by Randi Darren
The ant soldier had watched before asking Meliae a question that he couldn’t make out. After that, she seemed uninterested in the situation.
Petra was staring at him, her blue eyes flat, questioning.
Giving himself a small shake Vince held up his hands.
“I apologize, I missed the question. One more time please?” Vince pleaded, hoping no one had noticed his- the Dryad had. Meliae was looking at him with a tiny smile. Thankfully Fes seemed wholly into the map and was glaring as if intimidation would make it give up it’s secrets.
“If this is a military organization, then this one would argue that they should have a staging area. Perhaps somewhere in the middle of these line of attacks. Sloppy to make such an easily distinguishable pattern though,” Petra said smoothly, her finger tracing the line of attacks.
Looking at it with that frame of mind Vince looked towards the center area. There, near the center of it all, was an uninhabited area that was nothing more than trees and rocks.
So boring and ordinary that it probably got a handful of visitors every decade.
That being the case, Vince realized he’d have to investigate it, even if it was only in passing to the most recent attack site.
Pressing a finger to that spot he looked around at his party. “This’d be the place if that theory holds up. Or around here. I think we’d be best served to at least canvas the area. Even if we’re just passing through. We can make this trip today and still have time to make camp if nothing is there. I say we go for it. Now, even.”
Meliae made a delicate frown, one finger pressing to her lower lip. “When we get closer I’ll speak with the trees. Most aren’t willing to talk with me, but there’s usually one that’s chatty in every group.”
Fes only grunted, turning her head away from the map and moving back to her mount.
Petra looked at him with raised blonde eyebrow. “The plan is a good one. This one would ask why you require an opinion?”
“Because while this isn’t a democracy I do value your thoughts,” Vince admitted, pulling the map free of the grass and shaking out the rocks. “No-one rules alone. To believe so is to set yourself up for failure.”
“The queen ruled alone,” Petra defiantly said.
“And what happened when she died? Is there a nest left over? Did they even try to resist after that? To rebuild? To try again?” Vince asked, folding the map up.
“No. No, they… we… this one did not. This one will think on your words.”
“I.”
“What?”
“I will think on your words. Not this one. You are yourself, you’re not an ant drone, soldier, whatever,” Vince said, gesturing at her. Folding the map a final time he slipped it into a saddle bag.
“This one… I… will think on your words,” Petra said. Her legs straightened, and her head rose up to six feet.
Can you ride an ant soldier?
Vince’s thoughts came out from under him as his eyes studied her abdomen. Between her ant rear end and human torso was a small stretch of what he would call her “waist.” It’d probably require a custom saddle but it might be possible to outfit her like that.
Petra was strapping on her armor and speaking to Meliae, and had not noticed his gaze. For which he was thankful.
His hearing caught on their conversation at the use of his name. His enhanced hearing could be dialed up or down on his need if he wasn’t distracted.
It’d taken him time to get used to it, there were many noises in the night after all, but it was worth it.
Checking a strap underneath his mount Vince focused on their conversation.
Eavesdropping is only rude if you’re caught or admit it.
“-ot a queen. Fes is his first wife,” Meliae said in a whisper to the ant woman.
“You hold his scent. As recently as a day old perhaps,” Petra said.
Vince hid his momentary embarrassment by climbing onto his horse.
Apparently Petra could tell that he’d been with the Dryad before they set out.
“Yes. I’m his second wife, remember?”
“Second.”
The women grew silent as they set on their way
Vince settled in as the rear guard while Fes led the way. Petra and Meliae took up the middle. Petra of course was her own mount.
“Uh-huh, second. Fes’ believes it’s her duty as his first wife to find more wives for him. Wives that will make him stronger. Women with talent or strength.”
“Duty. This one understands duty. Is this one the third wife?”
Vince blinked at that.
Sex with an Orc is weird enough, how would one even go about that with an ant?
“No. If I had to guess the intentions of my silly tree, I’d say he didn’t want to kill you and offered you the only other choice he could. He’s quick to kill if he must, but slow to do so if he doesn’t have to.”
“This one would know more of this situation.”
Vince decided that was enough for him and tuned the conversation out, focusing on the job he had to do as the tail end.
Getting ambushed now due to his lack of attention sounded pretty damn awful.
Meliae turned her head to Vince, her hand resting on a tree. “They’re here. They move during the night and not during the day. They head straight north from here. Somewhere between ten and twenty. Trees don’t count very well, but he shared his memories with me. They were jumbled but I made some sense of it.”
Vince opened his mouth to ask a question and stopped, watching Meliae.
The Dryad pressed a hand to her temple taking in a breath. After a few seconds she dropped her hand and gave her head a shake. “Sorry. Trees in human territory, that is outside the Waste, are… invariably loud or almost too quiet.”
“Quite alright, take your time. Did you get an idea about what kind of weaponry they’re carrying? Or what kind of armor they wear?” Vince asked.
“Swords, daggers, a couple of short bows. I think. Hard to tell as they passed this way only during the night. Their armor was dark as well.” The Dryad seemed far more weary than she was letting on. Or so Vince believed.
“Thanks, Meliae. Alright. I’d like to get closer and see if we can figure this out. If we can determine it’s political without engaging, and slip out with proof, our job is done and will be paid out by the Ranger’s guild. Questions?”
Vince looked to Fes, who shook her head. She’d been quiet today. Vince wasn’t going to pry at her about it either. She’d talk to him about whatever was bothering her when she was ready.
Looking to Meliae she also shook her head.
Next was Petra who’s head was once again covered by her helmet.
“This one would know what you wish of her, Master.”
Vince took that as acceptance to his question.
“Protect Meliae and keep her in the rear. Stay something like… fifty feet off. She’s our ace in the hole,” Vince asked. Turning to Fes he gave a slight inclination of his head towards the direction Meliae had indicated.
Out ahead of them as an open expanse of field, barren of trees and cover. Whoever had picked their location had done so with a mind for tactics.
To his eyes it looked like a fairly solid wall of vegetation that’d hide whoever was in there while providing an easy view of the surrounding area.
Fes nodded and fell in behind Vince. Hunching his shoulders he kept himself low and slunk along.
He didn’t think they’d be able to make it in without being spotted, but he’d still make the attempt. After all, it was late afternoon and the sun was pitched fairly low in the west. They’d be fairly well highlighted to anyone curious enough to look south.
As if his thoughts reached out and alerted their quarry, a shout came up to the north of them.
Seconds after that, bodies came boiling out of the trees and brush. Vince unsheathed his sword as he counted six charging them.
They were armed exactly as Meliae had warned they would be. Unfortun
ately, they were also very clearly military trained.
The six spread out to encircle them, slowing down from the run they’d started out at into a fast walk. Before they could settle in he’d have to act. Beside him he could practically feel Fes coming to the same realization.
Vince hissed between his teeth and then leapt forward with all the speed he could muster.
His saber snapped forward, the tip whistling through the air and cleaving through an unprotected wrist. Not letting the blow slow him, Vince took a half step to the right with his left foot while pulling his sword back.
Launching forward he sprang forward, his sword extending and skewering the second man in the lower abdomen.
Jerking his blade free as he passed the man who was crumpling in on himself, Vince spun on his heel.
Fes had chopped a third man nearly in half and ended up a few feet off to his left.
Before he could begin to celebrate the evening of the odds, Vince heard the crunch and clatter of more people coming from the camp.
They’d under estimated Vince and Fes and only sent some of their number. They’d paid a price for that and Vince didn’t doubt whoever was coming now was everyone.
Vince saw Petra’s approach a fleeting moment before she arrived.
Petra’s long strange sword swept across in a horizontal blur. That one swipe took the lives of two men who had gotten close to one another. One lost their head while the other had the top half of their skull removed. The two dead bodies fell to the ground with a thump as their limbs spasmed.
Fes roared and leapt at the last man, her blade snapping a hastily raised broadsword in half. The weight of the attack drove the man to his knees as her weapon carved down through his shoulder and into his mid section.
Cruelly shoving a booted foot into his chest, Fes kicked him off the length of her sword.
Vince looked to the oncoming enemies. A quick count gave him eight combatants rapidly approaching. They were all wearing headdresses that covered their faces.
Eight of them, against three.
Meliae stepped up behind him, her staff held out at her side.
Four, I guess.
Vince felt his mouth turn into a thin line.
“Don’t be angry. I can’t sit back and watch you go into battle alone. A Dryad is supposed to protect her tree. Not hide in it.”
“Stay beside me then. Use the reach on your staff to keep people away. Look for openings, don’t actually engage unless there’s no other choice,” Vince muttered.
Well, three and a half against eight.
Their foes were starting to slow on their approach. They seemed confused and angry at the same time.
Then Petra darted forward, her multi jointed legs propelling her faster than he expected. Fess chased after her, yelling as she sprinted along. The two of them plowing into the six on the right and scattering them.
Vince moved forward to immediately engage the two who were turning to join their comrades. With a flick and twist of his wrist his saber snapped out, slicing along the foe’s shoulder and into their jaw with a crunch.
Turning his attention to the second he had a moment to register the fact that they were leveling a revolver at him. Turning to the side to limit his profile he did the only other thing he could think of. Fingering a throwing knife as he moved he spun it off from his side with a flick of his wrist. His aim felt true and he watched as it sped towards the man’s shoulder.
Spinning end over end it sped onward towards the target. Then Vince lost sight of the blade as it passed the gun. Then it went off.
The boom of the pistol filled his ears and Vince had tried to force himself forward to engage before they could fire another round.
The cylinder started to rotate as they began pulling the trigger again.
Green leaves and vines whipped up from the foliage at their feet. A mass of plant matter wrapped up around the cocked hammer and dragged the barrel towards the ground.
A sapling bent to the side and tilted towards Vince’s attacker, then sprung outward. The tip of the small tree exploded as the green wood smashed through their unprotected throat.
Gurgling, the attacker dropped the gun and pressed their hands to their ravaged neck. Blood flowed over their gloves like a plastic bag with a slit in it.
Vince was stunned, his mind struggling to keep up with the situation.
He knew magic existed, had even seen a bit of it here and there. But not magic that could directly effect a fight.
From a Dryad no less.
Only truly powerful Dryads could control nature like what had just happened.
Thoughts for later, fool. The fight goes on.
Turning his attention to the second person Vince found them on their knees, a hand pressed to their shoulder. Apparently he’d struck truer than he originally believed.
Looking to Petra and Fess he found the two finishing off the last attacker between them. Petra jabbed in a quick attack, forcing the man back a step. It gave Fess an opportunity to bring her big sword around in a slash that just about bisected the bastard in the middle.
Both Petra and Fess’ eyes jumped over to him.
“Clear,” Vince called out to them.
“Clear,” Fess responded. Grunting she leaned down and drew her blade across a corpse.
“Finish them off, don’t leave them to suffer,” Vince said, indicating the bodies at their feet. Getting cut in half wasn’t always an immediate death, and the gasping agonal breaths he could hear only reinforced that.
Dying wasn’t like the way stories described it. It could be swifter than a thought, and slow as ice in equal measure.
Looking to his own duty he pushed his saber into the chest of the man with the missing throat.
There was no resistance as his blade slid into the spot the man’s heart should be. Withdrawing his saber Vince turned to the one with the shoulder wound.
“Wait, wait, I’m working for the kin-”
The statement ended as Vince shoved the tip of his sword into the mans chest and pushed straight into the heart. With a small twist he made sure to dice the organ completely, giving the man only a few seconds to wait for his end.
“Why?” Meliae asked quietly from beside him.
“Because if I had heard him, we’d all be in an ugly situation between kingdoms. I’d be forced to give him aid, transfer him to the guild, and then sit idly by as two kingdoms probably went to war,” Vince explained, his voice soft.
Wiping his blade on the now dead man he sighed.
“There’s always the possibility they’d try to claim you as repayment for their losses as well. I doubt it’d be upheld, but you’d three end up in a ‘warehouse’ of sorts until this was finalized. Call me selfish, but I’d rather not let that happen. It’ll be bad enough when I report what my suspicions are without proof.”
Taking a few steps back to the other corpse Vince rooted around in the ground till he found the revolver.
Squatting down he eyed the piece with a frown.
“Is that a gun?” Fess asked. She’d come up behind him while he was looking for it. “Never seen one. Was loud.”
“That it is. Expensive to say the least. Ammunition isn’t a readily available commodity. Especially for civilians. Or a bandit,” Vince sighed and picked up the weapon. It was a double action revolver. “One could argue ammo itself is a form of currency. Especially for something like this. Which has specific needs. Very specific needs. We’ll sell it to the guild. I already have a few at the house, but ammo is so expensive that… it’s just not worth carrying around.”
“This one would argue that your life is worth more than a bullet, Master. Perhaps it’s time to carry one on the off chance something like this happens again,” Petra intoned somberly.
“You’re probably right. Speaking of, thanks for the save, Meliae,” Vince said, looking up at the dryad beside him. His eyes promised her a private conversation about her magic.
Blushing the dryad nodded her head, no
t saying a word.
“Alright, loot all the bodies and stack’em up. Leave em for the wild. It’ll help obscure what happened here.”
Chapter 11
They’d gotten lucky with the “spoils of war” from the dead and the camp they found after. Most of it was things they could pack easily and either take back home or sell without a problem to the guild.
Most especially fortuitous was one of the combatants had been a female elf in a slave collar.
That extra collar had immediately gone onto Meliae without any commands or requirements put on it. It’d serve as a decent cover.
They’d have to break it when they got back home but that was a problem for another time.
Right now, the situation was more of a political one. Vince would need to deal with what, to his mind at least, was a clear and obvious declaration of war between two kingdoms.
One that’d probably plunge the entire area into an ugly and bitter draw out war.
The quickest way to undermine a country was to topple their economy or their ability to feed the population. In either of those situations, internal stability would usually fall to zero and bottom out rapidly.
This wasn’t to say the country would immediately fall, but it would definitely put pressure on the government.
If the problem was severe enough that government might not be able to cope with say, a sudden and furious assault from a neighbor. One that promised the citizens of the other food at a reasonable price. Perhaps jobs to earn the coin to buy it, too.
At least, that’s what Vince would do. Destabilize, then attack.
Now he had to convey that point to everyone involved, without actually saying it.
The pop of a log shattering into flaming coal shook him from his thoughts.
Looking to the side he saw Petra, Fess, and Meliae lined up against the wall. Staring straight ahead. Unmoving. Silent.
His license now had a third marker to denote Petra’s ownership. It gave Petra protection yet also could create a problem if people started asking questions about when he procured her.
Being forced to stand like statues was only the latest in the long list of slights they had to deal with.