The Tracker: Book 1 of the King's Hand Series

by B. A. Monaghan

  “What else can you tell me? I grew up Halfway to nowhere so I’m very ignorant about everything the guild has.”

  “Well let’s start with joining a group. Guild secret this. You call out someone’s name to join your group they accept and they are added to the group. This is good so everyone your questing with gets equal experience. Try it with Shadow. I’m not sure it can work with him but I’m curious.”

  Roland looked at Shadow. When I call your name out I will need your agreement to join a group. “Group with Shadow.” Shadow gave his agreement.

  Party Panel - Alondale

  Roland Forestson Lvl 12

  Status: Healthy

  Shadow Lvl 12

  Status: Healthy

  “Wow. It says Shadow is the same level as I am. We are healthy.”

  Ethan spent quite a while talking with Roland. While this was going on Roland cast illusion on Shadow to keep people from getting upset. Ethan had so much information. He explained about the guild halls and how to get jobs. He suggested if they were headed to the capitol to take some caravan escort jobs on the way. They would need 10 jobs before they could reach level 3 in the guild. Since they were traveling that direction they might as well get paid for it, and get fed too.

  The important information he received was about staying in guild houses. They were cheaper than any other place they could stay. He also mentioned that the guild had a bank. This was great news. He really didn’t want to keep carrying the Lava Stone around. The bank was at the Capitol. He could make deposits at any guild hall but he was sure that didn’t include a rare expensive Lava Stone.

  Roland checked the board and he found a caravan leaving for the next town in two days. The Merchants Guild was hiring. This required level 2 guild members. He would head in that direction. Roland paid for a night’s stay in the guild hall with meals. Then headed out to explore the town.

  His first stop was at the Merchants Guild. The man in charge of the caravans was Carter. He was a big man with a bald head. He was barrel chested and a voice that could be heard from half a mile away. When asked where Carter was the man he was speaking to told him to just listen for the loudest mouth and he would find him. He was right.

  “Mr. Carter, my name is Roland and this is Shadow we are from the Adventures Guild. We would like to sign on to your caravan leaving the day after tomorrow.”

  Carter yelled at a few men struggling with a barrel of something. Whatever was in it must have been heavy. The men looked strong. Whatever they were moving it was tough for them. “I need some escorts but I don’t hire on dogs. He can go with us but I’m not paying you extra.”

  “He is a member of the guild.” Roland held up Shadow’s medallion for Carter to see. “I can understand your trepidation but I’m telling you with him scouting the area nothing is getting close to the caravan without him knowing about it. If he knows about it, I’ll know about it.”

  Carter had a look of indecision on his face. “I’ll tell you what. I’ve never heard of a dog being in the guild before and I can see that having one around might come in handy. I’ll feed him but I’ll not pay him. Does he really need any pay? He’s a dog after all.”

  “Well it makes it hard for him to pay the guild dues without getting paid. I’ll pay his share this time but if you think he is worth the pay by the time we get to Waterville you give us a recommendation to another caravan heading towards the capitol.” Roland thought Carter might agree to this.

  “Ok, I’ll agree. We’ve been hit by bandits several times on this road lately. This last winter was tough and it turned some farmers into bandits. If he can give us a warning they are coming I’ll give you a recommendation. They usually sneak in at night and steal what they can. They don’t normally want to fight and they run away if fights start to occur. We leave at down the day after tomorrow. Don’t be late.”

  Shadow left and headed towards Waterville. He would scout the area ahead of the caravan. This would also give them an idea about how far away Shadow could get before the illusion fell off.

  Roland spent the day looking at the market. They had so much stuff. Fruits, vegetables, bolts of cloth and finished cloths too. There were candle makers, wood workers, alchemist, and general goods merchants. Nothing really jumped out at him. He had about everything he needed. He thought about getting a health potion. They worked immediately. His health elixirs worked well but they took time. He almost purchased a few but then he smelled the potion. It smelled like they had put dark beast parts in the potion.

  “There is dark beast parts in this potion. That is dangerous.”

  “You have a good nose. Most people just think it smells and tastes bad. We distill the parts of natural occurring mana parts in dark beasts. That is why they are so expensive. Because of the distillation it will not cause you to become malformed. Well at least if you don’t take a potion every day for a year. Then there is no guarantee. Most people couldn’t afford that anyway.”

  “You look like an adventurer. If you are out and you find some magical beasts, here is a list of beast parts we alchemists like to buy.” The man handed over a list of beasts and the parts they would buy off those beasts. The list also showed a price next to the parts. This was what they would pay for which part. This could come in handy.

  The next merchant that had items of interest for Roland was an armorer. Roland had never worn armor but after seeing how well it worked for the orc fighting the grizzly it might come in handy. He tried on chainmail but it was just too heavy. He couldn’t get through the woods quietly with this thing on. He then looked at some leather armor. This was feasible. It has some protection from slashes but stabs or hard strikes would go through the leather. Light meant limited protection. Well limited protection was better than none.

  He was about to head out when the merchant walked up to him. “You don’t seem to have found what you’re looking for. I could see the chainmail was too heavy for you and the leather armor didn’t provide enough protection. However, I might have an answer for you. He walked back and pulled out chest piece. It looked like it had brown scales on it.

  “This here is a wyvern’s scale chest piece. It will keep swords, knives and arrows from penetrating. It doesn’t stop a mace from crushing you or a hammer. But I put padding and some leather behind it to help cushion the blows. This is the best piece of armor I have. It is the most expensive too.”

  “If a knife can’t cut it or a sword how were you able to skin the animals?”

  “A young man who knows what he’s talking about. Well you see it takes a knife that has the right runes on them. Most runed knives can’t cut the scales but there are a few knives out there the dwarves and elves have that can cut it. A dwarf cut this skin up for me.”

  Roland thought about the knife his mother has given him. It was a knife made by an elf and it had runes on it. “Do you have a piece of the scales left over? I would like to see if my knife will cut it.”

  This got the merchant laughing. I can let you try. I will tell you lots of people have tried but they only bend their blades on it. If you want to mess up your knife go ahead.”

  The man went behind his tent and got into the cart. He brought back a small piece of the brown scales. Roland took his knife out his mother had given him and made a cut on the side of the scales. It cut like butter.

  “Holy cow young man. Where did you get a knife like that?”

  “My mother gave it to me. It was a gift.”

  “Your mother must have loved you to give you such an astonishing gift. Are you going to be around Alondale for a while?”

  “I’m leaving the day after tomorrow.”

  “Well let me tell you my problem. I have more of this beautiful wyvern scales. I am unable to cut it and I would like to use what I have on another chest piece. If you cut the scales for me so I can make a chest piece, I’ll make you a piece of armor too. I’ll only have a few thin long pieces after the chest piece is cut out but I’m thinking I can make some vambraces for you. Wo
uld you consider the trade? If you make the cuts for me now I’ll have the vambraces ready tomorrow night.”

  “I think we have a deal.”

  Roland spent the next two hours cutting the wyvern scales were directed by the merchant. The armor’s name was Gabriel. He was full of information about the wyvern. According to him the scales were from an immature wyvern. The scales were brown and a full grown wyvern was black. He was sure that a few men died getting the immature wyvern. Only crazy well experienced adventurers hunted wyverns. They had tails that could kill a man with one swipe. They could eat a man in just a few bites. And if the bites didn’t out right kill you the things were poisonous. Roland put the information in the back of his head. When dealing with wyverns… run.

  He headed back to the guild hall. Dinner wasn’t bad. It was some type of stew with small pieces of meat in it. What type of meat only the cook knew? It might have been some type of domestic animal but Roland had only eaten wild game his entire life.

  The bed was uncomfortable. The open room was the worst though. Several of the men who had been sitting on the porch were sleeping in the guilds house common room. The snores were so loud the dead wyvern where the skin came from could hear them from beyond the grave.

  The next day Roland met Shadow outside of the walls of Alondale Castle. The bandits had been found about a day’s travel out of town. The bandits had set up camp near the place most caravans would camp after leaving Alondale. There were about 20 of them or that was as close to the number of smells Shadow remembered. To the east of the road was a small group of goblins. They wouldn’t be a problem to the caravan but they would be if they were allowed to stay. Shadow turned around and headed back to the woods. He preferred it out there.

  Roland headed to the castle. There should be a head forester for Alondale Forest there. If he remembered right his dad called him Samuel.

  He approached the gate to the castle proper. He was stopped at the gate by two guards. “Name and purpose?”

  “My name is Roland and I’ve got some information for Samuel Forester.”

  “Dropped off your weapons here. We will return them when you come back out.”

  They took his bow and arrows, the sword and his mom’s knife. They missed the two throwing knives Jake had made for him. He wasn’t going to do anything improper but it made him realize it wasn’t hard to get weapons into a place they shouldn’t be. They called a page out and had him escort Roland to the forester’s office.

  The page knocked on the door they were standing in front of. The castle was made from the same rock everything else around the place was made of. They must have an abundance of rock around this place. The door in front of him had a tree carved into it. That seemed appropriate. “Come in.”

  The page opened the door and announced. “Roland Forestson to see you.” He stepped back waiting for Roland to enter and closed the door behind him.

  The man behind the desk obviously Samuel Forester. “What can I do for you Roland? I believe your John’s son correct?”

  “Yes sir. John’s my father.”

  “How’s he doing? I don’t hear too much from him. He always taking care of things so I don’t have to. He is the kind of man you want working for you. What are you doing all the way over here near civilization?”

  “Well sir he was doing well when I left. I’ve come to join the Adventures Guild. That being said I have a friend with me and he went towards Waterville scouting the area before the caravan left and he found a small group of goblins to the east of the road about a day’s ride. I thought you might want to know before they caused you too many problems.”

  Samuel took a map from behind him off of a shelf. He rolled it out across his desk. He set some weights down on all the corners to keep it from rolling back up. Roland’s dad had a few maps and he was able to use them and learn from them. The map in front of him was bigger and better than any map he had ever seen. Samuel was looking to the east and south of Alondale. “Exactly where do you think these goblins were located?”

  Roland remembered from Shadows memory that they had been on a hill overlooking a large river. The hill itself wasn’t round but easing off to the west away from the river. The river itself went south and halfway around the hill and then went back to the west and a bit south of west. He looked on the map and found what he thought was the right hill. “I believe this is the hill were they are living. They had wargs with them too. They are trying to set up a permanent village. My friend thought they had been there for some time. They had lots of young goblins and young wargs. It will probably take a large group of soldier to dislodge them.”

  “Who is this friend of yours and do you trust him?”

  “Oh, he is my best friend. His name is Shadow. You can trust him. I trust him with my life.”

  “Well that is a good endorsement. I can’t say his name gives me confidence but I’ll send out some scouts and I’ll prepare an assault. I appreciate your assistance. If you see your parents before I do tell them I appreciate them.”

  “I’ll do that sir.”

  Roland stepped out the office and the page was outside waiting for him. They took the same path out they had taken in. The page never said one word to Roland. He just expected to be followed. The gate guards returned his weapons. This place worked efficiently and they really didn’t waste time with niceties and they didn’t abuse their power. The Duke must have a knack for management.

  Roland went back to the market. There wasn’t much else to do. He had lunch from a cart that sold meat on a stick. He meandered through the stalls. He did find a tinker and he purchased a leather punch, a needle and some thread. This would allow him to repair his cloths or to make some new one when the ones he had become too small.

  He finally made it back to the armorer Gabriel’s stall. He was waiting for Roland. “Good, good my friend Roland. The man I was waiting for.” He jumped up from the seat he was sitting in and grabbed a package sitting behind him. He brought the package to the table in front of Roland. He unrolled the package and two brown wyvern scale vambraces lay before him. “Each vambrace is made of two pieces. I made them so you could adjust them. I see you’re still growing but that shouldn’t be a problem. The two pieces’ overlap so there is no gap for a knife or a rapier can get through. This isn’t a lot of protection but you will never have to worry about your forearms being cut up.”

  He helped Roland put them on his arms. It would take some getting used to. He was admiring the scales when Gabriel picked up a knife and slammed it into his arm. Roland stepped back shocked. Gabriel was laughing and held up the knife with a bent tip. “See my friend, the wyvern scales will protect you. If you ever come by more wyvern scales, please come to me. I will make you a set of armor only a king could afford. Well you and that special knife you have. Take care of that knife it truly is special. You should thank your God he gave you the mother you have.”

  As Roland walked back to the guild house he cast an illusion that made the vambraces disappear along with the knife his mother gave him. If the items were that nice others would be wanting them too. If nothing else, he would keep the thieves from being tempted.

  He had another bland meal at the guild house. The night was long and the snores were even louder than the night before it that were possible. He was so ready for the forest. He would be able to get some sleep.

  The next day he was up early. He got some breakfast and Ethan said good bye and to have good luck on his journey. The trip was going well. He had been fortunate that he met some good people. His parents had warned him the further you go into civilization the more uncivilized people seemed to act. This always confused Roland. Why didn’t they say that the civilized world was out in the forest instead of in the cities?

  Carter was at the gate at the merchant’s guild house. He introduced him to the caravan guard commander. Greyson let me introduce you to Roland. He is one of your guards for this trip. Roland this is Greyson Command of the Guard. Where is your friend? I thought he w
as going with you?”

  “He went ahead and scouted out the area before we left. He is waiting at the gate. He did find the bandits yesterday. They will probably try something tonight but Shadow and I have something planned for them.”

  Greyson looked at him. “What do you mean you know where the bandits are?”

  “Well my friend Shadow found them. Probably about 20 or so people. They are poorly equipped. They try to steal without anyone knowing. They avoid combat or confrontation. They have been using a draw that is close to the convoy when they camp at the first stop. This draw gets them close enough to the wagon that they can stay in the shadows under the wagons. They go form wagon to wagon taking what they want. They leave a trail easy to follow.”

  “I assume you are a tracker then Roland?”

  “Yes sir. Shadow and I can track just about anything. As long as it doesn’t fly we can track it.”

  “You seem confident for a young man.”

  “Well Shadow and I have been tracking for most of our lives. It has become second nature to us.”

  “So who is the friend of yours, Shadow?”

  “Oh, you will see him when we leave the town. When you see a big shadow come up to me know it’s him and don’t let him scare you. He is intimidating but he’s a softy inside.”

  “Well since you are a tracker you can take point on the caravan. Stay close so we can see you. Either you or Shadow should stay close enough to see. Either he or you can scout into the trees. I don’t care witch one but if we can’t see you we will treat it as if there is a problem.”

  The caravan was eight wagons in total. There were three guards on wagons and two on horses. The horses stayed in front and behind the caravan. Roland would stay out ahead of the caravan and Shadow would stay in the woods. The wind was blowing from the west to the east. If anything could be a surprise it would probably come from the east and south. Shadow had it handled, and Roland was in constant contact.