s side, stock still in almost the center of the river near a fairly wide hole in the ice. Incidentally, there was a well-trod trail of brownish red leading from the hole to the camp. Based on the telltale drag marks, the Hornet’s men had disposed of the corpses of their victims right here.
“Why?” I asked an utterly logical question.
“Most likely they didn’t want to attract any predators,” Tusk answered, standing next to me. “And so they threw the corpses into the water.”
“The current here is strong,” Gino added for some reason. “The river will have quickly carried the bodies toward the lake.”
“Bastards!” Maya cursed through her teeth. Her eyes were tearing up.
I strained to look into the black spot of water already covered with a thin crust of ice and felt an unwitting chill and sense of loneliness rushing up from the depths. I understood it was all just the fruit of my imagination, acting up after what I’d just seen and experienced. It was like I was feeling all the pain of the people who died here. I raised my head for a moment and looked around. Based on the expressions on my companions’ faces, they felt approximately the same way.
I was pulled up from the uncanny whirlpool of feelings by a demanding tug at my sleeve.
“Rick,” I heard Mee’s voice. “Gorgie’s back.”
* * *
“Would you look at that! He did catch the bastard after all!” Tusk commented admiringly when he saw the harn easily dragging a small man by the collar. “I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’d started having doubts.”
Unlike the ogre, I was absolutely certain that Gorgie was up to the task. Not being able to catch some level-ten ragamuffin with his figures? There was just no way.
“By the way – that is one of the Hornet’s best scouts,” Tusk told me, pointing at the man lying at our feet. “They call him Hedgehog.”
Gorgie just snickered mockingly and, leaving his prey for me, moved out to investigate the camp.
“I still can’t get used to the fact he’s intelligent,” the ogre scratched the back of his head. “Sometimes I feel uneasy when he looks at me.”
I just shrugged my shoulders indefinitely in response.
Meanwhile, the harn’s prey woke up and started looking around like a madman.
“Hedgehog, stop twirlin’ your noggin!” Tusk barked at the man. “Look this way!”
He gave a frightened shudder, gulped loudly and raised his eyes.
“What, murderer, think you could get away?” the ogre continued to prod. “There’s no escaping us.”
It took me some effort not to laugh.
“Where am I?” Hedgehog asked, his voice quavering.
“Take a better look,” the ogre suggested, squinting angrily. “You’ll get your bearings right quick!”
The man looked around again, but closer and, based on his sour look, he really did not like what he saw.
“I see it’s hit you,” the ogre growled malevolently. “Well, and as it’s hit you, it’s time for you to start talking!”
“W-what do you want to know?”
“How’d you end up in this life?” the ogre asked. Pointing his big mitt around the camp and part of the river, he said: “As far as I know, you didn’t always earn your keep this way.”
“It’s all the Hornet!” Hedgehog leapt up, alarmed. “He suggested we stop for one day and...”
“And you’re just an innocent little lamb?!” Tusk interrupted him, smiling. “Now tell me you tried to talk them out of it, but nobody would listen.”
Hedgehog stared dumbly at the ogre and nodded unconfidently. He obviously didn’t pick up on the sarcasm.
“How many people did you put beneath the ice?” Gino cut into the interrogation.
The man wanted to take refuge in silence, but Tusk loomed over him menacingly.
“Four families,” Hedgehog hurried to answer. “They were from the same village. Hunters and fishers. They lived well.”
“Did they leave Tradepost with you?”
“No,” Hedgehog shook his head. “They asked to, but the Hornet wouldn’t let them. They were right behind us the whole way. Then the Hornet suggested we rob while we made camp. He said the law in this barony is no more and will never return. And so...”
“Did you put children beneath the ice, too?”
Hedgehog lowered his head in silence.
“And I’m the one you call nonhuman?” the ogre spat out angrily.
He wanted to say something else, but I stopped him.
“Why’d you leave Tradepost in such a hurry?” I asked the man.
He shuddered and looked plaintively at me. I could read mortal fear in his eyes.
“Were you on that scouting expedition?” I guessed.
“Yes,” Hedgehog finally answered. “The Hornet sent ten of us out two weeks ago to scout and see how close the orcs were. He ordered us to come back to Tradepost as soon as we saw the first advance party.”
“And how close were the orcs?” Gino asked.
“I don’t know,” Hedgehog shrugged.
“What is that supposed to mean?” the old man asked in surprise.
“We never saw any orcs,” the Hornet’s former scout’s reply made Gino furrow his brow.
“We saw something else,” Hedgehog quickly started explaining. “On the eighth day, we reached Gray Pe
ak. We decided to set up camp there. But that night, a monster attacked us. While it scarfed down the others, me, Wooks and Sam managed to flee. For the first three days we thought we’d made a clean getaway. But then we realized it was after us.”
After he said that, Hedgehog fell silent. His hands and lips were quaking, tears welling up in his eyes.
The Dark Continent (Underdog Book #3): LitRPG Series Page 11