by JD Franx
Chapter Twenty-Five
“ArchWizard Giddeon Zirakus asked to me write this for those of you who enquired. Due to increased raids on Kastelborg Island by the Orotaq, Northmen have engaged them in open and sea combat with more and more frequency. Orotaq strategy is simple. When they cannot overpower you with brute strength, they try with sheer numbers. Between their hundreds of black dogs and archers with obsidian bows that will puncture plate armour, or warriors strong enough to tip a catapult, they are not easy to defeat. You Humans and Elvehn are not Northman. Should you end up facing the Orotaq in battle, my only tactical advice is to run.”
Kasik Blodhjorr
Written tactical assessment of the Orotaq, 5018 PC
CAIRNWOOD
Kael watched from between the leaves as Wairekk and his two guards returned to the lodge. For nearly an hour, the handful of the Orotaq warriors, now guards, began setting up a shelter over the town square.
With a lost look in her eyes, Kyah stared at Kael. “What now? Please tell me you have an idea.” she whispered.
Kael shook his head. “I have no idea what to do.” Guilt over not being able to help ate at him. Cassie glanced at them both, back and forth several times, before focusing on Kael.
“You have to help us... Please, Kael. Please help us,” she begged, in a whisper.
“Let’s just wait until after dark and see what happens. I don’t suppose there are any wizards down there?”
“No, why?” she asked.
“I was hoping there would be a wizard here who could at least help, maybe teach me a few words that would help us. My one lightning spell won’t do enough damage, neither will fire or ice, and I can’t kill that many Orotaq by shadow-walking all of them. I’d be exhausted long before I got even half of them.”
They sat back against the tree to rest as best they could. Kael tried to relax, but his mind whirled with ideas and options, all turned out to be useless. Closing his eyes, he forced his mind to calm, as he waited for full dark to arrive, so he could do what little he was able in order to start trying to put a plan together.
Managing a few hours of broken and uncomfortable sleep, Kael woke close to midnight and decided to explore Cairnwood while he had the cover of darkness to move around.
Wairekk had left the town while they rested, and as of yet, had not returned. Four Orotaq warriors walked a patrol around the newly-constructed slave tent in the town square. Each pair of guards walked in opposite directions. The rest had retired to the lodge for what Kael assumed would be food and sleep. The continuous patrol made any plan hazardous at best, especially considering Kael’s desire to talk to the town’s people and its mayor.
Sitting up, he poked Cassie’s foot with his toe. “Is there anyone down there still alive who I could talk to about the townspeople helping to fight back?” Several minutes passed in silence as Kael watched her decide about who would be best.
“Your best chance is Mayor Redding. He’s honest and fair, and I think he can get the others to help. There are some who would tell on you if they thought it would help them. Some people have children, and there are no kids down there. They might help,” she said.
“All right then. You two stay here while I go snoop around. I mean it, though. Any chance we have will only be with all of us fighting. If you two leave and something goes wrong, I cannot help your people. Cassie? Do you understand?”
She nodded. “I’ll stay here with Kyah. I promise. Kael?”
“Yes, kiddo?”
“Thank you for helping.” He could see tears glistening in her eyes as the moonlight shone through the leaves of the tree.
“Don’t thank me yet, sweetheart. I haven’t done anything. But I promise we’ll do what we can,” he said, and slid down the back of the tree.
Kael’s esoteric sight allowed him to locate and keep track of every Orotaq in the town now that he knew what they felt like. Using his extra senses to move to the side of the lodge undetected, he noticed a side window open. As he approached, the voices of several Orotaq drifted out the window. With muffled feet, he crept closer and listened.
“...no way all the grubs were caught, Shaman. At dawn, the two of you and six warriors can scour the top levels of the mine and find them. It’s why Wairekk brought you two with us. Your magic will save time with such things. Now rest, and at dawn, find the rest of the little buggers. I want fresh meat while we are here. It will keep us strong.” As Kael peered inside the window, he recognized Varrush Dawn as the speaker, and his stomach did a flip at the topic of their discussion.
“So shall it be, Commander,” the shaman said, as he bowed. Unlike the Orotaq mystic Kael had killed earlier, the shaman inside the lodge was heavily adorned with archaic scarification designs. Swirling symbols and strange writing that Kael didn’t understand covered the shaman’s entire body, even disappearing into his black leather pants. There was no room left anywhere on the pale blue flesh for more branding.
Kael knew he was seriously outmatched against the shaman. The power radiating off the Orotaq mystic was intense, far beyond what he himself could wield. There was no way he could fight the shaman head on and win. It was one more thing to worry about as he turned from the lodge and headed towards the main square.
Thanks to the Orotaq patrol that followed a set direction, Kael easily weaved his way through the town without being seen. But when he got to the tented square, four more Orotaq guards were on guard at the tent’s entrance. They were alert and watching every direction carefully. The only thing that would get Kael inside the tent, unnoticed, would be to shadow-walk his way in, but he had only done it during battle.
In order to avoid the chance of an accident, he kept his weapons sheathed on his back, pulled his hood up on his head and acted instead of thinking about it. With a quick step forward, a swirl of black smoke appeared, and he vanished. Reappearing inside the tent, he stumbled as a wave of dizziness washed over his mind. It was something he never felt before. Crouched beside some crates the Orotaq had moved into the tents, he looked around. He smiled as the last of the disorientation dissipated. No one had seen him appear, and no guards raised an alarm from outside.
Kael wasted no time looking for the mayor, and asked a young woman his own age if she knew where he was.
“You are not from our village,” she whispered, looking over her shoulder towards the tent’s entrance.
“I know,” he said. “I’m here to try and help, but I need to speak with Cornelius Redding and quickly. I don’t know how often they do inside checks... Please.”
“All right, I’m sorry. Just... How did you get in here? Unless... You must be a wizard.” Kael nodded. “Please. Come with me. Mayor Redding’s over here.” Keeping his eyes on the door, Kael followed the young woman as she made her way through the mass of prisoners to the far side of the tent, where a group of people were surrounding a woman lying on the ground. Kael recognized her as the woman the mayor had kissed before facing Wairekk.
The woman leading Kael placed a gentle hand on the mayor’s shoulder, grabbing his attention. “Cornelius, I’m sorry to bother you, but there’s a young wizard here to see you. He came from outside.”
Cornelius turned to look at Kael, relief washing over his face. “Oh, thank the Ancients. Please, young wizard, you have to heal my wife,” he begged, tears flooded his face. “She was brutalized by those monsters because of my defiance. Please, you must help her.” Kael looked down on the woman, seeing that she’d been beaten severely. He bent over and let his magical sight drop into the woman’s body. Four broken ribs, a bruised sternum, and a broken arm stared back at him. There was nothing he could do.
“I’m sorry, Cornelius, but that defiance saved all of your lives. I can’t heal your wife, I don’t have the ability to do so,” Kael apologized.
Confused, Cornelius asked, “What kind of a wizard are you then? How could I possibly help you?”
“My name is Kael. I’m not a healer, but a very good healer is hidden in the village w
aiting for me. But she can only heal your wife if you can help me get rid of the Orotaq. There are too many for us to fight alone. Your wife won’t die in the mean time, I promise you,”
“I am sorry, Kael, but no one has any fight left. All the children have been murdered. Nobody will fight, there is nothing to gain but death.”
Kael could not believe what he was hearing. “You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?” Cornelius asked, as others began gathering around him.
“Some of the children are still alive. They’re hiding in the mine. The Orotaq shamans are going to do a sweep with six warriors at sun-up to find them. If we’re going to save them, we have to act tonight,” Kael said. He could see Cornelius was unsure what to say as he looked around at the faces of those he had known for his whole life. Kael knew these were people who trusted in his leadership and his ability to keep them safe, and he marvelled at how none of them showed any sign of distrust in the man, even after what had happened. Six men, clearly miners, stood behind him and several others whispered their support.
Finally turning back to Kael, Cornelius nodded. “All right, young man. What do you have in mind?”
“I have to take care of those two shamans, first,” Kael said, wincing at the thought. “The older one is a lot stronger than I am. If I can’t do it quietly, all hell is going to break loose and your people will get the worst of it. Where in town can I get weapons for those willing to fight?”
“We use the old ranger quarters by the north gate for our armoury. The rangers pulled out decades ago, after the last Wildlands War. The weapon armoury is in the base of the north-west watchtower. Most of the fighting men are already dead, and none of the town guardsmen survived the initial attack.”
Kael nodded. “I understand, but the most dangerous people are the ones fighting for their children and their families. The Orotaq suspect most of the children escaped into the mines. Make sure everyone knows this, and you’ll find enough fighters, I’m sure of it,” he said, then left.
The shadow-walk out of the tented area was even easier the second time, and he was positive he’d begun to understand how it worked. Again, it took a couple seconds for the dizziness to pass, letting him know he had only a handful of times left before he would be too tired to use the spell. The words of the novice shaman came back to him.
You need to start thinking like a wizard, boy, not like a Human. Kael shook his head, it was good advice.
Already on the north-west end of the village, it took only minutes for Kael to reach the barracks. Hiding within the late night darkness, he watched both towers, noticing that there was an Orotaq warrior at the top of each watchtower. With silenced feet, he crept into the small building at the bottom of the west-side tower. Swords, pikes, and bows lined the walls all the way around the inside, and stacks of filled quivers were arranged neatly against the wall by the door. A pile of dusty woollen sacks had been tossed into a corner, along with plenty of rope. Seeing this gave him an idea for getting the weapons into the prisoner tent.
Kael filled three bags with weapons, two with swords of varying types and one with bows and quivers of arrows, having first strung six longbows. He stuffed all the bags with extra sacks to help muffle the clanging blades, then picked up a length of rope he guessed was a hundred feet long. As an afterthought, he grabbed two bladed pikes and left the armoury. On the way back to the prison tent, he stopped at a large congealing pool of blood, soaked the rope in it before rolling it in the dirt to ensure it was dark as night. The Orotaq guards would never see it, even if they stepped on it.
Returning to where he’d shadow-walked out of the captive’s tent, Kael felt and saw no guards, so he dropped the rope and made sure it was free of tangles. With one end of the rope in his right hand and the two bags of swords hung on the two pikes in his left, he dashed across the open area and under the tent, unseen. Cornelius and a battle-scarred older man were waiting for him.
“You made it. I was starting to worry you wouldn’t return,” Cornelius whispered, with a sigh of relief.
“There were guards at the watchtowers. They slowed me down. Now listen,” he said, as he dropped the first bag of swords and the pikes. “I’m going back for the rest of the weapons, so when you feel a tug on this rope, you start pulling it in while someone else watches for the guards. I have two more bags of weapons ready but I couldn’t carry it all. When I get back, I’ll tie them to the rope. Pull them back after the patrol has passed by, okay?” he explained.
“I understand. And thanks,” the older man said. Kael nodded and was gone again, back into the shadows outside the tent, without actually having to shadow-walk.
Kyah and Cassie never heard heard Kael until he landed on the branch between them. He startled them both so badly they nearly jumped out of the tree.
“Blessed Fae, Kael. Do not do that,” Kyah whispered. “You scared me.”
“And me,” Cassie added, still holding one hand to her mouth and the other to her chest.
“Sorry,” he said, by way of an apology. “I forgot I silenced my feet.”
“Do we have a plan yet?” Kyah asked.
“I think so,” he said as he sat on his heels. “I smuggled some weapons to the people in the tent, so when all hell breaks loose, they’ll be ready to fight. Both shamans need to be dealt with first, so we won’t have to deal with their magic. But if I fail or the other Orotaq notice, it will get ugly and fast. Cassie, you stay up here until one of us comes for you, okay?”
“I will. I promise,” she said, her voice quiet. She grabbed his arm and quickly added, “Can I come with you and Kyah when you leave? I have no one else... Please?” she asked, her big eyes wet with moisture.
Kyah answered when Kael hesitated.
“I am sorry, sweetie,” she said, as she gently cupped Cassie’s chin. “But Kael and I will likely not survive where we are going. We cannot take you into that situation. Someone here will take care of you. We will make sure before we leave.”
Cassie’s face fell as a deep sadness washed over her, but she nodded nonetheless. Kyah had spoken the truth. Kael no longer cared that it was possible they could die in the Dwarven Mountains, as long he dragged Sythrnax to Hell with him. The attack on Cairnwood had to have been instigated by the strange creature as the Orotaq prepared for whatever war Sythrnax and the Dead Sisters planned on fighting.
“For years, the Elder and Wizard Councils from the Blood Kingdoms have studied interrogation techniques, both magical and mundane, in the hopes of finding the quickest way to the truth in urgent situations like the one we face now. I, myself, have spent years searching through forgotten dusty scrolls in the Ageless Library of the Arcane in DormaSai’s capitol city of Drae’Kahn. Ancient writings claim that the effects of pain vary from dimension to dimension. It appears that the Fae would have been the most effective torturers and information extractors, if only their overwhelming empathetic nature would have allowed it. Because of this, we’ve come to believe that the most effective method of torture or interrogation is using magic from another dimension. Such magic is extremely rare now that the Fae are extinct, but it does exist. If only we had access to a dimensional traveller, we could get the answers we so desperately need. At this point, both councils would sanction the most extreme methods of torture possible if it produced any usable information.”
Excerpt from Agravar Desolla’s personal journal
DarkWinter, 618 PC
EAMON O’LEARY’S GROVE
Dominique Havarrow woke with start, cold water dripped from his long blonde beard and multi-coloured kreeda. Shaking his head, the clan-loyalty braids clacked as the attached glass beads struck the decorative bone rings Shasta had attached to Kael’s kreeda during their sail south.
“Fucker,” Dominique swore, spitting bloody water onto the wooden floor of what could only be the crazy alchemist’s large cabin. Looking up, his vision cleared, and his eyes settled onto his captor’s face, inches away. The older man smiled, his white teet
h in perfect condition, but there was no humour or mirth in his expression.
“Your magic user is strong. You should be dead,” the old man said, slapping Cormak upside the head, hard. Dominique realized Cormak was tied up beside him. Instinctively, he looked to his left and saw Shasta tied as well. Unconscious, a deep cut under her hair still bled, and blood dripped from her right ear. The same side of her face was blistered and burned all the way down her neck and onto her chest. Dominique grunted as she groaned, fighting her way back to consciousness. She’d live. Cormak slowly came around to his right. The runecaster coughed and winced from the pain caused by the singed flesh on his face, arms, and side. The wizard’s cloak had burned clean away in places, leaving melted cloth stuck to his blistered skin on almost half his left side. Dominique understood, without question, that the wizard paid the price for saving Shasta and himself, likely weakening his section of shield to strengthen theirs.
“Not as strong as you apparently,” Dominique said, flashing a smile in return.
“Ya think I use magic?” the old man asked, scoffing.
“That... That fireball destroyed my shield,” Cormak added. Still woozy, he struggled to speak. “It threw us, far... Too far. Who are you?”
“Most fellas call me Eamon O’Leary. Don’t be troublin’ yerselves about the rest. I ain’t no filthy magic user.”
“That was magic if ever I’ve seen it. If not, what was that fireball that almost killed us?” Dominique asked, staring at the old man as if he were crazy.
“Magic? You short a few shillings, boyo? Piss-poor Irishman I be if I couldn’t cook explosives here.” Raising his left hand, the old man pointed to the rear of his cabin in a westerly direction. “Mountains are lousy with shite that goes boom, let alone what be in the halls full of tech under the mountain. Boom-storm heaven for an Irish engineer like me.” He laughed, slapping Dominique’s cheek like an affectionate father.