The Return of Cathos (Tales of the Silver Sword Inn, Complete Collection One)

by Wilson Harp

He looked over to her as she tossed him her spear. He snatched it out of the air as he saw Medrick cast his fire spell. The sound of the spider screaming in agony stunned him for a second. He had never experienced that loud and shrill of a sound. He turned to see its head engulfed in flame, but it was starting to come towards him. He grabbed the spear near the middle and charged at the foul creature. It lifted itself to slash at him with its front legs, and he stabbed forward with both hands.

  The spear’s point found a weak spot, but Horas wasn’t strong enough to penetrate its carapace. Suddenly he felt someone run into him from the back, and the spear slid into the spider’s body. The monster shrieked again and then collapsed and lay still. Bernadette dropped to the ground beside Horas as he sat down hard.

  “Thanks Berni, I couldn’t have done that without you,” he said as he panted from the exertion.

  “No problem, you just needed a little more push on the spear I guess,” she gasped as she tried to get her breath back.

  Horas looked over to see Medrick kneeling by Val and Karl. He pulled Bernadette’s spear from the dead spider and went over to where the others were. Val was shaking badly, and Horas could see that he had a bite stick in his mouth.

  “He was foaming at the mouth when I got to him,” Karl explained. “My father said to do that if someone was convulsing, or they might suffocate from swallowing their tongue.”

  “Did it bite him?” Horas asked.

  “Yeah, here in the leg. The poison seems to paralyze. His leg is numb, and his heart was beating slowly. I gave him some herbs and drained the poison the best I could,” Medrick said.

  “Will he be ok?” Bernadette had joined them looking very concerned. She handed Horas his axe back and took her spear from him.

  Karl nodded. “He’ll be fine. He’s breathing better now, and we can get back to town soon.”

  Val reached up and took out the stick from his mouth. “Yeah, I’ll be fine soon. I can move my arms now, and my vision isn’t blurred.”

  “Just rest a bit,” Horas said just as Bernadette jumped to her feet.

  “There is someone coming,” she said as she looked down the north trail.

  “Maybe some hunters…” Horas trailed off as he looked where she was staring and saw orcs moving towards the camp. He reached for his shield, but it wasn’t strapped to him after the fight with the spider.

  “Orcs!” he cried as the foul creatures spotted the friends in the clearing and started running at them. Horas moved to protect Val and Medrick, as they were still on the ground. Bernadette and Karl were by his side in a moment with their weapons ready.

  The first four orcs came charging into the clearing and were met by bellows from Horas and Karl. Bernadette didn’t waste energy on a shout; she simply skewered one with her spear through its stomach. Horas’ axe bit deep into one orc’s shoulder as Karl smashed another in the head. The fourth swung at Bernadette, but she leaped to the side of the orc she had run through and used her spear to pull him into the path of two others bursting into the clearing.

  Horas swung steadily at an orc heading toward the wounded Karl. His first swing of the axe severed the foul monster’s hamstring, and the second swing opened his throat. He looked over at Bernadette and saw she had freed her spear, but two orcs pressed in on her.

  He ducked as an orc took a swing at his head, and used his shoulder to pick the orc up by the waist and throw it onto the ground behind him. He took two quick steps and swung his axe hard into the back of one of the orcs trying to kill Bernadette. When the second orc engaged with her looked at Horas in surprise, Bernadette stabbed it in the neck with her spear. Horas turned to the one he had tossed on the ground and had lifted his axe to kill the orc when he went tumbling forward.

  He rolled onto his back and lifted his head as he tried to orient himself. He saw Bernadette and Karl also on the ground and an orc with an elaborate head dress and ornate staff standing at the edge of the clearing. Medrick stepped towards the orc and said words of incantation. Magical flames shot from the wizard’s hands towards the enemy mage. When the flames reached the orc, though, they melted away like fog in the sun. The orc that Horas had landed near was trying to stand, so Horas pulled a dagger from his waist with his left hand and stabbed the orc in the leg. It bellowed in pain and dropped back to the ground. Horas swung his axe and silenced it with a single chop to head. He looked over to see the orc mage and Medrick facing each other. Medrick kept throwing waves of flame at the orc, but the orc seemed to be smiling and mocking Medrick.

  The orc then lifted his staff, and Medrick flew back in the air and slammed into a tree trunk. Horas forced himself to stand and take a few steps forward. He saw Bernadette lying to his right. She wasn’t moving. To his left he saw Karl starting to crawl towards his mace. The orc snarled at Horas and raised his staff. Horas waited for something to happen, but the orc just stood there for a second, its smile dropping into a frown. The orc mage looked down at his side and saw the last inch or so of the fletchings from a crossbow bolt sticking out from between two ribs. The beast then dropped face down into the dirt.

  Horas looked over to where Val was lying and saw the crossbow shaking in his hand.

  “Nice shot Val,” Horas said putting his axe back on his belt.

  Val laid his head back down as he lowered the crossbow to the ground. Bernadette sat up holding her head while Karl stood with the help of a tree trunk. Horas walked over to where Medrick lay.

  His body was still as Horas kneeled down and checked his eyes. The pupils contracted as he pulled the lid open, and he knew Medrick was just knocked out. “Medrick might be pretty hurt. We need to check him for broken bones.”

  “I’ll make sure the orcs are dead,” said Karl as he found his legs again. “That was a great shot, little brother.”

  Val pushed himself to a sitting position. “Thanks, I was just trying to distract him if nothing else. It was luck more than anything.”

  “Luck or not, it saved our lives. Berni, how are you?” asked Horas.

  “Hurting, but in one piece I think,” she answered as she stumbled over to the others.

  Karl was cleaning his mace with a rough rag when he joined them a minute later. “They are all dead. I gave that mage an extra shot to make sure. How is Medrick?”

  “Starting to come around. How is Val?” Horas asked.

  “I’m doing better. My leg is the only thing numb now.”

  Medrick started to sit up. “What happened?”

  “We won. Can you move?” Horas pulled his water pouch and offered some to Medrick. The wizard drank a few mouthfuls and nodded.

  “I have a splitting headache, and I’m going to be really sore tomorrow, but I think I can move.” Medrick reached out to find his staff and started to stand.

  Bernadette was looking at some of the sticky splotches on a tree when Horas looked back over to her. He looked around at all of the splotches until his eyes rested on the dead spider.

  “They are spider eggs,” Bernadette said.

  “What?” said Karl as he was helping Val to his feet.

  “Spider eggs. That’s what these things are. We need to destroy them.”

  Horas looked around at the hunter’s camp. In every direction there were spider eggs. “She’s right. We need to get rid of them. There must be hundreds.”

  “Pour oil on them and burn them?” suggested Medrick.

  Horas nodded. “Yeah, that will be the most effective way.”

  “Some of those buildings are full of them,” Val pointed out. “Long Branch really will be gone by the time we burn them out.”

  Horas started pulling out the flasks of oil from his satchel. “Let’s loot the orcs first, and then we can set the fire.”

  Karl and Bernadette started going through the orcs’ belongings while Horas started pouring the oil on any spider egg he could find. Karl’s shield had fallen into the sticky pile of eggs in the privy hole, so Horas emptied a whole flask of oil in the pit and told Karl he needed to bu
y a new shield. By the time Horas had emptied all of the oil, the others were geared up and ready to go.

  “What did we get?” Horas asked as he came back to the group.

  “Quite a bit of coin and a few polished gems. Some pieces of onyx and lapis mostly. The mage had this,” said Karl as he held up a silver statuette. It was about a foot high and beautifully crafted.

  “His staff is also enchanted,” added Medrick as he looked at the orc staff he held.

  “Sounds good. I’m going to bag his head to take back to the Council. Are we ready to light this place up?” Horas asked as he took his axe off his belt and pulled a burlap bag from his satchel.

  Bernadette was holding two lit torches. “Ready, I hope we can get back before dark.”

  “We won’t make it out of the wood before full night, Berni, but we’ll stay at the Silver Sword tonight,” said Val.

  Horas came back with his grisly package and took one of the torches from Bernadette. Ten minutes later smoke filled the clearing as flames ate away the remaining buildings of Long Branch and more than a few surrounding trees. Twilight was upon the party as they left the area of the deadly attacks and moved south along the old trail towards the High Road.

  Val’s leg improved as they went, but Medrick’s headache continued to cause him to stop every few minutes to rest. Karl mixed up a quick potion that eased everyone’s pains a bit, but the trip was still slow going. The moon was very high when they finally made it to the Silver Sword Inn.

  Horas opened the door and sighed in great relief as he walked into the common room. Croft looked up from his place behind the bar as they came in. He counted to make sure all five were on their feet. Horas came in first followed by Bernadette helping Medrick, who looked like he could collapse at any moment. The brothers Karl and Val came in limping along after them. Karl’s arm was caked in blood with a bandage wrapped around his upper arm, and he was missing his shield. Val was walking with a stiff right leg that had a nasty looking rip in it. Croft felt a great sense of relief that all of the young adventurers had made it back safely.

  Horas motioned to him across the room. “We need three rooms tonight, Croft.”

  “Only have two open, Horas. But Bernadette can stay with Cassie.”

  Horas nodded as he found an empty table near the fireplace for his party. “Sounds good, can we get some baths drawn?”

  “Yes, I’ll have Cassie start the water now. I’ll send Magda to you after the baths to tend to any injuries,” Croft said as he headed to the kitchen.

  When he returned, all of the other guests in the common room were gathered around the young adventurers listening to their tale.

  “So the smoke we saw at sunset, that was Long Branch?” one of the farmers asked.

  “Yes, that was Long Branch. We had to set fire to it, unfortunately.” Horas was answering all of their questions.

  “Here is some milk for you, Bernadette,” said Croft as he set down the cup in front of her. “I’ll be back with some beer for you men in a minute.” Croft headed back to the bar to get some beer for the table. He knew that those in the common room wouldn’t let the party of young people rest until they had heard what had happened. Likely there would be two or three tellings of the story before the adventurers would be left alone. Croft wanted to know as well, but he wanted to ask Horas as privately as possible. He would wait.

  Half an hour later, Cassie came out and said that two of the baths were ready. Val and Karl were in most need of cleaning and having their wounds seen to, so they were sent back to the baths by the rest of the party. Medrick’s head was still pounding horribly, so Bernadette helped him up to one of the rooms that Croft had rented them.

  Horas was sitting alone when Croft came over to him with another mug of beer and sat at the table. He handed the mug to Horas. “What was it that killed those men?”

  “It was a giant spider. Three feet tall and six feet across.”

  “That is a big one. Never seen one that size, but heard about them.”

  “It had laid eggs all over Long Branch; we had to burn it.”

  “Makes sense. We saw the smoke. Hopefully the fire won’t spread.”

  “I hope not, but if we hadn’t done it those eggs would have hatched, and we would have a big problem.”

  “You made the right decision. What’s in the bag?” Croft pointed to the burlap bag that Horas had shoved under the table.

  “Orc head.”

  “You saw orcs out there as well?”

  “Eight of them. Came on us right after we killed the spider. The one in the bag was a mage of some kind. We almost didn’t make it back because of him.”

  “An orc mage and he shows up right after you kill a giant spider.”

  “Yes, I was thinking of that too. Almost like the orcs let the spider loose and were keeping an eye on it.”

  “You might want to mention that to the Council tomorrow. They might want to consider that an orc tribe is moving in on the Shadowmist Wood.”

  “I will, Croft. Thanks for the suggestion.”

  “Any treasure out of today’s adventure?”

  “Karl has a pile of coins from the orcs, and Bernadette found this on the orc mage.” Horas opened his satchel enough for Croft to see the silver statuette.

  “Take that to Loramund to sell. That’s an image of one of their queens from a long time ago. Her statue is near the palace.”

  “Sounds good, how much to you figure it will fetch?”

  “Maybe a couple of hundred gold if you are lucky. Maybe a bit less.”

  Horas raised his eyebrows at that figure. That would be more money than he had ever seen in his life. “We also took the orc’s staff. Medrick says it is enchanted in some way. We are hoping Orias might be able to tell us more.”

  Croft patted the young man on the back. “Add the fifty silver for ridding the woods of the monster, and it sounds like all five of you will be pocketing a good amount of coin for today’s work. Good job Horas, you have had a promising start as an adventurer.”

  “Thanks Croft, that means a lot coming from you.”

  “Any ideas on where you go next?”

  “I guess I’ll take a trip out to Loramund next week and come back to split the money I get for the statue. After we all feel up to it, I was thinking that maybe we could see what the goblins in the old silver mine have in their hole.”

  Croft smiled at Horas. “Get some rest and go to the Council tomorrow. Then talk it over with your friends. They may not all feel the same way, but I have a feeling you will be seeing the inside of that mine before too much longer.”

  Ruins of Balcchor

  The beam of the inn’s front door stood seven feet off the threshold, and yet the giant of the man who entered had to dip his head slightly as he came in. His rough, scarred face and huge frame were accented all the more by the furs and heavy pack strapped to him. A large sword was slung over his shoulder, and a wooden shield banded with steel hung at his side.

  He stopped in the entry way as his head turned slowly to take in all the room. He stepped fully in and let a woman and another man come in before he looked out the inn’s door into the night. The woman was completely shrouded in a heavy red cloak, and the other man, small in comparison to the giant who had first entered, was bigger than any other man in the room. Croft recognized the clothing and weapons of the Padash people from the mountains far to the north. Usually referred to as barbarians, they were a group of tribes that had confusing customs to outsiders. Croft had encountered several men from the Padash over the years, but he had never seen any as far south as Black Oak.

  Croft motioned to Cassie to clear a table near the kitchen and went over to speak with the strangers. “Welcome to my inn, travelers. You are far from the lands of Padash, but find shelter under my roof.”

  “We do not need your welcome, kordag,” sneered the woman. Her long hood was pulled forward to hide all but her chin and mouth. The silver and brass jewelry she wore made Croft nervous that he
might see a solid black tattoo crossing her face from the middle of her brow to the middle of her cheeks.

  The smaller man stepped between the woman and Croft. He had thick brows and a face that looked like it had never seen a smile. “You stand in the presence of Zomora, outlander. She who sees what others do not.”

  Croft slightly inclined his head and took one step back from the man.

  “Kargan, do not speak out of turn,” said the large man. His voice rumbled like a landslide—low, rough and powerful. “This man knows of Padash, and he knows our ways. I’m sure he would do nothing that would offend a Diviner under his own roof.”

  Croft groaned inwardly while keeping a smile on his face. A Padashite Diviner was not someone he ever expected to see. No one outside of the tribes to the north would ever want to. They were women of great magical power and even greater tempers if the stories were true.

  “You honor me with your presence,” Croft said with as much humility as he felt. The twin blades that the one called Kargan wore at his waist were well worn and used often. The tattoo on the right cheek of the big one marked him as a clan Battle Lord. This was an important group of Padashites, but he wasn’t sure which tribe or clan yet.

  Zomora pulled her hood back showing Croft the wide, solid black tattoo he had feared to see. “We do honor you and your inn. We wish to stay here tonight, which is more honor than you deserve. Pay him so that the honor does not cause him to weep in joy, Natab.”

  Natab reached into one of the pouches on his belt and pulled out a small bag. He tossed it on a table and watched to see what Croft would do. Croft thanked the Divine for the two months he had spent traveling with Krestik, a Padashite of the Mondroth tribe. The innkeeper carefully picked up the small leather bag by the ties and opened the bag. Being cautious not to touch anything inside the bag, he poured the contents on the table. Several dozen gemstones, brightly cut and polished, spilled onto the table. Croft’s eyes widened at the immense wealth that Natab had presented him with. A ruby, a sapphire and three emeralds were among the garnets and spinels that made up the bulk of the treasure. Croft picked up the largest of the emeralds and stepped back from the table.