Death Flag

  He pushed ruminations of morality and conscience out of his mind as the thick, heady smell of smoke on the breeze pulled his attention back to the task at hand. He was curious as to whether it was because of the fact that a large portion of the woods had burned within the past few days, but when he noticed the campfires a short time later, he knew what the source of the smell was. They must have passed through the outer ring of sentries without Madison realizing exactly how close to the camp they really were. The smoke was being blown in their direction by a light breeze, and it was coming from what was likely dozens of campfires. The group came up short a few hundred feet from the edge of the tree line, and all he could see in either direction were tents. There were dozens in his field of view, and he couldn’t begin to imagine how many people must have been gathered there. He had known that it was a fairly large gathering the moment he saw it from above on the back of the dragon, but now that he was actually there, it was fully impressed upon him how many people it took to create such a sight.

  It was fairly early in the night, and there were still men grouped around the campfires, laughing and joking together, and he could hear the raucous noise they made even from as far away as he was since it was carried on the wind. He could tell that several of them were drunk, and he could even see that they were passing around a large jug of something that was very likely some sort of alcohol. All in all, it looked more like a semi-permanent tent town than a temporary encampment. He had absolutely no idea how many slavers and pirates there were on the western coast, but he had a feeling that every single one of them who wasn’t on patrol somewhere in the woods behind him was in that camp. He was confident that there had to be close to thousand people gathered together there, and he couldn’t even guess how many more without getting a better look at everything.

  He grabbed Shayna lightly by the shoulder and pulled her around until they were all huddled together. “We’ve got to get a better idea of what’s going on,” he said in a voice that was barely above a whisper. He doubted that there were any sentries nearby that he hadn’t been warned about, but he didn’t want to chance his voice carrying on the same wind that let him know what was going on inside the camp. “Warren, go north. Shayna, go south. Meet back here in twenty minutes’ time. Stay outside the perimeter, and do not get caught. Got it?” Each nodded their understanding, and Madison backed away, letting them know that it was time to go to work.

  He had absolutely no idea what type of information they might bring back. It was likely that the only thing anyone could see from outside the camp was just tents and fires and people talking, and if that were the case, he’d have to figure out something that was a little more drastic. He very much doubted that all four of them could sneak into the camp together without being spotted right away, and he didn’t consider it likely that either of the girls was going to let him go off alone again without some serious convincing. Despite his earlier successes, they had both made it clear that they were hacked off at him for what he had done earlier. He had something of a plan already forming in the back of his mind in case of an emergency, but it was so far fetched that he was hesitant to even put it into words.

  Warren returned first, quietly slipping up on them out of the darkness with very little warning, and he appeared so closely that, if Madison had been twitchy or on edge, he would have lashed out at him without even knowing who he was. Warren had a grim look on his face from what Maison could tell in the dark, so he wasn’t hopeful that the younger man had found anything that would be helpful. Shayna appeared about ten minutes later, and he had just about been ready to go find her himself when she finally materialized out of the night.

  “Sorry,” she said quietly, huffing and out of breath. He could tell that she had been sprinting for a while by how out of breath she was, and his eyes scanned the darkness behind her for any sign of pursuit.

  “What happened?” Madison asked. He couldn’t keep the concern or anxiety out of his voice as he asked.

  “I lost them a way back,” she answered confidently when she saw where he was looking. “No, don’t worry. I didn’t do anything stupid like you said not to. They must have someone who can use spells as well because they spotted me straight away. One man pointed me out from the edge of the camp, and two came directly for me.”

  “How close were you?” Madison asked.

  “I told you I wasn’t that close!” she said defensively. “I didn’t—”

  “I believe you,” he said curtly, cutting her off. “I need to know how far they can see in the dark. You can see farther than Warren, correct? So how far away were you?’

  “Oh,” she said, somewhat surprised by his answer. “I was . . . about a hundred feet away, I guess?”

  “So, you saw them before they saw you?” he pressed.

  She thought for a moment and then nodded. “That’s right.”

  “Okay,” Madison sighed, letting out a breath of relief. “That’s okay then. Did you guys manage to learn anything else? Anything about the layout inside? Position of the guards?”

  “It looks almost exactly like this as far as I went,” Warren answered solemnly. “There are men drinking and gambling and talking everywhere you look. I don’t know what they’re up to, but it’s something big.”

  “Agreed,” Shayna said. “They don’t seem to be too concerned either. There are a few lookouts here and there, but they don’t seem to be paying too much attention to what’s going on out here for the most part.”

  “How many are left standing?” Madison asked, looking at Shayna expectantly. He didn’t have to clarify what he was talking about.

  “None,” Shayna answered.

  “Good girl,” Madison answered approvingly, and she managed to look genuinely satisfied by the compliment. “Honestly, they’re being lax because they can be. There’s no one else out here aside from them, right? It’s the same with the smaller camps, remember? If someone is stupid enough to wander up on them, they just take them prisoner and add them to the rope with the others. There’s no one out here that would be stupid enough to walk up on a thousand men in the middle of the night, and there’s no one who could even come close to attacking them. It would take a small army.”

  “They’re certainly confident enough,” Warren answered by way of agreement. “The only thing I can add is that they seem to be separated. What we were told about them being both pirates and slavers seems to be correct. There are a few mingling together, but there’s an almost visible divide between the groups. They’re keeping to themselves like they don’t like the others.”

  “There are more of those bandits here too,” Shayna said, almost eagerly. “I saw what Warren was talking about, but there was a third camp as well. There are pirates strung out in small pockets, almost like they’re there to keep watch on what’s going on with the others without getting involved, but there are a bunch of the bandits further to the east.”

  “Any sign of anyone else from K’yer Utane?” Madison asked. He hated to voice the question, but he had to know what he was about to go up against.

  “No,” the two answered in unison.

  Madison scratched his beard for a moment as he thought about what his next move was going to be. “So, we have no idea where Fox or Alyanna might be, but we know that these guys don’t like each other too much. It’s really not too much to go on.” Madison sighed. He needed more information, but there just wasn’t time to get it.

  “Fine,” he sighed, admitting defeat to himself. “Warren, you think you can find that stone golem again if you tried?”

  “Sure . . . Should be easy enough to track it down, but . . .” He trailed off questioningly, obviously trying to figure out what Madison had in mind.

  “How long do you think it would take if you went alone? Fast as possible?”

  “Half an hour? Maybe? Hard to say exactly, and that’s assuming that I don’t have to make any unexpected detours along the way.”

  “And you said that they can be hyper-aggressive, r
ight? So, you think you’ll have no problem getting his attention and holding it for a while?”

  “No, but why do . . .”

  Madison could tell that the younger man’s brain was working overtime to figure out what Madison was getting at just by the tone of his voice.

  “Oh, no,” Warren answered at last.

  “I want you to run back, get its attention, and then lure it here,” Madison said, finally voicing his terrible idea aloud. “Let’s put it to work for us. It should go crazy once it catches sight of this many people, right?”

  “Yeah but . . .” Warren clearly wanted to protest the idea but was having a hard time coming up with an excuse.

  “You’re the fastest one. You’re the only one who can make it there and back in time, and if there are any sentries, you’ll be able to see them in time to avoid them. I get it: It’s a horrible idea. But it’s the only thing that I can come up with right now that will get us out of the situation we’re about to get into.”

  “Okay, but what are you . . .?” Warren trailed off yet again with an unanswered question.

  “We’re going into the camp to find Fox and Alyanna,” Madison replied. “You’re going for the stone giant. Don’t screw it up.”

  “You’re right,” Warren groaned. “This really is a horrible idea.”

  CHAPTER 23

  Madison watched as Warren disappeared into the night along with any hopes he had of turning back and changing his mind. He knew exactly what he was asking from every single one of the people with him, but he also knew that it was the most likely chance he had of finding Fox and Alyanna. He was going to need a serious diversion if they were caught trying to sneak out, and this was the only thing he could think of on the fly. The chances of Warren running into a sentry or a patrol group were pretty high. He had no doubt that Warren would be able to take care of a lone man or even a small handful, but a full-blown group was a different problem altogether. The chances of something going wrong with the stone giant were even higher. It was more or less a wild beast, and any number of problems could occur from Warren getting smashed to death or the stone giant simply not cooperating. For all he knew, Warren might never even find the creature. If that happened, he and the girls would be on their own.

  “Alright,” Madison said quietly, turning to the women. “Take off all your armor.”

  Shayna’s hand flashed out so quickly that he never even saw it coming. There was a loud slap as she struck him across the cheek and automatically started to shout “Perv— Mmph!”

  Her accusations were cut off as Madison clamped a hand down over her mouth. “Don’t,” he said in a low tone. “Do not scream. Do you understand me? Your armor stands out too much. You’re going to have to take it off and wear something plain. The clothes from K’yer Utane should be fine if you still have those with you.” He released her then and stepped away, leaving her to stare up at him.

  Erin, unlike her sister, seemed to have understood from the start what Madison wanted. She was already wearing the same simple outfit she had on when they left, which was dirty and tattered at this point, but she took the time to mussy up her hair a bit before tying it back loosely. If she had one thing going for her in cases like this, it was her plain-Jane looks. There was nothing remarkable about her at all, and Madison was confident that she could get lost in a crowd at a moment’s notice if she wanted too—in fact, he was basically counting on it at the moment.

  Shayna scowled for a moment longer, somehow upset over her misunderstanding and not the fact that she had hit him unwarrantedly, and then reluctantly began disappearing her armor one piece at a time. Madison doubted that anyone would notice the faint glimmer, but it was still a warm, golden light in what was otherwise dark woods, so he moved around until he was between her and the camp so that he would block the light just in case. He looked her over once she was finished, and he was fairly pleased with what he saw. She was wearing the same black shirt and loose black pants that were common at the school, and Madison hoped that she would go unnoticed.

  “Good,” he said approvingly. “I don’t think you’ll stand out that much.”

  Her fists balled up, and she struck out at him, but he managed to deflect her hand this time. “Do you really have to make fun of me every chance you get, you pervert?!” she hissed.

  Madison blinked, clearly confused by what had set her off this time. “Oh,” he said after a minute. “Oh! Yeah. I get it. You’re not that small. Right. Okay, let’s go.”

  He turned and walked away before she could put up another protest, and the girls both hustled to catch up with his long strides. He withdrew a long bandage as he walked, and he quickly wrapped it around his wrist in order to hide the tattoo there. He had become accustomed to doing this while he was at K’yer Utane, but after they left the valley, there hadn’t been any reason to continue hiding it. He had exposed it while he was talking to the dragon lady, and it felt weird to have it hidden again now. Somewhat problematically, the bandage was also a bright, pristine white. It stood out like a sore thumb because of its cleanliness, and he hoped that there were enough injuries going around that no one would really question it.

  It was basically inevitable that someone would notice them sooner or later, so he stopped worrying about it and headed directly into the camp. The best thing he could do at this point, just like before, was to act like he belonged there. He draped one arm over Shayna’s shoulders and his other over Erin’s, pulling them both up against him as they stepped into the ring of light surrounding the camp. Shayna stiffened at his touch, but she seemed to understand what he wanted and eventually relaxed a bit as he led them forward.

  The trio earned their fair share of stares as they sauntered past the first fire. Madison tried to steer them away from the group there without being incredibly obvious about it, and he swayed from side to side as if he were a bit unsteady, hoping to sell the fact that he was just as drunk as they were. Erin caught on as well, and when she silently slipped her hands around his waist when he came close to tripping over his own feet, it sent the group into a frenzy. They all starting hooting and hollering as if it was the greatest thing they had seen all night, and Madison worried for a moment that they might try and take advantage of his good fortune. Luckily, not a single one of them made a move to get up from the warmth of the fire or showed any desire to give up their turn in line for the passing of the jug that was still going around.

  They continued on further into the camp, and Madison finally afforded a view of what Shayna and Warren had been talking about. The tents were a patchwork combination of large and small, and they were constructed from various different colors and materials. There were simple tarps strung up over wires in some places and even something that looked like a shoddy lean-to that someone had built, but, no matter what or how they were made, they were all grouped together in clear clusters with winding roads leading between them. There were always at least one or two fires in the center of each group of tents, and there was also a handful of men around each fire—but they never made any move to interact with anyone else outside their own little island of tents. It was almost as if there was some unspoken rule that they stay apart from one another, and no one seemed willing to break it.

  Madison steered them around one of the large tent-towns, casually taking his time as they strolled around with him draped over their shoulders. From what he could tell, there was little rhyme or reason to the way things had been built. If he had to guess, he would assume that the entire place had been erected one little cluster at a time as people arrived. Each new group would set up their own group of tents, and whoever arrived next would set up their own next to that.

  He had trouble distinguishing one group from another at first, but he started picking up on subtle difference in the way they walked and talked rather quickly. The ones he referred to as bandits, those who were following the will of their goddess in hopes of becoming her blood—or whatever it was that the man had said to that affect—were dressed lik
e beggars in thin rags and ratty armor. He rarely ever saw them with a steel weapon, and they usually carried some type of small cudgel. That was remarkable in itself because the ones that they had fought on the mountain top had been well-armed with sturdy shields, usable armor, and sharp weapons. These, like the first group they had run into, were barely even clothed.

  The pirates were dressed exactly like he remembered and exactly like he would have expected. The most telling sign that gave them away was the fact that many of them seemed to have an aversion to wearing shoes. He knew that sailors were accustomed to often working barefoot on ships, and it made sense that they wouldn’t want to wear shoes or boots now that they were on land. There were always at least one or two in every group they came across who were barefoot, and they all had a certain swagger about them, as if they were more used to balancing on the rolling deck of a ship rather than walking on solid land.

  The slavers were typically better dressed than their bandit counterparts, and they typically carried small clubs, whips, and the occasional sword. They were more used to coercing cooperation out of people than they were killing them since, as Madison knew first hand, losing a life was the same as losing a dollar to them. Every little nick or scratch or dent or ding was money lost out of their pockets. The other telling sign that gave them away was that there were generally at least a handful of slaves in the center of their camps, shackled near a cart exactly as he had always seen them do. Even in the midst of everything that was going on, they seemed determined to cling to their old habits and customs while simultaneously refusing to give anyone the opportunity to steal their ‘merchandise.’