"I heard that things went relatively well and that everyone survived intact for the most part," Alyssa stated. "I am glad you are all okay."
Malina gave a return smile and a quick squeeze back before releasing her hand and turning to James. He gave his approval along with an order to take Meric with her. She wasted no time turning back to the woods, striding purposefully away. She had work to do.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Another Piece of the Puzzle
The barest whisper of soft boot crushing pine straw announced the arrival of someone coming up behind Meric just as he was sliding the last of his recovered arrows into the quiver hanging behind his right shoulder. A glance over that same shoulder revealed Malina coming to a halt next to where he was kneeling. With a flip of his wrist he discarded the handful of moss that he had been using to clean the arrowheads and turned to her as he stood. He passed two grey fletched arrows to her, already cleaned, and handed her bow to her as well. She thanked him for retrieving her weapons before he spoke.
"Everything alright?" he asked.
She nodded. "Looks like Miller was the only one seriously injured."
"Good. Let's hope that there won't be any more trouble before we get to Seegrin."
"I'll take that," she said to him emphatically. "I believe James plans to requisition more troops there to help with the rest of the journey."
"That would be ideal, though I plan on doing something that could possibly make the rest of the trip less exciting," he replied while looking back toward the rest of their party.
"Going hunting are we?" She looked at him with one eyebrow raised.
"That I am. I think it's about time I had a conversation with Lord Weasel himself," he told her, indicating the elusive man from that first night at the inn. They had taken to calling him by that nickname when they discussed the situation and for some reason Alyssa seemed to find the name particularly humorous.
While motioning Meric to follow, she nodded as she was stepping over a half rotten tree that had fallen long ago and began heading deeper into the trees. The shafts of sunlight were becoming scarcer as they moved farther into the forest.
"Are you taking anyone with you?"
"I would like to take Silas, but until we know that there will be no more trouble between here and town I think it's best he stays with the princesses. All three of you need to stay close to them until they are safe. I should be able to handle the skinny little trouble maker by myself."
Seeing her frown at him he reassured her. "I will be careful, and if he's not alone I'll wait till I get reinforcements."
"I guess that will have to do," she replied. "Of course your plan won't matter a bit if James shoots it down."
"That's why I'll have you with me when I present it to him. You can bat your eyes and say please. He won't be able to resist." Meric quickly shifted away from her, but was not fast enough. She shoved him right into a waist high bush, causing him to tumble over the obstacle and land on his back. By the time he scrambled back to his feet she was already several yards ahead of him and not slowing down. Picking up the two stray arrows that had fallen out of his quiver and retrieving his bow from where he tossed it so it would not get damaged, he hurried to catch up with her.
Her blush was just beginning to subside when he came even with her. He wisely did not say anything, but could not kill the grin as they walked on in silence. She glanced over at him with narrowed eyes.
"Don't look so smug. Maybe I'll suggest to Alyssa that she should talk you out of going. I wonder how much resistance you will put up," Malina stated.
Meric opened his mouth to tell her he did not know what she was talking about, but shut it without comment, knowing it would be useless to argue. Now Malina was the one smiling as they came to a halt at the edge of the clearing that the Orcs and Goblins had used to camp the night before. There was one tent set up with a small fire-pit in front of it. Scattered about the rest of the small bivouac were hides and rough wool blankets that the goblins used for bedding, as well as numerous packs and a chest sitting next to the tent. Malina headed for the chest while he started on the nearest packs. He did not really think there would be anything useful in the personal belongings of the goblins, but habit made him check just in case. After he had gone through about a dozen packs he glanced around for his friend, and saw her disappearing through the tent flaps. As he worked on the ties holding closed the pack in front of him he looked back at the chest and saw a stack of things next to it that she had set aside. Turning his attention back to the task at hand he began rummaging through the contents of the bag and pulled out a small rabbit-skin pouch. He untied it and was in the process of dumping it into his hand when Malina called his name and asked him to come to the tent. At the same time he threw down the items that had landed in his hand, making a disgusted noise. Though there was nothing visible left over from the grisly find, he still could not keep from vigorously wiping his hands on his pants as he started towards the tent. After only a few steps Malina's head poked out.
"What's wrong?"
"One of the goblins kept souvenirs," he explained. "Human ears." He shuddered and reached for the tent flap so he could duck under. Malina backed away with a wrinkled nose as he came in, and he decided not to mention that one of the ears was too small for an adult. Straightening to his full height and surveying the interior of the tent, he immediately noticed the things she had spread on one of the cots. The tent was big enough to hold four, but only two cots were set up and she was kneeling next to one looking at a map she had just unrolled. Lying out next to where she had grabbed the map from was a heavy coin pouch with several Glendon marks spilling out of it and a folded parchment. He reached for the parchment and after unfolding it, found that it contained a half page of Orcish writing. Since he could only read a few words in the confusing language and knowing that Malina was not much better, he refolded the document and stuffed it into his vest to bring back to Silas. Their friend would be able to make out most if not all of the convoluted script, and he hoped there would be something useful there.
"This is a little disturbing, Meric," his companion said, turning to face him and holding out the map for him to see. "The symbols and notations... this was created by a Rennick scout."
After a few seconds of studying the map he passed it back to her.
"It certainly does give way for some troubling implications, but it's not enough to use for laying blame at anyone's feet," he scratched at his chin and looked around once more. "We will bring it to James and explain the significance, but it is possible they killed a scout that was carrying it or it was a holdover from the war."
She nodded, still looking concerned and started to pack the items that they were going to take back into one of the Orc's bags. "There's about fifty gold pieces in that coin pouch," she mentioned.
"Let's pack all of this up and then you can help me go through the rest of the satchels outside. Just in case," he finished.
As they exited the tent Meric could see Pierson approaching the clearing with Wood right behind him. They both gave the camp a once over before joining he and Malina.
"Anything?" the stoic Lieutenant asked.
Malina gave a brief smile to the men before moving off to some nearby packs yet to be searched with Woodard following her lead and leaving Meric to answer. "We found some items that might be of interest, and just need to finish up the rest of these." He gestured in Malina's direction. "The ones in the pile have already been searched."
They both moved to help and with four of them splitting the task it was finished quickly. They found a few pieces of cheap jewelry, some silver cutlery, and a couple more 'souvenirs'. No other significant discoveries were made so after one more brief look around they quit the camp, leaving everything as it was. They would inform the garrison commander at Seegrin about the location of the encampment when they met with him.
As Malina led the way out of the clearing and back toward the road, Meric gave Pierson and Woodard a quick
overview of what they had discovered. Both men silently digested the information as they traveled the rest of the distance to the wagon and their companions. They approached the road, threading through the trees and then around the men who were busy arranging the slain enemy bodies in a pile to make it easier for whoever was sent by the Seegrin commander to clean up the mess.
Once clear of the brush and onto the trail, Wood continued to the other side to check on the men there while the rest of them made directly for the wagon where James was standing. Meric spun in a half circle checking on where the royal charges were and waited for the Captain to finish speaking with Brody. Silas appeared at Meric's left and clapped a hand to his shoulder while draping his other arm over Malina's. Meric nodded at him and dug into his vest for the parchment they found earlier. Once he retrieved it, he held it in Silas' direction between his index and middle finger. Bringing his arms back in front of himself, Silas took the vellum and began to unfold it as Meric turned his attention to James. Malina placed the Orc satchel on the cart's seat and began pulling out the items they had discovered and discussing them.
"The map was definitely drawn by a Rennick scout," she informed James as he was studying it. "And while it is odd that they would have it in their possession, there is no telling how they came by it."
"Right... we will make note of it all the same. Anything else?"
"A message written in the Orc's language. Meric just gave it to Silas to translate."
After seeing the question plainly written on the captain's face she clarified. "He spent a lot of time 'beyond the wall' as the soldiers used to call it when individual men were sent through the mountains and into Orc territory. They would gather information on enemy movement, supplies, and any support they were receiving. They would also take any opportunity to sabotage and disrupt that presented itself. He learned quite a bit of the language from our scholars beforehand, but he also picked up much of it over there. He spent months north of the mountains being all kinds of a pain in the enemy's backside."
James chuckled at that and Meric smiled as well, though he knew it was far from an easy assignment for his friend. Many of the men sent into Orc held territory on those missions never came back, and most of the ones that did were never the same after. Only a few, like Silas, came back with their mettle intact.
Shaking these thoughts away, Meric turned his attention back to the matter at hand. "Was there anything found on the bodies here?"
"No," answered James as he stepped to the side to make room in their circle for Alyssa and Pierson. "Nothing of significance anyway. It is obvious that there is something more than a simple kidnap and ransom going on, but unless Silas can get anything from that message all we did was add even more questions to the ones we already had."
Silas chose the brief lull that followed to apprise them of the missive's contents. "This might be more serious than we thought. This contains orders directing them to kill the two royal children along with their entire escort and to leave enough evidence to ensure that Orcs and Goblins would be blamed. It also specifically instructs them to leave a trail back to the mountains and not to cross into Rennick. They want Glendon's attention to be in the north."
"I do not suppose that they included a reason for all of this? It is obvious that this would be considered an incitement to war. My question is what do they have to gain from it? Do they merely look for conquest and think we will be easier prey than Rennick?" James had started pacing as soon as he began speaking again.
Meric locked eyes with Brody and out of the corner of his vision he noticed Malina and Silas turn their attention on the two of them. Brody gave him a barely perceptible nod, though he looked troubled. As he brought his attention back to the rest of them he found Alyssa's gaze switching between he and Brody, a curious look on her face.
"We may have some knowledge about their overall objective," he said distractedly as his eyes lost focus and he temporarily delved into past memories.
"What!" James snapped his head in Meric's direction, his entire being focused on the former Rennick commander.
Meric took in a deep breath and continued to stare at the ground in front of him, his mind obviously still somewhere else.
"I think you need to explain just what under the Creator's sun you are talking about," said James. His voice had lowered, but was very firm.
"It is a long story, and I will not be going into all of it now." He held up a hand in the Captain's direction to forestall any argument. "I will tell you the relevant parts, but the whole story will be for King Roderick's ears only. He can decide who needs to know from there. I am sorry, and you must know it is not a matter of trust. Brody and I gave our word that we would not betray what was revealed to us unless it was under the direst of circumstances. I trust you, Alyssa, and Pierson implicitly. This is not about you keeping a secret, it is about the less people who know the information the less chance for it to fall into the wrong hands whether by accident or torture. Even Malina and Silas do not know all of it, and you should know how I feel about them. They are beyond reproach."
James stared at him intently and his body language was full of frustration. Finally, he exhaled loudly and bobbed his head up and down several times. "I do not like it, but I understand what you are saying. Tell us what you can. I have faith that you would not hold back anything we need to know to keep us safe until we get to Dallena."
CHAPTER TWELVE
Being in Command
Brody was the one that actually answered. "To pare it down to useful bits; over a thousand years ago, the Orcs were given a magical artifact from one of their deities that allowed them to control the weather. Now I'm not talking about waving it over a dry garden to get sprinkles or calling up a small breeze to cool you on a hot day. It could certainly do those things, but it could also do much more. According to what we were told it could bring torrential floods able to wipe out an entire valley, or summon hurricanes and tornadoes, lightning, even blizzards in the middle of summer. It was taken from them, they didn't like that, and mayhem ensued. In the scuffle the item was lost, centuries later to be found and taken away once more. So, here we go with the mayhem again. This time the artifact was hidden away so that the Orcs would never get their hands on it again. That hiding place is somewhere south of the mountains and the Orcs intend to find it." Brody finished and grabbed for the wine skin Silas was already holding out with an amused look on his face.
"That was some mighty fine paring," Meric told him.
Brody gave one sharp pleased nod and ran a hand down his long beard.
Meric returned his attention to James and Alyssa who both had a bemused look on their faces. "That is the short version, and mostly that has nothing to do with our current situation. Yes the Orcs are probably trying to goad Glendon into a war so they can take over the kingdom and find their artifact, but why they are going about it in this fashion is anyone's guess at this time. Why do they not just invade like they did in Rennick? I think there are some pieces of the puzzle missing."
"Magic... How exactly do I explain to the King that Orcs are attacking his family and subjects because of some silly children's fantasy?"
"It does not matter if what they are after is real or not, as long as they believe it is. Which they do, with a fanatical conviction."
"I cannot argue with that reasoning," James said. "We will have to worry about the why of it all later. In the meantime, we will just have to get the royal children back home safely. Let us finish this clean-up and get moving. I do not like sitting still for so long."
He seemed to have lost some of his frustration, but there was nothing they could do to completely relieve his worry until they arrived safely in Dallena.
"Before you move out, I have an idea I want to run by you. It might get us some of the answers we need, and it definitely will make this trip safer."
The circle of people around him had just begun to break up, but abruptly halted and moved back in at his words. James just quirked an eyebrow at
him and waited for an explanation.
"It occurs to me that we might be able to head off any more ambushes or attacks if we can get our hands on the man that looked to be setting all of this in motion. Thanks to the four men we captured back at the inn we know he paid them to take Lady Alyssa and the princesses to the north gate, presumably to meet up with himself and some others. We also believe that he is working with the Orcs, although that is just a guess. Other than those two things we do not have much to go on. I would like some answers."
"Just what are you proposing?"
"I go ahead to Seegrin and track our little friend down... have a chat with him." He looked expectantly at the captain, but could sense Brody and Silas tensing up.
"I do like the idea of getting our hands on the weaselly fellow, and getting information about what is going on is definitely a plus." James paused for a moment. "We will do it."
Meric was already spinning away to collect his gear when James brought him up short.
"Just a moment, Meric." James was studying him with a thoughtful expression. "Not you. Sergeant Woodard will go. If I am going to lose an archer, it is not going to be you. Woodard is a fine shot, but he is not at your level, and honestly, I do not know if I have ever met anyone else who is. Your skill is needed to protect our charges."
James did not even give Meric a chance to counter before his eyes had shifted focus to Pierson. "Get them ready to move, Lieutenant and send me Sergeant Woodard."
A Soldier's Honor: The Scepter of Maris: Book One Page 8