"Oh, that's easy, Sir!" he said with a rather large grin.
"Oh? How so?" I asked puzzled.
"Well, we just take the company down to where those bandits are holed up, and ask them." He laughed, "Well, maybe not ask, so much as 'force.' Not like anyone will complain!"
I looked at him and thought about that, the bandits did need to be dealt with eventually, and we were going to be here a while, anyway. Dealing with them would be a lot easier and faster, so why not deal with them first?
"You know, after all the years they've been preying on this village, only fair that something preys on them for a change," I said slowly, and then nodded. "Thank you, Koglin, I do think that just might work. Let's ride back to the village and have a word with Second Willis, then I guess tomorrow we'll take your Company out and do a little bandit hunting."
"Yes, Sir!" He smiled.
"Please, call me Will," I smiled back at him as we got back on our mounts and headed back to town. I hated being 'sirred' all the time, but I understood it was necessary for discipline and all that, but I'd been told by Holse that it was the little gestures that were appreciated the most, and being on a first name basis was apparently one of them.
"That does sound like a good idea," Second Willis agreed. We were sitting in his command tent, looking over the map of the area he had made. "I've wanted to go after those bandits for weeks now, but with this creature flying around, I didn't want to leave the town exposed."
I nodded, "We will need a good place to set up our trap, once we get back here with the bait."
Second Willis nodded, "I grew up on a farm, can't say I have much experience with trapping myself. Koglin?" he asked looking up at Third Koglin, who was the leader of the cavalry company Rachel had sent with me.
"I used to trap some, down in the hills around Hiland, but this beastie I bet is going to be a lot harder than the rabbits and beaver I'm used to. Maybe we should ask around town and find out who the best trapper is?"
I nodded, "Karl or Tal would probably be the best to ask."
"I already know Karl," Second Willis said. "Who is Tal?"
"He runs the fletchery and bow shop, as well as the other tavern. I need to go talk to him anyway, he used to hunt all up and down the mountains around here, if anyone knows, it would probably be him."
"Okay, once we have a plan for a trap, I'll get my troops working on it."
"And I'll get my people ready to ride out in the morning to hit the bandits," Third Koglin said, "Will you be joining us, William?" he asked.
"Wouldn't miss it," I said and smiled at him.
"I'll go talk with Karl then, while you talk with Tal," Second Willis said and we all stood and left to deal with our respective tasks.
Tal was at his shop when I got there, and was happy to see me.
"Will! I'd heard last night from Karl that you were back to help deal with this new problem of ours."
I nodded, "It's actually related to the last one. This thing came out before we got that gateway sealed up."
Tal nodded, "Which makes me glad we got that taken care of before something much worse came out of it. So what brings you by here?"
"Two things. The first is that this beast needs to den up in a cave during the daytime, so I need to know where every cave in the area is, that people know about."
Tal nodded, "There are a lot of them, I can help with that, and spread the word to the other hunters out there as well. But that will take you quite a while."
"Yes, which is what brings me to the other thing; we want to set a trap for it. We think we've got an idea of what it wants, so we're going to go off tomorrow and get us a bunch of bait. But we really don't know what kind of a trap to build, and I was hoping you could point us out the most experienced trapper in town."
"What are you planning on using for bait?" He said looking at me.
"Bandits," I said with a smile.
Tal laughed loudly, "Oh! Well, I must say, that is quite the bait alright! Especially if this thing likes feline flesh as much as the giants did!"
"So you can help?"
Tal nodded, "Sure, let me talk to some of my friends from my trapping days, and we'll see what we can come up with."
"If I'm not here, talk to Second Willis, he'll be the one in charge of building whatever it is you give him."
"Sure thing, Will," he agreed. "Do you have a map I can mark the caves that I know of on?"
"Second Willis has one."
"Okay, I'll head over there after lunch and show him the ones I know."
"Thanks again, Tal."
"Oh, thank you, Will. Building this trap is going to be something to tell the grandchildren about," he laughed.
I smiled and nodded, then left to go find Laria. I had the rest of the day to kill, and not much to do.
Thirteen
Bandit Camp - outside of Hidden Vale
4 Months
The bandit camp was a day and a half away by wolat, considerably more if one went on foot. I left Laria back at the church, because I figured we wouldn't be gone all that long, and I honestly didn't want to bring her along when we'd be going into melee combat. We camped a day's walk away that night, so if anyone should see our camp, they wouldn't be able to get there in time to warn the bandits.
If it hadn't been for the creature, we would have attacked an hour before sunrise, to catch them while they were still asleep, but we didn't want our own men being preyed upon, and Third Koglin doubled the sentries and kept extra watch fires going through the night. If this thing was at all like the giants, we figured that it wouldn't care much for fire.
When we charged into camp the next day, we created instant chaos. There about two dozen tents that I could see, all of which were patched and looked rather old. I only saw one building, which was made from stone, though I did see what looked like the remains of two wooden ones.
There were maybe a dozen women running around, and I couldn't tell how many children. What struck me as odd was that the men came stumbling out of their tents looking tired and half awake. It was already noon, and the hottest part of the day being the middle of summer! I guess they really were that lazy.
All of our men were armed with clubs; we needed these men alive, if we were going to use them as bait. But we didn't need all of them, so any that tried to put up a serious fight quickly found themselves facing swords instead of clubs.
The others noticed this, and quickly laid down their arms and surrendered. Some of them even seemed happy to see us. All told, when we had finished, we'd only killed ten of the bandits, and had another twenty-seven in shackles.
There were nine females there, and sixteen children, ranging from newborns to what looked like eight years of age. Something about that number didn't add up, as the oldest female was maybe twenty. I let Koglin and his men handle all of them, while I walked around the camp.
I first went and looked at one of the piles of wood, which looked like a torn down wooden building. Those didn't make sense because these were the bad guys; they were the ones doing the attacking, not the ones being attacked.
It took me a few minutes, but I found them, claw marks, large ones, like I'd seen on the rocks in the cave. Looking around some more, I saw that quite a lot of the boards were splintered, others had what looked like teeth marks on them.
I stopped and looked around some more, and I felt myself go cold when I found what I was looking for, on a rise, a couple of hundred yards outside of camp, there were two large poles set into the ground.
"Tom!" I called and he trotted over. Hopping on I ran him up to the top of the rise.
There were cut and chewed ropes on the ground surrounding the poles, and the smell of old blood was heavy in the air.
Growling loudly I rode back down the hill and found Third Koglin, who looked up at me surprised.
"I found how we're going to bait our trap," I said and pointed up the hill towards the two poles that were set there.
I saw his eyes go wide and his ears go
back.
"They didn't!" he growled.
"They did. Two guesses who they were using," I said and looked at the women who were huddling well away from the bandits.
"I'd kill them all, slowly, painfully, if we didn't need them," Third Koglin growled.
"You and me both," I agreed.
I walked over to the women, they were all a mess, their pelts were filthy and patchy. They were all undernourished and naked, same as the children. I could see the hope in their eyes though; they were looking at the soldiers, all of whom were in uniform, then back at me.
"Who are you, Milord," one of them asked.
"I am William, Champion to the god Feliogustus, and consort to Queen Rachel of the Hilanders, who now rules over the village of Hidden Vale and the surrounding areas. You are safe now."
"Can you, can you protect us from the flying death?" she asked me.
I nodded, "I'm here to kill it. Now, tell me what happened here."
She nodded. "About a month ago, it came. It attacked the village and carried off one of the men," she turned and spat on the ground, "good riddance. It came back two days later, and everyone hid in the houses. It tore down the first one, and made off with Mary. Then two days later it tore down the second one and made off with another of the men," she spat again.
"Then the chief," she motioned to one of the dead bodies, "decided that if we couldn't stop it, we could at least pick who it ate, and he put those two poles up yonder. Every other night, they'd tie one of us females to it, as a bribe for it to leave them alone."
"Why didn't you run away?" Third Koglin said, coming over with several other soldiers, who were all carrying food and water.
"That got you set up on the pole for the next time," she said and shivered, tears going to her eyes.
"Bastards," I swore under my breath. "What did it look like?"
"What, the flying death?" she asked.
"Yes, the creature. What did it look like?"
"It was big, big as a house, at least three times as tall as you are. It was black as night, and look to be covered in scales like a snake, but I saw guards hit it with the swords and they bounced off! It had two legs like a bird and nasty talons on its feet like an eagle, with a long snake-like tail." She looked down at the ground, obviously remembering something painful.
"What about its wings? Its head?" I prompted her when she stopped.
"It had huge bat-like wings, ten or twenty spans a side, easily! But the head, I'd never seen a head like that, it had a long muzzle with lots of teeth and two horns coming off the back of it, with a hard crest between them that ran down it's back."
"Thank you," I said thinking about that, it didn't sound like a dragon, but it still sounded big and nasty, a wyvern perhaps?
"Did it breathe fire? Or anything like that?"
She shook her head. "No, Milord."
"One last thing," I asked her, "When was it last fed?"
"Last night," she said and looked away, crying.
I sighed and felt like a heel for asking, but I had to know when it would be back.
"Where are you taking us?" One of the younger ones asked.
"Back to Hidden Vale," I said. "Is that where you're from?"
They all nodded, "Do we have to go there?" she said.
I looked her over, she had been pretty once, actually, I bet they all had been. Some good food, medical care, a bath and new clothes, and I suspect they'd be so again.
"Yes, but you don't have to stay," I told her. "You're all welcome to travel to any part of the kingdom you wish. The days of your village trading you away for protection are over; Queen Rachel does not tolerate that kind of nonsense," I said.
They all looked grateful to hear that.
"So now what?" Third Koglin asked me quietly as we watched them eat.
"Head back to the village, why?"
"Well, none of them look like they can walk far, and they're all flea infested, so they can't ride."
"Oh," I said. I had a cantrip that killed fleas, I had no idea however if it worked on others.
"Let me try something," I said, and for the first time since I'd come to Saladin I got down on my knees and prayed to Fel, and did so in public, asking him for help with this problem. Surprisingly, I actually felt him approve!
I then went to each of the women and each of the children, touching them on the head and casting my cantrip. I was exhausted when I was done, but each of them was clean, completely, no fleas, no dirt, nothing.
"Your god did that?" one of them asked me.
I nodded, "Feliogustus is touched by your fate, and bade me to help you." I told her, and looked at the others as well, "He has a church in the village now, you may want to thank him after we get back."
"You sound like a priest," Third Koglin whispered to me, as we walked over to check out the bandits.
"Yeah well, when you do those kinds of things, they expect to hear you say stuff like that," I said with a grin, "besides, maybe some of them will convert. Have you heard the word of Feliogustus?" I asked him.
"Please, my sister is in the church," he said.
"Oh? Who is she?"
"Priestess Tareassa," he told me.
I think my ears folded down flat at the shock of that.
"I know her," I said in a rather shocked voice, she'd had two of my children!
"I know," Third Koglin laughed, "I know."
Talk about your small world! I tried not to look too embarrassed and refrained from asking him how she was doing.
We forced the bandits to strip, then burned all of their clothing, I was able to cast the cantrip to banish fleas on them after I had rested, but it didn't do anything more than get rid of the pests. I wouldn't have even done that much, if it wasn't for having to bring them back with us. The last thing any of us needed was a flea infestation.
It took us four days to get back; the prisoners slowed us down quite a bit. When they started to complain after the first day, I walked up to one of the loudest complainers and took his head off with one of my swords.
They didn't complain much after that.
"How was your trip back?" Second Willis asked as we rode in that night. The sun had set two hours ago, and we'd left one of the bandits shackled to a large stone that looked like a giant on the outskirts of town. With the noise he was making, I honestly didn't expect to see much of him there come the next morning.
"Tiring, we had some problems with the wyvern, but we decided to feed it, and keep it happy."
"Feed it?" Second Willis said looking at me confused.
"It was preying on the bandit camp, so they had the brilliant idea of putting up a female sacrifice every other night, for it to eat.
"So in all due fairness, we decided that perhaps the men from the camp should have a go," I growled.
Second Willis looked shocked for a moment. "Then that screaming I hear off in the distance?
"Is tonight's meal. But we got a good two dozen left, so it's all good," I sighed. "Look, it's not just that they are scum and deserve it, but if we don't keep feeding it, and draw it here, to where the trap is, it'll just go off and eat some innocent villagers."
Second Willis held his hands up, "You don't have to explain yourself to me, William. You're the champion, I'm just glad I didn't have to be the one to make that decision."
I nodded, "I'm going to bed. Please make sure the prisoners are well secured for the night and that the rescued females and their children are put someplace safe. You can show me your plans in the morning."
"Yes Sir, William."
I went into the church and crawled into bed with Laria, I hadn't told him that on that first night, I'd watched it come and eat the bandit we'd put out as bait. I'd done it because I wanted to see exactly what I was dealing with, and also so that it would leave the rest of us alone and follow us here.
It hadn't been pretty, and my dreams hadn't been very forgiving either since then.
§ §
"Hi, Fel," I said, nodding he
llo and sighing.
"Don't beat yourself up too much, William. They did it to all those women, after all."
"Yeah, I know. Still, it bothers me."
"Only because you enjoyed it," Fel said and put his hand on my head. It may have only been a dream, but it felt comforting and I welcomed it.
"If it's any consolation, I would have enjoyed it myself," Fel told me. "They would bet on how long the ones they put up there would last."
"Why am I not surprised? I just wonder what their plans were for when they ran out of women."
"I don't think they ever thought that far ahead, honestly."
"So, is it a wyvern?"
"Yup, same as the ones from your myths and legends back home."
"Well, thank you that it's not a dragon."
"This was why I didn't want you to open a gateway from here to there, because it would surely have brought one through."
"I'd be bothered by the fact that dragons are real and exist and could one day end up here, but it's been a long week. Is it the same one that attacked me when I went over there the last time?"
"Probably, just be grateful that a dragon couldn't fit through that cave, or we might have had one of them here instead."
"Oh I am, trust me, Fel, I am. I do think I'm going to see about having someone fill that tunnel in with rocks and dirt, or something, just to cut down the chance of anyone messing with the rocks blocking the gate."
"That would be safest," Fel agreed.
"Any advice on how to kill a wyvern?"
"Actually, yes, I do," Fel said and I sat up straight and looked at him, giving him my full and undivided attention.
"While you are strong enough to breech its hide with your swords, and if blessed they are sharp enough to do it, you ideally need the best and strongest blade you can find. Something that won't lose its edge easily, and will punch through the toughest skin."
"Where do I find it?" I asked.
"The two daggers you bought Laria on Earth. She still has them. They're high quality carbon steel. Fashion them into spears, and you will have a weapon that can kill it."
Portals of Infinity: Reprisal Page 15