I nodded, "Especially with only eight or so months to get it all done."
"Yes, well about that," Fel started and I stopped and looked at him.
"I have something I need you to do, and it's important."
"More important than this?" I said a little shocked.
"Who do you work for, William?" Fel said softly.
I didn't even hesitate, "You, I work for you, Fel. If you want me to do something, I'll do it. But, I was hoping...."
Fel waved a hand, "This shouldn't take all that long, a couple months at most. But it is important, and I need it taken care of now, or it could lead to further problems."
I sighed and nodded, I did at least know where Cenewyg's temples were, so picking them off shouldn't be a problem.
"So what do I have to do?"
"Something was stolen from one of my priests at one of my outlying churches that serve the farmlands. I need you to retrieve it."
I nodded, "And punish the thief?"
"Bandits, there was a group of them. I would like to see them all punished."
"I will ride out in the morning then. Can you tell me where to go?"
"Stop by my church outside the Dellany farm, talk to everyone there. The bandits are heading to the town of 'Hidden Vale.' It's up in the mountains to the west."
I nodded, "Anything else, Fel?"
"Yes, find out why they did it. And don't worry about Cenewyg too much, you have time. Concentrate on the tasks in front of you first."
I nodded again, "Yes, Fel. I'll do my best, Fel." I said trying to hide my disappointment; I knew what I had to do, even if I wasn't happy with it.
Fel smiled at me, "Try not to pout, it will be fine, Will."
Three
South of Hiland City
8 Months
I'd walked the area's around Hiland city before, I'd even ridden south about halfway down the valley that comprises most of the original lands. The farther south you got, the fewer farms there were however, and the more ranches. The suzhen did okay in the poorer grounds that were further south, which had less fertile dirt and vegetation that was more scrub-like brush.
The church I was heading to was one of the older ones, built for Fel's followers who couldn't regularly make it into the main town easily. There was a second, even older one, all the way down at the southern end of the valley that I'd never been to, and a much newer one a bit north of here on the eastern side of the valley, which I had been to when it was set up five years ago.
I got off Tom, my wolat, and looped his reigns over a fencepost. He was smart enough to undo them if he wanted to, but he'd get the point that I didn't want him going anywhere.
I walked up the path, and in through the doorway. The door had been broken in, and as I walked inside, I could see there were several people cleaning up the mess. Someone had done some damage here, knocking over some of the pews, breaking a window, and damaging some of the other fixtures.
Whatever damage they had done, it couldn't have been too great, as I could feel that the ground was still holy, and Fel's presence was still there.
"Excuse me," I said to one of the workers, who looked up at me, eyes going wide as they realized who I was.
"Champion William!" she said and kneeled.
I tried to dim my 'aura' I never remembered that I had it in Fel's holy places, because up at the main temple, the priestesses and priests there were all used to seeing me around.
"Please, you don't have to kneel for me," I said to her, and motioned to her and the others to stand. "I need to know what happened, and what you saw."
She stood quickly and curtseyed.
"Bandits, Champion, they attacked late last night while everyone was asleep!"
I looked around; I realized at that point that there weren't any clergy in the room.
"Where is the local priest?"
"He's in his quarters, he tried to stop them last night, but they beat him up, Champion."
"Call me William, please. Could you take me to him?" I asked her.
"Yes, William, follow me."
I followed her out the back door of the church, and into a small cottage that was located on grounds. When we got to the door, I stopped and dismissed her, then went inside by myself.
"Who is it?" Came a weak voice from the one bed in the small one room cottage.
"It's William," I said and stepping inside, I closed the door behind me. I looked around, the room was rather simple, there was a hearth with some cooking implements by it, a table, two chairs, a couple of oil lamps, and the bed. Not much else.
"William?" the voice asked.
"Fel's champion."
"Oh!" the voice said and coughed a little. I walked across the room and looked down at the male in the bed. He was old, and his face was swollen. I kneeled down next to the side of the bed.
"How bad is it?" I asked carefully, wondering if I should pull back the blanket and have a look.
"Oh, it's just a beating; maybe a few broken ribs," he coughed again, "I'll heal. Eventually."
I blinked at that, "Why haven't you healed yourself?" I asked surprised.
"He's not allowed," Fel said in my head.
"I'm not allowed," the old priest said.
"Why not?" I asked loudly looking up.
"Because I sinned against Feliogustus, that's why not," he said and coughed again.
"What?"
"I sinned against our god; I didn't support him when he needed my support. I doubted him, I failed him in my moment of weakness, and so I am barred all priestly magic."
"Well, I'm not."
"No, William, do not heal him."
"Why not?" I asked aloud.
"Talking to Feliogustus are you?" the old priest asked.
"He just told me not to heal you!" I complained.
"Ah, it must be nice to hear his voice," the old man sighed. "Listen to our lord, do as he bids."
"Why?" I asked the old priest now.
"Because this is my punishment, and if I am ever to be forgiven, I must endure it. Feliogustus was kind enough not to have me killed, or even cast out, when I failed him. Instead he had me sent here, to tend to his flock.
"If I do well, maybe when I die, he will forgive me and welcome me back into the fold."
"What if he doesn't?" I asked worried.
"Then it shall only be as I deserve," the old priest said. "But I will not fail him a second time. I will take his punishment and do the best that I can, in the hopes that it is good enough."
"What did you do?"
"That, young Champion, is between our god and me. Now, why are you here?"
"The bandits last night, they stole something that Fel wants me to recover."
"Yes, they stole the Flask of Nikris," he said and coughed again.
"The Flask of Nikris? What's that?"
"It is a silver flask, it is very old, it belonged to the devoted follower of Feliogustus who had this church erected. He spent all of his time, monies, and effort in first building the church, and then paying for the priests to come and live here.
"When he died, the flask was the last thing of any value he had left; he had given everything else to the church by then. So we keep it here, as a reminder of his sacrifices."
I nodded, "Is there anything I can do for you, before I leave?"
"No, young Champion, you have done enough. Go with Feliogustus, and let justice be your guide."
I stood up, bowed, and left the cabin.
"You are going to forgive him, right?" I asked softly.
"That is not a matter for your concern, Will; he will be judged when his time comes."
I sighed, "That's pretty harsh, Fel."
"I'm a god, William, sometimes harshness is required."
I nodded, he had a point of course, but it didn't mean I had to like it. Fel was right; I'd make a lousy god. Until Cenewyg had come along, I'd never held a grudge in my life, and was way too quick to forgive people. Hell, I'd even forgiven Evean, who probably still didn't deserve it.
"There's a pass to the northwest, that's where they went, it leads to the town they're heading for."
I nodded and stepping off of holy ground I gathered up Tom's reins and mounted up, heading off to the northwest. With any luck, I'd catch them while they were still in the pass. They were undoubtedly on foot, while I wasn't.
I made the pass about an hour before nightfall, it was heavily overcast and I could smell that snow was in the air. I'd packed winter gear, it may be around late March, early April, but snows weren't uncommon this time of the year in Hiland, and I was moving into higher elevations now as well. Sunset came fast in the mountains, so I started looking for a good place to hole up for the night, before it got dark.
What I wanted was a cave, but what I got was a jumble of boulders and rocks, which after some grunting and pushing I was able to make into a decent windbreak. I secured the ground cloth over half of it, and got Tom under that as the snow started to come down. I fed him from the supplies I'd packed, ate my own dinner, and then got us both bedded down for the night.
When I awoke, I found that a good deal of my blanket was now covered with snow that the wind had blown in under the overhang I had rigged. Tom was covered in snow as well, but his coat was thick enough to keep it from getting close enough to his body to melt.
I stood up and shook the blanket out. My own pelt could probably do the same, however it was colder up here than my body could handle, fortunately I had brought a heavy cloak, as well as leggings and snowshoes.
After a quick breakfast we were off again, but the snow in the pass had gotten rather deep, and while I could walk on top of it with the snowshoes, Tom had no such ability, and was up to his chest constantly. By noon we'd made little headway, and he was exhausted.
So I made up a pack of the gear I needed, and opening a portal back to the temple, I sent him home.
I was sure I'd hear about it from Narasamman later, my sending a wet and muddy wolat into the temple, but it wasn't like I had much of a choice if was going to catch up with the bandits.
Without Tom slowing me down, I was able to make a lot better progress after that, able to stay on top of the snow and move easier. As the day wore on, I had to tie the cloak back as I started to warm up from all of the physical exertion, walking in snowshoes was a lot harder than it looked.
I kept going until well after the sun had set, until the temperature had dropped so far that I was forced to find a spot to spend the night.
It took me three days to catch up with them, and I did so in the middle of the night, taking them unawares. They hadn't posted any kind of guard, which I thought was a bit dumb of them. They were camped under a nice rock outcropping, apparently they knew the area rather well.
I sat there a while and looked at them, trying to decide what to do. Fel had told me to punish them, but he hadn't told me to kill them, and as they hadn't killed anyone, just beat up a priest who was definitely on the outs with Fel. But they had stolen from the church, and that couldn't be allowed to pass without some kind of response.
But they had to know the church would respond, and they had to know I'd be sent after them, if not the army or the guard. I was practically a legend in Hiland and the surrounding kingdoms by now. If they wanted money, why hadn't they just raided an outlying farm?
I shook my head, and made my way into their camp. There were seven of them, I didn't see any swords, clubs, maces, nothing in the way of real fighting weapons. The bedrolls they were using looked old and worn, same for the cloaks they had spread out over that. None of them looked very young either.
I was tired, and I could use some sleep as well. I left the camp, went a bit further up the trail, and found a good spot where I could wrap myself in my cloak and sleep for a few hours. I needed to think about this.
I woke before dawn, Fel hadn't visited me in my dreams or given me any hints or advice. That wasn't really unusual, it just meant that how I handled this wasn't all that important to him.
Plus he knew I was on a schedule, but I couldn't just kill these guys, and any serious punishment out here in this weather probably would kill at least some of them. I had to give them at least some sort of hearing, because they just didn't look like bandits last night, and Fel had asked me to find out just why they had done this.
I could hear them as they started coming up the trail, I hadn't heard them break camp, overall, they were pretty quiet, but there was the occasional hushed comment, as well as the sound of their snowshoes on the surface of the snow.
I sat there waiting for them, when they saw me; they all stopped for a moment and looked around. I heard a few more hushed comments, saw one of them shrug, and then they all started to trudge towards me again.
"Who be you?" the leader said when they finally came up to where I was sitting.
"I'm William," I said, "the god slayer. Feliogustus's champion." I watched his expression, I could see he was nervous, but he didn't seem exactly afraid. More like resolved.
"I'm the one that was sent to recover the flask that you stole."
"We didn't exactly steal it," he started.
I held up my hand stopping him. "My mother always told me that if you take something without asking, it's stealing." I looked them all over; none of them really had any kind of a weapon more than a knife. Two had bows, which were still slung. They looked tired, and they sure didn't look like bandits.
"You had to know that someone would come after you, so what I really want to know, before I pass judgment on you all, and punish you for beating up one of our priests and stealing one of our sacred items, is simply this: Why? Just why did you do something so incredibly stupid?"
"I told you we wouldn't make it back to town before they caught up with us," one of the males in the back grumbled.
"Quiet Karl," the leader said. "If I give it back to you now, will you still continue on to our town?"
"Why would I do that?" I asked. "Once I have the flask, I'm done here."
He shifted a bit, looking a little worried then, "Well, to let the folks know what happened to me and them," he said nodding towards the others. "So like, our women and children don't spend the rest of their lives not knowing."
"You think I'd kill you out here?" I asked looking at them.
"You are the god slayer. Folks say you're a mean and dangerous man, that you've killed hundreds!" the one called Karl spoke up from the back again.
"Yet you still stole that flask," I said.
"Well, we'd all a hoped to get to town before being caught," the leader said with a sigh.
"But you still knew you'd be caught?" I said tilting my head and scratching an ear. Why the hell would they steal something if they knew they were going to be caught?
"I'll give you my oldest daughter," one of the other men spoke up, "if you come to town." His facial fur bushed out when I pinned him with a stare.
"To pay back our crime, as your personal slave, Milord!" He said quickly. "Ask the others, she's as fair a female as any others you might find!"
"You'll give me your daughter?" I said, in a gruff voice, I was rather surprised by that. I'd never had a father offer me one of his children before.
"Yes, Milord! And I'm sure the rest of us here will do the same, if ya were to only ask."
I looked at the others, and they all nodded hastily. I looked at their leader.
"You too?"
He sighed, and looked down at his feet. "My older daughters are both gone, but my youngest. He's seven, but if you want him, he's yours. Iffen you come to the town, Milord."
I shook my head slowly and sighed, standing up. "Fine, let's go to town."
The leader's eyes got wide, and his ears went up, as did those of the others.
"You mean it, Milord?" he said sounding surprised.
"Call me Will, and I wasn't planning on killing any of you. So don't do anything to make me change my mind, understand?"
They all nodded rather quickly.
"Here'
s the flask," the leader said and reached into his cloak.
"Hold on to it for now," I told him.
He nodded and started to head along the trail again, and I fell in at the back and just followed them all.
It was getting close to dark when we started to descend down into the valley that their town was located in. I could see why it was called 'Hidden Vale,' it was a pretty good sized valley, ringed by mountains, a couple miles wide, by probably twice that long, with a small lake in the middle, with the town built along the side.
If you didn't know how to get here, you'd probably never find it.
It took us several hours to wend our way down the side of the valley and into town; the path here at least was marked rather well, from many years of obvious use. It was late when we got there, and everyone had long gone to bed. The town had a six-foot-high stone wall surrounding it, that seemed in decent repair, and there was a guard at the gate who let us in.
I didn't see any other guards walking the streets, however as we made our way through town, stopping at the house of Rodd, the man who had been first to offer me his daughter.
"You can stay here, with my family, Will," he said and bowed.
"Isn't there an inn?" I asked looking around.
"No, just a couple of small taverns," Gunis, the leader said.
I nodded; at this point I just wanted a warm bed and a place to sleep. Or at least a warm place to sleep, it was pretty damned cold outside.
"Fine, in the morning I hope you will explain to me what this is all about," I said and yawned.
They all nodded and Rodd led me inside his house.
I was surprised by what I saw, the house was made of stone, all of the houses around here I'd noticed were, with steep peaked wooden roof for the snow, but it was by no means small. There was a large kitchen with a hearth that was glowing softly, obviously banked for the night, a second room, that I guess was the family room, with several doors leading off of it.
Rodd led me to the small privy to take care of any 'personal' business, which I did and I was glad I wasn't the one who had to empty the vessels in there everyday.
When I came out a few minutes later, Rodd was standing there with two women.
Portals of Infinity: Reprisal Page 3